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 Replies: 16 / Views: 2,557 |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5239 Posts |
This may seem a bit crazy, but has anybody else given any thought to the concept of a "supertype" coin collection? By "supertype", I mean a coin with a distinct fabric (weight, size, composition), without regard to the design or even the country of issue.
Thus, in the US, all the 5 cent cupronickel coins would be of one "supertype", and to give another example, the large penny that was used by the UK from 1860-1967, along with the ones used in South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and the British East Caribbean Territories would be another.
I am not entirely sure where this is leading to, but there is much less variety when one looks at it this way, and I thought that it might be interesting to find out how many coins are interchangeable if you ignore the designs.
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Rest in Peace
United States
7075 Posts |
That's a really interesting idea. My mind immediately went to silver dollars -- how many world coins would match the size and weight of a Morgan dollar? Might make a good thread -- easier than hunting them down and cheaper than buying them all.  Well, now I have something to think about ..... |
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
12477 Posts |
That's an interesting idea (and would be a huge set ). I'm not a world coin expert but, it may be more difficult finding coins that are the same, especially if you included specific compositions (like different purities of silver and gold and varying CuNi alloys for example). In Memory of Crazyb0 12-26-1951 to 7-27-2020
In Memory of Tootallious 3-31-1964 to 4-15-2020
In Memory of T-BOP 10-12-1949 to 1-19-2024
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
5239 Posts |
Some years ago I had started to classify coins by supertype, but I ran out of steam. @Buddy, the Cuban silver pesos match the Morgan dollars, that much I do know. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1911 Posts |
I was kind of doing this with my world crown-sized silver coins. A very vast way of looking at things.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
570 Posts |
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Valued Member
United States
330 Posts |
I'm currently collecting by composition, mainly non-metal but keeping an eye out for unique and unusual metal compositions, alloys, etc. A local dealer told me that he once knew someone that was doing that, though that particular person is long gone. I'm finding that the going is slow as nobody really organizes money that way.
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Pillar of the Community
Sweden
1078 Posts |
I have been collecting this particular 'type' coins for quite some time, some 'types' I have are
LMU standard silver ½, 1, 2 and 5 Currency Unit coins exist in many different currencies, namely in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece, Venezuela, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and Hungary from the top of my head some denomionations did not exist for some countries, some had a small silver 20 Subunit piece.
The 5 CU's are crown sized, so add that.
Furthermore, some countries used similar bronze coins of 1, 2, 5 and 10 Subunits, most noticeably France but also Italy and Spain.
The 10 and 20 Franc/CU were also a widely 'supertype'.
But for the largest supertype, regardless of denomination and disregarding exact fineness a bit, the winner piece has to be a 2.5 gram, 18 mm diameter silver piece. Some call it a dime, some call it halb frank, demi franc, cinquanta centesimi, diez centavos and a lot more.
I find that this 'supertype' is much more common than crown coins since they were small enough to be minted well into the 20th century.
Some 'less known' users of this type are:
Honduras, 20 Centavos up to 1950's
Portugal, 10 Centavos 1910's
Argentina, 10 Centavos
El Salvador, 25 Centavos 1953
Philippines. 10 Centimos late 1800's
Haiti, 10 Centimes late 1800's
Ecuador, 1 Decimo late 1880's & 50 Centavos up to 1930
Cuba 10 Centavos in use up til 1960's
Dominican Republic 10 Centavos
Panama 1 Decimo
Colombia 10 Centavos up to 1950's
And this is stricly 2.5 grams of various finenesses. Canadian 10 Cents and 1 Real coins are therefore not included.
This type can therefore quickly get diverse, and still some coins are descendents from these, but with various compositions and weights.
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Pillar of the Community
Norway
1358 Posts |
The Scandinavian countries entered a 'supertype' agreement in 1874 when the Kroner came into existence. They had agreements on how many kroner equaled one kilogram of gold. The first kroner coins are therefore, when it comes to composition and weight, completely interchangeable (or at least: should be). A Danish 2 Kroner from 1875 is equally heavy and contains equally much silver as a 2 kroner from Sweden: both are 15 grams of .800 silver. Of course, things got a bit different when silver and gold were abandoned, but you still see that the original three kroner denominations take inspiration from each other when it comes to money.
Edited by UltraRant
07/09/2017 08:04 am
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Pillar of the Community
Sweden
1078 Posts |
Also, I want to say that the specifications of this 2.5 gram, Ø18mm coin type are much less generous than that of the crown type. It has so many variations that it's more of a range of which the type is. I'm talking about differences primarily in weight, the crowns of Europe (25gr) were different from those of the Americas (26.7gr). Canadian Dollars and silver Rubles are even smaller both in weight and diameter. English empire crowns, from where the name is derived, are larger than any other crown I can think of. And then comes the original Spanish Empire 8 Reales which at the times couldn't have a consistent diameter.
The British Empire Penny is however much more on point. I'd also like to nominate old Florins, Shillings and Sixpences that still live on in Australia but are very common anywhere the British and subsequently Aussies and Kiwis have been.
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Pillar of the Community
2087 Posts |
This is a complex topic. the definition of suuper type when looked at with a Historical approach would give a slightly different perspective. Take for example: Shilling/Schilling these coins would trace back to Testones.
Crowns/Silver dollars/ Thalers/8 reales trace back to being a Silver equivalent of a gold florin/ Zecchino/ Ducat
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Pillar of the Community
Sweden
1078 Posts |
Naturally, some coin specifications can be crazily old, and I think what I don't think a lot about is indeed age, since my interest and knowledge might be wide for modern world coins but as soon as we start to delve into the 18th century and beyond I'm lost. Of course it's easier to make more precise coins these days!This 'supertype' type doesn't have a proper definition anyway from what I know, but I do happen to be a bit of a number freak and like to be very precise  |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
How about something like different element type set? Or different alloy silver set and so forth.
My partial coin collection http://www.omnicoin.com/collection/gxseriesMy numismatics articles and collection: http://www.gxseries.com/numis/numis_index.htmRegularly updated at least once a month. |
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Valued Member
Ireland
82 Posts |
Quote:
Ten dimes totaled 25 grams of .900 silver.
Four quarters totaled 25 grams of .900 silver.
Two half dollars totaled 25 grams of .900 silver.
But one dollar had 26.73 grams of .900 silver, giving the bearer an extra 1/20th of a troy ounce of silver. This is very interesting and kind of makes sense#I wonder if everyone knew that? When I read the OP above I did think/agree with the old british 1p Edited by 2taol
07/12/2017 6:34 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
9395 Posts |
Quote:
This is very interesting and kind of makes sense#I wonder if everyone knew that?
Those are the specs after the (metric) reform of 1873/4. At the beginning, the weights of the dollars, half dollars, quarters, etc. were proportional to their face value. In 1853, the weights of the coins less than the dollar were reduced (arrows), and then made metric in 1874 (more arrows). |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12477 Posts |
Wow, I'm really liking the comments here and I feel like I'm learning a lot (maybe too much) at once. Please keep the discussion going! In Memory of Crazyb0 12-26-1951 to 7-27-2020
In Memory of Tootallious 3-31-1964 to 4-15-2020
In Memory of T-BOP 10-12-1949 to 1-19-2024
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Replies: 16 / Views: 2,557 |
Posted 07/05/2017 7:10 pm
