"These coins have been minted by the Bank of Greece"

Hi, Numista! Excited to post here for the first time. I used to really enjoy collecting coins as a kid. My parents and I tried to fill out a U.S. state quarter map, and we even got really into Sacagawea dollars, SBAs, Kennedy half dollars, Eisenhower dollars, and even some world coins, mainly old coins from the Philippines. After several decades, I've been rediscovering this hobby as an adult and realizing how exciting it can be—so much so that it's actually been a couple of weeks since I fired up the PS4 haha (and I just started playing GoW: Ragnarok)! 

My folks will be visiting in a couple of months, and they offered to bring my childhood coin collection, including the pre-euro Greek set included in this post. One of my dad's previous coworkers gifted it to me as a kid. Does anyone have any info of this set? I've tried Googling but to no avail. There have been many eBay posts and other auctions with different mintages, but there isn't a ton of included info. Was it actually put together around 1900? Did the Bank of Greece actually put together these sets, or did some third party (e.g., Franklin Mint's Coin Sets of All Nations) curate them for retail?

Soothsayerslayer

Was it actually put together around 1900? Did the Bank of Greece actually put together these sets, or did some third party (e.g., Franklin Mint's Coin Sets of All Nations) curate them for retail?

- You can see most of the coins did circulate heavily and show a lot of wear. So these coins are certainly not put together around 1900.

- That kind of plastic coin box certainly didn't exist that early, that's something from many decades later.

- All these coins are minted in Paris by Monnaies de Paris, so the inscription “These coins have been minted by the Bank of Greece” is very strange and smells like a selling trick.

Essor Prof

Soothsayerslayer

Was it actually put together around 1900? Did the Bank of Greece actually put together these sets, or did some third party (e.g., Franklin Mint's Coin Sets of All Nations) curate them for retail?

- You can see most of the coins did circulate heavily and show a lot of wear. So these coins are certainly not put together around 1900.

- That kind of plastic coin box certainly didn't exist that early, that's something from many decades later.

- All these coins are minted in Paris by Monnaies de Paris, so the inscription “These coins have been minted by the Bank of Greece” is very strange and smell like a selling trick.

 

Thank you for your response. Really good point about these coins being minted in Paris despite what the holder says… I wouldn't be surprised if the aforementioned coworker bought it as a souvenir from when she and her family vacationed in Greece in late 90s / early 2000s. Regardless, these are the oldest coins in my collection and an old gift, so I will cherish them!

Would be curious to know of this set's provenance though—like who made it and sold it.

It is not a country set either: the two 1900-dated coins are actually from the autonomous Cretan State (1898-1913).

Strange haphazard selection of coins.

Strangest of all is that all coins in the box are minted by the Paris mint. Actually banks rarely mint coins by themselves, they issue them, so the wording on the box is a bit off.

ArnoV

It is not a country set either: the two 1900-dated coins are actually from the autonomous Cretan State (1898-1913).

 

Strange haphazard selection of coins.

 

Strangest of all is that all coins in the box are minted by the Paris mint. Actually banks rarely mint coins by themselves, they issue them, so the wording on the box is a bit off.

Truly haphazard representing two kings and two states. It looks like the Bank of Greece didn’t even issue coins until 1930 or stand up its coin minting operations until 1971. 

These are souvenir sets originating from taxfrees and simlair places in greece ive bought a number of them while vacationing at KOS at an earlier age 

Often heavily polished and missmashed together sets

The 2 Beta shows the issue of these ive seen as high a number as 7 Lambda

Terrazone

These are souvenir sets originating from taxfrees and simlair places in greece ive bought a number of them while vacationing at KOS at an earlier age 

 

Often heavily polished and missmashed together sets

 

Did you manage to hold onto your old sets? Really curious to compare!

Terrazone

The 2 Beta shows the issue of these ive seen as high a number as 7 Lambda

Ahhh now that's a lead. I wonder if there would be more info attached to the earlier sets, which I'd imagine would be marked with Alpha?

Soothsayerslayer

Terrazone

These are souvenir sets originating from taxfrees and simlair places in greece ive bought a number of them while vacationing at KOS at an earlier age 

 

Often heavily polished and missmashed together sets

 

Did you manage to hold onto your old sets? Really curious to compare!

Sadly not ive swapped all of them but i might have photos left in some of the swaps 

Terrazone

Sadly not ive swapped all of them but i might have photos left in some of the swaps 

If only we had a way to search our swaps for spzcific coins 😞

https://en.numista.com/forum/topic109082.html#p897921

I only found one photo from roughly 5 years ago of the 1926 dated but contains 1926/30 set

Excuse the photo quality

Soothsayerslayer

Terrazone

The 2 Beta shows the issue of these ive seen as high a number as 7 Lambda

Ahhh now that's a lead. I wonder if there would be more info attached to the earlier sets, which I'd imagine would be marked with Alpha?

