Welcome!
to our
on-line catalogue of European circulation coinage! It's
limited to Europe for the moment and in a
limited-time-frame, but when we are satisfied with
results, we'll expand it as much as it gets. Stay
with us!
But why
European coins only?
Oh well,
we had to start somewhere! Our team is pretty much
European, there are European coins all around us, to be
European seems to sound fancy nowadays, so here is where
we begin. In the initial step we'll stick
to geographical borders along Ural Mountains, Ural River,
Caucasus and Turkish straits, so expect to find here also
the coinage of Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia as
well as Turkey. We did make
a tiny exception for Cyprus
and promoted it arbitrarily
to Europe.
But why
so young coins?
We found
year 1945 a perfect moment to start! The world received
its peace. Nations announced independence. Others fell
into troubles. Countries changed their names, introduced
new currencies. It WAS an exciting year, you must admit.
Having skimmed European coinage in the last 65 years, we
realised that the mints had machines full of job and we
counted more than 2000 different coin types. Believe us,
young coins are also exciting!
But it
all seems quite empty... Where are the proof strikes,
where is all the silver, bullion gold?
We're
offering you a comprehensive overview of coins, which were
circulating in Europe. Circulating in supermarkets and
local stores, not between collectors hands. We just care
about the coins per se, officially minted pieces of metal
worth exactly the face value at the moment of issuing.
Coins, which were never meant to improve businesses of
state mints only. Right, not all of the showed ones
entered circulation, but at least they were meant to be
paid with.
Oh, I
found some photos of obverse, reverse...
We try to
present photos of at least one coin of each distinguished
type. We had this strange feeling that some catalogues are
wrong and the types list needs to be updated. We decided
that all changes on coin obverse or reverse are worth
noticing unless it's a privy mark or a mintmark. These are
obviously thrilling as well, but not enough to be called
another type. A coin variety perhaps. Oh, by the way, why
did we call THAT an obverse? It just felt right to have
the royal head more important, or the Coat of Arms, or a
piece of it, or at least country's name.
... and
the coin edge!
Oh yes,
there is no joke here! Show us another catalogue
presenting coins edges. You might think that coin edge is
boring, always the same, reeded means reeded, who cares
about the edge. Well, you have finally the chance to see
for yourself. More interesting edges are shown in full
length. True, lots of job, but it was definitely worth it.
Wait a
minute, what did the designer mean?
Ever wondered
what is depicted on coins? Where did designers get their
inspiration from? Did they actually do a good job? Could
they do any better? Well, now you have a chance to find
out! We present many real-life objects of inspirations for
coinage motifs. We also explain what coins commemorate and
why it is SO important for countries that they placed in
on coins.
You're still
thinking that we
have no clue about coins?
Possible,
but YOU can give us some clue! We're just human. You might
disagree with the contents. There might be mistakes /
misspellings / simply crap. You probably know much more
than we do. We gladly welcome all critics, all hints, all
comments and anything that can improve the catalogue.
There are always buttons in bottom right corners meant for
communication. Do use them! FORUM
is also a place for you.
We are hungry for knowledge and there is many more of us.
coinz.eu team |
