Strange Coins and Currency of the World

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Darmok
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27 Jan 2017, 9:11 pm

This is a famous coin, because it's believed to show the oldest-known ancient Greek map:

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The obverse is a standard Persian-style running king image, but the reverse is thought to be a topographic map of the region around the Greek city of Ephesus, now on the west coast of Turkey. The coin is usually attributed to Memnon, a Persian admiral who captured Ephesus and fought Alexander the Great, around 340 BC.

http://www.coinworld.com/news/world-coi ... s.all.html


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Darmok
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09 Feb 2017, 1:00 am

This one isn't strange (except for being bimetallic) -- it's just a beauty: a 2-euro commemorative for the Bank of Finland.

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Darmok
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07 Mar 2017, 12:33 am

Not strange so much as interesting. This commemorative coin for a Hungarian author has the titles of his works arranged in a swirl.

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http://news.coinupdate.com/hungary-este ... ver-coins/


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Darmok
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16 Mar 2017, 8:20 pm

Most valuable coins today are made of gold or silver, but there are a few made of platinum, like this one-ounce platypus from Australia (a platinum platypus):

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Darmok
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18 Mar 2017, 2:22 pm

Here's a strange idea (originally) that is now becoming popular -- it's not a coin, but then it is a coin:

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These are gold bars scored or perforated like a chocolate bar, so you can break off individual pieces. The one shown is 50 grams, so each piece is one gram. A gram of gold today is worth about $50, so this is the equivalent of a stack of fifty $50 bills. A gram of gold is extremely small, but this is in fact similar in size to many of the earliest coins made 2500 years ago.

You can get them in silver, too, with a gram of silver now worth about $1:

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Darmok
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25 Mar 2017, 5:09 pm

Striking an angel:


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Darmok
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28 Mar 2017, 1:19 pm

Coins don't often make it into the international news headlines, except...

Thieves Take a Chunk of Change, All 221 Pounds of It, From a Berlin Museum

BERLIN — You could never palm it, flip it or plunk it into a vending machine. But apparently it can be pinched: One of the world’s largest gold coins, a 221-pound Canadian monster called the Big Maple Leaf, was stolen overnight from the Bode Museum in Berlin, the police said on Monday.

The coin is about 21 inches in diameter and over an inch thick. It has the head of Queen Elizabeth II on one side and a maple leaf on the other. Its face value is 1 million Canadian dollars, or about $750,000, but by gold content alone, it is worth as much as $4.5 million at current market prices.

And though it weighs about as much as a refrigerator, somehow thieves apparently managed to lug it through the museum and up at least one floor to get it out of a window at the back of the building. The police are still trying to figure out exactly how they did it.


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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/worl ... .html?_r=0


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Darmok
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08 Apr 2017, 12:36 am

Oh wow, I want one of these. :mrgreen:

All Star Trek fans will recognize a genuine Ferengi bar of gold-pressed latinum:

Image

(It's actually a gold-plated one-ounce silver bar, issued by the Perth Mint in Australia:
http://www.apmex.com/product/97780/2016 ... tinum-slip


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08 Apr 2017, 10:16 am

Darmok wrote:
It's actually a gold-plated one-ounce silver bar, issued by the Perth Mint in Australia:


So gold on the outside, cheaper silver on the inside and they probably charge a lot more for it than the metal's actually worth.

How exceptionally Ferengi :lol:



Darmok
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08 Apr 2017, 11:30 am

SpiceWolf wrote:
Darmok wrote:
It's actually a gold-plated one-ounce silver bar, issued by the Perth Mint in Australia:

So gold on the outside, cheaper silver on the inside and they probably charge a lot more for it than the metal's actually worth.

How exceptionally Ferengi :lol:

Who knew Australians were the original model for the Ferengi. :D


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RandomFox
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08 Apr 2017, 1:02 pm

I really like the fact that you can collect different versions of British £2 and 50p coins :) My daughter has quite a few special 50p coins an I'm always on a lookout for them.
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Darmok
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08 Apr 2017, 9:21 pm

RandomFox wrote:
I really like the fact that you can collect different versions of British £2 and 50p coins :) My daughter has quite a few special 50p coins an I'm always on a lookout for them.
Image

Those are like the 50 state quarters in the US. Perhaps your daughter can find an American pen-pal and trade a 50p for two 25¢ every month and build up an international collection.

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nick007
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18 Apr 2017, 7:52 pm

Darmok wrote:
Oh wow, I want one of these. :mrgreen:

All Star Trek fans will recognize a genuine Ferengi bar of gold-pressed latinum:

Image

(It's actually a gold-plated one-ounce silver bar, issued by the Perth Mint in Australia:
http://www.apmex.com/product/97780/2016 ... tinum-slip
Is that site still selling them & will they ship to the states :?: I have a collection of all the units of latinum. They were made from the molds of props but they were only gold colored.


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Darmok
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19 Apr 2017, 12:09 pm

nick007 wrote:
Darmok wrote:
Oh wow, I want one of these. :mrgreen:

All Star Trek fans will recognize a genuine Ferengi bar of gold-pressed latinum:

Image

(It's actually a gold-plated one-ounce silver bar, issued by the Perth Mint in Australia:
http://www.apmex.com/product/97780/2016 ... tinum-slip
Is that site still selling them & will they ship to the states :?: I have a collection of all the units of latinum. They were made from the molds of props but they were only gold colored.

Ampex is a US company, and it looks like latinum is in stock, so go for it and post a photo. :D


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nick007
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19 Apr 2017, 11:16 pm

Darmok wrote:
nick007 wrote:
Darmok wrote:
Oh wow, I want one of these. :mrgreen:

All Star Trek fans will recognize a genuine Ferengi bar of gold-pressed latinum:

Image

(It's actually a gold-plated one-ounce silver bar, issued by the Perth Mint in Australia:
http://www.apmex.com/product/97780/2016 ... tinum-slip
Is that site still selling them & will they ship to the states :?: I have a collection of all the units of latinum. They were made from the molds of props but they were only gold colored.

Ampex is a US company, and it looks like latinum is in stock, so go for it and post a photo. :D
I'll have to think about it for abit. The cost is kind of high but I think I could afford it. I'm trying to be careful with my money thou so I should probably sleep on it for a couple nights.


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Darmok
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20 Apr 2017, 12:12 am

nick007 wrote:
I'll have to think about it for abit. The cost is kind of high but I think I could afford it. I'm trying to be careful with my money thou so I should probably sleep on it for a couple nights.

Time to consult the Rules of Acquisition. :mrgreen:


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