A person spends years, often a lifetime, developing a skill that earns them a living—and more. What do they do with the “more”? They use it to entertain themselves. Many of those who succeed in a capitalist society are the sort of people who are interested in things like art, history, philosophy and the “social sciences”. Why? Because they are intelligent, educated, inquisitive and because these subjects are usually a diversion from what they do every day. They are naturally more inclined to these disciplines than to the latest societal fad. The vast majority of people in the world who have discretionary income fall into this category.

Some people choose to follow the path of academia, and they “entertain” themselves with the same pleasures as those in the private sector. The difference is only that in the academic world it is not “kosher” to own, while in the private sector ownership is perceived as an inalienable right. Does this mean that the academic world and the private world are really worlds apart? Hardly. It merely means that the age-old conflicts of human want and need are confronted. What is new about that? By what standard is the steward of society’s interests better than the member of society whose interests are supposedly being served?

For centuries, private and public scholarship have had a symbiotic relationship—especially in numismatics. That relationship was a constant proof that private and public interests can exist, prosperously, in harmony. In the 1970s, the situation began to change and the symbiosis was fractured by a surge of territorial dominance within the archaeological community. This escalated into a zealous crusade among archaeological organizations to eliminate private parties (independent scholars) from the “congregation”. The discrimination against “non-certified” scholars became epidemic and grew to such a fanatical height that the archaeological community ostracized even its own members who would cooperate with the “heathen” masses. Scholarship for the sake of learning became scholarship for the sake of controlling.

Any rational and thinking person must, on serious reflection, be able to see that what happened to archaeology over the past several decades has been a disaster of the greatest magnitude—not just for that discipline but for the whole of humanity. Today, we are told that the public is not qualified to inquire, not ordained to protect nor empowered to preserve the past. Is that the society that we have created? Is a government that supports that sort of mentality a government “of the people, by the people and for the people?” It sounds more like some of the experiments in governing that failed in the 20th century.

It is time that serious archaeologists took a stand and reclaimed their discipline from the brink of destruction—before the prestige earned by their predecessors is blackened by universal and eternal enmity.

Used with Permission from the Ancient Coin Collecting Blog 

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMEX), the world leader in deep ocean shipwreck exploration, has granted Primetime Emmy® Award-winning JWM Productions exclusive access to film Odyssey’s 2008 Atlas Search expeditions to produce a shipwreck exploration television series. Discovery Channel expects to premiere the 11-part High Definition (HD) series to worldwide audiences in 2009. Production is slated to begin immediately.

“We have the most experienced team of shipwreck explorers in the world manning our ships, and on a regular basis they make amazing discoveries in the deep ocean - things that have never before been seen by human eyes. We’re proud of the exploration and archaeological work our team accomplishes in the challenging offshore environment, and for a long time we’ve been looking for the right format to share the excitement of our expeditions with viewers around the world,” stated Greg Stemm, Odyssey’s Chief Executive Officer.

“JWM has a proven track record of producing smart, compelling television and Discovery Channel is the #1 media and television brand in overall quality for the eighth straight year. We’re sure that Discovery’s viewers will enjoy ‘being there’ during our shipwreck search and exploration expeditions,” Stemm continued. (more…)

Gold extended losses to trade below $900 an ounce on Wednesday, as a sharp decline in oil prices lowered the metal’s appeal as a hedge against inflation.

Other precious metals followed gold, with platinum slipping more than 3 percent, silver falling 1.8 percent and palladium dropping around 1 percent in a broad commodities sell-off.

Gold fell about 2 percent to a two-week low of $889.35 am ounce and was quoted at $893.70/894.70 at 1007 GMT, against $907.10/908.30 in New York late on Tuesday, when if fell about 2 percent.

“Whenever we get a weaker dollar and stronger oil, it’s fantastic for gold and the reverse is playing out now,” said Nick Moore, global commodity analyst with ABN AMRO. “It’s a general commodity sell-off that we’re seeing which has embraced not only oil but also industrial metals and precious metals. This pullback is good for gold. This is a chance for them (physical buyers) before gold has its next run.”

Oil fell more than $2 a barrel, extending a slide from the previous session amid growing signs Asian demand could start to falter as consumer nations look to cut subsidies by raising local fuel prices.

Gold often moves in the opposite direction of the dollar. “With the most of the recent gains in gold coming largely from the rally in crude oil, it is obvious that as crude retraces back, gold would reflect that too,” Read Full Article

By Mark Ferguson for Coin Values

Hearing of a “hoard” of coins conjures up images of surplus, oversupply and the uncommon that suddenly becomes common. This happened in 1962 when hundreds of thousands of the formerly rare Mint State 1903-O Morgan dollars surfaced in the form of $1,000 canvas bags of silver dollars that had been locked in a vault at the Philadelphia Mint since 1929.

The values of the previously few known Uncirculated examples of the 1903-O Morgan dollar quickly plummeted from between $1,000 and $2,000 each all the way down to about $25.

However, the opposite effect occurred when the LaVere Redfield hoard of more than 400,000 silver dollars, most graded Mint State, of various issues, common and rare, were skillfully marketed and disbursed. Market prices for these coins actually rose substantially during the next several years during the late 1970s in an expansion of the collector and dealer demand for silver dollars in general.

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