Forget the fragile cherry blossoms and cuddly panda bears. The District has decided to seek a tougher message on its new commemorative quarter: a protest of its lack of full voting rights. The only question is whether the U.S. Mint will go along.

Yesterday, the District submitted three ideas for its quarter, part of a popular program that has produced coins representing each of the 50 states. One would feature the three stars and two bars of the D.C. flag; another would portray Benjamin Banneker, the 18th-century abolitionist who helped survey the city; and another would depict jazz great Duke Ellington, a D.C. native.

Each design would include the inscription “Taxation Without Representation” or “No Taxation Without Representation.” Read Full Story

Last week, gold hit a record high of $958.40 an ounce. In 1959, the average price of gold was around $35 an ounce. That’s the year Burton Blumert opened his Camino Coin Company in Burlingame.

To the outside observer, it would appear that the rise of gold is a success story for long-time dealers and investors like Blumert and his clients. And in many respects it is. As Blumert told me on the phone from his home in El Granada, “I retired at the top of my game.” (After giving the Camino Coin Company to a long-time employee last year, Blumert, 79, stays peripherally involved, helping out occasionally when needed).

But there is, so to speak, another side to the coin. “If you want a dismal view of the future, talk to a gold dealer,” Blumert adds. The high price of gold may represent a handsome return on investment, but it’s hardly been a steady ascent, and for Blumert and other “goldbugs” it’s also an ominous sign. Read Full Article

EU citizens and residents have now selected the winning design of the new commemorative euro coin celebrating 10 years of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the creation of the euro. See the results

Commemorative coins bearing this design will be issued by all euro-area Member States, starting in January 2009.

This is the second time that all euro-area countries issue a euro coin with a common design also on the national side, the first time being the issue of the commemorative 2-euro coin celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome in 2007.

Commemorative coins always have a value of 2 euro and are destined for circulation in the whole euro area, although they are often the subject of keen interest from coin collectors.

The winning design was created by Mr George Stamatopoulos who is a sculptor at the Central Bank of Greece. Commemorative coins bearing this design will be issued by all euro-area Member States, starting in January 2009.

The design symbolises that the euro is the latest step in the long history of trade, from pre-historic barter – evoked by the deliberately primitive design – to Economic and Monetary Union.

Voting was open to all citizens or residents of the European Union and took place between 31 January and 22 February 2008. Voters could choose between 5 designs pre-selected by European Mint Directors. 141 675 participated in the vote. The winning design received 41.48% of the votes. Full Story

France’s biggest trove of Gaulish coins has been unearthed in Brittany. Archeologists found them while searching along the route of a bypass under construction in the Côtes d’Armor. The coins are in the hands of specialist restorers and will go on display in the département.

The trove consists of 545 gold-silver-copper coins: 58 staters and 487 quarterstaters. ‘Stater’ is the generic term for antique coins. They lay a foot beneath the earth’s surface near Laniscat, 64km south of Saint-Brieuc, at a known Iron Age manor house or farm site, and date to 75- 50BC. They are very well preserved.

Inrap, the national institute for preventive archeological research, which has the right to investigate sites ahead of infrastructure work, reports similar finds in the 1930s at Guingamp and Perros-Guirec, but says the latest trove is the biggest yet. Searching ahead of construction work, an Inrapled team found a single coin about 30cm down, then began a systematic search.

They found another 50 coins the same day, then brought in metal detectors and found the rest. They believe the coins were all buried together but were disturbed over the centuries by ploughing. Read Full Story