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.)



1892 British Penny!

Not in the best condition but it's got a nice effigy of Queen Victoria and it's from the 1800's. If this coin was in just a little bit better condition, it would be worth a few dollars more than what I got it for. In this shape, it's only worth $1.00 and I got it for half that. There's been a discussion on Numista, going on here and here but regarding the same thing, about coins only being worth what someone will pay for them. I definitely would not have bought this coin for $1.00 by itself, but with a few other coins thrown in and a discount, I got it. I doubt anyone would actually pay $1.00 for this and as such its value is ≤, less than or equal to, the $1.00 price. Beauty and price is in the eye of the beholder.

1961 South African Half Cent!

Ah, South Africa. From riches to ruins in only 50 years! They were rich enough to make a half cent in the 60's and now they are so poor that 10 of their cents is equal to one U.S. cent. Then again, they are in much better shape than most other African countries. At least they can still make denominations in fractions of their dollar. This coin was sadly made in the 30 Millions and is worth only $0.05 in this shape.

1936 Mexico 1 Centavo!

Here's a coin from a time when Mexico could actually produce 1 Cent coins. Now their lowest denomination is the 5 Cent coin which seems to be the new norm around the world. The U.S. may even become part of this trend. The reasons I bought it: #1 I didn't have one and #2 I love that eagle. Reminds me of the German ones with the wings all outstretched. Despite my love for its eagle, it is only worth $0.10.

Trivia Answers!

The question this week wasn't really a question at all. I asked you, the viewer, to sum up my "193?-M Mexican 5 Centavos!" post with a short comment posted on the newest post. I got 2 "OK"s and only one comment. Thanks to Coin of the Realm's author, Daniel Ptashny, for answering. Now go vote on the new question!

1853 Half Dime!

Originally known as the "Half Disme" and now made of nickel, the half dime has been around forever. This is a terrible example of one, but it only cost me $5 and I can trade it back in if I ever get a better one. I started coming up with stories as to why it is in the condition it's in and the best one I came up with goes something like this:

  It was a dark, unforgiving night on the soon to be explosive battlefield. The young soldier pulled up his lucky half dime and whispered "Give us victory." His wish would not come true. Suddenly, the screams of his comrades charging and the gunshots of the enemy that expected the attack became almost deafening. He joined in screaming and shooting until he himself was shot twice in the chest. He fell, was trampled by horses, and once the battle was over, he was left to rot.

 His body lay untouched for nearly 150 years until a little boy, armed with his new found love for digging on his parent's land, dug a deep hole. What he found would both scar and intrigue him for the rest of his life. It was a skeleton. His dad helped him dig further and they eventually uncovered some bullets, a gun, a not-so-shiny belt buckle and a half dime. In the hard times, these were perfect items to sell to collectors willing to pay top dollar for their conditions. So off to the pawn shop they went where the half dime was sold for $1.00, the gun for $30.00, the bullets and buckle for $14.99, and the skeleton for $22.00. The family was never hungry again. At least, not in that week.

So the half dime basically rotted in the guy's hand for 150 years until a little kid dug him up and sold it for $1.00 if you want the short version. The coin is probably only worth $5.00 in this shape but in true VG, it would be worth around $20.00.

Also, let me know what you think of my story and write your own if you're feeling adventurous!

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!

MCB Answers!

Well, one person answered the trivia this week with the correct answer which was Copper. All right, all right, no clicking links, I get it. I'll make this one harder but actually on the blog, rather than somewhere else. It's also going to be different from past week's/month's trivia. Be sure to answer!

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.

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.

1942-R Italian 20 Centesimi!

