Realcent.org

For those of you who don't know - http://www.currencydebasement.com/ is a website that many of us use when we have curiosities about the metal content of foreign coins. It has a Legal Tender, Obsolute, and Redeemable database. But why most of us use it is it also has a Copper , Nickel and Silver coins database.

This week, they added a gold coins database to the website! I know that it takes an awful lot of work to put something like this together, I'd encourage the members here to check it out.

FYI - the owner of the website (who I do not know) is infact a member here.

Great site. Any worldly travelers should make note of which countries leverage the US dollar exchange rate with coinage worth more in spot vs. face value. Those entries are in red when you select a country under 'Legal Tender Coins' . For example, South Korea:
( http://www.currencydebasement.com/legal-tender&c=KRW ) :

5 Won 1970- 2.95g 65Cu-35Zn ♦ $0.01639 $0.00432

That's a 379% spot value vs. face value extra. Interesting. Many other countries still probably have plenty of coinage in circulation that US dollars would have much greater than spot metal parity in.

Holy smokes, look at Argentina's 1 centavo:

1 Centavo 1993-2000 2g 97Cu-2.5Zn-.5Sn ♦ $0.01491 $0.00237

That's a 629% ratio of spot vs face.

OneBiteAtATime wrote:
FYI - the owner of the website (who I do not know) is infact a member here.

If you don't know him, how do you know he is a member?

RichardPenny43 wrote:

OneBiteAtATime wrote:
FYI - the owner of the website (who I do not know) is infact a member here.

If you don't know him, how do you know he is a member?

There's a man in my town that runs around all day.... He's in his 70's and carries a baseball in both hands. By run I mean more of a shuffle with his arms swinging. Everyone in town calls him "the running man". I have talked to him twice and am aware both by our conversations and what others have said that he is a man of means who has an "important" last name in the region. While I've spoken to him, I wouldn't say I "KNOW" him.

But if you need more evidence.....

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7530

OneBiteAtATime wrote: While I've spoken to him, I wouldn't say I "KNOW" him.

I didn't really doubt you, just the statement made me curious.

Thanks for the hat tip onebite.

A lot of the low value coins, though legal tender, effectively don't circulate in many countries. Wikipedia is pretty good at identifying those. Though, they must be available at the banks.

The hoarding and melting of coins is a huge problem in the poorer countries of the world (e.g. India, Philippines), where even the metal in stainless steel coins often exceeds their purchasing power.

Thanks for the info! Twenty

Never knew about that site. Awesome fount of knowledge!