Music: Composers on Coins

[Alan Glasser]

Thanks to the very kind people and much appreciated efforts of several people here on the boards, I received my long sought after TONGA KM-160 1993 1 Pa'Anga coin featuring Richard Wagner in today's mail. Needless to say, I am thrilled and so very appreciative of those who helped me in locating a dealer who had the coin in stock, helped with translations and offered in other ways to be of help, and for ordering the coin and sending it to me along with 4 others from the dealer's stock.

Someone once said here that half the fun is in the hunt for an elusive coin. Well, that may be true in 99% of instances, but in the case of the Tonga coin, the joy of POSSESSION is a terrific feeling. A 10 year hunt is at an end! My most sincere thanks to all involved in helping me to attain this long sought after goal of adding KM-160 to my composer set.

Alan  Massachusetts ...cold, snowy, windy and icy but I am as happy as a clam today!!!    

[Alan Glasser]

One of the things that I really doing is sharing with online friends when I acquire what I call a "milestone coin". In the past 2 weeks or so, 2 "milestone coins" have been added to the Music Coin" collection. I am pleased to share with everyone here.

The Tonga KM-160 1 Pa'Anga  1993 coin features Richard Wagner. This coin was obtained with the much appreciated collaberation of several "World of Coins" readers. One helped locate the coin for me, one helped me with translations and a third actually ordered the coin (and several others) for me from Germany and shipped them to me here in the United States. How much I appreciate all those were so helpful in finally...after approximately 10 years..my obtaining the Wagner coin. Interestingly, I was in communication with several contacts in Tonga and no one knew of the existence of the coin. This included the Bank of Tonga, where current coins and special comemmoratives can be ordered directly from the bank (distributor).  They did not know of the coin's existance. I saw one once on E-Bay (an old listing still on the net) but of course, it was long sold. The 10 year hunt began. I find it interesting that the Bank of Tonga knows nothing about the piece, which has an "estimated" mintage of 10,000 pieces. I SERIOUSLY doubt that...or perhaps thousands were melted. I would LOVE to know where they all went. Does anyone have any research ability in this area? 

The second piece, Andorra KM-82 50 Diners Gold featuring Pablo Casals, also of 1993. Though not a composer, I have a sub category for famous performers, and Casals certainly qualifies! I never thought I would find this one, let alone actually OWN it. It has been in my "look for" notes for several years but as the price of gold skyrocked, chances got less and less that I would be able to add this one to the collection. In October 2012, I was just cruising through different coin sites and there it was...on auction.  Though I knew I had little chance of winning the bid, I submitted my best offer and by a pure miracle, I won the coin. It arrived yesterday!

So there are my 2 new "milestone coins" I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I do owning them.

Best wishes from Alan in Massachusetts





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[Figleaf]

Congratulations, Alan. On your exhibition dream, why not realise it yourself by making an ebook? Computers have made publishing easier than ever. You will need pictures of all the pieces you want to exhibit, atmosphere pictures, knowledge of a word processing programme (MS Word will do fine), knowledge of a picture manipulating programme (while photoshop will do very well, it is complicated; look at the poll here) and lots of time.

I have ebooks of two of our members, proving that it can be done. Once that project is in a stage where it can be distributed (I guess it will never be quite finished), you can mail your ebook to anyone worthy, so they can, at any time, look at - as Moussorgski put it - pictures at an exhibition.

Peter

[Prosit]

MS Word is a possibility as is Publisher. Actually it can be done in Excel although I don't actually like that one at all for that type project.  And you can mix and match but that isn't optimal. Images in Word can pile up the Mb quickly (especially unedited/formated images) as it can in any program and one draw back of Word is inserting something in the middle after a work is partially complete.  That tends to push odd formating and breaks into the document in most pages following after the insertation page causing a lot of unnecesssary correction work. Haveing it planned from the begining is best.

I would suggest starting with a central dominating theme and creating stand alone major subsections as seperate documents to keep the Mb sizes manageble and editing to a minimum.  I would also suggest creating the outline first and creating the smallest subsection first.  That way you get to explore various formats, graphics and layout possibilities with a manageble sized document. Once you have figured out what you want to do with that small part then it is just follow the recipe for the rest. 

At the end it may be possible to combine sections into one document and compress it into a PDF and maybe still have a size suitable for email.

As "they" say about undertaking large projects, you can't swallow an elephant but take it one bite at a time and you actually can do the job

Alan, If you wanted to start work with an outline, intro and a small subsection and I would be willing to help get you started and explore your concepts.

Dale

Congratulations, Alan. On your exhibition dream, why not realise it yourself by making an ebook?
......I have ebooks of two of our members, proving that it can be done. Peter

[Bimat]

Got this nice Austrian coin recently...I'm 500% sure Alan already has it?



Aditya

[chrisild]

Austria is always a good place to check out when it comes to music on coins.   This year's piece, with the Waltz theme, is not composer related but may still be interesting. And then there are Germany's Richards - this year Wagner, next year Strauss ...

Christian

[Alan Glasser]

Hello, Christian and Aditya.

Always nice hearing from you and seeing that the Composers on Coins topic is still alive and well. I have a couple of new pieces...(been slowing down though) that I should post here. Still waiting for a $2 Nuie (Niue?) small Chopin gold coin that I ordered 3 months ago. They sent the $1 coin (which I already have). Anyway, we have been writing back and forth (they are in the Netherlands) and it seems as if there is no movement. I may have to file a formal complaint and seek recourse through my credit card. I'll keep you all posted.

