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.

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.

¡Viva la Revolución!

One of my three coins from Cuba. Two are common, base metal coins and this one is 90% silver. It was made back when America and Cuba were allies after America "freed" them from Spain and the Cuban Peso and USD were made at par with each other. Does the "VEINTE" on the reverse ring a bell? It's close to the Starbucks size "VENTI" and both mean twenty. So this is a twenty centavo, or cent, coin. 1/5 dollars are more prevalent in Europe which, combined with tradition, is the reason for the denomination. This is still very evident in Europe with the Euro using 20 Cent coins and the Pound having 20 Pence coins rather than quarters. Tradition carries on in Cuba, despite the Communist takeover, and 20 Cent coins are still used. They are still made at par with the USD for accounting reasons, but in reality are worth less. This coin is worth about $9.00.

(3) 2013 U.S. Cent(s)!

That's right, three. And they all came in early April which means I got them a month earlier than the 2012 one I got last year, which was my first 2012 coin. They came right on time, too, as I just filled up my 50 coin roll of 2012 cents, all of which are UNC, one of which has a D mint mark. So now I can end my hoarding of 2012 cents and begin my hoarding of 2013 cents. I just hope I get a 2013-D earlier than the 2012-D. The above coins are worth just $0.01.

Zombie Penny Back from the Dead!

If memory serves this is my first foreign coin find from change this year. A lot later than last year, I know, but I did get three shiny 2013 Cents (to be posted Friday) earlier this month which shaves a month off of last year's time. Plus, it's a Canadian Cent, the coin that is officially supposed to be in recall mode! It's also one of the newer ones with the newest portrait of QEII, which I did not have before. It's non-magnetic meaning it's made of the same metals as current U.S. Cents are, copper-plated zinc. In this shape, even with it not being struck anymore, it is worth just $0.01. Or if you want to get really precise, $0.0097.

1962 Soviet 15 Kopecks!

 

Ah, Soviet Russia. The place where everything was opposite. I mean just look at the denomination on the coin! Now it's just Russia and everything is back to normal. This coin is from that backwards, up-side-down, crazy place and it seems to have picked up some dirt along the way. Other than that, though, it is in at least AU. It features a hammer and sickle over the world  and inside a wreath on the reverse and a space-age but plain design on the obverse. It's worth about $0.30.

1936 (1944) Ethiopia 1 Santeem!

My one and only Ethiopian coin. It was "Struck at Philadelphia, Birmingham and the Royal Mint, London between 1944 and 1975 with the date EE1936 frozen" according to NGC. With my luck, it's probably one years, but there's no way to tell so it doesn't really matter. It has a mintage of 20,000,000 making it somewhat common and as such it is worth relatively little at $0.20.

1942-A German Pfennig!

 

It's been a while since I posted a Nazi coin. This is another of the "ugly" zinc ones and surprisingly, it has very little corrosion. This was issued a few years into the war when Germany stopped making bronze, aluminum-bronze, copper-nickel, and silver coins in favor of the more cheap and readily available zinc and aluminum. It features the infamous swastika which was a symbol of peace and good luck before the Third Reich. Now it's a fierce fashion statement that says "I hate Jews!" and is commonly worn by hate groups around the world. It also features a fancy font which I can't remember the name of on the obverse and one of the 30 million German eagle designs on the reverse. It's worth about $0.20 in this condition.

1948 Netherlands 1 Cent!

A coin on a Monday! This one features the severed head of Queen Wilhelmina, or at least that's my interpretation of it. This coin was one of the last produced before Queen Juliana took the throne and if you ask me, it was a good move! I like the way the N and 1 look on the reverse. They're not something you see everyday, even back in those days. This coin, possibly because it looks creepy, is worth just $0.05. Well, it's either that or the fact that hundreds of millions were made.

1971-BP Hungary 20 Fillér!

Simple yet cool. Modern yet old school. Those are a few phrases I can think of to describe this coin. A simple design yet one that I find pleasing. Modern (on the obverse) yet old school (with the wheat, a symbol of farming, on the reverse). I also like how the color of the coin matches the color of the paper when it's dark enough out. It'd pretty much worthless in exchange value it was still spendable. Looks like it's just a filler in my collection. It's worth about $0.05.

British Caribbean Territories Eastern Group 1964 Cent!

Here's a nice coin. Too bad it features one of my least favorite portraits of the Queen. It was equal to a British Half Penny at the time it was made which explains why five of them makes a nickel-brass coin, like the British 3 Pence. It's a bit tarnished which is to be expected of these coins from more tropical areas of the world, but is otherwise in great condition. Too bad it's not the 1963 in this condition. It would be worth a whole dollar more than this coin, which is worth only $0.20.

Trivia Answers!

The answer was 18, people. Two people answered, both said 19. So I think I'll hold off on trivia for a while. Maybe two weeks, possibly more. In the mean time you can expect more coin posts!

1914-A German Mark!

Look at those biceps! Who couldn't love Germany with an eagle like that? Well, apparently lots of people. This coin was minted the same year The Great War, or WWI, started. It was also the year Germany suspended the Gold Standard to finance the war. This suspension caused the hyperinflation Germany was notorious for in the early 1920's. Then Germany stabilized, Hitler came into power, Germany became poor again, Germany re-stabilized, and now they use the Euro, though some want the Mark back. Back to the coin. It was minted in Berlin as can be seen from the A mint mark, or should I say mint marks. The eagle has a smaller eagle on it and on the more worn coins it can leave the unfamiliar mind wondering how many eagles are on other eagles. In Mint State like this coin, we can see that there are just two eagles. And now that I've use the word eagle way too many times, I'll finish by saying that this coin is worth about $18.00.

Also, sorry for the late post. I've been sick as of late and have mostly been on my phone which is almost impossible to post from.

1956-Mo Cincuenta Cenatvos!

Here's awesome half dollar. It's big and heavy like a coin should be and made of the beautifully inexpensive metal: bronze. Two of these coins put together made the also inexpensive Peso, which was only 10% silver and a tad bigger than this coin. I still wonder why they didn't reduce the size of the Peso or make it Copper-Nickel as both would have saved money, but the past is the past and they eventually did make it copper nickel. Just not before they made it the lowest purity of silver ever recorded in history. Anyway this coin is relatively cheap at $0.75 and has been demonetized so it's no longer legal tender.

MCB Trivia Answers!

Only two answers this past week and on an easy question. The answer was 1942, both got it right. I'll make this new question super easy and see what reactions it gets. Now, I command thee to vote!

1949 Irish Penny!

Mmmmm... a nice, meaty chicken! It makes me hunger even more for the chicken noodle soup I'm about to eat. Not at the time this posts, that is, but about 1 and 1/2 days before as this is being scheduled. OK, now that my is eaten, I can go on.

This coin was minted back when Ireland used the shilling and pound like the Brits, and their currencies were the traded 1:1. The only thing that made them different was the designs used on them. This coin has a chicken rather than Brittania on the reverse and the denomination written as 1ᵈ and pingin, which means penny. The obverse, rather than featuring the King, has the Irish harp, the word Ireland written in Irish, and the date. This coin is worth about $0.50.

 

 

Happy Easter Rising!

(Well, almost.)