(Product Review) Novelty Manufacturing Gold Coins

Novelty Manufacturing Gold Coins (144 pieces)

Product Rating: 4

Community Rating: Very Helpful

Pros: Use for party favors, games, decorations, and more.

Cons: You may find a coin or two with rough spots (easily clipped or filed down)

Summary: Recommended for decorations, party favors and more.

While foil wrapped gold coins are great for some purposes, sometimes you might want non-candy Gold Coins for decorating or other purposes. You can pick these up for around $5-$6 from Novelty Manufacturing, and other retailers.

Novelty Manufacturing Gold Coins are made of sturdy plastic. The coins measure approximately 1 1/2 inches in diameter and come as a gross (144 coins). The color of the coins is supposed to be gold, but unlike the picture, is actually somewhere between silver and gold. This isn't a big deal, just something I felt should be mentioned because the picture is nowhere near the actual color of the coins.

These Gold Coins are great to use as play money when playing house or shopping games, as well as for decorations for your next St. Patrick's Day or pirate themed party. One note on these coins though is that they are not what most would refer to as pirate coins since the picture is of a Roman man, rather than any sort of pirate theme. Still, since these are geared more toward kids, I doubt that any of them would notice the difference, and no matter what the picture on the coin, they work well for the intended purpose.

We have used these as party favors in the past by placing a few into the loot bags we hand out, and keep some on hand for the kids to play with. For the most part though, we use these for decorating purposes. You can scatter a few on party tables, add them to a treasure chest or pot of gold for an attractive centerpiece, in pinatas, as incentives for kids to earn rewards for doing chores, getting good grades, or following rules, as prize tokens to buy prizes at carnival type games or other events, for playing a variety of party games. There are lots of great ways to decorate with these Gold Coins as well.

As I said, the coins are sturdy, and have multiple uses. Aside from the fact that they are made in China rather than USA, there is only one thing I don't like about these coins. They are manufactured in sheets of coins, kind of like the model cars you may have put together as a kid. If you have done this, you will probably remember that once the pieces are snapped apart, you may come across an occasional rough spot or nub on some of the edges. This isn't a problem for most decorating purposes, but if people will be handling them much, you might want to check them for any sharp edges. These can easily be filed down or clipped of if you find one. This worked well for the ones given to the kids for play money, although I didn't bother doing this for the ones used strictly as decorations.

As I mentioned earlier, these coins measure about one and a half inches in diameter, so you should use them with caution around small children because they could be considered a choking hazard. This is just a standard precaution for any small items, and should be common sense to most of us. Even so, even preschoolers can use these under close supervision for things like practicing math skills and counting.

As for the design of these coins, they are molded plastic, with heads on both sides. Each coin has the slogan, "Veni-Vidi-Vici" (Latin for I came, I saw, I conquered) printed along the top rim of the coin. Along the bottom rim there is a date printed in Roman Numerals. These ones have the number MCMLXXXXIV, which translates to 1994, although I am not certain whether all of the coins are dated the same. Maybe these double headed coins are not the most authentic coins out there, but they look decent as far as plastic coins go. The kids were very happy with them, and several people complimented me on the party decorations at our last event.

No matter how you use them, these coins are a decent product for a reasonable price. You will probably want to order more than one since 144 coins doesn't go very far, especially if entertaining a larger group or using them for purposes like filling treasure chests or pots of gold.

Update 11/26/15: Although the gold coins I originally reviewed don't appear to be available at this time, you can find a variety of gold coins to choose from here.

Originally published on Epinions.
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