tabbs

Seems that the coin will be issued in the second half of October ... http://www.zwei-euro.com/zwei-euro/finnlan...twurf-gross.jpg Christian

Could well be that Mathias was partly Romanian, and I suppose anyway that for him being king and ruler of a large empire was more important than the question of nationality. He even ruled over parts of what today is Germany. I remember that, on a trip to Budapest, we learned about a Mathias monument in Buda that is supposed to be fairly authentic, and I was quite surprised to hear that pretty much the same monument can be found in a town in Saxony. Good luck with your coin "hunting" in Cluj! :-) Christian

This 2 Mariengroschen coin arrived here today ... ... except it's too old for me. Actually I bought it for a friend who collects Wild Man stuff. Christian

Wow, very nice acquisitions :-) The two 500 forint coins (King Matthew) look just great! What is interesting, by the way, is that what is depicted on the coins spans across various countries nowadays. The statue of the king on a horse is in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The inscription on the monument used to say "Matthew King of Hungary" but now it's only "King Matthew" - just like on the coin ... http://harmen.de/ungarn/klausenburg/kla18.jpg The side with the face value of the second coin is a little ho-hum, but the other side is gorgeous. The upper veduta shows Ofen or Buda (now the right bank part of central Budapest), the one below shows Vienna that Matthew conquered and where he resided during his last years ... That 1000 forint coin is interesting because of the Parliament Building "silhouette". Other than that, well. (Still much better than your current avatar and title though ) Christian

Got mail from Minnesota today Wow, that was really nice, Tiff! Some US coins, between 0 and 70 years old, a German Reich piece, and a neat US Mint token Thanks a lot! Christian

The ring, with the value and country name, is silver (Ag900). The pill in the middle is pure titanium. A similar one was issued the year before, featuring a microchip, a map, and "telecommunication" devices. The 2001 coin: http://www.muenze-oesterreich.at/e/mobilitaet.html The 2000 coin: http://www.muenze-oesterreich.at/e/millennium.html (English language version; click on the coins to get further info.) Interesting pieces indeed. What is also neat is that you can consider the collection complete if you have those two - or you may say that the niobium pieces continue the series :-) Christian

Just got the Finnish €5 Athletics World Championship coin. Nice ... http://www.honscha.de/bilder/5fi05g.jpg (not my picture) ... except that in this case I would have put the twelve European stars on the ring of the side featuring the runners legs. Simply because with such bimetallic pieces I prefer designs that in some way take the two different "color zones" into account. Other than that, a fine piece. Christian

It's here, it's here Thank you, Erik, for that coin! When I saw the very first images of the design, I was admittedly not awfully overwhelmed - but this piece is a very good example of how the actual piece looks much better than the design pictures. A magnifying glass, or the images you posted earlier, can also help discover all those details Christian

Aaaah Will certainly do so ... Thank you! Christian

You are not the only one ;-) Admittedly I would have expected a different design for that theme. But visualizing the occasion is difficult ... Anyway, the piece itself looks cool! Oh, and I posted the two links (URLs only, no embedded pics) to a German forum. Hope that is OK with you - in case you get too much traffic coming from emuenzen.de, you know who to blame Christian

Ha, je moet Nederlands leren :-) Actually we already know what the lady says ... Celebrate 60 years of peace and freedom with the new Vredes Vijfje (Peace Fiver). With that coin you can pay in all of the Netherlands (that is the subtle hint about such collector coins being legal tender in the issuing member state only ) or you can of course collect it. Go to the post office, pay 5 euro for 5 euro and get the Vredes Vijfje in a free card (folder). More info at www.herdenkingsmunt.nl And the rest is about the slightly more expensive €10 gold coin, hehe. Erik, I would of course not mind getting the V.V. in that coin card, hint hint ... Christian

Have not seen that yet, but then again we only get one Dutch channel here (cable, Düsseldorf) anyway. By the way, will that coin not be available "loose" at all? Those coin cards sure are nice, but I think it is odd to emphasize that these are legal tender and can be used for regular payments if the card is actually the only way to get them ... Christian

