Some comments on a few of your coins...
The Netherlands one with KOLONIE CURAÇAO is, as you might guess, from the Dutch colony of Curaçao in the West Indies, now part of the Netherlands Antilles. The large letter G is part of the denomination; the coin is a ¼ gulden, a one-year-type.
The British halfpenny with the ship: yes, the circular blob isn't supposed to be there. I suspect it's been attached to something, with glue or solder. I've seen sets of British coins glued to cardboard which were sold as souvenirs. If it's glue, a solvent like acetone should remove it. if it's a blob of metal, it's basically ruined as a collector coin.
As I posted over on the CU forum, your third ancient coin is a tetradrachm of Salonina.
The Spanish 1 peseta coins (the gold-coloured ones): the obvious, visible date is actuially the date the dies were authorised. The actual date these coins were minted is hidden inside the stars on either side of the word "UNA". You'll probably need a magnifying glass and good light to read them properly.
Indian diamond shaped coin, 1957: it's a 5 naya paisa ("5 new pice").
Your "mystery ancient from the time of Christ" is a late Roman piece. I can't quite make out the legend, but it looks like one of the "V" emperors - Valentinian I, Valens or Valentinian II. If so, then the coin dates from somewhere around 3350-400 AD - still ancient, but quite a bit later than the time of Christ.
Germany 5 mark 1905 - actually issued under the name of the German state of Bavaria. Under the German Empire (1873-1918), small change was issued in the name of "Germany" as a whole, while larger coins (2 marks and up) were issued in the name of the constituent kingdoms, duchies and principalities that were members of the empire.
"India 1919 1 cent" is actually from the Straits Settlements, a British colony in what is now Malaysia and Singapore.
Unknown foreign #1: Japan 10 sen, Year 16 (1941 AD).
Unknown foreign #2: doesn't look like any coin I'm familiar with. Some kind of token, amulet or medallion, most likely.
Unknown foreign #3: Japan 1 yen, Year 32 (1957 AD).
Unknown foreign #4: China (Taiwan) 1 chiao, Year 44 (1955 AD).
Unknown foreign #5: Japan 1 sen, Year 10 (1935 AD).
Unknown foreign #6: Japan 10 yen, Year 30 (1955 AD).
Japan dates it's coins from the year of the reigning emperor. China (Taiwan) dates its coins from the founding of the Republic in 1911.
If you're going to seriously collect world coins, the Krause "Standard Catalog of World Coins" is what you need. It's huge - one book the size of a phone book per century, but 20th century should cover just about everything you've got.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
Posted 02/02/2007 4:25 pm
