andyg

Thanks andyg! I found out the 1980, 1981 & 1982 Dollars are technically considered commemoratives and the whole group (1979-1982) was minted in Canada, but I haven't been able to find out anything about the designer of the "new" portrait or why this design was adopted for only these issues. It appears that the Arnold Machin (2nd portrait) was introduced in New Zealand in 1967 to coincide with the switch from pence/shilling/pound issues to the decimal issues, and that only the dollars featured this 79-82 break in it's use, when the Machin portrait was resumed in 1983 until ultimately being replaced by the Raphael Maklouf "3rd" portrait in 1986.

Here is the response from a New Zealander...

They were never intended for circulation in NZ, though they were legal tender and the earlier ones in particular were struck in sufficient numbers that they have not appreciated much and cheeky collectors and dealers (inc. yours truly) occasionally spend them to watch the reaction. The first "proper" circulating dollars in NZ were the aluminium-bronze ones in 1990. However ... the 1970 "Mt Cook/Aorangi" one was struck in too great numbers, and I understand that many were shipped off to the Cook Islands to circulate there (their crown-sized "doodle dollars" did circulate until their smaller issues came out, possibly because coins survived better than paper in the tropical climate). So that's a sort of intermediate-status/cross-nationality issue on its own.

 

The 1979-81 effigy was by James Berry, and wasn't all that successful. I don't know whether it was used as a tribute to him (he died in 1979) or what, but it wasn't transitional at all. The Machin effigy was used on dollar coins from 1967 to 1978 and again from 1982 to 85, and remained on the circulating coins throughout, with minor modifications in the early 80s when someone recut the dies in Canada

HTH

Andy

for the portrait see here,

http://www.ramint.gov.au/designs/obverse/gottwald.cfm

still working on the other questions

Which one is that?

 

 

The 1979-1981 New Zealand Dollars were minted with a portrait that was exclusive to those years and the reverse of the coin was the standard Coat of Arms, crowned with Silver Fern fronds surrounding it. I think these were transitional pieces, but I do believe they were issued as regular coinage

The fern leaf reverse was only used with that portrait in 1979. It has a mintage of 25,000 with 85,000 in proof. The 1980 had a fantail, 1981 Oak, 1982 Takahe.

Thanks for the pics! Looks like I'll need "#7" to make my set more complete. #4 is technically a commemorative and the missing circulation examples are the 1979-1981 New Zealand Dollar only, plus the "original" 1st protrait, which shows the Queen with bare shoulders (this was quickly abandoned for propriety's sake!). I'll post these, plus some of the pics I have for commemoratives, when I get the chance - I have 17 additional portraits.

Always thought the later NZ dollars were NCLT?

There is another so far unique portrait (not NZ) from a one year issue circulation coin....

A while ago on another forum - I put together this short list of circulation coinage portraits.....

Starting from top left,

1) UK, Australia, Bermuda, Caymen Islands, Cook Islands, East Caribbean States, Falkland Is, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, New Zealand

2) Canada

3) Canada

4) Canada (2002 50 Cent only)

5) UK, Australia, Belize, Bermuda, Cook Islands, Fiji, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, New Zealand, St. Helena & Ascension, Solomon Is, Tuvalu.

6) Caymen Islands, Jersey

7) Gibraltar

8) UK, Australia, Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Caymen Islands, Cook Islands, East Caribbean States, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Gambia, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, New Zealand, Rhodesia, St. Helena & Ascension, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu.

9) UK, Australia, Canada, Ceylon, New Zealand, Rhodesia, South Africa

10) British Honduras / Belize, British West Africa, East Africa, East Caribbean States, Fiji, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Jersey, Malaya, Mauritius, Seychelles

There is a portrait I missed (on a circulation coin) too...

Does anyone know why the lower value Belize FM coins circulated?

None of the others seem to have....

In my 4th edition Krause 1801-1900 (I know I ought to get a newer one!) these are not listed, that's not because they are rare but because Krause forgot to include them....

Going further back in time prior to the reorganisation of the database they were listed as KM#279, Duit, 1815H - Amsterdam Mint.

Oh right, yes, they are very easy to get your hands on but I'm not one to pay Royal Mint prices and so I only pick them out of circulation. Much more fun.

Not so easy as you might think, those from the mint are in BU not standard UNC.

