Congo Free State - 10 Centimes - 1889

I recently acquired a 1889 10 centimes coin from the Congo Free State on auction. 

The Congo Free State was a creation of belgian king Leopold II and existed from 1885 to 1908 in what we now know as Democratic Republic of Congo.

Starting of as a campaign with humanitarian and philanthropic purposes it ended being one of the bigsest humanitarian and environmental disasters of human kind. Using international recognition, Leopold and his subjects, destroyed the people and their habitats for profit.

Numismatically speaking several coin issues were released, all of them minted by the Belgian Mint (Monnaie de Bruxelles), initially supposed to be one coin of payment in gold (20 francs) that was never minted, 4 silver coins (5, 2, 1 and 0.5 francs) and 4 copper coins (10, 5, 2 and 1 centimes).

Records from the Belgian Mint show the following issues for the 10 centimes coin:

Year	Quantity
1887	40,000
1889	100,000
1894	148,870
Total	288,870

Regardless of the reports from the Monnaie de Bruxelles, there were issued some 10 centimes coins with the date of 1888, lacking info if there was an emission in 1888 or in late 1887 with the 1888 date.

In 1906, 46.642 pieces of copper 10 centimes were withdrawn from circulation and converted at the Monnaie de Bruxelles, and it is believed that around 50.000 others were also converted in 1908.

Standard Catalog of World Coins code: KM #4

Precious Africa

I've been a coin collector most of my life. I remember my father giving a small box with about 100 coins when I was about 7 and that I regarded the details of each and everyone of them carefully.
I started picking some coins whenever I could. Small change. When I was a teenager I convinced my father to buy me some folders to "protect" the coins, I organized them and they stayed there for a long time.
From time to time, I came across with some beautiful specimen and I kept it.
I travelled as a student and as part of my career. I came to Africa 6 years ago and I stayed. I kept cherry picking coins, until same months ago when I saw the gold market plummeting. The connection isn't imediate but the will to try to profit from the small prices of gold brought me to something I love: coins. And I started searching and learning, trying to build the best coin collection I can.
First goal: African coins in precious metals (gold and silver).
Then, I saw the 21st century mints of some african countries with polish and chinese motives! Ok, that's art, that's business, that's investment, but no way that's numismatics.
I narrowed the spectrum! First goal, African coins in precious metals until the turn of the 20th century, and even then trying to keep the focus mainly on colonial coins and first independence emissions.
Hope this will be just the beginning to a bigger picture!