One thing that I'm interested in is coins from countries that only issued a few different coins. Either they issued one coin and then not another for a century or two or they issued one or two coins once or twice and that was it. A lot of times this happens in small, lightly populated islands or obscure colonies. Here are some in my collection. 1788 Barbados 1 penny. No other coins issued until the 1970s. 1793 Bermuda 1 penny. Same as Barbados. No other coins until 1970s. 1821 St. Helena and Ascension half penny. No other coins until late 1900s. 1836 Antigua farthing. As far as I know no other circulating coins were ever made specifically for this island. 1852 Madeira 10 reis. Very few coins made for this little Portuguese island. 1890 Eritrea 1 lire. Only a few different coins issued in 1890s under Italian occupation. One more issued in 1918 and then nothing until 1990s. 1894 German New Guinea 1 and 10 pfennig. Germany issued one coin set for this year and never again. Other New Guinea coins come in 1930s under British control. 1896 Puerto Rico 5 and 10 centavos. Only one series of coins issued by Spanish authorities in 1890s. All other coins for Puerto Rico were countermarked coins from other nations.
Here's my second page. I know there are others I'm not thinking of or that I don't have pictures of right now. Biafra comes to mind, which only issued one series of coins in 1961 I believe. What do you have that fits this category? 1887 Brunei 1 cent. Last coin issued until 1970s. 1897 Martinique 50 cents, 1922 1 franc. Very few coins ever issued for this little French Caribbean island. These are silly expensive now. 1903 Guadeloupe 50 cents and 1 franc. Same as the Martinique coins. My 1 franc looks like crap but getting a better example is cost prohibitive. 1909 Kiautschou 5 cents. Only two coins were issued for this forgotten German colony in China. 1910 Liechtenstein 1 krone. This country issued coins for a few different dates in the early 1900s but most are gold. You don't see these too often. 1937 Euzkadi 2 pesetas. This was issued by a breakaway region during the Spanish Civil War. Sadly Euzkadi was not able to maintain independence and its coins were never heard from again. 1961 Katanga 5 francs. Another wannabe country whose dreams of independence did not pan out.
I can't believe I almost forgot St. Pierre and Miquelon. This is a small island group near Canada that for some reason is still controlled by France. France issued this two coin set in 1948, when it was issuing coins for a lot of its often numismatically neglected colonies, and never again.
Very interesting collection. That took a lot of research. An example from Hawaii would be a nice addition if they were not so expensive.
I just ordered one of these today. I happened to notice it in the Krause while I was looking up info for this post.
Here are a few more. 1791 Sierra Leone 1 penny. According to Krause there was an 1814 penny and after that nothing until 1964. 1882 Zanzibar 1 pysa. A few different coins were issued in the late 1800s and then I believe it became part of the British East Africa colony. 1888 Mombasa 1 pice. Similar story, a few coins issued from 1888-1890 and then it joined East Africa. 1891 Comoros 10 centimes. A 5 and 10 centimes were made for this year along with a 5 francs. No coins were seen again until 1964.
How about Prince Edward Island? Though there were several tokens in the 19th century, the sole official coinage was the 1871 1 cent:
Very cool selections! My only contribution is Hawaii, which you showed already (although this is a half dollar).
Bought it for 50 cents from a junk bin. I bought it because I didn't know what it was. Took me a long time to figure it out.
That's the best. One of the Guadeloupe 50 centimes I posted here I got on eBay for less than a dollar. I couldn't believe it.
This may not quite fit the original criteria because there were a number of coins issued between 1808 and 1812. The Kingdom of Westphalia was set up by Napoleon for his youngest brother, Jerome (Hieronymus in German) Napoleon to have a kingdom. It was not geographically the same as the German state of Westphalia, and could have been more accurately called Eastphalia. It was dissolved when Napoleon was defeated. Note the heavy die-clash on this one, so that CENT. shows clearly on the obverse. There is also on the obverse a distinct, although distorted, of what appears to be the privy mark from the reverse, but I can't figure how it could have got there. It is not incus, so not a die clash. (A footnote: Jerome's American grandson served under Theodore Roosevelt as Attorney General and founded what would become the FBI)
