The granddaughter of an early polar explorer has attended a ceremony to mark the launch of the first Antarctic coin. The coin has been created by the Pobjoy Mint in Kingswood, Surrey, to commemorate the centenary of the Granting of Letters Patent in 1908 when the UK first claimed the British Antarctic Territory.

The striking ceremony was attended by Philippa Foster Back, chairwoman of the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust, whose grandfather Frank Debenham accompanied Robert Falcon Scott’s Antarctic Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole from 1910 to 1913.

The £2 coin, which has been issued on behalf of the British Antarctic Territory, features the territory’s coat of arms which includes a lion standing on grass to represent the UK and an emperor penguin standing on ice to represent the native wildlife of Antarctica.

It is the first ever legal tender commemorative coin issued by the British Antarctic Territory, making it the world’s first Antarctic coin. (more…)

Stockholm - A 9-year-old boy’s search for shrapnel on an old battlefield resulted in a huge find of medieval silver coins near the Lund in southern Sweden, local media reported Monday. Alexander Granhof, 9, and his grandfather made the recent discovery, dubbed “silverado” by archaeologists.

“We went out on the field looking for cannonballs,” Alexander Granhof told the online edition of the Sydsvenskan newspaper. “I found a piece of metal and thought at first it was shrapnel from a shotgun. I shouted to grandfather and then we discovered more and more coins,” he added.

In all, the pair found more than 4,600 coins on the field. Archaeologists, using metal detectors, boosted the tally to 7,000 but did not rule out that even more coins were hidden in the soil.

“This is incredible,” Bernd Gerlach of the Lund University Historical Museum told reporters.

No reward sum has yet been determined but the silver in the treasure alone was estimated to be worth 1.5 million kronor (250,000 dollars). The coins had been placed in two urns that were wrapped in cloth. The treasure was likely buried during troubled times, and one theory was that the coins were church taxes collected from nearby farms.

The find included thousands of English coins with a high silver content and some other markers that likely were used locally.

Read Full Story at Earth Times

By Erin White/McClatchy Newspapers

As gold’s value has shot up, so has the number of people trying to unload a broken chain or a mismatched earring or two.

Though the price of gold has fallen since the record-breaking highs of more than $1,000 an ounce in mid-March, it can still bring a pretty penny when sold for scrap. (Selling for scrap means that the gold is melted down.)

But with gold’s rapidly fluctuating prices - not to mention all the fortune hunters trying to get in on the latest gold rush - an urban forty-niner has to be careful to find a fair price.

“There are going to be a lot of people who are going to say, `Hey! We’re buying gold now,’.” says Stephen Stierstorfer, co-owner of American Coin & Jewelry Exchange, in Fort Worth, Texas. Stierstorfer says he’s wary of so-called traveling gold buyers, who sweep into town, buy up the precious metal and hit the road. He also recommends checking out a buyer with the Better Business Bureau.

If you’re ready to sell some gold jewelry, coins or other items around your house, here are answers to common questions about selling gold. (more…)

By Kathleen Duncan for Pinnacle Rarities

Although it has been increasingly difficult to acquire nice rarities in the past several months, we were presented with some fabulous material through our dealer connections at last week’s Central States Convention. We were pleased to get first opportunity on a blockbuster collection of early Proof Seated Halves, two heralding from the 1997 Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. collection.

Another favorite purchase was a beautiful condition census 1798 Draped Bust Dollar (ex. Phil Flanagan) in PCGS MS64 condition. We also were the successful bidder (on behalf of a client) on the 1802 Novodel PR65 Cameo Dollar from the fabulous Queller collection, in our opinion the nicest coin in Heritage’s $45 million sale, although only the second most expensive: The 1804 Dollar in NGC PR62 condition broke the record for the third highest price paid for a coin in auction, realizing $3,737,500.

The pre-convention sale held by Bowers and Merena showcased some high-end collections of Washington quarters and Buffalo nickels bringing similarly high-end prices. A 1926-S NGC MS66* brought $322,000, which is an auction record for a 26-S Buffalo nickel and the first to surpass the $300,000 level. A 1932-D 25c PCGS MS66 brought a healthy $143,750. We had the pleasure of handling this same coin in the mid 90s for approximately $20,000. Our client turned it around in 2001 for a tidy $90,000, a good example of the staggering price increases for certain Key dates in the past decade.

While most areas are experiencing strong demand from collectors, prices on Silver Commemoratives are still quiet on all but the’top pop’ examples. Other series that present excellent value are Three Cent Nickels and Proof Liberty nickels. Outstanding value continues to exist within the Barber and Seated series, Walking Liberty Halves, and Peace Dollars. But finding the coins is another matter. We did not, however, have any trouble finding quality coins to purchase in Chicago, so enjoy browsing our newest selections.