Coins in aluminum - what countries issued them for circulation? Options

[gxseries]

Aluminum is a relatively cheap metal as well as a rather soft metal. However due to it's softness, it's rarely used for high denomination coins. This made me think, what countries actually mints or minted coins in aluminum? I know there are trial strikes minted in aluminum but let's see what people can come up with.

I know that China, Japan, Korea (previously) mints coins in aluminum.
China used to mint them (not too sure) for fen, Japan for 1 yen, South Korea previously for 1 won but currently copper plated aluminum.
Vietnam previously minted some during the Vietnamese war if I am not mistaken. Indonesia too at one stage.

Some other countries that come to mind is France, Italy, Israel, Finland, Romania, Hungry etc. I'm sure there are plenty of African coins too but I can never remember them off the top of my head.

Thought pictures would be nice too:




Proof aluminum looks pretty "cold"











And of course, who can forget this


North Korean coins - obviously shows their economy status.

Post your picture if you have any

The good news about aluminum coins is that they are VERY cheap!

[Fjord]

This made me think, what countries actually mints or minted coins in aluminum?

Chile's currently circulating 1 peso coin is made of aluminum. I'm there atm; I'll see if I can get one in change and post a picture. 1 peso is approximately 1/5 of a u.s. Cent.

Other coins I've seen that are made of aluminum:

Indonesia

Pakistan

Bangladesh

The Netherlands Antilles (Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire) the 1 cent coins.

Pictures to follow next week when I return to Los Estados Unidos.

[Tane]

This made me think, what countries actually mints or minted coins in aluminum?

With a bit of thinking I remember that these countries have made aluminium coins:
DDR
Albania
Poland
Romania
Yugoslavia
Czechoslovakia
Finland
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Ukraine
Moldova
Transnistria

Pictures? Arr...

I'd have hundreds of coins from the commie states and the USSR and CIS-countries to scan and upload to omnicoin. I'm just waiting to get some energy to do that

[SlavicScott]

Croatia: 1 lipa & 2 lipe




Slovenia: 10, 20 & 50 stotinov

[Bobette]

Poland had aluminum coins, they are really fun to hold!

[tabbs]

Cannot really list all that I have or know about so I'll just mention two "oddities" here. First, while pretty much all circulation coins in the GDR were aluminum pieces, there were two exceptions: The 5 Mark coin (well, OK, that was the highest denomination circ coin) but also the 20 Pfennig piece.

So they had 1 to 10 Pf (all aluminum), then 20 Pf (brass), and then 50 Pf to 2 M (alu again). Why that brass piece? Apparently because aluminum pieces would not work well in public payphones ...

Another interesting issue is the Romanian 500 lei coin commemorating the 1999 total solar eclipse - one of the few aluminum commems I have (hello banivechi ). Those 500 lei pieces are fairly thick and feel heavier than one would expect from an alu coin. Higher denominations of those pre-reform pieces (1000, 5000 lei) were not "pure" aluminum but Al97Mg3 coins.

Christian

[josemartins]

A few more than i can remember (other than the already mentioned)...:

Portugal
Brazil
Cape Verde
Mozambique
Angola
Guinea-Bissau
St. Thomas & Prince
Italy
Spain
Egypt
Argelia
Morocco
Tunisia
Botswana
Ethiopia
Yemen
Afghanistan
India
Nepal
Myanmar
Cambodia
Vietnam (and French Indochina)
Philippines
Argentina
Uruguay
Surinam
Cuba
Costa Rica
Belize
...................

Jose

[cladking]

I don't see Austria mentioned yet.


I like aluminum more all the time from a numismatic standpoint. The coins tend
to be very light and "throwaway". They are more like a consumer product than
a coin. Aluminum can take a very good strike and is easily stored if you're care-
ful but finding nice examples of most of these is very difficult. The coins virtually
evaporate in circulation and any that remain are often recalled and melted. They
don't survive in the ground or under bad storage conditions so attrition is very high.

[syzygy]

Here's a contribution from the very common Italia series...

[bill]

One early example is Greenland (okay its technically a token, but its was used for exchange in the Danish outpost as they had no coins):



Two other early examples (don't have my photos at easy hand at work) are British West (?) Africa and Durango (Mexico). I'll try to post these images in the next day or two.

Other examples that I already have on Omnicoin include:

French Polynesia:



German Democratic Republic (East Germany):



Italy (as mentioned):



Weimar Republic (Germany):



and a host of African nations of which West Africa is only one (and the following is an Essai, but it is the released design):

[UncleBobo]

This thread rules!

[bill]

A few more in date order.

Germany, 1 Pfennig, 1917



Poland, Lodz Ghetto, 5 Marks, 1943 (Jews were forced to convert their Polish currency to Lodz currency when moved into the Lodz Ghetto)



North Vietnam, 1 Dong, 1946 (the bust is that of Ho Chi Minh)



French Equitorial Africa, 1 Franc, 1948

[Sir Sisu]

FINLAND

[Tane]

If I remember correctly, that's made of Iron

[banivechi]

Until 31'th december 2006 were in circulation here in Romania 500, 1000 and 5000 lei made from that metal.
Strange situation: we had very cheap coins (aluminium) and very expensive banknotes (polymer) here... About banknotes, for me is still unclear if the tehnology is imported from Australia, or the notes are made there...

[henare]

i remember the only time i visited east berlin ... travelling through friedrichstrasse, you had to change DM30 to ostmarks ... i got a handful of aluminum coins and i thought "they just can't be serious . . . "

[Sir Sisu]

If I remember correctly, that's made of Iron

You do remember correctly. I don't know how I got to identifying that as aluminum.

[tabbs]

i remember the only time i visited east berlin ... travelling through friedrichstrasse, you had to change DM30 to ostmarks ... i got a handful of aluminum coins and i thought "they just can't be serious . . . "

Right; see what I wrote about the GDR coins above. Even stranger IMO were the subway ticket machines; from Western Europe I was used to machines with many buttons where you select the ticket type first, then put coins in a slot, and finally get a ticket and the change back. All we saw at that station were strange tin (?) boxes, so we asked somebody how those worked. Got a strange look back first, as if we were nuts. Turned out you just put some money in, like in a donation box, and would then grab a ticket. Guess that "sophisticated" ticket machines would not really work well with alu coins ...

Christian

[marianne]

Madagascar:




New Caledonia:

[bill]

I love the reverse on the New Caledonia 1 Franc.

Martin F. Kortjohn wrote an article, Aluminum Coins, that appeared in the 1962 Numismatist.

Not including tokens and notgeld, eight countries issued aluminum coins prior to World War II:

Nigeria and British West Africa 1907 1/10 penny

East Africa and Uganda 1907 1 Cent 1908 1/2 Cent

Mexico, State of Durango 1914 1 Centavo

Germany (Empire) 1916 1 Pfennig

Germany (Republic) 1919 50 Pfennig 1922 3 Marks 1923 200 Marks 1923 500 Marks 1935 50 Pfennigs

Romania 1921 25 bani 1921 50 bani

Greece 1922 10 lepta

Bulgaria 1923 1 leva 1923 2 leva

Paraguay 1938 50 centavos 1938 1 peso 1938 2 pesos


World War II saw countries turning to aluminum because of war needs for other metals. After the war, many others followed suit.