Turkey 1 kurus 2015 - The Great Turkish Nations By: AL No comments

The Turkish State Mint will release a collection of 16 coins:

"The Great Turkish Nations"



Specifications:



(news and image by Johann Siemens and Jo Hoogeveen)

Gibraltar 50 pence 2015 - Christmas By: AL No comments

New circulating type:



(information and image by numismaticareina@gmail.com and Pabitra Saha)

Finland 10 & 20 euro 2016 - Karl Fazer By: AL No comments

New silver commemorative:

"150 years of the birth of Karl Fazer"



(news and image by Pabitra Saha)

SPECIFICATIONS
Composition: Silver .500
Diameter: 28.50 mm
Weight: 10.00 g
Mintage: 10,000
Designer: Kirsti Doukas
Issue date: january 28th

A 20 euro coin will be released also (mintage: 5,000).

LINK: Bank of Finland
LINK: Mint of Finland

Ukraine 5 hryvnia 2016 - Zakarpattia Oblast By: AL No comments

New bimetallic commemorative:

"70 Years of the Zakarpattia Oblast"



(news and image from Pabitra Saha)

LINK: National Bank of Ukraine

Morocco 100 dirhams 1985 - Youth Year (old unlisted type) By: AL No comments

Wolfgang Schuster just reported this previously unlisted old silver commemorative:

"Youth Year 1985"



(news and scan by Wolfgang Schuster)

Finland 5 euro 2016 - Sports: Cross Country Skiing By: AL No comments

New bimetallic commemorative:

"Sports Finnish people love" series: Cross Country Skiing



SPECIFICATIONS
Core composition: CuNi
Ring composition: Nordic Gold
Diameter: 27.25 mm
Weight: 9.80 g
Designer: Nora Tapper
Mintage 10,000 (proof) and 50,000 (unc)
Issue date: 15th february

Link: Mint of Finland

Austria 2 euro 2016 - Bicentenary of the National Bank of Austria By: AL No comments

New bimetallic circulating commemorative:

"Bicentenary of the National Bank of Austria"



SPECIFICATIONS
External ring: CuNi
Center disc: 3 layers, Ni-Brass, Ni, Ni-brass
Diameter: 25.75 mm
Width: 2.20 mm
Weight: 8.50 g
Designer: Herbert Wähner

Sudan 20 & 50 piastres 2006 - Magnetic types By: AL No comments

Circulating varieties dated 2006:

David Mikeladze did another interesting discovery: Sudan 20 piastres and 50 piastres exist also in magnetic version (probably steel core) for year 2006. You can find details in Numista (en.numista.com), where new KM numbers (KM124a & KM123a) are suggested.

20 piastres (KM124 and KM124a):



50 piastres (KM123 and KM123a):



The magnetic types bear a curved "6" in the year and also have different edge reeding:



(news by David Mikeladze)
(images taken from en.numista.com)

Guatemala 25 centavos 2012 (issued in 2015) - Steel, lighter and thinner By: AL No comments

New circulating type:

The Central Bank of Guatemana has issued a new 25 centavos coin, dated 2012, made of steel, much lighter and thinner than previous years:



SPECIFICATIONS
Composition: stainless steel
Diameter: 29.00 mm
Width: 1.06 mm
Weight: 4.20 g

(news by Pabitra Saha and Egon Conti)

Estonia 2 euro 2016 - Paul Keres By: AL No comments

New bimetallic circulating commemorative:

"100 years of the Birth of Chess grandmaster and writer Paul Keres"



SPECIFICATIONS
External ring: CuNi
Center disc: 3 layers, Ni-Brass, Ni, Ni-brass
Diameter: 25.75 mm
Width: 2.20 mm
Weight: 8.50 g
Designer: Riho Luuse
Mintage: 500 000
Mint: Lithuanian Mint

(news by Pabitra Saha)

LINK: Bank of Estonia

The Estonian Post (Eesti Post) has issued this nice stamp also:



LINK: Eesti Post

Off-Topic: Can you identify this item? By: AL No comments

A friend sent me this photo of a piece that needs identification. Can you help?



Information provided by Mark Lehman: it is a 19th or 20th century "Magic Coin", a good luck token made to vaguely resemble something with cufic script, from "the Mysterous East", some of these were carried by members of a club or organization, but this one seems to have no information of that sort on it, so it's a pocket piece or possibly something sold as a prop for a stage magician.