I personally find transitional coinage to be quite interesting. Why? Before I start, I think I might need to define what transitional coinage is as some people might have different ideas of what it is. I would define a transitional coinage as two different types of coins issued in the same year. Why this is interesting is because rather than waiting for the next design to be issued the next year, some urgent event may have prompted the need for the new coinage to appear faster than required. Some reasons are high metal prices, change of monarchy, inflation and so on. A good example is the 1982 penny where the composition was changed from copper to plated zinc in the same year rather than waiting it out to the next year. Here are some examples that I have: South Korea: 1970 5 and 10 won: Red copper Yellow copper During the late 1960s, copper prices have shot drastically that the Korean mint was forced to reconsider the amount of copper that was used in their coinage. 1 won was soon switched from 60% Cu, 40% Zn to 100% in 1968. As if this wasn't enough, an urgent change was done in 1970 where copper content was dropped from 88% to 65%. You can tell that the color of coins are different. This problem has reoccured later in 2006 where copper zinc coin still proved to be too expensive and it was replaced with copper plated aluminum coin. Malaysia In 1993, Malaysia decided to remove the dollar sign from the ringgit coin and replace it with the word "ringgit". This caused a lot of confusion with the public as they believed the latter version is a counterfeited. Confusion coupled with circulating counterfeited ringgit coins would eventually make this coin demonitized in 2005. China - Manchukuo There's more examples of this but I decided to show just a couple. In 1934, the reign has changed from Da Tong to Kang De Critical shortage of war metals have caused copper, nickel and even aluminum to be systemically removed from circulation. 1944 Aluminum 5 fen 1944 Red fiber 5 fen Would like to see what else you know or have.
Very interesting topic. In the USA we also have 1873 coinage in two silver finenesses. Canada changed the silver fineness in 1967 and in 1968 went further with all nickel 10-cent and 25-cent pieces.
Thank you onecenter, will look into those coins mentioned. Mark: Yes, I would classify those as transitional coinage as well. Photos as shown:
Thanks for the thread, gx. I've always wondered what caused the price of copper to go up in the mid/late 1960s to make the Korean Mint change the metals composition of their planchets? I've looked that up before, but never really found a reason behind it. Metal consumption due to the Vietnam War is my guess. Some things that I've read about copper: The consumption of it since 2003 has outstripped production (perhaps with a reprieve during the financial crisis), and all the known major sources of copper have been "known" for over 100 years. There are no new ones.
mlov43: you might want to read this article. I'll give it 10/10. http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/copper/240798.pdf I disagree about the news about there's no new sources of copper. It's a matter of how much people are willing to pay for copper before a new mine is setup to be economically viable. When copper prices double, you'll be suprised to hear what new mines get setup. Pointless to discuss about unprofitable mines. What's not helping is the oil prices which essentially jacks up prices for mining as most gears run on diesel. It's just cheaper to recycle copper at this point of time. Mongolia has a high potential to increase production. Ripley - thanks for the awesome photo. Was not aware of such a transition era for these coins.
Inflation driven change of the Chilean 1954 peso from copper to aluminium and maintaining the same design. Not very good specimens, but a good example. 1. KM 179 Chile 1954 1 Peso; copper 7.5 g and 25 mm. 2. KM 179a Chile 1954 1 Peso; aluminium 2.0 g and 25 mm.
Thanks for the article! I think I found the answer: the VietNam War AND mine strikes account for the price rises. Still, it makes you wonder how much copper there is in the ground worldwide, and how productive new mines would be compared to the old South American mines. I'm sure there' a lot left in the ground...
Derick, thanks for the awesome photos. I like them. Will look out for them. Hiddendragon: I like them! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and photos. I might as well start a database on these type of coins. I reckon it's rather underrated.
Other ones I know of are Italian 5 and 10 centesimi from 1936 and 1937 and 20 centesimi from 1919 and 1920. I don't have examples of each yet though. There is also some overlap in the French 5 centimes from around WWI.
In the 1880's Guatemala minted realies and peso's at the same time. I do not have but 2 of the era of different denominations. But, one can see by the dates they coexisted. 1889 1/4 realie and an 1888 25 centavos.
1. KM 218.3 Chile 10 Pesos 1990 (Liberty figure) 2. KM 228.1 Chile 10 Pesos 1990 (Bernardo O'Higgins) with obv Lathe lines
