Games on coins

[<k>]

Malaysia, 10 sen, 2009.




A congkak.

This is a game of ancient Javanese origin.

It is played in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Southern Thailand.

[<k>]

Malaysia, 5 sen, 1995.




A traditional spinning top, which is used in games and competitions.

[<k>]

Cyprus, 1 pound, 1989.

Collector issue: Save the Children.

Two children playing "knucklebones".

[<k>]

Zambia, 10 kwacha, 1980.  Children playing on climbing bars.

[<k>]

Malta, 5 pounds, 1981.

International Youth Conference - UNICEF.

What is the name of this game?

[<k>]

Mexico, 5 pesos, 1999.  Flying a kite.

[eurocoin]

Jersey, 2 pounds, 2023. Cribbage.

[eurocoin]

Jersey, 2 pounds, 2023. Dominoes.

[eurocoin]

Jersey, 2 pounds, 2023. Billiards.

[eurocoin]

Jersey, 2 pounds, 2023. Skittles.

[eurocoin]

Jersey, 2 pounds, 2023. Darts.

[stef]

Malta, 5 pounds, 1981.

International Youth Conference - UNICEF.

What is the name of this game?

"Hopscotch is played with a pebble that you move with the tip of your toe. The things you need: a sidewalk, a pebble, a toe, and a pretty chalk drawing, preferably in colors. On top is Heaven, on the bottom is Earth, it's very hard to get the pebble up to Heaven, you almost always miscalculate and the stone goes off the drawing. But little by little you start to get the knack of how to jump over the different squares (spiral hopscotch, rectangular hopscotch, fantasy hopscotch, not played very often) and then one day you learn how to leave Earth and make the pebble climb up to Heaven...the worst part of it is that precisely at that moment, when practically no one has learned how to make the pebble climb up into Heaven, childhood is over all of a sudden and you're into novels, into the anguish of the senseless divine trajectory, into the speculation about another Heaven that you have to learn to reach too. And since you have come out of childhood... you forget that in order to get to Heaven you have to have a pebble and a toe."

Julio Cortázar

[<k>]

Thanks, Stef. I thought it might be hopscotch but wasn't sure if it was some foreign variation.

I did occasionally play the game in the 1960s but cannot remember the rules.