I was interested because of this thread. What is the largest (heaviest or biggest or both) coin ever minted?
This is probably the winner.
Stone coin from the isle of Yap.
Thanks! I remembered those things, but couldn’t remember what they were called, and therefore couldn’t find a picture.
How does one mint a stone coin?
ETA: I found at least one definition that uses “mint” to mean simply “manufacture money” so I retract my sorry and erroneous butting in.
I wonder how the answer would change, if it were to be limited to money that was actually used at one point. A 1 million dollar gold coin is interesting, but since it is actually being sold for the weight of the gold that is worth quite a bit more, it is only vaguely money. I can’t imagine that the stone coin was used either, but I have no idea.
Wikipedia says yes.
They had huge pockets.
The Yap stone coins (and there are more than one) are most certainly used as currency.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/road_to_riches/prog2/tharngan.stm
I’m thinking of constructing a vending machine. What is the exchange rate, so I know what to dispense.
I found out about Yap coinage from Mr. Ripley: Believe it or Not! #165
The date they give is 2006, but I had a Riley’s paperback in the 60’s with pretty much the same image. You could say they’ve gotten their money’s worth out of the Yaps.
I’d vote for the Ningi from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
In fact there are three freely convertible currencies in the Galaxy, but none of them count. The Altarian Dollar has recently collapsed, the Flainian Pobble Bead is only exchangeable for other Flainian Pobble Beads, and the Triganic Pu has its own very special problems. It exchange rate of eight Ningis to one Pu is simple enough, but since a Ningi is a triangular rubber coin six thousand eight hundred miles along each side, no one has ever collected enough to own one Pu. Nigis are not negotiable currency, because Galactibanks refuse to deal in fiddling small change. From this basic premise it is very simple to prove that the Galactibanks are also the product of a deranged imagination.
So what’s stopping someone from moving to Yap with a portable generator, some petrol, and modern tools, and manufacturing enough Stone Coins to buy the entire island?
I know that their value is limited to what the Islanders think they’re worth, but you could always hide them for a few years to age them or something first…
That is so cool.
And, in the face of the Yap stone, I suppose that Canadian pizza qualifies as the largest metal coin ever minted.
Someone did that already. But the islanders know which ones are old and which ones are new. The stones also don’t move – people just know which ones belong to whom.
Rai stones - Wikipedia is a start.
As far as the largest coin, I propose the Big Nickel. FWIW, Guinness confirms it.
Despite Wikipedia referring to it as a coin, the Big Nickel is a replica of a Canadian coin. If we’re required to deem it as a coin, then the largest flying bird in the world is the Canada goose located southwest of the Big Nickel at Wawa, Ont.
My opinion, FWIW, is that the question needs better definition. One can designate something as a coin which is arbitrarily large and of arbitrarily high value, like the million-dollar gold coin. A large amount of high value large size coinage is struck purely for investor/collector usage.
To rephrase the question a bit more narrowly, it would have to be (a) a coin struck by a government in at least de facto control of an area in which it is accepted as the legitimate government, which (b) is intended for general circulation, not purely for investment value, and which © is carried from point to point as a medium of exchange (i.e., is “money” in the traditional definition) rather than held at some specific point and commonly known to be the property of X (gold coin in bank vault, Yapese stone coin).
For the U.S., it would have to be the $50 gold coins privately struck under the auspices of the U.S. Assay Office which later served as the models for the $50 commemorative gold coin struck at the Panama Pacific Exposition. (Samclem, doublecheck me on this – I’d consider they meet my criteria and did circulate, and that we’ve done nothing higher for circulation.) Russia had 100-ruble platinum coins in the 19th Century that were, I believe, large and high value.
I don’t see why it should sound odd that people would use stone coins since shells-as-money was not an unknown form of currency.
I would also like to note that I would truly hate if someone from Yap were to drop the dime on me!
These Katanga crosses formerly used in Zaire, weighing between 1/2 pounds and 2 1/2 pounds would certainly make your pockets sag.
The Swedish ‘plåtmynt’ wasn’t as big as the stone coin, but at least they were made of metal (copper, usually). Unable to find a better pic than this at The Royal Coin Cabinet. Its weight was about 20 kg (44 lb), and by the way, equalled a cow in value - if you would take the trouble to bring one of these to the market.
Well, it would certainly be easier than carrying a cow.