• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Learning that you're a little right, a little wrong, and a little ignorant...

0
Revenant

1,046 views

I'm starting to work on digging into the Zimbabwe coins more to try to build out a nice group of descriptions for that set once the coins clear grading.

I am clearly not excited about those coins / getting them back graded or anything. Clearly. I am just front-running working on descriptions for coins I will not get back for a month and a half. Anyway...

I finally found out what the KM numbers for all of them were. And found out I was wrong about several of them - some that I thought got new numbers in the 6-11 range were sub-types of other KM#s because the designs did not change. KM6 through KM11 are actually 1996-dated NCLT issues that I have little interest in at the moment and which aren't part of the registry type set I want to build / complete.

I also found that I was right in thinking the differences in some of these type coins was the composition of the coins and not the designs. The coins from 1980-1999 were mostly copper, brass and copper-nickel where the later ones are copper-plated, nickel-plated or brass-plated steel. I had thought this would be the case given that the value of the currency was in decline even in the 1980s and 1990s. It made sense that they would have switched to steel plating to save money (before things got bad and they abandoned the coinage all together. The first coin to switch to steel was, predictably, the cent, in 1989 - when I was still only 2-3 years old.

Some of this might seem a bit backwards - learning some of this after having bought and submitted the coins, but I cannot say that getting counterfeits was all that high of a concern for me with these - so buying raw in ignorance & counterfeit detection was not something that worried me much. I guess we will see if NGC delivers a surprise there. lol

I also discovered there were two coins I was previously unaware of - a $1 and $2 bond coin. Somehow, I missed that completely when I was shopping for sets of Bond Coins to buy a few months back.

I think there were a few things that contributed to me missing them. For 1, NGC does not currently list them / have slots for them. 2 - and this may be why #1 is true - they are later issues from 2016-2018. The 1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 25 cent and 50-cent were all 2014-dated issues released mostly in 2015. So, the 2014 fractional denominations are often sold as 5-coin sets, without the later issues, and I think I was even searching for "2014" bond coins in my search. So, I completely missed these later issues. There is at least one seller I see offering 7-coin sets on eBay though.

Now that I know it exists the $1 coin does not surprise me. There were $1 Zimbabwean coins back to the beginning in 1980. Originally their notes started at $2. And, when the bond notes issued in 2016, they also started at $2 - the $1 coins came out with those. The $1 notes of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th dollars are the exceptions to me. So, the $1 coins make sense and fit.

The $2 bond coin though - that surprised me. Because they also issued the $2 bond notes in 2016 (P-99) and the new $2 notes in 2019 (P-101). So, this $2 coin - which is the same size as the $1 coin but made of nicer metals and looks flipped vs the $1 with the bronze on the inside - seems really out of place / weird / odd.

I guess I am going to have to do some searching and reading and try to figure out the story there...

In the 2nd series of the 1st dollar (1994-2004) there was no $2 note. With the release of that series, they retired the original $2 note (P-1) and introduced the first $2 coins. I'm wondering if the $2 bond coins were intended to replace the $2 bond notes when the planned $10 and $20 bond notes rolled out but then they abandoned the while bond coin/note thing and released the new dollars in 2019.

In a side bit of happy news, I have an order in for 2 $5 coins that I am hoping will look better than the three I got before - no corrosion this time please - and 5 of the $2 Bond Coins - from the same person that sold me the other, gorgeous, 2014 bond coins so I'm optimistic and excited about these! I've identified a seller with some $1 bond coins that look nice but their asking price is a bit higher than I consider ideal... so I'm going to hold off on those for now.

Based on the pictures I don't know exactly how these will look in hand or how they'll grade but that looks so much better than what I have and at least this might not get body-bagged / details graded for environmental damage...

 

image.png.6acbb42a31b6ee601613a4a974b2c4e9.pngimage.png.8f22615821d3ef3888d59bf04b98ebac.png

image.thumb.png.f0521ee22b02de6fc9e30c2054b8a4c2.png

image.thumb.png.a8c0c81ced2d9bcde56fa80ef592b78d.png

If NGC does not add them on their own, I will eventually request new slots for the $1 and $2 bond coins, but I am in no rush. I will have the $2 coin soon but probably will not submit until 2022. I have used my credits so I have no time-pressure from the expiring, and I want to try to get together a good group that can maybe take care of most of the ~9 coins I will still need - and maybe take a 2nd stab at any in the current group that come back with bad grades - I am worried about how the 5-cent coin in particular will do.

0



4 Comments


Recommended Comments

1 hour ago, deposito said:

I see these tokens, it is sad, and wonder how long till we live at Chuck E Cheese too

Have you seen the presidential dollars? The American Innovation series? Are they really that different? (shrug)

Link to comment
On 7/12/2021 at 4:30 PM, Revenant said:

Have you seen the presidential dollars? The American Innovation series? Are they really that different? (shrug)

I hadn't, I just looked them up, and of course you're right our mint is leading the way defacing abundant junkmetal 

I guess I still feel like I have one last refuge in our regular circulating pennies dimes and nickles, the infrequent halves. 

Most quarters still look right... on one side.

Thailand has a bimetallic 10 Baht coin, which is a big hitter a 7 Eleven, but I still have reservations about more than one color on a coin.  I'm sure that's somethingphobic

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now