Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2023 i World Coin News

The month of September was a busy one for us in NumisMaster. We wrapped up the back end of the alphabet countries and have started back at the top. Over 2,000 new coins and almost 1,000 images have been added to our growing database, bringing even more countries current to 2023. While viewing the coins in countries such as Tuvalu, you can see they are very fond of their Simpson’s™, Marvel™, and James Bond™ collections. Currently, Australia is getting its much-needed updates and I’ve noticed they are fond of their kangaroo’s and koala’s. It is interesting to see the various coins of each animal every year! I liked their Road Signs collection, especially the emu coin. While we have been adding these coins to the database, we have also started…

Did the U.S. State Department recently overstep its bounds by entering into a new Memorandum of Understanding with Yemen without the requisite vetting by the Cultural Property Advisory Committee or waiting for public comments? The United States has been entering into MoU with individual countries to protect cultural resources and property since 1983 when Congress passed the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act or 19 USC 2601-2613. This implements a U.S. obligation under the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. One of the important components of each MoU is the U.S. committing to restrict the import of undocumented archaeological objects, including coins. The goal of each State Department MoU is to reduce looting. Coins are not…

The Lithuanian Mint has been bringing childhood fantasies to life on their coins with their “Fairy Tales” series since 2021. The latest addition is Cinderella. Cinderella is seen running from the castle, surrounded by the clock striking midnight. As she runs away she begins her transformation back into an ordinary girl. The usage of color to emphasize this change is very well done, her colorful ballgown turning silver. Her glass slippers are embellished with Swarovski crystals, making it easy to pick out the lost shoe behind her on the palace steps. The silver coin has a small mintage of only 1000, but the eye-catching addition to a collection is well worth it. The use of high relief and color create an impressive level of detail that can have you looking…

The state of Palestine may be recognized by 139 countries, but it remains controlled by Israel. Israel’s shekel currency is the only legal tender currency within the Palestinian territories. U.S. dollars, European Union euros, and Jordanian dinars are also commonly used in cash transactions within the territories. This arrangement may not change in the near future, however a dentist in Gaza has recently developed a specie money coin that will likely compete with the Israeli, U.S., EU, and Jordanian fiat money now in circulation. The coin’s developer, Ahmed Hamdan, said, “The idea stemmed from the community’s need to own gold amid the difficult living conditions the people live in. We have made gold available to people of all categories, gold that even the poor and those with low income can…

About 70,000 Iron Age coins known as the Le Catillon II hoard have been subject of archaeological studies since the hoard was discovered on the Bailiwick of Jersey in 2012. The reason the contents of the hoard are described as “about” is because no one knows for certain just how many coins are involved. The initial find was made by two individuals with metal detectors. Unfortunately for researchers and numismatists alike the site has continuously been plundered by treasure seekers. This problem continues. According to a Jersey Heritage paper on the hoard, most of the coins are staters, quarter staters, and petits billons issued by the Coriosolitae tribe. Some of the coins in the find have been attributed to the Baiocasses, Redones, Osismii, and Veneti Celtic tribes. Globules a la…

Which came first—the decline in the use of piggy banks or the decline in the use of coins? Many Japanese households are asking themselves this question as they move away from the traditional use of piggy banks as a way to teach their children to save rather than to spend. It has become a Japanese tradition to give children ¥500 (yen) coins as holiday and birthday gifts, then encouraging the children to put these coins into their piggy banks. When the piggy bank becomes full, an adult in the family would take the coins to the local bank, where the coins would be added to the child’s saving account. This encourages children to save. Now there is a problem. The banks have begun charging up to ¥1,100 (about $7.50 U.S.)…

The Polish Mint official arrived at The Mint on October 29 and was received with less than good grace. It would appear that officials of the company in Birmingham felt that they had done a good job, and the Poles were nit-picking for no good reason. After checking the coins on hand at Birmingham, the special representative did recommend that the 800,000 already on hand in Warsaw be released in due course, but not until mixed with better struck coins from a later shipment. Another 400,000 were then sent to Warsaw, making 1.2 million now on hand in the Polish capital. The later coins were made from dies polished in a much better manner than before. On November 3, Warsaw Mint Director Aleksandrowicz wrote Deputy Master Johnson stating that the…

Mythical creatures continue to fascinate both children and adults alike. Something about dragons, fairies, mermaids, and unicorns that can capture anyone’s sense of wonder; not to mention there are so many different kinds of each and the imagination of a child can easily create more. Recently, the Portuguese Mint Casa Da Moeda released a new series of coins, “Heroes and Creatures of Mythology”, to celebrate the magical creatures everyone can recognize. The first coin in the series is of the majestic unicorn. The unicorn is often depicted as a large white horse with a flowing mane and tail, and a long, pointed horn on its head, but there have been variations in design over the years; a common secondary description being of a goat instead of a horse. One of…

For years mints have been producing ancillary products that help improve their bottom line. Among these products are Proof and Mint sets as well as medals and non-circulating legal tender commemoratives meant to be sold to collectors and souvenir hunters. For years Monnaie de Paris (French mint) has taken the novel approach of producing small statues and other small works of art. It appears several mints have been moving into producing things that technically can be called coins but are hardly something that either might circulate as money or that fall into the realm of being NCLT commemoratives. There has been argument for years regarding when a free-standing medal should be considered to be a small sculpture rather than as a form of medalic art. Perhaps the same argument should…

So, there was Rome in the last century B.C., with a more or less inadvertent empire. The French were a Republic too, when they went out conquering natives and seizing colonies, in the 19th century. We don’t think of the Presidents of the Republic who prosecuted those wars of colonial conquest in French Indochina, or French Africa. We don’t think of the war between Mexico and the USA as President Polk’s war, which it was. There is that fact, then, that the Roman Empire was basically assembled during the Republic. The emperors came later. They were ambivalent while they were putting it together. They discussed policy in the Senate before they tried to implement it. They’d look at foreign opportunities, and foreign threats, potential or actual. There’d always be some…

Frenzied bidding drove prices for Ancient, World and British coins in Classical Numismatic Group’s Feature Auction 124, held live online Sept. 19-20, to double the $2.2 million presale estimate, reaching a total of $4.4 million for the 1151-lot offering. Top results included $110,250 for lot 1044, a spectacular gold pound of Queen Elizabeth I, graded MS 63 by NGC. A follow-up internet auction, CNG Electronic Auction 547, also doubled its presale estimate to add just under another $1 million to CNG’s two-week total. The overall results point to a surging market for top-quality ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine, World and English coins, said David Michaels, CNG’s director of consignments and shows. “This was one of the most active auction cycles we’ve ever held,” he noted. “Almost every coin had multiple bidders…

For many years, not a day has gone by when countless Europeans share blurry photos of damaged 2-euro coins from their change on social media. Phrases like "Is this a minting error?" or "What's the value of this coin?" are commonly seen alongside these images. The response is almost invariably: 2 euros. This is because the coin is neither a minting error nor particularly rare. Nevertheless, rarities occasionally find their way into everyday transactions, and indeed, it's rumored that in 2023, the most valuable 2-euro coin in the world, featuring the U.S. film icon Grace Kelly and dating back to 2007 in Monaco, surfaced in Germany, after a collector accidentally spent this rarity. While the repetitive questions from numismatic newcomers might test the patience of professional numismatists, the enthusiastic interest…