I recall reading somewhere that the British sovereign is the most well known coin in the world, is this true??
I don't know if it quite deserves the title as I have done no research but I would have to say it would run close. It is recognised in most countries and is still used as a form of ad hoc currency in some as well. I love 'em.
Depends who and where you ask. It would definitely be one of the most recognized but maybe not the most recognized. Kruggs and AGE's may be just as easily recognized because they've all been in general circulation before. Quick survey of 3 non-PM stacking friends showed that none of them knew what any of the tree coins were
If you are looking at it globally on the 5 continent, than nothing even comes close second to the sovereigns! The Royal Mint opened branch mints in every inhabited continent (Australia, India, South Africa and Canada) and over 1 billion sovereigns were struck.
True the question wasn't specified for gold coins, at the sovereigns section on this PM forum, but I still assumed we are talking about coins with intrinsic value, since I am sure Theantifunie knows that China is the most populous country of the world.
The total population of the countries where sovereigns were minted or used as legal currency is much greater than the population of China though. They were used by Chinese traders as well. Certainly for the better part of a century from 1850 to 1950 nothing came close. KrugerRands come close now days but if you ask anyone over 60 in a former commonwealth country what a sovereign is they will know.
yep that too but just look at how many mints of austrian thalers there were. There were mints in Africa Asia and Europe because before the thaler came to these regions they had pretty small silver coins and design wasnt as good. Real was pretty much used in Spain and its colonies pretty much forced upon by the government while people treasured the thaler for its looks. Some countries eg. Ethiopian Birr tried to get rid of by introducing similar size coins with good designs and because of that appeal the demand for them became so big that they copied the design and just minted them there instead of local currency. Oh and thaler is still minted by Austrian mint while the original pieces of 8 isnt.
It quite possibly is the most well known and recognized coin.....HOWEVER in some countries which formed the British Empire (specially the South East Asian countries including the Indian sub-continent) they commonly 'and incorrectly' refer to it as the Guinea. I guess that is because the guinea was used initially during the reigns of George I, II and III before the re-introduction of the sovereign.
American eagle. Austrian thaler??! What is it 1840? Coin collectors and historians know that coin and like a small percentage of stackers. For silver coins its eagle, maple, philharmonic...whateva