5 Good Reasons to Buy Gold Coins Now
Times of the Internet
As the world’s economy stutters along, and the economic future looks a bit cloudy, it would be a good idea to consider how the ordinary man in the street could go about protecting his hard earned nest egg if the world slipped into a full recession.
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Paul Green’s “evergreen” articles in Numismatic News
By A.C. Dwyer - Coin Collecting Blog
For the past few years, each time I visited my local newsstand on the corner I would reach for the latest issue of Numismatic News (NN). I would immediately look for any articles written by Paul Green. He was, by far, the best journalist that NN had writing for them.
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Who has lost my treasure?
By Dee Adcock, Daily Echo
METAL detectorist John House claims ancient coins found near Dorchester have been lost after being handed to the authorities for a treasure hearing. He says he is still waiting to find out about silver coins dating back to the Celts that he dug up at Muckleford in 1994.
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Coin Dealer Ethics - Goodwill
By Susan Headley, About.com
This edition of “Coin Dealer Ethics” deals with inheritance; not the kind of inheritance where someone dies and you get their fabulous coin collection, but where a coin dealer decides to retire and sell his business to another person. Should the new owner benefit from that dealer’s “goodwill?” Here’s the scenario:
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Mint Gnomes at Floriade
By Royal Australian Mint
The Royal Australian Mint will feature in the 2008 Floriade corporate gnome competition with an entry called ‘Priscilla, Coin of the Desert’. In the spirit of the theme Floriade 21 Films that Shaped our Nation, the Mint has entered 3 gnome characters from the Australian box office hit of 1994 Priscilla Queen of the Desert.”
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Selecting a Holder
By Mike Thorne, Coins Magazine
Last month I started on the topic of coin storage and detailed the danger of housing in PVC-containing holders. This is particularly a problem if you live in a hot, humid climate. In reading about coin preservation, one of the most interesting (and scary) passages I’ve encountered is in the latest edition of Scott Travers’ The Coin Collector’s Survival Manual. According to Travers:
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Doubled Die Medal of Felix Schlag
by Ken Potter
Paul Revere medal struck by the Franklin Mint in 1967 for the International Fraternal Commemorative Society.
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$185,000 in nickels scattered on I-95 after crash
Florida Times Union - AP
Portions of Interstate 95 were closed - and sparkling in the morning sun - Wednesday after a tractor trailer carrying $187,000 worth of nickels crashed, scattering the coins across the road and killing one person.
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Collecting Old British Coins
By Informative Post
A coin collection would make a wonderful hobby, especially when that collection contains ancient coins that have been changed after years of development. Collecting old British coins is a specialized hobby for some people because of the grand history of Britain’s pennies, pence and pounds.
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Other Errors on Jackson $1
By Ken Potter, Numismatic News
Andrew Jackson Presidential dollars have hardly reached circulation and already I am examining coins that show shifted edge inscriptions. In the July 29 issue of Numismatic News I reported on a shifted-edge inscription error found on a George Washington Presidential dollar.
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New platinum coin to celebrate Obama
By Platinum Today
A small jewellery company in Birmingham has announced that it is producing commemorative platinum coins featuring US presidential nominee Barack Obama. The Democrat candidate will go head-to-head with Republican rivals John McCain and Sarah Palin as he bids to become the world’s most powerful man on November 4th.
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New Gold Coin Type Discovered in Kent
By World Coin News
A previously unpublished gold quarter stater was unearthed in July by a metal detectorist in east Kent in England, according to Chris Rudd of Celtic Coins. The coin was struck 2,000 years ago by a king of the Cantiaci tribe, whose name means “people of the corner land,” Rudd said. It was issued by Eppillus, Celtic for “little horse,”
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Shipwreck coins stole the spotlight
By Mario Cywinski - Canadian Coin News
The Royal Canadian Numismatic Association’s (RCNA) convention done for another year, and for The Canadian Numismatic Company (TCNC), the time to send out and invoice collectors has come. As the official auctioneer for the RCNA, TCNC had over 2,700 lots available in its three session auction.
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How To Remove PVC Residue From Coins
By Susan Headley - About.com
PVC damage is caused by storing coins in soft plastic flips that contain polyvinyl chloride (PVC.) PVC most commonly manifests as a light-to-dark greenish residue, although it can appear as milky or light grey in color. It has a distinctive “plastic” odor which can range from subtle to strong.
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Celebrated visual artist Romeo Mananquil, who migrated to Canada two decades ago, has an ax to grind with the central bank, for which he designed (together with two other Filipino artists) a series of banknotes and coins during the 1980s.