Ive only seen Beta / Delta and Lambda symbols on the sets 

Terrazone

I only found one photo from roughly 5 years ago of the 1926 dated but contains 1926/30 set

Excuse the photo quality

Thanks for sending. Ngl, the obverses of the ones you had were cooler than the ones on mine!

Soothsayerslayer

Terrazone

I only found one photo from roughly 5 years ago of the 1926 dated but contains 1926/30 set

Excuse the photo quality

Thanks for sending. Ngl, the obverses of the ones you had were cooler than the ones on mine!

If only they hadent polished these to oblivion prior to putting them inside the slab 

That case is at least from the 1970s, as I have a similar case with a set of coins from 1976, yet the 10 Lepta was dated 1978. Someone was making these as souvenir sets and also selling them as current sets.

The two sets shown show mostly common easy to find coins made out of base metal, although the later set has the silver 10 and 20 Drachme of 1930. I remember being in Greece in 2014 and buying the 1976 set of coins in that style of case, so my guess is they were made by some canny souvenir producers.

I mean that these have been made for a while is not unexpected. Probs still makes some form of sets. 

Here an alfa-set with 1982 coins

Griechenland 1982 Kursmünzensatz - These Coins have been minted by the Bank of Greece | MA-Shops

So for now we have these, there seems to be some logic, but not completely as the 19 beta repeats itself … :

1894-1900 - 2 beta

1926 - 7 beta

1959-1960 silver - 11 beta (Bank Of Greece Mint Uncirculated Coin Set 1959 Sealed in Case | eBay)

1959-1988 - 19 beta (Bank Of Greece Mint set 1959-1988 | eBay)

1966-1967-1968 - 19 beta (Bank of Greece Complete coin set 1966 rare | eBay)

1982 - 27 alfa

1986 - 29 alfa (1986 Bank of Greece Complete Set Coins, gold,silver uncirculated in plastic case | eBay)

1990 - 31 alfa (Greece Coin -Bank of Greece - Complete Set of 7 Coin 1990 - Proof Coin | eBay)

1992 - 32 alfa (https://www.ebay.com/itm/405198346406)

1994 - 33 alfa (1994 Bank of Greece Complete Set Coins, Gold,Silver Uncirculated in Plastic Case | eBay)

2000 Olympics - 37 alfa (Olympic-Coins-37a-Complete-2000-Minted-By-Bank.webp (640×340))

And they seem to have continued into the Euro-age, but dropped the eltters:
1993 greek Greece coin set Hellenic Republic & 2002 European set euro bank of | eBay

Pretty impressive work I must say … it nearly (!) deserved a spot in the Numista catalogue. But for now let's keep it to this post!

BramVB

Here an alfa-set with 1982 coins

Griechenland 1982 Kursmünzensatz - These Coins have been minted by the Bank of Greece | MA-Shops

 

 

So for now we have these, there seems to be some logic, but not completely as the 19 beta repeats itself … :

1894-1900 - 2 beta

1926 - 7 beta

1959-1960 silver - 11 beta (Bank Of Greece Mint Uncirculated Coin Set 1959 Sealed in Case | eBay)

1959-1988 - 19 beta (Bank Of Greece Mint set 1959-1988 | eBay)

1966-1967-1968 - 19 beta (Bank of Greece Complete coin set 1966 rare | eBay)

1982 - 27 alfa

1986 - 29 alfa (1986 Bank of Greece Complete Set Coins, gold,silver uncirculated in plastic case | eBay)

1990 - 31 alfa (Greece Coin -Bank of Greece - Complete Set of 7 Coin 1990 - Proof Coin | eBay)

1992 - 32 alfa (https://www.ebay.com/itm/405198346406)

1994 - 33 alfa (1994 Bank of Greece Complete Set Coins, Gold,Silver Uncirculated in Plastic Case | eBay)

2000 Olympics - 37 alfa (Olympic-Coins-37a-Complete-2000-Minted-By-Bank.webp (640×340))

 

And they seem to have continued into the Euro-age, but dropped the eltters:
1993 greek Greece coin set Hellenic Republic & 2002 European set euro bank of | eBay

 

Pretty impressive work I must say … it nearly (!) deserved a spot in the Numista catalogue. But for now let's keep it to this post!

Ive seen cretan coins in Lambda marked sets aswell