1925 Norway 10 Ore!

I bought this coin in hopes of it being silver. Unfortunately, it is not. I figured with it being so small and holed there was a chance of some silver content. Fortunately, I did not buy it as a silver coin, so the silver would have been an extra bonus. Norway did make silver coins until 1919 but stopped then because of problems brought up by WWI. Most of the 7 million 10 Ore coins minted in 1925 must have survived the depression and WWII era pretty well because this coin is worth just $0.75.

1923 Poland 10 Groszy!

 Poland: Home to some really girly birds. Germany's are much better. Why is this 90 year old coin in such great condition? Because there were 100,000,000 of them made! Plus, it isn't silver and the design isn't the best. It is better than most modern ones, it just lacks the biceps the German Eagle had. This coin is worth $50.00... in MS-60! In this shape, $1.50.

1862-M Italian 10 Centesimi!

Damn, that's a poor ass country! Well not exactly as this was the norm in Europe (excluding the U.K.) back in the day. This pre-decimal Penny sized coin has definitely seen better days. But then, it's obviously seen worse days as well. It features Victor Emmanuel II who, unlike his third version, wasn't involved in a world war or in support of any fascists. (Fun fact that has nothing to do with this post: Mussolini was an atheist but gave the Catholic Church more power while in office.) It's worth about $2.00 in this shape, which is 8x what I bought it for.

1876-D German 10 Pfennig!

Gotta love that eagle! Of course, it is better looking and not so skinny on the coins made after 1890, but it's still the German Eagle. Well, eagles. Like I said in this post, more worn examples can leave the un-experienced to wonder if the coin just has an endless chain of eagles on eagles, but it does not. This coin is made of copper-nickel and not silver because most European countries, excluding the U.K., had their dollar equivalent coins worth 1/5 of a U.S. Dollar. Evidence for this is here, here, here, and finally here with the U.S. Dollar. All of the coins are .900 silver and between 25 and 27 grams, yet the American Dollar has a lower face value. Lower face value and higher silver content leads to higher exchange value. So from all that I can assume that this coin's exchange value was around $0.02. It is now worth $0.50 which isn't far off from it's value back in the day as $0.02 in 1876 would buy $0.42 in 2012. See here.

1948 British Florin!

Here's a coin with a somewhat interesting story. Not really historically interesting, just the way I got it. As I was walking through the flea market, I passed by the junk/world coin bin of a dealer I don't usually buy from and saw this coin. I thought it looked interesting and decided that when I was done buying from my regular dealer, if it was still there and I still had money, I would buy it. When I came back around, I still had $3.00 and this coin was sitting right where I left it. I then bought it, as well as four other coins, for $1.00. Not too bad as this coin alone is worth $0.25.

Republic of Kenya 1967 Ten Cents!

Ever wondered what money from the Kenyan-Hawaiian socialist, fascist, communist, Muslim black man's home country looked like? Well, you're looking at it right now! And yes, the delusional Republicans still think that of Obama. Anyways, this coin is about the size a British Penny was before decimalization. This variety was minted from 1966-1968 before words were added to the obverse/reverse. I still always assume the side with the head is the front even though it isn't half the time. This coin is worth $0.30 in numismatic value, but in exchange value it is worth less than a cent.

1950 Danmark 10 Ore!

I just love Denmark coins. I don't know whether it's because of the little hearts they put on them or the fact that the letter "R" used to rule the country. In all seriousness this coin is one of three Denmark coins I own and it is the oldest. I got it back in the days when I was obsessed with getting all of the non-silver pre-'64 dimes and quarters of the world I could find. Now that that phase has gone I seem to be somewhat into KGV stuff but that's a post for another day! This coin is worth about $0.10 for the gunky reverse. If it were in a bit better condition it would be worth $6.75.

1983 Jamaica 10 Cents!

Here' another one of my least favorite coins. Like yesterday's coin this one is worn, ugly, and worth little. The coolest thing about it is the butterfly on the reverse. Other than that it is pretty plain with the standards: date, denominatin, country, and seal. The worth is relatively little at $0.05.

