Like Another Hole In Your...

Do you have a Greek coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Again those Canadian cents are trying to get my attention. I found another one yesterday oddly enough in the past month the four I found span four decades, 2006, 1997, 1985, and 1978. Still I will try to ignore them as much as possible.

Coin lots are generally full of junk coins meaning some are excellent but common while some are rare and damaged. For this coin from Greece someone insisted on turning it into a pendant.

While I'm not the biggest fan of 1800s coins I do know something about them. This one in particular is highly sought after in mint states. On average if undamaged and at Mint State 60 it would go for $1,000.00. This is the 1833-A which is rarer than the 1833 that is also hard to come by in high grades.

Look at the coin above you see why overtime they become rare. Some person thought, "Whoa never seen this must be rare let me nail a hole through it and keep it safely around my neck." You can see marks where the coin was held down to drill/nail also it started to warp. This damage drops coin value to nothing unless rare. The question becomes is this one rare enough.

Book value places a fine piece at about $50.00 while auction values hover around $80.00. Nothing compared to the 1845(o) Drachma that in fine condition goes for $1,100. At this point dropping the value by 90% seems appropriate. It is still silver.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Drachma / Greece
Year: 1833 A
Mintage: Not fully known, less than 1,125,000
Metal: Silver
Value: $5.00 in Damaged condition

So should you take that state quarter and turn it into a pendant? What if some future collector finds it and wants to kick you in the head?

Go for it. You can't play the "what if" game. I can only hope you do a little research in case you feel it might be rare but ultimately every damaged coin does raise the value for the rest that still float around.

Do you have a Greek coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Piastres

Do you have a Lebanese coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Three weeks into the new year and the three finds have all been Canadian cents of little interest. While it's still nice to find Canadian cents it gets a bit annoying that this coin is the only type I'm finding recently. So I'll keep up with my foreign lot.

The Piastre is usually equivalent to 1 dollar but in the case of Lebanon it is equivalent to 1 cent. To be more accurate it is 1/100 of a Lebanon Livre (Pound). Sure checking the current exchange rate and 1Lebanon Pound = 0.000665779 U.S. Dollars. This makes the Piastre = 0.00000665779 U.S. Dollars, yes quite grim.

This is why the last Lebanese Piastre were issued in 1980. They still are legal tender but for what I don't know.

As with most coins from Arabic countries everything is repeated in both English and Arabic. The date is where most people get confused. This is a 1969 coin not a 1979. A quick look at the conversion chart and you'll see what looks like a 7 is actually an Arabic 6.

In the late 1990s early 2000s I would get quite a few Piastres in my change I can only guess an influx of Middle Eastern visitors plus the phasing out of this coin in their country created an ideal opportunity. Since then it is rare to find one in my change even if they hold little value.

Still this one is in excellent condition for a forty year old, no offense.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 50 Piastres / Lebanon
Year: 1969
Mintage: 3,488,000
Metal: Nickel
Value: $0.75 in Unc

Do you have an Arabic coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Lightweight Alternative

Do you have a world coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

When the economy gets tough the coins get lighter. Sure you can do the old standard of making the coins smaller but that is a temporary solution at best. Nope you must do something drastic like change the metal composition or in some extremes abandon metal all together. Not having any legal plastic money from any country in my collection I have the second lightest thing.

Aluminum: Some nice and nerdy facts...

• Aluminum is the most abundant metal on Earth
• Aluminum is the 3rd most abundant element on Earth
• Aluminum is commonly found in mixtures and must be always be refined
• It is non-toxic
• Once in metal form it is easily recycled

Here is a nice one from Indonesia slightly larger than a standard U.S. quarter but less than half the weight.

This was back in 1955 when we were using silver the U.S. 25 cents weighing 6.25 grams each while this 25 Sen weighs 2.22 grams. Almost one third the weight on a coin slightly bigger. Currently Aluminum is about $0.65 per lb while the only other cheaper coin metal is Zinc at about $0.55 per lb. (Sorry for mixing English and S.I. units).

Why not everyone switch to Zinc? Well it is highly reactive and can be unhealthy.
So then why not Aluminum for all? Again it is highly reactive and bends easily.

By highly reactive I mean it will oxidize and bond with any other element very easily. Finding a WWII aluminum franc is easy but in perfect shape it's rare. Time is not good on most of these coins.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 25 Sen / Indonesia
Year: 1955
Mintage: 25,767,000
Metal: Aluminum
Value: $0.35 in Unc

Air tight containers are best for storing these coins, they tend to haze over when exposed to air for any length of time.

