Chess set with coins!

Hello everyone!

I'll like to use this space to let you all know about this project I've assembled: a chess set with coins!

The board is custom made, and the whole thing is folded to no less than 1 centimetre in height, portable and perfect for travels.

As far as I know, I am the first to put together this! All the searches I've done on the web for "chess coin" return some kind of bitcoin cryptocurrency...

The few rules I used for choose the coins were:

- The design should clearly depict the chess piece;
- All the coins should be (more or less) of the same size;
- Same piece of the opposing team should have a different design, if possible
(like, from a different country or a different person, not just the same design in another color);
- Kings and Queens should wear crowns
(more difficult to find than it looks)
- No actual gold or silver coins, just circulating issues
(to make the whole project affordable)

My selection was:

Gold:
King: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces7776.html
Queen: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces2620.html
Rook: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces3256.html
Bishop: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces11511.html
Knight: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces5364.html
Pawn: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces2253.html

Silver:
King: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces8815.html
Queen: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces2561.html
Rook: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces16933.html
Bishop: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces3620.html
Knight: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces3983.html
Pawn: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces44.html


Let me know what you guys think!

So Cool! Awesome idea.
Aaron

why did you choose the Brasil and US coins as the pawns?

Quote: "aaronmgd"​So Cool! Awesome idea.
​Aaron

​Yes, very cool!

I love chess, and this warms my heart! Thank you for making this!

A better choice for the peasants https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces3394.html

I like it!
but I too am confused by the choice of the Jefferson Nickle as the silver pawn.

Quote: "alfonz"​A better choice for the peasants https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces3394.html

​An even better choice:



Just make sure not to use this for your king, or else the proletariat pawns will rise up against him and then sign a peace treaty with the gold side.

Thanks all for the replies!

About the pawn choices, I used Brasil on the gold team because I am from Brasil (so I had more than 8 of those, easy), and the design kind of remember me of infantry...

The US on the silver team, same reason; I had a lot of those to spare, and not a clue on how to look on Numista database on "looks like an army force".... the Romania tractor idea above was a great one, though!

Quote: "Alessandro1918"​
​Thanks all for the replies!
​
​About the pawn choices, I used Brasil on the gold team because I am from Brasil (so I had more than 8 of those, easy), and the design kind of remember me of infantry...
​
​The US on the silver team, same reason; I had a lot of those to spare, and not a clue on how to look on Numista database on "looks like an army force".... the Romania tractor idea above was a great one, though!

OK, I understand. You need 8 of them of course, so it is a good choice for that reason.

I searched for "soldier" and found some interesting results, but maybe hard to find 8 pieces!
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces3828.html
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces15258.html
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces2229.html
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces2493.html

Quote: "CassTaylor"​

Quote: "alfonz"​A better choice for the peasants https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces3394.html

​​An even better choice:
​
​
​
​Just make sure not to use this for your king, or else the proletariat pawns will rise up against him and then sign a peace treaty with the gold side.

​Game begins!
Proletarian pawn to E1 "Down with the bourgeoisie!"

Game concludes.

For the pawns, a simple idea is to use your local coins as pawns.

Awesome Idea! I'll have to search through my collection and see if I can do one

Have you thought of using coins that actually depict the game of chess? I would also think that a coin of Iran/Persia should be included...

Quote: "Oklahoman"​Have you thought of using coins that actually depict the game of chess? I would also think that a coin of Iran/Persia should be included...

​...There aren't really any common coins that depict the game of chess. A search of "chess" on Numista finds 35 results, of which only 25 are actually coins, and only 2 (this and this) are circulating coins (though one more type, while technically non-circulating, is relatively common).

As it happens, none of those three actually depict the game of chess as such - two only depict chess pieces (with no board), and one depicts a folded board (with no pieces).
The most common coin to depict both chess pieces and a chess board appears to be this type (mintage 30000, rarity 73); the most common coin to depict chess pieces on a chess board is probably this type (mintage 10000 across both varieties, rarity 80 - though technically the previous type might also count if you ignore how the board with the pieces looks more like a surrealist painting).

Ironically enough, none of the 35 are from either Iran or Persia. (Nor are any of them from India, for that matter.)

Quote: "Oklahoman"​Have you thought of using coins that actually depict the game of chess? I would also think that a coin of Iran/Persia should be included...

​
Well... why?
I mean, I know the game is said to be created near there, so there is the historical context... but otherwise, I couldn't find any coins from there clearly depicting any chess piece, to make the game playable.

And that was the idea, a chess player knowing the designs at first glance, only then to ask: "Wait, this is not custom made for the game? It´s actual currency from who knows how many countries?"


@zakaye:
Good luck, and let us know the result!

If any of you guys find other designs, let's keep the post alive!
I recently found another one for a king , from Romania. Totally by chance, since the Numista text doesn't have the keywords "king" nor "crown":
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces2656.html

I never said coins from Iran that depict chess. I said coins that depict chess. Or coins from Iran. Hungary, Cuba have coins that depict actual chess. Probably a couple of others. Iran coins are less random than coins from Romania...might check out polish coins. They have castles, nights, bishops...

Excellent idea, I would use this coin if I could get 8, just because when I was young I always thought it was prawn instead of a pawn
Cayman islands 5 cent

What a fun idea!