I haven’t posted anything for about a week because my wife and I are on vacation and I hate posting from my phone. Today is a sea day on our cruise around Iceland so I thought I would attempt to post a little update. The first 2 days were in Reykjavik with some amazing food and scenery although it keeps telling me all my photo files are too large to post ( frustrating). Above is a photo of my wife in a town I can’t name. We found a couple numismatic items in their folk museum although I can only post one of them. It was an awesome day for both weather and scenery. That’s all for now. This took way longer than it should have.
It´s an amazing place by the looks of it. I had a friend I met in Spain, sadly he has now passed, but he gave me some some coins
We had a heck of a time finding the "coin museum" when we were there in 2018. It's basically in the lobby of a bank, quite small but interesting nonetheless. Website says it's currently closed due to construction though. https://www.visiticeland.com/service-provider/5ec7d096a90548233654DFEC Iceland was a really fascinating place. Wish we had spent more than 3 days there. Have fun!
"Tea money - pressed blocks of tea have long been used as money in Asia, from China in the East to Russia in the West." I don't think this display is specific to Iceland, just an overview of the various things used as money. I recall that there is a bunch of tea money in the coin museum in Bangkok with a wide variety of sizes and forms. This one is rather elaborately pressed!
I meant to make this post right after we returned but work has been crazy. This is the first time I have been able to take a breath. I took pictures of the coins and notes that circulate in Iceland and can't find them now. That will come later I guess. At our last port, there was a gentlemen that called his business "The Iceland Mint". As you can see, it is a humble establishment. What he seems to survive on his sales of "coins" you mint yourself. He sets the blank in place, puts the second die on top and lets you wail on it with a sledge hammer. They are white metal. He had 2 designs that he told me had cut the dies for. My wife and I each "minted" 2. It kind of bugs me that he calls them coins when they are not. May be a language thing though. The final product actually came out nice. We talked about his process a bit. He has tried harder alloys but has had issues with ability to get a nice strike. Makes sense. He settled on this alloy that is about 50% aluminum. He got a bit excited when I told him I was a coin collector. Told him I would spread the word about him at our next club meeting. He was also selling a "coin" for the solar eclipse. Made from .999 silver. He did not cut the dies but did design them. They were minted at one of the european mints. Only 100 minted. Of course I purchased one...how could I not. This was an awesome trip that I would highly recommend, especially if you enjoy non-touristy locations. The only place that kind of felt like a tourist trap was the capital, Reykjavík. Despite that, Reykjavik alone was worth spending time in. The town where the Iceland Mint was located had a population of about 800 people. It looks like he relies on the cruise ships and Instagram for his business.
The eclipse coin is very cool. His aluminum version is $18 and the silver $140. Website says the first 100 sold out and his third and final mintage of 50 is almost sold out. Seems like a pretty good deal, tempting but then who knows what the customs/tariffs will tack on.
