Today, each country has its own currency, with all banknotes and coins featuring their own individual designs, secret security features, and face values. However, there are also payment methods that cannot be considered standard or familiar in any way. What was unusual about paying for purchases, and which banknotes and coins arouse interest with their unique design?
Wine Bottle Labels
Labels from wine bottles played the role of a means of payment. After the Revolution (1917), Yakutia was experiencing a crisis of paper money. Their acute shortage led to an unexpected solution to the problem. Alexey Semenov, who headed the People’s Commissariat of Finance at the time, introduced paper labels for wine drinks.
The most common labels were from Cahors, Port, Madeira, Sherry, and Oporto. Each of them had its own face value. “Madeira” replaced the ruble; “Cahor” was equivalent to ten. The authenticity of such bills was confirmed by Semenov’s seal and handwritten signature. The “wine money” disappeared from circulation with the advent of Soviet power.
The Talking Coin
If we talk about the unusual characteristics of coins, then perhaps the speaker will become a very unusual specimen. This coin is very rare and can be found in Mongolia. It has a nominal value of 50 tugriks. On one side, there is an image of John F. Kennedy, and when you press a special button, the coin utters an English phrase in the voice of the president, which translates as: “I am proud to be a Berliner.”
Coins with illusions
Coins with optical illusions began to appear en masse in 2001, when the idea of such an unusual design of coins appeared in several countries at once. Visit. A F R I N I K . C O M . For the full article. The unusual thing is that they have several encrypted images, each of which becomes distinguishable from a certain angle of view. For example, the Republic of Palau boasts a $5 coin featuring Don Quixote.
But if you look closely, you can see the image of Sancho Panza. In Zambia, there is a coin that reflects an episode from the painting “The Cat in the Window”, created by Swiss artist Sandro del Prete. To see it, you need to be extremely careful, because at first glance, only a seductive female silhouette is visible on the coin. Coins created by craftsmen from Liberia and Uganda (issued in 2001) can also play an optical joke on people.
Unusual shapes – guitars, motorcycles, cars, cannabis-shaped coins, pyramids
The coins, made in the form of multi-colored guitars, performed on par with other money in Somalia. The reason for the release of so much unusual money was the half-century anniversary of rock and roll, and its face value was 1 dollar. In the history of Somalia, there have also been cases of coins being issued in the form of brightly colored motorcycles and cars.
Coins in the shape of cannabis leaves were launched in 2011 in Benin. Not only is their shape interesting, but they also have another original property. If you rub the back, you can catch the smell of cannabis. However, the manufacturers claim that the fragrance is completely synthetic and has no psychotropic effect. In the self-governing state entity of Niue, which is part of New Zealand, 1 dollar has been issued, which has the shape of a rectangle and is decorated with colored images.
The calendar coin, issued in Zambia in 2003, has the shape of a heptagon. The 15-dollar coins, created specifically for the Year of the Tiger (2010) in Canada, are shaped like a circle with wavy edges. In the same year, a double coin was issued on the Fiji Islands, visually resembling the well-known combination of “yin and yang”. And in the Mariana Islands, a five-dollar coin has the shape of a heart. A pyramid-shaped coin made of silver was issued in the city of Tadworth (England). It depicts writings from the walls of Tutankhamun’s tomb and a sun disk with sand particles taken directly from the tomb.
A Disney dollar and coins with your favorite characters
Disney dollars are the key to a good mood. They depict the characters of your favorite cartoons, and you can pay them on the territory of Disneylands or similar recreation areas. In the Polynesian state of Tuvalu, a pink-tinted coin was issued in 2009. There was a picture of Barbie on it. They released her for the 50th anniversary of her beloved doll. Colored coins were also created here, illustrated with scenes from Transformers. But in Belarus, there are coins issued based on famous fairy tales. Among them are “The Snow Queen”, “The Little Prince”, “12 Months”, and others.
A coin with holy water or a piece of meteorite
In 2007, Palau was surprised by another exclusive coin – it was made of silver. An image of the Virgin Mary was painted on it, and a microscopic bottle of holy water was enclosed inside. And in the Cook Islands in 2010, they came up with the idea to create an original coin with pieces of a real meteorite. Complemented by a stylized color image, it has an original appearance.
Wooden money and cardboard sheets
The city of Moose Jaw (Canada) was experiencing a shortage of metal. This led to the appearance of wooden means of payment in everyday life. They were small tablets, each of which had its own face value. Due to the same shortage of metal, the Manchurian currency was once the fen. This cardboard money had denominations of 1 and 5 coins.
Coins with individual flavors and three-dimensional designs
Craftsmen from the island of Palau came up with and brought to life the coins of the “Heavenly Flavors” series. Their uniqueness lay in the fact that each had its own unique scent. The coin with the image and fragrance of coconut became the first copy of the collection. The coin with the image of a surfer conquering a wave and the smell of sea freshness is also interesting.
Many numismatists of the world have recognized the most beautiful coin from Cameroon. In 2011, 1,000 francs were issued there, decorated with a three-dimensional image of a butterfly sitting on a flower. Her wings protrude noticeably beyond the edges of the coin. 2,500 of these coins quickly settled in the collections of connoisseurs.
Space money
Officially, this money is not used anywhere. But it is planned that one day they will become the single means of payment of the galaxy. They are made of durable plastic and are a stylized image of all the planets of the solar system.
