That is a set I am working on too - the forerunner of the modern Euro. I am also doing the 20-unit pieces (0.1867 oz. AGW) in gold - they are so close to spot. I have many in AU+. The eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Romania, Greece) are hard to find. Coins circulated in poor countries.
Lots of nice big pieces of silver in this thread. I recently acquired a set of six of Uganda's 1969 silver proof coins for Pope Paul VI's visit. For some reason, I thought the coins would be smaller in size, why I do not know. It was an extremely pleasant surprise to find the largest coin, the 30-shilling silver piece, come in at 60mm in diameter. Now that is a nice chuck of silver!
That usually showed that they were in the Latin Monetary Union (LMU) from 1865-1914, or were following its standards. The 5-unit pieces had to have 25 grams of .900 fine silver, abd the 2-unit to 20-cents had to be a fractional weight in .835 silver. They had gold rules too. The only country that broke the rules was the Vatican, so they got kicked out around 1870.
This is one of my favorite crowns. I like that it show 5 small crowns, which is the denomination (5 Coronas).
I knew some of that history, but thanks for the further explanation. It's a bit surprising that Latin American states would be so eager to sign onto a European standard, but then, the move from bimetallism to gold convertibility was also a European innovation. I guess it was seen as very helpful for international trade. Another aspect of 19th and early 20th century coinage I find interesting is the coinage rights of member governments of federations. The German and Austro-Hungarian Empires allowed their constituent parts to issue gold and silver coins in certain denominations, but Canada and the U.S. did not. In the last case, the constitutional framers banned state coinage and paper money issuance because they were worried about debasement. But U.S. law permitted *private* coinage without problems, as well as free private bank note issue (with, occasionally, lots of problems). In the 20th century, colonial dependencies usually obtained rights of coinage, which they eventually commercialized for the collector market. Again, an area where the politics are fascinating.
Vietnam 7 Tien. It reads Minh Mang Thong Bao. The year 15 is under the dragon. Minh Mang was Emporor from 1820 to 1841. Year 15 dates the coin at 1834.
That's a great coin! Where did you find it?[/QUOTE] Purchased at the Chicago International Coin Fair (CICF) in 2012 from Jonathan Kern. Was a memorable trip, took Megabus from Kansas City to Chicago, then the L from downtown out to the show. Gasoline was over $4 a gallon at the time. It's probably lost some value since then, but nothing like the crash in Italian gold issues from the period.
These 50 schilling coins are listed by Numista as "non-circulating," but according to what Austrian collectors have said, they were available from banks at face value and did circulate to a limited extent, so I've decided to make them eligible for my collection.
I have one part of my collection called "Big Silver", and I guess most of those coins could be called world crowns.
Yes, you are correct. I have a nice copper example that is listed as a pattern in copper, but is actually a 10 centime. Amazing design.