For the second time in two years, Zimbabwe’s central bank is slashing zeros off its largely worthless currency. This time 10 zeros will go, making $10 billion equal to $1.

The central bank’s governor Gideon Gono chopped 10 zeros off the Zimbabwe dollar and reintroduded coins which have been obsolete for years.

The highest denomination of Zimbabwe currency is currently 100 billion.

After the currency announcement, President Robert Mugabe warned in a televised event Wednesday that he will declare a state of emergency if prices continue to rise.

Officially inflation is at 2.2 million percent, but private sector economists estimate it is at least five times higher. Prices double every few days.

The purchase of a small packet of cookies can easily cost 400 billion Zimbabwe dollars. Bread, when it is available, is about 200 billion dollars. A few every day items can cost trillions of dollars, and houses for sale are advertised in quadrillions.

Comparing costs with South African groceries, using a combination of official and black market rates, groceries in Zimbabwe are between three and four times the cost for the same goods in South Africa.

Mr. Mugabe’s warnings about price increases came as South African president Thabo Mbeki arrived in Harare to mediate talks between the Movement for Democratic Change and ZANU-PF.

Mr. Mbeki will meet Mr. Mugabe, whom the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, has accused of stealing the election earlier this year. (more…)

THREE treasure hunters have unearthed 62 Roman coins which date back 1,700 years.

Adam Staples, Lisa Grace and her 14-year-old son, Tom Grace –- out with his metal detector for the first time – made the discovery on land near Stanton-by-Bridge.

The trio, from Derby, were scouring the soil when their equipment began to beep.

Mr Staples scooped up the earth and in his hands were the first of 62 ancient coins they would find over the next six days.

Yesterday, an inquest held at Derby Coroner’s Court decided they were treasure – which means they are more than 300 years old and contain less than 10% gold or silver.

The items must now be offered for sale to a museum at a price set by an independent board of antiquities experts. Only if a museum expresses no interest in the item, or is unable to purchase it, can the owner retain it.

The coins date back to the reign of four emperors, Diocletianus, Maximianus, Constantius and Galerius, who ruled Britain between 296AD and 305AD.

Ms Grace, 35, of Reeves Road, said: “We were so excited when we found the coins, absolutely ecstatic. We have found coins, ingots and other Roman pieces before but nothing as old as this.”

The haul was discovered between September 27 and October 3 last year. (more…)

By John Mackie, Vancouver Sun

A rare $5 banknote from the long-defunct Bank of Vancouver has sold for a record $28,750.

Marc Verret of C&P Numismatics in Quebec City auctioned the note at the Canadian Numismatic Association convention in Ottawa on July 18. It had belonged to an Alberta collector, who purchased it in an auction in the United States about 15 years ago. Verret declined to give the buyer’s or seller’s names, citing client confidentiality.

The Bank of Vancouver was launched in the midst of a real estate and industrial boom in 1910 by some of B.C.’s most prominent capitalists, including the lieutenant-governor, James Paterson, and future Vancouver mayor William Malkin, of Malkin Bowl fame. But the boom went bust, and the bank went out of business on Dec. 14, 1914.

The bank’s headquarters was in the Flack Block, a beautiful heritage building at Cambie and Hastings that recently underwent a $20-million restoration.

It issued $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 banknotes, but only a handful remain, and they almost never come up for sale.

“I’ve only ever seen one Bank of Vancouver banknote in 25 years in the business,” said Brian Grant Duff of All Nations Coins and Stamps in Vancouver.

“In the past I’ve only ever been able to find [uncirculated] proof notes where archives had them, and they came to market. I’ve had good success with those, but I’ve never seen a real banknote [for sale].” (more…)

By Jon Mark Beilue at Amarillo.com

The Case of the Missing 300 Silver Dollars, or What In The World Is Something Like That Doing In A Place Like This, likely will never be solved. That they were actually uncovered is astonishing enough, but to find out why 300 Morgan silver dollars from 1887 in mint condition were under a foot of hardened soil on former Amarillo Mayor Jerry Hodge’s property, well, let your imagination be your guide.

Our story begins June 11. Plumbers were digging a trench to run utilities for a pool house and swimming pool on property Hodge had purchased adjacent to his home on Oldham Circle in Amarillo. Randy McMinn had a backhoe about a foot deep when on one particular scoop, mixed in with the dirt, was found a bunch of dingy little objects.

Whoa, time out. Work came to a halt, and closer inspection revealed them to be coins - old coins from 1887. Careful digging found a lot more in some kind of fine plastic, what Margaret, Hodge’s wife, described as sort of an old version of Saran Wrap. Lest anyone think plastic is a recent invention, plastic was used as early as World War I.

The coins had Lady Liberty on one side and the American eagle on the other. A little bit of homework found them to be Morgan silver dollars, which were minted from 1878 to 1904. A count of the coins totaled 100 … 150 … 200 … 250 … 300 of them.

Avast, matey, buried treasure!

Read Full Story Here

By Miki Perkins for THE AGE

THE crowd of medal collectors breathed a collective sigh and craned in their seats as Australia’s first piece of colonial art sold for $750,000 at auction to a beaming mystery buyer seated in the third row.

Minutes later, it was revealed that the National Maritime Museum had bought the Charlotte Medal — a silver disc engraved by the convict and expert forger Thomas Barrett when the First Fleet arrived at Botany Bay. Even the most hardened medal collectors paused in their bidding to clap.

Very little material survives from the ships of the First Fleet, so the Sydney museum sent its assistant director of collection and exhibitions, Michael Crayford, to Melbourne to secure a seminal piece of Australian history.

“It is also one of the best artworks for that period (so) we’re absolutely thrilled to have it and it will be on display to the public within weeks,” Mr Crayford said.

The silver disc was sold by John Chapman, a retired dentist, who bought it at auction in 1981 for $15,000.

The rest of his extensive collection of Australian medals, coins and banknotes, valued at $1.6 million before auction, also went under the hammer at the Noble Numismatics auction yesterday. (more…)