Smiley-Face Penny

A smiley-face penny

I recently found this in a bag of mixed foreign coins - a US penny with a smiley face (smile) cut into it. Actually it looks more like it is laughing, which I think is a bit unique. The coin is a 1992 D US penny, which means that it is made up mostly of zinc with a thin layer of copper on the outside to give the coin it's traditional brown color.

The face was probably cut out of the penny using a process called die cutting - a die (a shaped blade or punch) is pressed by a machine into some material (in this case, the zinc of a modern penny) to cut it into a shape (in this case, to cut out 2 eyes and a mouth). A plain round hole can be made in a coin using a drill, but shaped holes like these would be difficult to do, and to do consistently. 

Coins like these are frequently sold in souvenir or gift shops as "Lucky Pennies" - to buy as a gift for someone so that they will have good luck while they are carrying the coin. This is a variation on the rhyme "see a penny, pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck" - the idea that finding a penny is considered good luck. The face certainly makes the penny look more interesting than one that you might find on the ground, but I'm not aware of any studies to determine which type of penny will bring you more luck.

In my previous post about world coins with holes, I mentioned that coins with holes drilled into them are worthless as collectibles. While a shaped hole like this makes the coin not valuable to a coin collector, there are people who specifically collect coins that have been die-cut in this manner (similar to how other collectors seek elongated or "smashed" pennies). Anyone with a drill can cut a round hole in a coin - they are not hard to make, so it would be very unusual to find someone interested in collecting coins with drilled holes. But die-cut coins require expensive tools; they are more rare and so some people do collect them.

Because pennies are considered mostly valueless in the United States (many simply get thrown away every year), you would probably find that most stores or banks would take an occasional penny like this as payment, and then simply throw it away (or keep it as a novelty item). But "Lucky Pennies" usually cost much more than $0.01 to buy at a gift shop, so there is not much value in buying them and then trying to use them as money.

Cutting holes in a United States coin like this may technically be illegal under US law (US Code Title 18, Section 331). But in practice, the law is usually enforced only when coins are changed for fraudulent use - such as cutting a penny down to the size of a dime (to use in vending machines), or painting a quarter gold so that can be passed off as a US dollar coin.

Even though it's not really what I collect, I'm going to keep this little guy because it makes me smile.

Croatia Joining the European Union

Croatia 10, 20, and 50
lipa coins

On January 22, 2012, citizens of Croatia voted to approve their country joining the European Union (Croatia first applied to the EU in 2003). If the membership is ratified by the other 27 EU members, then Croatia will become the 28th European nation to join the Union on July 1, 2012. The last countries to be admitted to the union were Bulgaria and Romania in 2007.

Croatia's currency today is called the kuna. 1 kuna = 100 lipa. Membership in the European Union usually leads to membership in the Eurozone (the subset of EU countries which also exclusively use the euro as their currency) a few years later, although there are some exceptions (Great Britain and Denmark have special exemptions, for example).

This means that by joining the European Union, Croatia will eventually switch their money (and, more importantly for readers of this blog, their coins) from the kuna to the euro. The last countries  to convert to the euro were Estonia in 2011, and Slovakia in 2009.

Of the current 27 European Union countries, only 17 exclusively use the euro. The other 10 are either exempt or are taking the steps necessary in order to eventually switch. With a stable currency, the switch to the euro can take as little as 2 years. But according to news articles, the current situation with Greece (which is a member of the Eurozone) may cause the Zone to be more cautious about allowing new members and may delay Croatia's switch to the euro until 2017.

So even though you may be hearing about Croatia joining the EU, don't expect to see any new Croatian euro coins for quite some time. The next most likely countries to adopt the euro, based on their progress through the conversion prerequisites, appear to be Lithuania and Latvia.

Coins with Holes (Holed Coins)

Ancient Chinese "cash" coin

Americans, when asked about coins with holes in them, probably picture the old Chinese "cash" coins which are featured so prominently in Chinese-style decor.  These coins had a square-shaped hole in the center, with Chinese characters around it.  The United States has never had a coin with a hole in it, so it's not something we're used to seeing. Plenty of other countries, however, have had one or more of this type of coin (known as "holed coins" or "holey coins") in their recent history.



As far as I know, the holes put into modern foreign coins don't serve any specific purpose. They are not there to make the coins work in a particular machine, or to be easier to carry (although they would be slightly lighter than a coin without a hole). The main reason that you would make a modern coin with a hole in it (or, for that matter, with an unusual shape), besides pure decoration, is to make it more easily distinguishable (by touch and sight) from other coins in circulation.

