I feel foolish. I recently ordered a set of Israeli coins thinking they were manufactured in the Holy Land. Today I learned that Israel has NO mint and all their coins are manufactured in South Korea. Are the gold and silver commems also minted in South Korea? Why does Israel not tell that their coins are minted elsewhere? Why do they have no mint? I guess the answer is economics: Labor is much cheaper in Korea. This is sad news indeed for numismatic collectors. I bet most treasure these coins thinking they are from Israel.
It's been a common practice among many nations throughout history. Whether it's sad news or not is a matter of taste.
If you want coins minted in Israel, you can still get some older ones, including official sets. Coins from recent 30 years or so are from all over the world, Israel ordered coins from about 20-30 different countries mints, I got a full list somewhere.
Remember that for many years the planchets our cents and half cents were struck on were made in England. Like John said, its not totally new.
Could be a decision based on keeping assets safe. Would you run a fairly large mint operation, with silver and gold storage on site, from an unstable part of the world? Maybe, storing gold and silver in a safer country and using some other mint's services for security reasons, just makes more sense? Royal Canadian Mint...
If you want coins "minted: in Israel, try collecting ancients. I just got my third zuz, from the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-135). Technically, thy are not minted in Israel, because they use the flans of Roman coins which have been filed or hammered down to efface the Roman images. Then they are stamped with dies "made in Israel."
No idea why anybody would find it surprising that some country does not have "its own" mint. As mentioned before, lots of countries have their coins and/or banknotes produced elsewhere. And I don't think that many collectors would assume they are locally made. Some of Israel's recent collector coins, for example, have been made by the mints in Finland and the Netherlands. What may be a little confusing is that the Israel Coins & Medals Corp. uses the domain name "israelmint.com". Then again, there is a coin distributor in the US named Royal Scandinavian Mint - guess what, it's not a mint either. Christian
For Israel's current circulation coins, go here http://www.bankisrael.gov.il/en/Currency/CurrentCurrencySeries/Pages/Default.aspx and click on the "coins" tab. But the poll question is kind of odd. Some recent Polish coins, for example, have been minted by the Royal Mint in the UK, even though there is a (very productive) Polish Mint in Warsaw. "False representation"? Of course not. Christian
The practice of contracting out minting work has been extremely common since the rise of the Soho mint in the late 18th century. Even the US has farmed out minting work to Canada at times. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ith_coinage_struck_at_the_Royal_Canadian_Mint
Come to think of it, as a collector, I'd feel more cheated if the country whose coins I collected was relatively small, had at least 5 mints and put out hundreds of millions of coins every year with 5 different mint marks. Germany has to have piles of some of the most worthless circulation coins in the world and they proudly mint all of them, themselves. It's some of those poorer countries, which can't afford to mint coins every year, without their own mints, that provide us with some nice rare finds in the World Coin bins.
The US has made coins for over 40 countries. It's quite common. I actually challenged a friend of mine to get into world coins by collecting the coins made in the US.
Whether you like the coins or not, oh well. But keep in mind that in Germany the mints (four mints, five locations) are state owned and operated, not by the federal government. And yes, of course the question of where money is produced is a cost issue. Sweden for example is not exactly a poor country, and yet the Swedish coins are minted in Vantaa, Finland. And the "German" euro notes that the Bundesbank issues have come from two different companies in Germany but also from France or the Netherlands ... Christian
Interesting task or goal, but then your friend will not have any recent coins. If we do not count the Leif Erikson pieces (US/IS joint issue), the US Mint stopped producing coins for other countries roughly 30 years ago. Could be capacity reasons, don't know ... Christian
I certainly learned something today. I had no idea about Israeli coins. Regardless of their mint of origin, the coin designs are distinctive.
81 million people, that's one mint for every 16 million citizens. Can you say State cash grab? I refuse to collect the same coin more than 3 times (P, D, S...) and one of them better not be proof. Five sets of the same coins to make up one year set. Get real. Respect for collectors, not watered-down collectables.
Thanks for all the feedback. I foolishly always believed that countries manufacture their own coinage. I now know the truth. It's cheaper to have coins minted by laborers in other countries. Israeli workers would ask for a high wage as the COL is very high. Euro coins are evidently not made in their home countries. Where are Euros minted?