Do you have a world coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

They Never Roll Away

Do you have a square coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Why are coins always round? Well sometimes they're not. The theory behind round coins goes as follows:

• Some ancient coins are made from knife handles that were round.
• Smashing a gob of metal leads to a roundish shape.
• Cutting a round coin is easier than any other shape.
• Making a coin into a shape requires a rim or extra work.

Looking at this piece we see it is a nice diagonally aligned square with rounded corners it has typical coin alignment. Sure the shape is neato and the design is all shells and waves but this coin is more than it seems.

The design was originally for the Netherlands 5 Cents from 1913-1940. It was retired and then in 1943 a slightly smaller coin was needed for Curaçao and Surinam. WWII caused some odd coin problems this being one of them. I have little info on the Surinam or is it Suriname version so I assume it's from Curacao.

Historically this little country was ruled by the Kingdom of Netherlands and then Napoleon caused problems and Great Britain issued emergency Spanish money cut into bits.

On December 15, 2008 the islands that make up Curaçao were set to become a free and independent country but that has been postponed, again. It would be nice to see what they would choose for their own money.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 5 Cents / Curaçao (possibly Surinam)
Year: 1943
Mintage: 8,595,000
Metal: Copper-Nickel
Value: $1.25 in Fine

Do you have an odd shaped square coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Breaking Old News

Have you found these coins or something similar and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

This article went flashing through my Yahoo search today. In short it tells the story of a collector who released some valuable coins into the wild and they were never seen again.


I recall being on the PCGS forums when Scott Travers announced that he was doing this and all the speculation of what would happen. Travers did this to promote collecting from your change and numismatics in general. One NY television station actually followed him buying a pretzel and giving the coin (1914-D cent) to the completely unaware vendor.

The vendor was not originally from America and seemed mad at all the attention and I think never bothered checking his change. If they are anything like the vendors I run into they are annoyed with pennies so the fate of the cent may not have ended well.

Scott Travers(http://www.pocketchangelottery.com/) has several books and is full of enthusiasm for the numismatic way of life. That said the stunt was never going to find an end. Yes it did lead to others searching their change and finding other nearly identical types. Trust me when I say vendors where not the right choice for a fruitful recovery but I think the stunt worked.

Once while in a class with a good mixture of native and non-native New Yorkers I saw seven cents on the ground. These seven light brown coins were in the center of lecture hall and probably rolled out of some jacket pocket while the student dozed off. I was going to pick them up when decided to see how long they'd last. At least a hundred students are in and out everyday. Well as a week passed and only one coin went missing I decided to take them myself. None were special, I made sure a week earlier but still it's seven cents that could possibly be worth more. I get Travers' passion but the disgust of pennies by most makes it a tough battle.

Have you found these coins or something similar and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Il Papa

Do you have a Vatican coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

This week of the New Year has been dead for any finds so I'll sift through a small bag of coins I bought a while back that I wanted to post because they caught my eye. They were either odd or new to me or just in great shape. Again none are rare or unique but I like to share so for the slow times I'll post one of these.

Being one of the smallest countries in the world as well as the religious center of for a billion Roman Catholics most of their coins rarely makes it into change. Nearly every year brings a new design to Vatican City coins and the Pope is the supreme leader who approves every thing on this 0.17 sq. mi. (0.44 sq. km.) dot of land on Earth.

Each coin has two dates one the Roman date of the year of issue and the second is the year of rule of that particular Pope. In this coin pictured below you'll see:

MCMLXXXVII = 1987 A.D.
IX = The ninth year of rule by Pope John Paul II.

The reverse features The Annunciation which is when the angel Gabriel visited Mary to tell her she's going to be a mom and God is the father. I'm sure he used more tact.

Of course these are older coins and now the Vatican City uses euros. They are actually up to a third euro design. Before 2002 it was all about lire and centesimi both are currently obsolete. Amounts of older coins in existence is hard to say because I've never seen any reliable mentions of mintage figures or recycling of old money so for that I'm stuck.

While the scanner is picking up every micron of dust and dirt this coin looks better in hand and has lots of luster so I'll say it's extra-fine grade.

Type/Country: 100 Lire / Vatican City
Year: 1987/IX
Mintage: Unbeknownst
Metal: Stainless Steel
Value: $3.50 in UNC

Do you have a foreign coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.