Weekly World Numismatic News for June 26, 2022
Even though I spent the week relaxing, the news continues. Here are three significant stories from this past week.
New Mint Director
Ventris C. Gibson, 41st Director of the U.S. Mint
Compared to previous appointments, the Senate acted with lightning speed to fill the vacancy left by David J. Ryder. Ryder’s resignation. The position was vacant for 264 days.
New Treasurer
Chief Marilynn “Lynn” Malerba, 18th Chief of the Mohegan Tribe and the 45th Treasurer of the U.S.
Chief Marilynn “Lynn” Malerba became the 18th Chief of the Mohegan Tribe in 2010 and is the first woman to serve in this position in the Tribe’s modern history. Chief Malerba earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice and Masters in Public Administration degrees, and she has advocated for tribal health and management throughout her career.
Since the Federal Reserve Note includes the signatures of the Treasury Secretary and the Treasurer, it will be the first time in United States history that both signatures on the currency will be women.
New Numismatic Auction Record
2021 Nobel Peace Prize Medal sold for $103.5 million with proceeds going to charity (Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions)
Muratov, the editor-in-chief at Novaya Gazeta, decided to sell his Nobel Peace Prize medal to raise money for Ukrainian relief. Heritage Auctions hammered closed the auction for a record $103.5 million. All proceeds were paid to UNICEF’s aid efforts for Ukrainian children and their families displaced by war. It is a record sale for any Nobel medal and any numismatic item.
And now the news…
June 19, 2022
→ Read more at newsweekme.com
June 21, 2022 → Read more at yle.fi
June 24, 2022 → Read more at washingtonpost.com
June 24, 2022 → Read more at phys.org
June 25, 2022 → Read more at americanthinker.com
Hometown Collecting High School Edition
Hometown collecting now includes this medal from South Mecklenburg High School, where I went in the 1970s.
My family moved from New York to just outside of Charlotte in 1974. The area was outside of Charlotte, and Charlotte fueled its growth by annexing unincorporated parts of the county just over its borders. Within a few years, we were living in Charlotte.
I went to high school at South Mecklenburg High School. It was in one of the county’s unincorporated areas with a mailing address of nearby Pineville. Pineville is famous for being the birthplace of James K. Polk, the 18th President of the United States.
South Meck was the local basketball power. Future college and pro stars like Bobby Jones and Walter Davis played for South. After Jones and Davis graduated, they went to play for the University of North Carolina and then starred in the NBA. We won the State AAAA Championship my sophomore year.
While doing my hometown search for numismatics from Brooklyn and New York City, I had an idea to search for items from other times in my early life. I entered “South Mecklenburg” in the search bar to see what I could find.
After scrolling past old copies of the school yearbook, I found a bronze medal for the high school. I do not remember a medal like this. After I dug through a box to find an old yearbook, it resembles a school’s logo in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Since I collect numismatics of my past, I bought the medal and waited for it to be shipped.
The seller was from Europe and waited for the mail to swim across the pond. It was better looking in hand than in the picture online. The medal is 42mm in diameter with something to attach to a chain or a ribbon. It is one-sided, and Herff Jones is engraved on the reverse. I tried to contact Herff Jones and said they do not think they have records going that far back. Someone was going to look and see what they could find.
I graduated from South in 1978 then enrolled at the University of Georgia. Although I have found a few medals from Georgia, I may change my search criteria and see what else I can find.
Weekly World Numismatic News for December 12, 2021
It is the time of the year where we look for stocking stuffers for our numismatic friends and relatives. Although there are a lot of coins to choose from, I was looking for some other ideas.
In keeping with the holiday themes, I looked for a coin to give someone that spoke of the holiday. After searching for a simple stocking stuffer, I settled on a 2012 Latvia One Lat coin with Christmas bells on the reverse. I chose this coin because I previously purchased the 2009 Latvia One Lat coin with a Christmas tree on the reverse. These were the only two Christmas-themed circulating coins issued by Latvia.
While looking for something interesting, I found a $5 Heavenly Angels coin issued by the Marshall Islands in 1996. The copper-nickel coin comes in a blister pack embedded on a card. Although it is not a current issue, the Christmas theme on a card can add a little spice to a numismatist’s collection.
I needed one more collectible and stumbled over a postcard-like holder, in its envelope and titles Merry Christmas From Around the World. The card contains coins from Mexico, Luxembourg, Columbia, Norway, Austria, Finland, and China. Each coin has Mery Christmas in the native language of each country, including Chinese. They are all base metal coins from 1964 or 1965.
