Editor’s Note: For nearly 70 years, the feature-rich pages of Coins magazine, Numismatic News’ venerable sister publication, have tracked the history, fun and the growth of this great hobby, while also attracting new collectors to pursue what was once deemed the “hobby of kings.” Dusting off these time-aged issues, from the early 1960s and beyond, each installment of “Past Times with Coins,” written by its former longtime editor, explores what nuggets of interest they contain.
In the 1800s there were numerous proposals aimed at creating an international coinage — coins that would easily trade between countries. None of these quite worked out, leaving behind patterns, such as the $4 Stella, as a signpost of what might have been. Today, the euro is an example of what has so far been a success story. But the idea of an international coinage goes back much further in history — back to the earliest days of coinage. In the June 1964 issue of Coins magazine, Lyn Glaser wrote, in “International Coinage,” that:
“Since its invention men have been concerned with the problem of a universal medium of exchange. As a matter of fact money was the first step toward such a medium.
“At first if someone wanted an object it
