Weekly World Numismatic News for April 28, 2019
Just a few of the coins that I gave away from the cash register
In my shop, I advertised that I would trade a 40-percent silver half-dollar for a W mint quarter. Most of the people who came by did not know about the quarter.
While the lack of interest seems disheartening, there appears to be a growing problem with the coverage of these stories. Aside from a few local accounts, there were few reports from the national news media. Even with Congress being out of town this week, all of the national press seems to be buried in their respective corners looking for red meat to chew.
No wonder the public does not trust the media.
And where was the numismatic community? Last week, I was busy posting a lot of news releases from the numismatic industry (news.coinsblog.ws). This week, the only post was a found video from a few years ago. Where were the national or regional organizations?
If nobody knows the numismatic industry is here and cares then why should anyone care?
It might be time for the numismatic industry to have a lesson in public relations because if they think what they are doing now is working, the foot traffic into my shop where collectors of all type visit tell me it is not!
And now the news…
April 11, 2019Archaeologists have been researching interesting findings in the Liptov region. A married couple during a hike to the Choč mountain near Likavka made a great discovery of silver and two golden coins from the turn of 15th and 16th century, My Liptov wrote. 
→ Read more at spectator.sme.sk
April 23, 2019A group of amateur treasure hunters in England found a horde of gold and silver coins from the 14th-century that could be worth nearly $200,000 according to experts. → Read more at foxnews.com
April 24, 2019Collectors are expected to place millions of vintage coins and paper money back into circulation as part of a nationwide event. → Read more at mercurynews.com
April 24, 2019A man bought a box of Milk Duds in Tiburon this week with a handful of Indian Head cents. “We’re trying to do something here,” said Don Kagin, just before using an 1876 quarter to help pay for a pound of butter. → Read more at sfchronicle.com
April 25, 2019CLAREMORE, OK. – An Oklahoma man is offering $10,000 in exchange for one penny. Richard McPheeters is a coin dealer and collector in Claremore, and he is looking for a rare penny to complete a set. This isn’t your average penny. The particular penny he is searching for is a certified 1982 Small Date Denver mint penny made of copper. 1982 was the last year pennies were made from copper. McPheeters has 7 of these pennies out of 8 from the Denver mint and he is looking for the 8th one. → Read more at whnt.com
April 26, 2019National Park Service officials at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area are puzzling over an apparent discovery of old Spanish coins — do they represent a remark → Read more at lakepowelllife.com
April 26, 2019Challenge coins are handed out to commemorate American military campaigns. But the trinkets carry different weight when displayed beside tokens from earlier wars that failed. → Read more at nytimes.com
April 26, 2019A Fort Mill, South Carolina man got a call from Tennessee about an unusual penny with his father’s information on it. Sgt. Clifford Wilford served the Army in Europe from D-Day to liberation during WWII. → Read more at heraldonline.com
April 26, 2019NUR-SULTAN — Kazakhstan’s National Bank has issued freshly minted coins with engraved texts in the country's new Latin-based alphabet. The new tenge coins were issued on April 26 in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 tenges, the bank said in a statement. → Read more at rferl.org
New RSS Widget for MacOS X 10.4+
For those of us who use MacOS X 10.4 and its later updates, we have found great uses for Dashboard widgets. Although there are some neat widgets available, none watches the RSS feed for this blog. So while playing with Dashcode, Apple’s beta development tool for creating widgets that will be included with MacOS X 10.5 Leopard, I created a widget to display the RSS feed in Dashboard. Not bad for the first project using Dashcode!
If you use MacOS X 10.4 and its later updates, you can download the Coin Collectors’ Blog RSS Widget here. If you use it, please let me know what you think. Enjoy!
Disabled Veterans Commemorative Coin Bill Passes the House
On Tuesday, May 15, the US House of Representatives passed H.R. 634, “American Veterans Disabled for Life Commemorative Coin Act” by a unanimous 416-0 vote. The bill authorized the the minting of a $1 silver commemorative coin commemorating disabled American Veterans to be issued in 2010. The design of the coin is to be selected by the Disabled Veterans’ LIFE Memorial Foundation.
The coin will be sold with a $10 surcharge that will be dispensed to the Disabled Veterans’ LIFE Memorial Foundation so that an endowment can be established to support the construction of American Veterans’ Disabled for Life Memorial. The National Capital Planning Commission has selected (PDF) a location at Washington Avenue (Canal Street) and Second Street SW in Washington, DC for the memorial.
The enrolled bill will be sent to the Senate for consideration. If it passes the Senate without modification, it will be sent to the President for his signature.
Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!
Every so often, you have to buy a coin or a set of coins because they are just neat. Here is something about my recent purchase.
