Indian 1959 2 Paise!

It's been a while since India could produce coins in this small denomination. Currently the Indian rupee is worth around $0.02 which doesn't leave a lot of room for lesser denominations. This coin is copper-nickel and holed, the latter being done outside the mint. I don't know who put the hole in or why, but it was probably worn on a necklace or bracelet to make carrying money easier or as just a decoration. This coin isn't worth much with the hole but $0.05 or whatever the metal price is should cover it.

Workers of all countries, unite! (Soviet Union 1933 20 Kopeks!)

I'd been needing an old Soviet coin and a few weeks ago I got one. This is the coin and while it's dirty and worn, it sits as one of my favorite coins. I love how the older Soviet coins are more full in design. They're much more appealing than the ones minted from the 60's - 90's. They also had propaganda on them. Like the U.S. has "In God We Trust" they had "Workers of all countries, unite!" among others. Many of these coins were made, but they must have had a rough time in circulation because this coin is worth about $2.00.

South Korea 1973 50 Won!

About the same size as a nickel, so it makes sense that one of these is worth about $0.05 in exchange value. At this moment I have 161 Won which, as you may have been able to figure out, is around $0.16. At least it isn't the Mongolian Togrog or Iranian Riyal. Then again, it is close to the Togrog, but worth a bit more. Korea also has nicer coins than Mongolia but Mongolia has nicer bills. That is my opinion, of course. What is not opinion is that this coin is worth $0.25 or exactly what I paid for it.

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.

1947 French Indo-China 1 Piastre!

In my quest to acquire a coin from every country as well as my quest to get a coin from French Indo-China, I picked up this coin. French Indo-China is no longer around and is now known as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. This coin is almost the same size as a Ike, Peace, or Morgan Dollar; just a tad smaller. It's a monster compared to the French 10 Franc coin issued at the same time which is odd since colonizing countries' money was usually more valuable than the colonies' money. This coin is worth $4.00, which in 1947 would have been $0.39.

1923 French 5 Centimes!

What a beautiful coin. And for only $0.25, how could I resist? This was the most beautiful world coin I got that weekend. It's also worth 6x what I bought it for. So for $0.25, I got a $1.50 coin beautiful coin! The hole in the middle was most likely for saving metal and money which would all the government to produce more coins for cheaper prices with all the metal they saved. Unlike the U.S., France's economy was severely crippled by WWI and they needed to cut corners as much as possible. Unfortunately, these efforts were to no avail and the French Franc became practically worthless in the following years. I like how the dirt accents the design on the coin. I wonder if this adds any value.

U.K. 1957 Sixpence!

One of three sixpence coins I have and this is the only copper-nickel one. So far, shillings are the most common pre-decimal coins I have, and it's not hard to see why. This coin is much more interesting than one of those boring old shillings, and has a much better design, too. As you can see, this one's was improperly metal content was improperly mixed leaving some streaking visible.

Now here are some interesting facts about the sixpence coin (from Wikipedia):
"As the supply of silver threepence coins slowly disappeared, sixpences replaced them as the coins put into Christmas puddings; children would hope to be the lucky one to find the sixpence, no doubt also encouraging them to eat more pudding.
They have also been seen as a lucky charm for brides. There is an old rhyme which goes "Something old, something new / Something borrowed, something blue / And a sixpence for her (left) shoe."

The above coin would have been worth 2.5 New Pence back in the day or 28 of today's pence. But that's not much compared to its $0.75 numismatic value.

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.

1969 Iran 1 Rial!

Ooooh very official looking. So official, in fact, that it made its way here with me forcefully nudging it along. This coin is from one of the thirty-thousand countries that currently wants to blow us up and has been demonetized since it was minted 44 years ago. It features a starving lion carrying a sword in the hot sun on the obverse and a 1 on the reverse. I got it pretty cheap and it's worth about $1.00 in this condition. Not too shabby!

193?-M Mexican 5 Centavos!

Hey guys, here's my 19- wait a minute. The date's been worn off! Damn Mexicans always have to make things harder on us white folk! Well, I guess that ends the post.

Not! I'll use my detective skills to figure out the date. I can clearly see a 193 before the mystery number so it was definitely minted in the 1930's. There were only three years in the 1930's in which this coin was produced, 1936, 1937, and 1938. From there, I can tell that it's definitely not the 1937. Finally I come to the conclusion that it is most likely the 1936 because the 1938 has a substantially smaller mintage and because it just looks more like a 6 than an 8 to me. If it's the 1936 it is worth $0.05. If it's the 1938 it's worth $0.25.

