In Search Of World Coins

Money was invented several thousand years ago

Money was invented several thousand years ago. Coins seem to have been an early form of money. We still use coins for smaller purchases. Lots of people collect them. If we say that someone collects world coins, we probably mean that they collect coins from many countries of the world.

Are there true world coins, coins that can be used as cash anywhere in the world? The standard practice is for coins to be issued in a specific currency, such as euros or US dollars. A euro coin would be usable in any country where euros are usable. This would not include all countries, so it would not be accurate to describe euro coins as world coins. The same would be true of US dollar coins.

Some currencies are accepted in countries where they are not the official currency. For example, one could use Canadian coins in some American stores. I'm not aware of any currency that is accepted anywhere in the world. The US dollar and the euro are pretty widely accepted, but neither could be considered a world currency.

Bullion coins are a bit hard to classify. They are usually legal currency with face values, but they are typically made of precious metal with much more value than the face value. Consider the $10 American Gold Eagle coin. It has a face value of $10, but its gold content is valued at $325 (today, 7/9/2010, probably different soon).

Suppose you offered one of these to pay for a hamburger in the United States. The restaurant could accept it as $10, so you would lose most of what you probably paid for it. This is clearly not a good thing to do! You would be better off selling your American Gold Eagle and using the cash from that to pay for your burger.

What if you tried to use the coin to pay a restaurant in a country that doesn't use US dollars? The restaurant could accept the coin as a piece of gold, but I suspect most would not, and determining the true value could be a real inconvenience. We can safely say that bullion coins would not be effective as world coins, because they would be difficult or impossible to use in many places.

So what are the chances that we will see world coins someday? If there is ever a true world currency, then the world coin will follow. Otherwise, we probably won't have them.

world coins

by: Kaitlin Vaughn

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