friend found a kuwait coin...what is it?

mozeppa

worth anything?

slightly larger than a u.s. quarter,

has arab script at the top of the obverse "KUWAIT" in english at the bottom...has a circle in the center with more arab script below "1oo" in it

reverse has a ship on the sea sailing left-wards.

under it it has what appears to be 2 dates...
1976 - 1276
anyone know what this coin is?....any clues to its value?

thanks in advance! ...mike

WillieBoyd2

Kuwait 100 Fils (1/10 Kuwait Pound)

Not worth very much

Does it look like this?


(From worldcoingallery.com)

By the way, the dates 1976-1276 don't match.
The AH (Moslem) date 1276 is around AD 1860.

newsman

Face value is 36 cents, so it's worth something.

The dates on the coin pictured are 1988-1408. Yours might be 1976-1396, but I'd have to see it to be sure.

The inscription reads "Kuwait" with "100 fils" in the center circle. The ship on the obverse is a dhow, a common fishing vessel in the Persian Gulf.

cladking

These coins are probably scarce in unc at least for the early dates. They've never
gotten much respect because they're just high mintage base metal modern junk
but this is exactly why they weren't saved and the coins went into circulation. A
very few escaped their fate because they were carried back o other countries by
oil company execs and workers but even these were poorly cared for and had very
high attrition. Like we're finding with one modern after another these will probably
be tough in higher grades and scarce in unc.

The new Krause just raised prices this year to up to $6 for early dates. It's not a
safe bet that all the later dates are common. It just takes time for these emerging
markets to be shaken out by collectors.

I've put a lot of effort into this country and except for the coppers have found them
all to be elusive. There were no mint sets so there is no source other than those
which were intentionally saved in pristine condition. There has been virtually no
market for these coins so they were available for pennies. This was not condusive
to proper storage. I often think of the story on the US coin forum that someone had
set a bucket of base metal foreign out for the garbage man. How many of these
have been simply "consumed" by usage as play money or levelers for tables.

I have little specific knowledge of Kuwaiti coins beyond the difficulty of locating them
in the US.

cladking

To give you an idea of the depth of the demand for these coins there are a
couple of proof issues with a mintage of sixty. The 1961 was the first year
for this series and had a slightly different design making it a one year type.

The 1961 (one year type) 20 fils coin in proof with a mintage of 60 lists for
$35.

This is why prices on moderns are so very very low; there's almost no demand.
But where demand materializes prices just pop right up because supply is
almost nonexistent for many of these coins.

newsman

I was working in Kuwait a few years ago and tried to get as many uncirculated coins as possible. It was very difficult, because there's no easy outlet to buy them. If you go to a bank they'll give you what they have, which is a mix of dates, circulated or uncirculated and you'll have to sort through it. Unless there's some dealer who has a connection, it looks like almost all of every year's mintage goes directly into circulation.

mozeppa

thanks guys!

cladking

<< <i>I was working in Kuwait a few years ago and tried to get as many uncirculated coins as possible. It was very difficult, because there's no easy outlet to buy them. If you go to a bank they'll give you what they have, which is a mix of dates, circulated or uncirculated and you'll have to sort through it. Unless there's some dealer who has a connection, it looks like almost all of every year's mintage goes directly into circulation. >>



Yes. Exactly. I should have been more specific.

When I suggested that the ones saved were oftyen taken out of the country I
really meant that these account for a lot of the coins that have been saved from
the ravages of circulation. But this is a double edged sword since they can go
out of the frying pan and into the fire. It's also true that most of these coins that
flow away from a country are random rather than nice uncs. That means it's been
decades since any of the early coins in unc left the country in the pockets of vis-
iting foreigners.

It usually comes down to how many coins were saved locally. The coins that tra-
vel abroard often end up in dealer junk boxes where XF/ AU examples can be
found with some patience. But to a large extent many moderns simply weren't
saved at all. People have always assumed they are common so they aren't col-
lected and the people in the country haven't set them aside because they aren't
silver. In the old days (pre-WW II) lots of collectors in the US would work to ob-
tain new coins from around the world and there were dealers to assist. With the
removal of silver in country after another this ceased.

What we're left with is a lot of mass produced moderns that are nearly impossi-
ble in unc and a growing awareness of this among collectors. Demand is still weak
and primarily from the home markets or their old colonial power but these are be-
ing sought much more than they are beiong found. These coins are often made
of metals that just don't last or the currency they represent hasn't lasted. This
results in years of wear and heavy attrition and then whatever is left is gathered
up and melted. Some countries get exceedingly limited tourist interest so the coins
are even tough in poundage.

There are major countries with almost no coin infrastructure; no coin shops, no
source to buy coin supplies, and very few collectors. India appears to be one such
country. Even 20 years ago it was impossible to find something like old uncirculated
cu/ ni rupees in any of the major cities. You could always go to the banks but these
coins circulated heavily and were debased routinely. At each debasement many
would be removed and melted illegally by citizens. So even the old circulated coins
could be tough. Here's a country with a billion people in it climbing the social ladder
and finding old coins in unc might be a near impossibility. I'm not sure most aren't
tough in poor condition. Getting hard information was pretty tough twenty years
ago. It appears that many dates were aset aside in huge numbers and can be found
easily while the rest are nearly nonexistent in any grade. This is fairly common with
moderns; either they are exceedingly common or exceedingly scarce.

I don't believe anby of the Kuwaiti coins are hoard coins with the possible exception
of the coppers (I think Krause calls them ni/ brz).