TOKYO (AFP) — After minting 4.8 million commemorative coins to mark a centenary of ties with Brazil, Japan has been forced to change the design due to an infringement of copyright, the finance ministry has said.

The original design showed bronze sculptures of parents and a child standing in Santos, Brazil, where the first batch of Japanese immigrants landed in 1908. But the Brazilian sculptor of the work refused to let the design be used for the 500-yen (five dollar) coin, the ministry said.

Japan had been planning to distribute the commemorative coin in March, believing that an immigrants’ association in Brazil owned the bronze memorial. The association later discovered that the artist also held the right to his work. But redesigining the coin is set to cost the ministry up to 10 million yen (100,000 dollars).

“The minted commemorative coins are made of the same materials as the regular 500-yen coin so we will simply recycle them,” a ministry official said. The new design will feature the ship that took the first Japanese immigrants to South America, superimposed over a picture of the Brazilian nation.

The newly-designed coin will be distributed from June 18.

More than 1.2 million Brazilians have Japanese ancestry, a higher number than in any country other than Japan. Read Full AFP Story

A 500-year-old ship-wreck laden with treasure has been discovered off the coast of Namibia.

While one usually associates the diamond business with mines, there are companies who hunt for gems in the open sea. A popular hunting ground is the coast of Namibia, where ships comb the sandy sea bottom in hopes of sucking up diamonds that were washed offshore in ages gone past.

De Beers is one such company and it announced a significant find on Wednesday — though not of diamonds. The company believes it has located a treasure ship that could date back to the 15th century. The ship was laden with thousands of gold coins and a hoard of more than 50 elephant tusks.

“If the experts’ assessments are correct, the shipwreck could date back to the late 1400s or early 1500s, making it a discovery of global significance,” said Namdeb Diamond Corp., a joint venture between De Beers and the Namibian government. Company sources are speculating that the ship may be linked to Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias, who went missing in 1500 after becoming the first European seafarer to round the Cape of Good Hope.

Company spokesman Hilifa Mbako said the Portuguese government had been alerted and they expected a team of experts to be dispatched to the site shortly for further investigations. “The shipwreck holds more questions than answers,” he said.

2008-W Burnished Uncirculated Silver Eagles have been found displaying two distinct designs from two different years. Beginning in 2008, the US Mint made some dramatic changes to the Silver Eagle coins reverse, possibly to enhance their appearance.

As a result, some 2008-W Uncirculated Silver Eagles submitted to PCGS were found depicting a transitional reverse design or an old style reverse design used in the previous year. Some of the major differences for this new variety are in the lettering on the reverse of the coin, specifically on the letter “U” in “United.” The old style Reverse of 2007 will have an uneven “U” and without a serif underneath the right of the “U”. A new style reverse of 2008 will have a fancier “U” and with a serif underneath the right of the “U.” The thirteen stars on the old reverse are also smaller and will be more separated from one other as opposed to being larger and closer to each other, as seen on the new reverse of 2008. Overall, the lettering from the two different coins contain dramatic and significant differences through out the reverse.

The US Mint has successfully been producing millions of Silver Eagles for the past twenty years without making any major blunders for this series. 2008 will definitely be a special year for Silver Eagle collectors who now have an opportunity to add this first and exciting major variety to this very popular series. Currently, there have been no reports of 2008 non Burnished Silver Eagles containing a Reverse of 2007. However, it is very possible to find 2008 non Burnished coins also containing a Reverse of 2007.

As recognition to this new and dramatic variety, PCGS will recognize these significant varieties and will attribute them as “Reverse of 2007″ on the PCGS holder. In order to receive this variety recognition coins should be sent in under the “Variety Attribution Program” for an additionally $20 fee. Any questions please feel free to contact customer service at 1-800-447-8848.

Coin collectors can celebrate the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel with limited numbers of new commemorative coins: in one-, two- and 10-shekel denominations.

The modern coins were designed by by Ruben Nutels, and symbolize the achievements of the state in its first 60 years, and express optimism about a future of peace and prosperity.

The coins bear a pomegranate to symbolize fertility and plenty, alongside a dove and an olive branch, the signs of peace.

The Israel Government Coins and Medals Corporation (IGCMC) has also issued two silver replicas of ancient Jewish coins in honor of the upcoming 60th Independence Day.

They have struck exact silver replicas of two coins that were minted 1900 years ago: one represents destruction and exile, and the other rebirth and independence. They give expression to the importance and meaning of the establishment of the State, independence and sovereignty, according to the IGCMC.

The coins which were chosen to represent these two opposing messages are two bronze coins from the late 1st or beginning of the 2nd century CE.

One is the famous Judea Capta coin minted by the Romans to honor the fall of the Jewish state established in the Great Revolt, originally minted in Rome in 71 CE. The second, minted in Judea in 132-133 CE, is from the Bar Kochba revolt.

The coins may be bought over the Internet as well as at IGCMC stores.

By Edward Elmer for Lew Rockwell.com

Governments are inveterate despoilers of the freedom, wealth, and lives of their citizens. As consolation, the citizens usually receive little more than lofty words and pretentious sentiments from the political leaders in charge of the looting, murder, and enslavement. Less commonly, governments produce something concrete, such as a marble palace for the ruler or an alabaster temple for the commemoration of some supposedly noble public goal.

However, one of the few universal, tangible products of government which citizens experience directly is their government’s medium of exchange. Even this government product usually offers a lopsided exchange for the citizen. Base metals and paper are usually offered to the subject in return for his much more valuable and often unjustified faith in the validity of his government.

At the outset, the numismatic history of the United States is as singular as its political history. Just as the new government was remarkable for the powers its Constitution did not permit, so the new U.S. coinage was unusual for what it did not depict. There were no representations of any political figures, ancient or contemporary. Odd as it may seem to modern Americans, the faces of Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson did not make it onto America’s earliest coinage. Such bygone greats as Caesar and Alexander were also notably absent.

Our early American predecessors seem to have bypassed the rich symbols that abounded on the coinage of preceding nations. There were no gods or goddesses, nor was the mint impelled to create a mythological parallel to the Roman she-wolf nursing Romulus and Remus. Though the new nation was rich in folklore, none of its earliest coins depicted traditional examples, such as Washington’s felling a cherry tree or Franklin’s flying a kite.

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