World Coin News July 2020

It’s a challenging time for coin shows and businesses everywhere because of the coronavirus. During May, our editorial offices received official statements regarding the cancelation of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association’s 2020 Convention that was set for July 20, and the Summer FUN Show in Orlando, Fla. that was set for July 9-11. In their statement, the RCNA said, “Our thoughts are with each of you in our collector society, your families, your clubs and their members, and your broader communities. We wish each of you the best, and an optimistic hope that this will pass safely for all of us in due course. “It is with sadness that we must announce that The Royal Canadian Numismatic Association’s 2020 annual convention, planned for July in Halifax, has been cancelled. We…

BENEATH THE SOUTHERN Skies is a new investment coin series that pays homage to Stuart Devlin, who designed many of Australia’s circulating coins. In 1964, as Australia prepared to switch from pounds to dollars, the artist Stuart Devlin won a competition to design the country’s first decimal coins. One of Devlin’s early drafts featured a view of the Australian continent alongside the iconic Southern Cross constellation. Unseen in the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Cross constellation has guided travelers and explorers, inspired poets and musicians. It has been a symbol of loyalty and rebellion and remains one of the most meaningful and recognizable features in the southern skies. Now, more than 50 years after Devlin’s first concept draft, this design has been retrieved from the Royal Australian Mint’s historic collection and…

Everyone around the globe is adapting their ways of life and work to function as well as is possible during a pandemic. We all need to do our very best in both those areas, even when they begin to overlap and mesh together, as many of us have experienced. In our hobbies, it’s likely that adapting means going online for everything. That’s definitely what we are experiencing in numismatics. For these articles, we are talking with many people to gain the broadest swath of information possible within our field. While it would be impossible for us to talk with everyone, we want you to know that we do care about everyone and hope that you all remain healthy and involved in your hobby. If you have a story to tell…

What is behind the idea of issuing holey dollars, (coins made by punching the center from an existing coin) then having both that center and the outer ring each circulate as a separate coin? Holey dollar coins were issued in New South Wales and Prince Edward Island during 1813. The mutilation of the Spanish silver 8-reale coins into two coins was due to a lack of coinage in circulation coupled with a desire to discourage this coinage from being exported. What value did the holey dollar and dump coins have? NSW Governor Lachian Macquarie had convicted forger William Henshall begin turning Spanish 8-reale coins into outer ring of five shilling and center plug or dump coins of 15 pence value, respectively. This totaled six shilling, three pence value or 25…

PETER THE GREAT, who ruled Russia with an iron hand from 1689 to 1725, cared little for the accident of birth in choosing those who served him. To the Czar, loyalty to the State was far more important than being born to some ancient and noble family. Perhaps nowhere was this seen more clearly than in his choice of an empress to rule by his side. She, who was to be known as Catherine I, had the most lowly of births. Martha Skavronsky was born in Livonia, on the Baltic Sea, in 1684. Both parents died while she was very young and she went to live with a Lutheran pastor, Ernest Gluck, and his wife. Although considered a family member in a loose sense, she was not given an education.…

WITH DANIEL FRANK Sedwick LLC Treasure auctions, you can always expect to find a wonderful selection of silver cobs; those irregular, chunky silver coins produced so quickly and in such quantity through the Spanish mints in the New World. While many date, assayer, and mint denomination combinations are common, there are many others that are extremely scarce and still more being discovered as the years go by. I always take a look at the DFS Treasure Auctions to see what’s new in the cob market and to peruse the odd shipwreck finds, hoping to expand my knowledge. With DFS Treasure Auction 27, it was not until the last week in May that I was reminded, by a fun CoinWeek podcast interview with Dan Sedwick, conducted by Charles Morgan, that the…