To complete the zodiac set of 12 coins, San Marino issued the last 3 coins in 2021.
The last set consists of the Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces -coins.
Each of the 2021 coins has a mintage of 16000 brass coins.
The Capricorn-coin (It: capricorno)
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| Capricorn - coin 2021 RSM |
The Aquarius-coin (It: acquario)
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| Aquarius - coin 2021 RSM |
The Pisces-coin (It: pesci)
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| Pisces - coin 2021 RSM |
With these 3 coins, the set is of western zodiac sign coins is completed.
to be continued...
The set of Zodiac coins of San Marino, coninued in 2020 with 3 additional coins: Libra, Scorpio and Saggitarius. Each of the 2020 coins has a mintage of 16000 brass pieces
The first coin dated 2020, is the Libra-coin (It: bilancia).
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| 2020 Libra - coin RSM |
The second coin, is the Scorpio-coin (It: scoprione)
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| 2020 Scorpio - coin RSM |
The third and last coin for 2020 is the Sagittarius-coin (It: sagittario)
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| 2020 Sagittarius - coin RSM |
At the moment of wrinting this article, the 2020-coins, were still available on the website of the San Marino post, at the price of the face value. Each of the coins were delivered in a hard plastic holder.
The 2019 and 2018 coins were already sold out.
to be continued...
In 2019, 4 coins were added to the set: Gemini, Cancer, Leo and Virgo.
Similar to the 2018 coins, is the obverse side, with the sun, all zodiac symbols and the country's name.
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| Gemini - coin 2019 RSM |
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| Cancer - coin 2019 RSM |
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| Leo - coin 2019 RSM |
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| Virgo - coin 2019 RSM |
to be continued ....
When paying in Europe with cash, the chance of spending or receiving a commemorative € 2 - coin, is not that uncommon. Till 2023, about 610 (!) different € 2 coins, other than the regular ones, are in use.
Also higher denominations are minted, but those coins are never seen in circulation.
First of all because they are printed in very limited numbers, or sold at a higher price than the nominal value.
One specific set of coins drew my attention. The set consists of 12 coins, issued over 4 years (in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021). 12 coins, that sounds familiar ... indeed these 12 coins are dedicated to the 12 western zodiac signs.
In 2018, the first two coins were issued.
Each coin has a face value of € 5 and the reverse side is common to all 12 coins.
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| reverse side of the coins |
On the front side of the first coin, the Aries (It: ariete) or Ram is shown
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| Aries issue 2018 |
The second coin of 2018 depicts the Taurus (It: toro) or Bull.
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| Taurus issue 2018 |
The set of 2018 coins have a mintage of 15000 coins (brass).
They are sold out on the official website of the San Marino postal services.
to be continued...
Issued on May 1, 1840, changed the whole postal system in use at that time.
No
longer the one who received the mail had to pay, but the sender could
buy a 'stamp' to pay for sending a message over mail to another person.
The first stamp did not bear any name of country, as it was issued in the UK only.
This
privilege is still valid until today, as the United Kingdom, is the
only country in the world, that has no country name mentioned on it's
stamps.
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| 1840 Black Penny |
The first stamp came in sheets of 240 stamps. 24 rows of 12 stamps. Nowadays, stamps are often printed in sheets of 100 or an equivalent of 100's. But in 1840, the British were not using the decimal system yet.
A 'pound' (£) used to be the value of a pound of silver (= 0.45359237 kg).
1 pound was devided into 20 shillings, and one shilling devided into 12 pence each.
Although the decimal system is more logical (we have 10 fingers), this predecimal system had many advantages too, as 240 can be divided by 2,3,4,5,6,8,10,15,16,20,24,30,40,60, 80 and 120, where '100' only can be divided by 2,4,5,10,20,25 and 50.
The sheet of 240 stamps of this black penny, have letters in the lower corners. Each combination depends on the position on the sheet.
Each row of 12 makes one shilling, twenty rows of 1 shilling, make one pound.
position of black pennies in a sheet
The letter left on the stamp, indicates the row, and the one right the column.
The stamp shown above (B J) is therefore in position 22.
Although each stamp on the sheet has the same value, the ones in with double letters, i.e. AA, BB, CC, ... are sought. Stamps in the border of the sheet, often have better margins, some even with extra information.
From this issue, 286,670 sheets were printed, good for over 68,8 million black pennies. Estimated is, that about 1,3 million of them survived time.
This 'first issue' is a special one.
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| Nepal 1885 |
What is on the cover?
The stamps on the cover are genuine (Michel nrs 1Bc (light blue) - 2B (dull lilac) and 3B (yellowish green). The stamps were issued in 1881 on European paper. The cancels are genuine as well.
But the back side has handwritten text speaks of 1885.
We are talking about a registered mail with stamps from the 1st issue of Nepal (1881), and there are 3 different stamps on the cover, used in 1885...
This is what the experts say (CH - October 2022):
"The stamps are stuck at the bottom of an envelope with a handwritten departure stamp Parewadada March 12, 1885 on the back, and an entry registration of March 24, 1885. They do not belong on this cover and are intended to simulate an extraordinarily rare registered postage from the first edition."
Were the stamps added later on, to make it more valuable?
Never the less, the three stamps are real and postally used, which makes it a rare document in my collection.
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| Nepal 1Bc (blue) and 2B (lilac) according Michel |
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| Nepal 3B (green) according Michel |
to be continued...
