Lincoln Dollar Tribute - Copy What Is This? (Id: 2009 Liberia Clad Collector's Rounds)

The "COPY" is there to comply with the Hobby Protection Act and make them legal to produce, import or market in the U.S.. They closely resemble genuine US coins enough that the addition of "COPY" was deemed necessary.

They would have been produced and sold by one of the US-based mass-marketing mint corporations (think govmint.com and similar). They both claim to be "legal tender coins" of Liberia, which is why "Liberia" is there obliquely emblazoned on Lincoln's coat, and in the scroll of the coat of arms on the other coin (the coat of arms on the eagle's breast is Liberian coat of arms, too).

Of course, in 2009 Liberia was still mopping up after decades of civil war; during and after the war it had several rival claimants to being "the legitimate government", so would have been difficult for anyone to verify the "legal tender status" of this "coin". Which was, of course, precisely why they picked "Liberia" as their flag of convenience. they may even have been using a coinage-issuing authorization from the previous regime in Liberia, which was no longer in power in 2009. And of course the aforementioned civil war has destroyed the value of the Liberian dollar, which is now worth US$0.006, or just under half of a US cent.

Either way, they aren't official legal tender coins issued by the government of Liberia, whatever the coins may claim to be. So you won't find them in the world coin catalogues under "Liberia". Here's another, much more legitimate-looking coin issued by Liberia in 2009 commemorating Lincoln.

I finally found some listings for these. That's $20 Liberian money which is pennies in US. I see some have sold on ebay with a small mention that they are clad.

I paid $1 each as no one else would bid on them at the auction.

Thanks for all the interesting depth of the story.

Ok good @ppo. I'm glad you didn't pay $20 USD for these. At a buck a piece, that seems like a reasonable price.

I'm not so quick to write off the Liberian coins. They have minted Commemorative US "coins" for many years. Some are Copper/Nickel, some Brass and some are .999 or .925 silver. They also make gold ones as well. There are some nice values in the retail market for these. I saw many of them as graded by NGC. Liberian coins are generally marked "Liberia".

Here are just a few of mine. The Gettysburg is Copper/Nickel with a $5 denomination, the Lincoln is .999 silver in a $20 denomination and the Indian (copy) is 2 oz is .999 silver. The larger denominations tend to be silver and or gold. I'm pretty sure that the Indian is Liberian.

Liberia makes some quite beautiful designs and most are Proof or Proof like. I have several in my collection. Here are the three that I mentioned.