help with coin...

[Master Jmd]

i have a silver coin; on the reverse it has a wreath around the number 10, and it has a female head on the obverse with the words; Confoederatio Helveticaaround it, dated 1884...

[Emperor Oli]

Many people have these - it's a Swiss coin. I don't know who the woman is but I think she could be like our Britannia - a symbol, but then again, i'm not certain. The 10 in the middle is the denomination (obviously) and it means 10 centimes, as the Swiss currency was then, and is still, the Swiss Franc.

[Chris Perkins]

10 Rappen isn't it, they have 100 Rappen is a Swiss Franc. The lady is 'Helvetica', just like Britannia, Hibernia, Germania, Caledonia etc. Switzerland is like a little Island in a sea of Euro nations.

[Emperor Oli]

Ah I couldn't remember the denominations I just thought "Franc - centime!"

[Chris Perkins]

Do you know that officially the French Euro is made up of 100 Centimes? I think most people probably call them cents, but France officially still has centimes.

[Emperor Oli]

God that's so typically French!

[Half Penny Jon]

It's true, they won't give up their so called 'heritige'. No one over there calles them cents, they are ALWAYS centimes.

[Master Jmd]

thanks for your help

[Edward]

I find the Swiss most like the Americans in their coinage. Because they have lacked a monarchy from the word Go, their types have changed very slowly over the years, so JMD's 1884 looks pretty much like the 2004 10 rappen.

The US used Liberty in place of Helvetica for almost two centuries until they developed the lamentable practice of putting dead white men on their coins, and then they let their engraving go.

[Emperor Oli]

dead white men

Aren't you meant to love (not in that way ) these men?!

[Edward]

Aren't you meant to love (not in that way  )  these men?!

Are you referring to my reply to Marigold Dubois?

Maybe you put your finger on the reason that, for all intents and purposes, I stopped collecting US.

Apart from the numismatic resurrection of the dead, which I find a questionable practice, the portraiture work on the US coins is becoming more and more stylized, and I see Britain following suit; so perhaps it's just as well that we pre-decimalites don't have to include the latest coinage in our collections.

[Emperor Oli]

Are you referring to my reply to Marigold Dubois?

Hehehe no, I meant the men on your coinage. Besides the work becoming more stylised, we now see more use of colour and holograms (something I am vehemently opposed to) detracting from the engravers' art.

[Edward]

I had actually no idea of the use of color and holograms. What coins are examples of that?

[Emperor Oli]

Many of the Eastern european countries release them but, disappointingly, our own mint issued some for the Commonwealth Games. Although done tastfully (they just coloured in the little flags on the reverse), it seems this is a slippery slope.

Some from the US Mint. Lots of them are done well however there is an increasing number of substandard (see above link!) drivel!

[Edward]

As far as I know, these Statehood Quarters are colorized privately. They're very pretty in a kitschy sort of way, and thank goodness none of my children is drawn to them! There must be some kind of enamelling process involved, but I am pretty ignorant of the mechanics of these things.

[Emperor Oli]

There are many that are colourised by the state - I just did an image search on google and it came up with those. If you have the coin yearbook, it has examples of the best and worst coins (in their opinion) of the year from all over the World. The Aussies had a really nice one which was actually in the shape of Australia which I've never seen before.