Well, fellow Numismatists, it happened. The United Staes Mint sold two of it's 400 ton triple-striking HME Model K-360 proof coin presses to the New Zealand Mint, the only private special metals mint in New Zealand.(They now are installed in the showroom of the mint's Auckland premises). The presses reached the New Zealand Mint in early February and on February 28th the mint's officials secured the exclusive right to strike all legal-tender commemorative coins for the Pitcairn Islands. The agreement between the mint and Pitcairn makes the mint responsible for the design, minting and the distribution of Pitcairn's proof commemorative coins. The proof's will be struck in silver, gold and platinum. Pitcairn's economy is highly dependent (and has been for many years) on the income produced from the sale of its coins and stamps. Over the years Pitcairn's population has dwindled down to just nine families (45 persons). The hope is that, with the quality of the new coins to be produced by the New Zealand Mint and the mint's distribution system, income will increase to the extant that former families will return. The British Overseas Territory of Pitcairn (The official designation) is comprised of four islands: Pitcairn, Ducie, Oeno and Henderson. The future proof coinage will probably feature each island. The movie "The Bounty" is most responsible for bringing the existance of the Pitcairn Islands to the minds of most Americans. And, yes, the movie was based on a true story and a real HMS Bounty! Clinker
Clinker,I haven't heard of this until now.The New Zealand Mint has been striking a lot of Fijian silver medal-coins recently.They also struck a gold $500 for the Cook Islands depicting Jack Nicklaus. Here's a link; www.newzealandmint.com . Aidan.
Clinker,it sounds like that the coining presses were put on a back of a ship to get them over here.They must be huge pieces of equipment to have required taking the windows off the front of the building to get the coining presses inside. I don't know of any plane that can lift 400 tons of equipment. It is interesting that it will be the Pitcairn Islands who will be getting their medal-coins struck there.I can guess that the New Zealand Mint will go down the same route as the Pobjoy Mint - producing heaps of medal-coins depicting subjects that have no connection whatsoever with the issuing country - like the Crowns from the Isle of Man that were issued in 1976 to commemorate the Bicentenary of U.S. Independence,for example,or the Cook Islands medal-coins depicting Garfield the cartoon cat. Aidan.
Aiden... ...as I understand the agreement...there is a huge difference.... The Pitcairn Island commeratives will be "Legal Tender Coins", not merely medals! Maybe you can contact New Zealand Mint and confirm this or unconfirm it. You may try to find out when the NZM will mint these and how Coin Talk members can order some and where they can be ordered. Clinker Clinker
Clinker - Apparently what you don't know is this - Aidan is the only person on the planet (at least the only one I ever heard of) who calls these "medal coins". So don't be confused by his terminology. To Aidan, any coin that is a commemorative or an NCLT coin (Non Circulating Legal Tender) is a "medal coin". It has absolutely nothing to do with them being medals. And Aidan, if that's what you want to call them then be my guest - you can call them anything you want. Just don't be surprised when people are confused by your terminolgy.
Who wrote that article Aidan? You, or one of the other 2 people in the world you have told us of who use the term?
Look at who first created the article in the history... Doesn't really support your case when you reference an artice that you created yourself. Do you have an independent source to show that that term is in common use by anyone else?
Roy,the late Jerome Remick was using the term 'medal-coin' in his British Commonwealth coin catalogue in the early 1970's.The same term is referred to in the Ugandan chapter of the 1981 Krause catalogue.Both of these occurred long before I got into numismatics (1986). Aidan.
If you can find a copy of Jerome Remick's British Commonwealth coin catalogue (which has a black cover) or a copy of the 1981 Krause catalogue,you will find the term 'medal-coin' referred to in there. Aidan.
A catalog or two published more than 25 years ago is hardly support for the assertion that it is a commonly used term now. Do you have any support from a variety of current and reliable sources that show it is a commonly used term now? Not trying to be a jerk about it or anything, but if you want to make the assertion that "medal-coin" is a term currently used by a siginficant number of experts in the field currently, it would require several current and reliable sources to back that up. I have never heard this term used before I came to this website, and even here, only by you. I get the impression that very few in the numismatic field have ever used the term, and almost none do now. At best it's just a pejorative term already covered by the term NCLT (non-circulating legal tender) that is already well known and in common use in the numismatic field. Why not just use that? I have no love of what I consider the junk produced by some countries that are clearly only designed for collectors that commemorate people and events that have absolutely no connection to the country that produced them (heck, I abstain from even quite a few US commemoratives if I don't find the design interesting or it doesn't commemorate something I find interesting) but I don't see why a new term (or an old, seldom used term) needs to be employed when terms already well known and in common use suffice to describe them.
