Came across an exotic coin.

I came across this coin recently while I was making an acquisition of silver coins. It stuck out to me as it is a 'holey' coin with the centre punched out of it.

As you can see, this coin is extremely worn and as a result it is quite difficult to identify at first glance:

However, on this side, it is still visible on the obverse side of the coin that this is a 5 Milliemes coin.[1] A quick google search reveals that it is an Egyptian coin circa 1916-1917. The coin is too worn to tell what year it is dated. The date should be featured on the reverse side, either side of the punched hole.

How it came to be in Australia is an interesting question that I can't answer. I'm thinking it is a possibility that the coin was brought back to Australia by a WWI soldier who perhaps was stationed in Egypt during the First World War.

Also, it is entirely possible that it could have come to Australia some other way.

The coin is cupronickel in it's composition - it has no precious metal content. It has a mass of 4.75g, a diameter of 23.10mm and is 1.48mm thick. [1]

If anybody in Australia is interested in purchasing some semi-numismatic circulated silver coins. Then please visit my eBay profile page and take a look:

Magnum Opus on Ebay

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Sources

[1] 5 Milliemes - Hussein Kamel - Numista
Source: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces1273.html