Comments on the Official Currencies and Coinages of Oceania

[chrisild]

Click on the link below to see the original topic:

The Official Currencies and Coinages of Oceania

The Pacific Franc is a currency union for those overseas territories of France that did not want to join the euro. The Pacific Franc is pegged to the euro at a rate of €1 =  CFPF 119.2529826

Just a quick side note - the Pacific Franc was different from the French Franc, and is equally different from the euro. More importantly, "The euro area has no obligation to support the exchange rate with the CFP franc." http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/the_euro/euro_in_world9371_en.htm  It was and is up to France to determine (and adapt if necessary) the Euro-CFPF exchange rate.

Christian

[africancoins]

It was 5 years ago today that in reply to my question about a bi-metallic "coin" that was "from" Micronesia - a government official from there told me that the pieces were not authorised. So really all of the "coins" I know of from there are just bits of metal that say "MICRONESIA" on them and have a few other physical features resembling those of a coin.

The government official referred to the place as...  "The Freely Associated States of Micronesia".

I am not sure of the government involvement with the Easter Island set(s) - but very likely these are just fantasy issues.

Thanks Mr Paul Baker

[Galapagos]

Micronesia - a government official from there told me that the pieces were not authorised.
Easter Island set(s) - very likely these are just fantasy issues.

So we can say that, in addition to locally produced pseudo-coins, we also have unauthorised pieces, though this does not surprise me.
What I have not investigated is whether any of these geographical entities actually produce NCLT. I remember there was a big fuss not many years ago about the banks of some micro-state suddenly refusing to redeem its collector coins. Was that the Marsahll Islands?

As I pointed out, I have another topic devoted to the official circulation coinages of Oceania. This topic will just highlight all those polities that produce coins or coin-like objects that are of no monetary use. Distinguishing official circulation coinages and the rest is easy in principle, but there may be some collectors who are confused.

[andyg]

It was 5 years ago today that in reply to my question about a bi-metallic "coin" that was "from" Micronesia - a government official from there told me that the pieces were not authorised. So really all of the "coins" I know of from there are just bits of metal that say "MICRONESIA" on them and have a few other physical features resembling those of a coin.

The government official referred to the place as...  "The Freely Associated States of Micronesia".

I am not sure of the government involvement with the Easter Island set(s) - but very likely these are just fantasy issues.

Thanks Mr Paul Baker

I've read somewhere (rcc I think) that some dealer took back coins to the Marshall Islands to exchange them for dollars, they at first refused - then later accepted them at 50% (?) face.

Easter Island I'm sure are fantasy sets, along with Cabinda, Kurdestan etc,
these pieces all have a similar 'clipart' look to them, as though whoever designed them just used images grabbed from the internet rather than actually design a new piece of artwork.

Do we know where the Pitcairn Island coinage came from and what status it has?

[Galapagos]

I've read that the New Zealand mint produces the coinage for Pitcairn, but I'm sure it's just NCLT. I'm not sure the Pitcairners would want you tendering it if you visited them.

[africancoins]

The 1988 to 1997 at least were by the British Royal Mint (per Schon catalogue) - all collector coins. Not sure about the rest...

Thanks Mr Paul Baker

[Galapagos]

In this case I meant the Pitcairn set, rather than individual commemoratives, for 2009 that you can see on Joel Anderson's site. Probably official, but likely NCLT, as they use the NZ dollar there, even though it is a British possession.

[translateltd]

The following uses the New Zealand dollar, as well as its own currency, pegged at a rate of one to one to the NZ dollar:

1] The Cook Islands.  This is a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand.

CI hardly uses any of its own currency now, apart, it would seem, from the $5 coin, which is not matched by any NZ coin denomination.  NZ$5 notes also circulate.  So it's more like Tuvalu and Kiribati from that perspective - it has/had its own coins and notes but they don't see much use, apart from that one coin denomination.

