Can you identify the fruit on this coin design?

[Mike T]

Every kangaroo depicted was an eastern grey. Australian stamps, modern coins and post 1966 notes do better with wildlife depictions but none get Queen Elisabeth right.

[serval]

Loqat.




Now the wife of a coin collector believes that she has spotted loqat.

See the dotted outline on the coin image above.

[serval]

Sao Tome and Principe, 2000 dobras, 1997.

Could I ask for your ideas on the type of fruit shown on this coin?

Apart from the bananas, the fruit has not been identified.

Here are the opinions I have had from members of my coin forum:

At centre left is possibly a breadfruit. At bottom right is possibly a tamarind.

Any thoughts, members?

[palingkecil]

Hello,

I'm from London, England. I don't grow anything.

I'm a coin collector and like to try to identify exotic fruit on coin designs where no data exists that I can find.

I rely on knowledgeable people to do this, but my fellow coin collectors often do not have the right sort of knowledge.




This is a 5 Lebanese pounds coin of 1978. Can anybody identify the fruit (and / or vegetables) on it?

At bottom right we seem to have bananas and a pear.

Further left we have cherries, perhaps? It's probably impossible to know what that thing is that they're resting on.

The two items at far left look intriguing. Does anybody know what they are?

The letters FAO stand for Food and Agricultural Organization, by the way. There were quite a few coins with this slogan in the 1970s, though generally not in the Western world.

A fellow coin collector commented:

The lower flower in your Lebanese specimen could be a Damascus rose, which is widely cultivated in the region for its fragrant oil.

My father in law is Lebanese, born and raised over there. He has dementia now, but when he was well he has almost constant diet that he said remind him of home: pommegranate, blood orange, quince, olive (both raw and pickled), grapes, raw onion, okra, fava beans( the unpelled one is long), carob, and tons of raw garlic.
So some of those mentioned could be the pictures on the coin.

[drymifolia]

At centre left is possibly a breadfruit. At bottom right is possibly a tamarind.

Any thoughts, members?

The one on the left is unmistakeably a breadfruit, the leaf is even accurately drawn.

[serval]

My father in law is Lebanese, born and raised over there. He has dementia now, but when he was well he has almost constant diet that he said remind him of home: pommegranate, blood orange, quince, olive (both raw and pickled), grapes, raw onion, okra, fava beans( the unpelled one is long), carob, and tons of raw garlic.
So some of those mentioned could be the pictures on the coin.

Thank you. I think we have a consensus on the pomegranate now. It's a beautiful fruit on the inside. My grandma used to be fond of them in the 1970s. The taste is nice and I tried a couple, but I found them too fussy to eat because of the high number of seeds. Having looked again, I definitely now think carob for the long thin item.

Fava beans - oh dear - who can forget the serial killer in "Silence of the Lambs" ?     I don't see them or their pods on the design, though.

Okra has a pointed end - I don't see it on the design.

Garlic - interesting one. I've never seen any on any coin design, though.

[serval]

The one on the left is unmistakeably a breadfruit, the leaf is even accurately drawn.

Thanks for that. I'll take that as a certainty now.

The fruit (vegetable?) at the bottom of the design, above the "2000", really has me puzzled. Its form looks intriguing.