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

This is my favorite of the set PCGS PR 66 cam 1954 Franklin half (should be a deep cam)

Austria, 20 groschen, 1954

After World War II, Austria broadly had two "types" of coins - the cheap, occupation ones from the 40s and 50s, and nicer ones once the nation got back on its feet around 1955 (Ã-sterreich ist frei!). Most coins were aluminum, and if they weren't aluminum, they were zinc... some were the exact size as German Third Reich-pfennigs, to get through a glut of undesirable unstruck planchets and even more undesirable struck swastika coins. Some denominations created during this "cheap" era were never seen again - for instance, the 2-schilling coin disappeared in 1952.

It's almost a similar story to the East German 20-pfennig coin, as both countries' economies were overshadowed by the West German Mark, but while the Austrian schilling was pegged to the DEM, it was at a ratio of 7 schilling to 1 mark, making this coin worth about 3 pfennig, rather than 20. Still, the design is nice... it gets the job done without looking too boring. So why did it vanish from Austrian pockets after its last issue in 1954? Well, the aluminum-bronze 1-schilling coin was introduced in 1959... and it was just half a millimeter larger, and weighed just 0.3 grams less. Clearly, the situation with two nearly-identical coins of different face value was untenable, and the 20-groschen coin (which did not have tradition on its side - the Austrian First Republic never bothered with it) got the boot.

A classic Aussie coin.



Steve

Costa Rica 2 Colones 1954. This coin first appeared as a cupro-nickel piece in 1948. It's about the size of a half dollar. The next issue was this one, in stainless steel. The metal then reverted to cupro-nickel until the final issue as a large coin in 1978. It reappeared in stainless steel as a much smaller coin in 1982. When I visited Costa Rica in 1985, both the old and new designs were in circulation.

2.50 Pesetas, a rather unusual face value. These coins are dated 1953, but the star date (here 1954) indicates actual minting year.



Minted for circulation only in the 1950's, the 2'50 pesetas coin had virtually disappeared from circulation by 1971, when the last issues were added to mint sets.

Common obverse with generic 1953 date:



Reverse:

It's after midnight, so onto 1953.



Steve

I see Triggersmob beat me to it with a 1953 British crown, but here's a Proof one - together with the other coins in The Royal Mint's Coronation Proof Set:

I need to take some more pictures, so I will have more variety. But for today here is mine.

1953 proof Lincoln Cent.