coin ID questions

[annie c-migration]

My little girl and I inherited my grandfathers coin chest, and though I know he’s told me about all the places he’s been and where he got all those coins and tokens from, I need some help identifying most of them. They're from all over the world, he’s traveled most of his life through the navy and such so most are from early to mid 1900’s. I don’t know what’s fake, real, a token, a charm, or even the date or country of some, so it’s difficult to sort them out to display and label. Would anyone like to help me ?

 

Coin # 1

Moroccan - Empire Cherifien

Front side has a doubled 8 point star with “1 franc” inside inner star with Moroccan lettering

Back has a circled upright five point star with “Empire Cherifien” and Moroccan lettering on the outside of the circle

Side is ridged

Size: 1.1inch

Metal: feels like an American quarter

Date: unlike the other morocco coins this one doesn’t have a date, nor could I google it, which is the info I need.

 

Coin # 2

Canadian one cent

Front picture has side profile of male with beard and crown with words “Edwardvs VII Dei G?atia Rex Imperator - Canada”

Side two has circled leaf design with “one cent 1903” in center

Side smooth

Size: 1inch

Metal: don’t know for sure but I think copper

Question: real or fake? It’s the only Canadian penny I’ve seen that was that large before, it’s way bigger than the 1918 five cents from Canada.

 

Coin # 3

Front has a full bodied lion with the words “Bohmen Und Mahren - Cechy A Morava” around it

Side two has a large “1” in upper middle center with branch and leaf design rounding the sides and lower half of coin with date at bottom

Size: 2.3cm

Side: ridged

Metal: no clue, grayish, I actually put it in the wood coin/token/charm pile at fist because of how the metal looks

Date:1944

Question: token or coin, and where is it from?

 

Coin # 4

French

Front side has a male reclining on a raised square chair or bench, side profile, one hand before him holding twined snake staff, second arm leaning on a stringed instrument like a lyre with words “Commerce Industrie” and date at bottom

Second side has inner circle with “Bon Pour 1 Franc” and outer circle with “Chambers De Commerce De France”

Side ridged

Size: 2.3cm

Date: 1922

Metal: copper

Question : Token or coin or fake? And is it really from France?

 

Coin # 5

Token

Front has “In Trade Only - 50” a stripped triangle in lower center with the words “Ingle System” over lapping it, and “At. Apr. 7, 1914” at bottom

Second side has “Morris - 50” three stars at the bottom in a row and one star at either side of the numbers

Side smooth

Size: 1.3inch

Metal: aluminum I think

Question: from where and what is the token for? I know it’s not a real coin, but I have an old picture of my grandparents with this token so just wondered if anyone actually knows.

 

 

-annie c

[spiny]

Hi Annie, I can't help much without having my books at hand, but I can get it started.

 

Coin 1, sorry, I can't help with this one.

Coin 2, Canadian large cent. More likely than not for being real.

Coin 3, I'd guess an iron or zinc WWII issue coin from Bomehia & Moravia

Coin 4, same thing I asked when I first saw one. It's considered a coin from France.

Token 5, I've seen a few different ones of these with the Ingles System and that date. I'm guessing that they made tokens for various customers and the date is like a patent date.

[Hoot]

Coin 1 - Perhaps a 1924(?) Morocco Franc - French Protectorate (Y# 36.2)? XF - $10, Unc. = $55 Krauss.

 

Hoot

[satootoko]

Coin 1 - Perhaps a 1924(?) Morocco Franc - French Protectorate (Y# 36.2)? XF - $10, Unc. = $55 Krauss.

Definitely the French Protectorate - that's what the "Empire Cherifien" means.

 

The alternative to Hoot's ID is a 1921 Y#36.1, which is not pictured in Krause, but described as differing from Y#36.2 only by the absence of a thunderbolt privy mark below the 1. It's more common (double the mintage), with values of $6.50 XF and $37.50 Unc. (Lower grades of both coins have very nominal values.)

 

Both are undated, issued during the initial years of the Protectorate, under Sultan Yusuf, and minted at Paris.

[annie c-migration]

Thanks Spiny, your answers really helped. I didn’t think anyone would know about that token, and thanks a lot for the help with coin #3. And thank you Satootoko and Hoot, the date helps placing the coin on a time-line table display, and you helped me know it wasn’t a fake or token. Were those Moroccan coins in circulation during the 1970’s?

 

Does anyone know anything about Asian coins? How to find the dates on them, or the country they come from? I think most of them are actually tokens and charms because some look hand made, or have weird shapes, shapes cut into them, or are made out of glass, stone wood or plastic. Most have to be either from Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, or Korea. Which Asian country has circles or squares punched through the center of their coins while also using flower images in their modern coinage? Well, at least I think they are modern coins, some are in really good shape so I’m guessing they had to come from one of his last trips. We’re really trying to google most of this, but searching “asian coins” is a bit too broad.

