When it comes to coins, Scott Barnes likes Spanish Reals. Michael Nohe likes U.S. coins that have been in circulation, as opposed to those created especially for collectors. Linda Zieger likes ancient coins the most. They were just some of the collectors — people intrigued by the idea of holding history in their hand — drawn to the monthly meeting of the Sarasota Coin Club on Monday evening on Siesta Key.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Australia’s gold coin maker, The Perth Mint, is scouting for deals in India and aims to log annual sales of two tonnes by 2010, a senior company official said on Friday.

“Our presence in India is growing and we would like it to grow much more,” said Ron Currie, sales and marketing director from The Perth Mint, at an industry meeting.

“We haven’t sold a great deal yet, but that is exactly why we are here, to find more customers.”

Now the Senate and the House have acted on the “Native American $1 Coin Act,” which would add scenes from our American Indian past to our current dollar coinage, and a linguistic battle has emerged that could well prevent the measure from becoming law.

At stake is the pronunciation and spelling of the name of Lewis and Clark’s great heroine, Sacagawea (Senate bill) or Sakakawea (House version).

Introduced May 17 by Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mo., H.R. 2358 moved to rapid House passage June 12, and was received in the Senate the following day. S. 585 was introduced Feb. 14 of this year by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., with a goal of replacing “the designs on the obverse the so-called ‘Sacagawea design’” with new ones honoring all Native Americans.

The National Museum in Prague is proud to show a unique silver coin from the 14th century which the rulers of northeast Iran used to make on special occasions (births, weddings, coronations etc.). The coin is together with two other precious Islamic coins displayed in the exhibition called The Treasures of the National Museum. All the coins come from the 13th or 14th century. There are only a few more examples of these coins left in the world.