Paper Money Guaranty (PMG) is thrilled to announce that it has discovered a new variety of the 1915 10 Dollar Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank Note, which has been given the Friedberg number 817b. The Friedberg number refers to Arthur L. and Ira S. Friedberg’s Paper Money of the United States, the authoritative reference of US currency. The discovery note features hand-signed signatures rather than the engraved or stamped signatures seen on previously known varieties and is graded About Uncirculated 58 EPQ. It will be included in an upcoming Heritage Auction Galleries sale.

Chad Hawk, a grader at PMG, discovered the note. Chad commented, “This discovery is very special to me. I’ve been blessed to see some of the world’s finest notes, but this will stick with me forever.”

On its potential impact, Chad noted, “This discovery is important because it will encourage collectors to keep looking, because discovery notes are out there, waiting to be discovered. If more notes of this type surface, we may be able to find out why they began signing and hand-stamping the signatures in the first place. As Federal Reserve Bank Notes were among the first transitions from Nationals to Federal Reserve Notes, this discovery could help us understand more about the transition from signed notes to engraved plates.”

Federal Reserve Bank Notes came into existence with the creation of the Federal Reserve System. Two separate issues were issued: the series of 1915 and the series of 1918, and they are avidly collected and studied. The 1915 10 Dollar Notes from the Kansas City issuing bank carried the signatures of Teehee & Burke (Register and Treasurer of the US) and Cross & Miller (Cashier and Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City).

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US Mint to Unveil Abraham Lincoln Commemorative Coin Designs on 145th Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address
US Mint
United States Mint Deputy Director Andy Brunhart will unveil the 2009 Abraham Lincoln Commemorative Coin designs on Wednesday, November 19, 2009, at 10:30 a.m. (ET), during the Dedication Day Ceremony at Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The ceremony and unveiling will take place on the 145th anniversary of the day that Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address. Surcharges from sales of the coins are authorized to be paid to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission to further its work.
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Tour of Errors Shows Interesting Problems
By Ken Potter, Numismatic News
John Rising of Missouri sent in a No Date Wheat cent with a very interesting, rarely seen, error type. At first glance, I knew it was a Brockage-Counter-Brockage strike, but not exactly how it occurred. According to Alan Herbert, even just a Counter-Brockage is one of those error types that you have try to visualize the sequence of what happened step by step to fully comprehend the cause.
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Ancient Chinese coins on display at Eretz Israel Museum
JERUSALEM POST
Some 3,000 years ago, the Shang Dynasty (1700-1027 BCE) in China was using cowries as money. Toward the end of that era, the first coins appeared, except that they weren’t the round coins we’re familiar with. Those only made their appearance around the fourth century BCE. No, those first Chinese coins looked like spades and knives and made their appearance around the eighth century BCE.
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Collecting quarters is fun, but don’t expect a big payout
Herald Net
Time is up, folks. Some of us who dawdled along for 10 years, tossing state quarters in big jars, have to get the lead out. Actually, it’s time to get the nickel-copper-clad out. That’s what state quarters are made from. Hawaii is on the streets. It’s the 50th and last coin in the United States Mint’s 50 State Quarters Program.
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Seated Liberty 50¢s rise
By Mark Ferguson for COIN VALUES
Values for Seated Liberty half dollars, in all grades, are continuing their steady climb higher. With a few exceptions, this rising trend in values is gradual with no substantial jumps. The Seated Liberty design type stretches from 1837 through 1891 and constitutes the largest design series in U.S. coins, because it encompasses six denominations from half dimes through dollars.
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Coins struck from rusted dies show corrosion detail
Coin World
Among coinage struck in the first century of the U.S. Mint’s full-scale operations, beginning in 1793, it is not uncommon to encounter coins struck from dies that rusted because of improper storage.Some coins were struck for circulation from those rusted dies. Other pieces exhibiting rust contamination were struck as restrikes at dates later than the date on the coin, using uncanceled dies sold by the Mint as scrap metal.
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New Zealand Series Honors Iconic Bird
By Kerry Rodgers, World Coin News
New Zealand has announced a new annual series of legal tender coins to be issued over the next three years to both celebrate and promote conservation of New Zealand’s iconic kiwi - that chicken-sized, endangered, half-blind bird that can’t fly, has hairy feathers, nostrils in the end of its nose and lays the largest egg in the world for its body size.
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Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee Meets November 24
US Mint
The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) will hold a public meeting at noon (ET) on Monday, November 24, 2008, at the Thayer Hotel, 674 Thayer Road, West Point, New York, 10996. The purpose of the meeting is to conduct business related to the CCAC’s responsibility to advise the Secretary of the Treasury on themes and designs pertaining to United States coinage.
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The first known 1976 Bicentennial design Eisenhower dollar “waffle coin” has been reported by Brian Hendelson, President of Waffle Coin Co. of Bridgewater, New Jersey. It was discovered during the continuing examination of Mint-canceled coins obtained by Classic Coin in 2003, each with the distinctive corrugated, waffle-like pattern left by the Mint’s cancellation process,

