The United States Mint[1] defines a coin as:
flat piece of metal issued by the government as money
PCGS[2] uses the definition:
Metal formed into a disk of standardized weight and stamped with a standard design to enable it to circulate as money authorized by a government body.
The use of "metal" in the definitions is overly restrictive—for example, the Democratic Republic of the Congo issued a wooden 5 Franc coin in 2005 that is legal tender.
The key points to the definition of a coin are:
- A hard (non flexible)
- government[3] issued or approved item
- for use as general currency (not limited use such as a bus token)
- in a country, region, or area.
Currency issued by local governments are usually considered tokens (such as German notgeld) rather than coins, unless granted a mint right.
- ↑ Coin Term Glossary
- ↑ Lingo for "C"
- ↑ Government: An organization with authority over a region. An insurrection may be a de facto government for a region.