Countries Launching An Incomplete Currency

Here's a photo of the "Panama pill" that was the country's smallest denomination officially from 1904-1907, and functionally until 1935:



Although to be fair, the Panama Pill did not really circulate because it was pretty easy to lose. A much larger cupronickel coin was introduced in 1907 along with the Half Cent.

In the case of Panama, you've partly given the reason in your history: the tie to the US dollar. If they needed one cent coins, all they needed to do was import American ones. It would have been cheaper than getting the Americans to design, make and export Panamanian 1 centesimo coins.

There are many instances of such "economic dependencies" using coins from the dominant partner country instead of or alongside their own. Even today, many of the smaller Pacific Islands territories use coins of their larger neighbours, circulating alongside their own. Tuvalu and Kiribati use Australian coins; Cook Islands uses New Zealand coins.


Two issues to raise from this sentence.

First, I hate to break it to you, but the Russians invented decimal currency before you did, with the system of 100 kopeks to the ruble dating from 1704. Well, actually the Romans were first, with 100 sestertii to the aureus, but that doesn't really count.

Second, most countries that use decimal currency have a "true decimal" system, using the two factors of 10: 2 and 5 - thus, 1/2/5/10/20/50/100/200/500. This allows for complete interchangeability between every denomination of the next decimal place. The lack of a 2 cent coin is a North American peculiarity, caused mainly by the unusual dominance of the 25 cent coin: since 25 isn't divisible by 2, you can't hand out a whole number of 2 cent coins in exchange for a quarter.

I'm not sure if the Russian system was in fact deliberately decimal, or just a lucky coincidence of what the units came to. Didn't a ruble equal 100 kopeks even earlier than that?

Actually, a lot of places just ignore the 2 entirely and use 1/5/10/50 (Russia, modern Romania and Israel come to mind, though Russia and Israel both have a 200 coin - if only recently for the latter), some places (e.g. pre-euro France) use 1/5/10/20/50 (no 2 but including everything else), the traditional Russian system is 1/2/3/5/10/15/20/whatever (and it shows up in a lot of Eastern Bloc countries), some places have 20 and 25 at the same time, and some are just plain weird (1970s Romania had 5/15/25/100+).

Oh, and a few places had 2/5/10/etc with no 1 (okay, I can't think of any other examples, but the first Czechoslovakian coins are like that), a few had 1/2.5/5/10/25/50 (some with a Half Cent, some without), and Venezuela consistently kept introducing a 12.5 cent coin into their 1/5/10/25/50 system - most recently in 2007.
And Panama eventually ended up with a 1.25 cent coin, which is just silly.

@Sap, you are correct about Russia, but my point was that Russia was a relative outlier; when the US went decimal in 1792-94, that inspired France to decimalized the Franc after their revolution. After a major world power took on decimal coinage, it snowballed across the globe, accelerated by the general unrest and frequent revolutions of the period.

The US is perhaps a poor example, since we launched a half-cocked decimal system in 1793 with nothing but the cent and Half Cent, since we couldn't get it together to make silver in the first year, but there was a dire and pressing need for small change.

My original point however, is that as a general rule, a decimal coinage system is planned, rather than denominations arising organically as needed. It does seem strange therefore that a country would kick off such a system with gaping holes or without a baseline of a cent/mill denomination.

Japan is another example. Meiji set the country on the fast track to modernization when he assumed the throne in 1868. The old, cash based system was continued while his equipment was on order, but the new denominations launched in 1870, with 5, 10, 20 and 50 sen, and a 1 yen based on the Spanish dollar standard. No bronze coins were made until 1873, since the old cash coins were allowed to stay in circulation, I think with the 4 mon coins filling the role of the rin (mill) coin.

The Netherlands have had a few peculiar years, having coins of 1, 2 1/2, 5, 10, 25 cent and 1 and 2 1/2 gulden. Indeed, no 50 cent, no 1/2 cent and no 2 gulden. A good excuse is that there was a Second World War going on in the country at the time, though. Until 1940, 1/2 cents were issued.

Anyway, for some peculiar reason, The Netherlands has had the same with their gulden as Americans have with their dollar: using quarters, not having 2 cents, barely using 50 cent pieces (really, during my dozens of visits I NEVER have been given one in change) for the USA and nothing like it in The Netherlands. And where the Americans at least have a 2 dollar note, The Netherlands had a 2 1/2 gulden coin.

Oh, and on top of it all, Netherlands also had a 3 gulden coin for a short while (but that was hundred years earlier).

Any other favorites of mine when it comes to irregular denominations in a monetary system:

- British Maundy Money (1, 2, 3 and 4 pence pieces)
- Soviet kopecs (really, almost every possible denomination was present)
- Kyrgyz Som (1, 3, 5, 10 Som). Of course, at the end of the day it doesn't really matter if you have 1, 2 and 5 or 1, 3 and 5, in case of giving an amount of coins in change. But it's quite a nice differentiation from other currencies.

Also, going back to Panama as January mentioned, they did indeed issue a cent with an extra 1/4 tacked on:


(Google photo, although I do own a couple)

These were a single year, single purpose coin--intended specifically to buy small bags of rice/beans etc from grocery stores, which were priced "4 for 5 cents". Obviously, the coin was difficult to use and failed miserably. That's what happens when you can owe someone 3/4 of a cent in change when your country doesn't even have a Half Cent.

Apparently other countries that started out with a 2/5/10 cent system (without a 1 cent) included Bulgaria (1881, did not make a 1 cent until 20 years later) and Kazakhstan (1993, never made a 1 cent but in any case inflation soon made their cents worthless).

A 15 cent denomination is very common in the Eastern Bloc, and very rare outside of it. I've recently bought a 15 centimos 1953 from Paraguay; still looking for the Bahamas 15 cents (those things are darned uncommon, what with the Bahamas being a tiny country) - and I couldn't find any other 15 cent coin from outside (Russia and) the Eastern Bloc in the 20th century.
(There are some very rare examples from Italy in the 19th century.)