Elgar £20 Banknote to be Withdrawn
Bank of England
The £20 banknote carrying the portrait of composer Sir Edward Elgar is to be finally withdrawn from circulation from 30 June this year. This note has been gradually replaced by the Adam Smith £20 which was introduced in 2007. Announcing this today, the Bank of England assured holders of the Elgar £20 banknote that they could certainly use the notes up to, and including, 30 June. After that date the note will no longer have ‘legal tender’ status. The note will not have to be accepted in payment, or in change, in retail outlets after this date.
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Little Coins Get a Little Bit Bigger
Heritage Blog
By size (though not value), the dime is the smallest coin used regularly in the United States, with a diameter of just under 18 millimeters. In the past, particularly during the 19th century, this wasn’t always the case. The half dime (same face value as today’s nickel, but made out of silver) was just 15.5 millimeters across when the denomination ended in 1873. From 1851 to 1873, the three cent silver coin was even smaller, only 14 millimeters in diameter. Its weight was just four-fifths of a gram—less than the average paper clip. They were nicknamed “fish scales” for their thinness and size. Even the three cent silver pieces don’t take the tiniest-coin honor for regular U.S. coinage.
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New Features for the Memphis International Money Show
Numismaster
With only a few months to go before the International Paper Money Show, June 18-20 at the Cook Convention Center in Memphis, Tenn., Lyn Knight reports two new developments for the show which is now owned by his LFK Tradeshows Inc. First, Peter Huntoon, a leading authority and researcher on U.S. paper money, has agreed to set up an educational forum for Saturday, June 19. … In the second development, the International Paper Money Show and the American Stamp Dealers Association jointly announced the addition of ASDA dealers to the show. Estimated at 15 to 20 additional tables.
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Coins With the Image of Jesus
The E-Sylum
Justinian II summoned a Ecumenical Council in 692 in Trullo whose Decrees and Canons were never signed by Sergius, the Pope. Justinian went so far as to attempt kidnapping Sergius to obtain his signature, nevertheless, Justinian proceeded as if they were in effect. Canon LXXXII states in part “In order therefore that ‘that which is perfect’ may be delineated to the eyes of all, at least in coloured expression, we decree that the figure in human form of the Lamb who taketh away the sin of the world, Christ our God, be henceforth exhibited in images, instead of the ancient lamb, so that all may understand by means of it the depths of the humiliation of the Word of God, and that we may recall to our memory his conversation in the flesh, his passion and salutary death, and his redemption which was wrought for the whole world.”
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Punch Coins Mark an Era of Commonality
Express Buzz
The concept of common coins was very much in currency in ancient India, according to historians. Coins that belong to the fourth century BC, appear in different shapes — circular, rectangular, square, oblong or irregular. Their contours differ in thickness as well. While some are thicker and smaller, others are thinner and larger. While most of the coins are in gold, copper and silver, the Government Museum, Chennai is in possession of punch marked coins made of silver and copper obtained from treasure troves, Dr TS Sridhar, commissioner of museums, said.
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Korean Kim Yu-na Coins to be Issued in Tuvalu
The Chosun Ilbo
The Korean Olympic Committee on Friday said it will issue commemorative coins to celebrate Kim Yu-na’s Olympic gold medal and share the moment of joy. But they will be issued in Tuvalu instead of Korea and have been minted in Perth, Australia. Tuvalu, a member of the British Commonwealth, lies northeast of Australia and has a population of just 12,000. The Kim Yu-na commemorative coins come in gold and silver, with the face value denominated in Australian dollars. The gold coin with the face value of 25 dollars will sell for W880,000 (US$1=W1,141) and the 1-dollar silver coin for W121,000.
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What’s Copper? What’s Bronze? What’s Brass? What’s the Difference?
The E-Sylum
Copper is a popular coinage metal because of its (somewhat) low cost and high coinability. It has been used for coins since 450 BC. And as every Lincoln cent collector knows, untarnished copper red quickly turns brown in circulation. I checked my entry on Bronze in my Encyclopedia of Coin and Medal Technology and found 26 names of bronze alloys that have been used as the composition for coins and medals. It is all a matter of the amount of zinc (generally) alloyed with copper. While copper is the major component it is alloyed with zinc and/or tin with other metals as trace or impurities.
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Coins a Medium of Exchange Beyond My Lifetime
Dave Harper’s Buzz
I have written that coins will be a viable medium of exchange beyond my lifetime on a number of occasions over the last 10 years. My assertion usually is prompted by the reports of their imminent demise. But I am not blind to the current low production level of coinage at the U.S. Mint and the multiplication of uses of credit and debit cards in daily life. It is not that I don’t believe more transactions will be handled electronically. More certainly will be. I simply believe that there are places and occasions where coins have their uses.
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Alderney Issues One of the World’s Largest and Rarest Coins
Big News
The Royal Mint has produced one of the world’s largest coins for Alderney, weighing a full kilogram (2.2 pounds) of pure silver, commemorating the 500th anniversary of the accession of Henry VIII, who reigned from 1509 until his death in 1547. This is also one of the world’s rarest coins, since only 200 gem proof pieces were made. Each kilo coin comes in a luxurious presentation case, featuring an individually numbered plaque and booklet incorporating a Certificate of Authenticity.
