News:

Sign up for the monthly zoom events by sending a PM with your email address to Hitesh

Main Menu

Circulation sets with both thematic and non-thematic designs

Started by <k>, August 07, 2022, 01:42:04 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

<k>

This is an unusual category, and I do not know how many relevant sets we will find.

Usually in these cases, the thematic reverse designs appear on the higher but not the lower denominations.

Cases may exist where this is reversed, but I do not currently know of any.
Visit the website of The Royal Mint Museum.

See: The Royal Mint Museum.

<k>

Latvia 1992.jpg

Latvia 1992 set.


The Latvian set of 1992 provides a good example of my topic title.


The higher denominations were thematic but the lower denominations were not .

The 50 santimu coin featured a pine seedling, while the 1 lats showed a trout, and a cow appeared on the 2 lati coin.
Visit the website of The Royal Mint Museum.

See: The Royal Mint Museum.

<k>

Mauritius 1971 set.jpg

Mauritius 1971 set.


The Mauritius set of 1971 is an unusual example.

The half rupee reverse design portrays a deer.


The half rupee is situated between the quarter rupee and 1 rupee coins.

The reverse designs of the quarter and 1 rupee coins are heraldic.


Usually only the highest denominations are heraldic in such situations.

The thematic designs usually then appear on the lower denominations.


See: Circulation sets with poorly unified design.

Visit the website of The Royal Mint Museum.

See: The Royal Mint Museum.

<k>

Lithuania 1936 set.jpg


Lithuania 1936 was a strange set.

The 1, 2 and 5 cents had minor motifs on their reverse.

The 5 litai and 10 litu showed portraits of national heroes.

In that year, no denominations filled the gap between the 5 cents and 5 litai.
Visit the website of The Royal Mint Museum.

See: The Royal Mint Museum.

<k>

Estonia 1929  to 1934.jpg


The Estonia coin series of 1929 to 1934 was another strange set.

The low denominations all had plain reverse designs.


The slight exception was the tiny 1 sent coin.

It featured oak leaves overlaid by the numeral '1'


Only the 1 kroon had a fully thematic reverse design.

It depicted a Viking ship.
Visit the website of The Royal Mint Museum.

See: The Royal Mint Museum.

<k>

Latvia 1922 set.jpg

Latvia coinage of 1922.





Latvia, 50 santimu, 1922.


Latvia issued a coin set in 1922.

The lower denominations had plain reverse designs.

Only the highest denomination, the 50 santimu, had a thematic reverse design.
Visit the website of The Royal Mint Museum.

See: The Royal Mint Museum.

<k>

Turkey set.jpg

Turkey 2009 set.


The Turkish set of 2009 is a curious case.

The reverses of the 1, 5, 10 and 25 kurush and also of the 1 lira coin carry motif designs.

These motifs do not dominate the field of the coin, apart from on the 1 kurush.


However, the bridge on the 50 kurush reverse is altogether of a different nature.

It does not fit the motif theme, yet it seems to fit the style of the set.


Why was the bridge design squeezed between the motifs on the 25 kurush and 1 lira?

Surely it would have been better to place the bridge design on the lira coin.


The lira motif could then have been moved to the 50 kurush coin.

All the motif designs would then have sat on contiguous denominations.
Visit the website of The Royal Mint Museum.

See: The Royal Mint Museum.

<k>



Lebanese coin series.


Early this century, Lebanon had a set of coins with geometric shapes on the reverse.

In 2006, the eight-sided 50 pound coin in the image was replaced.

It was replaced by the new coin that you see below.


Lebanon 50 pounds  2006#.jpg

Lebanon, 50 pounds, 2006.


The boat on the reverse design is technically a lateen rigged sloop.

It was a superb thematic design, totally unlike the other geometric motifs of the set.

Also, this 50 pound coin was the lowest denomination of the series.


Were other such thematic designs planned for the coinage?

Ultimately, however, the new coin was a one-year only type.


It was demonetised in 2007 because of increasing inflation.

As a realistic design, the sloop was indeed an incongruous addition to the series.
Visit the website of The Royal Mint Museum.

See: The Royal Mint Museum.

Figleaf

Two observations. One, your concept of a set may be more personal than universal. Look at the development of design of US coins. Up to and including the Barber series, they were strictly a set (maybe apart from the gold), while later designs fly off in all directions, replaced at different times, only to merge again with what is often derisively called "dead presidents". Maybe "set" is just fashion, induced by the reducing lathe, that can make faithful reproduction of one large plaster design in any size. Maybe that fashion lives on only in design conservatism and coins of kings and dictators.

Second, there is a very long tradition of creating subsets within series of circulating coins, more pronounced in Europe, but visible also e.g. on Mughal coins. This started out in the early renaissance, when multiples and divisions of coins became popular to bridge the gap between copper and silver. Thus, royal Spain had not just a copper maravedi and a silver real, but multiples and divisions from ½ real to 8 reales in silver, all with similar design, as well as copper 2 to 8 maravedis. Gold also kept separate designs.

