Hi
This is my personal view of the matter. I do not poses great knowledge over this, than is publicly accessible on the web!
Hamurabi coins (as known in general public) and Lipa banknotes were issued by private legal entity Lipa Holding and not by Slovenia as an state or Slovenian National Bank (the bank was established later on 25th June 1991, see here). This was a private project to create its own (later to be national Slovenian) currency in the shadows of Yugoslav National Bank by the end of 80'. This was still at a time, when Slovenia was part of Yugoslavian federal system.
dr. Bogdan Oblak (aka Hamurabi) was alledging, that the Yugoslav National Bank at the time has failed in orderly payment transactions due to illiquidity, unsustainable economic conditions and the constant decline in value. Hamurabi currency was intended to become a national one, fixing its rate/value on British pound or some other more stable currency. People may dislike me for words that follow, but some narrow line of people having a control over national currency would probably be a long term disaster (or maybe even a short term one). This was also stated in other words by some prominent Slovenian economists of the time and hence this started its gradual downfall. There are many stories over this among local collectors. I was still pushing my baby sister's stroller at the, so I was too young to experience all this for real.
I can see some comparisons with German Notgeld. The thing is, German Notgeld was actually used by all locals within the local borders of issuer (town, district or other), right along the national currency. Although Hamurabi currency was also in use, it was used (as far as I know) only by small number local enterprises. And this currency, if I am not mistaken, was used only in the capitol of Ljubljana. I am not sure for how long this project was actually alive with these willing enterprises, but the article below states, that it was all over later when Slovenian Tolar was introduced. This meant that Hamurabi project failed, when Slovenia chose its own way of establishing national currency.
I hope, someone can shed some more light on this matter. Although this currency was in actual “project” use, I would leave it in Exonumia for the time being.
Nowadays these coins are hard to get by and are not cheap. Some lower denominations which are generally all already on Numista (see here) can reach value from 10-20 EUR/pc, other really rare examples, strange denominations (like 2/1000 of Lipa) or trial strikes (none yet on Numista), can reach well over 100 EUR per piece, some even multiple of that.
In Mandić catalogue (see here), these coins are listed under “medallic tokens”.
LP
See also: https://www.muzej-nz.si/lipa-prva-neuradna-valuta-samostojne-slovenije/
