The
beauty of exonumia is that it knows no boundaries – if it has to do with
numismatics in some remote way, that’s generally good enough for an exonumia
collector. My personal collection contains paper, wood, metal, plastic, and
Bakelite items and more, and some of them have been featured right here at this
website in my many blogs.
Among
my favorite exonumia items are my double-denomination pieces, but not the mint
errors you might think I’m referring to. What I collect is coins that have
other coins embedded or inserted into their surface, but it’s easier to
illustrate than to explain.
For
instance, in my Conder token collection I have a curious piece. It’s a 1795
Princess of Wales halfpenny from Middlesex, D&H-977. It’s a common piece
but not this example. Ever so slightly below center on the token a hole was
fashioned and two 1844-dated half farthings were inserted back to back with the
reverse side out. Heads or tails, there’s an 1844 half farthing present. I’m
still trying to figure out what the new denomination is!
Another
favorite is a Mexican First Republic 8 reales dated 1834 from the Zacatecas
Mint that received its parasitic partner sometime in the 20th century. I know
this because the piggybacking coin is a beaten up Mercury dime placed at the
obverse center of the host coin with the rays there now surrounding the dime. I
just assume it’s a 1916-D Mercury dime, so all is good!
The
coins of Queen Victoria of England have always fascinated me, so it was only
natural that I would own the final coin in this blog. At first glance it’s a
well-worn English penny dated 1858 and barely above Good-4, the sort of coin
you might find in a dealer’s box of three-for-a-dollar world coins. Once this
worn-out old copper is flipped, however, the fun begins. Embedded in the penny
is a French copper five centimes dated 1854, and embedded in the French piece
is an English silver threepence dated 1887, the Jubilee Year of Queen
Victoria’s reign. This piece was very carefully crafted and probably made to
celebrate Her Majesty’s 50 years on the throne.
I
hope you enjoyed this installment of the Exonumia Corner. If you have a
favorite piece of exonumia, send me a picture and we may just feature it here!
