Sierra Leone: Leones or Dollar?

[Bimat]

Hi all,
According to World Coin Catalog,Leone is the official currency of Sierra Leone,but there are 1 Dollar issues also.(1 Dollar=1 Leone)Can these dollars be used for transactions?Is it a legal tender?And if it is not,then why they are issued?Any specific purpose?

Aditya

[BC Numismatics]

Aditya,
  The official currency of Sierra Leone is 100 Cents = 1 Leone,which has been hit by inflation in recent years,due to the civil war in that country,which Sierra Leone is still recovering from.

Those Dollar-denominated things are medal-coins that are churned out by the Pobjoy Mint,which is a private mint in England that notoriously churns out medal-coins,especially in the names of the Isle of Man & Liberia.The Commonwealth Mint in England is another private mint that has also struck medal-coins,but they are not as bad as the Pobjoy Mint are (yet).

Aidan.

[africancoins]

What makes Pobjoy Mint "bad" - well I reckon they would be better off making producing fewer designs in fewers varieties/sizes. I would have thought that more types on offer (especially when so very many) does not necessarily equate to higher profits.... But perhaps they may have studied this and proved otherwise.

Anyway.... Yes Sierra Leone have "Dollars" is a bit odd.. as with Ghana having "Sika". These are both series that are produced primarily for sale to overseas nations (outside the issuing nation)....

However - less know are the relatively recent Leones denomination crown-sized coins made by the Pobloy Mint - these have a Sierra Leone related theme and are a Copper-Nickel crown-sized type of Le 100 and a Bronze crown-sized type of Le 500.

See the second part of my page at...

http://www.wbcc.fsnet.co.uk/af-sie2.htm

for further details. The Pobjoy Mint assisted me regarding the photo on that page - though I did later get an example of each of these types via a source other than the mint. They are in individual colourful packs and so would be tricky to picture.

Thanks Mr Paul Baker

[Figleaf]

Pyramids have been on coins (and banknotes) for a long time.

I am with Aidan in my dislike of Pobjoy (sorry Paul). I readily admit that other than some of the other scrap metal converters like Italcambio and Commonwealth, a least Pobjoy also makes coins that actually circulate.

However, the large majority of types they issue are "commemoratives" for far-fetched occasions, microscopic "countries" and territories, often with denominations that do not fit into the money in circulation and impractical size (who wants crown sized pieces in their pockets?). Clearly, their only driver is maximizing sales and if that takes Christmas coins, crowns and really very bad taste designs dripping saccharine, so be it. Real coins try to increase respect for a country, Pobjoy coins do the opposite. Just wade through the KM pages on the Isle of Man or Gibraltar if you have the strength.

Mind, there are other mints and countries doing the same. Austria, China, Cuba, North Korea, Poland to name but a few and there are far worse, but that still doesn't make Pobjoy respectable.

Peter

[Harald]

What makes Pobjoy Mint "bad" - well I reckon they would be better off making producing fewer designs in fewers varieties/sizes. I would have thought that more types on offer (especially when so very many) does not necessarily equate to higher profits.... But perhaps they may have studied this and proved otherwise.

Anyway.... Yes Sierra Leone have "Dollars" is a bit odd.. as with Ghana having "Sika". These are both series that are produced primarily for sale to overseas nations (outside the issuing nation)....

Thanks Mr Paul Baker

bad or not, they are not worse than other private mints who are making money with non-coin products and are using therefore the numismatic sales channels. what disturbs me more is that far too many people pretend that this metal prints are indeed coins (means "money"), instead of declaring them to be what they are, namely medals. but this is a never ending story...

in my eyes it is ethically questionable (to put it like this) if coins are issued in the name of a state which is in the middle of a civil war, where no goverment, central bank or similar authority is around, like Sierra Leone, Liberia, Somalia.

in this sense the Sierraleonese "dollars" are really bad, the Ghanaian "sika" are fine. the word "sika" means "gold" in the akan language, therefore there was some thinking behind the issues. the "SL dollars" are also bad marketing-wise, as the producers could not even come up with a fancy name.

cheers
--
Harald

[BC Numismatics]

Harald,
  The Sierra Leone Company did issue a Dollar-based currency in the late 18th. & early 19th. Centuries.Perhaps the Pobjoy Mint was trying to evoke a reflection of this through their Sierra Leonean Dollar-denominated medal-coins.

Aidan.