One of my fascinations with World coins is just how far they have travelled to land in my collection. This can include an original country, third party graded in another country, swapped from one country to another, and then shipped to me in Canada, etc.
As an example;
I purchased this coin from Portugal, originally from Australia.....
I have purchased a number of Egyptian coins 1929-39, from a dealer in Australia. These coins were brought to Australia from Egypt by ANZAC soldiers who were stationed in Egypt and fought the Germans in North Africa in 1943-44.
So, Cairo to Melbourne , 13 966 km; then Melbourne to Providence, RI, USA 16 900 km - - total - - 30 866 km !
Jamais l'or n'a perdu la plus petite occasion de se montrer stupide. -Balzac
I am close but no cigar.
Paraguay coin minted in Ottawa, distributed in Paraguay, 7849 km.
i got it from a collector in Tel Aviv, 11643 km.
I live in Calgary, 10274 km.
Total 29766 km
If I send it to my sister in Halifax add 4835 km she will have the most.
I swapped with kaspers, an Australian collector who lives upside down, with feet up and head down, in the pleasant town of Albury in New South Wales. He abridges the words and speaks, with an inapprehensible accent, as fast as the kangaroo leaps high. The "the" is condensed into "Th" even in the handwriting, they could even have taken out the "h" because we are sure not to hear it.
In the swap lot was a 1957D Roosevelt Silver Dime:
Denver - Albury: 13868km
Albury - Cognac: 17086km
Total: 30954km
Swapper from: Curaçao
Coin from: Malaya and British Borneo
Distance Curaçao-Kuala Lumpur: 18027.68 km
Distance Curaçao-Gothenburg: 8333.15 km
Total distance travelled: 26360.83 km
They coins might've came from British Borneo, but I don't think it would add more than a couple of hundred km's to the distance, so it really doesn't matter.
I got a 1978 10 Filler from Hungary in a swap with RobertMX in Australia.
The coin was minted in Budapest, so 15,469.01 KM to Australia and then 15,935.72 KM to me, for a trip of 31,404.73 KM.
So a bit more complex :
On february 2014, I made a large swap with thecharlys who lives in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In the package, among french coins, there were two coins from Costa Rica. We sent coins together but he moved home after I sent coins and there were a postal strike in Brazil. He never received my package and my package went back to France ... 8 months later , on October 2014 : « not living at this address » . I sent again the package at his new address .
So : Guatemala - Cognac : 8863
Cognac - Sao Paulo : 9007 * 3 = 27021
Total : 35884 km
That reminds me my father who was collecting postal flames and who sent hundreds of letters around the world with always the same address : "1 paradise road" and was waiting for the letter to return to the sender with the postal flame of the destination town ...
AI bought a coin at the Royal Mint in South Wales which is 50 miles from my house. (old man using old distance.
In a dream, I sent this coin to astronaut Jim Lovell, who would take it to the moon and back, then send it back. Total, around 520,000 miles (832,000 km), but it was just a dream.
I have this 1 centesimo coin from Uruguay 1909 https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces4365.html Minted in Vienna, (which is around 210 km far away from me) traveled to Uruguay -we assume that to the capital, Montevideo, 11693 km. I swapped with a numista members from Brasil, so traveled again at least once, +716 km, then back to Europe, Hungary: 11086 km. In all: 23495 km, awesome
Cita: "ThePoet"I am close but no cigar.
Paraguay coin minted in Ottawa, distributed in Paraguay, 7849 km.
i got it from a collector in Tel Aviv, 11643 km.
I live in Calgary, 10274 km.
Total 29766 km
If I send it to my sister in Halifax add 4835 km she will have the most.
Very good thinking, to include move from overseas mint to purchasing country!
One of my Egyptian coins from Australia was struck at Heaton mint, Birmingham, UK.
my new total for this coin is
Cita... Cairo to Melbourne , 13 966 km; then Melbourne to Providence, RI, USA 16 900 km - - total - - 30 866 km !
plus Birmingham to Cairo 3670km = 34 536km
edit to add - now I had an idea, the coins in 1923 would have gone by sea, not great circle route shown by DFT.net . I approximate this as Birmingham to Gibraltar to Cairo = 5290km
with this sea voyage the total for this coin is apparently 36 156km!
Jamais l'or n'a perdu la plus petite occasion de se montrer stupide. -Balzac
Cita: "COINMAN1"AI bought a coin at the Royal Mint in South Wales which is 50 miles from my house. (old man using old distance.
In a dream, I sent this coin to astronaut Jim Lovell, who would take it to the moon and back, then send it back. Total, around 520,000 miles (832,000 km), but it was just a dream.
