I recently added all of the coins from my Franklin Mint" Coins of All Nations" set to my swap list. 151 coins in all! These are uncirculated coins that the Franklin Mint acquired or minted for almost every country in the world back in the late 70s and early 80s. The result, I think, is quite interesting. My swap list dashboard now shows most countries as one contiguous shade of green meaning that my swap list countains the same number of coins from each of those countries (1). But some areas are red and orange because those countries issued their coins through a multi-national mint. Those are: Eastern Caribbean States, West African States, and Central African States. Also, West Germany and East Germany re-united after this set was issued so those two former countries now show orange on my map indicatig two coins from one country. Similar with Macau and Hong Kong, each of which since re-united with China and now show as orange on my map. Further interesting, I think, are those countries that did not participate with the Franklin Mint, possibly because of economic embargos at the time: Cuba, Iran, Iraq, and North Korea among a few others... Anyway, I find maps like these very interesting and it's fun to see what the world looked like, in a sense, 40 years ago when this set was issued. Speaking of which, the set contains a few name changes (ie: Chad was Tchad, Swaziland became Eswatini, and Upper Volta became Burkina Faso). Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union dissolved, the Euro countries now use a uniform currency…
Uploading these coins to my swap list was a fun adventure. Some of the coins in the set are uncommon and even I had never seen them before. I especially enjoy the 1975 Comoros 50 francs coin, which is one of 25 commemorative coins in the set, along with numerous FAO coins. I also love the 1973 ⅕ Ouguiya from Mauritania. Even though we often see coins with equivalent face values marked, for example, like the 20-cent Solomon Islands coin in this set, we hardly every see the value given as the fraction “1/5”. I don't think I've seen that before. The 1979 Papua New Guinea coin is the largest coin in this set, and also has one of the lowest mintages, just a few thousand. Oh, I also love the 1981 ¼ crown from Turks and Caicos! Another coin I'd never owned before I acquired this set.
Anyway, that's my thoughts on this set and I'm hapy to share them here. If anyone wants more info or if you want close-up pics, let me know! The coins are all uncirculated and look great. For now, here's my swap list dashboard:
