Coinage of New Guinea and Papua New Guinea

[Harald]

from Opitz's book on "Traditional Moneys"

cheers
--
Harald

[malj1]

These decimal coinage issues of Papua New Guinea taken from circulation.

The common obverse. Turtle 5t; Cuscus 10t; Cassowary 20t.

[<k>]

That is one of the very few circulation sets that was designed by the Franklin Mint, who also minted proof and specimen sets, with some circulation coins over the same period.

Here are the descriptions for the set, with the designer, taken from the Franklin M int catalogue, marked as "D:"

1  Toea.  Paradise birdwing butterfly.     D: Herman deRoos.
2  Toea.  Butterfly codfish.                  D: William Shoyer.
5  Toea.  Pitted shell turtle.                 D: William Shoyer.
10 Toea.  Spotted cuscus.                  D: Herman deRoos.
20 Toea.  Dwarf cassowary. (Muruk bird).   D: William Shoyer.
1  Kina.    River and sea crocodiles.        D: William Shoyer.
          Reverse: Stylised emblem of
               Bank of Papua New Guinea.   D: Richard Renninger.

[malj1]

From... From Cowrie to Kina by Dr William J D Mira.1986. publ. Spink and Sons.

Descriptions of the designs and physical data of the decimal coinage issues of Papua New Guinea.

THE COINAGE
General Circulation Specie
Designer:
Various Papua New Guinea artists in collaboration with the Royal Mint, United Kingdom.
Manufacture:
All general circulation coins are struck by the Royal Mint, except the 1975 K1 when the Royal Canberra Mint struck 4,000,000 and the Royal Mint 2,000,000.
Obverse:
1 - 20toea:(t1 - 20)
The official emblem of Papua New Guinea: a Bird of Paradise seated on a Kundu drum.
1 Kina:(K1)
The official crest (logo) of the Bank of Papua New Guinea; a stylised Bird of Paradise.

Reverse and Physical Data:

1 toea: (wan toea: toea ta)
Diameter =  17.65mm. : Weight = 2.07 grams.
Metal = Bronze
The Paradise Birdwing Butterfly — one of the largest and most colourful butterflies in the world, found in the lowland tropical forests of Papua New Guinea.

2 toea: (tu toea : toea rua)
Diameter = 21.72mm. : Weight = 4.15 grams.
Metal = Bronze
The Butterfly Codfish — found in most reefs around Papua New Guinea; it often changes colour to camouflage itself against predators.

5 toea: (faiv toea : toea ima)
Diameter = 19.53mm. : Weight = 2.83 grams. Metal = cupro-nickel
The Plateless Freshwater Turtle is rarely found outside Papua New Guinea, completely aquatic and herbivorous it lives in the rivers and swamps.

10 toea: (ten toea : toea gwauta) Diameter = 23.72mm. : Weight = 5.65 grams. Metal = Cupro-nickel
The Spotted Cuscus — a marsupial found in the grasslands and swamps: hunted for its meat and skin, the fur is often used for decoration.

20 toea: (tupela ten toea : toea ruahiu) Diameter = 28.65mm. : Weight = 11.30 grams. Metal = Cupro-nickel
Bennett's Cassowary — a flightless bird with large muscular legs giving it high speed on the ground. Found in the lowland regions.

1 Kina: (Wan Kina : Kina ta)
Diameter = 33.00mm. : Central Hole = 6.90mm. Weight = 14.52 grams. Metal = Cupro-nickel
Two species of crocodile; on the left, the saltwater species; on the right, the freshwater type. The latter inhabits the inland rivers and swamps.

[malj1]

The Head Tax Discs.

The Territory of New Guinea Head Tax Discs, all are in aluminium with a diameter of 35mm.
From the beginning of the Australian Mandate period [1921-42] the tax was fixed at 10/-. The government patrol official, having previously advised the village chiefs, went to the native villages to collect the tax from each male villager and handed out these discs as a receipt. This was maintained until the Japanese invasion in 1942 which caused their cessation.

These two discs were seen on eBay recently along with another.

[malj1]

I notice the penny shown at Reply #6 has the initials ERI of Edward VIII



 

[translateltd]

From... From Cowrie to Kina by Dr William J D Mira.1986. publ. Spink and Sons.

Descriptions of the designs and physical data of the decimal coinage issues of Papua New Guinea.

THE COINAGE
1 toea: (wan toea: toea ta)
2 toea: (tu toea : toea rua)
5 toea: (faiv toea : toea ima)
10 toea: (ten toea : toea gwauta)
20 toea: (tupela ten toea : toea ruahiu)
1 Kina: (Wan Kina : Kina ta)

I don't have a copy of Mira - does he say what the second language in brackets is?  There's definitely a link with the Polynesian languages, however, distant, with the words for one, two and five (cf. tahi, rua and rima in Maori), though I realise there are also similarities in the broader Melanesian/Malay families too.  "Ten" varies greatly even within the Polynesian group so I can't hook "gwauta" up with anything else at the moment.  "Tupela ten" in Pidgin tickles me ("two-fellow ten").