One of my non-numismatic interests are motorcycles. I used to love riding bikes in my younger days. It was fun to drive through the woods that were behind the house we lived in during my teen years. Unfortunately, real life has limited my current interest to watching the guys on American Chopper create neat bikes. For my mid-life crisis, I will buy a nice motorcycle—maybe one of those wonderful OCC bikes!
Last year, the Federal Republic of Somalia issued a set of six coins in the shape of guitars. These non-circulating legal tender coins were made from silver plated copper-nickel shapes and enameled with the design. They are non-circulating legal tender issued at the value of one dollar, even though the shilling is the standard currency of Somalia.
This year the theme is motorcycles. The six coin set is based on designs of Harley Davidson motorcycles and other bikes. With my interest in motorcycles, I decided to buy the set at the last Whitman Baltimore Coin and Currency Convention. I think these coins rank on the “oh neat” scale!
It is not enough to post images here, coins like these have to be displayed. I want a display that enhances their “oh neat” appeal. One idea is to frame the coin with a sheet of the Postal Service’s American Motorcycle Stamps. A full sheet of the stamps would be framed in the center of a mat and three coins on either side. But while surfin’ the Internet, I came across the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum. In their Museum Gift Shop they offer the framed motorcycle stamps canceled on the First Day of Issue that were first made available at the 2006 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. I may buy one and see if I can incorporate the coins into that display or use it for another.
Either way, these coins are neat!
Click on image to see a larger version.
A Busy Week
It was a busy week for me and the US Mint. While I was toiling to help another government agency from failing on one job, the Mint was demonstrating why it is the world’s largest manufacturer of numismatic items. So let’s look at the news…
On May 4, the Mint announced that it will begin to take orders for the Little Rock Central High School Desegregation 50th Anniversary Silver Dollars on May 15, starting at noon. This coin commemorates the historical significance of the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School following the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision by the US Supreme Court. For more about this coin, read my article “Little Rock Central High Commem Design.”
The Mint quietly dropped the discussion of producing fractional American Buffalo 24-karat Gold Coins and extended the potential release date until June. It is suspected that the Mint may require congress to pass necessary legislation in order to authorize the production fractional Buffalo coins, although this has not been confirmed by the Mint. Uncirculated 2007 Buffalo coins can be purchased from dealers and on the secondary market.
Earlier this month, the Mint advertised that they would sell the First Spouse gold coins by the set at $1,675.95. But the Mint announced this week that they will begin to sell First Spouse gold coins individually started at noon on June 19, 2007 for the Martha Washington and Abigail Adams coins. Jefferson’s Liberty coin will be for sale on August 16 and the Dolley Madison coin on November 15. No set will be offered. Individual coins will sell for $429.95 as proof coins and $410.95 as uncirculated coins.
The Mint also announced that the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) will meet Tuesday, May 15, at the Philadelphia Downtown Marriott Hotel at 9 A.M. On the agenda is the design of the Congressional Gold Medal to honor the Dalai Lama as well as the proposed design for the 2008 American Bald Eagle Commemorative Coins.
Time to go take some pictures so I have some fun stuff to talk about.
All images from the US Mint.
It’s Worth A Million
The Royal Canadian Mint announced they will be issuing a very large gold coin with a C$1 million denomination. At 100 kilograms (3215 troy ounces) and 53 centimeters (21 inches) it is the largest legal tender coin in existence. It will be made of .99999 pure gold making this coin the purest gold coin on the market. The obverse of the coin will feature Queen Elizabeth II with the reverse will feature a “new, elegant maple leaf design.”
As part of this project, RCM announced they will be producing a more affordable one troy ounce coin that will be 30 mm and made from .99999 pure gold. This coin will have a face value of C$200. RCM has not released the final pricing for these coins.
It is an ambitious project for RCM. Gold this pure can be difficult to strike because of the softness of the metals. Pricing will be an interesting issue. At today’s 4:00 PM New York gold price of $686.90, the 3215 troy ounce coin contains $2,228,990.50 in the value of the metal. I am guessing that RCM may charge $3 million for this coin.
RCM could price the new one troy ounce coin more competitively with the market. Their nearest competitor will be the US Mint’s American Gold Buffalo, which is one avoirdupois (regular) ounce of .9999 pure gold making the RCM coin lighter than the Gold Buffalo (1 troy ounce = 1.0971 ounces). RCM may price their coin competitively with the Gold Buffalo—which the US Mint announced will it will charge $850 for a 2007 proof coin. Bullion sales appear to average $75-100 over the spot price of gold.
It is an interesting publicity gimmick for the RCM. I would be surprised if they sold more than a dozen of the C$1 million coins.
Canadian coin image from the Royal Canadian Mint
American Gold Buffalo image from the US Mint
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