Cyprus 1 Piastre-1938(KM# 23)

[Bimat]

Two more nice additions to collection

Cyprus 1 Piastre,1938,KM# 23,Copper Nickel,Mintage : 2,700,000,Struck at Birmingham mint.

Aditya

[Bimat]

And the other..

Cyprus 1 Piastre,1946,KM# 23a,Bronze(War effect?),Mintage : 1,080,000,Struck at Birmingham mint.

Aditya

[Figleaf]

These are very interesting coins. I wrote elsewhere on the failed introduction of British money and how in the end, a pound of 180 piastres was adopted, making the shilling equal to 9 pence. The locals continued to use the piastre, while the British used their own units of account, with coins in denominations of 4.5 piastres (6 pence), 9 piastres, 18 piastres (florin) and even a 45 piastres (crown). The colonial administration had enough sense not to introduce the half crown (22.5 piastres), but they did issue a 3 piastres (4 pence) in 1901.

Cyprus fell in Nazi hands in 1942. The last small coins to reach the island were dated 1938. A total of 1 620 000 piastre pieces (£6750) were struck. In 1941, the 1938 dies were dusted off and used to strike a further 1 080 000 piastres (£6000). Part of the 1942 mintage, 1 080 000 half piastres (£3000) and the same number of piastres (£6000) were lost when the ship that transported them was sunk near Alexandria. The 1942 dated coins were the first to be struck in bronze, rather than copper-nickel, to save nickel for the British war industry.

Note the archaic use of the V in CYPRVS.

Peter