Which Country Has The Oldest Circulating Coins?

[UK Decimal +]

Thanks Martin.

Another thought about the '1870' that I found is that British copper coins were demonetised 31 Dec 1869 and perhaps that date has other relevance.   This topic is getting interesting.

Bill.

[translateltd]

Googled it yesterday and found a reference in Wikipedia (under "sovereign") that gold prior to 1837 was called in in 1891 (a bit later than we thought) and demonetised, and the public was also given a chance to bring in any worn and underweight gold for exchange; the coins thus taken in were recoined as new gold the following year.  That will have to do till I get a moment to check Craig in more detail!

[asm]

Because of that I have found quite a few coins from the 50s, 60s and 70s even a 1947 BI 1/4 Rupee coin.

MS,
Indian system in the immidiate post independent era was the Rupee - Anna - Paisa system which was changed some time in the 1950's. Then we had the naya paisa - Rupee and still later the paisa & Rupee. While the anna series was officially withdrawn, smaller coins of the later series have also bee withdrawn from circulation.
Amit 

[Abhay]

MS,
Indian system in the immidiate post independent era was the Rupee - Anna - Paisa system which was changed some time in the 1950's. Then we had the naya paisa - Rupee and still later the paisa & Rupee. While the anna series was officially withdrawn, smaller coins of the later series have also bee withdrawn from circulation.
Amit 

In India, if you happen to go to a place of Pilgrimage or Temple, like Haridwar or Brindavan, for instance, you can still find the small coins of 10,25 or 50 paisa in use. this is how the system works - You go to a coin dealer, sitting on the street, and purchase small coins from him, often at a small premium, to distribute them to Beggars, which you find in plenty at such places. The beggars, in turn, again sell these small coins to the same coin dealer, now at a small discount, and this is how the cycle keeps going. So, these small coins are still in circulation.

By the way, the first Decimal coins were introduced in 1957, and were popularly called "Naya Paisa" or New paisa, as the words "naya paisa" was written on the coin, to distinguish it from the old paisa of Anna series. As per Reserve Bank of India, these coins are still legal tender, but for obvious reason that the metal value of the coin is more than the coin value itself, most of these coins have already found their way to melting pots.

Abhay

[villa66]

I believe that the original intention was to find which country has the oldest coins which still circulate (on a regular basis) although we are really looking a bit further than this once we add coins that could circulate.   This effectively makes a double question.

a) Which country has the oldest coins in regular circulation, and what ones are they?
b) Which country has the oldest coins that can be circulated as they are legal tender although they are rarely, if ever, seen in circulation, and what ones are they?

As to question b), all American coins issued since 1793 are legal tender and spendable at their face value.

  v.

[Ukrainii Pyat]

And I have gotten coins from circulation in USA as old as 1901 last year - a cent from a roll search.

Cents - earliest I find infrequently - 1909
Nickels - earliest usually is 1939
Dimes - 1965
Quarters - 1965
Halves - 1964 - silver no less, but I get them every few months
Dollars, asking at banks I can get sometimes the 1971 dated coins.

[villa66]

In India, if you happen to go to a place of Pilgrimage or Temple, like Haridwar or Brindavan, for instance, you can still find the small coins of 10,25 or 50 paisa in use. this is how the system works - You go to a coin dealer, sitting on the street, and purchase small coins from him, often at a small premium, to distribute them to Beggars, which you find in plenty at such places. The beggars, in turn, again sell these small coins to the same coin dealer, now at a small discount, and this is how the cycle keeps going. So, these small coins are still in circulation.

By the way, the first Decimal coins were introduced in 1957, and were popularly called "Naya Paisa" or New paisa, as the words "naya paisa" was written on the coin, to distinguish it from the old paisa of Anna series. As per Reserve Bank of India, these coins are still legal tender, but for obvious reason that the metal value of the coin is more than the coin value itself, most of these coins have already found their way to melting pots...

I am very glad to know this. Thanks!

v.

[villa66]

And I have gotten coins from circulation in USA as old as 1901 last year - a cent from a roll search.

Cents - earliest I find infrequently - 1909
Nickels - earliest usually is 1939
Dimes - 1965
Quarters - 1965
Halves - 1964 - silver no less, but I get them every few months
Dollars, asking at banks I can get sometimes the 1971 dated coins.

Duplicates my own experience almost exactly except that I've gotten a Buffalo nickel (in change) about once a year for the last 3 years or so, and I have never found a penny older than 1910.

Swiss coins--or at least, as I read here, the Swiss 10-rappen--must be the champ where coins still in actual circulation are concerned.

  v.

