Who knows about strange, weird, flawed, extraordinary etc. coins?

Hello to all Forum Users.

I am looking for coins that are wrong, weird, flawed, out of the ordinary etc. due to whatever history attached to them. I do not mean extraordinary/fabulous designs as beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, nor do I mean minting errors.

A few examples.

1) In 2006 the Dutch issued commemoratives in silver and gold to celebrate the bicentenary of their tax department. Apart from the fact this is an unusual theme (in some countries probably not likely to be ever celebrated of official legal tender) the coins were minted incorrectly. The coin presented the years 2006 to 1806 in backwards order but some years were omitted or placed incorrectly. So, both unusal + wrong.

2) In 2007 the Dutch issued a 2 Euro piece bearing the text "The Kingdom of The Netherlands". That turned out to be a huge mistake as the kingdom consisted of three independent countries and two of these weren't even using the Euro.

3) The Russian company Arctic Coal has minted coins and paper money several times for its employees at the coal mines on Spitzbergen/Svalbard (the majority of the population is Russian). According to a treaty all nations (or in any case many) are allowed to exploit the natural resources of Spitzbergen. Norway was granted governance over the isles. For a long time already the Russians have been the only ones to make use of this right. Previous coins just named the company, but in 1993, however, they had Rouble coins minted in Russia with the text "Russian Federation". This lead to a row with Norwegian authorities who banned the coins from Spitzbergen.

I would like to collect coins with such stories attached to them. Unfortunately, it's easy to look up coins but not the histories attached.

Perhaps this could be a thread where everyone can post who knows about weird, flawed, forbidden, out of the ordinary etc. etc. coins.

 

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1933 US Double Eagle. Heck of a story behind those, eh?

 

As for the taxation service, the Dutch Belastingdienst coin actually found "followers" in Australia and India last year. Despite its flaws (dates) I like the design of the Dutch piece.

The first Belgian €2 commem was a little strange too: It is dedicated to the economic cooperation with Luxembourg and shows the two heads of state (Albert and Henri). However, it is not actually a common issue of the two countries, and the coin does not indicate which of the two issued it.

Christian

 

Here is another odd piece that pretty much every European collector knows ... the Italian 1000 lire coin dated 1997. The piece (a newly issued circulation coin) showed a map of Europe, except that Germany was divided. Or rather, they merged West Germany and the Netherlands.



(If the embedded image does not show, click here: http://www.reise-nach-italien.de/lire1000-1997.jpg.) Later they issued the same coin but with a "fixed" map ...

Christian

 

I knew about the Australian (centenary ATO) and the India coin (150 years of income tax), but I believe the Dutch coin was a first here.

Didn't know the Italian one at all. They simply merged the two?? On a map that may not be such a good idea, but perhaps the Dutch and German soccer team should be merged just for once: must be a huge success (WC guaranteed) :hail:

Were the Italian coins released into circulation?

Reminds me a bit of the recent "row" between Russia and Estonia about the map on the Estonian Euro coins where Estonia supposedly took a chunk out of Russia (although the map seems to be correct)

The 2 Euro piece is a bit odd as well.

Many thanks, Christian!

 

It's sure has a story to it! But it's, lets say, a bit too pricy to be collected.

 

Spitsberg coins?

 

Yes it is. It's a Spitzbergen's coins. 50 kopeks 1946 is very expensive in Russia - about 140$ for piece.

 

Very interesting everyone. I find pattern and trial strikes very interesting. I hope to own one someday (hopefully Judd 72).

 

Yes, they were. About 80 to 100 million coins with the wrong map were made in 1997 (not sure about the precise mintage figures). Then, another ~300 million (dated 1997 and 1998) were produced with the corrected map. The later issues, until and including 2001, were for sets only.

And yes, a Dutch-German football/soccer team would probably be pretty darn good. It is a little silly anyway these days - most of the time you have players from several different countries in one club, but when it comes to euro or world cups, they suddenly get "reassigned" so that people can wave orange, black-red-gold, etc. flags. Ah well, as long as the fun prevails, that is fine with me.

