Zamunda Coinage

You gotta be kidding me! I saw the movie Coming to America, loved it and I love Eddie Murphey. But a prop coin? Listed in Krause? And $35? Seems to me a lotta leg pulling. I can see promotional tokens, I can also believe finding one in a Wheaties cereal box, but this seems to be pushing credibility. I think I'd rather have a movie prop from Sahara (Confederate Double Eagle).

Sap - In the 2005 Fourth Edition of Krause's "Unusual World Coins" the entry on Zamunda has been expanded to include 4 different versions numbers 1, 1a, 1b and 1c. The number 1 is the most valuable with MS ranging $25 to $35 it is the Copper-Nickel version. The brass plated version is listed at $17.50 to $25. The third variety is gold plated but is not priced. The final version is actually gold and it indicates that it was presented to Eddie Murphy. According to the new entry the coins were made for the movie but I can not recall seeing them. It does talk about the Paper money as well. Perhaps the coin ended up on the cutting room floor.

I started this thread as a way of opening the topic on Countries that actually don't exist. Fantasy issues are a form of "counterfeiting" akin to Evasion coins where they are LEGAL but can be deceptive. There are many collectors like myself who are fascinated by the innumerable variations. Some are actually quite valuable.

As college kid I worked summers on Cape Cod and the Islands offshore. At that time the "big thing" was the Nantucket Whale money. Aluminum coins in 25 and 50 cent denominations. In the same time frame, are the Gardner Island, NY issues. At an earlier point in time the Lundy Island Puffin coins are interesting.

If you can get hold of a copy of "Unusual World Coins" it makes interesting reading.

Some time ago I wrote an artice on Diplomatically Challenged Coins for my coin club's magazine; it's posted in the QNS website (someday I'm gonna hafta sit down and send a few more "old articles" to the webmaster). I actually wrote it just prior to buying my copy of UWC. Some of the links are likely broken, but a Google search should show up their latest incarnations.

I received a couple of e-mails about the article shortly after it was posted there - apparently, folks who rule "countries" like these must spend some time scouring the web, looking for references to themselves.