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American Eagles Swing
Coin Values
Unlike the market for classic United States coins, where the market is becoming increasingly picky about quality, the market for modern coins still in their government packages is more about supply and demand than connoisseurship. The past several months have seen wild fluctuations in the prices of Proof American Eagle gold coins and to a lesser extent the Proof American Eagle silver counterparts. Heavy demand at the wholesale level is driving this market. At the apex of the Proof American Eagle market several months ago, dealers were paying $2,200 per ounce for Proof American Eagle gold coins in their original boxes with certificates of authenticity.
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Politics and Currency
High Country News
To be sure, Grant’s military career as commander of Union forces in the Civil War is much more distinguished than his political career, which was marked by corruption. But Grant was personally honest, and he tried to institute a more peaceful Indian policy while attempting to preserve the rights of newly freed slaves in the South. He came down hard on one domestic terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan. Besides that, the portraits on our currency do not reflect the rankings of presidents, since neither Alexander Hamilton ($10) or Benjamin Franklin ($100) was ever president. The $2 bill (Thomas Jefferson) is so rarely circulated that store clerks look askance when you use one.
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Try First Issues When You Need a Challenge
Numismaster
Need a change of pace? Collecting can be more than filling holes in an album, or crossing off items on your want list. A creative approach to numismatics can enable a collector to build a unique collection that has its own challenges. A set of United States coins of their first year of issue makes an impressive, and different, collection. Some coins are very easy to find, maybe in change, while others are more scarce and expensive. Some fans of type collecting acquire a first year of design type coin of some series to spice up their sets.
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U.S. Government to Unveil New $100 Note on April 21
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
The new design for the $100 note will make its debut on Wednesday, April 21 during a ceremony at the Department of the Treasury’s Cash Room. The U.S. government redesigns currency in order to stay ahead of counterfeiters and protect the public. Decisions about the redesign of each denomination are guided by the government’s close evaluation of the range of ongoing counterfeit threats, whether from digital technology or traditional printing presses. The unveiling of the $100 note is the first step in a global multi-government agency public education program implemented by the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board and the U.S. Secret Service, to educate those who use the $100 note about its changes before it begins circulating.
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Auction House Seeks Return of Treasure Sold By Accident
Sky News
An auction house is fighting for the return of a collection of treasures which belonged to Agatha Christie after mistakenly selling it inside a trunk for a thousand times less than its value. A fan of the writer bought the leather trunk, thought to have belonged to the author, for £100 at an auction by Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood in 2006. But the buyer, Jennifer Grant, recently discovered a locked box inside had been secretly hiding jewellery and coins worth up to £100,000. The chest which bears the initials ‘C.M.M’ – those of Agatha Christie’s mother – was sold following the death of the author’s only daughter, Clara Margaret Miller.
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Canada To Change $1 and $2 Coin Composition
CTV News
Did you know those loonies and toonies jangling in your pocket cost 30 cents a coin to make? But under the government’s plans outlined in Budget 2010, a new technology to make them will cut production costs significantly, saving the feds up to $15 million a year. The government is planning to change the composition of our $1 and $2 coins and instead use a “less expensive patented multi-ply plated steel technology.” It’s the same technology being used to make our smaller, shiny change, and the coins will be calibrated to the same weight as they are currently, so they’ll still work in vending machines.
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Coin Prices Don’t Alway Remain That High
Numismaster
Whatever goes up either must or might come down. It’s probably one of those scientific rules I never bothered to learn in school, but it certainly is true. More often than not something that goes up will either come down or at minimum it will not keep going up at the same pace. I have seen it happen over and over again and so have you whether it’s a NASA rocket or the stock you just bought that could not lose. Interestingly enough, however, where coins and coin prices are concerned we have many times acted like prices had only one direction and that was up.
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Japan 47 Prefectures Coin Program
Japan Mint
To mark the 60th Anniversary of Enforcement of the Local Autonomy Law, we launched “Japan 47 Prefectures Coin Program” in 2008. In this program, we will have issued silver coins and bi-color clad coins of 47 prefectures in Japan for several years. Obverse is each prefecture’s own design and reverse design is all the same. Through this program, we hope you have interest not only in our coins but also in Japanese own history, nature, culture, and others.
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A Collaborative Effort to Provide Digital Representation of Numismatic Concepts
Nomisma
Nomisma.org is a collaborative effort to provide stable digital representations of numismatic concepts and entities, for example the generic idea of a coin hoard or an actual hoard as documented in the print publication An Inventory of Greek Coin Hoards (IGCH). Nomisma.org provides a short, often recognizable, URI for each resource it defines and presents the related information in both human and machine readable form. Creators of digital content can use these stable URIs to build a web of linked knowledge that enables faster acquisition and analysis of well-structured numismatic data.
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