You may have come across persons offering to buy the shiny 2010 release of the 10 shilling coin. Most of these offers are made on personal social media accounts and therefore are not very widespread. Others approach people who deal with lots of coins in the course of their job, eg. shopkeepers and shoe makers, offering to buy the 10 bobs at a significantly larger amount. At times, they may offer upto Sh 200 for a single coin.
So what would make someone buy a 10 shillings coin at sh 200?
According to an exposé ran last night by the controversial Nairobi Exposed Facebook page, there is a syndicate that is making big cash from the coins.
According to the 'whistle blower', the scandal is big and it involves many people, including individuals at Dela Rue. Apparently, the coins are made of a very high percentage of silver, valued much more than Sh 10. This was done deliberately by those involved, to eventually make money.
The whistle blower writes,
The person alleges that a Korean guy in a UN vehicle then collects the smelted silver.
The final destination of the smelted metal can only remain a matter of speculation.
Several people who commented on the exposé confirmed witnessing the buying of the coins.
It however is not clear whether and how the government is losing any money, but considering that the initial silver used to make the coins is bought, there is definitely a disappearance of some money. Thought with little proof, this may turn out to be a major corruption scandal, considering it's being done on large scale.
Selling coins is however not a strange phenomena. In the united states, people are known to make money out of their silver coins, but mostly the collectable and rare ones. For instance, the 1921 - 1935 peace dollar has had its value increase by over 2000%, from the indicated $1 to its current price of $25.
The business of selling coins is so big, especially in the United States, that there are websites dedicated to 'calculating your coin value'.
© nairobiwire.com
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