Nichtsburg & Zilchstadt

Nichtsburg & Zilchstadt is a micronation created by Erik McCrea.
Erik is also the creater of L'île d'Héliopolis.
You can find a lot of information about micronations on his links pages.

2003

Copper

Inscription :  NICHTSBURG ET ZILCHSTADT - MMIII - 1 MIDEN
               EX NIHILO NIHIL FIT - ZERO - MACNAUGHT - OUDEN, AD INFINITUM
Denomination : 1 Miden
Diameter     : 30.0 mm
Material     : Copper 
Mint         : Northwest Territorial Mint
Mintage      : 65
Year         : 2003

Zilchstadt (the German suffix -stadt means "city") is the hometown of Zero MacNaught (son of nothing).
Nichts is the German word for "nothing", and Nichtsburg (nothing castle) became Zero's birthplace as well as the sister-city to Zilchstadt.
Miden is the modern Greek word for "zero", and this is the fictitious monetary unit.
The reverse features a stylized rendition of the contemplative protagonist. Above him appears the epigrammatic Latin adage Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit: "nothing arises out of nothing".
Also emphasized is the dictum Ouden, Ad Infinitum: in ancient Greek, ouden signified "nothing".

This coin also exists in silver with a mintage of 10.

2005

Nickel

Inscription  : NICHTSBURG Y ZILCHSTADT - MMV - 11 MIDENIKA
               ayin me'yesh - yesh me'ayin
Denomination : 11 Midenika
Diameter     : 38.0 mm
Material     : Nickel 
Mint         : Pressed Metal Products
Mintage      : 51
Year         : 2005

Midenika is the plural of Miden.
In essence, the spirit of this coin is harmoniously faithful to the original premise.
The obverse is crowned, in Devanagari script, by the Sanskrit word shûnya/sûnya (empty, non-being). It is the term from which the revolutionary "zero" evolved;
The reverse centrally highlights kyomu. This is the Ch'an/Zen Buddhist designation, written in Japanese Kanji ideograms/logograms, for "nihility/nothingness". It is also a key tenet of the Kyoto School of philosophy (Nishida Kitaro, Tanabe Hajime, Nishitani Keiji). Symmetrically flanking it are two terse aphoristic phrases culled from Kabbalistic ontology: ayin me'yesh (emptiness from fullness) and its converse, yesh me'ayin (somethingness out of nothingness).

This coin also exists in silver with a mintage of 5.

2007

Brass

Inscription  : NICHTSBURG UND ZILCHSTADT - MMVII - 1 MIDEN
               OMNIA FINT EX NIHILO - BISABUELO ZEUERO - E PLURIBUS NEMO
Denomination : 1 Miden
Diameter     : 30.0 mm
Material     : Brass
Mint         : Pressed Metal Products
Mintage      : 51
Year         : 2007

Silver

Inscription  : NICHTSBURG UND ZILCHSTADT - MMVII - 1 MIDEN
               OMNIA FINT EX NIHILO - BISABUELO ZEUERO - E PLURIBUS NEMO
Denomination : 1 Miden
Diameter     : 30.0 mm
Material     : Silver
Mint         : Pressed Metal Products
Mintage      : 10
Year         : 2007

Omnia Fint ex Nihilo means "everything is created from nothing".
Bisabuelo Zeuero is our protagonist's great-grandfather. Zeuero is the Italian equivalent of "zero".
Also present on the reverse is the motto E Pluribus Nemo. In Latin, the word nemo (a contraction of ne-homo, "no-man", "no-one") signifies "nobody".

2012

2012

2012

Inscription  : 2012 - nichtsburg and zilchstadt - 25 MIDENIKA
               000000 - 25 MIDENIKA
Denomination : 25 Midenika
Material     : Paper
Year         : 2012