Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2024 i World Coin News

Over 400 new master records were added this month for countries ranging from “F” to “T”, with almost all of them immediately gaining obverse and reverse images. France gained 95 new types, while the United Kingdom, found in our database under the traditional title of Great Britain, added 74 coins to the fold. Fiji, Niue, and Tuvalu combined for a total of 175 new master records in their seemingly endless expansion of popular commemorative designs. Traditionalists will want to check Germany and Poland for a healthy chunk of new types, while those with more exotic tastes can turn to Ghana, Lithuania, and Malta for a nice selection of new entries. Those folks searching for possible future COTY contestants might want to scour Italy, Latvia, Finland, Peru, and Israel where some…

Should you be traveling in Mexico you might recognize something regarding the money in your pocket has changed. Mexico may have introduced its latest version of the 20-peso coin in 2019, but the government is now pushing much harder to encourage circulating the coin rather than the bank note of the same denomination. Should you travel to Mexico be prepared to hear ¿No tiene cambio? frequently. This is the Spanish phrase that translates to “Haven’t you got change?” The question may appear to be odd considering that Mexico is a primarily cash-driven economy. There are more than 14 billion coins in circulation. There are about 150 bank notes and coins in circulation for every inhabitant. Bankers have estimated nearly 90 percent of debit card transactions are to withdraw cash from…

SPONSORED BY THE YEAR 2024 marks the second year the Coin of the Year (COTY) ceremony was held in conjunction with the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money®. Held on Aug. 9 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill., 10 trophies were awarded to 10 outstanding coins in design and innovation. The Coin of the Year program is an internationally conducted competition presented by World Coin News to recognize and encourage outstanding coin design and innovation worldwide. The program, sponsored by the World’s Fair of Money® and The Journal of East Asian Numismatics, honors coins dated 2023 in 10 categories of competition as decided by an international panel of judges. With a record number of submissions nominated during the worldwide call for nominations back in January,…

A2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded in 2008 to virologist Harald zur Hausen, will be among the top attractions in Heritage’s ANA World & Ancient Coins Platinum Session and Signature® Auction August 15-17. zur Hausen received the award for his research that led to the isolation of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA from cervical cancer cells. “The scientific and medicinal significance of his research, and the benefits afforded to countless women over the years cannot be overstated,” says Cris Bierrenbach, Executive Vice President of Internationa Numismatics at Heritage Auctions. “He conducted his research in the face of considerable skepticism from within the scientific community, but his determination led to irrefutable evidence of the connection between HPV and cervical cancer. His research also fueled a broader investigation into…

Paddington Bear, Peter Rabbit, and now James Bond are among the many animated figures and movie characters that in recent years have appeared on commemorative British coins. There have been five sets and individual coins featuring Beatrix Potter’s well-known Tales of Peter Rabbit; two sets relating to the beloved Paddington Bear; and individual coins celebrating Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Winnie the Pooh among others. Six decades of 007 is the theme of the latest British commemorative coin set celebrating the fictional spy character James Bond. In 1992 Canada launched a circulating commemorative set of 12 25-cent coins each of that nation’s provinces and territories. This has since been followed up by its 1999 13-piece province and territory 25-cent coin set. Canada led the way for the expansion of numismatic…

Exercise is good for everyone, even for coin collectors. Walking your dog is good exercise for both of you and if you are as fortunate as one woman in the Czech Republic, the effort might be rewarded handsomely. The woman was not a coin collector, but while walking her dog through a field in the central region of Bohemia she encountered a hoard of more than 2,000 medieval coins. The “unimaginable” find hailed by local archaeologists as the “discovery of the decade” was found in the remains of a ceramic pot lying on the ground in the region of Kutnohorsk or Kutná Hora. The region of Kutnohorsk was a source of silver even before Kutná Hora was founded as the home of the first Cistercian monastery in Bohemia in 1142.…

The European Union has decided to impose a cash payment limit. Starting in 2027, cash transactions over €10,000 will be banned across Europe, although individual countries can set lower limits if they choose. Many euro countries are actively working on their own measures to reduce cash usage. One small and inconspicuous euro country, Estonia, is demonstrating how this can be done. Estonia, one of the States on the Baltic Sea, regained its independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union and introduced its own currency, the “Kroon.” Estonians cherished their currency and reluctantly adopted the euro in 2011. They’ve gotten used to the euro since then, but soon, they may need to say goodbye once again. Small Coins Get Phased Out in an Offhand Remark In a May 2024 report…

A great big “I told you so” appears to be reverberating around the globe. The recent computer glitch triggered by a flawed software update provided to Microsoft crashed systems worldwide. Among the systems impacted by this global tech outage were airlines, banks, gasoline stations, hospitals, and just about any merchant who isn’t capable of accepting cash payments. The culprit was an update by the cybersecurity group CrowdStrike. About 8.5 million Windows software-using devices were directly impacted, less than one percent of all machines using Windows. The percentage may be small, but these devices in turn run many critical services. Among those services is the capability to accept non-cash payments electronically. The IT failure demonstrated the failures of a completely cashless society, a failure quickly pounced upon by The Payment Choice…

It’s expensive to make money. This is true in business, but it is also true if you are a central bank needing to meet the demands for physical cash in circulation. The Philippines is trying to resolve its coin shortage by encouraging people to empty their piggy banks while simultaneously encouraging using electronic transfers to alleviate the need for cash. Belgium is finding they have more in common with the Philippines dilemma than they might wish. According to the European Central Bank, physical cash was used for 59 percent of all point-of-sale transactions within the eurozone during 2022, this being down from 72 percent during 2019. Although according to ECB research, many consumers prefer electronic payment methods, they also value the option to pay with cash. This is especially true…

I was at a party recently. I never go to those, but there I was. Someone brought up something about hard times. My contribution to the conversation was about the Byzantines. They had a solid two centuries of bad governance, war, mistakes, and bad luck. And then things got worse. In the 10th century, they got so low on funds that they started messing with the gold. If you were a government back then you didn’t want to mess with the gold. Gold is what rich people did business with. If you were the government you generally let the rich people do their business, because that’s where the real money was. But they couldn’t not pay the army. And they needed the army, being, as they were, at war almost…

The Trustees of the American Numismatic Society (ANS) have selected Dr. William E. Metcalf to receive the 2024 Archer M. Huntington Award in honor of his tremendous contributions to Roman and Byzantine numismatics. A reception will be held on October 19 at the ANS in New York City at 4:00 PM ET, followed by the award ceremony at 4:30 PM ET where Metcalf will provide the Silvia Mani Hurter Memorial Lecture on “The Making of Roman Provincial Coinage (X).” William E. Metcalf received his degrees from the University of Michigan (A.B. in Latin with distinction and highest honors in 1969, A.M. in Classical Studies in 1970, and Ph.D. in Classical Studies in 1973). He joined the ANS as Assistant Curator of Roman and Byzantine Coins in 1973, and, following promotions…