One more day ... Here is a short video that presents the new coin: http://nl.knm.nl/domains/knm/content/animatic_99.999.mpg Christian

One more week, eh? Christian

Don't know the Gigante, but it seems that €30 is the price of the 2003 catalog with CD-ROM. The 2006 catalog (print only) is €17. http://www.gigante.it/cataloghi/italiane/indice.htm Problem is, the publishing house apparently ships to addresses in Italy only: "Le spedizioni saranno effettuate (...) unicamente in Italia." So you will probably have to order it from a bookstore. By the way, they have a forum too http://www.amici.gigante.it/ But I do not know whether it would help to ask there ... Christian

It is a lot of luck indeed, but San Marino does seem to be quite reliable once you are on their mailing list. With the Vatican you never know - one may get an order form for two coins, order both and still get only one ... Christian

Only vaguely related but ... this technique of "printing" 3D images of coins on paper or cardboard is also used by some mints for presentation purposes. Here are two picture of a Czech 200 KC coin issued to mark the introduction of the euro cash (not in CZ but in Euroland), or rather pictures of the card that accompanied the piece. The image of the coin is silverish with a somewhat flat but still nice relief: Christian

Indeed. Problem with the coins from the Vatican (and also San Marino) is that the mintage cannot simply be upped but is limited by the "thresholds" laid out in the monetary agreements. That is why the Sede Vacante set has a mintage of 60,000 and the €5 issue is even limited to 13,440 pieces. By the way, the drafts of the eight-coin set depicted on the UFN folders were even more cluttered :-) The €1 and €2 coins had the "Città del Vaticano" inscription twice, one time on the outer ring and one time on the inner "pill". Seems that got fixed ... Christian

Hmm, I thought we had some, but maybe they were in the old forum only. Anyway, the designs are IMO nothing to write home about: http://www.bnro.ro/Ro/Ins/ (Small pictures, I know. But you get an idea ...) Christian

RIP, numismatic content of this thread. If you want to continue your eurobashing, you may want to take it to a more appropriate area. Christian

Very nice images - as usual One side note: If, on some Wikipedia page, you follow any of the language links on the left, you are taken to the corresponding article in that other language. Et voilà ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_V%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor Christian

This is the 50 fr piece ... was too lazy to scan the other side :-) which is the same as that of the 10 and 20 fr coins. Saarland's coins had the same specifications (composition, size, denomination ...) as the corresponding French coins of those years. And when Saarland joined the Fed. Rep. in 1957, Germany first planned a commem on that occasion. For diplomatic reasons ;-) the coin was not made, though. In 2007, however, a 10 euro coin will commemorate the 50th anniversary of Saarland's becoming a state of the Federal Republic. Christian

Yes, it does look attractive. Too bad that San Marino will most probably not issue the piece "raw". These special €2 coins were initially supposed to be circulating commems. But if that coin will be available in some folder/blister pack (at 12 euro or so) only, it won't show up in change ... Christian

The Vatican has just issued several "Sede Vacante" coins: a circulation (hoho) coin set, and a silver €5 collector coin. Note, however, that many dealers and collectors will not get theirs until September ... if they get any at all. Here is an image of the set: http://www.zwei-euro.com/zwei-euro/vatikan...ede-muenzen.jpg And this shows the €5 piece: http://www.vatican.va/vatican_city_state/s..._2005/5euro.gif Later this year, San Marino will issue another €2 commem, dedicated to the World Year of Physics (see http://www.wyp2005.org/). This is the coin ... http://www.2-euro.net/Daten/News/sm05_entwurf.jpg http://www.zwei-euro.com/zwei-euro/sanmari...twurf-gross.jpg ... or rather the design. The actual piece will probably be issued in November/December. And again, it is very unlikely that it will ever show up in circulation. Christian

Neat! I have never seen such tokens except in a local history museum. Our tickets around here just have chips (the plastic cards) and holograms (the paper tickets) ... Christian