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Coins are the unit of currency in the Mushroom Kingdom that appear in almost all Mario series. The most common ones are the yellow ones, but there are ones in other colors. In almost all games since Super Mario Bros., coins can be found in ? Blocks and sometimes in Brick Blocks. Sometimes, a single ? block can contain multiple coins.Collecting 100 coins usually gets the player a 1-Up in the main games.
Varieties
- Red Coin - Special Collectibles worth 2 coins for levels in that if all of a set are collected that in Super Mario 64, and Super Mario Sunshine, the player gets a Star/ Shine or gets a power-up in the other games.
- Blue Coin - Coins that are worth 5 coins. In Super Mario Sunshine, they are used to exchange for shines
- Purple Coin - First appeared in Super Mario Galaxy as a special collection objective for stars. Unlike normal ones, they do not restore health or air
- Dragon Coin - Collectibles in Super Mario World with 5 in most levels. Collecting all 5 gives a 1-UP
- Star Coin - Collectibles in the New Super Mario Bros. games and Super Mario 3D Land. Similar to Dragon Coins but there are only 3 in a given level. There are used to unlock stuff particularly towards the end of the game. There's a Moon Coin variety but it only counts towards completion.
- Comet Medal - Special Collectible coins from Super Mario Galaxy 2 that will trigger a comet to come in orbit of a galaxy.
- ? Coin - Special coins from Super Mario Galaxy that trigger something similar to a P Switch.
History
Main series
Mario Bros
The coin's debut is in the arcade game Mario Bros., where it would slide out of pipes. There were two kinds of Coins. These two kinds of Coins were called Reward Coin and Bonus Coin. The Reward Coins would appear out a pipe at the top of the screen if enemies were killed and then they would travel into a Pipe at the bottom of the screen if not collected. The second kind of Coin was the Bonus Coin and it would never move around at all and they are only found on the Bonus stage levels.
Super Mario Bros
In this game Coins could be found inside of Blocks and also they could be found just laying around like the Bonus coins of the last game.
Super Mario Bros 2
Coins are not in this game, Instead Ruby's are used for money similar to in the Legend of Zelda series. Each Ruby is worth 1 coin, also at the end of each level Ruby's get converted into coins and then can be fed into the slot machine in order to try gain bonus lives and more Coins/Rubies.
Mario Kart series
The coins first appeared in the original Super Mario Kart that when players drove over them, they would start to go faster. If players fell off the edge or got hit, they would lose 3 coins until they had none left. After the disappearance in Mario Kart 64, they returned identically in Mario Kart: Super Circuit.
However, the coin mechanic disappeared again from the series after that until Mario Kart 7. Functionally, they worked the same except they had a maximum of ten and the players had to drive into them instead of over. Most coins also return by the next lap. However, coins only appear once a race in the Time Trial mode. Coins were used in the main game to unlock kart parts as a collective total.
In Mario Kart 8, they were turned into an item in addition to a collectible in the race. The item version is worth 2 coins and gives a little bigger speed boost. This item is also included in the Crazy Eight item.