What's this? A post on Tuesday?! Why yes, indeed it is and a special post, too. This coin is from Italy before their currency became practically worthless. It still didn't compare to U.S. money but at least they could produce coins less than 1 Lire. It was produced during WWII hence the fasces on the reverse. It also explains the odd expressions on the faces. Now, why is this coin special? Well, King Victor Emmanuel III was a coin collector! (Read more about him here.) He had approximately 100,000 specimens dating back from the fall of Rome all the way to Italian Unification. He donated most of his collection to the Italian people on his abdication. The coins he took with him joined the rest after his death. I'd like to think this one was in his collection, but I highly doubt it. It is worth about $0.50.

MCB Trivia Answers!

Ooooh some variety. This week I got four answers, one being A. None and the rest being C. 200,000 which was the correct answer. Not much else to report except the fact that I got quite a few nice coins yesterday. Be sure to vote on the new trivia question.

1939 Japanese 1 Sen!

It took me a while to identify this coin at first as I couldn't seem to be able to find it right above the one with the volcano. I was able to find it here and more or less officially add it to my collection. It's another tiny aluminum coin but at least it's got some history and circulated in Japan during WWII. Rumor has it they were kept by Jap spies to give information to the homeland. Only joking, of course. Even though Japan was on the losing side of the war, they did not lose their awesome artistic abilities. They managed to keep some nice designs on their ever decreasing in value coins and bills, an even this coin is an example. It's in rough shape and worth about $0.05 but without the wear and tear it's a nice coin.

1962 Peruvian 5 Centavos!

Back in time to 1962, a time when silver was common in American change and silver coins were produced in the millions. However, this was not the case for Peru. They made silver coins earlier in their history, but by this time, their coins were brass. The lack of precious metals in their currency is made up for by the amazingly beautiful designs and the fact that most countries had stopped producing silver by this time. This coin comes in two varieties, curved and straight 9. I'm guessing mine is the curved but it doesn't really matter since both are worth $0.10.

MCBT Answers!

Last week's answer was All Of The Above! It's true, I got all of the above coins for what I consider a bargain. They're all nice coins that I didn't have before (excluding the nickel, of course) that I got for below their values. All four of you that answered got the correct answer and participation is down from the last trivia. So all of you that did not vote need to go and vote on the new trivia question or else you will never see the light of day again! Not really but you should seriously go vote!

1772 Mexican 1/2 Real! (Flea Market Finds #5)

This is my favorite of my flea market finds. It's 90.3% silver and was struck at the Mexico City mint which is still operating today! It features King Charles (Carolus) III and the Latin phrase "DEI GRATIA" or "BY THE GRACE OF GOD" which is still on British coins. Oddly enough, Charles advocated for a decline in the power of the Church and advancement in science during his lifetime. That's the kind of king I wouldn't mind living under.

 

Now, you can tell this coin is from Mexico City and isn't a full Real by simply knowing your Mexican Colonial Coins. Since I know relatively little, it took me a little detective work. I bought it marked as a Spanish Real but the Numista catalog said otherwise. The Spanish Real has no Mexico City mint mark and has the denomination marked as 1R. So I went to Mexico in the catalog and the Real had the right mint mark but still had that pesky denomination. I then started going down the list and after about ten seconds I found it. It's worth about $10.00 in this grade which is $3.00 over what I paid for it! Not my best deal but I am finally dipping into the world of 1700's colonial coins.

1954 Netherlands Antilles 1/4 Gulden! (Flea Market Finds #4)

This is my second favorite of my flea market finds. It's got a rather small mintage of 200,000 and is worth around $8.00 which is 8x what I paid for it. Yes, it's true that I paid only $1.00 for it which is less than the $2.11 melt value as well. One of the reasons I like this coin so much is because the Netherlands didn't produce silver coins for circulation from the time Juliana took the crown except the 1 and 2-1/2 Gulden and even those were only for a short time. The Netherlands Antilles, however, produced silver coins from 10 cents to 2-1/2 Gulden until 1970. Sure, they're only 64% silver but silver is silver. I also find the portrait of Juliana quite attractive and the denomination 1/4 G rather than 25 Cent a nice change from traditional Dutch coins.