Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2021 i World Coin News

Auction houses Stack’s Bowers Galleries and Kunker have been chosen to sell the illustrious Mark and Lottie Salton Collection, a comprehensive holding of many thousands of coins of Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, and Europe from the medieval period to the 20th century. The collections, built over a lifetime starting in the 1940s and perhaps earlier, will be dispersed in a series of joint auctions held in the U.S. and Germany, starting with an offering of Ancient Greek and select European coins at the New York International Numismatic Convention (NYINC) on Jan. 16, 2022. Proceeds from the sale of the collections will benefit equally three organizations that are committed to the remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust and to ensuring that their fates will never be repeated: The Anti-Defamation…

News has come in from Spink that, “An extremely rare portrait of Elizabeth I, with only two examples recorded, struck on gold coin alignment saw a new world record for an Elizabethan numismatic item, a world record for Elizabethan artistic portraiture and a new house record for the Spink Coin Department too with the breathtaking total hammer £480,000.” That’s just over $650,000 and the coin is worth every penny of that. There are only two recorded examples of this 1601 pattern struck in gold and the last public appearance for this type was in October 1956. This is a gold piece that has been missing from even the finest numismatic cabinets both past and present. The ¾ left portrait of Elizabeth I is dazzlingly beautiful and extremely detailed. It is…

VENEZUELA CURRENCY WOES CONTINUE Venezuelans were instructed on August 5 to slash six zeroes off their inflation ravaged bolivar currency as the purchasing power of the domestic currency continued to drop dramatically. The battered bolivar was planned to be replaced October 1 with a digital bolivar which is understood to be released in physical form. Sources indicated the new physical currency will consist of a 1-bolivar coin and bank notes with face values of 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 bolivars. According to an El Banco Central de Venezuela or Venezuela Central Bank one-line statement, “All monetary amounts expressed in national currency will be divided by one million.” The move isn’t unanticipated. On August 4 Cesar Aristimuno, director of Aristimuno Herrera and Associates, told the news reporting agency Agence France-Presse,…

MICHAEL GIETZELT WAS born and raised in Berlin, Germany from the mid-1950’s through the mid-1970’s. With schooling and military service behind him, Michael started studying medicine, but then changed tracks and opened an antique shop. A maternally stirred interest in British coinage lead to his collecting of English coins, orders, medals and decorations. The Gietzelt milled British coin collection was dispersed through Dix Noonan Webb about three years ago in November, 2018, but Michael continued to collect on other planes of British numismatic pursuit. This fall we were treated to the dispersal of the Gietzelt hammered and Anglo Gallic coins through DNW and the following are some of the highlights of this auction. The Great Rebellion in England produced both British and Irish siege coinage. These pieces have always been…

Whatever you collect, it is likely you will find some new acquisitions sprinkled throughout Auction’s 13, 14 and 15 in Geneva Switzerland presented by Numismatica Genevensis SA on November 15 and 16. The first two auctions cover Ancients and World Rarities from Antiquities to 20th century coinage, while the third sale offers the first part of a specialized collection of the coinage of Geneva. Breaking with tradition, I’d like to start our preview of these sales at the end and work backwards. This is simply because some of the Geneva Collection pieces are quite stunning. While many of the 19th and 20th century coins in this collection are very rare patterns that command a specialist’s attention, the coins that left me most enthralled were a pair of 15th century ducats.…

COOK ISLANDS HAS released the third coin in their Titan series, this time featuring the titan Cronus. This new coin is just as detailed as the first two, which featured Prometheus and Atlas. Cronus, also known as Kronos, is one of the most infamous Greek titans. Like many tales from Greek mythology, Kronos’s story is quite intense. The most well-known of these tales is the story of his relationship with his children. Out of fear of his children taking away his power, he ate them as soon as they were born, devouring them whole. These children were Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. Kronos’s wife, Rhea, was distraught and hid her next child from him with the help of her mother Gaea. Rhea successfully hid her sixth child, Zeus, from…

IN LATE 1741 Elizabeth Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great, seized the Russian throne from Ivan III in a bloodless coup d’etat and used the early months of her reign to solidify her position. A war with Sweden was quickly concluded on favorable terms and her thoughts turned to other matters. The most pressing problem facing the Empress in the early 1740s was the question of the succession to the throne. She finally decided upon her nephew Peter, son of her sister Anna Petrovna (not the same person as the Empress Anna). Peter had been born in 1729 in Germany, where his parents had fled to escape the wrath of Prince Menshikov, then the power behind the throne. Once the succession had been determined, Elizabeth next had to choose a…

You may not think that many auctions these days offer coins which the average collector can afford. It’s a function of reviewers, like me, often report on the record prices and stunning pieces at the top of each market. That’s how the news works I guess, but for this article we want to emphasis an auction where nice coins at lower levels can be found, right along with those top of the market pieces. Auction 83 of Heidelberger Münzhandlung offers exactly what many collectors are currently looking for: coins they can afford with estimates starting in the two-digit range. From common German talers to rare Chinese patterns this sale offers a little of everything. When you think about that, you realize that with 5,268 lots for sale, there are bound…

THERE HAVE BEEN some exceptionally cute Australian baby animals in The Perth Mint Dreaming Down Under 50 Cents series, but the best has been saved for last. The fifth and final coin release of the series will feature an adorable baby wombat, fast asleep and appearing to be enjoying the happiest of dreams. The coin’s reverse depicts a cute baby wombat asleep in a fleece-lined nest surrounded by colorful Australian native flowers and wildlife. The Perth Mint’s ‘P’ mintmark also appears on the reverse with the coin’s weight and purity. The Jody Clark effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the coin’s monetary denomination and year-date appear on the obverse. Australian artist Elise Martinson created the baby wombat illustration for this series inspired by the world-wide trend of dreamy newborn…