Musical instruments & music on coins.

Here's a topic that will really interest Chris (Topher),who collects both coins & musical instruments.This time it is about coins depicting musical instruments & themes to do with music on coins.

I can think of the Austrian philharmonic orchestra bullion medal-coins,including the huge 100,000 Euro medal-coin,which his recently been dethroned as the King of Coins by the Coinzilla from Canada.

Can you think of any others?

Aidan.

 

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Aidan,

You just RUINED me! I've just got to put together a collection of musical instruments on coins, and I know that I'll have to do it although, I think we've found one coin I won't be able to afford.

On another note - pretty much every Irish coin has the Irish harp on it. I can't believe you didn't start with those.

 

Chris,thanks for reminding me about the Irish coins.I'm just a bit tired these days.Winter really affects me as well,as I'm feeling a bit blocked up,which also affects my hearing to a certain degree.

Aidan.

 

Looks like I'm already late on this one but I love the Irish Hen Pennies!

 

tenessee state quarter

 

Russia has a fair amount of commemorative coins with music related themes on it. Afterall, they have a fair amount of musicians cranked out from the last few decades and well known for their ballerina.

M.P. Musogrskii


Hamza Hakim-zade Niyazi


P.I. Chaikovskii


Sergei Prokofiev


There are a few more coins minted after 1992 but I never bothered to collect them due to the mad prices these days.

 

Thats what I was gonna say! I have some Irish coins with the harp too though.

 

If we want to get into musicians on coins, then the list gets a little bigger. I'd prefer to stay away from NCLT though, as I have enough coins on my wish list in circulation. If I remember correctly, didn't Germany have Strauss on one of their coins? I think it was either 2 DM or 5 DM, but I don't have my Krause here, and of course, I don't have any Deutsche Mark either (although I do have a bunch of Pfennigs).

 

Indeed, but unlike other "Strausses" that one was not a composer or musician but a politician. Franz Josef Strauß was governor of Bavaria, and a minister in the federal government ...

Christian

 

Leaving collector coins aside, Mozart is depicted on the Austrian €1 coin. Austria also had Joseph Haydn and Anton Bruckner on 20 schilling circulating commems, and Johann Strauß (jr.) on a 50 schilling "semi-circulating" commem. That one shows the composer and also some notes.

Now if we included collector pieces, this would become an awfully long list very quickly. But there is one German coin, issued by the GDR and honoring Johann Sebastian Bach, that I would like to show here:



This one I find interesting because it does not actually show Bach. What you see is the birth/death years, notes from the Prelude of The Well Tempered Clavier, and Bach's signature.

Christian

 

That certainly answers that question. I thought it was a bit strange, since the Strausses were Austrian.

 

Poland has had a coin with Ignacy Jan Paderewsky on one of their coins.He was a composer as well as a Prime Minister of Poland prior to World War II.

I am not sure if Georg Friedrich Handel has ever been commemorated on either a coin or a medal-coin.

I think Austria has had Beethoven on one piece.As to which one,I'm not sure.

Aidan.

 

Händel was honored on a GDR 20 Mark coin in 1984 which shows his portrait. And one year later was the "European Year of Music" commemorating the birthdays of the composers Bach, Berg, Händel, Scarlatti and Schütz: 5 DM 1985.

Beethoven: Germany 5 DM 1970, GDR 10 Mark 1970, Austria €50 gold 2005.

Christian

 

I had also forgotten to mention about the pair of drums on the obverses of some of the Ghanaian coins,& the steel pan drums on the reverses of some of the Trinidad & Tobago 50c. coins.

Christian,thanks for pointing out the coins from Austria,East Germany,& West Germany depicting composers.

Aidan.

 

And before you ask John, yes, I am putting a checklist together. (Although I will probably never get any of the gold coins.)

 

Somali republic did a series of guitar coins:

http://www.joelscoins.com/oops.htm

BTW - I don't know anything about "Joels Coins", the link was just the first that came up in Google with pictures.

 

I do remember them, but they are NCLT. (obviously)

 

TommyNumis,they are fantasies,as they are denominated in Dollars & are supposedly from Somalia.

Aidan.

 

Aiden,

I'm not sure what you mean by "fantasies" but they were real. I've seen them at shows both raw and graded by NGC. They were issued as Commemoratives from the Republic of Somali. They also did a series of motorcycles the following year.

 

Of course those things are real, in the sense that they do exist. But that is about it. The guitar pieces werde made by the London Mint/Commonwealth Mint (UK) as far as I know, and certainly not on behalf of any kind of central Somali government ...

Christian