I was looking through my catalog of unusual coins and came across coinage from Zamunda (coins made for the movie coming to america). I found plenty of examples for sale (8-30 USD ea) and I found this example that just seems a bit more authentic (its not for sale as far as I can tell, just up for example). I would love to have one of these coins if I could find one that I knew was one of the original ones minted for the movie premiere ^^ one of the many examples for sale on ebay
Unusual world coin catalog says of this coin: Zamunda (Kingdom Fantasy Coinage) An imaginary African Kingdom central to the plot of the movie 'Coming to America' staring Eddie Murphy as Price Akeem, heir to the throne of Zamunda. Paramount contracted with the Continental Coin Corp to produce these coins for promotion of the 1988 film. The Copper-Nickel pieces were given out at the California premier, while the gold plated example was struck for use as a prop in the movie. A 100 pound note of the Bank of Zamunda, also bearing the image of Prince Akeem, was produced as a prop for use in the movie. 5 Pound Copper-Nickel date 1988 - Mintage: ? 20-35 USD 5 Pound Brass plated Copper- Nickel date 1988 - Mintage: ? 12.50 - 25.00 USD 5 Pound Gold (Reportedly Struck as a presentation gift to Eddie Murphy) - Existance Unconfirmed
They'd be interesting if you are interested in collecting movie memorabilia.I saw 'Coming to America' around 10 years ago.It was a good movie,but not as good as 'King Ralph',which stars John Goodman. Aidan.
Goes to show how subjective things are...I found King Ralph unwatchable while I found coming to america one of the funnier comedies of its time...I think most people found King Ralph unwatchable judgeing by the box office figures and compared to coming to america (not that this means a movie is better but in this case, IMO, it is)
Drusus... There are other movie "fantasy" coins out there, Hobbit and Vulcan coins are available. Joels Coins offers both of these. You may be entering another realm of collecting. clinker
Yeah, I have seen the LoTR coins in the Catalog of Unusual World Coins, the same catalog I saw this one in as well as the fake nation coins like Hutt River and Sealand...I have always been interested in ALL coins and tokens and these are no exception I just got a kick out of the fact thy minted coins for this movie
I did hear the country after which Zamunda was modeled was Malawi, and its former 'president-for-life' Kamuzu Banda.
Yes, a whole 'nother realm indeed! The Zamunda piece is a great fantasy based on film fiction. It would have been nice for the collector for the mintages to be known and published, but even so, since it's obvious that only one "Continental" die-set exists there are likely to be less than 5,000. With small-shop handmade fantasy coins the mintages are often VERY low, sometimes less than 100 pieces. Die clashes, die breaks, and other errors tend to be very common. Off-weight or off-metal strikes are not at all unusual... including sometimes bizarre rare metals, and you often have the opportunity to correspond directly with the maker of the piece. You can sometimes get completely unique custom strikes... and the prices are generally quite reasonable. The entire field of custom coining is currently experiencing a resurgence. It was very common and popular a hundred years ago or so, when every town had a die-sinker and good-for tokens were in every pocket. It fell out of favour as radio and then television advertising became the medium of choice, and the small press-works shops fell by the wayside. The curent resurgence is (I believe) due in part to the fact that the major shops have all gone to computer-controlled die-cutting and automatic presses. All that perfectly good hundred-year-old equipment and tooling is hitting the junkyards for barely more than scrap value because nobody wants to break a sweat anymore. A cadre of mostly young craftspeople are working to preserve the old techniques of true hand-cut dies before the computer wipes out any knowledge of how to actually work with metal. And a small but enthusiastic cadre of numismatists is actively following these devlopments in the field by purchasing examples. The active moneyers of the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) are in the forefront of this neo-numismatic movement, creating true circulating coinage for their fantasy realms that is actually used in exchange for goods and services. Unusual World Coins has only barely begun to catalogue those issues, but the editors are currently working on it. The next (5th) edition should be be very interesting!
I was thinking that I should try to get New Romes (Nova Roma) coinage in the catalog but I am not sure how, they have 2 issues each equal 50 cents.
They'd probably like to know about those. To let the editors know about stuff to add to the next issue, write to: George Cuhaj Editor: UWC Krause Publications 700 E. State St. Iola, WI 54990-2873 They usually either want to borrow a smaple to photograph, or else submit actual size high-resolution (300 dpi or better) photos. All the usual data is requested where known... diameter, weight, metal, mintage, and value.
