Africa: interesting facts about coins

The name of Ghana's currency, the pesewa, is derived from the Akan language. The word "pesewabo" means "dark blue plant seed."

N#15807 

The first issue of coins of the Portuguese colony of Cape Verde took place in 1930. They copied the design of the coins of the metropolis, differing from them only by the presence of the name of the colony.

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Lilangeni. - the monetary unit of the former Kingdom of Swaziland, and now the Kingdom of Eswatini. In the local dialect, "lilangeni" means "money". But there is a nuance: the Swazi word "money" can be both in the singular and in the plural. Moreover, the singular and plural are not consonant. The singular is lilangeni, and the plural is emalangeni. Therefore, coins of 1 lilangeni are minted there, and everything above this denomination is called emalangeni. This may give the false impression of two parallel monetary units, but the explanation is much simpler...

N#2273 

As you know, the slang name of the US dollar is "buck". It is much less well known that rand of South Africa has a similar name. However, despite the consonance, the meaning of the terms is completely different. The American "buck" comes from buckskin, a marketable commodity in the first century and a half of English settlements in North America. But the "buck" of South Africa comes from the word "bok", which in Afrikaans means "antelope". The fact is that this particular animal was depicted in the early ranks.

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t is a well-known fact that coins are used as a means of payment, either in fact or at least in name (for example, investment coins made of precious metals, whose real value is significantly higher than the face value, but which can still be used as currency if desired). However, there are also coins designed for unexpected purposes. For instance, in 2004, the African country of Zambia issued a 1,000 kwacha coin with a calendar on the reverse, which was actually usable.

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The hand depicted on the Algerian coin is known as the "hand of Fatima." This refers to Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, who, according to legend, became so upset when she caught her husband with an odalist that she dropped her spoon and unknowingly stirred the hot food with her hand. In Arab beliefs, the image of Fatima's hand is considered a protective charm with magical properties.

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This Egyptian coin depicts a boy holding a sheaf of wheat (or barley). The subject matter is not accidental. In the ancient Egyptian kingdom, bread and beer were used as a monetary equivalent, serving as "wages" for workers engaged in public services.

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Until 1901, cowrie shells were used as local currency in what was then British-ruled Ghana. When the Republic of Ghana introduced a new currency unit on July 19, 1965, it was named "sedi," which is the Akan dialect (a traditional language of the indigenous people of Ghana) for cowrie shell. The cowrie shell was even depicted on the coins.

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In 1975-1986, the Republic of Equatorial Guinea used a currency called "ekuele" ("ekvele").  Its name comes from the Fang language of the local people and means "spearhead." This is because spearheads were once used as a form of currency in the area.

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Once upon a time, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, "Katanga crosses" (cross-shaped copper bars weighing between 1 and 2-1/2 pounds) were used as currency.

 In the 1960-1963s, a portion of the Republic of the Congo (then known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo) was controlled by separatists who declared the unrecognized but briefly effective Katanga State. The separatists' currency was the Katanga franc (coins worth 1 and 5 francs were minted and put into circulation. They featured the Katanga cross.

N#6915 

In 1943, the Philadelphia Mint (USA) minted 2-franc coins intended for circulation in the Belgian Congo. However, the legend was misspelled, with the letter "C" missing in the Flemish word "Belgisch" and mistakenly written as "Belgish".

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The currency of Botswana is the pula, which is equal to 100 thebe. "Pula" is translated from the local dialect as "let it rain," and "thebe" means "shield."

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In 1968, Zambia introduced 10-ngwe coins minted by the Royal Mint in London (later relocated to Llantrisant). The coins were produced in a large quantity of 14 million pieces. However, only 1 million of these coins were actually minted in 1968, while the remaining 13 million were minted a year earlier but bearing the date "1968". They are identical to each other, so it is impossible to determine the exact date of this coin's production.

N#2568 

Makuta is the name of a coin of the Portuguese colony of Angola, which was equal to 5, 10, and 20 centavos (1, 2, and 4 makutas). In the past, the local population used pieces of cotton cloth as money. One such piece was called a "makuta."

N#4371 

It is quite rare to find images of current presidents on coins of republican states minted in the second half of the 20th century. One of the few exceptions are the coins of the Republic of Zaire, which were minted in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These coins featured the proud profile of its president, Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga, which translates to "The Mighty Warrior Who Walks from Triumph to Triumph, Leaving Behind Himself as Ashes."

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In South Africa, where 9(!) local dialects have the status of official languages, along with Afrikaans and English, there is a tradition of minting coins with legends in each of them. For example, Afrika Dzonga is the name of the country in the Tsonja language. And Aferika Borwa is the name of the country in the Tswana language.

