World Coin News January 2021

Sunday January 17 will see Spink offer the Roy Francis Collection of English Silver Rarities at their NYINC sale. For collectors of England’s silver shillings and sixpences this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to obtain one or more ultra-rare key coins in both series. First up is a 1685 plume shilling of James II (S-3411; ESC-763). This is the first example of this coin to be offered at auction in over fifty years. English Silver Coinage gives the 1685 shilling a rarity of R6 with just four examples extant. It is likely the greatest rarity of the entire English Milled Shilling series. It was absent from Murdoch, Montagu, Pegg, Lord Hamilton of Dalzell, and Norweb collections, to name just a few well-known rarity hunters who failed to snare an example. Its…

A pandemic won’t stop COTY. The nomination process for the 2021 Coin of the Year awards looked a bit different this year, but the program is well under way despite travel and gathering restrictions due to COVID-19. One-hundred nominees – 10 coins in each of 10 award categories – emerged after the Nominating Committee met virtually Nov. 3, 2020, to consider 400 coin nominees curated by more than 45 issuing entities from around the world. The 38th annual awards program, honoring coins dated 2019 and to be presented in early 2021, is presented by World Coin News and sponsored by The Journal of East Asian Numismatics. The competition begins each year when the committee convenes to select the nominees. “Our COTY Nominating Committee traditionally has met in person to review…

The headline of a July 31, 2018 Forbes magazine article read: “Rampant Antiquities Theft Threatens Cultural Heritage Around the World.” The article addressed Europol’s Pandora III operation cracking down on the illegal antiquities trade. According to the article, “The operation resulted in the arrest of 59 individuals and the recovery of more than 18,000 cultural objects, including Greek and Roman coins, a 15th-century Bible, and a Mesopotamian crystal cylinder seal.” Just how much of a problem is the trade in illicit coins and other items of cultural value? One of the main arguments for the repatriation of antiquities, including coins, to the country of origin is due to the black-market trade in these objects. While some countries want these objects returned to their place of discovery using the argument the…

Had you been a common laborer living in Jerusalem during the transition period between when the city was controlled by the Sunni Abbasid caliphate and the Shiite Fatimid dynasty one gold dinar would likely be the equivalent to a month’s salary. Four of the coins would likely be the monthly salary for a minor official. Finding four such coins today in a small pottery jar while excavating to install an elevator at Jerusalem’s Western Wall would be a delight to Israel’s archaeologists. Such a discovery was announced November 8. The Jewish Quarter Development Corporation had started building an elevator to make the Western Wall Plaza more accessible to visitors when the jug was encountered. Construction plans include an elevator and underground passageway between the Jewish Quarter of the Old City…

Perhaps the total number of numismatic objects illicitly in the hands of terrorists, smugglers, or other individuals trying to keep one step ahead of the law is not as large as some publicity suggests. Nonetheless the problem is real. One such example was recently touted on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website. In an October 30 statement ICE announced, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Assistant Director for International Operations Patrick J. Lechleitner, returned two 9th century Italian manuscripts and a Roman coin, a contorniato, during a repatriation ceremony at the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. In addition, Ambassador Armando Varricchio for the Italian Embassy in the United States and Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Mary Royce renewed a…

Commemorative coins are nothing new. Commemorative bank notes may have come late to the party, but by the late 20th century there were significant numbers of special notes being issued as well. A well coordinated combination of both coins and bank notes to commemorate an event or individual has remained uncommon—until recently. Could this become a more common occurrence in the future? We don’t think of bank notes as being a substitute for carrying a heavy load of coins, but in reality, they are as much of a substitute for coins as are checks, debit and credit cards, and the many forms of electronic payments now being introduced. The difference is that bank notes have become so accepted in our society that the integration of bank notes and coins when…