dual-date coins

mrfred

I was working on some moderns from Spain last night -- nothing very profound, but it is the first time I've worked through a batch of such coins: 20th century 25 peseta and 5 peseta copper-nickel -- King Juan Carlos and the earlier Franco issue.

I was interested to learn that the coins are dual-dated. SCWC says that the date on the obverse is the date 'of authorization' and then you have to flip the coin over and look at the incuse date in the star to get the date 'of issue'. The dates are given (in SCWC) as, for instance: '1975(77)' meaning a coin that was authorized in 1975 but actually minted in 1977.

Have any other countries done this?

tbirde56

The only other I know of, and with stars, is Equatorial Guinea's 1969 1, 5, 25 and 50 Pesetas coins. They were a Spanish colony until my birthday in 1968.

kuhli

Not quite the same as the Spanish coins, but the Philippines coins of the mid-90's often cause confusion. On one side is the design of the Central Bank, and the date of it's creation - 1993. The other side has the actual mintage date. I have seen tons of these mis-labeled as 1993, only to flip them over to find 1997 or 1998, etc. on the other side.

PuddlePirate

Just learned something new, fascinating. Thanks guys.

mrfred

me too -- thanks y'all.

Askari

This practice is more common on Spanish-heritage nations' and France's papermoney, too. It certainly is a confusing practice!