Unusual Congo Pattern Discovery posted by Congo Kid

[CSJournals-migration]

Unusual Variety Find!

 

I just bought a rare Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire) 1970 Pewter Essai KM E4 Pewter of KM13 from a major auction company. It weighs 14.36g, uniformed bust three-quarters right, rev. arms, value below, essai stamped below.

This seems to be an odd variety that has the word Zaires instead of Zaire on the reverse for the denomination. This is not like the coin pictured in KM nor is it like the gold and gilt coins that I own, which all are spelled in the expected singular version Zaire. I also have the Piefort KM PE2 version which also has the spelling as Zaire.

 

My best guess is that a worker at the mint made a spelling error that made it all the way to the production of this Essai and it somehow survived.

 

Take a look at the attached photo and let me know what you think.

 

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[dadams]

Great find Congo Kid

 

I could see how a mistake like that could be made - zaïre vs zaïres

 

I'd suspect that might earn a new KM#

 

Try contacting George Cuhaj Editor of the Standard Catalog of World Coins and I'm sure he'd get you in touch with the "expert" handling the Congo section

[Scott A]

Thanks dadams. I am actually the "expert" for the Belgian Congo series and have added many new unknown coins to the Catalog. I am only familiar with Tom Michael though. I will look in to the other person that you mentioned.

I have a few more unknown patterns that I am going to be adding soon too.

Another possible reason for the spelling could have been that they were planning for other denominations that would need a plural spelling, ie. 2 or 5 Zaires and wanted to account for the spacing in the design. Or a bunch of people didn't know what the heck they were doing.

[RWB]

Where were the pieces made?

[Scott A]

My best guess would be the Heaton Mint. But I will try to find out more.