EDIT: Found it by Googling "gwauta".  Looks to be Motu:  http://www.education.gov.pg/index.php?content=students/secondary

[malj1]

I don't have a copy of Mira - does he say what the second language in brackets is?  There's definitely a link with the Polynesian languages, however, distant, with the words for one, two and five (cf. tahi, rua and rima in Maori), though I realise there are also similarities in the broader Melanesian/Malay families too.  "Ten" varies greatly even within the Polynesian group so I can't hook "gwauta" up with anything else at the moment.  "Tupela ten" in Pidgin tickles me ("two-fellow ten").

EDIT: Found it by Googling "gwauta".  Looks to be Motu:  http://www.education.gov.pg/index.php?content=students/secondary

this paragraph ibid. confirms that and adds a little more.

.......Mr Chan added: "I therefore propose that the name of the dollar equivalent should be Kina, and the name of the cent equivalent should be toea. The word Kina is found in both the Pidgin and Kuanua languages. In pidgin it refers to the valuable pearl shell used widely in the Highlands as a traditional store of wealth. It is probably the source of one of the terms for pearl shell in the Mount Hagen Melpa language, Kin. The fact that this shell is traded into the Highlands from coastal areas far afield makes it an appropriate national name for one of the basic units of our new currency.
"The word toea is a Motu word meaning valuable arm-shell. The toea has had a wide traditional use in coastal Papua for trading and bride-price payments. One bride-price recorded about 70 years ago consisted of 43 toea, three pigs and 100 dogs' teeth. I am not sure whether there has been inflation or deflation since then. The combination of these two names should help to preserve a valuable part of our cultural traditions, drawn from as broad a spectrum as possible of the whole of Papua New Guinea." .....

[Harald]

"Tupela ten" in Pidgin tickles me ("two-fellow ten").

Usually twenty is quoted as "twenti" in Tok Pisin (the PNG Pidgin), maybe there are several expressions for it.
All creolic languages are extremely diverse (and flexible).

The other "language" given is probably a mix of various languages. PNG counts about 1'000 of them which
belong to 10 or so language families, some of them are not even related to one another. None of these
languages is used across the entire island and could go as a national language. BTW, as I have read English
and Tok Pisin are not understood outside the few centres either. So, it must be difficult to establish a centralised communication (from the  government, for instance).

The numerals that exhibit similarities to the Melanesian familiy ("rua") are doubtful as the the languages spoken
on PNG do not belong there. Probably in the coastal regions or the islands there are Melanesians, too.

cheers
--
Harald

[translateltd]

The numerals that exhibit similarities to the Melanesian familiy ("rua") are doubtful as the the languages spoken
on PNG do not belong there. Probably in the coastal regions or the islands there are Melanesians, too.

Thanks, Harald - that's why I thought it a little unusual.  When I looked at a listing of numbers in Motu it was interesting that not all were Poly/Melanesian - "eight" for instance looked like "two fours", and "nine" "two fours one".

As an aside, a colleague once went on a course to learn one of the "pidgin" languages (I forget now if it was Tok Pisin or Bislama) and said one day that her instructor had been to a remote island (somewhere in PNG/Vanuatu) and had "discovered" a language that was unrelated to anything else.  I don't know exactly where or what the language was, but all the words in the list she brought back were recognisably Polynesian, even based on my only superficial acquaintance with Maori at the time.  It could even have been Motu - certainly not "unrelated to anything", in any case!

[Harald]

Here is what Ethnologue says about PNG: http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=PG

Apparently 20% of the languages (or speakers) are Austronesian, the rest are Papua.

cheers
--
Harald

[malj1]

At present on eBay there are some nice currency axes. see his other items too.

A nice Mount Hagen currency axe. Carried by warriors and used in trade and "Bride Price" ceremonies. Collected in the early 1970's. Axe measures 64 x 53 cm. Blade measures 10 x 24 cm.

[Prosit]

I have:
New Caledonia
New Foundland
New Zealand

That is all the "NEW" I have.
No New Guinea
No New Hebrides

Any other "New" Coins out there?

Dale

[<k>]

Any other "New" Coins out there?

Dale

Post First World War, none I can think of, but probably the German Empire had a few states beginning with "New". But Newfoundland is all one word - just so we don't confuse any surfers. 

[Prosit]

I forgot!  I also have a coin from New Brunswick.
I can't think of any German or Itallian States that started with "New".

Dale

Post First World War, none I can think of, but probably the German Empire had a few states beginning with "New". But Newfoundland is all one word - just so we don't confuse any surfers.