A few days ago while I was reviewing my silver coins I came across a tube of my 1 oz Suriname Silver coins, that I bought about 7 years ago. This coin has quite an interesting story and most of my fellow silver stackers probably aren't aware of it! :)
It is an official Suriname bullion coin that was minted only for a few years by a private mint from Netherlands (European Central Mint). It was supposed to rival other bullion coins like Austrian Philharmonic, Canadian Maple Leaf and others. And it had acceptable pricing in addition to a quite beautiful design.
But production of this coin stopped only after a few short years because the mint that was producing them was also minting fake £1 coins and was in the epicentre of a massive counterfeiting ring that got busted in 2014.
An article in the UK's "The Independent" revealed that European Central Mint was producing at least £4m worth of £1 coins each year since at least 2006. This was one of the biggest operations in terms of scale and sophistication in UK's history.
Interesting story about that private mint. They sabotaged their own operation and their minting business future. Sad! It is also incredible that they did that being an authorized mint to produce denominated coins for a country!
Thanks for the show. @homesteadlt. It is my first time to see that coin! 🥰🌺🤙
When I see a story like that I also question the way they got that deal with Suriname coin. There might of been some corruption involved too. Thanks for reading!
I am from the Netherlands but never heard of it before but it is correct I now checked ;) An Irishman was conviceted too.
What a fascinating story about this Mint. I suppose you had these Suriname coins tested for silver content and purity just in case? Hard to pin down mintage quantities too but thanks for sharing.
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces45187.html
No, I haven't tested my coins. I don't think they need testing. They should be fine. As I understand even those £1 coins met all the requirements as from the quality standpoint. Only problem and "fakeness" was that it came not from UK's Treasury :D
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing the story
Thank you!
Welcome
@tipu curate
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