Day 14

Day 14 and we are heading back to South America, this time to Paraguay.

Today we have a tiny brass 1 guarani coin from 1993. On the obverse we have a depiction of a Paraguayan soldier, whilst on the reverse we have the value of the coin and a tobacco plant. Along the top we have an inscription, which when translated into English says ‘Food for the World’.

This coin is a FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation) issue, as part of a program initiated worldwide to raise awareness of the work the organisation does, as well as galvanise people to help eliminate food scarcity in the developing world. Seignorage and profits from the sale of the coins would also be used to help fund these programs.

FAO coins were first struck in 1968 when the initiative was first started. Around 20 different countries participated, with many different designs being minted. The US, and many of the other NATO states did not participate, but mints such as the San Francisco mint, the Royal mint, several mints in Germany amongst others helped strike coins for nations which did.

The program would run for 40 years until it was ended by the FAO itself in 2008.