My friend has these four “coin like pieces” which are delightful to look at but we have no clue what they are. We don’t even have a ticket on the clue bus. Do any of you guys recognize them? All four pieces are in plastic presentation boxes. The boxes are the same design which we have previously seen used to hold crown sized coins from places like Gibraltar and the Isle of Man. I suppose that they are just generic plastic boxes of the era. We were speculating that perhaps these four pieces were souvenirs of a financial meeting or Christian meeting in Europe that may have been held in the 1979 timeframe. We translated some of the mottos and found references to “knowledge is wealth” and the resurrection of Christ. The countries represented appear to be France, Austria, Holy Roman Empire, Germany or something along those lines. I found the Europe piece at this Website depicting coins, tokens, medals, and fake money: http://www.jezuss.nl/europa.htm#1979 It is described as: Inscription : DIVITIAS HABET EUROPE 1979 X + DOCTUS IN SE SEMPER Diameter : 29.2 mm Edge : Plain Material : Copper Orientation : Medal Alignment Weight : 8.6 gram Year : 1979 Homo doctus in se semper divitias habet : A learned man always has wealth within himself. I’m beginning to think that these four pieces are just high quality toys made in 1979. Comments anyone?
No idea what these are, who made them, and why, but they look appealing. My guess is they mimic or "paraphrase" actual coins. The portrait on the last one apparently depicts Christian Duke of Brieg. Have a look at this coin for example ... Christian
A collector/dealer in the Netherlands said that all four look like copies of old coins. The 2nd coin mimics an old gold Florin and resembles this one at the bottom of this Webpage: http://www.jezuss.nl/muntenhuis.htm#florentia He also noted that the photo I posted of the reverse is upside down. This Netherlands Website depicts some interesting tokens, medals, and mimic coins
Is there a link to the 1979 event? Thank you Chrisld. In 1979 there was some meeting of the minds that changed the European Unit of Account (EUA) to the European Currency Unit (ECU). I was wondering if these mimic coins were somehow associated or marketed with that event?
The EUA > ECU conversion would make sense... but I wonder who minted these? Would they have been presentation pieces from the conference?
That is what I speculate but at this point I have no further data. If I knew the 1979 conference name or could contact one of the delegates I might be able to track it down further. At this point, it doesn't look like they are widely collected or sought-after. I like the look of the pieces & might offer to buy them from my friend. (If my friend Ken reads this thread - I want them cheap )
