Identifications of plants on Mozambican coins
 

Hello,

I recently bought a set of 8 Mozambican coins from 1975. Their
reverses all depict local plants. For various reasons this set was
never issued, so I can't find any documentation on the designs. Would
anyone here be willing to attempt an identification of the plants for
me? Unfortunately I don't have a web site to display them on, but I
can send you jpegs of each coin. The jpegs range in size from 15 KB to
28 KB. Can anyone help?

Regards,

Adetola Obembe,

Croydon, England.

Why not post the pictures on alt.binaries.pictures.gardens.

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

Thanks, Dave, I've done just that. (I didn't know about the binaries group).

Regards,

Adetola.

"obembe" wrote in message
...
Thanks, Dave, I've done just that. (I didn't know about the
binaries group).

Regards,

Adetola.

Not sure of all of them, but :
1. Cashew, Anacardium occidentale
2. Madgascar Palm, Pachypodium sp.
3. sugar cane, Saccharum officinarum
6. cotton, Gossypium sp.
8. Protea, Leucospermum sp.

hope this helps a little,
--
elizabeth, Baton Rouge, LA
http://community.webshots.com/user/elott63

Thanks, Elizabeth. Unfortunately my images are no longer available on the
server, but you can still see them he

http://home.houston.rr.com/snaps/Obembe.doc

To re-jig your list by coin, Elizabeth:-

1 centimo. Protea, Leucospermum sp.
1 metica. Madgascar Palm, Pachypodium sp.
10 centimos. Sugar cane, Saccharum officinarum
50 centimos. Cashew, Anacardium occidentale
2 M 50. (2 meticas and 50 centimos) Cotton, Gossypium sp.

(The coins are all dated 1975 from Mozambique but were never issued into
circulation).

I know nothing about plants, so I've had fun looking up your suggestions on
Google images. With cashews you're obviously spot on. Sugar cane too looks
absolutely right.

As for the 1 centimo, I've just found a coin site whose owner thinks it
could be either eucalyptus (which IS cultivated in Mozambique) or else
knapweed (he doesn't give any scientific names). Both look sort of right but
not quite - the petals on the coin are tighter and not spread out like the
wispy ones on the knapweed or eucalyptus, so I'm going with your protea,
Elizabeth.

The 2M50 (cotton) - well, cotton looks very close but the cotton leaves seem
to have 3 points, whereas there are 5 on the leaves on the coin. I managed
to dig up an old coin catalogue (German) in the library today, which gives
the 2M50 design as "Wunderbaum" (literally "miracle tree" - religious
connotations?). After much searching this seems to be a castor bean plant
(ricinus communis) - the leaves do seem much closer to those on the coin
design and otherwise very right. The German book identified only one other
coin, describing the 1 metica as "sisalagave". I've still got to look for
that on the web.

Looking for images of cashews, I also came across images of cashew apples
(!), which look just right for the plant on the 5 centimos coin! As luck
would have it, a newer, CURRENTLY circulating Mozambique coin is documented
as showing cashew apples and they do look similar to the 5 centimos design.

Thanks, Elizabeth - I'll keeping looking for the others.

Regards,

Adetola Obembe.

================================================== ========================
"Elizabeth" wrote in message
news:p0Qcd.105493$a85.78988@fed1read04...

Not sure of all of them, but :
1. Cashew, Anacardium occidentale
2. Madgascar Palm, Pachypodium sp.
3. sugar cane, Saccharum officinarum
6. cotton, Gossypium sp.
8. Protea, Leucospermum sp.

hope this helps a little,
--
elizabeth, Baton Rouge, LA
http://community.webshots.com/user/elott63