By RHODRI PHILLIPS and SIMON MCGEE – Daily Mail UK: Britannia could return to the nation’s coins, a senior adviser to the Royal Mint has said. The ancient symbol was missing when the first new set of British coins for nearly 40 years was unveiled last week.

However, John Porteous, of the Royal Mint Advisory Committee on Coin Design, said she could appear on the £2 coin when it is next redesigned.

The £2 was the only one of Britain’s eight circulating coins not to have undergone a redesign in the revamp. But a new £2 coin is likely to be issued with a new design within the next two years, according to Mr Porteous.

When he was confronted by The Mail on Sunday’s Britannia on his doorstep last week, the coin expert invited her in for a coffee and discussed her future.

“I’m absolutely sure you won’t be made redundant,” he told her.

We revealed in January that Britannia would not appear on any new British coins for the first time in 336 years. (She does feature on a silver bullion £2 coin struck by the Mint, but this is a collector’s item and is not in circulation.) Read Full Story from the Daily Mail

By Tom Mashberg for the Boston Herald

Tom Caldwell was barely 11 when he collected his first coin – a nickel his mom gave him for milk money in 1964. It turned out to be an 1866 shield nickel, worth $20 at the time and from $300 to $1,750 today, he said, depending on condition.

“I haven’t stopped collecting since,” said the 55-year-old president of Northeast Numismatics in Concord. “It’s a way of life.”

Caldwell was one of scores of dealers at the Bay State Coin Show at the Radisson over the weekend displaying coins from every nation, era and metal imaginable.

There were Roman denarii used by Caesar to pay his troops. There were coins featuring emperors and kings from Persia and Greece and England, many in gold and silver, and of course there were highly collectible U.S. coins dating from Colonial times to the 21st century. And there were people.

“Attendance is definitely stronger – people are here to buy tangible assets, and they are aware that precious metals are going up in value,” said Merritt Reynolds, who owns Coins of Merritt in Watertown, N.Y. “Interest is strong.”

Read Full Boston Herald Story Here

A unique silver treasure has been uncovered near Sweden’s Arlanda airport.

On Tuesday, archaeologists from the Swedish National Heritage Board dug up the largest collection of Viking-era silver coins found in the Uppland region north of Stockholm in modern times.

The treasure consists of 450 silver coins and was discovered during an investigation of an Iron Age grave site located beside the Steningehöjden area in Sundveda near Arlanda.

Some of the coins come from Bagdad and Damascus and are thought to be from 500 to 840 AD and appear to have been buried around 850 AD. They were found on the edge of a grave which is believed to be 1000 years older than the treasure.