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Many new collectors to world coins often see the acronym F.A.O. on various modern coins or in catalogs and scratch their heads wondering what this acronym is.
F.A.O. actually stands for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. During October 1945, the F.A.O. was founded in Quebec City, Canada with the goal to "modernize and improve agriculture, forestry and fisheries practices and ensure good nutrition for all”. Even the F.A.O. logo re-enforces this message by carrying the phrase “Fiat Panis” or as translated from Latin “Let there be bread”.
In 1968, the F.A.O. started a “Money and Medals” program to help spread its message of the urgent need to increase food and agricultural production. Since this time, hundreds of different coins throughout the world have been issued to spread the message and has also created a unique world coin type set for collectors.
To date there have been more than 600 coins. Even though it is a modern set, it’s far from being an affordable set for most collectors. F.A.O. coins come in all shapes, sizes, denominations, and compositions (including gold).
Realizing a complete set may be a daunting task, we’ve compiled an F.A.O. Checklist to help. Within the checklist you will not just find all of the issues but also the country of origin, composition, and denomination. Here a just a few ideas for a set that you can get from the checklist:
- Complete Silver F.A.O Coin Issues
- Complete Gold F.A.O Coin Issues
- F.A.O. Cent and Penny Issues
- F.A.O. Dollar Issues
Are there more possible sets? Absolutely but that’s up to you!