I found the Latvian and Marshal Islands coins on eBay, and I purchased the card from the mid-1960s from a nearby antique shop. Be careful buying foreign coins online. The Latvian coin came from Latvia, and overseas shipping is slower than expected.
If you can find something that the seller can ship on time, you can make a good impression with your favorite numismatist by finding Christmas-themed coins for the holiday.
And now the news…
December 3, 2021 → Read more at starherald.com
December 5, 2021 → Read more at the-sun.com
December 5, 2021 → Read more at bbc.com
December 10, 2021 → Read more at cbsnews.com
Weekly World Numismatic News for December 5, 2021
After a bit of a hiatus, the Coin Week podcast resumed with a discussion of Free Coin Day. Free Coin Day encourages dealers to give away one coin to every customer to celebrate coin collecting.
Free Coin Day was founded by Coin Week’s editor Charles Morgan and joined this year by Rob Oberth of Round Table Trading. Both are members of the ANA Board of Governors. They encourage those participating in Free Coin Day to use the hashtag #FreeCoinDay to help promote the venture.
While Free Coin Day is a good idea, it is preaching to the converted in many ways. It requires someone to be motivated to walk into a coin shop to participate. Unfortunately, there are fewer brick-and-mortar shops, and most dealers are either working shows only or selling online, and access to dealers is limited.
While Oberth and Morgan have the beginning of a good idea but it does not go far enough. New collectors want experiences, and their collections represent something about their experiences.
Other collecting industries learned this the hard way. During the market downturn of 2008, most industries retrenched and figured out a way to revive old hobbies. The comics industry was not as vibrant. The idea of changing the industry beyond the paper book was not something the publishers wanted to do because it was the lifeblood of the industry.
The publishers realized that paper-based products were on their way out. The industry diversified with ancillary products, including movies, modern stories, collectibles, and experiences. One of the attempts to expand their reach was to embrace the existing ComicCons. The publishers poured more money into the ComicCons and used the larger Cons to launch products.
During the podcast, Oberth and Morgan all but dismiss the ideas learned from the comics industry. Rather than trying to figure out a way to make coin collecting an experience, they are giving away low-end coins trying to entice distracted Millenials and GenXers into coin shops.
And now the news…
November 30, 2021 → Read more at smithsonianmag.com
December 3, 2021 → Read more at starherald.com
December 5, 2021 → Read more at the-sun.com
December 5, 2021 → Read more at bbc.com
Weekly World Numismatic News for November 28, 2021
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and all other names given to special holiday sale days are relics of the past. Times have changed. Black Friday is no longer the day that most retailers begin to show a profit for the year. And with broadband available in many homes, the significance of Cyber Monday has disappeared as quickly as it arrived.
What has not changed is the desire to find gifts at a reasonable price. You can find sales on manufactured goods that do not have a supply chain issue, but you cannot find sales on collectibles.
The collectibles market remains very active. If it is collected, then the prices are higher than expected. I was reminded of this by a friend who has been saving to buy his first Carson City Morgan Dollar. When he thought he had saved enough, the price of the coin he wanted was now 20-percent more expensive.
Although collector coins are going up in value, there are affordable coins that can be stocking stuffers. Over the next week, I will look into what could become a gift for the collector in your life.
And now the news…
November 24, 2021 → Read more at smithsonianmag.com
November 24, 2021 → Read more at hcnews.com
November 26, 2021 → Read more at the-sun.com
Happy 400th Thankgiving
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- This coin commemorates the 300th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower. The image is of a pilgrim carrying a Bible.
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- The image is of the Mayflower, the ship that brought the pilgrims to Massachusetts.
Thanksgiving in the United States is traced back to the Pilgrims’ celebration of their first successful harvest in 1621. The three-day event was attended by 53 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans that lasted three days. The tradition of giving thanks for successes was a tradition that the Pilgrims brought with them from England. This three-day celebration in 1621 is considered the first Thanksgiving.
Although there is no record of the menu, the meal likely consisted of food from the harvest, venison, and seafood. Legend has it that the local natives killed five deer as gifts for the celebration.
On the 400th anniversary of that event, Native Americans have been working on setting the record straight. One difference from the original story is that the local natives were not invited. The story goes that the warriors showed up when they heard gunshots coming from the European camps thinking that a war was to begin. It was not a war, but the colonists were shooting muskets to celebrate.
Uncovering historical information is similar to using ancient coins to gain a better understanding of history. If we better understand our past, we can improve the future. Let’s improve the future by being thankful and welcoming to all who call this country home.
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