Got a chance to pick through a fresh bag destined for the 10 cent bin recently. There was some fun stuff, including a copper from Revolutionary France, I think. I liked this 1929 Canada George V 5 cents, for example. A little wear, but not bad for 10 cents US.
Well, shoot, if you travel to Japan you've got yourself 100 yen for 20 cents. Win And that one sen looks like it could be nice. It always amazes me to find 80 year old aluminum coins in nice shape.
Wow, thanks for spotting that one! All I knew at the time was that I hadn't ever seen one before. This one is in really lovely condition for a zinc coin, as they often corrode. Even though the mintage was 1 million, it looks like many of them must not have survived. Here's one on eBay that sold for $160 US this year, and I think mine looks a bit better. A very lucky chance find, I guess. Slovak Republic, 5 Halierov, 1942 (Nazi-occupied client state)
This era are always a major eyestrain for me even with magnification to read the dates. I believe the upper star says "49". The series ran from 1949-1952. I hadn't seen one before. 49 is a much lower mintage year than 1950 (600K vs. 21M), so it should be worth a few dollars. Spain, 5 Pesetas, 1949
I think it's a 5 centimes of L'An 5-9. It's only ~28 mm and the décime would be 32. It's very worn in the center of the reverse, so I can't make out the date. The mint appears to be AA (Metz), so the 5 centimes could be 1796, 1797 or 1799. France, 5 Centimes, 1796-1800 AA
I believe it's aluminum but in any case it's a good coin. I'd expect it to sell at around $5 so not sure how that one on eBay got so high. I always buy occupation coinage when I see it in junk bins.
Yeah, if I ever go back to Japan, I'm going to have to be loaded down with pocket change! Actually, I'm casually working on a date set of Showa 50 yen coins. I don't keep track of which ones I already have very well, but if I can pick any up for 10 cents I don't have much to lose. Here's a closer pick of the 1941 Sen. It's a common coin, but this one seemed unusually nice compared to most of mine. Similar to the zinc coin earlier, aluminum tends to corrode. I probably have a few hundred Late Meiji to mid-Showa coins from 10 cent bins at this point, but I still get more whenever they are in passable condition. A small sample. I am a hoarder.
Couple more photos since I filed these away and finally cleaned off my table: Fiji Half Penny 1954, 1 Penny 1965 I think the QEII half penny is a single-year type. Switzerland 1907 5 Rappen, 1990 1/2 Franc The Swiss franc is worth $1.12 US, so a 1/2 franc is worth about 5x purchase price in face value if one can find it in a 10 cent junk bin. The 5 rappen type was minted almost unchanged for over 100 years from 1879-1980. Even at over 100 years old, the 5 rappen has almost no collector's value. Italy 1919 20 Centesimi (overstrikes on an older type) Sorry, focus is poor on this one. I can't see any trace of the undertype. Finland 50 Penniä 1948 (Iron) 1948 is the lowestmintage date of the series, at about 1.1 million. I don't see the 50 penniä very often compared to the interwar 5 and 10s. Germany 1949 F 50 Pfennig Malta 1972 1 Cent I often pick up Malta coinage just because it's a small country and mintages tend to be low. This one is not at all scarce at 7.6 M minted, but it's a handsome coin.
