One of the strangest modern coins yet minted
gashmios
Posts: 504 ✭✭✭
1993 The Royal Mint in London printed a sandwich cookie for a coin in the commemorative New Zealand two dollar coin. According to Krause there are two varieties, but reading about this coin and looking over examples, I am not sure there is not more. There is a well struck KM#87, which is a Bronze coated Aluminum and a KM#87.a which is a silver Proof version that had 10 thousand minted. And according to someone from Numista 40 thousand in a plush box and 14,5000 in a BU year sets. BTW, that is not what kruase says. They report 40K of the Aluminum-Bronze and 15,000 of the silvers.
I have one of the Bronze coins and on this coin the color is not uniform. It has a break through of silver color through the bronze coating. But the oddest part of this coin is the edge. The edge of this coin has a ribbed edge, but in the middle of the coin is a center included stripe with rivets along it. The coin almost looks like it is minted as a sandwich cookie.
I'm not sure what this coin was commemorating, but they went all at it, with a Kingfischer on the reverse. It is just a very odd coin and not executed particularly well. But it is low mintage, probably nearly impossible to find in gem states.
On top of that, it seems this coin has some serious doubling. You need a loup to see it, but it is all around the lettering. I'm not sure it is machine doubling or not. I thought it was machine doubling, but then I looks along the serifs of the lettering and thought, maybe not. Maybe it is a true variety.
Comments
Two dollar aluminum-bronze regular issue with a security edge. Nothing at all unusual (nor valuable) about it.
"There is a well struck KM#87, which is a Bronze coated Aluminum..."
Aluminum-bronze and bronze coated aluminum are not the same thing.
Per Krause it’s aluminum-bronze. And that’s what I suspect it is.
Numista is generally wrong.
how does it get its color? It almost looks like a Sac except for the break though metallic color in the center of the coin.
These kinds of "security edges" are very common in certain coin series. Hong Kong and India are both notable examples where many coin types have security edges. The "security edge" began its life as it's name implies: adding extra security features to the edge, to prevent clipping and deter counterfeiting since making a fake security edge was deemed to be harder than making a fake regular reeded edge.
These days, the "prevent clipping" aspect of the security edge's reason for existence has disappeared as circulating coins are no longer made of precious metal. They are now mainly applied to higher-face-value coins as a way of making similarly-sized coins more visually distinctive.
As for "what it commemorates", well, it doesn't really commemorate anything other than the existence of this bird. New Zealand, being an isolated island group, doesn't have much in terms of unique native animal life but does have lots of different bird species, and they're quite proud of them; they have traditionally celebrated this by putting those birds on NCLT coins. Prior to 1993, the coin of choice for these bird coins was the one dollar, which was issued as a large crown or silver-dollar-sized coin. But with the advent of a circulating one dollar coin in 1990, the large NCLT dollar went out of fashion, and the new circulating aluminium-bronze $1 coin was deemed too small for commemorative purposes; the new $2 coin was deemed a suitable substitute in 1993. In subsequent years (starting in 1995), the birds were celebrated on crown-sized 5 dollar coins instead, leaving this 1993 $2 coin as an isolated quasi-commemorative.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded the DPOTD twice.
That's what color the alloy is.
There is an aluminum alloy that has a bronze color? It can not be pure Aluminum, obviously
Aluminum-Bronze is an alloy of Copper and Aluminum.
My World Coin Type Set
Aluminum bronze is a high-strength, corrosion-resistant copper alloy containing 5–14% aluminum, along with iron, nickel, or manganese.
If you add about 8% aluminium (plus or minus a few percent) to copper, you get a yellowish brassy metal alloy we call "aluminium bronze". Countries tend to prefer it over regular brass for their golden-coloured coinage as it doesn't tend to turn black in circulation or the environment as readily. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_bronze
These coins are not coated, plated or clad - they are solid alloy, the same composition all the way through (unlike Canadian loonies, which are plated, or American golden dollars, which are clad). The composition of the aluminium bronze alloy used in New Zealand $1 and $2 coins is 92% copper, 6% aluminium and 2% nickel - the same alloy used for Australian $1 and $2 coins.
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded the DPOTD twice.
Well, that is hard to understand because the center of these coins is definitely whitened on the profile, along the Queens shoulder...and long high points of the coin, and on the reverse as well, along the rims. That is why I assumed it was coated. It looks like the coat is misapplied to the planachet. It almost looks like it is worn off, but it is obviously not a circulated coin.
Also, just for more fun, while investigating this oddity, I ran into this
https://www.coinerrors.nz/coins/new-zealand-decimal/2-coins/
This looks like a thick variety... I am fairly certain. Although I get less certain the more I look at the close ups I took of the coin
I tried to catch the whiteness - almost dual tone - in the coin but the macro lens just is not picking it up well
The portrait does not look this ugly in the hand - I ever tried some video, but it still cuts right through the luster and emphasizes all the ugliness of the obverse
http://www.mrbrklyn.com/vids/2026_coins/C0511.MP4
As previously noted, these are not plated and have no coating.
I'm not arguing that. What you wrote makes perfect sense. However, there is something else going on. Every image of this coin I see there is two tones, like it has highlights
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=1993+NZ+Kingfisher+2+dollar&atb=v318-1&ia=images&iax=images
That's just the way it's oxidized. I have one of these coins, sitting in a 2x2, and it has done very similar the last time I took a look at it. Might have had something to do with the packaging they were originally shipped in?
Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"
Apparently I have been awarded the DPOTD twice.
This is one of the strangest modern threads yet written.
The coin is practically worthless. Let it go.
It is not worthless to me. In fact, I was considering picking up a few of these this afternoon to have a number of them to compare and to pick up some silver versions.
THIS OTOH -
Ugly Picture Removed
This is truly ugly and crude and looks like a flying chicken scared by a shotgun blast and the wicked witch of west.. and I would never touch this coin.
So to each their own.
I got this rather randomly when going through hundreds of foreign coins. But after investing some time in it, I think I will probably shot for a better example to look over. I'm not yet done with this rabbit hole yet
I will give you six hundred and forty two of your New Zealand “pretty coins” for that terrible, dog-ugly, boringly old half dime…I mean, they even spelled “dime” wrong. Certainly you wouldn’t want something like that. 😂
I'm BACK!!! Used to be Billet7 on the old forum.
Mostly it is just crude and ugly. For good reason they used mostly Spanish coins from Latin America at the time. They should have melted them all down and given Washington back his money. It wouldn't even be good folk art. I'll take the New Zealand coin and use the extra money for something useful, like a Jaguar or a ranch house in the suburbs.
I'll tell you what. Go to your favorite AI and ask it to make a fantasy half Disme with a cartoonish panicked Flying Chicken on one side and the Wicked Witch of the West on the other - and date it 1792 - and see what it produces. Add that it has terrible ugly toning. It is SO UGLY and poorly executed I can't stand to look at it. I'm taking the image down so the dogs in the community stop howling.
Getting back on topic, there are a few available... probably over priced:
There one is about 30 dollars and if the image is correct on ebay, it is in decent condition, I think. I am not sure if I am allowed to post the link.
And there is another in a flip for about the same. And there is a silver one in an ANACS slab PF69 for about 50 dollars.
and there is a silver NZ proof set for nearly $200 which seems rich.
http://images.mrbrklyn.com/coins/1993_nz_2dollar/
So if I’m reading you correctly, you don’t like the half disme.
I'm BACK!!! Used to be Billet7 on the old forum.