The influence of this development is clear on e.g. the euro coins, with subsets of 1, 2 and 5 cent, 10, 20 and 50 cent and 1, 2 euro. You can observe the same tradition on some of the sets you show in this thread. Especially in low inflation countries, they are really (remnants of) subsets.

I haven't checked, but wouldn't be surprised if in high inflation countries, design takes a back seat and individual denominations become more important. High inflation is a period of national stress, that calls for strong nationalistic messages, also on coins.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

chrisild

Quote from: <k> on August 08, 2022, 08:22:24 PMWhy was the bridge design squeezed between the motifs on the 25 kurush and 1 lira?

Surely it would have been better to place the bridge design on the lira coin.

Yeah, I found that strange too. Oh well, the Turkish government's decision. By the way, the 5 kuruş coin design is somewhere between ornamental and realistic - it depicts, or is supposed to feature, the Tree of Life.

<k>

Quote from: Figleaf on August 09, 2022, 07:39:09 AMTwo observations. One, your concept of a set may be more personal than universal. Look at the development of design of US coins. Up to and including the Barber series, they were strictly a set (maybe apart from the gold), while later designs fly off in all directions, replaced at different times, only to merge again with what is often derisively called "dead presidents". Maybe "set" is just fashion, induced by the reducing lathe, that can make faithful reproduction of one large plaster design in any size. Maybe that fashion lives on only in design conservatism and coins of kings and dictators.

I deliberately confined myself to certain sets of the 1920s onward. In these, we see certain trends being partly adhered to. Those trends definitely exist and do become more visible as time progresses.

QuoteSecond, there is a very long tradition of creating subsets within series of circulating coins, more pronounced in Europe.

The influence of this development is clear on e.g. the euro coins, with subsets of 1, 2 and 5 cent, 10, 20 and 50 cent and 1, 2 euro. You can observe the same tradition on some of the sets you show in this thread. Especially in low inflation countries, they are really (remnants of) subsets.

I dealt with the question of subsets in a series of topics about euro coins. A subset might also be called a tier or a family or coins. A family of coins within a national coinage shares the same shape and colour (as in metal), but the coins in the family are of different sizes. For example, the 1, 2 and 5 euro cents form one family and the 10, 20 and 50 euro cents form another.

See: Euro design structure: overview of linked topics.

See also: National coinages: design structure from the 20th century onwards.
Visit the website of The Royal Mint Museum.

See: The Royal Mint Museum.

<k>

Quote from: chrisild on August 09, 2022, 11:10:28 AMYeah, I found that strange too. Oh well, the Turkish government's decision. By the way, the 5 kuruş coin design is somewhere between ornamental and realistic - it depicts, or is supposed to feature, the Tree of Life.

Interesting that you share my opinion. Figleaf wrote of my views: "your concept of a set may be more personal than universal." Well, perhaps it's not!

The other point is that I am occasionally told that I look at things differently, or that I think about things that other people do not think about. In fact, I am sure that a few others do notice similar things.

However, writing about sets is quite time-consuming. One needs to look at the individual pieces, gather the data, present it, illustrate it, analyse it and summarise it. Not everybody can be bothered to do that. But chrisild's comment shows me that others do think about these matters. The only scary part was when he described the Tree of Life as being close to realistic. I didn't know that there was a real Tree of Life. Are we in the Matrix after all?  :o
Visit the website of The Royal Mint Museum.

See: The Royal Mint Museum.

chrisild

In my opinion, the "concept" of a coin set matters especially when an entirely set is issued. If only one design gets replaced by a new one, or if a new denomination is added to an existing range of coins, that is different - you may well end up with a mix of various design concepts. But that Turkish set was all new ...

As for the Tree of Life, well, I wrote it is "somewhere between ornamental and realistic". Of course it is not the depiction of real object like that bridge, but it is more than a mere ornament, I think. 8)

<k>

Moldova 50 bani 1993-.jpg

Moldova, 50 bani, 1993.


In 1993 the newly independent state of Moldova issued its first circulation coins.

Above you see the reverse of the aluminium 50 bani coin.

Like the aluminium  5 and 25 bani coins, it featured two sprigs of oak leaves.




In 1997 the 50 bani coin was changed to brass-clad steel.

It also acquired a nice new design.

The design filled much more of the coin space and could be considered thematic.

However, the new design did not fit well with the other designs.
Visit the website of The Royal Mint Museum.

See: The Royal Mint Museum.

<k>

Vietnam-2003.jpg

Vietnam, 2003 set.


The lower denominations, in nickel-plated steel, do not carry a thematic design.

The higher denominations, in brass-plated steel, do.
Visit the website of The Royal Mint Museum.

See: The Royal Mint Museum.