The ever-popular penguin is popping up in movies and even on coins, but alas the tuxedoed birds never naturally venture beyond the Southern Hemisphere.
For the collector who has enjoyed penguin-themed movies like The March of the Penguins and Happy Feet, or Berke Breathed's comic strip Opus, a variety of penguin designs can be found on coinage issues from several countries including Austria, the Falkland Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Gibraltar, South Africa and the Isle of Man. Capturing a penguin for a collection is as doable as an Internet search or thumbing through a recent copy of The Standard Catalog of World Coins by Chester Krause and Clifford Mishler.
Worldwide, 17 species of the flightless bird belong to the Spheniscidae family, according to the Pobjoy Mint, a private mint that has produced penguin coinage for clients.
Join this numismatic journey to discover the featured creatures on coins or medals throughout the world.
Beginning in the United States, penguins are honored as the mascot of the Pittsburgh Penquins hockey team. Medals celebrated the team's first division title in the franchise's 24-year history in 1991. The 5,000, 1-troy-ounce silver medals feature the Penguins logo and inscription 1991 patrick division champions on the obverse and the National Hockey League logo on the reverse. The silver medals were issued by Chicagoland Processing Corp., in Elk Grove Village, Ill.
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A rare and colorful penguin is honored on a 2005 $5 coin from New Zealand. The Fiordland crested penguin is distinguished by its bright yellow crest.
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Slip on south to Ecuador and discover a penguin on the 5,000-sucre coin of that nation. This coin is part of a 1994 series of commemorative coins involving 10 South American, Caribbean and Iberian peninsular countries. The series features animals in danger of extinction. The series was the second issued under the direction of Fabrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre, the Mint of Spain.
The emblem of each participating country appears as the obverse subject. Each coin is composed of .925 fine silver with a weight of 27 grams and a diameter of 40 millimeters. Each is struck in Proof with a mintage of 20,000 pieces.
The next stop is the Falklands to discover a penny with a picture of a pair of penguins. The coin was issued sporadically from 1974 through 1999, and they changed little since their introduction, except the composition was changed in 1998 from bronze to copper-plated steel. The obverse design features a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Falklands is surrounded by the South Atlantic Ocean and located 350 miles east of the South American mainland. Penguin species with breeding sites on the islands include the rockhopper, gentoo and king penguins.
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Image courtesy of www.joelscoins.com
On its first €5 coin, Austria honored the 250th anniversary of the Schonbrunn Palace Zoo in Vienna. The nine-sided silver coin shows an assortment of animals including penguins.
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Mike Bingham writes on www.seabirds.org that the penguin population in the islands has declined by 84 percent since the 1980s. The Falklands was home to 6 million penguins in 1982 and by early this decade the number was estimated at less than 1 million.
Queen Elizabeth II and a penguin are again paired, on a noncirculating legal tender £2 commemorative coin from the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The coin was issued in 2007 by the Pobjoy Mint in Europe. The firm states that it is the first coin to pair crystal with silver.
The Proof .925 fine silver coin depicts the king penguin. The king penguin is the second largest species in the penguin family.
The coin's outer ring depicts the parent penguins with their young. A central design depicts a king penguin chick engraved in crystal. The coin weighs 23.45 grams, measures 28.6 millimeters in diameter and has a mintage limit of 5,000 pieces.
Penguins also appear on 2001 coins issued by South Georgia and the South Sandwich Island that honor explorers. The reverse design depicts British explorers Ernest Henry Shackleton, his ship the Endurance, penguins and ice masses. Inscriptions read sir ernest henry shackleton and endurance and include the denomination. The obverse features Queen Elizabeth II.
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Image courtesy of coinmountain on ebay
The 1998 Falkland penny design features a pair of penguins standing around a nest with an egg.
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Shackleton attempted in August 1914 to make the first land crossing of Antarctica. The Endurance became trapped and crushed in ice about 50 miles from the crew's intended landing. Taking one of the lifeboats and several crew members with him, Shackleton sailed for and reached a whaling station in South Georgia. His remaining crew was finally rescued in August 1916. All survived.
The Shackleton issue was produced as an Uncirculated copper-nickel £2 coin, a Proof .925 silver £2 coin and Proof .9999 gold £20 coin. The Uncirculated copper-nickel and Proof silver versions have 38.6-millimeter diameters and weigh 28.28 grams. The gold coins have 22-millimeter diameters and weigh 6.22 grams. The coins were issued by the Pobjoy Mint.
Penguins are also depicted on coinage for Peter I Island, or the unrecognized "autonomous territory of Westarctica." Westarctica was created by someone who made a claim to a large, previously unclaimed section of Western Antarctica. Two denominations of metallic "coins" are available, and a wooden dollar piece exists as well.
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Image courtesy of Elizabeth Zinkann
This fantasy copper-nickel coin featuring Adelie penguins was designed by Fred Zinkann. Adelie penguins are named after the wife of a French explorer in the 1830s. The Adelie is the smallest living penguin on the Antarctic continent.
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The Proof bronze dollar and Uncirculated copper-nickel $5 "coins" bear the same design of a standing emperor penguin done in high relief and a map of the island. Each has a diameter of 38.4 millimeters. The design is appropriate since the territory has no inhabitants other than penguins. The other side features the arms of Westarctica.
