COINS OF ESPERANTO INVENTOR L. L. ZAMENHOF

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V29 2026 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 29, Number 26, 2026, Article 19

"Thanks for the link to the Harper's article on Esperanto! I published a (shorter) piece in The Shekel, Summer 2025, on LL Zamenhof on "fantasy" coins."

Thank you! Here's an excerpt from the article. -Editor

L.L. Zamenhof is best known as the inventor of the universal language Esperanto. He was born in Bialystok, then part of the Russian Empire in 1859, one of eleven children. (Bialystok is now the tenth largest city in Poland.) He studied medicine in Moscow, Warsaw, and Vienna. He completed his medical training in 1886 and practiced ophthalmology in Warsaw.

In an article on the website of the National Yiddish Book Center, Esther Schor traces Zamenhof's intellectual journey from an attachment to Yiddish and Zionism to the universalism that led him to invent Esperanto. Esperanto was not meant to replace one's native language, but to be a universal second language that would facilitate communication and thus world peace. The Esperanto Association has chapters around the world.

I was doing some research on Zamenhof for a Jewish History class I was teaching. Some of the online articles included coins as illustrations, and I decided that I had to have some representative examples for my collection of coins and medals related to Jews and Jewish history. My collection includes three coins commemorating Zamenhof; there are several others listed on Numista. All of the Zamenhof pieces are classified as either fantasy pieces or commemoratives. None was intended to circulate.

On March 29, 1979 the Warsaw Mint on the Polish People's Republic produced 30,000 silver proof pieces in the denomination 100 zlotys commemorating the 120th anniversary of the birth of Ludwik Zamenhof. The engraver of this non-circulating commemorative was Stanislawa Watróbska-Frindt, née Reczek (1934-1994). There are also several versions of trial strikes for this piece.

The Esperanto Society itself has issued what technically would be classified as fantasy pieces in 1912 with 1 and 2 spesmilo (thousand units, part of a proposed universal coinage), in 1959 with invented denominations of 1, 5, and 10 steloj (Esperanto for "star"), and in 1965 with a 25 steloj silver crown. They were produced for the Esperanto Society by the Royal Dutch Mint, Utrecht. Several other pieces have been issued to commemorate various Esperanto Congresses (1923 and 1990).

I have also acquired a mysterious issue, in which Zamenhof is honored by the Republic of Cabinda.

Dated 2017 honoring the 100th anniversary of Zamenhof's death, it is listed as another fantasy piece, issued by the Republic of Cabinda. According to Wikipedia, Cabinda was a Portuguese colony claimed by Angola though it is not quite adjacent. It has been the subject of an ongoing post-colonial dispute which has sometimes flared into violence. Various coins have been issued, many of which portray animals, especially fish. I have been unable to track down who is designing these issues or where they are being produced. If anyone can find out why Dr. Zamenhof (or as he is often called, Doktoro Esperanto) is the singular human figure honored by the Republic of Cabinda, please let me know! You can reach me at LLE49@comcast.net.

Interesting topic. Would anyone have more information or images of the 1912 Esperanto Society 1 and 2 spesmilo pieces? -Editor

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
ABOUT THIS ISSUE: JUNE 14, 2026 (https://www.coinbooks.org/v29/esylum_v29n24a27.html)