“It is a Variety Two, dual-dated 1776-1976 Philadelphia Mint Ike dollar, and the first Bicentennial Ike discovered as a Mint-cancelled coin. I got pretty excited when I realized what I was holding,” said Hendelson. “It’s the only one I’ve ever found.”

“The mint takes in coins for exchange that are also waffle canceled. This is, thus far, the only Bicentennial dollar we are aware of that has gone through this cancellation process,” said Dave Camire, NGC mint error consultant and President of Numismatic Conservation Services.

Hendelson also discovered a small quantity of 1999 Susan B. Anthony dollar waffle coins. The SBA dollars now are individually certified by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) or Global Certification Services.

The Mint uses coin-canceling machines manufactured in The Netherlands to cancel rejected coins and blanks (planchets) prior to sending them to be melted. Rollers on the machine crush and crumple the coins giving them surfaces that resemble a breakfast waffle. Waffle coins are not Mint errors; however, they are Mint products, rejected and canceled at the Mint because of some type of production problem with the specific coin.

”Because they’re a product of the United States Mint, the waffle coins have become a popular collectible. Some people are trying to assemble waffle type sets of the available State Quarters,” said Hendelson.

For additional information, contact Waffle Coin Co., at (908)725-4377 or online at www.CertifiedEnterprises.com.

From Fox News

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A hobbyist with a metal detector struck both gold and silver when he uncovered an important cache of ancient Celtic coins in a cornfield in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht. “It’s exciting, like a little boy’s dream,” Paul Curfs, 47, said Thursday after the spectacular find was made public.

Archaeologists say the trove of 39 gold and 70 silver coins was minted in the middle of the first century B.C. as the future Roman ruler Julius Caesar led a campaign against Celtic tribes in the area.

Curfs said he was walking with his detector this spring and was about to go home when he suddenly got a strong signal on his earphones and uncovered the first coin. “It was golden and had a little horse on it — I had no idea what I had found,” he said. After posting a photo of the coin on a Web forum, he was told it was a rare find. The following day he went back and found another coin.

“It looked totally different — silver, and saucer-shaped,” he said. Curfs notified the city of his find, and he and several other hobbyists helped in locating the rest of the coins, in cooperation with archaeologists.

Nico Roymans, the archaeologist who led the academic investigation of the find, believes the gold coins in the cache were minted by a tribe called the Eburones that Caesar claimed to have wiped out in 53 B.C. after they conspired with other groups in an attack that killed 6,000 Roman soldiers. The Eburones “put up strong resistance to Caesar’s journeys of conquest,” Roymans said. The silver coins were made by tribes further to the north — possible evidence of cooperation against Caesar, he said. Both coin types have triple spirals on the front, a common Celtic symbol. (more…)