Pseudo coin
As a non-circulating legal tender one is coin designated, whose status as a price valid currency is in question. This status is often discussed very controversially. It should be noted that the expression "pseudo coin" often contradicts the legal status as an official means of payment and is therefore wrong.
The majority of these so-called pseudo coins by the method of the medal embossing made, d. H. as a polished plate with high relief and other characteristics in design, diameter, thickness or alloy , which make it unsuitable for the national currency.
Pseudo coins can be roughly divided into the following areas:
Imprints of the imagination
Fancy coins are coins that were not minted by or for the states they allegedly represent, or coins that were not produced by or for a government that is legally authorized to issue coins. These include, for example, coins produced by privately-owned companies that are marketed as “ sample euros ” or coins issued by micronations (pseudo-states).
Many fantasy coins have little to nothing to do with the country they are named after. They are designed, minted and issued by coin trading companies, and their legitimation (if any) as “legal tender” is only given by the fact that the respective countries (mostly “exotic” countries without their own circulation coins, e.g. African states or Pacific Island states) for a fee.
Pseudo currencies
Coins which are not minted for circulation are often incorrectly referred to as pseudo-currency. These are coins issued or approved by a country whose face value is in a currency that is not valid in the country concerned. An example of this is the Andorran Diner , which is only used to issue collector coins and is neither convertible nor used for payment transactions (the currency of Andorra is the euro ). Another example is the English sovereign , whose status as a coin is much less frequently questioned.
Collector's coins
Coins whose course ability, although legally guaranteed, is purely theoretical. These coins are never available at their face value, but are sold at a high premium right from the start. Their monetary value is also hypothetical because they are unknown to the population and mostly even to banks (and therefore cannot be given in payment or exchanged). Examples are French silver coins with a face value of ¼ or 1½ euros.
Commemorative coins from small states
Some small states sell licenses to European and American companies that allow them to issue commemorative coins on behalf of the state. However, many of the motifs that were coined have absolutely no relation to the country (e.g. the Gorch Fock or the fall of the Berlin Wall ). Formally, they have the character of an official means of payment (although it is often questionable whether one could actually pay with it on site) and thus a coin , in contrast to other private mintings, which are medals . Nonetheless, these coins are treated like medals in the coin market, as the company in question can issue as many different coins as it would like and thus rarely has a great numismatic value. The main distribution channels are often newspaper advertisements and teleshopping , where attempts are made to sell unsuspecting customers supposedly rarities at significantly inflated prices.
Countries whose commemorative coins appear under license in Europe and are mostly classified by numismatists as worthless medals are: Cook Islands , Gibraltar (own edition), Isle of Man (own edition), Liberia , Marshall Islands , Nauru , Niue , Palau , Zambia , Samoa , Somalia , Togo , Tokelau , Turks and Caicos Islands , Tuvalu and Uganda .
However, some of the states mentioned also issue their own “real” commemorative coins with numismatic value, so that in case of doubt it is not always clear whether it is a “real” commemorative coin or a coin produced under license. Caution is advised if the motif has no relation to the issuing country as well as in the case of issues from small island states (especially in the Pacific) and some African states. The sales channel also provides information about this, as many of the coins advertised in newspapers and teleshopping are issues of German private companies.
A special case is represented by states like Niue, which have both their special coins minted abroad and coins for normal circulation.
The small western European states of Liechtenstein , Monaco , San Marino and Vatican City are not affected by this. Their coin issues are all purely state-owned and thus fully-fledged commemorative coins in the numismatic sense, so that here, in some cases, high prices can also be achieved in resale. The status of Andorran coins, however, is controversial, see: Andorran diner (pseudo currency) and Andorran euro coins (from 2014).
Demarcation
Conventional gold coins, on the other hand, are minted for legal bank transactions or for the appropriate storage and use of gold and do not fall under the pseudo coins. See also investment coin .
literature
- Colin R. Bruce II: Unusual World Coins. Krause Publications, 5th edition 2007, ISBN 978-0896895768 .