How Far Back Can We Go? Second Edition! Ended At 1492 Waiting On 1491

1 likuta from the Congo 1967

Here's what I forgot to post for 1968... (don't tell anyone)


And for 1967... an unconventional high-relief Peruvian coin:

Well... this irritating system of dating was done away with in the mid-80s, but the date 1966 is when this coin was first designed (Francisco Franco's portrait was replaced with a different one in that year - previous pesetas looked the same on the tails side). This date is fixed in time! The real date the coin was minted is in the little stars, which are updated every year as usual. Of course, this is heck for collectors: even I need a loupe to pick out the date on the smaller coins, and I have perfect vision. Furthermore, even a low level of wear will rub the small date right off, meaning a TPG low-ball registry could only go as far as maybe F before the coin became undateable, unless the lack of a date automatically makes it a PO-1 - a good example of why American standards shouldn't be imported everywhere!

It's amazing this lasted so long, but pesetas commemorating Espana '82 (Spain hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1982) were hard-dated 1980 while being produced from 1980 to 1982... leading to "the coin with three consecutive dates":

VENEZUELA 1967 1 bolivar; first year of nickel composition; size= 23mm; mintage = 180 mil. Bolivars are the bane of every foreign junk box or world odd-lot, they are so common. Design was essentially unchanged for close to a century.

Canada 1966 Silver Half Dollar

Ooh. I actually really wondered which of my many 1966-dated coins to post (for some reason, I seem to have a lot of favorites with that date). Using several would be cool (and yes, I do have a silver for that date - probably two actually but can't find the second).
IIRC, I'll get to the same many-favorites problem again with 1923; don't remember any other such dates, unfortunately (I'm pretty sure I have multiples for some pre-1800 year, but just can't remember which one).

EDIT:


2007 only, no?
I love these as well, and have one in my collection; in fact, I wanted to post it on this very thread, but forgot

Sweden, 1 kronor, 1966

A junk bin silver find, but only .400 fine. In 1969, they were replaced by copper-nickel clad copper kronors... however, unlike loosely clad American quarters, these show only a very thin stripe of copper along the middle of the edge. I didn't even notice this until I looked it up in Krause...

Also interesting is how low-purity silver often turns slightly greenish...