When I say found money, I am not talking about that $20 bill you left in your pants pocket or the roll of quarters you left in the center console of your car from a time before electronic toll collection. I am talking about the hoards, metal detector finds, and surprising estate sales that keep popping up in the news.
Over the last few months, there have been a number of stories about someone finding a treasure trove of coins, whether it be gold in California, Roman coins in the United Kingdom, or other ancient coins in Israel, the stories continue to fascinate.
Other than Israel, which is the epicenter of three major religions with a treasure buried beneath her soil, Great Britain appears to be the second most popular area for treasure finds.
According to The Telgraph, the number of discovered treasures rose from 1,005 in 2015 to 1,121 in 2016. It is believed that this number will rise again when 2017 is over.
They attribute the new found interest to a popular BBC sitcom called Detectorists. According to IMDB, it is about the “lives of two eccentric metal detectorists, who spend their days plodding along ploughed tracks and open fields, hoping to disturb the tedium by unearthing the fortune of a lifetime.”
I have not seen this show on U.S. television but it is available on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
Given the popularity of this show, I wonder if there may be a way to leverage that idea to do a show centered around numismatics to the public. Maybe it could help expand the hobby.
As an aside, if you are going to try your own search using a metal detector, you might want to read this article from The Mirror. Even though it talks about the hobby in terms for a U.K. readership, the information is transferable to the United States. The article provides good tips.
And now the news….
GovMint.com and ModernCoinMart, in cooperation with S&A Partners – The Official Coca-Cola Licensee for Collectible Coins – has teamed up with Coca-Cola® to bring collectors something they've never seen: legal-tender silver dollars that look like Coca-Cola bottle caps. → Read more at prnewswire.com
MUMBAI, India — Vishal Kumar Jain slid his fingertips along the edges of a crisp 500 rupee ($8) note, a pale grey 150 by 66mm piece of paper. He then ran his hands around a 20-rupee note (0.31 US cents), a 147mm by 63mm orange bill. → Read more at trtworld.com
THE Greek word for money, chrema, carries a significance its English translation cannot fully convey. “It means ‘to need’ and ‘to use’ together,” explains Nicholas Stampolidis, director of the Museum of Cycladic Art (MoCA) during a recent visit to the museum’s latest exhibition, “Money: Tangible Symbols in Ancient Greece.” → Read more at economist.com
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Bank Indonesia never issue a permit to use candy as a means of transaction replacing rupiah. The use of candies instead of cash for a small exchange mostly found at modern retailers or groceries. → Read more at en.tempo.co
After suffering a serious knee injury that ended her volleyball career at K-State, senior Bryna Vogel was surprised by a presidential token. → Read more at themercury.com
Friday 15 December 2017 → Read more at churchtimes.co.uk
Suspicions are growing that North Korea has resumed forging $100 dollar bills that are so realistic that they are virtually indistinguishable from genuine currency. → Read more at telegraph.co.uk