By Dennis Hengeveld - from E-Gobrecht March 2008 Volume 4, Issue 3

Link to PART ONE: Dollars and Half Dollars

The seated quarter dollars had their production starting a year earlier in 1838. The series was just like the other seated series, except for the half dime and dollar, struck until 1891, when it was finally replaced a year later by a new design, made by Charles Barber. The design is not much different than the half dollar; the most notable difference is the denomination and size, as can be expected.

In my opinion, this series is the most difficult of the seated series to complete by date only. The long run of dates (continuously from 1838 to the end of the series in 1891) is not the main criteria for this; it’s the fact that many Philadelphia dates, especially the 1880’s dates, are very scarce in any grade. In Mint state, most coins including branch Mint issues, are available although earlier dates can be very scarce or (virtually unknown) in full Mint state; this especially the case for the branch Mint issues.

These branch Mint coins were struck at the same Mints as the Half Dollars, the San Francisco, New Orleans and Carson City Mints. As is the case with the other seated coinage series, branch Mint coins normally command a premium over a Philadelphia Mint issues, although again this is not the case.

As I said before, the series started in 1838, replacing the capped bust design in production since 1815. The first two dates were only struck at the Philadelphia Mint. These issues are common in grades up to EF-40, but command a nice premium and get scarcer in higher grades.

In gem grades, a coin is very rare and a trophy coin to most collectors. the design of these first two years is of the no drapery, type 1 design. this was changed in 1840 when drapery was added to the elbow of liberty.

Philadelphia Mint coins only exist as type 2 (with drapery). The New Orleans Mint first struck quarter dollars in 1840. Because the correct, with drapery dies were not received at the beginning of the year, production started using the old type 1 obverse design. During the year, the obverse die was replaced with the new obverse, thus creating two separate varieties for the 1840-O issue. The type 1 had a Mintage of 382,200 coins and the type 2 output for the year was 43,000 coins. Both command a premium over a common type coin of more than 100% and thus are not really interesting to date only collectors. (more…)

Japan’s money economy began earlier than textbooks have described when archaeologists unveiled 33 bronze coins from the late seventh century unearthed in the village of Asuka, Nara Prefecture in 1998.

Now ten years latter, Nine Fuhonsen coins, which are thought to be the nation’s oldest form of minted currency, unearthed at a former site of Fujiwarakyu, the ancient capital from 694 to 710, in Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, differ slightly from previously discovered Fuhonsen coins, the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties

The finding suggests there may have been another mint in addtion to one discovered at Asukaike ruin in Asukamura.

Minor differences were found in the kanji character “Fu” used on the surface of the coins and a thicker frame surrounding a square hole in the center of the coins. The materials of four of the coins included arsenic and bismuth, and very pure copper.

The coins discovered in August 1998 at the Asukaike Ruins in Asuka, are older than the Wado Kaichin coins first minted in 708, thus bumping them from the archaeological record books as the nation’s first circulated money.

The bronze coins, whose existence has been known for some time, are called Fuhonsen, the name of a charm believed used during the Nara Period (710-784). (more…)

Croesus of Lydia was responsible for one of the greatest innovations in coinage, but he did not invent coinage itself, an act with which he is often credited. If we assume that coinage was invented in 650 B.C. (of course we know it was only approximate), we take Croesus’ accession as 561 B.C., and then we relate Croesus’ times to our times in 2001, then on a relative basis, coinage would have been invented in 1907 during the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt. What Croesus was responsible for was the introduction of pure gold and pure silver as coinage metals (instead of electrum) and the invention of the first bi-metallic interrelated coinage system in the Greek world with denominations going from 10.75 gram gold and silver staters to fractions weighing as little as 0.36 grams in gold and silver. Croesus’ coinage type is familiar to most of us: a bellowing lion facing a seemingly placid bull. It seems that a fair amount of experimentation was done before final types were settled on, and I would not be surprised if more prototypes than I have identified yet exist in the earth or may have existed but not survived.

The earliest prototype in the Croesus series is a heavy gold stater (#120/1) of which I have owned two examples. It is such a perfect missing link that I would have been fearful of it had I not discovered a worn example in the Ashmolean Museum collection, placed there almost 100 years ago. In a way the Ashmolean specimen has been a negative for me personally as dealers in Europe and the U.S. have plagerized this idea by quoting the Ashmolean and stating, “Like Ashmolean must be the earliest Creosus gold Stater”. The prototype is of somewhat rough, crude style with the lion in a stretched, leaping position resembling the silver staters of Caria which had been found in hoards with coins of Croesus. The bull has a head similar to that of an Uncertain Ionian silver tetrobol (Rosen 376). The crowning glory that establishes this missing link is the fact that the lion has a wart on the bridge of the nose, just like the 1/3 staters of Lydia that preceded the coinage of Croesus. It is important to note that on the prototype piece the protomes are extremely animated in lifelike poses. On the regular issues (#120/2), while the protomes are well done, they are somewhat immobile and the front leg of the lion, as well as the front leg of the bull, are rather stiff acting like pedestals. (more…)

The largest gold holdings in tonnes as reported by the World Gold Council

Gold reserves (or gold holdings) are held by central banks as a store of value.  The top 10 Central Bank reserves total 26,014.4 tonnes, or in excess of 836,362,960 troy ounces, equal to about 836.4 Billion dollars.

As one metric tonne equals 1,000 kilograms (or 32,150 troy ounces), one tonne of gold equates to a value of US$32.15 million as of March 2008 ($1,000/troy ounces). In 2001, it was estimated that the total amount of gold ever mined equaled only 145,000 tonnes, with a total value at today’s prices of some US$4.66 trillion.

For comparison, the entire global market capitalization for all stock markets was US$43.6 trillion in March 2006.

Side Notes:

• If gold jewelry were taken into consideration and not just Bank Reserves, India would be the country with the most gold contained within it’s borders, estimated to be over 13,000 tonnes.

• Also, It is also not clear whether the International Monetary Fund gold reserve is the property of the IMF or of member countries.
• About one percent of all above-ground gold (370 metric tonnes) was mined in the first five years of the California Gold Rush (worth approximately US$11.9 billion at March 2008 prices).

1. United States 8,965.6 tonnes	6. Switzerland 1,285.6 tonnes
2. Germany 3,767.1 tonnes	7. Japan 743.5 tonnes
3. Int. Monetary Fund 3,546.1 tonnes	8. Netherlands 688.4 tonnes
4. France 2,890.6 tonnes	9. European Central Bank 666.5 tonnes
5. Italy 2,702.5 tonnes	10. People’s Republic of China 661.4 tonnes