I like coins with a hole in them. Why? I don’t know, maybe they remind me of doughnuts 🍩! Maybe I just like that once upon a time, that hole actually served a purpose – people threaded coins onto string and wore them as necklaces. In the case of this 1957 Fiji Penny, I also like that the coin has minimal decoration. Aside from the crown, the coin only contains the country, year, value and head of state:

And the obverse:

This basic design was used from 1934, through to 1968. Having a coin with no portrait of the monarch, but only her name, also means that Fiji was one of the few countries to name King Edward VIII on a coin in 1936. But that story is for another coin…

The Queen Elizabeth Penny was issued from 1954 – 1968 and is KM 21.