The Proof dollar coin is dated 2005 and has a mintage of 850 pieces. The Uncirculated copper-nickel $5 coin bears the same design. Its mintage totals 300 pieces.
In addition to the metallic pieces, a wooden dollar-denominated piece is available as well. An emperor penguin design appears on the wooden piece. It has a diameter of 38 millimeters and a weight of 2.8 grams. Mintage for the wood is 200 pieces.
Another stop as we journey around the world looking for penguin-themed coins is Austria, where the first €5 coin issued in Vienna by the Austrian Mint celebrates the world's oldest existing zoo. In 2002 the Schonbrunn Zoo celebrated 250 years. According to Euro Collections International, the coin's nine sides make it easily distinguishable from the circulating coinage and symbolically represent the nine federal provinces of Austria. The provincial coats of arms encircle the denomination "5" on one side of the coin, while the other side shows the Kaiserpavillon or Emperor Pavilion surrounded by various animals and birds, including a penguin.
The coin is struck in .800 fine silver and has a diameter of 29 millimeters. The new coin began a series that carries on the tradition of the annual commemorative 50-shilling ringed bimetallic series that ended in 2001. A mintage of 100,000 Uncirculated coins were issued for collectors, while 400,000 were issued at face value through banks.
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A parade of penguins fills the outer ring of this 2007 issue for the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. The coin pairs silver and crystal elements.
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In 1752, Emperor Franz I Stephen had a menagerie built in the grounds of Schonbrunn Palace to accommodate exotic birds and animals that he received as gifts or had acquired himself through agents. The imperial family would breakfast or refresh themselves during the day in Kaiserpavillon. Around it were 12 enclosures arranged for the animals. Today, the Kaiserpavillon still forms the historic center of the zoo and is one of its best landmarks.
New Zealand honored the rare and colorful Fiordland crested penguin on a 2005 $5 coin, issued in Proof and Brilliant Uncirculated versions. The coin is part of a series that began in 1996 featuring endangered and rare New Zealand animals. The penguins live in the rainforest along Fiordland and Steward Island. The timid bird weighs about 9 pounds and stands 16 inches tall, according to penguin.net.nz.
The reverse design shows a penguin standing, head cocked to its left, with the legend fiordland crested penguin above, about the rim, and the denomination five dollars below. The obverse design shows Queen Elizabeth II.
Mintage for the New Zealand coins almost matches the bird's population estimate. The Proof version was limited to 3,500 individual pieces and the Proof set includes 3,000 coins, for a total mintage of 6,500 coins. The Brilliant Uncirculated version has individual and set mintages of 4,000 each for a total of 8,000 coins.
The sets contain all circulating coins then used in New Zealand – 5 cents, 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents, $1 and $2 – in addition to the $5 penguin coin.
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Image courtesy of www.joelcoins.com
The rockhopper penguin is one of six crested penguin species and the smallest crested penguin. South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands featured the rockhopper on this coin.
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An emperor penguin with its chick appears on a Proof 2004 silver coin issued by the Perth Mint to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Mawson Station, a scientific exploratory post in Antarctica that is the oldest continually operating station south of the Antarctic Circle. The site is named for Sir Douglas Mawson, a leading Australian scientific, geographic and hydrographic researcher on the world's highest, driest, coldest and windiest continent.
The reverse of the legal-tender coin depicts a colored image of Mawson Station within an outline of Antarctica. The penguin design is symbolic of two colonies living near the station. The inscription mawson station: 1954-2004, australian antarctic territory and the P Mint mark also appear on the reverse. The obverse features Queen Elizabeth II and the denomination.
The Proof coin is minted from .9999 silver, weighs 31.135 grams and measures 40.60 millimeters. It has a maximum thickness of 4 millimeters and is limited to a mintage of 7,500.
Another commemorative coin release featuring a penguin was issued in 1992 by the Royal Australian Mint. The $10 coin, issued in two different thicknesses, was part of the "Birds of Australia series" issued between 1989 and 1994.
One of the versions of the coin is a special thickness or "piefort" version. Pieforts, sometimes called piedforts in Europe, are a special thickness presentation coin usually struck from the same dies as the regular issue. The word "piefort" is derived from the Old French word meaning "strong foot," and is a reference to the thick planchet used for the coin.
The $10 piefort is made of .925 fine silver. It has a diameter of 34.1 millimeters and is 5.1 millimeters thick. The piefort weighs 40 grams. The mintage is 15,000 pieces.
The regular .925 fine silver $10 coin has same reverse design. It is 34.1 millimeters in diameter, is 2.9 millimeters thick and weighs 20 grams. The standard coin has a mintage of 35,000.
The obverse of both versions of the coin has the crowned portrait of Queen Elizabeth II facing right.
Collector Gawain O'Connor of Blaine, Wash., posts a variety of penguins on coins at his Web site http://oconnor.gs/penguins.html.
In addition to those penguin coins encountered on our journey, his collection includes a silver medal showing a plane flown by Richard E. Byrd over penguins. Byrd was the first person to fly over the North and South Poles; a Pinguino Verde car wash token from Italy; the yellow-eyed penguin on a $1 coin issued by New Zealand and dated 1988 ; and penguins on coins issued for the republic of Somalia, French Southern and Antarctic Territories and North Korea.
