Manchukuo's Fiber Coins from 1945 !

What's up plebs?

Back with yet another fun monetary oddity I recently learnt about! Let's first start with two pictures:

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1 Fen, 1945, source

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5 Fen, 1945, source

So.. As captioned above, these two coins are 1 & 5 Fen, issued in 1945 by Manchukuo, which was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in China and Inner Mongolia from 1932 until 1945. You can click the link to Wikipedia if you want the boring history of the state.

Now, to the interesting part!

Like many fun coins I have shared before, these ones aren't made of some kind of metal..like you know...most coins are 😀

Instead, due to a severe metal shortage towards the end of World War II when they were issued, a different material was preferred to cut down on expenses.

Although I couldn't find the exact specifications, it seems to be some short of reddish/brownish fiber mixed (according to numista) with magnesite, making them one of the rare examples of non-metallic legal tender coins.

The material was relatively soft and prone to wear and tear.

The coins were short lived, soon after being issued the red army invaded Manchuria and the US nucleared the shit out of Japan, bringing an end to both Imperial Japan and the puppet state of Manchukuo. And they all live happily ever after.

When it comes to price, this one is an affordable monetary oddity for your collection. It looks like 20 bucks are more than enough to get a set on eBay,in a somewhat good condition. I guess I'll soon be buying one for me :)

And that's the story of Manchukuo's fiber coins. I'll now casually tag @dbooster, I think he might be interested in this and close this post. Oh and @summeetooth, I think he likes shit like that. Or just shit ^_

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