Picked up one of these (not this one specifically, mine is a loose 1971 proof I got for 50c US, but this is a better picture of one than I could take https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/world/bahamas-15-cents-km-5-1966-1970-cuid-1041894-duid-1282425 Been grabbing just about any square-shaped coin I see lately and couldn't pass this one up. This just seems a really weird denomination; I can't think of any reason anyone would need to make a coin worth 15/100 of something. Not sure what the thinking was there. I looked, the US at one time did have a 15c fractional note, but other than that and the 15c piece from the Bahamas, haven't found another country feel a need to make a 15/100 coin or banknote. Really odd denomination IMO. (Edit: OK also found a State of South Carolina 15 cent note. If anyone is trying to finish the 15 cent type set lol.)
I agree. These odd denominations are fun. Panama has 1 1/4 centesimos. Venezuela has 12 1/2 centesimos. El Salvador 3 centavos. 2 1/2 cents in a bunch of places. 4 pfennig from Germany. That's just some off the top of my head.
Love those Bahamian 15c pieces, and they have fond memories because I actually spent some in commerce when I was a kid in the Bahamas in 1974 (we lived aboard a forty-foot trimaran sailboat and spent our days island-hopping). As a sentimental thing, I added one of the 1974 10c pieces to my collection. I spent nearly fifty bucks slabbing this coin which was worth maybe $1-2 at the time, but so what. I think it's pretty, and it brings back childhood memories. (You could buy a comic book with one of these in Nassau in '74.)
Odd denominations are really intriguing! Cyprus had 4 1/2 and 9 piastre coins in the early 20th century. I collect mainly British coins and in the early 19th century we had 9 and 18 pence token coinage, but I have not got into those. What I do have is a run of the 1 1/2 penny coins known as "threehalfpence", which are tiny and cool. Probably the weirdest was the quarter farthing - there were 240 pennies to the pound, four farthings to the penny, so there were 3840 quarter farthings to the pound! They also made third and half farthings.
