Katanga Coins - The Story?

It's often difficult to tell exactly to what extent the coinage of such ephemeral nations as Katanga actually circulated.

Certainly there is an element of proclamation to any such coinage. The right to issue your own coinage has been a sign of independence and importance ever since coinage was invented in ancient times, and it is still seen as an important symbol of nationhood, to the extent that virtually no nation in existence today has never issued coinage. For many secessionists, pretend nations and "micronations", issuing coinage is one of the first things they do.

Virtually all the Katangan coinage you see on the market are uncirculated pieces, often wrapped up in dealer-made packaging giving the story of Katanga (this is how I obtained mine). This implies to me that a large number of the coins never actually made it to Africa. However, the Krause catalogue lists the bronze coins down to VF grade, which implies there are enough coins in circulated condition for people to need to know the value of a circulated piece. Certainly if Katanga had gained independence for long enough, those coins would have been more widely used; the smallest denomination banknote issued by Katanga was 10 francs.

I assume they did indeed see limited circulation. After the war ended and Katanga was reassimilated, the Congolese withdrew Katangan money and replaced it with their own at par, but attempting to continue to use Katangan money would probably have got you arrested.

I don't know where they were minted; the catalogues don't say, and all the websites seem to be copying each other when the say they were minted "in Europe". Since the Belgians seem to have been backers of the rebellion, a Belgian mintage is not unreasonable.

According to the catalog I use (Schön, World Coins), the Katanga pieces were minted in the UK by the IMI/Birmingham Mint. Also, here http://www.egmp.nunaar.be/artikels/...arlierA4.pdf is some info (in Dutch) about the designer of the coins.

Christian