NNP

I saw, in the last issue of The E-Sylum, a notice of the 2014 Standard Catalog of World Coins 2001-Date. Could someone advise me what, if any, KM number has been assigned to the Finland 5 euros 2012 for Lapland? It was issued in uncirculated and proof. I have the coin, but I don’t, yet, know what number for it to put in my file.

The coin (or NCLT?) is the most recently issued item to be issued with the wildman in which I specialize. I also have the similar 2011 5 euros with the same wildman but a different obverse. It was, I was told, assigned KM-170.

The wildman on the 2012 and 2011 versions are identical - and just so-so wildmen. They are, however, the only recent coins or medals with wildmen (that I know about) so I include them in my list of all the “Wildmen Of the World” - hoping to eventually publish it somewhere/sometime. My question is what, if any, KM number has been assigned to this (coin or NCLT)?

It was, per info from the Finish mint, available at face value from their post offices but only for the month of November 2012. I don’t know if this makes it a coin or NCLT. I haven’t found any contact from Finland to ask if they circulate as US state quarters do.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see: NEW BOOK: 2014 STANDARD CATALOG OF WORLD COINS 2001-DATE (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v16n27a03.html)

The major users of wildman coin designs are German states, particularly the Brunswick/Braunschweig divisions. The attached wildman taler picture is, by far, the most common design from pfennigs thru multiple talers. The designs from 1540 to 1600 had much more variety than from 1600 to 1799. Wildmen, sometimes a wildman and a wild woman, are frequently used as shield supporters. Issuers of wildman coins and medals include various German states, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Great Britain, Denmark, Finland, Greece including Crete, and Switzerland. A figure on the “old” coat of arms of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Krewe of Rex is, arguably, a wildman.

I still haven’t found, and maybe there doesn’t exist, a reference file or book that illustrates all the designs to clearly show what coins of the German city of Erfurt include a wildman. The city museum of Erfurt, with my poor German, was not much help, probably because most of the coins are rare and expensive. “Supported shield” in the "SC of German Coins" probably, but not definitively, indicates one or more wildmen.