I have quite a few world coins that were minted with holes in the middle. This morning I was thinking about it, and I realized that I don’t know why they are made that way. One obvious possibility is that it’s a good way to have a large diameter coin but use less metal, making it less expensive. But I don’t know if that is a factor, or if it is the primary one. It also occurred to me that it may make a coin more difficult to counterfeit. Or that perhaps someone liked the idea of carrying all their pocket change on a string. And of course there are all sorts of funny reasons I came up with: So a coin would sink faster in a wishing well, or to make it whistle the national anthem if you throw it across the Potomac River… So, can anyone tell me the stated reasons why some types of coins are minted with holes? And, perhaps related, why some coins are bi-metallic?
This is the most frequent reason that comes to my mind. Not that people prefer to carry change on a string, but that they may not have clothing with pockets and therefore don't have the option. Or didn't until recently, and the design stayed on out of tradition.
Actually the string theory is very right. Done in China and other Asian countries in the early era, coins were often stringed in 10s or 100s to make transaction easier.
i always thought it was done as a way to make larger diameter coins while using the least amounts of materials.... i never thought of the string idea... thats kinda cool tho!!
Although more precious, air is cheaper than Rhodium, Platinum, Gold, Palladium, Silver, Brass, Copper, Nickel, Zinc, Lead, Pewter and Tin! Frank
The two main reasons for making coins with holes have already been mentioned: In former times, holes were useful to keep coins together on a string. Modern coins may have holes in order to save material and/or allow for different sizes. In Europe, holed coins are still issued in Denmark and Norway. There are also coins that were holed long after they had been minted. In those cases, the hole had the function of, or was combined with, a counterstamp. Think of the Australian Holey Dollars from the early 19th century, or the Norwegian øre coins from the 1920s. Bimetallic coins were originally developed and issued because they are more difficult to counterfeit. That may not really be an issue in countries where even low value denominations are issued as paper money, but elsewhere it is. Now a welcome side effect is that, as with holed coins, different coin types can be recognized more easily. Christian
All of us coin collectors or hoarders know how much coins can weigh, so imo I beleive it had as much to do weight as some of the other reasons stated above. John
I did get that one. And I'm sure any topologists in the room would say a holed coin is identical to a coffee cup.
Frank: Air AND water are both essential to human life, and kind of like the old college economics problem, the diamond-water paradox the answer is that people will not pay for neither air nor water because the supply is seemingly boundless. Supply and demand. What puzzles me is the fact that what people deem precious never seems to make sense when it comes down to metals and rare things because there is no basic human need for them, but yet give a man a double eagle... and he's ecstatic, give him a bottle of water... you're lucky to get a thank you. Maybe this speaks to how much we take our survival for granted, or maybe just how far we have come as a human race.
Another reason for holed coins is to make them obviously a different denomination for a largely illiterate population. Must be an OLD economics problem. Can you say bottled water and oxygen bars?
Holed coins can be stored on a peg as well. It may never have been a consideration but the hole makes them more easily converted to use as a washer. It should lower their rotational inertia and make it less likely they roll away. The hole provides a way to hook them. It's probably just tradition in most cases.
