Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2019 i World Coin News

Following up on a story we posted on Sept. 6 on numismaticnews.net that announced the reappearance at auction of the extremely rare Edward VIII 1937 proof penny pattern, the coin sold on Tuesday Sept. 24, for a hammer price of £111,000 ($136,525 USD), or £133,200 ($163,830 USD) with buyer’s fees, on a pre-sale estimate of £60,000-£80,000 (about $73-98,000 USD.) The sale took place through Spink under the name “The Waterbird Collection of English Rarities,” offering only 65 lots of scarce to rare types. Some were seldom available to collectors. The Edward VIII proof penny pattern, for instance, is one of only two known in private collections. The Waterbird Collection also contained the 1860 penny, halfpenny, and farthing. All are quite rare and realized £3,800($4,673.84 USD), £8,500 ($10,454 USD) and £10,000…

Two new meteorite coins have been issued in 2019 for the Cook Islands. While each is still available as of this writing, they may not be for long. Meteorite coin collecting has gained traction on its own and as an extension of the geology, astronomy and dinosaur genres. Coin design for meteorite issues has become more complex and artistic, with coins being produced at different price points to encourage more collectors to join in on the fun. Most past issues related to meteorites can be bought within the $50-$100 range, while some of the larger and more complex types will run between $150 and $300, with a few ranging upward to $500. Here are the stunning 2019 meteorite coins. From the longest running meteorite commemorative coins series, started in 2004…

A new online auction firm has been established in Poland. Dom Aukcyjny is launching their fourth live auction on Sept. 22-23 with a wide variety of coins, banknotes, medals and decorations. About one third of the one thousand lots in the sale are composed of Polish items, while over half of the other lots offer a neat selection from many countries. I was especially intrigued by a run of Russian crowns and minors highlighted by a rare 1714/3 Peter I Ruble in very presentable XF40 condition. This coin is fairly well-struck for the type and has a favorable appearance, making it a good find for anyone serious enough to be advancing in this direction in their collecting. Graded accurately by NGC and featuring a conservative opening bid level of only…

In March 2016, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) began a public “Name Our Ship” campaign for their new vessel scheduled to begin construction later that year. Earlier in 2014, the UK government had approved funding for this new and more durable polar research ship to be used in the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). While the naming contest was originally just meant to generate public awareness of their organization, research mission and new craft, the UK public took it to heart and humor with many odd-ball proposals, including “Poppy-Mai” and “It’s Bloody Cold Here.” When the voting finally took place, the winning name by a large margin was “Boaty McBoatface.” The NERC had been looking for something more dignified, and in the end they named the ship the RRS Sir…

The huge and decaying temple complex at Angkor Wat in Cambodia was originally built as a Hindu temple for the God Vishnu, but over the centuries it was transformed into a Buddhist temple and finally has become a modern day tourist destination. Its architectural style originated from the Khmer Empire, but as it decays, nature is inserting itself back into the landscape and reclaiming the temple as its own. You can see depictions of Angkor Wat on most modern Cambodian coins, as a feature of the obverse. Most recently, a 2018 series was produced for Cambodia by the Singapore Mint commemorating the 60th Anniversary of Diplomatic relations between China and Cambodia. This series featured Angkor Wat on both the obverse and reverse. The reverse used a front section of the…

No More Pennies The penny may have been the money of account in 1066 when William I conquered England, but that was nearly a thousand years ago. Today things are quite different, as can be seen through the rise and fall of the “round pound” as Britain’s money of account. Perhaps the many non-redeemed round pound coins are of concern to the British Treasury, but at the same time the proliferation of penny denomination coins in circulation might not be. On Aug. 12, the British Treasury announced it would cease producing the denomination due to the overabundance of pennies already in circulation. According to recently released statistics, it appears there are about 10.5 billion penny and another 6.3 billion 2-penny coins currently in use throughout the United Kingdom. The government…

The Heritage Long Beach Expo that ended the first week of September had some interesting items. One of the choice highlights of this sale was a Republic of Cuba 1915 20 pesos gold proof. This example was graded PR-62 Cameo by NGC and it is a really lovely coin. Including the buyer’s premium, it realized $37,200. Back in 1999 when David Akers was auctioning John Jay Pittman’s collection, both a 1915 and 1916 proof of this type were offered. At that time the 1915 graded “very choice proof ” realized $11,500, and the 1916 graded “nearly choice proof ” brought $43,125. Back in the day, numeric grading standards were not fully in use with everyone. There are two things you need to know about these early 20 pesos. First, there…

I’m taking a bird’s-eye view of the timeline of Syrian history and I’m getting the distinct picture of, might as well call it anarchy, from the taking of Antioch by the Arab army in 637 CE to the coming of the Ottomans in the 15th century. I’m reading the synopsis in the Wikipedia article, and I see 14 regimes duking it out over those eight centuries. I haven’t done a deeper analysis, but it looks like no part of Syria was without war for more than maybe 30 years at a time. So what did the Arabs do after the death of the Prophet, Muhammad? The people closest to him sat around and talked about what to do. They had a hard time deciding, Muhammad had left no instructions, but…

Innovation in Science is the theme for a new series of 50p coins from The Royal Mint. The 2019 premier coin will honor p h e - nomenal English theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, and his lifelong concentration on Black Holes. The coin’s design features a representation of a Black Hole, along with Hawking’s name and the Hawking Entropy equation featured on Hawking’s Memorial at Gonville & Caius College at the University of Cambridge. Packaging for the coin offers basic explanations of Hawking’s theories, past scientific work on which he built, and general information about Black Holes. Hawking’s popular book, A Brief History of Time, introduced his theories and personal presence to the mainstream general public, selling over 10 million copies in more than 35 languages. His theories of the origin…

In Auction 35 from Stephen Album Rare Coins group, we noticed a great run of early coins of the Burmese Kingdoms. These really don’t come up for sale very often and this collection represented 60 lots of nicely struck examples from several of the Kingdoms, including: Beikthano, Hamsavati, Srikshetra, and a large selection of the cast tin coins from Tenasserim-Pegu. Many of the Tenasserim-Pegu types were discovery pieces advancing our knowledge from the classic reference, The Coins and Banknotes of Burma by Michael Robinson and L.A. Shaw. These large cast tin coins generally range between 40 and 80 grams, though a few fall outside each end of that range. The typical designs offer mythical beasts such as the hintha bird, dragon on the sea or Tò, a mythical antelope. However,…