The Nation is getting a new coin today – the Thomas Jefferson $1 Coin – the third coin in the United States Mint’s new Presidential $1 Coin series. Thomas Jefferson $1 Coins are available at most banks and financial institutions throughout the country, starting today. The golden-colored Thomas Jefferson $1 Coins may also be purchased in collector bags and rolls on the United States Mint’s Web site, http://www.usmint.gov/, at noon ET. The new Thomas Jefferson $1 Coin is the third coin in the series, because Thomas Jefferson was the Nation’s third President.

An unusual auction took place earlier this year. The sale featured a number of very high-grade early large cents, some with remarkable provenances going back to some of the most famous large cent collections ever formed. Yet they brought only a couple thousand dollars apiece. Even an MS63 example of a very rare variety of 1793 chain cent brought only $3,600. How did this happen?

The pieces being sold were electrotypes, copies made of some of the finest genuine large cents in existence. The auction was that of the Early American Coppers (EAC) club, an organization of half cent and large cent specialists, and the pieces had been properly catalogued as being electrotypes. The sale of these pieces raises a few questions. Why would anyone pay thousands of dollars for what are essentially counterfeit coins? How did the manufacturers of these pieces have access to the clearly amazing genuine samples they had copied? What is the point in collecting and studying these so-called coins?

Each year, prior to the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money, other promoters conduct a “pre-ANA” coin show and auction houses conduct a few major auctions, generally in the same city or nearby. This year’s “pre-ANA” show was held at a Milwaukee airport hotel. One hundred forty dealer-tables were set up, staffed by about 300 dealers, many of whom split tables. Participants reported a good show and described the first three hours of the show as a buying frenzy on the part of dealers – they are still short of the right inventories of coins that their customers want to buy.

This is part three covering the last four of the endangered (so-called) birds of Malaysia. I will tell you about the spectacular black and red broadbill (Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchos), KM-97); great egret (Ardea alba [= Casmerodius albus], KM-99); green imperial pigeon (Ducula aenea), KM-98); and brown shrike (Lanius cristatus), KM-100. Black and Red Broadbill The broadbill family has only 15 species, 11 Asian and four African. Nine occur in Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo. The black and red species occurs in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra. In Peninsular Malaysia it lives in primarily lowland rainforests and is usually observed around water. It is fairly common and easily observed.