Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2021 i World Coin News

Coin collectors are unlikely to be gardening enthusiasts, but at least twice recently weeding someone’s garden has resulted in significant coin finds. Most of us are pleased to see 2020 go away. The year 2020 has been the year of a pandemic, a resulting economic decline, and a year of political upheaval in several parts of the world. It has been a year in which many of us were voluntarily or involuntarily quarantined due to the highly contagious coronavirus outbreak. What do you do when you are quarantined at home with little to occupy your time? If you are a coin collector perhaps you spent significant time on the internet shopping, but there is more you might have been doing. On December 6 the British Museum (BM) announced that the…

The value of a numismatic find is through understanding the context in which the coin or coins were discovered. Once a find has been disbursed the individual pieces are only of value to coin collectors unless the find has been first studied against the environment and relating artifacts with which the coin or coins were encountered. This is a major reason why Great Britain has treasure trove laws through which finds can be protected until they can be studied properly. Even when the context in which a coin or coins are found is studied properly this doesn’t suggest the why’s and wherefore’s surrounding the find aren’t open to further interpretation or debate. Interpreting finds isn’t a slam dunk. Chinese cash coins have been found in railroad fills throughout the United…

What is involved when a coin is enameled? Coins enameled by a mint rather than in the aftermarket will likely use a cold enamel process involving one or several layers of paint. Surface cells are filled with different colors that enhance the images. The affect can be that a coin may resemble a miniature painting or may be left with what I will call a stained glass impression. Is coin enameling done by hand when it is done by a mint? The Royal Canadian Mint uses a process that is done by machine, while enameling done by mints such as those in France and Bulgaria were still being made by hand, according to my information. I’ve seen images of coins being left on a headstone. Can you explain this tradition?…

People who don’t collect coins sometimes view those of us who do as being odd and introverted. Bird watchers are viewed in a similar manner by those who aren’t familiar with that pastime. How would you as an outsider to either pastime react to a cross pollination of the two hobbies, especially when a birdwatcher encounters a 2,000-year old cache of Celtic gold coins estimated to be worth about £845,000 or close to $1.5 million US? Admittedly, the unnamed individual is also a metal detecting enthusiast. He was quoted by Treasure Hunting magazine as saying, “Although I am a keen detectorist, that evening I was doing a bit of bird watching. After watching a dogfight between a buzzard and a pair of magpies I stared down and spotted something lying…

Cashless society proponents should pay attention. Privacy concerns have been the major barrier for many people who don’t trust the concept of a completely cashless society no matter where in the world that cashless society might be practiced. The worst case scenario of which anyone could imagine is taking place right now. The Nicolas Maduro government in Venezuela is about to demonstrate to the world what happens when a dictatorial government abolishes all forms of physical cash. To put it mildly, secret police will be your neighbor! The government is about to be inside your wallet. Maduro was elected president of Venezuela in 2013. Maduro was the United Socialist Party candidate. He received 50.6 percent of the vote. Since 2015 Maduro has ruled the South American country by decree. At…

THIS SERIES HAS been based on the list of countries presented in the Standard Catalog of World Coins, 20thcentury edition. Over the decades the list has changed. When I started writing these there was no Kazakhstan, or Slovenia. Now there are all these other countries that didn’t used to exist. We’ve all noticed that there is no hard and fast rule about when tokens get listed in SCWC. No rule of thumb. Why list the municipal tokens of Algerian cities but not of metropolitan France? Maybe it’s been a matter of personal interest when those new countries were first considered. Tatarstan gets listed. Tatarstan is not a country, though for a brief period in the 20th century it claimed to be. It declared itself independent (again) in 2008, but no…

PRESENTED OVER THREE catalogs offering Ancients, Russian coins, medals and decorations, and World coins; this extensive traditional New York International Numismatic Convention offering was put together by four firms; Ira & Larry Goldberg Auctioneers in Los Angeles, Dmitry Markov Coins & Medals in New York, M & M Numismatics Ltd in West Haven, Connecticut and Sovereign Rarities Ltd. in London. As you might expect there were some fabulous pieces on the block, including a fantastic selection of British gold, silver and copper coins. Among the most dazzling pieces was a gold proof pattern two pounds struck for proposed coinage for George III. The 1820 pattern two pounds is one of sixty pieces known of this Pistrucci/Pole combination of George III and St. George and the dragon. They were struck as…

The World Coin News club show and commercial events calendar is a guide to events with a focus for world-coin collectors. Domestic events scheduled up to 10 weeks in advance of the issue date and foreign events up to six months in advance are listed. Abbreviations used: “A” – Admission charge; “T” – number of tables; “F” – Table fee; “N/A” – not available. Other data required for submitting a listing: name and address of show site, and name and address of bourse chairman or other contact person. FEBRUARY Feb 12-14 NV, Laughlin. Laughlin River Show. Tropicana Hotel and Casino, 2121 S. Casino Dr.. SH: Fri 11-6, Sat 10-6, Sun 10-4. A: Free. T: 25. Dawn, PO Box 95517, Las Vegas, NV, 89193. PH: 800- 208-1810 or info@ckshows.com or www.ckshows.com.…

In the New Testament of the Bible in Luke 21: 1-4 it reads, “And He [Jesus] looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So He said, ‘Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.’” Luke is believed to have been a Greek physician. He was no numismatist. What coins are the so-called widow’s mites of which Luke writes? There has been conjecture regarding this almost since when Luke recorded the incident. We do know the story was meant to…

Britain’s Portable Antiquities Scheme is considered by most to be a success. Upon the discovery of treasure, including precious metal composition coins, the finder is required to report the discovery to local authorities. The finder is likely to either receive cash from the liquidation of the find or may even receive the find itself. The PAS helps archaeologists as well as treasure finders, since once a discovery has been announced to authorities the treasure can be studied in its original context before that treasure is disbursed. Unfortunately, the rules aren’t the same everywhere. Even in Britain there have been cases where the finder purposely hid a find from authorities in an effort to gain an otherwise unearned profit. In other countries there may not be any benefit to alerting authorities…

Coins on which mistakes in the design appear may not be commonplace, but they happen. King George V appears on a 1911 British India 1-rupee coin wearing what should be a decoration that includes the image of an elephant. The design was poorly engraved and the image appears to be that of a pig, which was interpreted as an insult by local Muslims. The absence of the lighthouse on the reverse of British pennies beginning in 1895 suggested to some Brits that perhaps Queen Victoria was losing her grip on her empire. In 2013 Ireland issued a 10 coin honoring author James Joyce. The coin misquotes a passage from Joyce’ book Ulysses. The central bank later insisted a word added to the actual quote was meant to be “an artistic…