[translateltd]

I've read somewhere (rcc I think) that some dealer took back coins to the Marshall Islands to exchange them for dollars, they at first refused - then later accepted them at 50% (?) face.

Easter Island I'm sure are fantasy sets, along with Cabinda, Kurdestan etc,
these pieces all have a similar 'clipart' look to them, as though whoever designed them just used images grabbed from the internet rather than actually design a new piece of artwork.

Do we know where the Pitcairn Island coinage came from and what status it has?

The Marshalls refused to redeem their commemoratives, so they must really be considered NCNLT rather than NCLT.  There was a similar situation in the Cooks not long ago when some German dealer (I believe) had gathered up large stocks of their silver and wanted to cash it for face, which was a lot higher than the melt value.  I believe this was refused but don't know what the outcome was - whether the "coins" were repudiated in their entirety or whether a limit was set on how much could be redeemed.

The story must be only a mere Google away, but I'll leave that to another intrepid researcher for the moment ...

[paddyirish]

CI hardly uses any of its own currency now, apart, it would seem, from the $5 coin, which is not matched by any NZ coin denomination.  NZ$5 notes also circulate.  So it's more like Tuvalu and Kiribati from that perspective - it has/had its own coins and notes but they don't see much use, apart from that one coin denomination.

I was in Rarotonga in 2004 and regularly came across Cook Island coins there. We brought in NZD (hence, like so many other visitors, introducing the parent currency into the child market in relatively large quantities) but received a decent amount of Cook Islands coins (particularly £1 up) in our change.  I also "bought" a very pleasant UNC $3 note, which I can't display on a family website , (I believe) at face value from the Post office.

[translateltd]

So, we have a bit of a split between your view, Paddy, and Martin's, on which Cook Islands coins still circulate. Does anybody know the date and denominations of the most recent Cook Islands circulation coins to be found actually circulating, as opposed to just in collector sets?

I was there in June this year, though admittedly only for a day's stopover, so didn't do a lot of shopping.  What change we were given was NZ currency (coins and notes), and I had to ask to get the CI $5 coin from the till rather than an NZ $5 note.  The lady in the shop was reluctant to part with any more examples.  The one I got was dated 2003 - I was surprised to see they were still making circulation coins as late as that, but don't know any more.  I certainly won't dispute Alasdair's experience - it may well be that smaller CI coins were still in circulation a few years ago, but since the NZ coins have been reduced in size I assume that that will have driven the "large" CI coins out of use.  This is pure supposition but I would imagine it would be complicated to keep the local coins circulating when they were the same size as our (now demonetised) pre-2006 coins, and our small post-2006 coins are in regular use there.

[translateltd]

This actually raises a question that I had never thought of before now - were the CI coins of 1 to 50c demonetised in 2006 when ours were?  Or would it just have been left to natural attrition and the inconvenience of handling two different sizes of coin to remove the local smaller denominations from circulation?

[translateltd]

If you stock up on many thousands of dollars "worth" of silver coins that you bought in for their bullion value, which happens to be a small fraction of their nominal face value, then it would be a very practical option to bag it all up and book a trip in the hope that your haul will more than pay for it :-)

[Galapagos]

would it just have been left to natural attrition

So this suggests that you think the Cook Islands are going to stop minting their own coins for good. As Kiribati and Tuvalu appear to be doing. So then there will be no dual currency areas in Oceania.



I have proof sets from the 1970s that include the 50c Bonito fish design by James Berry. My uncirculated 50 tene is dated 1988. It depicts a turtle. That design is by Horst Hahne of Australia, who produced the Oz two dollar reverse design of the aborigine.

I have two different 20c designs in my proof sets:

1973. 20c.  Fairylake swallow.

1977. 20c.  Pacific Triton seashells.

Both designs are by James Berry.

[Galapagos]

The Chatham Islands had their own pseudo $5 & $50 coins.
Nothing to write home about, I see.