Cape Verde's Three 1994 Coin Sets

Started by Galapagos, September 28, 2008, 02:06:53 PM

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Galapagos

In 1994, Cape Verde produced not just one new set of designs for its coins, but three. Surely a record. Though they look like circulation sets, I do not know whether they circulated or whether they were just meant for collectors. Does any one here know?

One of the three sets depicted wildlife, whilst the other two depicted ships and flowers respectively.

The wildlife set depicted birds, apart from the one escudo coin, which depicted a turtle:-
                               
1   escudo.   Green turtle.
5   escudos.  Osprey.
10  escudos.  Grey-headed kingfisher.
20  escudos.  Brown booby.
50  escudos.  Sparrow.
100 escudos.  Raza Island lark.   Bimetal: Brass outer, cupro-nickel inner.
100 escudos.  Raza Island lark.   Bimetal: Bronze outer, cupro-nickel inner.

The 100 escudos coin in all three sets was bimetallic, and each came in two varieties: a copper-nickel centre in a brass ring, and a copper-nickel centre in a bronze ring.

For reasons unknown to me, the ship and flower sets, unlike the wildlife set, do not include a one escudo coin. To my knowledge, none was ever designed or issued for these sets.

Here is a list of the plant set:-

5   escudos.  Campanula jacobaea Webb.
10  escudos.  Echium stenosiphon.
20  escudos.  Limonium braunii Bolle.
50  escudos.  Asteriscus vogelli (Webb) Walp.
100 escudos.  Aeonium gorgoneum J. A. Schmidt.

Here is a list of the ship set:-

5   escudos.  Belmira.
10  escudos.  Carvalho.
20  escudos.  Novas de Alegria.
50  escudos.  Senhor das Areías.
100 escudos.  Madalan.

When I emailed the Cape Verdean authorities in 2001 to ask them who designed all these coins, they replied as follows:-

"Referring to your e-mail dated July 1, we inform you that Kiki Lima was the artist who designed the bird, plants and ships that are depicted on our coins issued in 1994. He is a Capeverdean and lives in Portugal.
All the coins are produced by the Royal Mint in London."

Figleaf

A good thing someone records the name of the artists before they fade into oblivion, Galapagos. Not sure whether the three sets circulate simultaneously, but there are people on the forum who'll know more. It's not impossible. Croatia has done it before and it seems to have dawned on the powers that be that the unwritten rule of one coin - one design no longer holds, since consumers in the euro-area do not complain about the multitude of national sides on coins in their purses (they do complain about the commemorative 2 euro coins).

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

Galapagos

Quote from: Figleaf on September 28, 2008, 06:45:24 PM
Not sure whether the three sets circulate simultaneously, but there are people on the forum who'll know more. It's not impossible. Croatia has done it before...

Peter

As I recall, Croatia produced one set of circulating wildlife designs, but with three varying sets of inscriptions. The first set described the common names of the plants and animals in Croatian; the second set showed the scientific (Latin) names instead; and the third set was a subset of the second (the 1 lipe, 20 lipe and 2 kune) with the inscriptions "FAO" and "FIAT PANIS" replacing the wildlife names. So, they weren't quite as innovative as the Cape Verdean sets, but I am very pleased to possess all these Croatian variations, as they are very smart designs.

Afrasi

Hello!

The 100-Escudos-pieces with the bronze ring were sold in "original sets", the ones with a brass ring were the circulation strikes.

Afrasi

Bimat

I received some the coins from this series today(Thanks,Luis!)I got:


DenominationKM #CompositionComments
5Escudos28.00Copper Plated SteelOsprey
5Escudos31.00Copper Plated SteelContra Bruxas
5Escudos36.00Copper Plated SteelSailboat
20Escudos33.00Nickel Plated SteelCarqueja
20Escudos42.00Nickel Plated SteelSailship
50Escudos37.00Copper NickelSparrow
100Escudos38.00Bi-MetallicSaiao Flowers

My next job is to find the missing coins in the series :)

Does anyone know the mintage figures for these issues? It's not that it really matters,but I always try to mention the mintage in the excel worksheet.SCWC doesn't mention the mint and designer,but Galapagos' post gives all the missing information :)

Aditya
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

<k>

Did you guess that I was Galapagos in a previous life?  ;)  Well, I looked in Krause and Schön, but without luck. I always wonder why some people look for mintage figures. What story do they tell you, Aditya? When I hunt for designer details, it's because I hope to build my knowledge of a designer's portfolio - then I think, "Aha, so he designed THAT set as well, but in a very different style! Very interesting!"
Visit the website of The Royal Mint Museum.

See: The Royal Mint Museum.

Bimat

As I said before,I need those numbers just to put into my excel worksheet,nothing more than that.

Yeah,I know that Galapagos=E.M.U.=Ice Torch=Hundreds of other nicknames ;D

Aditya
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

Figleaf

The Soviet Union has throughout its history regarded mintage figures as state secret and attempts to get them as espionage. Their Central and Easter European clients did likewise. The example spread to all continents with their attempts to export communism. After 1991, mintage figures came to light in some countries, but in others, they are lost. Mintage figures are not very important for price (they tell you something about initial supply. not about final supply, nothing about demand), but they are an indicator of (expected) economic growth, especially in ancient and medieval economies. For modern economies, there are better indicators, e.g. power consumption.

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

Luis

All these sets circulate. I don't know whether they were all released at the same time or what, but they definitely use all of them now.

It's too bad my parents couldn't take me with them to Cape Verde, otherwise instead of 30 or 40 coins (of which almost none are left - Thanks Aditya!) I'd have brought 3 or 4 hundred :D

Bimat

Quote
All these sets circulate. I don't know whether they were all released at the same time or what, but they definitely use all of them now.
So do you mean that both the types of three bimetallic issues circulate? Because according to Afrasi,one of the type exists only in sets.

Aditya
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

Figleaf

Quote from: E.M.U. on August 06, 2010, 12:39:09 AM
But can we believe those figures anyway. We know about the communist mania for fulfilling quotas and falsifying the figures.

The meaningful ones, yes. Here, what's important is plan quota and cheating. If a mint would not have made it's planned quotum, it would have given the required number. That would have been risky without reserves, so they'd tend to under-report in years where they had done more than their quotum. Therefore I expect a tendency to under-report.

That trend is reinforced by a secondary consideration: if you manage to under-report, you can sell the metal allotted to you and put the money in your own pocket.

However, I expect that both trends would be too small to make a meaningful difference.

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

Luis

Quote from: Numismatica on August 06, 2010, 02:57:57 PM
So do you mean that both the types of three bimetallic issues circulate? Because according to Afrasi,one of the type exists only in sets.

I meant what I said generally. It's possible one or two specific coins don't circulate. I don't think I have any 200 escudos coin, for example (but that might be because my parents didn't look hard enough, lol).

Bimat

Quote from: Afrasi on October 16, 2008, 11:30:40 PM
The 100-Escudos-pieces with the bronze ring were sold in "original sets", the ones with a brass ring were the circulation strikes.

Here's a scan of 'Plants' BU set I received recently. Now will have to search the remaining two sets.. ;)



Aditya
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.