I collect coins, and along the way have picked up a considerable amount of disorganized information about them. Lately, I've been doodling coins that are so rare that they don't even exist! (Believe it or not, there are some coins almost that rare. There is one coin depicting an otherwise unknown Roman emperor that was thought to be a probable fake ... until a second one turned up in the English soil a few decades later.) The eight coins here are all in-jokes -- some obvious, some not. See if you can get many of them, but I warn you that the hardest is the English penny, third from left, top row. The next is darn near as hard, because the medieval lettering is not very legible. At some point later, I'll provide a key.

Okay. A few days have gone by, giving everyone a chance to make their guesses. Time for me to fess up.

Top left: A gold solidus with Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo as the portrait. The conical hat Devo wore one time reminded me of a reverse side of certain actual late Roman solidii.

2nd from left, top: "Limbs" Jones, the stoker of the Boiling Hell. He has nine heads and six arms -- a result of a terrible accident with the atomic reactor he was stoking. The character was from "Captain Star," an absolutely brilliant British animated show that is almost impossible to see (but most episodes can be found on YouTube). The circle of stars around Jones was a hint.

3rd from left, top: A silver British penny, quite realistic, but reading Edmune I Rex. There never was a King Edmund, of course ... except in the Blackadder series. In the final special, "Blackadder Back & Forth," the present Blackadder uses a time machine invented by Baldrick to establish himself as kind of England (and Baldrick as his subserviant PM). This would be the third Blackadder to reach the throne, actually. The first was the very first Blackadder, Prince Edmund, son of Richard IV, the real victor at Bosworth Fields. But as the entire royal family including Edmund was poisoned shortly after, history does not record Richard IV or Edmund I. The second time was in the 1820s, when the Prince of Wales (a total booby) got into a duel with Wellington, and perished. Mad King George III mistook the butler, Blackadder, for his son, hence Blackadder became George IV. Again, without history taking note.

4th. from left, top: Another silver penny, similar to the British design. Silver pennies in Europe, whose reverse consisted of a cross, were as common as pennies with Lincoln's had in the US. It looked like a car tire to me, so I lettered it "Canadian Tire" -- a widespread chain of automotive/hardware/sporting goods/home/garden & appliances chain in Canada.

Middle: this is a small, irregular gold coin called a Fanam, that was common in India during the British Raj. The were small so that the rajah could throw them to the adoring crowds from a sack as he rode through town, but not actually waste too much money. The gold content was low, also. The inspiration was the cursive Ford logo that reminded me a little of Arabic writing.

Bottom, right: A copper one cent piece from the third year after the French Revolution. The king had been Guillotined the year before, I think, so his bust was replaced by one of Lady Liberty ... who bears a resemblance to the Smurfette. The French is pigeon, though.

Bottom, center: DN IMP SHREK OGRE CAES. Translated into English that would mean "Our Lord, the Emperor Shrek, Ogre, Caesar." Given the size, it would have to be a bronze sestertius -- a coin of medium value -- 1/4 of a silver denarius, but 4 copper asses.

Bottom, right: a silver five cent piece as the Confederate States of America might have minted it sometime in the 1860s or '70s, just after the Civil War.