Posted 08/10/2023 11:32 pm
One of the advantages of being a generalist like myself, is the general lack of "holy grails" that are impossible to find. Or rather, there are so many of them, that the probability of finding one at any given coin shoop or coin show is actually rather high. But I do have several items, that I've been trying to get for a couple of decades now, that have eluded me (so I guess they're more "white whales" than "holy grails").
The coin-like medal struck in the name of Neutral Moresnet, a tiny "country" that used to exist prior to WWI. It never made coins, but one fantasy "coin" was made for it, by persons unknown. This 2 franc "coin" is dated 1848 and examples were discussed in numismatic literature as early as 1869, so they are contemporary with the microstate's existence, not modern post-WWI fantasies and the 1848 date is likely to be correct. I particularly like the rather unflattering janiform portrait of Leopold I of Belgium and Frederick William IV of Prussia.
The "ackey" coinage struck by the British for the Gold Coast colony, in Africa, in the late 1700s. ebay has been flooded with fakes in the past decade.
A coin from Helike, the "real world Atlantis". This Greek city was destroyed and sunk by an earthquake-and-tsunami in 373 BC and the underwater ruins were a popular Greco-Roman tourist destination, before the site silted up and was lost for 1800 years before being rediscovered in 2000.
An antimony 10 cents from Kweichow Province, China, 1931. The only circulating coin (or indeed, only coin ever) to be made from antimony, a brittle, toxic semimetallic element entirely unsuitable for use in coinage. The local warlord had no sources of gold, silver or copper within his territory, but he did have an antimony mine, and decided to try to use it for coinage. A "must-have" for every serious one-from-every-element collector
While on the subject of weird elements used in circulating coinage, there's the Russian platinum coinage from the early 1800s. Russia had a vast supply of platinum and had no other use for it, so they decided to turn it into coinage, at a face-value exchange rate of 3 ounces of platinum equalling 1 ounce of gold. Coins of 3, 6 and 12 ruble denominations were issued, though only the 3 ruble was issued in economically significant quantities.
A coin from Cyrene (ancient Libya) depicting the silphium plant. Silphium was an ancient herbal medicine that actually worked, to cure all sorts of diseases and ailments, as well as tasting delicious. Unfortunately, it refused to be cultivated, and the wild plants were harvested to extinction during the early Roman Imperial period (the last plant was apparently served to emperor Nero). But the region where the plants grew, Cyrene, was proud of their famous export, and placed it on many of their coins; these coins are the most reliable contemporary evidence we have of what the plant actually looked like. I already have one "silphium coin", but it's a bronze coin in rather awful condition so the plant is barely recognizable. I'd like a silver coin, where the plant is clearly visible.
The coin-like medal struck in the name of Neutral Moresnet, a tiny "country" that used to exist prior to WWI. It never made coins, but one fantasy "coin" was made for it, by persons unknown. This 2 franc "coin" is dated 1848 and examples were discussed in numismatic literature as early as 1869, so they are contemporary with the microstate's existence, not modern post-WWI fantasies and the 1848 date is likely to be correct. I particularly like the rather unflattering janiform portrait of Leopold I of Belgium and Frederick William IV of Prussia.
The "ackey" coinage struck by the British for the Gold Coast colony, in Africa, in the late 1700s. ebay has been flooded with fakes in the past decade.
A coin from Helike, the "real world Atlantis". This Greek city was destroyed and sunk by an earthquake-and-tsunami in 373 BC and the underwater ruins were a popular Greco-Roman tourist destination, before the site silted up and was lost for 1800 years before being rediscovered in 2000.
An antimony 10 cents from Kweichow Province, China, 1931. The only circulating coin (or indeed, only coin ever) to be made from antimony, a brittle, toxic semimetallic element entirely unsuitable for use in coinage. The local warlord had no sources of gold, silver or copper within his territory, but he did have an antimony mine, and decided to try to use it for coinage. A "must-have" for every serious one-from-every-element collector
While on the subject of weird elements used in circulating coinage, there's the Russian platinum coinage from the early 1800s. Russia had a vast supply of platinum and had no other use for it, so they decided to turn it into coinage, at a face-value exchange rate of 3 ounces of platinum equalling 1 ounce of gold. Coins of 3, 6 and 12 ruble denominations were issued, though only the 3 ruble was issued in economically significant quantities.
A coin from Cyrene (ancient Libya) depicting the silphium plant. Silphium was an ancient herbal medicine that actually worked, to cure all sorts of diseases and ailments, as well as tasting delicious. Unfortunately, it refused to be cultivated, and the wild plants were harvested to extinction during the early Roman Imperial period (the last plant was apparently served to emperor Nero). But the region where the plants grew, Cyrene, was proud of their famous export, and placed it on many of their coins; these coins are the most reliable contemporary evidence we have of what the plant actually looked like. I already have one "silphium coin", but it's a bronze coin in rather awful condition so the plant is barely recognizable. I'd like a silver coin, where the plant is clearly visible.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
