Aluminum Coins ; Any Worthy Of Collecting ?

The French coins from WWII through the early 50s seem to wear more gracefully than most.

I have a bunch of aluminum coins in my world collection, many of which I am quite fond of. Like Steve posted, I LOVE the French colonial coins, especially from French Polynesia.

Not sure how well this is known. But in the early days, aluminum was more valuable than gold. Some African aluminum coins are very valuable.

I've read somewhere that Bulgarian aluminium coins from the 1920s are very rare and valuable because most of the mintage was melted for cutlery. I don't think I've ever actually seen any.

The oldest aluminium coin in my collection is, IIRC, a German 1 pfennig from 1917.

(I've seen somewhere - can't recall where now - a list of countries that made aluminium coins prior to 1940. [Excluding notgeld, presumably.] It wasn't a very long list - about a dozen or so different places, including, as I recall, one Mexican city.)


EDIT: so I've seen a Bulgarian aluminium 1 lev from 1923, and immediately bought it for 100 rubles (around $1.60 or so).

And I found the list, incidentally.

You can't do that here yet

Interesting "zombie thread" revival, but sure, I'll bite.

Most of my collection these days is pre-1825, which means no aluminum, but I think there are plenty of great collectible aluminum coins, if you like design, or history or both. I guess "corrosion" could be perceived as a problem for circulated examples (actually that dull gray patina is an aluminum oxide layer that protects the metal below it from further corrosion), but as @oriole pointed out (7+ years ago!), there's no issue with uncirculated or ligjhtly circulated coins that don't have that patina.
I'll post coins I bought as a teenager 50 or so years ago, none costing more than a dollar back then, and photographed after sitting 35 to 40 years in a 2x2.

First up, this Morocco coin with an intricate geometric design:

Interesting timing with this thread revival, as I had just finished photographing this Nepal 2 Paisa from 1968

More nice examples! I love that Bhutan coin.
(I think the collector who launched this thread either never knew what a high grade aluminum coin could look like, or was having a bad day )

If you prefer antelope to cats, how about these coins of French overseas territories mentioned in the original posts from 2016 (though no photos posted):

French West Africa:



French Somaliland (I guess it's called something else now):