U.K.’s Royal Mint Doubles Production of Gold Coins
Bloomberg
The U.K.’s Royal Mint, established in the 13th century, more than doubled gold-coin production last year as investors sought to diversify their assets and hedge against a weaker dollar and accelerating inflation.Output rose to 125,469 ounces from 46,315 ounces a year before, according to data obtained by Bloomberg News. Gold averaged $974 (612 pounds) an ounce last year. Fourth-quarter production rose 54 percent to 25,078 ounces, the data show.
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Hallaton Roman coin is ‘oldest found in Britain
BBC
A silver coin dug up as part of a hoard is the oldest piece of Roman money found in Britain, experts believe. The coin, which has been dated to 221BC, was found near Hallaton in Leicestershire with 5,000 other coins, a helmet and decorated bowl. Uncovered by archaeologists in 2000, the coin’s significance has just been recognised, the county council said. It said the coin, which has the Goddess Roma on one side, was “something very special”.
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50 State Quarters Program Earned $6.3 Billion in Seigniorage
Coin Update
The United States Mint reflected on the success of their 50 State Quarter Program in their recently issued 2009 Annual Report. The final coin of the series featuring Hawaii was issued on November 3, 2008, within the first quarter of the US Mint’s last fiscal year.
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Coin collector constructs Titanic model
Czech News Agency
Czech collector Marek Satka has built a 1.3m long model of Titanic made of 25,500 old Czech 10-heller, 20-heller and 50-heller coins.
His work on the Titanic lasted 16 months. Satka, aged 28, first collected the coins when they were still valid. Being of little value, people often wanted to get rid of them. He started his new hobby in 2003 when the 10-heller and 20-heller coins stopped to be used.
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Are Unknown Treasures Buried Within Your Old Coins?
Zyrus Press
NEW BOOK -Coming upon money is always financially rewarding. However, inherited coins could unknowingly be more than their face value. With the direction of numismatic expert Jeff Ambio, non-coin collectors can prevent making the heartbreaking mistake of spending a coin potentially worth over a hundred times its face value in a parking meter or to pay for groceries. What to do with Granddaddy’s Coins provides an easy guide to understanding how to assess a coin’s value and how to obtain a maximum profit.
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History of coins, future of hobby interests collector Jim Smalley
Leader Post
The Greek god is looking a bit green around the edges, but the copper coin has held up pretty well considering it’s the oldest in the collection. Back in the days when money might have read “in gods we trust” (long before the Americans coined the phrase), the ancient coin was issued under Ptolemy II Philadelphos, King of Egypt between 285 and 246 B.C.
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Stunning New Coin for Australia Day
Royal Australian Mint
In the lead-up to Australia Day, the Assistant Treasurer, Senator Nick Sherry, today announced the design of the newest coin to go into the hands of Australians. Commemorating and celebrating Australia Day and designed by the Royal Australian Mint in consultation with the National Australia Day Council, this 50 cent coin marks the spirit of this significant national celebration and will soon be available around the country.
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SC $10 Seal Altered
By Peter Huntoon, Bank Note Reporter
In what constitutes one of the most bizarre occurrences involving the paper money issued during World War II, black marketers, or other illicit holders, spuriously altered American $10 Yellow Seal Silver Certificates into Blue Seals. This was done by chemically removing the yellow seal from the notes, and overprinting a new blue seal in its place from a counterfeit die.
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By Tim Shuck for CoinLink

Political favoritism, incompetence, corporate greed — phrases right out of news headlines regarding the current financial crisis. It would be easy to believe that the present situation is unique, unprecedented in our history, but that is likely not true. From 1893 to roughly the end of the century there was another crisis in the American economy. It has been estimated that as many as 15,000 businesses, 600 banks, and 74 railroads failed; and that 10%, perhaps even 20%, of American were unemployed in the worst of those years. Causes of that debilitating event included declining building construction; depressed agricultural production, at least partially attributable to adverse weather; an overbuilt and over capitalized railroad system; and (a numismatic connection at last) the gold standard and monetary policy. But, in a bizarre reversal of the situation today, the U.S. government was bailed out by private citizens.

The events that culminated in the Panic of 1893 had their start in the early 1870s. Following the end of the Franco-German War, Germany established a national gold standard and placed 8,000 tons of silver on the world market. The result was predictable: silver prices declined, particularly in reference to gold, at the same time vast amounts of the metal were being mined in the American West. There was one potential bright spot: silver was the preferred medium of payment in trade with the Orient, particularly China. To better position U.S. coins for that purpose, the U.S. Liberty Seated dollar was discontinued by the Mint Act of February 12, 1873, and a new, heavier Trade dollar was introduced.

But, with the availability of low-priced silver, coupled with a reduced need for silver by the Treasury for coinage, miners and other silver interests foresaw the inevitable result. Walter Breen describes their response: “the silver lobby and their ignorant partisans nationwide called the bill the “Crime of ‘73″. As if to add insult to injury, Congress in June 1874 demonetized all previous silver dollars and revoked their legal tender status” (Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, 1988). Not about to give up, the silver lobby intensively lobbied Congress in the next few years, vying with those who instead favored a gold standard. Their persistence was rewarded on February 28, 1878, in the form of the Bland-Allison Act, which mandated a new silver dollar and the purchase by the Treasury of millions of dollars of silver bullion each month for the production of those coins.

The euphoria of this victory for silver was short lived. While the new Morgan dollars circulated in the West and South the rest of the country generally preferred paper money. At an international monetary conference, also authorized by Bland-Allison, European delegates rejected U.S. propositions for unrestricted silver coinage under a bi-metallic standard (silver and gold); which, unsurprisingly, would have further benefited silver interests. Nevertheless, U.S. silver dollar production continued apace even though the price of silver continued to decline under a glut of bullion. Sensing that something needed to be done (sound familiar?) Congress again acted, or perhaps reacted, producing the Sherman Act of July 14, 1890. (more…)

The Andrew Jackson dollar coin released in mid-August is the seventh coin of the long-term Presidential Dollar series from the U.S. Mint. It also represents the third type of “mini-dollar” produced by the Mint since the Susan B. Anthony dollar was introduced in 1979. While popular with collectors, these small dollar coins have yet to be widely accepted by the public in spite of several government-sponsored promotional efforts. Because of this there have been renewed calls to abolish the paper one dollar bill to make the dollar coin the dollar of choice; though of course there would not really be a choice once paper dollars were removed from circulation.

Those opposed to the idea of eliminating the dollar bill often argue the aspect of convenience. There will still be higher denomination bills to carry in the wallet, so what difference does it make if there are a few ones in the mix? Dollar coin proponents counter from a perspective of cost savings. It costs about two to three times more to mint a coin than it does to print a dollar, but a coin has an estimated life span of 15 years compared to 18 months for the paper. But those coins weigh a lot more and are not as convenient to carry, say the bill proponents, and so it goes.

Though it might seem that this coin/currency debate is a fairly recent one, it has been ongoing for over thirty years. As early as 1975, near the end of the Eisenhower dollar series, the Mint commissioned the Research Triangle Institute to study coin denominations and alternative coinage systems. In its 1976 report the Institute recommended either eliminating the dollar coin, or reducing its size to save millions on production costs. Also noted was the fact that the Eisenhower dollar was not popular with the public (other than as a keepsake), most likely because it was cumbersome to carry and use due to its large size. The Institute recommended that if kept as a denomination the dollar coin should be sized between the quarter and the half dollar. (more…)