(1855-57) Kellogg & Humbert 43-Ounce Gold Ingot. Recovered From the S.S. Central America. 97 mm x 42 mm x 17 mm. CAGB-534. From the obverse or top and reading downward in vertical orientation, NO (number abbreviation in typical style) 701 followed by the rectangular, bordered incuse imprint of KELLOGG / & / HUMBERT / ASSAYERS. Below are 43.39 OZ / .911 FINE / $817.12. After a medallic turn, the serial number 701 is repeated on the back.

Q. David Bowers, in Appendix IV of the enormous A California Gold Rush History, enumerates all of the ingots recovered from the S.S. Central America, both by assayer and serial number as marked on the ingots, and by assayer and weight. The assayers represented include:

–Blake & Co. Opened in 1855, based in Sacramento, California. Only 34 ingots from this company were recovered. The company’s ingots have beveled edges and may have seen limited circulation in California.

–Harris, Marchand & Co. Operated two offices, one in Sacramento (founded 1855) and a second in Marysville, California (opened in 1856). All of their bars have a circular coin-shaped counterstamp on the front. One unique bar is known from the Marysville office. Total bars recovered: 37.

–Henry Hentsch. Hentsch, a native of Switzerland with many business connections, opened his assay office in February 1856 next door to his bank. The Guide Book speculates that many of his ingots were likely exported to Europe. Ingots recovered: 33.

–Justh & Hunter. Opened San Francisco assay office in 1855 and Marysville office in 1856, remaining in business through 1858. Ingots recovered: 86 (60 in the 4,000 series ascribed to San Francisco; 26 in the 9,000 series attributed to Marysville).

–Kellogg & Humbert The most well-known names in the coinage of California gold coins–and ingots, after the S.S. Central America recovery. That they escaped the scandals exposed by James King of William for underweight coinage gave their products currency and credibility, and as expected, their ingots constituted the majority found aboard the ship. Ingots recovered: 346, ranging in gross weight from less than 6 ounces to 934 ounces. (more…)

Royal Canadian Mint puts a shine on Montreal Canadiens Centennial Plaza opening
CNW Group
Today the Royal Canadian Mint joined the Montreal Canadiens hockey club at the unveiling of the Centennial Plaza at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Four special gold coins to be permanently displayed at the foot of monuments honouring team legends Howie Morenz, Maurice Richard, Jean Béliveau and Guy Lafleur were also unveiled.
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China to issue commemorative coins for 30th anniversary of reform
Xinhua
The People’s Bank of China, the central bank, said on Thursday it would issue a set of gold and silver coins on Dec. 10 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up drive. The set includes two varieties of gold coins — one weighing a quarter ounce while the other weighing five ounces — and one type of one-ounce silver coin, it said.
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PCGS Launches ‘CoinFactsWiki.com’
PCGS
Professional Coin Grading Service introduces CoinFacts Wiki, a public encyclopedia of U.S. and World coins located at www.CoinFactsWiki.com. The “wiki” concept allows users to create and edit virtually all pages on the website, subject to oversight by system administrators. This capability allows large volumes of up-to-date information and images to be added to the website in a short period of time, creating a massive database of information that is useful to buyers, sellers, researchers and anyone else interested in numismatics.
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Van Buren Edge Errors Reported
By Ken Potter, Numismatic News
Collectors looking for Martin Van Buren dollar error coins have been rewarded. I have a report of a 2008-P Van Buren dollar with a shifted edge inscription and other Van Buren error dollars. This continues a series of errors that began with the Washington coins. In the July 29 issue of Numismatic News I reported on a shifted edge inscription error found on a George Washington Presidential dollar. I reported upon the error type again in the Aug. 26 issue for the John Adams and James Monroe dollars and then again in the Sept. 23 issue for the Andrew Jackson dollar.
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U.S. Mint Director Rumors
Susan Headley About.com
The rumors have been flying fast and furious ever since Election Day: Who will be the next Director of the United States Mint? The U.S. Mint Director’s job is a political appointment, and most such positions traditionally change hands when a new president is elected. There has been some confusion among the members of the coin collecting community about whether the current U.S. Mint Director, Ed Moy, would have to automatically tender his resignation effective Jan. 20, 2009 (Inauguration Day).
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2008-W Platinum Eagles Gone, Order Cancellations Mount
Mint News Blog
Today, the last of the 2008-W Uncirculated Platinum Eagle offerings available from the US Mint went dark. The last to go was the one ounce coin priced at $1,069.95. Yesterday, I mentioned that this coin was listed as back ordered and might soon officially sell out. However, even if you did place an order before your the coins went off sale, you still might be out of luck.
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From Fox News

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A hobbyist with a metal detector struck both gold and silver when he uncovered an important cache of ancient Celtic coins in a cornfield in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht. “It’s exciting, like a little boy’s dream,” Paul Curfs, 47, said Thursday after the spectacular find was made public.

Archaeologists say the trove of 39 gold and 70 silver coins was minted in the middle of the first century B.C. as the future Roman ruler Julius Caesar led a campaign against Celtic tribes in the area.

Curfs said he was walking with his detector this spring and was about to go home when he suddenly got a strong signal on his earphones and uncovered the first coin. “It was golden and had a little horse on it — I had no idea what I had found,” he said. After posting a photo of the coin on a Web forum, he was told it was a rare find. The following day he went back and found another coin.

“It looked totally different — silver, and saucer-shaped,” he said. Curfs notified the city of his find, and he and several other hobbyists helped in locating the rest of the coins, in cooperation with archaeologists.

Nico Roymans, the archaeologist who led the academic investigation of the find, believes the gold coins in the cache were minted by a tribe called the Eburones that Caesar claimed to have wiped out in 53 B.C. after they conspired with other groups in an attack that killed 6,000 Roman soldiers. The Eburones “put up strong resistance to Caesar’s journeys of conquest,” Roymans said. The silver coins were made by tribes further to the north — possible evidence of cooperation against Caesar, he said. Both coin types have triple spirals on the front, a common Celtic symbol. (more…)