Good evening everyone, I recently acquired this in a larger purchase I made and I have no idea what this is. On the front it reads "100 Years on the Road with Ford" and has six coins. On the coins there is a 1996 Taurus, 1964 Mustang, 1909 Model T, 1903 Model A, 1955 Thunderbird, and Henry Ford's 1896 quadricycle. On the back it says "Republic of the Marshall Islands" "$5" and "Jepilpilin Ke Ejukaan". I don't know anything about this or value-wise, all I could find was a completed listing for one of them not all 6 on Ebay which leads me to believe they may be silver? I could be wrong though, any input is appreciated.
I want to share this webpage with you - http://en.numista.com/catalogue/index.php?r=&co=y&cno=y&cc=y&cn=y&cj=y&ce=y&cu=y&cat=y&mode=avance&p=2&e=marshall&d=&ca=3&no=&i=Jepilpilin Ke Ejukaan&v=&m=&a=&t=&dg=&w=&g=&f= Scroll to the middle section until you see the cars
Thanks!! That is very helpful, although a little bit disappointing not silver. I noticed it said that is pretty rare, explains why I have never seen this. Is it worth the $30 FV?
Sure.. if you plan to visit he Marshall Islands (I want to share this image with you from the internet)
Actually no. Although they are "legal tender" there they can't be spent and the fee to "exchange" them pretty much equals the face value. Back in the early days of the Marshall Islands coinage a couple of guy bought up a bunch of them for less than face value and then tried to take them to the Marshall Islands and exchange them. They got put in jail instead. I believe the charge was trying to defraud the government. The government had licensed a private firm to make the coins and sell them to collectors for a small royalty per coin. They never expected them to come back for redemption and redeeming them would cost the government more than they received in royalties. That was when they passed the exchange restrictions and fees to keep people from trying to exchange them. They are in effect Non-Circulating Non-Legal Tender.
This is the part I find hard to believe: "They got put in jail instead. I believe the chargewas trying to defraud the government." Especially if they passed the restrictions as a result.
They didn't STAY in jail and the charges were eventually dropped. This was before they put the redemption restrictions on the coins. (They had never expected anyone to ever show up and actually try to redeem a bunch of them.)