1982 Fiji 10 Cents!

The one and only Fijian coin I own. Maybe I'll go there one day and get some change that way this coin doesn't have to be so alone. That or I'll go buy some at the flea market or online or something. Anyway there's not much of a design going on just the Queen, country, date, denomination, and an ula tava tava which is a throwing club. It's pretty scratched and worn and worth only $0.10.

2007 Irish 10 Euro Cent!

Here's a coin out of a catalogue. I can see it in a coin magazine now with some misleading title and a very over-excited story. Except it would probably be for the 2007 proof version which has a mintage of only 10,000. This coin has a mintage of over 54 million making it the most common of the 2007-2010 circulating Irish 10 Euro Cent coins. That was a mouthful. Being so common it is worth only $0.13.

1963 Hong Kong 10 Cents (Security Edge)!

 Bought this at the flea market with all of those aluminum coins. The portrait of the queen looked kind of odd so I plucked it out and found out it was a Hong Kong coin. For those of you who don't know Hong Kong was a British colony for a long time. Britain signed Hong Kong over in the 1990's and since then the queen has been taken off of their currency. Hong Kong is not officially Chinese as it is still capitalist and has it's own set of laws. Read more about Hong Kong here.  This is half of the Hong Kong coins I own, the other being a 1994 dollar coin which features a flower rather than the queen. Down below is a picture of the security edge used for the coin. It's pretty neat how the edge has the reeding and the little dots which are practically inside the coin. This coin is worth about $0.10 not as much as an American or Canadian dime would be worth, but better than nothing.

NOTE: There is a variety without the security edge.

1968 Austrailia 10 Cents!

Not sure where I got this. It may have been in change since it is quarter sized, but I highly doubt that. It's seen quite a bit of circulation and is surprisingly worth more than I would have expected. $0.50 may not seem like much, but for a coin in this condition and with a mintage of over 50 million it is a pretty nice amount. On to the design. The reverse has a Lyrebirdwith a 10 on top of it; the obverse a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, her name, Australia, and the date.

1942 Netherlands 10 Cents!

BE SURE TO VISIT MY NUMISTA!
As all of my faithful readers and those of you who stop by every now and then know, I buy coins at the flea market. Any coins you see that I didn't buy come from change or as gifts. This coin came from the foreign/miscellaneous coin bin at the shop I buy from the most. I usually only buy silver, error, or other more expensive coins from him, but that week I had decided to take this advice and buy as many zinc and aluminum coins as I could. I managed to get around 40 aluminum coins and 2 zinc coins, one of which wasn't originally zinc, but was missing it's copper plating. I also bought 10-15 foreign coins that caught my eye, most of which will be posted in the coming days and weeks. Here comes the exciting part. The coins were marked $0.25 for 1 or 5 for $1.00. That means I would have paid around $11.00 for all of the coins. Since I buy something there every time I go to the flea market he gives me a very good deal on almost everything I buy. This time, though, I had a specific price in mind. I was looking to spend only $5.00. I got the coins I wanted into piles based on what they were (aluminum and plain foreign) and said "How much for all of these coins?" He smiled and said "$5.00!". At that point he got a plastic bag and started shoveling coins into it. The reasons for his enthusiasm and his willingness to let $6.00 of possible profit disappear are these: 1. I buy from him all the time and we have a friendly relationship. 2. Most of the time these coins get overlooked and some sit for weeks, months, or even years before being bought. 3. Most dealers regard these types of coins as excess inventory and are happy to get rid of them as soon as possible for almost any price because when they buy collections they almost always get more. With all of these factors I probably could have bought half of the coins in that box for $5.00. Well, maybe not but it would be worth a try. Whew, this has been a long post and I'm pretty tired so before I fall asleep this coin that I have said almost nothing about is worth $20.00 $2.00.