Question About Unusual Coinage Materials/Post Your Unusual Materials Coins!

China, Manchoukuo, Japanese puppet government 1945 Red Fiber

That Lava Medal is amazing, nice find.

Saxony, brown porcelain

1944-1945 HT OPA Red Point 1 Ration Token. It is made of vulcanized fiber (celluloid) and 16mm in size.

-OPA stands for Office of Price Administration
-Rationing was first started in 1942. Items that were rationed include canned goods, meats, sugar, coffee, tires, gas and more.
-The Office of Price Administration used OPA stamps, coins, and chits for rationing.
-OPA tokens (commonly called OPAs) were used for change for food.
-OPAs were used by retailers to give change back for food bought with ration stamps.
-Blue tokens were used for processed foods; red tokens for meats and fats.
-OPAs were first issued in 1944
-Stopped being issued in 1945
-Nobody has found a true reason for the letters on the OPA's. Theories include, they are random; demographics; and prevention of counterfeiting.
-Red letter combinations known. HC, HT, MM, MV, TH, TY, UC, UH, UT, UV, UX, UY, VC, VH, VT, VU, VX, VY, XC, XH, XT, XU, XV, XY, YC, YH, YT, YU, YV, YX.
-Blue letter combinations known. CC, CH, CT, CV, CX, HH, HU, HV, HX, HY, TC, TT, TU, TV, TX, UU, VV, WC, WH, WT, WU, WW, XX, YY
-The rarest is the red MV. The next rarest are the blue WH and then red MM and the blue CX and WC. Then blue WW and XX. The rest are fairly easy to find. Reds are a lot more common than blues.
-OPA tokens were used for rationing during World War II
-There are 30 different red tokens and 24 blue ones.
-Blue ones read: OPA Blue Point 1 (with two different letters)
-Red ones read: OPA Red Point 1 (with two different letters)

@nautilator,




Sure, will do but it may be awhile. It took about two years for the lava medal that I bought to come onto the market.

This isn't one of mine but it is something interesting that I came across recently. It's a German uranium medal and yes it is radioactive but it is native uranium so only slightly.

CCC: do you ever collect plated coins? Those seem to be really difficult due to it being hard to tell what they actually are. Some of the platings I've gotten (not all in hand yet) include brass-plated steel, gold-plated brass, silver-plated brass, and gold-plated zinc for example.

On the other hand, I've identified more woods than the last time when I tried making a list of them. So far I've figured out 12, many of which are extremely obscure, like a few Washington medals made of cherry wood. Here's a trade token that I'm pretty sure is palm wood.

@casual, what is the weight and diameter of your lava medal?

And do you know if the uranium medal is supposed to be pure or an alloy?

Uranium is chemically very reactive.

@nautilator,

Thanks for the list!

@oriole,

The lava medal is relatively large at about 160 grams and about 7cm to 8cm in diameter depending upon where you measure.

The Uranium medal is supposedly made of Torbernite (a uranium ore), Torbernite contains around .003% uranium. That's probably enough uranium to put its radioactivity on par with objects painted with radium paint from the early to mid 1900's and would only peak the meter on a Geiger counter on the most sensitive setting. If the medal were pure uranium a person in direct contact with it would most likely succumb to radiation poisoning in a matter of seconds without proper radiation shielding. Even modern nuclear reactors only run off of about 3% to 5% pure uranium.