Cuba, 5 centavos, 1946

Here’s today’s coin.

Cuba, 5 centavos, 1946 (KM #11.3)

This coin is a close sibling of the 1920 5 centavos featured on March 18th, the only difference being a minor lettering change. The type of coin was made (with said minor variations) between 1915 and 1961. The mintage in 1946 was 40 million, making this year the second-most common of its type. Belonging to the not-convertible Cuban peso, it’s worth 0.19 cents USD.

Metal Copper-nickel
Weight 4.93 g
Diameter 21.17 mm
Thickness 1.94 mm
Shape Round
Orientation Coin alignment

India, 5 rupees (dot), 2001

This is the coin for Tuesday, March 29th.

India, 5 rupees (dot), 2001 (KM #154.1)

The dot represents the Mumbai mint. This type of coin was been in production from 1992 to 2005. This is a thick heavy coin with a security edge. It feels like two quarters and a nickel stuck together, yet it’s only worth 11.2 cents USD. Most of India’s modern coins are sloppily struck, with shallow relief and poor detail. Finding good specimens struck clear to begin with, and also lacking circulation wear, is difficult.

Metal Copper-nickel
Weight 9 g
Diameter 23 mm
Shape Round

Italy, 5 lire, 1953

Here is today’s coin of the day.

Italy, 5 lire, 1953 (KM #92)

The dolphin on the reverse and the rudder on the obverse make this a maritime coin. The clean lines, general lack of text, and sans serif font combine to give this coin a modern and fresh look. This type of coin was minted regularly from 1951 to 2001, with the 1953 mintage being 196.2 million, second only to 1954. This is a common coin with no legal tender value (thanks, euro), and no metal value (thanks, cheap aluminum).

Metal Aluminum
Weight 1.0 g
Diameter 20.20 mm
Thickness 1.4 mm
Engraver G. Romagnoli (obverse)
Shape Round
Orientation Coin alignment
Demonetized 02-28-2002

Vichy France, 1 franc, 1943

And here is today’s coin.

Vichy France, 1 franc, 1943 (KM #902.1)

This coin is a companion piece to the Vichy 2 francs featured on March 5th. I’ve always found it interesting that the Vichy government changed that national motto from the revolutionary “liberte, egalite, fraternite” to “travail, familie, patrie”. It illustrates that Petain’s pro-German government stressed loyalty to family and fatherland than to any brotherhood bound by liberty. The message is clear… the state is your friend, and your neighbor isn’t.

Metal is aluminum.
Mintage is unreported.
Weight 1.6 g
Diameter 23 mm
Engraver L.Bazor (obverse)
Shape Round
Orientation Coin alignment ↑↓
Demonetized yes

United Kingdom, 1 penny, 1976

This is the coin for Saturday, March 26th.

United Kingdom, 1 penny, 1976 (KM #915)

In 1976, the United States was celebrating its 200th year of independence from this nation.

This is the same coin as the one featured on January 14th, just five years older. Mintage is 300,160,000, and its worth 1.6 cents USD.

Metal Bronze
Weight 3.56 g
Diameter 20.32 mm
Thickness 1.52 mm
Engravers Arnold Machin (obverse)
Cristopher Ironside (reverse)
Shape Round
Orientation Medal alignment

Israel, 10 agorot, 5757 (2007)

This is the coin for Friday, march 25th.

Israel, 10 agorot, 5767 (2007) (KM #158)

This is the same coin as the one featured on March 13th, just seven years younger. Mintage is unreported, and it’s worth 2.8 cents USD.

Metal Aluminum-bronze
Weight 4.02 g
Diameter 21.97 mm
Thickness 1.61 mm
Engraver G. Neumann (reverse)
Shape Round

Israel, 1 sheqel, 5741 (1981)

Another coin from Israel today, only three days after the last one.

Israel, 1 sheqel, 5741 (1981 CE) (KM #111.1)

Like Monday’s big 50-sheqel coin, today’s singleton sheqel is from the Old Sheqel Era of the early 1980s. It is no longer legal tender in Israel or anywhere else, so its only value today is collector value. Since 154,540,000 were minted in ’81, this is a common coin with little collector merit.

Metal Copper-nickel
Weight 5.1 g
Diameter 23 mm
Engravers Gabi Neumann (obverse)
Zvi Narkiss (reverse)
Shape Round
Demonetized 09-04-1985

United Kingdom, 1 penny, 1988

Here’s a familiar coin.

United Kingdom, 1 penny, 1988 (KM #935)

It’s been a while since the last UK decimal penny (March 15th). This coin is bronze like the penny featured on January 14th, but has the reverse design of the penny featured on December 28th. The obverse uses the Queen’s 3rd portrait used from 1985-1997, which so far hadn’t yet been featured here.

Mintage is 793,492,000.
Metal Bronze
Weight 3.56 g
Diameter 20.32 mm
Thickness 1.52 mm
Engravers R. Maklouf (obverse)
C. Ironside (reverse)
Shape Round
Orientation Medal alignment

Uganda, 10 cents, 1966

This one is new to me.

Uganda, 10 cents, 1966 (KM #2)

Uganda became independent of the UK in the 1960s, and replaced the colonial East African Shilling with their own Ugandan Shilling in 1966. It lasted until 1987, when internal revolution prompted an overhaul of the currency, revaluing at 100 to 1. Ten cents of the old shilling is 0.001 cents of the new shilling, which trades at over 2400 to the USD, making this coin worth 0.000042 cents USD! It’s far more valuable for collector value, or for being a big slug of copper.

The simple elegance of this coin’s design reminds me of the silver coins from the George V era of Great Britain. Mintage of this coin in 1966 was 19,100,000.

Metal Bronze
Weight 5 g
Diameter 25 mm
Shape Round
Demonetized yes

Israel, 50 sheqalim, 5744 (1984)

Here’s today’s coin, right on time.

Israel, 50 sheqalim, 5744 (1984 CE) (KM #139)

This is a coin from Israel’s “first sheqel” period 1980-1985. The sheqel was revalued in 1986 at 1000:1, so this old sheqel coin is worth only 5 new agorot (1.4 cents USD) had it not been demonetized. The design of the coin reproduces an ancient coin from the Roman occupation era of the Hebrew lands two thousand years ago, making for a cool coin-in-a-coin effect. The name of Israel is repeated in Hebrew, Arabic, and English, reflecting the multi-cultural demographics of modern Israel. This coin’s date is 5744 on the Hebrew calendar, corresponding to a Common Era year of 1984.

Metal Aluminum-bronze
Weight 9 g
Diameter 28 mm
Thickness 2.2 mm
Engravers G. Neumann (obverse)
N. Karp (reverse)
Shape Round
Demonetized 09-04-1986