Suddenly there is a lot of discussion about holed coins. For what its worth and at the risk of being presumptuous, I would like to relate a personal experience. In 1979 I visited Panama, specificially the San Blas Archipelago off the north coast in the Caribbean. It was my second year of collecting US coins, and I was stunned by the amount of old US silver dimes and quarters adorning the necklaces, bracelets, and anklets of the Kuna women inhabiting these islands. All perforated, of course, a bit of a let down as at the time I felt a damaged coin was not worth collecting. Mixed in with these coins were silver Panamanian Balboas, which is the currency of Panama and tied to the US dollar (in fact minted in the US) since its inception and Panamanian independence in 1903. The two currencies circulate interchangably. The Balboas are the same sizes as equivalent US coins, and I THINK but am not sure that the Balboa changed from silver to clad in the same year as the US, in 1965. Vasco Nunez de Balboa, Spanish explorer and conquistador and who adorns the obverse of the Panamanian coins, was the first European to cross the isthmus and see the Pacific Ocean (from the Americas side, anyway) in 1513. It was apparently for this feat that he was beheaded by the envious governor Pedrarias in 1517. It is thought that this Pedrarias was his father-in-law. Looking back I think these particular holed coins possess a great deal of less tangible value and regret not having purchased some in their jewelry form. Attached is a poor photo from the web I found relating to the above.
I am torn by this type of thing..it is a shame to hole a perfetly good coin but sometime such things have a certain charm. I am wearing right now an Ethiopian 50 Matonas Coin with Haile Selassie and the lion of judah from 1923...Its a great looking coin and someone roughly welded a hoop to the coin to make it a pendant...I though it was suh a shame (still do) to ruin such a nce looking coin...I have one as a coin and the one I wear...I now think it was okay because I wear it and love it. http://f3c.yahoofs.com/auc/Yb1kqURP_5AQ/speedokuni2002-img256x261-scan0079.jpg?auAmqsLBqoVmrwRS the guy who sold it to me didnt know what it was, advertised it as a silver afghan coin, its not silver and its not afghan...but its nice IMO and has a rustic charm.
Interesting. However, I wonder if there will now be craze for holed coins. The entire problem is a coin with a hole in it could have been made for a reason and it could have been just for fun. Unless it is connected to something, it could just be a hold. Hope this doesn't catch on or there will be a lot of people making money selling drill bits.
Off subject question for Drusus: From my understanding of Ethiopian numbers, the date on that coin does appear to be 1923. Is that the Coptic calendar year and not the Gregorian? (there is about 7 years difference)
Well...I wasn't sure what they did for their coinage, so I went to the following page: http://worldcoingallery.com/ and looked up the Ethiopian coins. I clicked on a coin, read the date on the coin in Amharic, and compared it to the date they had written below (in arabic numbers). The difference was 7 years, e.g. the coin showed the date 1937 but was listed as being from 1944. So I'm guessing your coin is from 1930 by Gregorian reckoning. I'm sure there are people in this forum who know of good programs to convert these sorts of non-Gregorian dates.
okay, thats good to know...thanks! if I remember correctly worldcoingallery didnt have this particular coin there so I looked it up elsewhere...
