Leprosy Colony Coins - Data & previous thread links

I purchased a few Leprosy colony coins at the Willimantic Connecticut coin show. These NEWPS include Leprosy colony coins from the colonies in Venezuela, Columbia, and The Philippines. A couple of these coins are new types that I didn’t have in my Leprosy collection & I’m beginning to find myself with several duplicates today. :smile The toughest Leprosy coins to find are definitely those from the Japan and Panama colonies. In the early 20th Century, there were Leprosy colonies in the following locations:

Brazil - Colonia Santa Tereza Leper Colony
Columbia - Lazaretto Leper Colony
Japan - Nagashima-Aisei
Panama – Palo Seco Leper Colony
Philippines - Culion Leper Colony
USA - Carville Louisiana and Pearl City Hawaii
Venezuela – Maricaibo, Isla de Providencia, and Cabo Blanco

It was believed that Leprosy (Hansen’s disease) was highly contagious and that it might be transmitted through the coins & currency that were handled by the infected individuals. For this reason, special money was made to circulate in the colonies. (Except the USA colonies (or leprosariums) which used regular US currency). Some of these leprosy colony moneys were government issued and some are considered privately issued tokens today. There is a lot of interesting reading on the subject here at CT & I will post some of the previous thread links. If you visit all the links you will find more photos of these historic Leprosy colony coins/tokens & learn about other Leprosy colony locations around the world.

There were a few compelling reasons for issuing special money at the colonies. (1) It was obviously an attempt to keep the area government money out of the hands of the inmates. (2) It made it difficult for inmates to purchase things like rum from the black market dealers. (3) It also made it difficult for an inmate to save up cash and orchestrate an escape.

 

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This NEWP is my first 20 Centavo from the Culion Leper Colony in The Philippines. It is about the size of a USA half dollar. Initially, the 20 Centavo Leprosy coins were struck by a private mint. In this year, the PM mark indicates that the coin was struck at the Philippine Mint in Manila.

 

This 1 Peso coin from the Culion Leper Colony in The Philippines is made of Aluminum. It is slightly smaller than a US silver dollar.

 

This is a brass Columbia 50 Centavos coin about the size of a US half dollar. I believe that the word “Lazareto” on all the Columbian coins originates from the words Lazaretto or Lazaret which is a quarantine station for maritime travelers.

 

Here is a Columbia 2 centavos with the same device & word “Lazareto”.

 

I purchased this duplicate Columbia 20 Centavo.

 

The last NEWP in this batch is from Venezuela. It is from Maracaibo Lazareto Nacional and is the small 1/8 Bolivar coin.

 

Trivia - Leper Coinage

I’d like to copy some previous CoinTalk thread data into this thread. Clinker left us this great CT article:

Trivia - Leper Coinage
This Forum is for numismatists and this article will obey that precept, but I think (and hope you agree) a little background information is due first.

Because of the Biblical references to Leprosy, most people know Leprosy is a disease. Here's some things about Leprosy you may not know:

1. Leprosy is not a communicable disease.
2. 90% of the world's population is naturally immune to Leprosy. Therefore, handling money once touched or handled by a person with Leprosy will not infect you!
3. Leprosy was found to be a hygienic problem and an effective treatment for Leprosy was discovered in 1982 and Leprosy has been almost obliterated from the earth.
Up to a few years ago, many countries maintained Leper Colonies or Leprosariums where those infected with the disease were sent including, but not limited to, Kalaupapa, Hawaii; Okinawa, Japan; Chacachacare, Trinidad and Tobago; Spinalonga, Crete; Sri Lanka; Carville, Louisana, U.S.A. and Zoquiapan, Mexico.
If you have read this far into this Trivia article here is the numismatic connection. Some Leper colonies issued their own money (often in the form of tokens), and some countries, like the Philippines (Culion Island Colony) were issued coins for use only in the colony by their Ministries of Health. In other countries Leprosarium coins were issued by the government and were usable and redeemable anywhere, as legal tender, in the country.
Here's some webpages where you can see examples of these coins:

Culion Island:

www.worldcoingallery.com/countries/...UL1&desc=Culion Island km1 1/2 Centavo (1913)


http://www.worldcoingallery.com/coun...ntavos (1927)

http://www.worldcoingallery.com/coun...ntavos (1920)

http://www.worldcoingallery.com/coun...ntavos (1920)

http://www.worldcoingallery.com/coun...20Peso (1913)

http://www.worldcoingallery.com/coun...20Peso (1922)

http://www.worldcoingallery.com/coun...20Peso (1925)

Columbia Leprosarium Coinage

NOTE: These coins were minted by the Bogota Mint and were issued to the Leprosariums at Agua de Dios, Cano de Lord, and Contratacion. All these institutions were closed in 1950 and the former patients were allowed to exchange these special coins for regular coinage or paper currency at any Columbian bank.

http://www.worldcoingallery.com/coun...entavo (1921)

http://www.worldcoingallery.com/coun...ntavos (1921)

http://www.worldcoingallery.com/coun...ntavos (1921)

http://www.worldcoingallery.com/coun...ntavos (1921)

http://www.worldcoingallery.com/coun...ntavos (1928)

Brazil ,also, maintained two Leperosariums which issued their own coins:
In 1920 Santa Casa de Misericordia issued 1.00 Reis, 2.00 Reis, 5.00 Reis,1.000 Reis and 5.000 Reis. In 1940 Colonia Santa Theresa issued 100 Reis, 200 Reis, 300 Reis, 500 Reis and 1000 Reis. Those issued by Colonia Santa Theresa are "rare."

