2003 monkey fantasy issues [solved]

According to the description of https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces11937.html (10 Francs Djibouti), there are 8 coins in this series.
In the exonumia section, I found also https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces23823.html (10 Francs Madagascar) and https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces25033.html (5 Chetrums Bhutan).

Then there are https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces83919.html (1 Kobo Nigeria), https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces23678.html (10 Cedis Ghana) and https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces12002.html (20 Leones Sierra Leone). For consistency, they should be moved to the exonumia section. The Nigeria and the Sierra Leone coins are even listed as "common coin"!

This makes six so far. Where are the two others?

Why do some of them (e.g. Djibouti and Sierra Leone) have regular KM#s but others like the Bhutanese one have X#?

I checked Krause's SCWC (2017 edition) for the Djibouti coin and it makes no mention of the coin being a fantasy issue.

I trust neither Krause nor Numista for these listings. It's quite obvious they're fantasies (one-year types, all same year, all similar motives, all similar rarities, much to rare for circulation issues), but I'd like to see a source for the claim that there are 8 in the series.

For the other two... maybe Cook Islands and Kiribati?
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/COOK-ISLANDS-CENT-2003-MONKEY-UNC/362535141835?hash=item5468c741cb:g:dL4AAOSwqrZcP8Uy:rk:2:pf:0
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Kiribati-5-Cents-2003-Top-grade-Monkey-Rare/273651249637?hash=item3fb6e2b1e5:g:KusAAOSwohVcOJrD:rk:11:pf:0

I will look further into this and see what I can find.

Does anyone have a Schön catalogue they can check?

Here is a thread discussing these coins, which seems to imply Schön has some information about them (and the Kiribati one is mentioned in this):
https://en.numista.com/forum/topic37930.html

The Kiribati coin seems to fit in this series. But the Cook Islands coin is much more common, and part of a set of five coins (James Cook, collie, pointer dog, rooster, monkey).

Ah, that would make sense--not Cook Islands.

Maybe Liberia?
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces23779.html

I have not been to find any information on this from external forces. From the looks of it, I do not think I will be able to solve this without the help of a Schön catalogue. Looking at the Madagascar listing, it is apparently mentioned on page 1487 of that catalogue, but the Numista page does not elaborate further...

Yes, that's them. With my 6 above and these two:
Kiribati https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces28002.html
Liberia https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces23779.html
we got 8 of them.
I finally managed to check my Schön (2012 issue). It lists all of them, and all of them, with the exception of Liberia, are indicated as unauthorized Chinese strikes, with an irregular catalog number (starting with a letter) and no price given. Liberia has no price, but also no remark.
Who has the permission to move all of them to the exonumia section?

I can send some requests, but before I do, would it be possible for you to provide the reference numbers for each coin? If the information comes from Schön, including the numbers would definitely help!

OK. Here are the Schön numbers.

Djibouti 10 Francs A38
Madagascar 10 Francs A26
Bhutan 5 Chetrums A155
Nigeria 1 Kobo A53
Ghana 10 Cedis B35
Sierra Leone 20 Leones A51
Kiribati 5 Cents A45
Liberia 5 Cents 1401

Thank you very much!

Nigeria, Ghana, and Sierra Leone have all been moved; Kiribati is pending.

I am a little worried about the Liberian one though. While it visually looks similar to the other ones, if Schön does not explicitly say that one is unauthorized, it makes me think it may not necessarily be one of the Chinese strikes.

The eighth one... it would not be the monkey issues from Uganda (there a few different ones), and the one from Malaysia comes in a special package. I doubt it is the one from Gibraltar, and we already decided it was not Cook Islands. There was one from the Republic of Congo, but that one was minted in silver, so I doubt it is that one. There is already one from Senegal under Exonumia, but I do not think it was that one either due to it being an IDAO piece.

Looking at the number of members who owns each piece, the Liberian one definitely matches all other pieces; however, if the Liberian piece truly is the eighth one, I am not sure why Schön would not give a similar comment on that piece...

Kiribati has also been moved to **Exonumia**.

In my 2016 Schön there is still no mentioning the Liberian coin is an unauthorized issue.

Thank you!

If the Liberian coin cannot be confirmed to be the eighth of the series, I cannot request to move it. Best I can do is add a comment to the other seven pages saying that the eighth coin is possibly the Liberian one. With that being said, all coins that can be confirmed have now been moved to Exonumia, so I think it is safe to say this thread is solved.

(And of course, if some future information says the eighth coin is in fact the Liberian one, we can move it then.)

I have inquired about these coins in the German Münzenforum:
https://www.emuenzen.de/forum/threads/unautorisierte-praegungen-affen-2003-aus-china.91105/
I got the confirmation that these eight coins were part of a Chinese set, and I also was refered to a post by Gerhard Schön himself:
https://www.emuenzen.de/forum/threads/pseudomuenzen-pseudostaaten-und-kommerzprodukte.41601/page-4#post-463717
where he's mentioning this set, including the Liberian coin.

Well, that certainly seems like enough proof to me!

I will send a request to move the Liberian coin.

Liberia moved. Thank you for hunting this down.

Excellent!

Thank you!