Warning to Wrexham shoppers over foreign coins

[Figleaf]

Warning to Wrexham shoppers over foreign coins
Published Date: 16 January 2009

SHOPPERS throughout the Wrexham area have been warned to be on their guard against mistakenly getting short changed.

The alert is from Ian and Alana Fidler who found themselves out of pocket when they came across a highly unusual foreign coin.

Although at first glance it looks very similar to our own £2, there are a number of important differences which should set alarm bells ringing.

"We had gone out shopping in Wrexham town centre and afterwards were getting all our change together," said Ian, of Borras.

"We thought we had a £2 coin. But when we took a closer look found it was actually some currency from overseas that we had never seen before.

"It is definitely not British or European, and more probably from an Arab country."

Alana and Ian decided that they would take the unidentified currency to their bank and see if the finance experts could shed any light on the mystery.

"They had a look, but were unable to say which country it had originally come from. We are no further forward," said Alana.

"We are not able to change it into UK currency so it is worthless to us. People should be on the look out for any further examples.

"It is not as if it has been mistaken for a 10p or 20p when given as change, £2 is a significant sum of money to lose in this way - especially for people like pensioners or families on low incomes."

The British £2 coin and the Fidlers' mystery money are both round, roughly of similar size, gold coloured on the outside and silver on the inside.

However the unknown coin is thinner, on one side it features a floral arrangement while on the other side there is the image of a heart shape, a tick and Arabic writing.

Source: Evening Leader

[Afrasi]

Persian world coinage!   ;-)

[translateltd]

Definitely the laugh of the day!  You'd think the paper would be capable of organising the small amount of research needed before going to press, wouldn't you?   Heart shape and tick ... hmmmm, a Persian 5 and a 2 viewed upside-down?

[BC Numismatics]

Peter,
  That is definitely an Iranian 250 Rials,whose face value is close to the same value as the Zimbabwean Dollar - US$0.00!

Aidan.

[Bimat]

Hi Aidan,
This really sounds interesting .But the same Iran bimetallic has a very high catalog value (about 7$ for UNC).The lady should exchange it with some collector,where she can get 3 Euros for the same coin .It will be jackpot for her!!
I had a similar experience 2 years ago.(But on a positive note)A shopkeeper was expected to return 25 Paise to my mom.And,he did so.But when my Mom saw the coin afterwards,she realized that it is not a 25 Paise coin,and thought that it is fake.(The coin was little bit blackened).Later,she showed the coin to me,and for some time,I was also confused whether the coin is fake or any other coin.But when I tried to find its origin,it turned out to be Hyderabad State 4 Annas Silver coin.(Y# 38.3) .What a great deal by my Mom
Now waiting for another such experience
Aditya

[lusomosa]

A colleague of mine had a simiral experiance in the Netherlands.
After spending one entire afternoon shopping with his wife he returned home and had a careful look into a 50 euro cent coin he got back at a shop. As he is not dutch he phoned me to come and have a look.
It was a 10 gulden gold coin like the one I post here........
My question is : who would have at home a 10 gulden gold coin in a draw and mistakenly take it as 50 euro cents !
I'm afraid it would be some one of high age who could not see very well.

LP

[BC Numismatics]

Aditya,
 Did you buy that Hyderabadi 4 Annas off your mother?

Nearly 20 years ago,one of the teachers at my secondary school in my home town gave me a few Indian coins that he had brought with him when he emigrated from India to New Zealand.One of the coins he gave me was an Indian 1/4 Rupee dated 1946,which he obviously got in change as a 25 Paise coin,due to being the same size.

One time,the younger of my 2 sisters got a 1979 1 Cent coin from South Africa in change as a 1c. coin,as 1 Cent & 2 Cents coins were still in use over here in New Zealand,but were about to be withdrawn from circulation in early 1990.My sister knew that I was collecting coins,so she gave it to me.Fortunately,I have still got this coin in my collection.

Aidan.

[Bimat]

Hi Aidan,
My parents and my sister always help me to increase my Indian coin collection.Whenever they get any Indian commemorative coin,they give it to me and never spend.I must say that I have a good collection of Indian coins because of them also.
Aditya

[BC Numismatics]

Aditya,
  That's very good.At least your family are doing their bit for the promotion of Indian numismatics,as well as raising some seignorage for the Reserve Bank of India.

Aidan.

[Bimat]

Aditya,
  That's very good.At least your family are doing their bit for the promotion of Indian numismatics,as well as raising some seignorage for the Reserve Bank of India.

Aidan.

Hi Aidan,
You will be surprised to read this.I started collecting coins about 8 years ago,because of my Great Grand Mother(She is 95 years old now).I remember she gave me 14 different Indian commemoratives (1 Rupee and 2 Rupees),which she had kept aside.(I really salute her,she did this job at the age of 85 years!)Later,I got few British India coins from her!At that time,I was fascinated towards Numismatics.My mother used to collect worldwide stamps when she was young,she had an amazing collection of stamps from more than 170 countries.Unfortunately,her collection was lost during shifting. I think hobby of collecting coins/stamps is hereditary in our family

Aditya