What is the rarest denomination ever issued?

The title says it all. Which denomination, worldwide, has the fewest coins. This can be measured in two ways: fewest types, fewest total mintage. Also a French franc and a Swiss franc, for example, can be lump together as a single denomination because of the name or can be considered two separate denominations because of the country.

I don't have a clue what the answer is but thought it might provoke some interesting discussions.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Not sure there are very many $4 pieces...?

 

The pi. An irrational number were minted.
I also thought $4 without researching. But since there are so many countries that go back hundreds and thousands of years with obscure coinage it would be hard to say.
462 minted for the $4 gold.

 

A few of the old timers in the ancients forum have coins that are the only of its type known, or 1 of 2 known to exist, etc. I'd say that's as rare as it gets. That's not unusual when it comes to ancients. Some obscure coin issues only have 2 or 3 surviving specimens.

 

There are a total of 28 distinct 4 dollar coins in SCWC, 15 of them from Canada and all the rest from various Caribbean islands. Under USA no 4 dollar coins shows except as a pattern and there are 7 distinct ones of those. Not sure if patterns should be included but I guess I did not excluded them. So I do not think that $4 is likely to be the answer.

As for 20 cents, there are 462 distinct types in SCWC.

 

How about the 7 dollar note?

 

You won't likely see many of these

 

And then going back to ancients and even the $7 bill,
is the question how many survive today, or how many were produced originally?

 

Maybe, but what denomination is it so that we can look to see how many there are?

 

Quarter dollar spelled backwards on the reverse.

 

Unless I'm mistaken, the bottom one is a quarter dollar test strike. The top one is a nickel test strike.

 

If you strike the Martha Quarter it will read: IN WE DOG With a backwards, N, E and G.

 

I wouldn't know, Sakata just asked the denomination so I gave it to him. Cool if they are test strikes though; I do find those interesting.

 

30 Drachmai?
4 Centavos (1/25 in a decimal system)?

 

2 coins show as 30 Drachmai, minted in 1963 and 1964 by Greece, the latter with two varieties. So three collectible coins. Total mintage 5,000,000. There are two additional patterns.

There are two 4 centavos coins, one from Argentina in 1854, the other from Portugal in 1917 and 1919, plus 4 Portuguese patterns.

It seems like we are getting close but can anyone find one with only a single type?

 

In ancients, this is considered a weird denomination and only used by a single city:


Gordian III, with Tranquillina. A.D. 238-244.
Roman provincial AE 4.5 assaria; 28.92 mm, 15.89 g, 7:00
Moesia Inferior, Tomis, A.D. 241-244; Magistrate Pontianus
Obv: AVT K M ANTΩNIOC ΓΟΡΔΙΑΝΟC // [C]ABINIA (TP)AN / KVΛΛINA, confronted laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Gordian right and diademed, draped bust of Tranquillina left
Rev: MHTPO ΠONTOV TOMEΩC, Nemesis standing facing, head left, holding arshin (rod) and sling, wheel at feet; Δ - < (denomination) in fields
Refs: AMNG I 3537; Varbanov 5701; Moushmov 2279; Cf. SNG Cop 305.

About the denomination:

The denomination value is marked by letter Δ together with a semis sign <. Letter Δ, being the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, stands for the value of 4. The half of assarion was marked by a semis sign, <, so the coin is worth 4½ assaria.

The denomination assarion (plural assaria) was used for the name of bronze coins issued by several towns on the western and northern border of the Black Sea (Tomis, Callatis, Chersones, Tyras, Olbia and others). At Tomis, coins of 1 assarion, 2, 3, 4 and 5 assaria were struck, bearing as digits Α, Β, Γ, Δ and Ε. Coins with intermediate values were also issued. The coins of 4½ assaria are specific to the city of Tomis.

A possible explanation for this odd denomination is that it was used for exchange fees by money-changers. This hypothesis is proposed here @dougsmit 's page. The value of 1 denarius was, officially, 16 assaria and the coins may have been used when converting the local bronzes into silver denarii. Moneychangers typically bought and sold denarii at slightly different rates. For example, a denarius might be bought at 16 assaria and sold for 18 (or four of these 4 1/2 coins). I can’t think of a more plausible explanation, and I think Doug’s explanation is more than reasonable.

 

Definitely seems like you are onto something there, but I have no way to check and I know nothing about ancient coins. Perhaps others can offer there thoughts while we mere plebians continue to search for the lowest type modern coin.

Thanks for the interesting contribution.

 

LOL! I switched to ancients because modern coins were too expensive!

But I'm glad you found it interesting.

 

reference please.