If you think that some of our coin issues (such as the domed Royal Albert Hall £5) are pushing boundaries and breaking new ground then you may just be surprised. The truth is that several other countries have been creating and issuing unusual currency for quite a few years. And some of their coins make ours look very plain and drab indeed.
Here are a few examples I have come across that you may find interesting…..
{ Pretty but not real practical….. I mean just imagine how uncomfortable it would be having a few of these in your trouser pockets :/ – image reblogged from worthpoint.com }
Somalia
Somalian currency took on a whole new shape (or shapes) in 2008 – quite literally. The $1 copper-nickel alloy coins issued in that year were not only silver plated, they were fashioned in the form of geometric figures – a cone, a sphere, a pyramid, a cube and a cylinder.
Needless to say, these were soon snaffled by collectors and a second wave of these unusual coins were created in 2014 to satisfy public demand.
{ A natural mystic blowing in your loose change….. – image reblogged from mintageworld.com }
Benin
Limited to an issue limit of only 2,500, these coins did not merely have unusual shapes…… They happened to offer more to another of the five senses. The 100 Franc coin in the series had a smell ‘scratch and sniff’ feature which would allow the owner to give it a quick rub and ‘appreciate’ the heady aroma of cannabis. So pungent was this whiff that the process could be repeated up to forty times before the smell wore away.
Apparently (according to the manufacturer) this smell was entirely artificial and contained nothing from the actual reefer-rolling herb itself. Yeah yeah……
{ ‘He’s got the whole euro in His hands….. – image reblogged from coinweek.com }
Latvia
In 2015, this amazing coin (simply named ‘The Earth’) won a contest organised by the Bank of Latvia called ‘The Most Innovative Euro Coin’.
Consisting of three parts (a silver coloured outer ring, a translucent inner ring made of ceramic and a curved geophysical map of the planet at the centre) this now sells for around twenty times its actual denomination of €85.
© Article and images (except where stated) copyright Mik Smith 2022