(Putting a hole in a coin would also use less metal, which may be important when metal is needed for other uses (such as during a long war). However, coins are usually made out of the most common and least expensive metals possible (you don't want to make a $1 coin that uses $2 in metal) so I'm not aware of any examples of a country putting a hole in their coins for this reason.)

Coin from India with a large hole

Most coins that have holes in them have a relatively small hole - usually 1/4 of an inch (6.3 mm) or smaller. The hole is meant to be seen and felt, but not to be worn like a ring (wouldn't that be interesting?). The one exception I've seen is the 1 pice coin from India and Pakistan in the 1940s, which had a 3/8 inch (9.5 mm) hole in a coin that was less than 1 inch (2.5 cm) across. It gives the coin a unique look, like you could almost wear it as a ring.

Coins with holes drilled in to them
to make jewelry

On coins that intentionally have holes in them, the hole is always in the direct center of the coin, and usually the design of the coin incorporates the hole (so you don't have a hole directly in the middle of a person's head, for example). If you see a coin that has a hole near the edge, or has multiple holes (see pictures), someone has drilled a hole in the coin in order to use it for decoration or jewelry. A single hole near the edge means that the coin may have been worn on a necklace or bracelet. Two holes toward the center of the coin, such as the one pictured, indicates that it may have been used as a button on a piece of clothing. This kind of destruction makes the coin worthless to collectors.

Japan 5-yen (left) and 50-yen (right) coins

I believe that the only country currently using coins with holes is Japan, whose 5 yen and 50 yen coins both have holes in the center. They are also nearly the same size (the 5-yen is bigger), but the 50-yen coin has a reeded edge while the 5-yen has a smooth edge. The 100-yen coin is the same size as the 5-yen, but with a reeded edge; so the hole in the center helps to make the 50-yen more noticably different than the 100-yen.

Besides Japan, many countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East have used coins with holes in the recent past, and you might be surprised by who they are. Spain added a hole to their 25-peseta coin in 1990 and kept it until switching to the euro in 2002. Hungary had a hole in their 2-filler coin, used from 1950 until 1992. Greece had holes in their 5-, 10-, and 20-lepta coins from the 1950s until the 1970s. Fiji had holes in their half-penny and penny in the 1930s through the 1950s.

Here is a list of the countries that I've found that have circulated coins with holes since 1900. This is definitely not a complete list, so I will update it when I find out about other countries. And since I bet that you readers know of examples that I haven't listed, I'm going to turn on blog comments this month - so post any countries that are missing from this list (list specific denominations and years if you can).

Countries which have had a coin with a hole since 1900:

Australia
Belgium
Belgian Congo
British West Africa
Congo
Denmark
East Africa
Egypt
Fiji
Finland
France
French Indochina
Greece
Greenland
Hungary
India
Indonesia
Japan
Laos
Lebanon
Mongolia
Morocco
Nepal
Netherlands
New Guinea
Nigeria
Norway
Pakistan
Palestine
Papua New Guinea
Philippines
Poland
Romania
Spain
Syria
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Vietnam
Yugoslavia
Zambia

Looking for coins with holes to add to your collection?

Check out our Coins With Holes Set.

Update 1/1/2012: Added Lebanon
Update 1/22/2012: Added East Africa, Nepal, and Philippines
Update 3/20/2012: Added Papua New Guinea
Update 4/21/2012: Added Turkey
Update 5/14/2012: Added Nigeria
Update 7/22/2012: Added Zambia, Belgian Congo, British West Africa, Congo, French Indochina, and Poland
Update 12/9/2012: Added Greenland, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, New Guinea, and Palestine

Update 12/25/2012: Added Romania, Syria, Tunisia, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia

World Coin News Blog

There is a blog that I like to check out frequently, at least once a week. World Coin News, run by David Rivera of Spain, has been running since 2006 posting about new world coins as they are released, found, or otherwise announced. Posts are usually accompanied by a photo or other picture of the coin (or coins), and sometimes even a picture of what the coin represents (such as a landmark, building, or person). Some posts are about a country redesigning one or all of their coins. Others are for commemorative versions of existing coins (a coin celebrating an important date, person, place, battle, invention, etc.). New posts generally come every couple of days, and are tagged with labels to allow similar posts to be grouped together (such as by country, year, or type) using the links at the bottom of the page. You can view all the previous entries, going all the way back to September 2006.  World Coin News is an easy way to keep up-to-date on new world coins without needing to manually go check all the different world mint Web sites. I appreciate the work that David and his contributors do to provide all that information in one place.

• World Coin News Blog