| Author |
 Replies: 10 / Views: 5,289 |
|
|
New Member
South Africa
2 Posts |
*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***
Hi
Some years ago (1997) I received some Euro Coins. These where actually not real Euros (as it was before the actual Euro Implementation) but prototypes of 5 Euro pieces which have been produced for demonstration purposes. In this case they are Danish 5 Euro prototypes.
The information I received with it is:
Thema: P.C. Hooft, Design: Willem Vis, Metal: Cupro/Nickel, Weight: 15.5 grams, Diameter: 33 millimetres, Quality: Circulation.
Are these Euro prototypes known in numismatic circles and do they have any numismatic value?
|
|
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
I show some 5 ECU pieces from 1993 (X30) and 5 Euro pieces from 2002 (XPn9 and XPn9a) but the sizes don't match those you have given. The 5 euro comes in goldine or silver and is 36 mm in diameter.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Germany
1238 Posts |
Quote:
Some years ago (1997) I received some Euro Coins. These where actually not real Euros (as it was before the actual Euro Implementation) but prototypes of 5 Euro pieces which have been produced for demonstration purposes. In this case they are Danish 5 Euro prototypes. Anything with a "face value" in euro and a date earlier than 1999 is probably not a coin. And the term "prototype" was probably chosen because it sounds better than "private pattern" or "medal". :) Years ago the Danish central bank presented possible "Danish obverse" designs (1 cent - 2 euro) but I don't think they were ever produced as metallic patterns. Here is a Dutch medal with a P. C. Hooft design, by the way: http://postzegels-munten.marktplaat...c-hooft.htmlChristian Edited by chrisild
12/15/2011 03:13 am
|
|
Valued Member
Finland
294 Posts |
Quote:
Are these Euro prototypes known in numismatic circles and do they have any numismatic value? I know there are still collectors out there who are interested in these "medals". Many private mints minted these before European Central Bank protected "euro" name for real currency. After this protection mints started to use terms like "test euros", "probes", "provas" etc. when minted fantasy coins for non eurozone countries and regions. There are also real coins with "EURO" word on it - like France 500 francs/75 euro NCLT coins from late 1990´s. Edited by Eurocoin
12/15/2011 03:24 am
|
|
New Member
 South Africa
2 Posts |
Thanks to all of you. I have received these coins 15 years ago as a customer gift when we changed a big corporate IT-System to Euro. I was told at that time that the coins had been produced as design suggestions for the new Euro.
regards
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
684 Posts |
That's interesting. Are the private mints contracted by countries? Stephen Album has a couple French territory euro essais for sale.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Germany
1238 Posts |
Difficult to draw a precise dividing line here. As eurocoin mentioned, some of those pieces were government issues; Belgium for example officially issued ECU denominated silver and gold coins in the 1990s. Don't know whether they were actually used by anybody as means of payment; probably not. ;) But they continued to be legal tender until the euro was "born" on 1 Jan 1999, and they could be redeemed until March (or April, dunno) 1999. France issued those dual denomination pieces (first ECU/francs, then euro/francs) for a while, until 1997. But in those cases only the value in FRF was relevant - the amount in ECU or euro was just an approximate value. There are quite a few Dutch pieces, such as the P. C. Hooft issue (see my previous post), which have never been legal tender - but as they were minted by the Royal Dutch Mint (KNM) and have its mintmark and mintmaster sign, quite a few collectors especially in NL found or find them interesting. In Germany many cities issued "local euros" which could be used locally for a couple of days (during some Euro Info Week for example). That ended in 1998 when, in preparation for the real euro money, it became illegal to make private or "semi-official" pieces with a euro denomination. Lots of Italian cities issued "euro" pieces which even looked similar to €2 coins. Mostly as promo material, and usually with an added "ecco l'euro" (look, the euro) inscription on the "map" side. Of course most of these were not issued as means of payment but as souvenirs or collectors items. And for a while even private medals that said "euro" were made. Don't think that any of these are much sought after, but there sure are a few specialized collectors. I don't actually collect those; the only "test" pieces that I bought is a set from Churriana (Málaga, Spain). In late September/early October 1998 they had a "euro en prueba" phase there, with euro and cent coins (made by the Royal Spanish Mint FNMT-RCM). Between 100,000 and 300,000 pieces per denomination were made. No thrilling designs - see http://www.angelfire.com/ga/garnata...cruzeuro.jpg and http://www.angelfire.com/ga/garnata...caraeuro.jpg - but those were actually in use. :) Christian |
|
Pillar of the Community
Netherlands
626 Posts |
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Netherlands
626 Posts |
|
|
New Member
United Kingdom
1 Posts |
When I was a kid, I was lucky enough to be given a prototype euro coin.
It's dated October 1997 and the only other inscription upon the coin is
1
Euro
De
La Rochelle
17-18 Octobre
1997
Clearly it's French in its origin but apart from this I know next to nothing about it, have found nothing about it online.
Having read through some of the comments here, I can tell you this was not a token nor a medal... I believe it to still be legal tender as you mentioned some are, I also believe collectors would be highly interested in this coin and I would happily agree on a finders fee if any of you could find a collector...
Also the reason I believe these things is because I can't find a single picture of this coin online, whereas some of these medal/token/specimens are plenty enough for there to be a lot of pictures of them. I also received it off of a member of the English gov't who has never given me anything that isn't worth something.
Thanks.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Germany
1238 Posts |
|
| |
Replies: 10 / Views: 5,289 |
|
Posted 12/15/2011 03:12 am