 

Coin # 6

Side one has a male with either a plain hat or a helmet- with a mustache, and words are hard to see but I can read “KAPAUIKAKH?” words half circle face side

Side two has words “E[upside down VV]HNIKH AHMOKPATIA“ with a picture of two rifles crossing each other with a branch and something like a small badge like symbol below, and the lettering “APAXME[sideways W] 2” in lower half of coin.

size: 2.3cm

side ridged

date: 19?? can’t read the rest, but they are on side two on either side of the number “2”

metal: don’t know, but it’s aged color is black and it rusts a milky-white

question: where, what, when?

I would clean it to read it because it‘s in perfect shape, but when reading some of the posts here it seems using anything but time and olive oil is not good.

 

-annie c

[Hoot]

Coin #6 - Based on size and other descriptors, I think it's a Greece 2 drachmai, KM #117. The dates are either 1976, 1978, or 1980. The mintages were each in the tens of millions and a coin of the condition that you describe is not worth much - maybe 25 cents. The metal is nickel-brass and the person's portrait is Georgios Karaiskakis.

 

Sounds like he kept a fair bit of pocket change as souvenirs.

 

As for the Asian coins, etc., someone else will have to help you there. Photos would help immeasurably. You may have to find a copy of the Standard Catalog of World Coins, by Chester Krauss and Cliff Mishler. New, they are a bit expensive, but if ID is your primary objective, then look on half.com for a recent used copy. The values won't be far enough off to matter for recent years.

 

Hoot

[spiny]

Now that I have my Krause, coin #3 is a zinc 1 Koruna from B&M.

[satootoko]

Does anyone know anything about Asian coins? How to find the dates on them, or the country they come from?

Annie, that is a very complex question.

 

Modern (1867-present) Japanese coins are dated, sometimes in Japanese characters, sometimes in western numerals, but always with reference to the year of the then-current Emperor's reign rather than the western year. Earlier Japanese coins are undated, but can generally be attributed to a specific period of time. The country name is in Kanji, the Japanese characters borrowed from China.

 

Imperial Chinese (pre-1912) national and provincial government coins are generally undated, but attributable. Many early Republic coins are also undated, but both pre-People's Republic mainland coins, and coins from Taiwan, are dated in western numerals with the Republic Year (add 1911 to the coin's date for the western year). People's Republic coins are generally dated with the western year in western numerals. There are a variety of dating systems used on the Soviet Chinese provincial and Republic coins, as well as the various Russian and Japanese puppet governments which existed in the 1920s through the very early 1940s. The country/provincial names are in Chinese characters, except for some of the earlier Imperial issues which did not have a country or provincial name on them..

 

Korean coins are generally undated prior to the Japanese Protectorate issues of the very late 19th Century, and very early 20th Century. The Protectorate coins were dated in Japanese, according to the year of the reign of the puppet Emperor. During most of the pre-WW II period, Korea was treated as a province of Japan, and had no coins of its own. The post-war coins of South Korea are generally dated western style, but a few are dated in Korean characters according to the traditional Korean calendar (KE4303=1970). The post-war coins of North Korea are dated western style. The country names are depicted in a variety of methods.

 

Israeli coins are dated in Hebrew characters according to the Jewish religious calendar, which is not synchronized with the western calendar (5765 started last fall). "Israel", in Hebrew (and sometimes also in Arabic), but not in English, is on the coins.

 

Asian and African Muslim countries generally date their coins according to the Muslim calendar (with some variations), and in Arabic characters (of multiple varieties). The country names are sometimes in Arabic and, for some colonial areas, in the language of the European country controlling the area - French, Portugese, English, German, etc.

 

Thailand uses Thai characters for the country name and the date, which is based on the King's regnal year.

 

So far, without discussing India (including the multiple Princely States), Hong Kong, Burma/Mynamar, etc., etc., I've only brushed the surface of an answer to your query; so for more information, including charts of the numeric characters and much other interesting and useful stuff, drop by your local public library and consult the Standard Catalog of World Coins, by Krause & Mishler.

 

BTW, Krause is frequently unreliable on coin values. There are whole countries where you can't find coins in the real world at less than double the Krause "value", and others where Krause is ridiculously high. But then, in the nature of the beast it is extremely difficult to produce a printed price guide with any degree of accuracy. Averaging a significant number of completed auctions on E-Bay, or for higher class material completed auctions of the major houses, is the best way to judge a coin's market value.