Aditya, I do have the Mozart 5 Euro Mozart piece. I am quite proud that I have completed all the Austria composer coins except for some "music related" personalities. I could go nuts trying to get all the coins with Maria Theresa and some other "music related" people on them.  Won't try.

To everyone, I hope the new year has started out well and that you achieve some great coin collecting goals in 2013.

Still under the weather a bit from the Noro Virus on the cruise ship (they never told us that it was on board and as a kidney transplant recipient, this was risky.) Feeling well with just a few minor remaining symptoms. Needless to say, I'm beginning a "significant letter writing campaign", including government agencies, to change cruise ship policy of not advising of illness on board until the new passangers have boarded. Not good.

Best to everyone.   Alan in Massachusetts

[chrisild]

Hope that the "Noro effects" are gone.   Today I saw a set of Chopin coins from Andorra (coins and from in inverted commas ...) but while you may already have those - they are dated 2009 - the "pack" that they come in may be new:

http://www.hse24.de/Basteln-Muenzen/Muenzen/Themen-Gedenkmuenzen/Jubilaeumskollektion-Frederic-Chopin-pu42280567.html

Eight 10 D pieces, partly colored, partly "swarovskied", and the box is a (grand) piano! Only €399, ahem ...

Christian

[Alan Glasser]

Hi, Christian.

It sure is great having so many nice fellow-collectors on the hunt for music coins for me. Thanks so much. I was very VERY fortunate to pick this set up on the Polish version of E-Bay at a tremendous savings over issue price. The packaging is "unique" to say the least and the coins really do teach a bit of history about Chopin's life.  The case is in storage but the coins have been given their own page in the Chopin composer album.

Many thanks for posting the photos and for keeping my "addiction" in mind! Much appreciated!  Alan   Massachusetts

[Alan Glasser]

Hello everyone. Snowing again today in Massachusetts so we're sticking close to home. So, I have more time to work on the Peru coin inventory. Anyway, I'm taking a break from the inventory so here are 3 music coin pieces that arrrived a couple of weeks ago. The 2 Liberian pieces are of course unlisted. To my understanding, they were minted to commemorate the National Anthems of Italy and Denmark. The busts on the coins "might" be the composers, (so I'm told) but I have not researched that yet. I already have the coins honoring the Germany, Austria and Luxumburg National Anthems. (Haydn, Mozart and Ziennen).

The silver piece is from Mongolia honoring Mozart, dated 2006 and is also unlisted.

Be well, everyone.  Alan   Massachusetts





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[chrisild]

Those Liberian "coins" are somewhat odd. Not sure why they would refer to the ECU ... at a time when that ECU had already been replaced by the euro. Then again, the Liberian government or whoever issued them - the civil war(s) further complicated things - has apparently developed some kind of diarrhea when it comes to such "coins".

But yes, Fratelli d'Italia was written by Goffredo Mameli (who I suppose is the person depicted on the piece), and composed by Michele Novaro. Der er et yndigt land was written by Adam Oehlenschläger; the composer was Hans Ernst Krøyer. (Denmark also has a second anthem for purposes involving the royals.)

The Mongolian piece is listed in the Schön. Produced by the Mayer Mint, maximum mintage 2,500 ... and the building underneath Mozart's portrait is the Ulaanbaatar opera house.

Christian

[Alan Glasser]

Hi, Christian. Exactly the information I was looking to research after dinner out with a neighbor. Thanks for checking out the National Anthem Composers for me. I like to include a bit of "history" of the coins when I put them in the Music Coin/Nationalism topic inventory. Thank you!!!

In reference to Liberia and the particular "malady" causing the over abundance of coinage issues, what a creative phrase!! I will remember that. I believe it is quite contagious as many nations seem to have it as well. What country is it that has coin designs featuring playing cards, Hello Kitty, cartoon characters.. ?   
I could go on and on....and on...and on...some real interesting stuff out there...I guess it sells (I buy the music related stuff...after market when the price plummets) as I expect that much of some of these tiny nations rely on coins to be a major portion of their GNP. Doesn't Licthenstein have collector stamps as a primary industry? What's good for the goose...and so on.

Thanks again.  Alan   Massachusetts   

[translateltd]

Still waiting for a $2 Nuie (Niue?)

If it's any help as a trick to remember which way the vowels go, "Niu" is a Polynesian word for coconut, and "E" is a verbal particle, so "Niu-e" essentially means "here there be coconuts" - a worthwhile stop on a long canoe voyage across vast tracts of water :-)

[Figleaf]

Mameli can be recognised from his portrait. Oehlenschläger, well, let's believe in intentions.

The main industries in Lichtenstein are drawing up acts for foreigners and producing false teeth (I kid you not). It takes only a few minutes by car to reach Vaduz (the capital) from the border and again a few minutes to reach the opposite border from Vaduz.

Peter

[chrisild]

What country is it that has coin designs featuring playing cards, Hello Kitty, cartoon characters.. ?

Canada, France, and various places in the Pacific Ocean are always good candidates.   As for Liechtenstein, one thing that I particularly remember is that, if you want a Liechtenstein stamp in your passport, they do that at the tourist office ... and charge for it. At least the country issues hardly any coins, hehe.

Christian