Papua New Guinea - Reduced Size Kina

[Galapagos]

In an older thread, Aidan told us the following:-

"Papua New Guinea still has a 1 Kina coin in circulation, but it is now in nickel-plated steel & a lot smaller in size."

Now, Andy has been posting some nice scans of old/new sized coins, so I wonder if he has both coins and can do the same for PNG?   

[andyg]

Is this some sort of test
though 1975 Kina is not so good, need a better one....
Don't think I've ever seen an old size Kina in Unc.

[translateltd]

The coin may have got smaller but the hole appears to have got bigger - or is that just an optical illusion?

[andyg]

Old - 15g, 33mm - centre hole 6mm
New - 11g, 29mm - centre hole 6mm

When the coins are placed together there is a very slight difference in centre hole size, say 0.2mm bigger on the new coin.  I think that this is because the hole in the older coin was maybe not quite punched correctly. Nice effect though!

[Figleaf]

Don't think I've ever seen an old size Kina in Unc.

Mine's a mishandled unc with some big ugly spots. Looks like cheap sticky tape glue.

I can imagine using a bird of paradise. If you have seen them, you don't forget them. I can also imagine the Brits not wanting to use them for political reasons. What I find difficult to understand is using it as a sort of ersatz German eagle ...

Peter

[Galapagos]

I would rate the German New Guinea bird of paradise design as being one of the very first "modern" depictions of wildlife on a COIN. Those Ceylonese and German East Africa elephants must rate among the others.

[BC Numismatics]

Peter,
  What is depicted on the obverse of Papua New Guinean coins is their equivilant of a Coat-of-Arms.

The Bird-of-Paradise is very appropriate,as Papua New Guinea is one of only 2 countries where Birds-of-Paradise are found in their natural habitat.

The other country where they are found in the wild is Trinidad & Tobago.

Aidan.

[Harald]

Don't think I've ever seen an old size Kina in Unc.

nice & shiny, as it has never been used for trivial commercial activities... 

--
Harald