Everybody in North America knows that current Canadian and US coins match pretty closely to their denominational counterpart ..... ie, Canadian 10 cents: wt.: 1.75 g/ dia.: 18.03 mm/thickness: 1.35 mm vs. US 10 cents: 2.26 gm/17.91 mm/1.35mm
The US/Canadian coin differentials used to be even closer .... I assume the Canadians determined their standards so that vending machines could use the American coin standards, but after the US coins became sigificantly more valuable than their Canadian counterparts, perhaps that's what triggered the wider disparities in today's coins v. the coins of the 60s say.
But a banking friend of mine who handles massive coin deposits from vending machine operators, smaller banks, fast food joints, merchants, etc., tells me there are many 'headaches' caused by far less valuable/obsolete foreign coins which closely match US coinage.
For example, he points out that old French Franc coins (1959-2001) https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces6.html
[wt: 6 g/dia.: 24 mm/thickness: 1.79mm];
Barbados 25 cents (1973- 2006)
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces917.html
[5.67 g/23 mm/1.82 mm]
and Dominican 25 centavos (1989-91)
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces1089.html
[5.7 g/24.25 mm/1.87]
-- all very closely match the US quarter :
[5.67 g/24.26 mm/1.75 mm] ......
The problem for the business people is that the French francs are basically worthless, the Barbadian (sp?) 'quarter' is worth about 13 US cents, and the Dominican "quarter" is worth about a half-cent.
He says over the last few years he's been flooded with these coins, plus old Belgian 5 franc coins, old Jamaican 10 cents coins, etc., all masquerading as US quarters!
It causes him headaches because his bank has to write up discrepancy reports and even return the foreign coins in some circumstances as 'proof' .... all costly extra-steps.
He went to a convention earlier this year and these coin 'masqueraders' and what the banking establishment could do about them was even the subject of two speakers.
He says at his facility, over $50,000 or so a week is 'caught', so it's not trifling amount.
He designates them 'masqueraded' coins bc they aren't counterfeits in the ordinary sense, nor are they 'slugs' ..... He changed his forms about 3 years ago to specially account for these 'imposter' coins.
So I was wondering whether national mints are under some sort of international agreement or customs treaty to mint coins to avoid exact or near exact matches with other countries' coinage.
Plus what are some more 'close calls' between coins beyond what I've listed.
Perfect/Very Close Coin Matches of Different Countries (size/color/wt.)
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Posted:
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French 2 franc coins are accepted in vending machines as CAD dollars. I accidentally put one i had in my pocket into one this morning. and only later realized it wasn't a quarter.
Loruca
Loruca
I collect anything: If it's Italian or Italian states i collect it even more!
Posted:
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Quote: "loruca"French 2 franc coins are accepted in vending machines as CAD dollars. I accidentally put one i had in my pocket into one this morning. and only later realized it wasn't a quarter.The same with France 1 franc KM# 925.1 (1959-2001) - Canadian vending machines take them for a quarter though a quarter is almost 1 g lighter.
Loruca
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