Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2020 i World Coin News

THE CHINA 1910 Yunnan silver dollar previously mentioned in the August issue of World Coin News, and certified by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC), realized an astounding 660,000 USD at a Heritage Auctions’ sale on June 12, 2020. This is one of the highest prices ever paid for any Chinese coin, the corporation said in its official statement. Commonly referred to as a “Spring Dollar,” this is one of the greatest rarities in Chinese numismatics. It contains Chinese characters with a date of Spring 1910, making it the only Chinese coin to feature the season as part of its date. These may have been struck as presentation pieces for the completion of an important rail line connecting the mountainous Yunnan region with neighboring Vietnam. The finest of three known examples, this…

MANY OF US are familiar with the shooting stars of pop-culture; musicians Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin or Buddy Holly, even actress Marilyn Monroe. Their contributions to the improvisational styles of Blues, Rock and iconography of film are incalculable and their influence on musicians and actresses remains strong even today, over 50 years after their unfortunate early passings. Shooting stars in the realm of science are much less commonly known. However, the Royal Mint has recently featured a true shooting star of science on their 2020 50 pence coin honoring Rosalind Elsie Franklin who did some very instrumental work before her life was cut short by cancer at the tender age of 37. Franklin was a specialist in X-ray crystallography who spent her professional life searching for the structure of…

CFO BERT VAN Ravenswaaij of the Royal Dutch Mint presented the first issues of the coin set “Europe Remembers” to the ambassadors of Canada and the United Kingdom, in the presence of a representative of the Europe Remembers 1944-1945 project, the company announced in an official statement July 28. The reception took place in Hotel de Wereld in Wageningen, the Netherlands. Hotel de Wereld is known as the site where the full surrender of the German occupation in the Netherlands was officialized. In the coin set the commemorative coins in honor of 75 years of freedom issued by England, Canada and the Netherlands are brought together. On May 5, 1945, the allied Canadian General Charles Foulkes negotiated the terms of surrender with the German occupiers of the Netherlands in Hotel…

MÜNZENHANDLING HARALD MÖLLER’S Auction 75 wrapped up on June 29 with very strong results. Their selections of late-medieval minors, rare European gold and an outstanding collection of 500 medals commemorating World War I themes hit the mark with collectors and spurred active bidding across the 1,525 lot auction. From the vast World War I medal collection, I found it difficult to select highlights as there were so many with fine artistry and great historical themes. Additionally, many medals performed well and sold over their estimates, which is not surprising, as I would suspect that quite a few are seldom offered for public sale. One which caught my eye was the 60.6mm silver medal for Admiral Eduard von Capelle. It is both a lovely design and a very interesting theme. It…

IT’S REALLY ENJOYABLE to see a one-ounce silver coin featuring so much interesting geography and wildlife. The concept of the Perth Mint Great Southern Land coin has great eye-appeal as well as a fantastic depth of information to relay. Australia is home to a rich natural history, perfect for many of their coin issues to illustrate, but this single coin tells us so much while treating our eyes to the instant thrill modern collectors love so much. This beautiful coin features the great southern Australian continent in stunning Australian opal at reverse center on a stark black field. Circling the color continent are an array of indigenous wildlife, many of which we have become familiar with from other Australian coins and outdoor documentaries. Australia is the planet’s sixth largest country…

Roman Coin Imports in Danger IMPORTING ANCIENT ROMAN coins might become a thing of the past if a proposed update of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the United States and Italy is approved by the U.S. State Department. The existing MOU originated in 2001 and has been augmented every five years since that time. The MOU defines restrictions on imports of specific artifacts from Italy to the United States. The artifacts unable to be imported are considered to be of cultural importance to Italy. There is no legal definition of this “cultural importance.” The Italian MOU has become a political football, with the interests of museums and private coin collectors being sidelined in favor of politics and archaeological special interest groups. The memo is an indirect result of the…

THE ROYAL MINT is preparing to safely reopen the Royal Mint Experience on July 31. The Royal Mint’s website announced that there will be changes due to health and safety regulations and that visitors will be greeted by hosts right at the door. The Royal Mint has still been busy, even while closed to the public, by making 5,000 protector visors every day for the NHS. To ensure a safe and healthy experience, the Royal Mint advises people to stay home if they are feeling unwell, follow the new parking arrangements, stay six feet apart from other visitors, and to always wear a mask inside. They have also implemented a one-way system so that they can keep visitors safely spaced out. They have set up hand sanitizer stations, given employees…

IN OUR FOURTH installment of the Industry Insider: COVID Business Landscape series, which can be read online at numismaticnews.com , we contacted Ulrich Künker, general manager at Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG, headquartered in Osnabrück, Germany. Künker told us they were adjusting to the changes brought on by the pandemic very well and were looking forward to their Auctions 337 and 338 set for the end of June. In Künker’s words, “The most exciting event will be our June sale which will be hopefully conducted as a regular public sale in the close-by Hotel named Remarque Hotel. The only changes are we won’t have viewing in the hotel as we need the space to be able to conduct the sale with the obliged distance concept. We will have…

BORN INTO A publishing family in 1927, Dick Bruna had a happy life. As a child during WWII, Bruna began drawing and painting and received guidance from some of the designers working for his family’s company. After the war Bruna designed his first book cover, left school and took a job in a bookshop in Utrecht. His father nudged him towards a career in publishing through arranged work at W.H. Smith Booksellers in London and Plon Publishing in Paris, but Bruna didn’t take to the business side of books; he liked the creative side and pushed for a roll in design. Bruna joined his family’s publishing firm, A.W. Bruna & Zoon, in 1951 as a designer for book covers and continued freelance work in poster design. Between working for his…

THEY DIDN’T HAVE the internet back then. Or TV, radio, or newspapers. Most of us who lived in “civilization” never went anywhere. We went to our job, then we went home. If we wanted to go anywhere, we walked. Some of us, women, slaves, might never leave home, never go to town, never see anyone other than family, or the boss and his family. Out beyond “civilization” was “the wilderness.” If we lived out there we moved around, because we were nomads, but we hung out with the same people all of our lives. There were two main ways of meeting new people: trade fairs and wars. Almost none of us could read. If there was any kind of news at all it was just stories passed around, at the…