2016 Bailiwick of Jersey Queen Elizabeth 90th Birthday

I received a really cool coin for Easter today, celebrating Queen Elizabeth's 90th Birthday, which is April 21st. She will be the first British Monarch to reach the age of 90. I would not be surprised if she is still ruling 10 years from now!

I was unable to get a good photo, but my brother was able to, and these are his work.

Very, very cool!

This is a large issue and made of, I believe, brass. (metal content is not as important to me as subject content)

This is my first non-US coin from 2016, and it is spectacular!

First 2016s arrive

The first 2016 coinage made it's way to my collection today, March 21st. (In actuality, it's been sitting in the "to be sorted" box for an unknown number of days, but I just found them today).

Seven cents were found, and all of them have some problems. Spotting that is typical on current cents afflict most of them, and there are some with small scratches already.

I don't mind, I am happy to have them!

Even before I became a true numismatist in 2008, I have always been thrilled by getting the first new issue of the year.

This is the 3rd or 4th year in a row where the first issue found on the year is a cent. For several years before that a quarter had been the first find of the year. I don't believe a nickel has ever been the first found in circulation since I started paying attention, and dimes only once that I can remember.

My scanner that I use for scanning coins is pretty much useless for new issues, so this photograph will have to suffice.

One from Every Country #14: Belgian Congo

Not every coin comes from happy circumstances. The Belgian Congo existed from 1908-1960, and had a poor track record of treating it's native inhabitants. That's a common occurrence in areas "colonized" by other nations. Since this is the first time it's come up, I will put it bluntly- terrible things happened when places that were already inhabited were colonized- the native peoples were abused at best, murdered at worst. This is not exclusive to Europeans by the way. The fight against colonization led to even more people, on both sides, being killed. A visicious cycle that is repeated many times in world history.

But even when there are bad things associated with a place and time in history...it's still part of history, and should not be forgotten. After all, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, and any good historian knows that it is not their place to suppress, but to document, what came before.

This is my only coin from the Belgian Congo, nor do I have any coinage from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is what the country is known as today.

The hole in the center was part of the design. I don't generally care for holed coins, and while I will accept extremely low condition coins for my collection, I draw the line at holed examples...unless the hole was part of the original design. The crowned A on the back around the hole stands for King Albert I.

Some new Polymer notes join my collection

I can't believe I have not yet posted in 2016. I thought I had done a OFEC post but apparently I had not.

I actually have some new additions to share, which doesn't really happen all that often. I got a set of 8 uncirculated polymer notes for Christmas 2015 and I just finally got them scanned. I really like the new polymer notes, they have a unique feel and the detail seems to be crisper than on paper notes.

All except Nigeria are countries that did not appear in my currency collection, I believe, and at least one is totally new, with no coins either. (Bangladesh). I am not able to identify the country of origin for one of them yet. I should be able to with a little research but I have been so busy with other things I have not had a chance to do so yet.

I scanned them all with a piece of black construction paper behind them so the security windows show in the scan.

This last one is the one I'm not sure on. The Rupees lead me to think of India but I believe there are other countries that use rupees as well. I must do more research.

One From Every Country #13: Bavaria

I have debated how I wanted to handle the next country, because there are multiple ways I could have done it, and each are equally valid.

In the land now known as Germany, the country wasn't unified into what it is today until 1871. Before that, it was a collection of various states, free cities, etc. and each issued their own coins. They continued to do so even after 1871 for the higher denomination coinage, up until World War I when Germany was essentially decimated by making all the wrong decisions in the war. Obviously, I am simplifying this greatly, as it's just a quick essay on the coin  here.

That left me with some options for the German States coinage I have. There were a LOT of various German states that issued coinage and I have only a handful of them present in my collection. Should I...

• List them as German States, which would group them all together in alphabetical order,
• list them under the name of each state
• list them as a combined unit of "German States" 
• not even give the a separate listing, but consider them an offshoot of the listing for Germany itself? 

I chose to go with option #2, list them under each state. This idea was helped along by the fact that the examples I have for all of them predate the 1871 unification and list only the locale that issued them, not the all-encompassing Germany.

With all that said, the first one I have alphabetically is Bavaria. I have only one coin from the state, and I am aware that it was cleaned before I got it. I in fact received it as a gift from a fellow collector. Most of the states I have in my collection are represented by a single coin,  with the exception of Prussia, which I have 4 of at the time of this writing (11/20/2015)

The pfennig was the lowest denomination in the German States, and after the 1871 unification the only pfennings issued would be by Germany itself, the states no longer minted their own.

It may not be clear to tell from the scan, but this example was minted in 1858. It was the first year for the final type issued by Bavaria. I know that scans are not really the best way to capture the look of coins, but they have proven to be very difficult for me to photograph and scanning them does provide a uniformity to the entire collection- something I'm big on.

Thanks for reading!

New Background's meaning to me

I finally got myself in gear and created a background for this blog. I had actually made the scan years ago but just got it placed here today, December 5th, 2015. The Bicentennial Quarter means a lot to me. I save everyone I find as a tribute to my dad, (I've got about 50 of them) who was taken from us by cancer.

He saved them when he found them, saying that they will be worth something someday. I couldn't care less about that, but I save them as a tribute to him.

This one was minted by Denver. Here's the full image. I removed some of the scanner scuzz to make the background.

One from Every Country #12: Barbados

Next up on the list of countries is Barbados.

One of the things I like about the Caribbean countries' coinages is that they have a lot of wildlife on the coins, not even counting the the coat of arms on many issues. This one features a sea gull, and I love sea gulls. To me, summer isn't summer unless I hear sea gulls calling.

I have 10 coins from Barbados in my collection ranging in age from 1980 to 2009. This one came as part of a three-pound sack of world coins I bought on ebay back in 2011. I chose it as the sample coin for the country simply for the seagull.