The two types when shown side by side are quite different in finish.

Bloomin' elusive!

I have one of each in UNC (not BU)

I have to confess I did buy them though.

Also got hold of a 2009 Henry VIII Crown in UNC at the same time, up to present (as far as I know) these have all been in BU.

I was to happy to receive one of these in my change at the pub last night.

 

The Burns £2, Kew 50p and Guides 50p have also been struck and are in the system somewhere.....

Complete set of the currently circulating coins of Fiji, as can be seen the Third portrait of Elizabeth II is still used, Fiji also uses a very unique font on their coins as well, a nice little set IMO

umm, 1 and 2 cent have been discontinued,

5 - 50 cent revised in 2009 (5 cent slightly larger, 10, 20 and 50 cent reduced)

The 1 Dollar was supposed to be revised too, but I've not heard any more about this and as we're well into 2010 maybe it's been shelved.

Very hard to obtain coins with QEII's portrait from Ceylon so much so that this is the only coin I own from their unfortunately, nothing else to add at the mo

Only the 2 cents were ever issued (1955+1957) with Elizabeth II portrait on, the George VI 1951 coins were issued without date change for many years until independence.

Isle of Man,

Series 4 is Heraldry (1984-1987)

Series 5 is Technology (1988-1995) rather than industry. Ellan Vannin is the Manx name for the Isle of Man.

The 5p of 1994-1995 was modified to have a pair of golf clubs.

As in Jersey the Isle of Man still has £1 notes - £1 and £2 Isle of Man coins are quite hard to find in change.

The £5 does not circulate to the best of my knowledge - though I suppose it would be possible to spend one.

The 1998 without Triskeles issue was rather odd, it seems the first batch issued did not have the Triskeles, whilst the coins since did. 1p, 2p, 5p and £1 were issued with this 'error' - Krause also lists a 10p but I cannot confirm that it exists.

Commemoratives,

Christmas 50p have been issued for every year since 1980 (two in 2008)

TT 50p were issued 1981-1984, 1999, 2004, 2007 (two), 2009 and 2010.

A special 50p was issued in 1979 and 1980 to commemorate the millennium of the Tynwald (the Manx parliament),

and a 1994 issue commemorated the legislative building centenary.

Thanks , any ones in particular? I personally like the £1 series of the 80's, I hope to get the rest of these at some point, unfortunately I got a lot of these this time last year, I then stopped collecting coins about September 2009 & didn't start again until April/May this year, of which when I went back to the shop they had all been unfortunately sold.

 

Oddly enough for me Jersey is one of my least favourites, but that's only because they appear so often over here, with the exception of the £2 coin understandably & oddly enough the 2p coin, the rest are rather common. As I think I mentioned several times above Isle Of Man is my favourite of the crown dependencies if only because they refresh them quite often, however the current design has been in use since 2004/5, which I believe is the longest running series of the lot.

 

I hope to get the Isle Of Man ones up this weekend, I think there's at least five different series for here, although there could be more

Jersey,

I've found more Jersey £1 coins in the UK than I have on Jersey, they still use £1 notes, the coins are seldom seen. I've never found a Jersey £2 coin on the island though I'm told they are there. Guernsey and Isle of Man are similar.

Huh... the Mauritius 1, 2 and 5 cent coins are identical to Seychelles coins of the same era (not sure about the higher denominations as I don't have any of them) -- except of course for saying 'Mauritius' rather than 'Seychelles'. One of the charms of Commonwealth coinage is that the reverses differ from country to country, usually displaying something local. I can't think of another instance of this among Commonwealth issues.

Seychelles,

Prior to 1903 they were a dependency of Mauritius, from 1903 becoming a separate colony but using the Mauritius currency. From 1939, new 10, 25 cents and ½ and 1 Rupee were issued, but Mauritius 1,2 and 5 cents continued to be used. It was not until 1948 that the Seychelles issued 1,2 and 5 cents and when they did the continued with the Mauritius design. I believe the coins to have been interchangeable across both territories until independence.

Gibraltar....

Coins now produced by the Tower Mint (London), prior to 2004 it was by Pobjoy Mint.

The owner of the Tower mint is Raphael Maklouf who designed the 1985 portrait for the Royal Mint.

