Definition of what is a coin.

To me,a coin is anything that is recognised as being legal tender & actually circulates for its face value,or be available at face value.A silver
10 Euro coin is a coin,as you can get it from a bank in the issuing Euro-Zone country at the face value,& it can be used in the country.

A medal-coin,on the other hand,is a piece that cannot be obtained at its
face value.It may not be in circulation,as its intrinsic value is far more than its face value,or the unit of currency expression is not in common use.A good example of a medal-coin is the New Zealand $5 & $10 pieces,
as the Reserve Bank of New Zealand churns them out & charges a massive premium above the face value for them.I don't go for them at all
for this very reason.

 

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"giant stones that weigh 3 tons "?

I guess a person would need deep pockets to carry that around.

Now using my brain, perhaps the definition of a coin should also include that it could be used for trade outside of it's borders and it's neighboring states. Kinda of like that gold collection you have GD.

 

I personally don't think that circulation or if it can be gotten at face value at its release has anything to do if its a coin or not.

 

"The US dollar is the common currency in Yap, but the stone money is still used to this day for major transactions like payment of dowry or purchase of land" from article/advertisment.

Actually, I saw a movie about the stone money and that trader mentioned in the article when I was around an 8 year old kid on TV. I remember it well today,except for the details, but I had no idea that the stones still yielded such value today. I figured at the time that the island people were not backward it was just that they had everything they needed all around them to enjoy life to begin with.

I guess you must have enjoyed some diving in that area as well as some other things. Pretty nature

 

Guess a thorough answer to the question what a coin is would fill a book The above example is a little problematic since there are euro countries where such €10 pieces can be obtained at bank or post offices at face value (AT, DE, NL, for example), but in others (BE, ES, FR, for example) you always have to pay a surcharge. Also, these collectors pieces are legal tender in the issuing member state only, while the actual euro coins (including the €2 commems) are legal tender anywhere in Euroland.

And we can easily go even further into the "pseudo coins" category if we look at countries like Liberia that issue precious metal coins featuring pretty much everything you want. Just pay the government, and they will let you mint. Of course nobody in the country will ever get such a piece in everyday use.

Talking about pseudo-coins: I just got a dealer's catalog the other day where a $1 coin from the Cook Islands is offered: "50 Years of Playboy Magazine". Well, the coin is fairly sober (the colorized Playmate medals are more interesting ...), but I wonder where this "coin" will ever circulate.

Christian

 

I have a narrower definition. If the coin was minted for the purpose of circulation (or to look like a circuulation piece) then it is a coin. Proofs though whilst not intended for active circulation they could be spent and thus are arguably coins.

If it was not minted for circulation nor looks like a circulation piece then it's not. It's a psuedo-coin as Christian would call it.

 

Canadian coins are not legal tender. Only the notes issued by the Bank of Canada are legal tender.

In the USA today, coins are legal tender. Historically, not all USA coins were legal tender. Addenda to the laws allowed legal tender statuses up to some small, convenient limits, only.

I am with Christian on this: you could write a book about what a coin is ... and is not... There is no easy definition. Dictionary-style one-liners are woefully inadequate.

 

It would seem to me that anything minted with a legal tender value would be considered either coin or currency. This would include the Yap Stone Money. (Not that Yap Stone Money would be an easy "coin" to collect )

 

"It would seem to me that anything minted with a legal tender value would be considered either coin or currency. This would include the Yap Stone Money. (Not that Yap Stone Money would be an easy "coin" to collect" Susan.

I heard, and I am not one to pass hearsay but I heard and I can not vertify that it is true but I heard that GD canoed and then carried a "Gold 3 ton yap stone for his rock garden in front of his house.

"Canadian coins are not legal tender" Michael.
Gee thanks Mike, all these years I felt that I must have a tailbone for my backward thinking that the Candian Moose Quarter was not real money. In Western New York the term phony money was used and the quarter was used for playing quarters but only when drinking the Candian beer of Moosehead. I of course refrained from such activity and drank my seltzer water stirred not shaken.

 

Yapese stone 'coins' & cowrie shells cannot be called legal tender coins,whereas,the Canadian 50c.
coin is most definitely a legal tender item.

 

Just because it is not legal tender in either of our countries, does not mean it is not legal tender elsewhere.

 

Susan,Yapese stone money & cowrie shells are very difficult to put a value on,whereas,a silver bar you can.The Maldive Islanders had a very ingenious
way of turning a silver wire into a coin.They stamped it with a Sultan's name (in Arabic,of course),& called it a Larin,which is where the word 'Laari' comes from.

 

I agree that it is difficult to put a value on and that it is not "coin" in the sense that we are used to, however, I think it is considered to be "coin" in Yap.

 

The same story applies to the Wampum bead 'coins' that were used in trade between the fur trappers & the Native Canadians.

 

Wampum beads I thought could only be used with the traders there fore isnt that more like a token like the hudson bay tokens and such. Wasnt like they could go into any store with those.

 

Please cite your sources. My source was the public relations department of the Royal Canadian Mint. When I was the international editor of Coin World newspaper, there was a flap in Canada about the release of the $2 coins ("twonies") which the Mint would not sell to banks in return for $1 coins ("loonies"). The RCM pointed to the law: coins are not legal tender.

If you have some other authority, a citation to a recent change in Canadian law, then please share it.

The same holds true for your claims about Yap stone coins. I agree with you on this, however, local law might be different. I believe that the standard citations claim that these stones are not "money" in the usual sense, but are only meant for "ceremonial exchange" which is not the same as trade for commerce. The distinctions might be moot points for numismatists. Again, though, I know that many of us here, looking to learn all we can, would appreciate an authorative citation, even to your own published works, if that be the case.

 

Indeed, they could go into any store with wampum beads. Only in the later colonial period were wampum beads demonetized by law.

 

Well,one can go into any Post Office in Great Britain & buy any of the commemorative 5 Pounds coins at its face value of 5 Quid.