John Kraljevich is striking out on his own, starting a numismatic business named John Kraljevich Americana and Numismatics.

“As a wide-eyed boy of 11 years, I resolved that by the age of 30 I’d be either the Phillies starting third baseman or an independent professional numismatist,” Kraljevich said, citing Q. David Bowers as a role model and mentor.

Kraljevich’s new firm will be based in New York City and specialize in early American historical items. In particular, he intends to work with Colonial, pre-federal, and early U.S. Mint coins up to the introduction of steam; early American paper money; American historical medals and unusual paper and metallic Americana.

The Higgins Foundation and Museum has announced the publication of the reference book Iowa National Bank Notes, A Comprehensive Census of the Notes and History of the Banks by James C. Ehrhardt and Steven J. Sweeney.

The book presents detailed information on the census of 11,058 reported Iowa notes. This is about 3,000 more notes than previously published sources contain.

Listings for each note detail type, denomination, serial numbers, plate position letter, Friedberg number, condition, bank signatures and pedigrees to the Higgins Museum and other public institutions or events. Data summarizing the census by town, county, note type and Treasury signatures are also listed.

A 32-page chapter provides full-color images of all known types of Iowa notes, as well as many rare and interesting notes. Capsule histories of several large hoards are given by authors who were involved with them. The book also offers a study of the growth and decline of banks. Case studies are provided on the Abram Rutt National Bank and the 1932 bank holiday in the town of Nevada.

By University of Virginia - UVA Today

On Aug. 30, the United States Mint is releasing the latest in its series of gold coins honoring the spouses of American presidents. Because Thomas Jefferson had been a widower for 19 years prior to beginning his presidency, there was no First Lady to honor. Instead, his coin depicts Lady Liberty on the obverse, and on the reverse, an image of his monument, overlaid with his famed epitaph: “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.”

In observation of the coin’s release and celebration of Jefferson’s beloved “Academical Village,” below is a sampling of Thomas Jefferson quotes relating to the great labor of his later years, the establishment of the University of Virginia. They are drawn from
“The Jefferson Cyclopedia: A Comprehensive Collection of the Views of Thomas Jefferson,” available through the U.Va. Library at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/foley/. (more…)

Back in April we reported on Butch Parrish of Virginia finding a planchet in a roll of Philadelphia George Washington Presidential dollars. Now another Numismatic News reader, Thomas P. Van Zeyl of Illinois reports finding a planchet in a roll of 2007 Washington dollars from Denver.

Van Zeyl supplied an image of the planchet, seen to have the raised upset rim diagnostic to a planchet, which is the proper term for a blank after it has been run through the upset mill or rimmer.

Now the Senate and the House have acted on the “Native American $1 Coin Act,” which would add scenes from our American Indian past to our current dollar coinage, and a linguistic battle has emerged that could well prevent the measure from becoming law.

At stake is the pronunciation and spelling of the name of Lewis and Clark’s great heroine, Sacagawea (Senate bill) or Sakakawea (House version).

Introduced May 17 by Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mo., H.R. 2358 moved to rapid House passage June 12, and was received in the Senate the following day. S. 585 was introduced Feb. 14 of this year by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., with a goal of replacing “the designs on the obverse the so-called ‘Sacagawea design’” with new ones honoring all Native Americans.