Next year Germany will be the host of the FIFA World Cup aka football world championship, and many participating countries have issued or will issue coins on that occasion. But what if you don't know exactly how many hours we have until the first game starts on 9 June 2006?

Do not worry, Fiji comes to your rescue. The country just issued the world's very first "countdown" coin. The 10 dollar piece has a built-in timer, and a digital display that shows how many Stunden are left.

"Stunden"? Yes, the inscriptions are an English-German mix: One sides shows Queen Elizabeth and the text "Elizabeth II Fiji 2005", the other has the timer display above, then the word "Stunden" and "Offizieller Countdown". Below, it says "2006 FIFA World Cup Germany" with next year's World Cup logo, and (at the bottom) the face value.

Coin collectors in, errm, Fiji will be thrilled ;-)

Christian

And if the timer packs in before you get to March? REFUND!

This is it, by the way ...



Christian

A definate oddity, what's the issue price?

It is odd. I wonder about potential uses for this type of technology. Like coins/currency that have their value decline or increase over time - an inflation coin if you will.

Could be quite useful in many cases, yes :-) As for the issue price, sorry, no idea. Have seen the piece advertised here in Germany, and it costs about €30. Mintage is 50,000 - but I don't even know what the composition is. Cu-Ni? Guess that, if it was a silver piece, that would have been mentioned in the ad ...

Christian

St. Thomas & Prince also issued a similar coin in 2000, celebrating the new millenium. When the watch arrived to 0 then it began to count how many time had passed since then. I wonder what do you do when the battery finishes?

A-ha! So much for that Fiji FIFA piece being the world's very first "countdown" coin ... As for the battery, I suppose it will simply be dead after some time. That would not matter very much (to me) provided that the rest of the coin is nicely designed.

Christian

Am i not wrong in thinking spent batteries could spring a leak in time?

Then how good would your coin be?

The battery would probably last for at least some good 7 year span, but yes it's true that eventually the battery will die out and it will leak... which is definately not a brilliant idea... I doubt if the designers actually went that far to think of the consequences.

Which time zone was that issued for?

Heh :-) São Tomé e Principe happens to be in the same time zone as the UK, for example.

Christian

Actually, I think the main thought process by these designers was PROFIT.

That is the whole purpose of minting commemorative coins nowadays

At 7 years, it appears that the battery will last longer, and will spring a leak later than U.S. zinc cents begin to rot inside and out, so there you are.

Nice idea Art!

How about coins that have a built in grade-o-meter? It will tell you the exact grade of the coin as it wears down. No more need for TPGs.