Very unusual gold coin

bidask

Do you notice anything unusual about this coin?

Samoa /Kiribati 2000 $500 gold Proof Coin Mintage 99
Minted by the Euromint, Bochum.

291fifth

It splits apart on the International date line.

bidask

@291fifth said:
It splits apart on the International date line.

That is correct !

TwoKopeiki

Neato

Timbuk3

That's pretty cool !!!

IVB

There are two mistakes in Russian description at the reverse (right bottom corner). Should be ВОЙНА-МИР.

MrEureka

I would know where to sell it if it had a CC mintmark!

SaorAlba

@IVB said:
There are two mistakes in Russian description at the reverse (right bottom corner). Should be ВОЙНА-МИР.

Obviously they didn't know Cyrillic too well.

YQQ

consider for a moment that it was done purposely und nothing was said.....until someone would discover it and make it public.
then it is announced we are so sorry and will issue another, corrected version.
the original will get an unexpected move up in Value as a mint error.
might yet happen

bidask

@YQQ said:
consider for a moment that it was done purposely und nothing was said.....until someone would discover it and make it public.
then it is announced we are so sorry and will issue another, corrected version.
the original will get an unexpected move up in Value as a mint error.
might yet happen

I believe it was done purposely.

bidask

EVillageProwler

@SaorAlba said:

@IVB said:
There are two mistakes in Russian description at the reverse (right bottom corner). Should be ВОЙНА-МИР.

Obviously they didn't know Cyrillic too well.

I don’t understand the inscription. It seems like it’s saying War-Peace, but what’s the context? Have Kiribati and Samoa been in conflict against each other?

Edited to add: disregard; I really should have looked at the coin more carefully.

Namvet69

Yeah it's gold, a novelty coin albeit an expensive one. If you're into Pacific rim stuff then a decision is in the wings. Peace Roy

Sapyx

Technically, it isn't "a gold coin" - it's two gold coins, which happen to fit together jigsaw-puzzle-style. The two countries were chosen for the coinage issue because they were on opposite sides if the International Date Line: the easternmost islands of Kiribati was the first land on Earth to welcome in the year 2000, and Western Samoa was the last country to farewell the year 1999, 26 hours later.

In 2011, Western Samoa (now just called "Samoa") shifted the International Date Line back to its pre-1892 position in between Western Samoa and American Samoa, so it is now on the same side of the Line as Kiribati (and its major trading partners in Australasia and Asia). Which means the two Samoas are now a day apart, and that this coin is now a historical record of a geographical fact which is no longer correct.