Germany Banknote collection
10000 Mark, 1922
Wednesday, 22 September 2021
Friday, 10 September 2021
Saturday, 4 September 2021
Around the World Coins
My Around the world collection of Coins
(Disclaimer: All the images are 850 pixels, irrespective of the length and width.
The purpose of this blog is to just share my collection, nothing else. Thanks for your understanding)
Number of countries in my collection: 84š
Friday, 13 August 2021
Six Penny, a Wedding Charm
Six Penny, a Wedding Charm
A few weeks back, I got a Sixpence for my collection. I was very excited about it, not only for that it is nearly 93 years old, but also for its odd denomination, 6 pence. When I showed my collection to my UK friend, she told me that it is considered a lucky charm at weddings. Intrigued with this piece of information, I started digging for more information about this belief.
Though my 6 pence coin depicts the acorns, the back of some six-pence coins depicts the English rose, Scottish thistle, Irish shamrock, and Welsh leek. Because of the Scottish thistle, it is considered a lucky charm.
One fine day in the 1200s, the Danes from northern Europe attempted to invade Scotland. Scottish soldiers were sleeping as it was mid of night. The raiders were bare-footed and because of the darkness, accidentally they were stepped on the thorny thistle flower, which is abundant in Scotland. They started to shout out of pain and this alerted the sleeping Scottish soldiers and saved them. That day onwards, the Scottish believed the thistle to be a good luck Charm, so as the 6 pence.
The highly superstitious people believed that evil spirits were everywhere and they will cause some harm to the people especially during weddings and in ritualistic events to halt it. So they started to tuck a 6 pence on the bride's left shoe to keep these evil spirits away. They believed that this 6 pence will bring luck, wealth, and prosperity too.
When I dive deep into this, I came across many interesting things about how coins play a part in European marriages. In Sweden, to bless the couple, the bride's mother gives her daughter a gold coin to put in her right shoe and the father gives a silver coin for her left shoe before the wedding.
In Lithuania, the wedding guests bring silver coins and throw them onto the dance floor. One of the coins is marked with the bride and groom’s initials and, the wedding guests pick up all the coins and whoever picks up the initialed coin gets to have the next dance with either the bride or the groom.
In Spain, the groom gives a coin to his bride after the rings have been blessed to show his willingness to share all that he has. The bride will then keep the coin and pass it to her eldest son to give to his own bride. This tradition is also common in Latin America.
In Poland, as the bride and groom leave the ceremony, the wedding guests throw coins over the married couple. The pair then gather these coins together to show their unity.
You might be having this kind of tradition and faith in your country. Eagerly waiting to hear your story.
Captivating Kuna
In this article, I am going to share "The Croatian Currency".
Like Dollars and pound, Croatia also has a unique currency. Prior to 1994, it switched between the Kuna and Dinar. But since then, It's only been the Kuna. We'll be diving into some curious tales about this, focusing more on the interesting facts and instances about the Kuna.
Kuna (Kn) which in Croatian means pine marten, an animal similar to the squirrel. In the past, pine marten’s fur was used for trading as they were prized for their very fine fur. The winter coat of the European pine marten has always been much in demand. I also heard that in Roman times, taxes were paid in terms of Marten skins.
Kuna paper money comes in 8 denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 Kuna notes.
I managed to lay hands on only the 10 Kuna.
The funny thing that one can notice in the notes is that the longer the man’s beard, the more value a banknote has.
5 Kuna – count Fran Krsto Frankopan and duke Petar Zrinski (withdrawn in 2007)
10 Kuna – Istrian bishop Juraj Dobrila - beardless
20 Kuna – Duke Josip JelaÄiÄ - has simple moustache
50 Kuna – poet and Dubrovnik nobleman Ivan GunduliÄ
100 Kuna – Duke and poet Ivan MažuraniÄ- Mustache with a little beard
200 Kuna – politician Stjepan RadiÄ
500 Kuna – poet and Split nobleman Marko MaruliÄ
1000 Kuna – politician Ante StarÄeviÄ
1, 2, and 5 Kuna come in silver colour coins too. I have got 1 and 2 Kuna. You can see the 'pine marten' on the below Kuna coins.
Let's look at the fragmentation. 1 Kuna is made of 100 Lipa (Lp). The word lipa means linden tree in Croatian. It's very normal to see these trees in marketplaces in the olden days. As it has wider branches and dense structure, it served as an umbrella for the sellers. It is a wonderful medicinal plant too. Their, flowers, leaves, and barks are used to treat many diseases, especially lung-related ones. You can see their leaves on the below Lipa coins.
Lipa has its own coin denominations -1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50. All are silver colour, except 5 and 10 Lipa which is golden. Looking for 1 and 2 Lipa to add to my collection.
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