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.

1826 British Shilling!

A shilling, 12 pence, 5 cents they all mean the same thing. That's right, this U.S. Quarter-sized, 92.5% pure silver coin was to Britain what a nickel is to Americans. 20 of these coins would make a big gold 1 Pound coin just like 20 U.S. nickels would make a tiny gold 1 Dollar coin. I got this coin at the flea market for only $4.00! It's pretty worn, but much better than my 1927 Shilling. It's also worth about $15.00! Not bad for $4.00.

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.

2006 Moldova 5 Bani!

The first thing I saw of this coin was the obverse. I thought "Oh, I could use another Romanian coin." I turned to the back and discovered it wasn't Romanian, but Moldovan! So that's the story of how I got this, my first (and so far only) coin from Moldova. I like the design, I just wish it were a little less worn. This is probably why the U.S. mint is so reluctant to use aluminum for the 1 cent coin. It wears and scratches so easily. Because of this, this coin is worth face value which is below 1 cent at $0.004.

1928-R Italy 5 Centesimi!

It's official. Italy was poor. Reason #1: this coin is pretty much the same size as a U.S. Cent. It's more deeply struck but there is little difference other than that. Another way to tell is the dedication to agriculture. Most American kids don't aspire to be a farmer when they grow up. But in poorer countries the one with the food is the one with the money. Speaking of money, this coin is worth a nice $3.00. Much more than the $0.25 I paid for it.

Iran 1937 50 Dinars!

Rather than use the dinar as the dollar like Iraq, Iran used it as the cent. So this 50 Dinar coin is just a 1/2 Rial. At current exchange rates, this coin is worthless. Of course, it was demonetized long ago so it is worthless anyway. It features a radiant lion carrying a sword on the obverse and the denomination on the reverse. This coin takes a huge leap from its would-be face value and is worth $1.00.

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.

1928-M Mexican 20 Centavos!

I've been wanting one of these since January (2013)! Five months later, I get one for a steal. It's 72% silver and is worth $1.69 just in silver. I got it for a mere $0.20. This is the most beautiful coin I bought last Sunday and by far my favorite. For some reason I just find old silver Mexican coins highly appealing. I especially love the eagle on the reverse. It's much better than the design used on modern Mexican coins. It's worth about $3.00, a price I would have gladly paid had I not been fortunate enough to find this one.

1953 Cuba 1 Centavo!

 Guess who got two Cuban coins for $1.00? Me! I bought this and a 5 Centavo coin for my Cuban coin collection. So now I have five instead of three! I'll admit I overpaid some, but Cuban coins are so few and far between, I couldn't pass them up. This was a commemorative issued for the centennial of the birth of Jose Marti, possibly the most patriotic Cuban ever to live.

Cuba made their coins at par with the USD from 1916-1961. 1 Gram of copper-nickel was equal to 1 bronze U.S. cent. Cuban cents were struck on  1 gram copper-nickel blanks until WWII came along and created the need for blanks of the same size, but made of brass. This was made on one of the brass blanks and is therefore smaller than, but was equal to, the U.S. cent. It is worth $0.15 in numismatic value, $0.01 in official exchange rate, and $0.0004 in actual exchange rate.

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.

Croatia 1993 50 Lipa!

In the age before the internet, this coin would require some digging. Nowhere on the coin does it say "Croatia" which makes it hard to identify. However, a quick Google search reveals that it is indeed Croatian. This coin is 50 Lipa, or cents, which is also half of a Kuna. It is worth $0.09 in exchange value which makes 1 Kuna $0.18. This coin is worth about 2 Kuna or $0.40.

1855-BB French 5 Centimes!

No, not short guy and Waterloo Napoleon, that's Napoleon III  on the obverse. He was the famous Napoleon's grandson with a fantastic taste in beards. Victor Emmanuel II of Italy had a similar taste. When I saw this coin at the flea market, I immediately bought it simply because I didn't have one before. It's not special at all and isn't worth much unless in high grades. This one is worth about $1.00 and I got it for $0.25.

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.

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.

1925-A German 2 Reichspfennig!