1964-B Swiss 20 Rappen!

Love beautiful coins but don't want to spend a ton of money? Well look no further than Switzerland! See the historic, classic design up there? It's still being made today! That's right, this amazingly beautiful design is still alive and well in millions of pockets! It is worth $0.21 in exchange value and $0.30 in numismatic with that splotch on the reverse. Without it, it would be worth about $0.50.

Happy Valentine's Day! (1972 Denmark 25 Ore!)

This coin is one of many perfect coins for your Valentine! Why? Because of the heart on the bottom of the reverse! All right I'm a day late or a year early depending on how you look at it but either way a Valentine-themed post has no relevance now. I like the hole through the middle but I don't know who would wear a necklace made of these (that is why governments do that, right?).  It's worth a nice $0.25 in this condition which probably will not impress your Valentine at all.

1971 Japanese 50 Yen!

50 Japanese dollars and it's worth $0.54 in exchange value. That, my dear children, is why we don't get into world wars and lose. The Yen was falling in value, anyway but the war just crushed it. So this coin is pretty small for a half dollar and has a hole, both of which save money. That money goes into the production of more coins, or the increasing of debt depending on which one benefits the rich. Oh wait! That's America! Joking aside the engraving on the reverse is beautiful and the hole makes it a nice touch for those rice paddy farmers with no room in their pockets. All they need is a string and they can easily wear 1,000+ yen around their necks! It's worth about face value for the scratches and dents in the hole.

1988 Republik Osterreich 5 Schilling!

Yes, I did get the alignment off but the picture still gets the job done. For a $5.00 coin it is relatively small, but considering Austria didn't have the best economy, it's not too bad. It's only a little bigger than its 1 Schilling cousin but that coin was made of aluminum-bronze which is cheaper meaning more, just not too much more, money could go into the production of one of these than into the 1 Schilling even at relatively similar diameters, widths, etc. The exchange rate for this coin was 5 Schillings=$0.49 USD  but since it was demonetized, it has no exchange value. Luckily it has the $0.60 numismatic value which is more than I paid for it!

NOTE: Go ahead and play around on that site a while. It has most of the living and dead currencies from around the world and it's pretty fun to see how much your collection would be worth without the numismatic value.

Thailand 2006 5 Baht!

Here's a nice one. The ony distinguishable thing on this coin if you can't read Thai is the 5.  If you can at least recognize the words as Thai or Rama IX on the obverse you'll have an easier time finding the coin. If you live in Thailand, you most likely know just about everything about it. Anyway, It is a Thai 5 Baht, the Thai 5 dollar equivalent, and is worth $0.17 in exchange value. It's basically a thick U.S. Quarter with some different designs. It's even copper-nickel clad! It's worth about $0.25 for collector value which is $0.08 over exchange value! What a steal!

1965 British Churchill Crown!

 This coin is a monster! It is Ike Dollar sized for those of you who know how big and heavy one is but the scary thing is, it was a quarter of a British Pound! Its official face value was 5 shillings or 60 Pence. I know, old British money is confusing. It features the first, and best, portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse and Sir Winston Churchill on the reverse. It's worth about $1.00. Not bad for an huge, old, 60 Cent copper-nickel quarter!

Above is a comparison between a shilling and the crown. The shilling is the same size as a U.S. Quarter or British 10 Pence coin. The crown is quite a bit bigger.

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.

1990 Greek 5 Drachmes!

This small, copper-nickel coin never would have passed as an American $5.00 coin. Why? It's too small! To be American it would've had to have been either A.) Silver or B.) Ike Dollar-sized. Silver won't be in regular, circulating currency until the world ends and re-begins and an Ike Dollar would have tampered with the U.S. citizens' "right" to convenience thus proving my point. It was fine in Greece, however, due to their non-American economy. I'm not sure what this coin would look like in Greece had they not adopted the Euro but it definitely wouldn't be worth more than the USD. This coin barely manages to be worth something at $0.30.

1963 British Shilling!

In my efforts to get a pound's worth of shillings I picked up and bought this coin. I have 14 shillings so far which consists of 1 Crown (5 Shillings), one 2 Shilling coin, five 1 Shilling coins, 2 Sixpence coins, 3 Threepence coins, 2 One Penny coins, and 2 Half Penny coins. I need only six more shillings until I've got a pound and I'm really hoping there will be some silver ones (no this 12 pence coin is not silver) next time I go to the flea market. I don't have much per-decimal silver which is understandable since most of it was removed from circulation by the 1950's and Britain is across a whole ocean but I should probably have more. This non-silver 12 pence coin is worth about $0.25.