Cita: "Mr. Midnight"
edit to add - now I had an idea, the coins in 1923 would have gone by sea, not great circle route shown by DFT.net . I approximate this as Birmingham to Gibraltar to Cairo = 5290km
with this sea voyage the total for this coin is apparently 36 156km!
Wouldnt you love to know the route from Egypt to Australia? I doubt it went directly by air.
Cita: "Mr. Midnight"... One of my Egyptian coins from Australia was struck at Heaton mint, Birmingham, UK. ...
Nice idea to take the mint into account
I am more skeptical about taking the actual route into account, but hey if I have to, I still have a little margin because direct Cognac journeys abroad do not exist, except perhaps for a few bottles of overpriced liquor ...
So back to the swap I mentionned previously, in the swap there were also a 1 Rupee 1997 Mauritius coin
minted in ... LLiantrisant (a bit of search to find this information) :
So the route is now :
LLiantrisant-Port-Louis = 9897km
Port-Louis -Cognac = 9353km
Cognac-Sao Paulo (*3) = 9007*3 = 27021km Total : 46271km
I understand the challenge - but do we need to resort to obscene words?
I live in New Zealand and 95% of my coins are from Europe and the Americas. I am sure all 300 of my British Halfcrowns, Florins and the 500 or so bronze and copper coins from there have done at least 18,000km each in their lifetimes.
My most travelled coins in one shot would be the ones from Spain and Portugal. Any Spanish coin I have (None before 1870) would have been minted in Madrid and Portuguese ones in Lisbon. Auckland is a perfect Antipode to Southern Spain and northern Morocco, so they would be the furtherest travelled.
Madrid to Auckland -19,585km
MOZAMBIQUE - but minted in Lisbon, Port
Lisbon to Auckland - 19,602km
Rabat to Auckland - 19.651km
So Morocco is the winner, but further South parts of NZ would see Spain and Portugal get further apart.
Our location of 36.8 south and 174.8 east would antipodise as 36.8 north and 5.2 west, somewhere between the Algarve and Tangier.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Cita: "ngdawa"I've checked my swaps and found one from 2012:
Swapper from: Curaçao
Coin from: Malaya and British Borneo
Distance Curaçao - Kuala Lumpur: 18027.68 km
Distance Curaçao-Gothenburg: 8333.15 km
Total distance travelled: 26360.83 km
So, let's add the mint then. This coin was minted in ..... Heaton Mint, Birmingham, UK.
This means:
Birmingham - Kuala Lumpur: 10642.04 km
Kuala Lumpur - Curaçao: 18027.68 km
Curaçao - Gothenburg: 8333.15 km
Total distance travelled: 37002.87 km!
Sorry for two posts in a row, but I just realised that I have a coin that really has travelled.
I lived in Sydney, Australia a few years back, and one days when I was out shopping I got a NZ 20 cents coin in change. This coins was minted in Llantrisant, UK. A few months later, I tracelled around Australia – by car – whith the coin in my wallet, and I still have this coin in my collection.
We have: Step 1, the travel to my hand:
Llantrisant - Auckland (or somewhere in NZ): 18357.36 km
Auckland - Sydney: 2156.30 km
Total: 20513.66 km
Step 2, the Australia Tour:
Sydney-Canberra-Melbourney-Adelaid-Alice Springs-Uluru-Darwin-Mt. Isa-Townsville-Cairns-Kuranda-1770-Brisbane-Sydney: ~11679 km
Step 3, the joufney to its current home:
Sydney - Abu Dhabi: 12090.50 km
Abu Dhabi - Amsterdam: 5161.50
Amsterdam - Gothenburg: 744.09 km
Total: 17996.09
I have a one-cent coin from 1900. It was minted at R. Heaton & Sons Co. Ltd. and circulated in Hong Kong. To get such coins from the mints in Birmingham to Hong Kong Island a ship would traverse distances of approx. 18,670 km, via the Suez Canal.
In 2017 I was given the coin by my grandmother in New York - but it had to get there from Hong Kong first. So 12,953 km from Hong Kong to her house. Then the return trip back to my collection drawer in Hong Kong where it currently sits. So 12,953 * 2 = 25,906 km.
The above distances culminate to a grand total of 44,576 km.
"Life is all about being too wrapped up in the now to care about the future. When the future becomes the past, you start to regret what you've done."
Last year I sent Makarije (Milan) in Serbia some British silver coins for secret Santa and realised these coins travelled a heck of a distance.
I worked out they travelled 35,947.44km in all.
They travelled at least 18337.36 km from the Royal Mint in London to Auckland, NZ
and then 17,610.08km to Nis in Serbia!
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
, on October 2014 : « not living at this address » . I sent again the package at his new address .
the coins in 1923 would have gone by sea, not great circle route shown by DFT.net . I approximate this as Birmingham to Gibraltar to Cairo = 5290km
