Coins that look like Euro coins

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Did you ever receive a non-Euro coin as if it was one Euro (or eurocent) coin?

Yes, once.
91
41%
Yes, a few times.
79
36%
No, never.
50
23%
 
Total votes: 220

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Tik Tak
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Coins that look like Euro coins

Post by Tik Tak »

I used to work on a café and many times people tried to pay with non-Euro coins, thinking they were in fact Euro coins. The most common mistake was the 5 cents brazilian coin, that looks like 5 eurocents. But there were also a couple of american one cents, that look like 2 eurocents, and pre-euro european coins, french and dutch (also confused with small eurocents). Even one argentinian peso, that looks like 2 euro but has the size of 1 euro coin. Does this use to happen with you?
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JP Simões
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Post by JP Simões »

There's always the old 10 franc coin:

Image

And I recall once holding a coin from the UAE or Bahrein or something, that looked just like the €1 coin. I'll have a look at my collection.
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Post by Dakkus »

In Thailand they have the coin that looks so precisely like a 2€ coin I have really had some problems explaining that they are not legal tender over here..
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Jes
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Post by Jes »

My friend was given a Thailand coin instead a 2 € coin!!! I looked it like this 8O. and I tell him that I collect coins and I would like to exchange it to my collection, but he didn't want to give me it!

Here it goes:
Image
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Post by Dakkus »

A friend of mine once came to me with happiness in her eyes, saying: "I found a Slovenian coin!". And then she explained what kinda coin it had been. It had had some writing in weird alphabetics and the picture had been unknown to her.
She was quite surprised when I told her that Slovenians use latin alphabets and she has prolly found a Thai coin.

In any case, a nice find.

That coin, BTW, is wort 10 baht. That's a bit less than 25 cents. And the vending machines are usually happy to accept those coins as 2€ coins. Some people make some extra money by bringing those coins from Thailand.
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Post by Jes »

Dakkus wrote:A friend of mine once came to me with happiness in her eyes, saying: "I found a Slovenian coin!". And then she explained what kinda coin it had been. It had had some writing in weird alphabetics and the picture had been unknown to her.
She was quite surprised when I told her that Slovenians use latin alphabets and she has prolly found a Thai coin.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: NICE STORY!! :lol:
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JP Simões
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Post by JP Simões »

Dakkus wrote:That coin, BTW, is wort 10 baht. That's a bit less than 25 cents. And the vending machines are usually happy to accept those coins as 2€ coins. Some people make some extra money by bringing those coins from Thailand.
Also, the old two-and-a-half Portuguese escudo coin (just over €0,01) was a great replacer for the 50-pffenig (about €0,25) one.
My father travelled a lot to his native Germany, so he kept a cup with dozens of 2$50 coins... :D


An in case you were wondering, this was the Bahraini coin:
Image

100 fils, or €0.19
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Post by tabbs »

One time I got one of those 10 baht coins as change. Was about to say something to the clerk but then thought it looked nice, and I kept it. :)

Another coin that is similar to an existing euro denomination is the Turkish 1 lira piece:
Image

The bimetallic look resembles that of the €2 coin, and the Turkish coin is only a little larger. Same thing with the 50 kurus and €1 coins ...

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Tik Tak
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Post by Tik Tak »

By the way, this is the Brazilian 5 cents coin, that circulates a lot in Portugal:

Image Image

The size is almost perfectly the same as 5 eurocents. But the value is less then 2 eurocents... But even the "5" is very similar, so they're easy to pass as the other. Although I never tried on vending machines..
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Post by Licht & Feuer »

When getting rolls from a bank, one 1c-roll contained 1x 1 Pfennig from the old german currency - worth ca. 1/2 €-Cent :wink:

In circulation I got no non-€ pieces so far but once a counterfeited 2€
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Post by svendowney »

I've never recieved non-euro coins, but have worked in a place where they service video gambling and vending machines, and collected the money. I have seen several of the French 10 franc coins, and the Argentinian coins which look like 1 €uro, and also some American, British one cent coins, and even Danish coins that resemble 2 or 5 cent coins. The most popular problem we seemed to have though, was counterfiet coins, especially 2€ coins. I have seen one 2€ counterfiet Germany, and have managed to collect three others from various countries, as well as a couple of 50 cent coins. Sometimes people also try to use the old Italy 500 lira as 2 €
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Post by j3paris »

I just discovered this topic. Thanks for starting it, Tik Tak.

It's interesting to learn about the Brazilian 5 centavo coin (I've never seen it), because twice now (the second time was just a few weeks ago) I got a Brazilian 10 centavo coin in change. It is very close to a 10 cent € coin, and can pass pretty easily if one doesn't really look at it.

Image

Both times I noticed right away and pointed out that it wasn't a euro coin, but said I would take it anyway for my foreign coin collection. The first time, the cashier just thanked me, but the second time it was at a café I go to a lot, and so the barman said "OK, keep it" and then gave me 10 €-cents anyway!
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Tik Tak
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Post by Tik Tak »

j3paris wrote:It's interesting to learn about the Brazilian 5 centavo coin (I've never seen it), because twice now (the second time was just a few weeks ago) I got a Brazilian 10 centavo coin in change. It is very close to a 10 cent € coin, and can pass pretty easily if one doesn't really look at it.
I forgot to mention that one! That's because I've seen it only 2 or 3 times, and it's been a long time by now... Thanks for telling, cool that you got the second one for free ;)

The "1 centavo" coin is also similar to "1 eurocent". All the Brazilian coins and their dimensions can be seen here ;)
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Post by europaee »

Here in Ireland its quite usuall to find small change from England, and I recieved twice Bulgarian 1 LEV as 1 Euro
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Post by bhoeyb »

europaee wrote:... and I recieved twice Bulgarian 1 LEV as 1 Euro
A guy from work has received 1 LEV as 1 Euro coin too this weekend. He asked me what it was.
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