 All hail the Weimar Republic! It is because of them that Germany was able to produce this coin. Germany's economy was plagued by serious inflation during and after WWI when they began using the Papiermark. Often times wages earned in the morning would be worthless by the evening. Following the Weimar Constitution, a new Mark was issued which was worth 1 trillion times the Papiermark's value, thus ridding them of the inflation problem. Silver coins were reintroduced, though they were worth less than the old, pre WWI Goldmark coins. The above coin is worth about $0.50.

1922 French "Bon Pour" 1 Franc!

Here's an interesting coin. Why? Because it marks the period when France (and most of Europe) went off the gold and silver standard (at least temporarily) because of WWI, and later the Great Depression. France didn't recover until after WWII when a new Franc was introduced at 100 times the value of the old franc. This was issued before the Franc was in need of such a serious revaluation, although it was a major step down from the silver 1 Franc coin they produced just two years earlier. As such, it isn't worth much, just around $0.25.

1875-S 20 Cents!

Here's a rare and hard-to-get coin. Although, that isn't true. They're all over eBay and elsewhere, just with very high prices. I got this coin from the flea market for $50.00 and in this shape, it's probably worth that. If you haven't noticed, it's a little bit bent and very worn so I'd put it at AG. It's worth about $100.00 in G. So, since I'm going by the unofficial rule that says half of the last known value = the value of the coin one grade lower, this coin is worth $50.00. It's a nice first 20 Cent coin, and I'm glad I waited to buy it because I got a whole $30.00 knocked off of it. Now that's a good bargain.

British Caribbean Territories - Eastern Group 1964 1 Cent!

Don't pay any attention to the name of the country- it's just the fancy and archaic way to say East Caribbean States. I got this coin at the flea market, of course, and for 10 cents less than it's numismatic value. That's right, a whole dime. Too bad it wasn't a silver one. This coin is worth $0.35, though if it had been marked for a dollar, I probably would have bought it. Well maybe not considering my opinion that QEII looks monkey-ish in this portrait.

1947 Turkish 50 Kurus!

My one and only silver Turkish coin and I got it for a steal. It's metal value is worth over 3 times what I bought it for. Sadly it is only worth metal value in this shape and if silver continues to drop, it may only be worth the $0.50 I bought it for. It's from the time before Turkey's economy was plagued with inflation and practically destroyed, but even then it was a small coin with not a lot of silver. It's not a lot of design either and I can't help but feel the coin was rushed or no one really cared. Anyway it's got a nice 7 in the date and it was an OK bargain.

1948 Guatemala 5 Centavos!

What's this? A silver coin from Guatemala? I thought it was a poor country! Well, it is and they haven't issued silver for circulation in a while. Like many countries today, their currency has declined over the years and this coin is worth $0.0064 USD in exchange value. Metal value is different, however, and this coin contains $0.92 of silver. Numismatic value is even better at $7.00. It's made of 72% silver as is stated on the coin. I like the color it has attained; slight rainbow but also just plain silver with a little darkness. I also like the design, but from what I've seen, the die work does vary. Glad I got a good one- I hope.

1910 British Penny!

Nothing really interesting at all here. Just that this coin was from the last year of Edward VII's reign. Not sure if it's because of that or because British coins just have high prices, but this coin is worth a nice $4.00 at best. I probably wouldn't have bought it for more than $3.00 and just by looking at it and knowing nothing of it's value, I would have guessed it to be worth closer to $1.00. It was quite the bargain, though, as I bought it for less than $1.00 ($0.25, $0.50 can't remember).

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.

1945 Indian Half Rupee!

Not bad for my second Indian coin. My first was also a half rupee, but a more modern and less valuable one. This coin is American Quarter-sized and .500 silver so from that I can say that it's exchange value was probably around 12 and 1/2 cents. This may be entirely inaccurate but it seems logical enough. I especially love the condition which I found out makes it worth $20.00. I only paid $15.00 so I'd call it a bargain.

Netherlands Antilles 1957 Cent!

What a beautiful cent! And in AU, too. It's from the Netherlands Antilles which isn't a country anymore, but when it was it made awesome coins. First off, they made silver coins from 10 cents to 1 Gulden until 1970. That means they kept on after the majority of the world stopped. It also features a very intricate-looking design which just pops right off the coin. It's worth about $2.50.