For the first time in the history of Belarus will issue coins in circulation

So far I have not been able to find a "Mint set". Not sure if one even exist. I did however obtain a set of uncirculated coins. The seller sent me a message prior to shipping to explain the export restrictions from Belarus. Seems one cannot export "coins". Therefore he was going to send me a key-chain instead. Sure enough the declaration on the envelope stated "keychain". I was more than surprised when I opened it and found a keychain inside! The keychain had a little heft to it and I was able to locate a seam. Surprise! my coins were inside the pouch. Very ingenious. I had to laugh, this was so funny. Needless to say the seller got a 5 star feedback.

 

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Cool set, and a creative seller. As for the export restrictions, don't know - I got my "set" from a dealer here in Germany ...

 

The shipping out of a keychain reminds me of how I have received some cleverly packaged coins from Russia - same thing, older coins, like older than 50 years old cannot be shipped out of the country - they leave as other things though.

 

What is really amazing is the exchange rate of the Belarus Ruble vs. the USD.
1 Ruble = 0.000050 USD
Set contains 3.88 Rubles = 0.000194 USD
My cost for the set $7 = 140,675.24 Rubles

That's one expensive keychain.

Wonder what a Starbucks coffee would cost in Belarus?

 

Not quite - have a look at the earlier posts here. 1 ruble (BYN) is $0.497 or €0.453 or £0.379 ... etc.

Christian

 

Inflation will take care of that soon. I'll see if my friend can get some when she is in Minsk soon.

 

This is where I got my information. Maybe I read it incorrectly

http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=USD&To=BYR

 

Yes, I think so. You were looking for the exchange rate of the old ruble (BYR), not the current one (BYN). The reason why these coins were issued is that they now use this New Ruble. Currently the eight coins have a face value of 3.88 rubles which is €1.76 ... and I paid €7 for them. Guess there are ways to get them cheaper, but I wanted to have them, mostly because Belarus did not have circulation coins before.

Christian

 

Sort of like Mexico did in 1992, 1000 Old Pesos became 1 New Peso