[chrisild]

One time I had a bunch of American coins (mostly doubles, pieces in bad shape, etc.) before going on a trip to the US; decided to grab and then use them there. When using some of them at a post office, I was told that "Sir, this is a silver dime". Actually nice to let me know, but that one was a really worn Mercury dime. Not sure whether he kept it, but it may have re-entered circulation.

As for Switzerland, of course you don't find 100+ year old coins in circulation every day there either, hehe. But once in a while you may see a 19th century in your pocket - and not really notice it right away as a current piece would have the same look ...

Christian

[Austrokiwi]

If you refer to customarily accepted coins then I would add to the list of contenders Bornu in Nigeria. I was recently advised( yet to be confirmed) that the 1780 Maria Theresa thaler still circulates in that region with a locally accepted exchange rate against other currencies.  However what might rule it out of contention is that modern re-strikes are preferred as the are more attractive that the older issues

[Ukrainii Pyat]

We stopped through the drivethru at MacDonalds the other day for a drink - when I got the change I noticed something funny that I got as a dime:



First time I had gotten one of these in change where it still had the original zinc plating and wasn't all corroded out.

Doing cent box searches today, searched 5000 cents and turned up 69 wheats - the most ever for that number of boxes. The best find was this:



Abe is 101 years old, he has also three brothers dated 1918 and two 1920s - the rest of the cents were all 1939-58.

[Enlil]

In Australia all currency issued by the federal government is legal tender at face value, from 1910 onwards, http://www.rba.gov.au/banknotes/legal-framework/redemption.html banknotes,http://www.ramint.gov.au/faq/ in about Australian coins. NZ demonitises old decimal coins coins but not the pound issue http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/currency/money/0094086.html, all dollar and pound banknotes still valid.

[Figleaf]

I think the question as formulated in the first post in this thread refers to coins you can actually find in circulation. Legal tender is not a good criterium. Gold ducats are still being made and legal tender in the Netherlands. The first were struck in 1284. Hard to beat.

Peter

[FosseWay]

Candidates may be found among those countries which have retained substantially the same size and colour for a given denomination over a long period, even if at times they have fallen out of use through inflation, regime change etc. I'm thinking most of pre-euro France and Germany here, but it might also apply to various South American states. (Someone upthread mentioned Switzerland as having the oldest designs still in use; I think countries like Venezuela and Bolivia give it a run for its money.)

The French 50c-1Fr-2Fr of 1896-1918 are more or less identical to the same denominations issued from 1960 to 2001. The latter are in Ni, the former Ag835, and the former are thinner (most noticeable with the 50c), but they are similar enough I'd have thought to have passed in circulation before the euro.

The same situation arises in Germany. The 1-10pf coins of the Weimar Republic and the first few years of the Third Reich (before they went zinc) are similar at a glance to those of the Bundesrepublik. The silver 50pf, 1 and 2 Mk coins of the Kaiserreich are likewise similar enough to have passed for the same denomination before the euro. I received a 1935 5 RM coin in change in 1989/90.

Of course, this is all academic because these countries now use the euro.

Does French Polynesia still use the francs it issued in the 1950s -- those big aluminium jobs? If so, they're the same size as the French 50c-5Fr coins issued by the Vichy government and then into the 1950s. So you could perhaps find an aluminium 1Fr coin from 1941 (I think that's the first of the Al series, and it would be Vichy, not independent) in circulation.

I would agree that the winner by a country mile is the US. It has preserved the situation that used to obtain in the UK before 1971, when you could routinely find 100-year-old pennies and halfpennies in circulation. I imagine the same was true up to 1920 of post-1816 silver (which remained legal tender until much later -- 1990 for shillings -- but would have been unlikely to be used in practice after the reduction in silver content).

[chrisild]

The same situation arises in Germany. The 1-10pf coins of the Weimar Republic and the first few years of the Third Reich (before they went zinc) are similar at a glance to those of the Bundesrepublik. The silver 50pf, 1 and 2 Mk coins of the Kaiserreich are likewise similar enough to have passed for the same denomination before the euro. I received a 1935 5 RM coin in change in 1989/90.

Of course, this is all academic because these countries now use the euro.

You are taking it far beyond "academic", I think. In the Federal Republic of Germany before the euro, people would get certain Polish złoty coins, lira pieces from Italy, etc. in change - and maybe Mark or Reichsmark coins from the German Empire too. There is a simple reason: Some would try and spend "worthless" coins, or pieces that are worth considerably less than Deutsche Mark coins, as DM money. Just as these days some still get cheated with pieces from Thailand or Turkey. None of these has anything to do with continuous use of coins from countries other than the Federal Republic of Germany.

From my (admittedly limited ) experience - and from a practical rather than legal point of view, Switzerland and the US are indeed the places where you are quite likely to come across the oldest circulation pieces.

Christian