I am currently preparing a gift for a fellow stacker here on hive, which amongst other things will include two coins made of aluminium, because he apparently "hasn't seen one before".
As a side note, other than being super cheap, aluminium is actually a great metal to make coins as it's quite resistant to wear and tear and corrosion when used as an alloy, like 95 % aluminium and 5 % magnesium. It's just not seen often due to being super cheap so the few times it's preferred, it is typically for super small denominations and/or times of high inflation.
Anyways, I have a wondering mind... so while preparing the package I wondered if there are any REAL coins made of plastic... Plastic is probably the worst material for coins as it's even cheaper then aluminium, super easy to forge and easy to wear and tear... This is why it's only common for fake coins, like poker chips, tokens, boardgames etc. It's just not durable enough for daily, hand to hand transactions!
Guess what though?
After a bit of googling,it turns are out there is a country out there called Transnistria that actually uses THIS VERY MOMENT plastic coins!
Transiwhat?
Yeah, never heard of it either and that's because it's only a new nation with limited recognition:
Transnistria, officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR), is an unrecognised breakaway state that is internationally recognised as a part of Moldova. Transnistria controls most of the narrow strip of land between the Dniester river and the Moldovan–Ukrainian border, as well as some land on the other side of the river's bank. Its capital and largest city is Tiraspol. Transnistria has been recognised only by three other unrecognised or partially recognised breakaway states: Abkhazia, Artsakh and South Ossetia. source
So yeah, not exactly a country with the conventional standards but pretty close!
Here's how their plastic coins actually look like:
Pretty neat right? And I love how they come in so many different colorful shapes 😍
Apparently, the coins aren't made of regular plastic but some special plastic composite that makes them both durable and difficult to counterfeit.
They are also just 1.2 millimeters thick yet very difficult to bend. Each comes in different color and shape (triangle, square, hexagon and pentagon) and four denominations of 1, 3, 5 and 10 Transnistrian rubles. The front of each coin depicts a famous Russian individual. Here's a quick video showing their back and front:
Of course they come with their own security features like all modern money, to prevent counterfeiting:
For protection against counterfeiting, the technology of their production involves the use of a special texture, contour elements, micro texts and specific reflection of light when exposed to ultraviolet and infrared light. source
According to this site, they were originally made for the visually impaired and despite how how cool they look...locals hate em 😂
Well... I know I love em and I just ordered a set of 4! They are very cheap (less then 10 $ for a full set, I paid 5 euro) and such a great monetary novelty to own!
Can't wait to hold em in my hands!!! Stay tuned, I'll probably have them by the end of the week!