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!

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.

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

Croatia: 1 lipa & 2 lipe




Slovenia: 10, 20 & 50 stotinov

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

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

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

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.

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

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):

This thread rules!

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

FINLAND

If I remember correctly, that's made of Iron

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...

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 . . . "

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

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

Madagascar:




New Caledonia:

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.

Virtually all French colonies issued aluminium pieces.

Re: China - some of the current 1 jiao BoC issues are aluminium. the 1, 2, and 5 fen to my understand are slowly dissappearing from circ.

I wonder if any of the 1, 2, and 5 fen pieces can be found in unc. With years of heavy
searching I've found only about 25 pieces and most of them are later date.

I was never able to get a contact in China but with almost every other country in that
part of the world having a contact was no real advantage. The coins aren't available and
probably couldn't be found even if they were since there are few shops or dealers.

It's surprising any of these would circulate with their low face value.

cladking, would the Chinese aluminum coins that you are talking are like the ones here? http://www.pomexport.com/1images/C_CHI.htm

This dealer might seem to have a fair amount of them although I have never bought anything from him before.

Yes. These are the ones.

Later dates haven't presented much of a challenge for me but the
earlier ones are very elusive.

Keep in mind that this doesn't always mean they are scarce or rare
but so far it has proven to be a very good indication. The thing with
low value coins is that vast quantities can be set aside for very little
expenditure and in a few cases they were. Generally though these
hoards just don't remain hidden for decade after decade so at some
point you just have to figure they don't exist. In all probability these
early ones simply went into circulation and gradually wore away and
disappeared. It has happened with a lot of post-WWII coinage.

One of my favorite aluminum coins from Africa:



The Belgian Congo gained its independence in 1960 and was racked by civil war for the next five years. This aluminum 10 Franc coin was the first coin of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but it rarely circulated due to continuing economic and political unrest, inflation, etc. The legend reads, Justice, Peace, Labor. Eventually, most were melted. I guess this would be considered scarce, but its not an expensive piece. It is a good example of being more than a case of bad money driving out the good, in this case bad economic times drove out aluminum coins!

I've been keeping an eye out for this very coin, and yours is a lovely example. Your comments explain why they've been so hard to track down.

This is one of my favorites as well but I like a lot of the African coins.

Aluminum coins are pretty neat. A favorite of mine is the Czech Republic 50 haleru.

EDIT:


You can see some nicks. Aluminum sure is fragile.

Here is one I don't see in the list yet.

5 Francs 1961 from Mali, with a rather sweet hippo



Regards,

Jos

Burundi also has a 1 franc in aluminium.
Cyprus has a 1 Mil - KM 38
Denmark has the 2 and 5 Ore - KM 833 & 834
Luxemburg has a 25 centimes - KM 45a
Malta has the 2, 3 & 5 Mils - KM 5, 6 & 7
Nicaragua has the 5, 10 and 25 Centavos (some FAO editions)
Rwanda has the 1/2, 1 & 2 Francs - KM 8, 9 & 10
Turkey has some too

That's all I can come up with.


What country was the first to use aluminium? It seems to be post-WW2, or am I way off?

Regards,

Jos

I guess Argelia will be Algeria

Regards,

Jos

Don't know which country, but aluminum medals have been around since the late 19th century. Various countries used aluminum coins during WW1, so roughly 100 years ago. But I think most alu coins are more recent issues ...

Christian

am i wrong or is it algerije spelled in spanish

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argelia

That IS a good question. I don't know! US did have some trial coins minted in aluminium although I am not too sure if other world minted aluminium. Now let's not forget that some 300 years ago, aluminum was so expensive that aluminium jewellery at one stage is more rare than gold jewellery! (it maybe still is "rarer"! )

The only thing I know is that Japan minted aluminum coins during WWII so that might push the date earlier.

Btw, Banivechi has sent me a batch of super hot aluminium coins and I will be posting when I have the time. Interestingly in two of the Romanian coins, they are SUPER THICK - over 4mm!!!

Edit: Appearently Romania had it as early on 1921 (makes me wonder if anyone knows any coins minted any earlier in aluminum)

See post #12. So we're at 1916-17 now ...

Christian

1916 it is

I thought it was a trial strike, but it no, it wasn't

Can anyone do better?

Regards,

Jos

Obviously we are all blind bats - bill made a great post in listing a great number of aluminium coins in post #20 and we just missed it Must be because it's at the end of page 1

Bill nailed it down to "Nigeria and British West Africa 1907 1/10 penny"

Thanks bill

Maybe we should've started a new thread for the oldest one. That's what you get when you go a tiny bit off-topic.

Would there be any in the 19th century?

The search is on!

Regards,

Jos

Either because it was at the bottom of the page, or because it had no images. I'm not a bat!
So this year could actually be the 100th aniversary of the first aluminum coin! Don't know of any 19c pieces. Medals and tokens, yes. Coins, ummm ...

Christian

There are pattern coins in the 19th century, but 1907 is the first circulating coin.

That reminds me. I've got a couple of coins from New Caledonia that were aluminum, from just after WWII, if I remember correctly. I'm not sure where I even managed to pick those up from. Now I've got to go dig them out and admire them again.

My oldest aluminum coin is a German one: 1 Pf. 1917. Then comes Romanian set 25 an 50 bani, after that is a Greek 10 Lepta 1922 and Bulgarian Lev 1925, Third Reich 50 Reichspfennig 1935 and 1940-44 - maybe a result of interdiction for Germany to refine Nickel in large quantities (?). After WWII aluminum will be the metal for cheap coins all over the world.

Before this thread vanishes behind everyone's mind, this is a batch of aluminum coins that Banivechi has sent me. In my opinion, Romanian and Hungarian aluminum are pretty hot!



Will be posting the closeup soon. Sorry banivechi - I was silly enough to misplace my memory card

Here's another country for the list of those who have produced aluminum coins: Mexico. In this case, a 1914 1 Centavo piece from the State of Durango. This was during the Mexican Revolution.

I've had this in my collection for twenty years or so -- hadn't looked at it for quite some time, then saw this topic. I'd be interested in knowing more about this issue, e.g., was this the only year for this coin? Did any other Mexican state produce aluminum coins?


[attachmentid=2349]

According to my catalog, Durango only issued coins dated 1914. And no, I did not see any other aluminum pieces listed there; most are copper, silver and brass coins. Ah, wait ... Toluca 5 centavos "gray cardboard".

Christian

Nobody seem to list down a 5 cents coin from Singapore. It is minted as a FAO coin in 1970s and circulated in Singapore. It feature a white promfret fish. That's the only aluminum coin that Singapore had minted.

Any pics, see?

See323, that is definately an interesting coin. I never saw it before. If I am not mistaken, coins around that time were minted in ni-cupro. Would you have any idea why is that particular coin only minted in aluminum, as well as in a 5 cent denomination? Very unusual I must say. Thanks for your picture!

This is a 1971 coin minted under F.A.O ( Food Agriculture Organization ). I think during that time, Singapore participated in increasing food production and more food from the sea. The mintage is 3,049,000. It is larger than than the Singapore 10 cent coin.