1991 France Franc (Coin Alignment)

 Happy Bastille Day

To celebrate the French National Day I will showcase the classic franc. This franc lasted 42 years in this form and was very popular before the euro came upon the scene. Although many countries issued "francs" people still associate the word with France, for obvious reasons.

REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE  O. Roty

LIBERTE·EGALITE·FRATERNITE  1 FRANC 1991

The lady on the front of the coin is the classic seed sower. She is dropping seeds at day break. Oscar Roty (O.Roty) was the original designer of the Sower back in the 1800s and that became an iconic symbol of France which is why it was selected for coins.

The back has a laurel branch which is symbolic of triumph and classic Greek stuff. To the right of 1991 is the cornucopia privy mark of the director of the mint. To the left of 1991 is dolphin privy mark of the engraver general, Rousseau.

To be clear mint marks are for locations and privy marks represent people.

Varieties exist that have normal coin alignment and abnormal medal alignment. Coin alignment means when the front of the coin is facing up and you turn it around left or right the back is upside down. Medal alignment would have both sides readable (facing up) when turn the coin left or right. I think medal alignment is slightly more scarce but not any real extra value, but I am not sure.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Franc / France
Year: 1991 (Coin Alignment)
Mintage: 54,988,000
Metal: 100% Nickel
Value: $0.10 in Very-Fine

Sidenote: Nightline repeated their slightly skewed story about penny hoarding.

Do you have a Franc 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.

2005 Mexico 10 Pesos

Have a Mexico coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment

Surprisingly there is a smaller amount of Mexican coins in the vaults than I thought I would own. In the news and on television Mexico is constantly being mentioned. I guessed I would have a huge amount instead I have found or got a only fifty one of them.

The front has ESTADOS UNIDOS MEXICANOS which essentially means UNITED  STATES of MEXICO. Yes they did this on purpose to be more like their neighbors. Typical Mexican symbol of an eagle with a snake on a cactus.

The reverse has an intricate Aztec carving, Not as cool as a Mayan calendar if you believe the misinterpretations. On the brass outer ring is $10 2005 DIEZ PESOS OM. The O over M is the mint mark for Mo = Mexico City the main branch for many years.

Exchange value is only about $0.75 not as bad as some people may joke.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 10 Pesos / Mexico
Year: 2005
Mintage: 64,635,000
Metal: Bi-Metallic: Copper-Nickel center, Brass ring
Value: $1.25 in Very-Fine

Do you have a Mexican 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.

7th Anniversary

It only seems like a year ago that I was posting my sixth year as a blogger, oh how time flies.

Copper or Wool Anniversary

I got the copper coins but the best thing I can say about wool is never use wool to clean coins. The picture below shows all my 2005 copper plated cents on a wool scarf.

Coined For Money Blog

The past year so saw some changes to ye olde blog. It is now a daily blog because I realized I have way too many coins sitting around. On the same note I found out I have thousands of coins with an average value of about $0.15 each. Kind of made me sad.

Some better news is that it took me six years to reach one million hits but I got over half a million in this past year alone. So thank you to all the new visitors.

Back to sad news. I had to get rid of embedded comments because the new Blogger comment system added reply and eliminated the quick view for comments that reach into the thousands. So in my popular posts it would take 30+ minutes to load the newest comments. I had to revert to the old comment system.

Also a mixture of happiness and sadness with my posts. I opened the "vaults" to showcase my past finds. Unfortunately I did this because the new finds have slowed down a lot.

Looking into the future

I hope to keep blogging and maybe add videos. More coin experiments would be nice and maybe another layout change. Aside from that I am open to suggestions but I am realistic, working, and social so not too complicated tips please.

                       I thank you all and keep those questions coming

1981 $100 Dollar Bill B-B

Have a hundred dollar note and want to know its value? Leave a comment

Despite this being almost thirty years old this note has gained nothing in value. I will now ignore all the fiat money talk and just go on. This note was made before watermarks, before security strips, and before multicolor printing.

Interesting things about this note:

• It was actually printed in October 1983 so it is just 28 years old.
• This is one of the first notes printed 100,000 sheets per run (a sheet contains 32 notes).
• Previous to this, notes were printed 40,000 sheets per run.  
• There is a 302 bank counter-stamp, probably placed when out of country.

Many times I get questions about 1980s notes from the younger collectors. Knowing that a 16 year old was born around 1996 it does not surprise me that they think this bill is old and valuable. Unfortunately even in choice crisp uncirculated condition it would only be about $140.00. So heavily circulated and pretty folded it only has face value. Hopefully if the new $100 bills ever circulate these may go up in value but it would be another 60 years before they really take off.

Here's the stats for this bill...
Type/Federal Bank: $100 Note / New York
Year: 1981
Printings: 60,800,000
Printed: October 1983
Run: 2nd of 19 from B03200001B - B06400000B
Value: $100.00 in VF(the one above is a lesser grade)

Do you have currency 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.

1972 Malta Cent

Have a Malta coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment

Not the delicious sweet non-alcoholic drink. The country of Malta in Europe, you know close to Italy. One of many places I would like to visit.

The coin is the size of quarter and has about five cents worth of copper. I do enjoy the symbols, a George cross, fish, and a wreath. Classic coin symbols and it works for this almost obsolete type.

I did not "true up" the background or coins. That just means nothing is aligned but I had a few minutes of sunlight before I left in the morning so that is as good as it gets. Having two of these makes getting one shot easier and I showed off the best sides. You may notice some verdigris but it is not too bad, yet.

Yet another coin with security lines through the denomination, I guess with such a large copper counterfeiting could possibly be a problem. 

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Cent / Malta
Year: 1972
Mintage: 5,650,000
Metal: Bronze
Value: $0.25 in Very-Fine

Do you have a Maltese 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.

1989 Malaysia 20 Sen

Have a Malaysian coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment

This is the Malaysia we all know and love, well at least it is the current Malaysia, I always preferred North Borneo but I am not a native or even a tourist. 

 

Look at the reverse with a basket of food and some utensils, I think it it known as the Sirih and Kapur container but that was a five second Google search so I may be wrong.

The obverse has BANK NEGARA MALAYSIA 19 20 89 SEN, which makes me wonder if anyway try to claim it was a 192,089 sen coin. Or maybe a 1920 89 sen coin?

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 20 Sen / Malaysia
Year: 1989
Mintage: 28,945,000
Metal: Copper-Nickel
Value: $0.15 in Extra-Fine

There seems to be slight doubling on the upper left portions of the 8, 9, and 2. I cannot confirm if it is true doubling but I just wanted to make note for my own future reference.

Do you have a Malaysia 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.