The portrait on the coins of Gibraltar is a sort of modernised version of the 1985 portrait....

There have also been some one off commemoratives in recent years, marketed by Westminster collections ltd.

Including a 2004 series of 50p for Battles, and a 2007 2p and £2 for the diamond wedding anniversary (Elizabeth + Phillip)

Tristan da Cunha....

Made for collectors by the Commonwealth mint. TDC uses the St Helena & Ascension Pound.

Lately we have coins also (following the same sizes) for Gough Island and Stoltenhoff Island both unihabited so quite why the penguins need coins is a little beyond me

Cook Islands....

Only the 1,2 and 5 Dollars are legal tender. All the older size denominations were withdrawn in 2006, when New Zealand reduced the size of it's coins. As you probably guessed they now use New Zealand coins, but the 2003 issued 1,2 and 5 Dollars remain.

The 2000 1 and 5 Cents never were circulation coins, being made specifically for collectors.

The latest set of coins again are specifically for collectors, the Cooks Island government get 10% of the profits....

Also - does anyone have / ever seen a 50 Cents 1987-92 with the fish, KM#36?

Have you ever done this before? Is this the safest option and are his contact details readily available?

As a first step you could try the contact the mint form here,

http://www.royalmint.com/ContactUs/full_details.aspx

After a few weeks you'll get a reply, they may ask for the coin to be sent to them to ascertain it's authenticity,

Another few weeks may go by, then you'll get it back again. (but best to make sure they know you want it back just in case!)

The few weeks mentioned may turn into a few months or so.....

My question exactly!!!!!!

 

I have tried contacting the royal mint but they are closed, will try again tomorrow. Perhaps somebody who has a piedfort might check their measurements just out of curiosity.

 

I have considered the piedfort option at great length, and have reached the conclusion that our coin does not meet the given criteria. Here, they have only been producing piedforts since 1982, i believe. These are to commemorate changes of design or introduction of new coins. I believe that the design changed prior to 1999 therefore this would not fit with our coin...or would it? Also piedforts are silver and described as double the weight.

Standard 20p weighs 5g, according to my old catalogue a piedfort weighs 10g.

Best thing to do with this is to send it to Joseph Payne, curator, Royal Mint archives.

He will return the coin, with a note as to what exactly it is. It usually takes several months to complete this process though...

looking at the picture,

I don't think it's a fake,

nor do I think it's been struck on a planchet intended for a foreign coin.

It could be a piedfort (does anyone have any specifications for these?), or it could be a mint error.

Ideally, to tell you what it is we need pictures.

There are such things as piedforts which the Royal Mint issues from time to time, they are the same as normal coins but usually twice as thick and struck in silver (rather than copper-nickel)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedfort

Also, there are forged 20p's about (I had one made of lead once), quite why anyone would go to the trouble of forging a 20p is beyond me, but it's something to be aware of.

Hi friends of world coins,

 

I am looking for the following coin:

450 years anniversary of the national university of San Marco in Peru.

The coin has been issued in 2001.

On the homepage of the National Bank of Peru I have found the publication of the legislation for the emission of this coin, but no picture.

http://www.bcrp.gob.pe/docs/Transparencia/...4-2001-BCRP.pdf

Can anybody in this forum help with a nice picture?

Thanks a lot in advance for your help.

There is a nice picture in Krause, KM#329.

Nice headlights on this one.

them's extra buffer stops!

I have a small, thin coin that has similar imagery to the Maria Theresa Thaler. The edges are worn in places, so I can't make out everything that is written.

 

On the front there is an image of a bust and it says. D. G. FRID AUG REX (something) & ELECTOR

 

On the back there is a coat of arms (very similar to the Thaler only the shield is round, not box-like) and it says . 1740 IN PROVINCIIS IVR SAXON PROVISOR & VICAR IVS.

 

I took a couple of photos but I was unable to get a good shot with my camera.

Sounds like a Saxony 1 Groschen with a portrait of Friedrich August II

Full legend should read - D. G. FRID AUG REX POL DUX SAX ARGENT ELECTOR

"By the grace of god Friedrich August, King of Poland, Duke of Saxony, (Silver?) Elector"

IN PROVINCIIS IVR SAXON PROVISOR & VICARIVS.

"Administrator in the section of Saxon Law and Vicar"