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Kobo. - a Nigerian coin worth 1/100 of a naira. The name comes from the English word “COPPER”.

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Kwacha is the national currency of Zambia (equal to 100 ngwe) and Malawi (equal to 100 tambala). In the Bemba language, "kwacha" means "dawn".

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The name of the Mozambican currency, the metical, comes from the Arabic unit of weight for precious metals.

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When Morocco switched from the Moroccan franc to the dirham on January 1, 1961, the exchange rate was set at 100 "old" francs per 1 dirham. Since the dirham consisted of 100 centimes, 1 centime corresponded to 1 pre-reform franc. However, until 1974, no fractional coins were issued, and francs continued to be used as such. After the introduction of coins in centimes, they were still referred to as "francs" out of habit. For example, if an older Moroccan person says that a certain item costs 10 francs, they are actually referring to 10 centimes.

N#914 

During the period of 1964-1966, Elizabeth II was the Queen of Malawi. However, contrary to tradition, the coins of the state did not feature her portrait, but rather the proud profile of Hastings Banda, the Prime Minister and later President.

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Until 1971, the currency of Libya was the Libyan pound, equal to 100 piastres or 1,000 milliemes. After the monetary reform on September 1, 1971, it was replaced by the dinar, which was equal to 1,000 dirhams (dirhams). However, the previously minted change coins remained in circulation until 1975, when they were revalued to reflect the new monetary units (for example, 100 milliem became equivalent to 100 dirhams).

N#4818 

Despite the fact that the Kingdom of Lesotho has its own currency, the loti, which is equal to 100 cents, the South African rand is also recognized as a legal tender in the country. A fixed exchange rate of 1 to 1 has been established. The name of the Lesotho currency comes from the Sesotho language and means "mountain."

N#4427 

On February 28, 1904, a monetary reform was carried out in German East Africa, the essence of which was to switch to a decimal coin stop. Previously, one rupee GEA corresponded to 64 pesas, but since the 1904 it was equal to 100 hellers. The name of the change in a somewhat transformed form ("HELA") has firmly entered the Swahili language as a synonym for the word "money", and is still used today (at least 150 million Africans speak Swahili).

N#21768 

In 2008, the highest inflation in the history of monetary circulation was recorded. This refers to the Republic of Zimbabwe and its currency, the Zimbabwean dollar, which was introduced on April 15, 1981. The devaluation of the dollar began in the late 1990s and reached 79.6 billion% by November 2008. It reached a point where the value of the paper on which the banknotes were printed exceeded their purchasing power. As a result, they were actively used as toilet paper. The outraged Zimbabwean authorities even issued a decree prohibiting the use of national banknotes in the toilet.

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N#6458 

In 2003, Kenya issued a coin with an unusual denomination of 40 shillings. No coins of this value had been issued before or after. The reason for this was simple: the coinage was commemorating the 40th anniversary of Kenya's independence, which explains the unusual denomination.

N#9264 

King Sobhuza II of Swaziland, depicted on the presented coin, holds the record for the longest reign among the monarchs of the 20th century. He ascended to the throne as the Supreme Chief of Swaziland on December 10, 1899, and ruled (with the title of King since 1968) until August 21, 1982. Thus, his reign lasted for 82 years and 254 days...

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The name of Gambia's change coins, "butut," translates to "something small."

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According to the rules established by the South African Reserve Bank, when paying for a purchase with cash, you can only use ten-cent coins for an amount of up to 5 rand.

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Coins of Rhodesia (now the Republic of Zimbabwe) were minted with two denominations: cents and shillings.

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In 1962-64, the Kingdom of Burundi and the Rwandan Republic used the same currency - the Rwandan and Burundian franc (issued by the Rwandan and Burundian Central Bank). On September 30, 1964, national currencies were introduced, and the coins of R/B franc were withdrawn from circulation.

N#7256 

When Angola gained independence, the names of its monetary units were borrowed from local rivers. The country's currency became the kwanza, which was equal to 100 lweis. There was a clear logic behind the names, as the Lwei River is a tributary of the Kwanza.

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The coins of Mozambique during the Portuguese colonial period are an example of the rare presence of the word "colony" on currency in the 20th century.

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Perhaps one of the most original national mottos ever minted on coins is the motto of the Republic of Seychelles: "Finis coronat opus" ("The end crowns the work").

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As is known, during the time of the Republic of Transvaal, which sank into Oblivion as a result of the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), a number of coins were issued, including a three-penny piece with the profile of the head of state, President Paul Kruger. They were made of 925 sterling silver. Meanwhile, on November 6, 1928, the newspaper "Die Burger," published in the South African Dominion, reported on the sale of a gold (!) three-penny coin with Kruger's image in London for 20 pounds. The public was quite surprised by this revelation, as it was widely believed that such coins were only minted in silver. An investigation was conducted, which revealed that certain individuals at the Pretoria Mint had minted several gold specimens using old (apparently) dies for three-penny coins between 1925 and 1927. One of these specimens was sold in London. The "correct" Transvaal coin is presented. Of course, I do not have a gold fake made with an original die.