Let me know if you like this kind of Trivia Article,

Clinker

Read more: http://www.cointalk.com/t19742/#ixzz1qzYRSvuN

acanthite added:
Clinker, of course we like this type of trivia article. To your list we can add leper colonies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Maracaibo, Venezuela.


Satootoko added:
Japanese Leprosarium coins in the 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 sen, and ¥1 denominations were issued from 1912-28, and 1931-48. Most were brass, some were lacquered, and three were lacquered aluminum. Of the 15 varieties listed in Krause, 11 are indicated as "rare". The other four are valued at $450-1,500 VF and $750-2,500 XF, with no other grades valued.

None were issued by the central government, and the Japanese Numismatic Dealers Association apparently considers them to be tokens, as they are not listed in its annual catalog.

 

Good link describes Leprosy colony coins

Here is a good link that describes Leprosy colony coins:
http://oldfortcoinclub.org/Documents/LEPER_COLONY.pdf

 

These Brazil coins are from the Colonia Santa Tereza (CST) Leper Colony. I got these from a Brazilian dealer at the FUN show a couple years back.

 

Example of Brazil CST reverse

All the Brazil coins have a similar reverse which is blank except for "C.S.T."

 

These photos depict a couple of the Copper-Nickel Columbia 50 centavos coins. These were posted on a previous CT thread. One has a star & one is without star. There is no variety like this listed so it may just be that the star was filled with debris during the strike or somehow got worn away during the coin's circulation.

 

Thank you for your informative and interesting posts. This was all new info for me, and I am intrigued enough to go look at the other threads. Very interesting is the fact that effective treatment for leprosy happened only recently! (Relatively..)

Thank you again. Oh, by the way, what does the cst stand for? Perhaps I missed that.

Lucy

 

Colonia Santa Tereza (CST) Leper Colony in Brazil.

 

Great subject. I don't have the Brazil or Japanese pieces yet, and I am still missing one Palo Seco and one Cabo Blanco. I think there are two more pieces of Culion paper currency that I don't have.

I love handing examples of these coins (not in holders) to people. They will look them over front and back, they seem to find them somewhat interesting. Then comes the question "Where is it from?" "Leper colony." The look on their face is priceless and they can't hand them back fast enough.

One more thing, the biblical reference to Leprosy has tended to give the disease a very bad rap, but unfortunately it stems from a misunderstanding of what they meant by "leprosy". The word they used for leprosy actually included all skin diseases including rashes and measles. It was basically a method of isolating and quarantining those who had the disease until it had passed so they could not spread it to others. That is why there were ways to have yourself examined and declared "no longer unclean" by the priests and be allowed to re-enter society. Basically back then you didn't recover from true leprosy, but you could recover from many of the other skin diseases and be allowed back in.

 

Great info Collect89. I've had a few of these presentations about these (last at mini mic fest) but never really see them in the wild.
Interesting pieces for sure.

 

Am I the only one here who would think twice about handling Leper coins?

 

Here's a link to a discussion from a while back where I posted the one I have.
http://www.cointalk.com/t185917/

I see leper colony coins come up on eBay sometimes, but the price is usually higher than I want to pay.

 

True story, I’ve seen it a couple times

#1
One of my friendly dealers keeps a small pile of the Columbia 50 centavos lazareto coins on his table. It’s an attractive nuisance. Inevitably, someone will reach across the table & start knocking them around asking what they are. When they learn that they are touching Leper colony coinage, they stop fingering the coins pretty quickly. After some small talk, they usually make a beeline walk to the men’s room to wash their hands.

#2
Sorry I didn't see everyone's replies earlier. I'm still not receiving automatic Email notifications from CT.

 

This is a great link describing the coins of the Palo Seco Leper colony in Panama. Really Good.
http://www.coins-of-panama.com/paloseco.html

Apparently, there was a Catholic church at the colony and the lepers would put coins into the collection basket. The nuns that kept the church and linens clean would also clean the coins in alcohol and then present them to the paymaster for U.S. currency on the colony payday.

In 1952 the Palo Seco tokens were withdrawn from circulation. In 1955 most of the tokens were destroyed by the Maintenance Division in Balboa. Of the $1800.00 in tokens issued, $1492.75 were recorded as being destroyed at that time.