What is the smallest coin ( size wise) to ever circulate ?

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Hello 

 

I was recently reading about the Swiss and their miniature quater franc coin , commemorating Einstein .This and some extremely small coins in my personal collection led to me asking myself - What is the smallest coin to ever circulate ?

 

The smallest  circulating coin in my collection is an Ottoman Akce , but I have heard of   even smaller coins .

So my question to you is -What is the smallest coin ( size wise) to ever circulate ?

Had a bit of time so started tinkering in Numista's filters. I've only looked for circulating (both standard & commemorative).

There's some super tiny coins from ancient Greece & India at around 3-5mm in size.

Numista also lists a 2mm coin from early Nepal, though the notes say it was cut from the centre of a larger coin & has no photograph.

 

After the year 1500, there's some more tiny coins from India & the German states at 8-9mm.

 

If we jump into modern coins, so milled (machine made rather than hand hammered), there's two coins which are 10mm in diameter.

The lighter of the two is this gold coin from Guatemala (N#56607)

 

The other is this one from Panama (N#20590).

 

If you're searching for ones still in, or have been in circulation within the last ~10 years or so, there's a few at 14-15mm which you can see here: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/index.php?r=&ct=coin&im1=&im2=&tb=y&tc=y&cat=y&ru=&ca=3&no=&v=&i=&b=&ie=&u=&a=2010-2100&dg=&m=&f=&t=0-15&w=&mt=milled&g=&se=&d=&c=&wi=&sw=

 

There's coins from the Netherland Antilles, Mexico, Moldova, Kazakhstan etc. I think the one from Moldova was the lightest of those.

N#197616

Obviosly wrong but even if it were cm it would be too small and a factor of 100 too large.

In a sellers catalog of ancient coins the nr 55 with a diameter of only 6 mm could be the tiniest, letters seem for Ephesos.

I remember also partitions of ducat, Regensburg, which go until 1/32, but for now I don't know diameter or whether these circulated. 

I have China Ban Liang (156BC-141BC) coins which are 4.5 mm and weight 0.04 grams. 

rsirian1

N#197616

Yes, most likely it's got a weight of 0.37 gr.

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