Our sources say Mananquil (who is identified with the flora and fauna coin series) was upset after recently finding out that his design for the now-demonetized P5 note—the green one that depicts Emilio Aguinaldo hoisting the Philippine flag in Kawit, Cavite—was used by the central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, or BSP, for the P100,000 centennial notes printed in 1999—allegedly without his consent and with some alteration.

Only 1,000 of these notes were issued in 1998 to commemorate the Centennial of Independence from more than 300 years of Spanish colonial rule. The notes were intended for collectors. The initial offering price was 180,000 Piso ($4175), substantially higher than the face value.

The 100,000 Piso note, measuring 356mm x 216mm (about the size of a legal page), is accredited by the Guinness World Records as the world’s largest legal tender note in terms of size.

Mananquil has sent his lawyers to assert his legal rights over the artwork, lamenting its “economic exploitation.”

Its lawyers argue that the central bank is considered as a co-owner of the artwork and therefore has the right to use it with or without the artist’s permission.

The artist’s lawyers recently wrote the Monetary Board, the policymaking body of the BSP, to appeal his case. Will this debate over intellectual property rights erupt into a courtroom battle?

On September 24, 2008, Stack’s will present the Autumn Sale, a diverse offering of U.S. coins that features selections from the Bunting, the M.N. Davis, and the Frank Ford, Jr. collections. Beginning at 1:00 pm in Stack’s own auction gallery at 110 West 57th Street in New York City, the Autumn Sale could be rightly termed a “collector’s sale,” for it offers many exciting rarities that are supported by a broad base of high quality, more mainstream coins.

Colonial and early American coins lead off our sale in the traditional fashion and take us straight into early Federal issues. Notable among these coins is a solid example of a 1793 half cent in VF-20 (PCGS). A well-loved rarity, the 1793 half cent has always been heavily pursued by collectors; the present coin is an excellent example that will fit nicely into any serious half cent collection. Minor coinage continues to impress, with a beautiful 1865 silver 3¢ piece graded Proof-67 by NGC. With only one coin certified as finer by NGC, this example is likely one of the finest known examples on the market today.

U.S. half dimes and dimes offer an admirable selection of coins to choose from, including a 1795 half dime in MS-62 (PCGS), as well as a fabulous 1921-D Mercury dime graded MS-67 FB by NGC. With no coins certified finer by NGC, and no examples certified finer than MS-66 FB by PCGS, this coin represents the utmost in quality and is certainly among the finest survivors of the series. Quarters and half dollars also provide the bidder with good opportunities to acquire major U.S. rarities, as well as the chance to add some more affordable coins to your collection. Highlights here include a richly toned Ex Ashland City 1846 Proof quarter graded Proof-65 (NGC) and a rare 1874-CC Arrows half dollar graded AU-58 (PCGS) (CAC), in addition to the splendid variety of early half dollars offered in between.

Silver dollars will surely be a source of much bidding activity, with an outstanding selection of nice (and affordable!) early dollars offered in the lower grades, punctuated by many high-grade pieces like a 1797 B-1 Draped Bust dollar in AU-55 (PCGS) and a 1799/8 15 Stars Reverse specimen in MS-61 (NGC). Also to note is an exceptional 1803 B-5 dollar graded MS-63 by NGC, a coin that is among the top survivors of both the date and die variety. (more…)