Category Archives: Hobby

Colored

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Tulpenvijfje - Colored coin!A new commemorative coin is being minted. It is a coin with a five euro value which means it can only be used in the Netherlands. Basically it means the coin is intended for coin collectors and the state treasury. Five euro coins appear around three times a year and this is the first coin of 2012. The theme of the coin are the relations between the Netherlands and Turkey which exist for 400 years.

As a symbol for this relationship the tulip has been selected. Although tulips are often associated with The Netherlands commercial cultivation of the flower began in Turkey. The coins has an open tulip with the portrait of our queen on one side, and a closed tulip with the Turkish flag on the other side, representing the origin or the tulip and the important symbol it is nowadays related to the Netherlands.

The royal Dutch mint likes to experiment and again they surprised us with something new. A set of coins featuring a colored tulip. Four colors were used, red, white, blue and orange. The colors of the national flag and the color that represents the royal family. Sadly only 750 sets were available so once again the entire set was sold very fast (less than 12 hours).

Euromania

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2 Euro 2012!There is another 2 euro coin being minted. Very good for the treasury, but why is the Dutch mint always thinking so small. My point being that the special collectors versions of this coin was sold out in four days. The reason, there were only 15.000 coins being minted. These coins were sold with a nice profit for 10 euros each.

The direct profit for the government is 8 euro per sold coin. Furthermore, it is a pretty safe guess that all the coins will disappear into various collections resulting in a double profit for the government. But what I don’t understand is that in a time of crisis Holland is thinking so small. If 15.000 coins get sold in four days for sure there is a demand for more. With 30.000 coins you double the profit. Because this 2 euro coin will be wanted by collectors everywhere in Europe I think even one million coins would eventually be sold. A missed opportunity for the treasury.

Word search

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Woordzoeker!A few times a year the royal Dutch mint (Koninklijke Nederlandse Munt, knm) releases a special coin to commemorate some historical event.

I often suspect that these coins are mainly meant to add some money to the treasury, but as a collector of Dutch coins you just cannot lat a new coin pass.

Soon a new coin will be released, but this time there is also a possibility to win it! Participation is easy, you just need to solve this old fashion word search puzzle. The result you need to send the the KNM and then hope you will win.

Moral of this story: De herdenkingsmunt vertelt ons een belangrijke historie. (The commemorative coin tell us an important history)

Even more easy money?

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Easy Money!In the recent past I was approached and asked if I would consider placing a link with an add on my website. At first I declined the offer but when they made me a better offer and explained the terms I got interested. Now, somewhere on my website there is a little line of text containing a little add and a link to the advertisers website. To find the add you will need to search a lot on my site.

I figured I had gotten lucky and the money I received I transferred to the account of little Pek, thus cleaning my conscience. That was it, I thought.

The next offer followed surprisingly fast. Another company also wanted to place an add on my website and politely asked my what were my tariffs for the various options. They were interested in these possibilities:

  • Text link from the index page
  • Text link on every page of my website
  • A sponsored post

The problem is that after my previous experience I did some research and found out that in Holland it is more or less illegal to advertise any gambling related thing. Of course living in Spain probably make these rules not apply to me.

The article from the law for games of chance:

Article 1
Subject to this Act it is prohibited::

a.
give opportunity to win prizes or premiums, if the winning takes place by chance determining which participants win and with participants generally having no influence, unless authorized under this Act;
b.
give opportunity, promotion or have such documents intended for publication or distribution to stock for participation to items referred to under a;

Just stimulating gambling is illegal, and placing a simple link maybe falls under this scope.

I’ll just see what happens.

Childrens song

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Hakke hakke puf puf!Why are children’s songs always so sweet and unrealistic. I think it is better to just be honest and tell the truth.

We received a CD with Dutch children’s songs and some of these songs were so very sweet and childish. I could not resist myself and made an improved and more realistic version. There are probably still some problems with the rhyme but that can be fixed.

Advantages compared to the original:

  • Honesty about the public transport
  • Added counting up to 10
  • Removed ‘hakke, hakke’

Continue reading →

Coin fail

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Euro coin Adrie!The design I made for the commemorative coin resulted in a big fail. The fact that I had really though about the design did not help a bit.

In my design all the European countries were united into one big arrow. The arrow was constructed out of various smaller parts. Each little part represents one of the European countries. The side (width) of every part is calculated using the number of inhabitants of a country. The height is dependent of the value of the countries original coin from before the euro, and the starting point is related to the year the country introduced the euro.

All my calculus and drawing efforts have been in vain. To bad. If you want you can still vote for one of the selected coin designs.

Design a coin

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Empty euro coin!To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the euro coin a design content has been started to get the new design of a future commemorative coin. All citizens of Europe can participate and if you present the best design of the 731 million potential participants you win a set of coins and of course some honor. You have two more weeks because the design needs to be submitted in the 20th of May.

The design needs to be related/inspired by the 10 year existence of the euro, but the number 10 cannot be used. Using the number 10 would be confusing when you need to determine the value of the coin. A 2 euro coin with a 10 on it could easily be used to rip off non Europeans, and that should of course be avoided. It’s also prohibited to use any written text on the coin.

I’m going to have a brainstorm session about this theme this weekend, and maybe I’ll try my luck with a simple design.