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As is well known, cowrie shells were used in Africa as an equivalent of money. Less known is that they had a specific exchange rate in terms of actual coins. For example, in Uganda, in 1895, 200 cowrie shells were equivalent to one rupee of British India.

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According to statistics, the late Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom held the record for the most different types of coins depicting real-life rulers of states. She was often depicted on African coins as well.

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The appearance of the Star of David as the emblem of British West Africa was completely accidental. In 1901, the British captured the Emirate of Kontagora (in Nigeria), and among the emir's captured possessions, they discovered a beautiful copper jug with the Star of David inscribed on it. Apparently, the jug was so appealing that Sir Frederick Lugard, the first governor of the captured emirate, chose the star as the emblem of the territories acquired by the British crown.

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In 1961, a silver five-cent republican coin of South Africa was minted, the reverse of which was borrowed from the sixpence of the times of the dominion. The differences were in the denomination (which is logical, given the transition to a decimal coinage), as well as in the seemingly meaningless reduction in the number of fasces depicted on the coin - there were 5 instead of the previous 6. But there was a quite specific logic here - the fasces indicated the denomination.

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The image of two sparrows on the farthings of the Union of South Africa was directly related to a quote from the Gospel of Matthew, when our Lord Jesus Christ asked the question: "Are not two little birds sold for a farthing?"

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In modern Egypt, a monetary amount equivalent to one pound has slang names - "bolbol" ("nightingale") and "gondi" ("soldier").

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 During the First World War, military operations were conducted not only in Europe, but also on the African continent. The Germans acted as the defending side, having a number of colonial possessions here, some of which were called German East Africa (Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and northern Mozambique. Despite the small size of the colonial army, the Germans effectively resisted the British and Portuguese and even transferred the fighting to enemy territory. However, the connection with the metropolis was cut off. Accordingly, there was a shortage of cash, which had to be done something. and so, in 1916 in the city of Tabore (located in the territory of modern Tanzania) was organized mint. It was placed in the building of the workshop of the postal railway of the German East African Bank. The staff of the Tabor mint consisted of 15 people - 2 Indians, 6 blacks and 7 Sinhala (Ceylon) goldsmiths. Among his products were the 20-heller coins minted in 1916.

N#37340 

During Somalia's period as a United Nations Trust Territory (1 January 1950 - 1 January 1960), administrative control was transferred to Italy. Until 25 May 1950, the British East African shilling and the Italian lira were used as currency units, which were later replaced by the somalo, equivalent to 100 centesimi. The new currency was exchanged for shillings at a rate of 1 to 1, and for lira at a rate of 87.49 lira per somalo.

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Zaire was the former national currency of the former Republic of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) from 1967 to 1998. It was equal to 100 makut or 10,000 senji. The name comes from the local Kikongo language and means "river" (but not an abstract one, but the Congo River). Interestingly, in the local dialect, "Kongo" means "hunter."

N#6079 

The five-franc coin of the Comoros features a unique relic fish, the coelacanth. This fish appeared on Earth 400 million years ago and was believed to have become extinct 145 million years ago. However, in 1938, a living specimen was caught off the coast of one of the islands in the Comoros archipelago. As a result, this greeting from prehistoric times appeared on a coin dedicated to the World Fisheries Conference in 1984 (the coin was minted again in 1992, but with a significantly smaller circulation).

N#6042 

The penny of Southern Rhodesia featured the Rose of the Tudors, the national emblem of England, dating back to the reign of King Henry VII (1485-1509).

N#13482 

Such great information, however putting them all in one forum thread (which inevitably will become just background noise) is a little pointless.

On every coin page at the bottom of the page is a link „modify or add data on this page“, there you can add these interesting facts (which must be sourced) to the comments section. Ensuing that this information is catalogued and coordinated with the coin in question.

If you are going to put so much effort into doing these threads, you might as well add the data to the page?

Greetings, Sir! I am new to this forum.. However, I have been collecting coins since 1980, and I am passionate about history and numismatics. I enjoy reading books about coins and various historical events. I find interesting facts in these books, and I have been collecting and sharing them for many years. I believe that knowledge should be shared. Regards.

UE.

The different messages should at least have a link the the respective coin page so this thread will be listed on the bottom of them.

Generic information like the stuff about where the name of a currency comes from etc. doesn't belong in a catalog page comment section. 

