Strange Coins and Currency of the World

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Major mints like the US Mint produce millions of coins a day, so it's inevitable that occasionally things get clogged up:



If you ever find one like that, hold on to it, because it will be worth a lot more than a penny.

There's a minor tradition in the US of carving so-called Hobo Nickels -- regular coins carved out into new designs, usually skulls. Nickels are the most common, but everything from pennies to silver dollars have been made into Hobo coins as well.

Don't know if this can count as "coins", but a long time ago, these things used to be used as currency in China

So, the ancient Chinese economy was based on wingnuts?

Or maybe wingnuts were based on ancient Chinese economy.

The coins of ancient Aegina off the coast of Greece are famous for their sea turtles (ca. 450 BC):

Erewhon posted some very nice Darwin coins and currency over in this thread:

viewtopic.php?t=9450&p=7569439#p7569439

Jonah in the whale -- see him? Part of a series illustrating Biblical stories, from Israel.

Around the turn of the last century, mining companies in Chile were issuing their own coinage, some of it made out of vulcanite (hard rubber) and early forms of plastic.





http://www.anythinganywhere.com/commerc ... le-exo.htm

The Parys Mining Company of Anglesey, North Wales, also had its own copper token coinage in the late 18th century. These were struck by the famous Soho Mint in Birmingham UK, and were far more impressive than any previously minted copper coinage.

Not a coin, but I did get a silver certificate in change at the store this week -- and that does qualify as strange.

I suppose it might not count as strange, but I just think it's interesting how plain the Peruvian Nuevo Sol is. It's just big block letters that say "One Nuevo Sol."

I acquired one of these some time ago (Gold Britannia 1 ounce coin). It's legal tender and has a face value of £100, but you'd be crazy to try to spend it as it's worth ten times that.

^ On the subject of 'Lima', many British silver coins struck in 1745 and 1746 in the reign of George II have this word on their obverse side. It's not a mintmark, but commemorates the capture of a huge amount of silver mined near Lima from Spanish ships in 1742 - this was brought back to the UK and turned into silver coinage by the Royal Mint. Such a display of abrasive triumphalism would be most unlikely these days. Here's a 1745 Half Crown:



https://24carat.co.uk/frame.php?url=limacoininfo.html