Moving the cursor to the images will do wonders. More about these, umm, coins is here: http://www.cointalk.com/t116245/ Christian
As soon as people stop buying them. Quite obviously a profit can be made by some coin marketing agencies (and governments that will get their share of the revenue) by issuing/selling such things ... Christian
We had a thread a few weeks ago about someone who ended up buying coins while medicated. I could just picture the same thing here. Get high, google pot, buy a coin.
Why do you consider that coin dross? Is it the subject matter or are all novelty type, non-legal tender coins dross and garbage to you? Mike
Numismatic Value? Well, if you consider the fact that they sell for way more than their intrinsic metal content, then YES, they have Numismatic Value. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Benin+Cannabis&_in_kw=1&_ex_kw=&_sacat=0&_okw=&_oexkw=&_adv=1&LH_Complete=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&_samilow=&_samihi=&_sadis=200&_fpos=&_fsct=&LH_SALE_CURRENCY=0&_sop=10&_dmd=1&_ipg=200 As for the coin itself, I believe it was the first of three commemorative issued by Benin to commemorate "The Plants of the World. The coin is "supposed" to smell like Cannabis but I didn't think so on any of the examples I purchased. And yes, I purchased quite a few of these as gifts for some friends that have Medical Marijuana permits and require the drug to alleviate pain and associated problems due to certain medical conditions. As for the "dross" comment. Numismatics is so much more than simple PM values or government issued coinage. Folks purchase and collect all kinds of medals and coins for various reasons. Some pieces bring very high dollars simply because of the quality or subject matter and in my opinion, this particular coin is absolutely no different, other than the PM content, than Canada's Loony or be-jeweled Maple Leaf's or the various Commemoratives that the US Treasury produces every year.
News Flash Christian...............thats what maketing agencies and World Governments do. Create and sell coins and medals to generate Government revenues to offset certain costs associated with running a Government. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this.
Of course there is nothing "wrong" in the sense of such issues being illegal. And since many mints are profit centers these days (ie. they need to make money with the money they make), we see more and more of such coins. But there still are some differences. First you have the plain vanilla circulation coins, and I certainly do not object to those. (To some designs, yes, but that is a different issue.) Then we have special coins issued to commemorate important people and events that are relevant for the issuing country. Fine. And then -- thematic series where the single coins are not issued on any specific occasion, but at least the pieces have something to do with the issuer. Wait, it goes on. There are coins that are "developed" by companies which then try and find customers (countries) that are willing to have their country name put on the pieces. In a best case scenario, the theme/design even has something to with the "issuing" country. In other cases ... Christian
What's up with the date at the 8:00 position? Looks like the die engraver might have sampled some of the product....I'm just sayin'.....