Persia, Silver 1/8 Qirans (Krans), AH1271-Ah1342 (1854-1924)

The autonomous region called the TransDniester Republic issued a most unusual set of coins in 2014. They are made of composite material, are semi-transparent, and have a textured surface. This territory was part of the Soviet Union, and later became an unrecognised Moldovan breakaway state, that is still recognised internationally as being part of Moldova. These coins are a plastic-type material but with a hardness that produces a stone-like sound when rubbed. They were issued by the 'TransDniester Republic Bank' and there are 4 denominations. 1 Rouble circular, 3 Roubles square with rounded corners, 5 Roubles pentagon-shaped with rounded corners, and 10 Roubles hexagonal with rounded corners. They have rounded corners for ease of use and for ease of machine readability at high speeds. These were an experiment and who knows if they will continue to issue them. But we thought that they were very interesting and rather well priced so we obtained 100 sets of them. Supplies are limited.

This Indian banknote is a real treasure from World War II. A German bombing raid on Scotland led to the ship they were on sinking. The Bank of England had printed the watermarked paper for King George VI banknotes of India. The paper would be overprinted in India and used as money. The watermark shows the portrait of King George VI with the words ‘Reserve Bank of India’ and the denomination ‘Ten Rupees’. These banknote sheets were on the treasure ship for more than 50+ years. We bought the treasure ship that contained all the sheets. There was a great write up in IBNS Journal a few years back. We have had them cut into collectable sheets of four notes, which is a great size for display. Hold a light behind the sheet to see it in all its glory. India, World War II and treasure, what more could you want? We have seen the uncut sheet of 4 Indian banknotes bring £60-£65 each at auction. They probably bought them from us and then put them into auction... You can have them at our price and not the auction price.

Struck in aluminium for one year only.