Dianne writes: I have three coins and wondering if you can tell me where they come from. On the first it says BUNDESREPUBLIC DEUTSCHLAND on the front and 2 PFENNIG on the back. On the second it says JULIANA KONINGIN DER NEDERLAND and on the back it has a crown and 25 cents. On the third, it has a man’s head and BOUDEWIJN I and on the back it has a small crown 1F and BELGIE. Also have another one form 1976, but it looks like it is written in Japanese, so I can’t read it nor type it. I know absolutely nothing about coins, so any help would be appreciated.
– Coin #1 – Is a 2 pfennig coin from West Germany, though the country is now just called Germany. The first issue year is 1950. It is still current. There are 100 pfennig to the Deutch Mark (roughly 1.4 DM per $US).
– Coin #2 – From the Netherlands, the legend says Juliana Ruler of the Netherlands. This is also a current coin. There are 100 cents to the Gulden (roughly 1.55 Gulden per $US)
– Coin #3 – Is a 1 Franc from Belgium The legend shows that the coin was struck under the King Baudouin I (1951-) and it is also current money (roughly 28 Francs per $US)
– Coin #4 – Is probably from Japan but you didn’t supply enough information to identify.
Coins like the above are plentiful and are usually sold by the pound for educational purposes or just for inexpensive collecting. They are the left over “change” from visits to other countries and are kept by travelers as mementos or they are coins that just never got spent. Starting with coins like these can be the seed of a future coin collection. If you are fascinated by these items, take a journey to your public library and use their resources to help you pick a coin collecting direction.