But specific titbits about a design element could be added like information about a person/building etc. (condensed to the most important parts) and or why they are depicted on the specific object.

Uncle Eugene

Greetings, Sir! I am new to this forum.. However, I have been collecting coins since 1980, and I am passionate about history and numismatics. I enjoy reading books about coins and various historical events. I find interesting facts in these books, and I have been collecting and sharing them for many years. I believe that knowledge should be shared. Regards.

UE.

I totally agree with you, however wouldn’t it be better if these facts were available to all with ease, now and in the future?

You have spent time and effort writing these 2 threads (the other on US coins) and while members will read them, they are so varied that if someone was to search for the fact/info about the 3 Cent or the 5 Franc they would not easily come across it. In 3 months these threads will be buried under a million different conversations, and the only way to access them would be to search „Africa or US interesting facts about coins“, this is not a search someone will do when looking to find information on a specific coin. So essentially it is somewhat pointless, this I find is a shame and the fact/info deserves to be linked to the coin, so it is easily accessible.

Liken it to the following; in the late 90s and early 00s digital photography was developing fast, analog photography (film and print) was still the norm but was soon to be overtaken. In the analog word of photography, a film of negatives was developed and stored with information about the subject (basic date, location, etc) and then more detailed information about each frame or image (caption, names, specifics, etc), this was a part of the photographers job. Then when a print was produced from these negatives the original information source was available and transferred to the print, so that the image didn’t become a random image. Then when digital photography became the norm in the early to mid 00s, this information started to become detached from the images, the information was originally there, but because of the ease of image transfer the images were being moved multiple times from place to place, someone once knew what they were of, but the information became easily lost. There are millions of pointless images in archives now from this era which have no information whatsoever about who, what, when or where they were captured, they are pointless images because the connection between the image and the information isn‘t there anymore. Museums and archives hate this transition period between analog and digital photography because they have so many images that are just useless to them, it took a good few years to develop the standards of metadata and the process of stable attachment within specific file formats to solve this problem, sadly though even today there are half job photographers which neglect this side of their job!
 

Please link your threads to the coins, or add the information to the coin page.

Okay, I'll try to do it.

Idolenz

The different messages should at least have a link the the respective coin page so this thread will be listed on the bottom of them. 

 All done / 21:56 to 23:34 time. :) 

ZacUK

Idolenz

The different messages should at least have a link the the respective coin page so this thread will be listed on the bottom of them. 

 All done / 21:56 to 23:34 time. :) 

👍🙏 stellar work

 Thanks; there was not much on television last night. 📺 

Also now the links are there someone can copy and paste 

the information on to each page, if necessary. 

Thank you very much, gentlemen!

Uncle Eugene

Thank you very much, gentlemen!

And thank you for the interesting facts…

Greetings, gentlemen! Let's continue our story.

The image of a hippopotamus on the five-franc coin of the Republic of Mali, minted in 1961 and put into circulation in 1962, has a special hidden meaning. The fact is that in the Bambar language, which is spoken in this African country, the word "Mali" means "Hippopotamus".

N#1115 

The 5-cent coin of Tanzania features the inscription "RAIS WA KWANZA" under the profile of the depicted man. The portrait belongs to Julius Nyerere (who led the country from 1964 to 1985), and the inscription, written in Swahili, translates to "FIRST PRESIDENT." The coin's denomination is also indicated in Swahili.

N#1965 

Until February 4, 1966, the British West African pound of the colonial period was recognized as a legal tender in the Republic of Sierra Leone. It was used alongside the national currency, the leone, at a ratio of 2 leone per pound. In other words, a shilling was equivalent to 10 cents.

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N#3032 

During the first reign of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia (1930-1936), the Addis Ababa Mint minted a 50-maton nickel coin with the date "1923," which corresponded to the year 1931 in the Gregorian calendar. However, the actual production of these coins took place not in 1931, but in 1933 (422,462 pieces) and 1934 (1,198,794 pieces), and it is not possible to determine when a particular coin was minted, as their design was identical.

N#9331 

In 1937, the Royal Belgian Mint fulfilled an order to produce Liberian coins with a face value of 1/2 cent. The minted edition was 1 million pieces, however, by the time of the release, the coin had practically lost its relevance due to its low purchasing power. Part of the circulation was released, but most of the coins remained in bank vaults. In fact, the abundance of these coins in the UNC condition is explained by the fact that they have been lying in the vaults for many years, not participating in circulation.

N#4764 

Add the coin link to each interesting fact. Or we are in the same situation as before!

 Added now as before. 

ZacUK

 Added now as bThank you very much.

What a great read! So many interesting facts! Thanks for sharing

Greetings,  Mr. Tiga! 

I am glad that the topics I have created are of interest to you. 

Sincerely, Eugene.