The "debate" about the Estonian map reflects the political situation (maybe even tensions): That map* looks fine to me too, apart from the fact that one design for all eight denominations is somewhat boring. But it was somewhat amusing to read, on the very same day (4 Jan), that on one hand representatives of the Seto community complained that the map did not show the areas that are now Russian, while a Russian lawyer complained that the map includes them ...

* See here http://i52.tinypic.com/10sdd84.jpg. Not sure who created that file, but it shows the "coin map" and, as a sort of overlay, a map of Estonia.

Christian

 

Another coin that is somewhat odd. Usually one would not expect emergency money (notgeld) to be made from gold, but in WW1 the German colonial administration in East Africa was in a peculiar situation: Due to the war, money produced in Germany could not be shipped to "DOA", and paper money was not well accepted by the locals. However, there was plenty of gold in a mine near Tabora ... and so these pieces were designed and made:


(Image: http://www.kolonialgeld.de/assets/images/Munze-15Rupien.jpg)

Then there are coins with subtle political statements - or at least people believed they were "messages". The German Empire had a 5 RM circulation coin (1927-33) which shows an oak tree. That tree has often been used as a symbol of the country (see the current German 1, 2 and 5 cent coins). The tree from the 1920s has a few "dead" branches, which were apparently meant to represent the territories that the empire "lost" after WW1.


(Image: http://worldcoingallery.com/countries/nmc2/73-56.jpg)

Christian

 

Or take the 10 gulden coin from Danzig, issued in 1935. It shows the Rechtstadt/Główne Miasto city hall with three small flags. For the two lower flags, the wind seems to come from the right (from the viewer's perspective) while for the one at the top, it comes from the opposite direction. And some in Danzig thought that this was a subtle political message as well.


(Image: http://www.soviet-power.com/pictures/coin66.jpg)

Christian

 

some beautiful and interesting coins there, being a football fan i always find it amusing that the isle of man and gibraltar always issue coins for the world cup, yet they have no national teams that are entitled to enter the competition.

 

then there is this one from greenland which i have in my collection................

 

City of Riga. Swedish occupation.
Solidus 1644, billon. Christina the Queen.

 

Looks like a nickel piece to me. If its worth USD 140 in Russia, I presume there are more fakes than real ones?

 

Here's another one with a story to it:

picture on: http://www.catawiki.nl/catalogus/munten/landen/nederland/485135-10-cent-1941-zink-driekruinenboom

The link has pictures of the extreeeeeemely rare Dutch 10 cents "driekruinenboom" 1941. A Nazi occupation coin. This coin depicts a tree (the "driekruinenboom"), probably the Germanic tree of life. After a lot of the coins had been minted, it was ruled to be too "kitsch" by the highest Nazi authorities in Holland. They had them melted down and replaced by another piece that bears a picture of .......

yep, three tulips.................

picture on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_cent_WWII_(Dutch_coin)

Another strange coin is the German 1 trillion Marks coin (it's an emergency coin (Notgeld) of the German region Westfalen/Westphalia; the horse on it is the symbol of Westphalia). The coin was already discussed here:

http://www.cointalk.com/t25945/

To my knowledge 1 trillion is the biggest denomination ever put on a coin.

 

I have one 5c occupied Netherlands zinc 1942

 

Interesting; while I know the occupation coins, I have never seen that "driekruinenboom" design. Well, selecting three tulips an an "appropriate Dutch" design was certainly a minor issue among what the nazis did, but it is odd indeed to replace one kitsch/cliché design with another one ...

That Westfalen "coin" looks interesting because of the high face value. But we need to keep in mind that those Westphalian issues were not used as coins - they were sold as fundraisers instead. The "1 Billion" piece even came out after the end of the hyperinflation, and was sold at a price of 2.50 RM then.

Since this topic is about coins, I don't really want to go "into" paper money, but here is an interesting denomination:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/HUP_100MB_1946_obverse.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/HUP_100MB_1946_reverse.jpg
That means 100,000,000 b.‑pengő ... and the "b." is short for billion.

Christian

 

only this year i have managed to complete the set of occupation coins from the netherlands when i found the elusive 2 1/2 cent at a flea market.