What is the rarest denomination ever issued?

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Oh, those! I don't really count those as they are created as gimmicks. I was thinking of real coins.

 

The trillion dollar coin.

 

How about the 100,000 Dollar Bill?

 

Well, that coin had a mintage of 5. Minus the one that was recently stolen in Berlin.

In terms of rare denominations for "everyday use" we have the German 4 Reichspfennig coin from 1932 for example. The government's idea was that replacing the 5 Rpf coin with this could help fight deflation. Surprise, the plan did not work, and the piece was extremely unpopular. It was taken out of circulation about a year later ...

Christian

 

They printed 42,000 of the $100,000 gold certificates.
All of the surviving notes have been accounted for, and are currently in the hands of the United States Government; thus, private ownership of a legitimate example is illegal. Forgeries are relatively common, and have sometimes been known to come with fake certificates of authenticity. A handful of real examples, including an uncut sheet of twelve specimen notes, are currently on display at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Smithsonian Institution, and Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

 

What are these!? 1million dollar coin, 1ton gold coin , ... Don't they have anything better to do...

As a novice of this field, I can't say anything about the rarest coin "issued", but, I can say the rarest coin "in pockets".
I claim, NONE of presidents of the World has "1cent/penny/agora/kurus/yen/kapik/etc" in their pockets. Such a rare coin. None.

 

Those are basically advertising pieces - "look what we (the XYZ Mint) can do". That rat race was started, I think, by the Austrian Mint. In 2004 they issued a giant version of their "Vienna Philharmonics" gold bullion coin - 1,000 ounces, diameter 37 cm, mintage 15. Then came the bigger and heavier Canadian beast, followed by the even bigger and even heavier Australian monster.

Christian

 

How about... 2/4 senal

https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide...nal-km-64-1814-1821-cuid-1116150-duid-1416799

 

That is certainly a unique denomination according to SCWC. It does, however, say it is equivalent to 1/4 Real. I think you have almost got it. I wonder if there is a unique one with no equivalent.

 

I think just about all of the odd denominations will have an equivalent to make them fit into the monetary system.

Let's try... 4 3/4 stuivers or 1 1/3 rixdollar, both from Ceylon

 

The Gambia's 8 shillings issued in 1970 with a big hippo on the reverse, Machin-head Elizabeth II on the obverse. To date, I believe it is still a unique denomination, available in both copper-nickel and sterling silver editions.

 

I don't know it the Canadian Million Dollar coin ever had legal tender status, but I'm sure that if one was offered in trade for a million dollars worth of anything it would be accepted. Depending on how you read it, there were either 5 or 6 made. The literature says that after the initial one was made, several buyers requested additional ones be made and the mint obliged by making and selling 5. I assume they kept one and sold 5, for a total of 6 made. Of course with one being stolen and presumably destroyed, there are now 5 extant.

The one ton(ne) gold from Perth was the only one made and was bestowed with legal tender status of AU$1M (but containing about $155M in gold). I don't think there are any more rare than this single one.

 

Okay okay, lets NOT look at what they can NOT do.

 

I think it depends on definition. Are the Gold $4 "Stellas" patterns or coins? Is an ingot "issued?" Does NCLT count even when the denomination is meaningless? How about things like the U.S. 1 Puerto Rico Peso/60 cent "thing" which was never issued?

Some of the odd denominations I own are things like 1/52nd of a Shilling, 7.5 Roubles, 1/3 of a farthing, 2.5 Euros, and 6.55957 francs. Only the first three circulated.

 

Mintage of 1:

 

I've seen those 6.55957 franc coins in the catalog. I wondered how they made change for them.

 

I think we'll have to acknowledge that there's probably no coin so rare as a True Scotsman.

 

My rarest, and Etruria was known to have low mintages with most of their coins being considered Scarce or Rare...

I, too, no longer collect Moderns.

This is the most "Unique" or "One of a Kind" that I have:

I captured this due to my intrigue with the mysterious Etrurian peoples, who were the predecessors to the Romans. Rome's first Kings were from Etruria, however, there are a lot of mysteries as to where the Etrurians originated. Rome borrowed a lot from Etrurian culture as they assimilated them into Roman culture.

This coin is one of TWO known: The British Museum, and mine in private hands... I was careful that I had good provenance to ensure it's authenticity and rarity.

I understand the Etrurian alphabet was different and generally retrograde to the Latin alphabet. I borrowed a pic from @red_spork 's beautiful RR AR Sestertius... the Symbol for Sestertius was IIS as shown on sporky's coin.

You must read the II"C" on mine in retrograde, (retrograde C standing for the "S" sound.)

With it being roughly the same size and weight as a RR AR Sestertius, and this one representing 2-1/2 Asses, I wonder if the ROMANS borrowed their coinage from the Etrurians... I have an Etrurian 10 Asses (similar to Roman Republic Denarius at that time), and an Etrurian 20 Asses (similar to a Roman Republic Didrachm at that time.)


Etruria, Populonia
2 ½ asses , AR 0.85 g
3rd century BCE
Obv: Radiate female head r.; behind, IIC (retrograde).
Rev: Blank.
Ref: EC 104 (misdescribed, Female head with an Attic helmet). Historia Numorum Italy 179.
NAC Comment: Of the highest rarity, apparently only the SECOND specimen known. Dark patina and about very fine.
Ex: From the collection of E.E. Clain-Stefanelli
(Further research E.E. Clain-Stefanelli's excellent provenance... )
ANS Executive Director Ute Wartenburg reported that Elvira Eliza Clain-Stefanelli died Oct. 1, 2001. Mrs. Stefanelli retired in 2000 as the Senior Curator of the National Numismatic Collection in the Numismatics Division of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. She was at the Smithsonian for forty years, and was responsible with her husband Vladimir for organizing and building up the National Numismatic Collection (from 60,000 to over 1,000,000 pieces.) She survived a Nazi concentration camp in WWII Europe, moved to Rome, and learned numismatics there. In New York she and her husband worked for Stack's and started the Coin Galleries division there. Her most recent publication was "Life In Republican Rome On its Coinage", a lavishly illustrated discussion of the themes which appear on the coinage of the Roman Republic, published in 1999. Her major contribution to the science of numismatic literature was her classic "Numismatic Bibliography", published in 1985.