Playing Card Money Series and Crystal Raindrop showcase unique new coins; popular offerings continue

Ottawa, Ontario – History and innovative design combine to produce yet another outstanding series of Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) collector coins with the introduction of fine silver rectangular coins emulating a long-lost currency of our past: New France’s playing card money. The innovation and design creativity continues with a new crystal-embedded fine silver raindrop coin, a new Royal Effigies Series coin featuring King Edward VII, as well as gold and silver coins celebrating yet another Canadian Achievement, the world-famous IMAX film standard, among several others captivating themes.

“As the Royal Canadian Mint celebrates its centennial and as Canada celebrates other historical milestones such as the 400th anniversary of the city of Quebec, we are proud that our collector products are telling the story of Canada in fascinating new forms”, said Ian E. Bennett, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint.

“Our artisans and experts have once again succeeded in creating outstanding treasures in silver and gold which capture the imagination of coin collectors and gift givers everywhere”.

$15 PLAYING CARD MONEY SERIES – JACK OF HEARTS The days when Canadian legal tender displayed the effigies of anonymous kings and queens are a fascinating twist of Canadian history. As New France found itself short of circulation coinage in 1685, the government of the day demonstrated classic Canadian resourcefulness by seizing all playing cards in the colony and issuing officially signed cards as currency. This temporary measure continued until the British conquest of 1759. The RCM rekindles the “can do” aura of playing card money with a $15 sterling silver Jack of Hearts, the first in a new series of painted rectangular collector coins featuring a selectively gold-plated rim. Only 25,000 of these treasures of our past have been carefully crafted and designed from artwork preserved by Library and Archives Canada. This coin retails for a suggested $89.95 CDN. (more…)

By Greg Reynolds for CoinLink

This is Part 5 of my review and analysis of the auction of the Millennia collection of world coins.

The sizeable core of the post-1300 AD coins in the Millennia collection is comprised of coins of the types that were used for international trade and for trade within societies that were far from the Mints that actually issued these respective coins. A coin issue becomes an international monetary unit by being accepted as a medium of exchange in several nations. A coin issue that is an international monetary unit becomes a world currency by circulating easily as money in many societies that are far from where the coin was minted. Of course, such coins played central roles in economic history.

In Part 4, I interpreted Ira Goldberg’s plan for the Millennia collection, and I discussed how Ira emphasized the historical importance of coins, including his preferences for large coins, for coins that were intended for circulation and for coins that showcased cultural aspects of societies. Almost all serious collections of rare world coins, however, contain a large number of coins that are historically important. My theory is that it is the theme of certain types of coins having served as international monetary units, especially those that became world currencies, together with amazingly choice representatives of these types, that distinguishes the Millennia collection from almost all other very high quality collections of world coins.

In past centuries, many societies around the world used coins of the British Empire, of The Netherlands along with Dutch possessions, and/or of the Spanish Empire, not just for international trade but often also for transactions within societies (internal trade). Societies that were politically fractured or were dominated by outside forces often did not attempt to Mint their own coins, or did so to a very limited extent. In many cases, there was no need for a society to mint its own coins and the costs of doing so may have outweighed the benefits.

In the 1790s, a large number of Americans opposed the creation of a U.S. Mint because they felt that coins from abroad, especially those of the Spanish Empire, served well and a Mint would be a financial burden on the taxpayers. In 1791, legislation authorizing a U.S. Mint barely passed the House of Representatives by a vote of twenty-five to twenty-one. As late as 1802, Rep. John Randolph, an influential Congressman from Virginia, introduced legislation to abolish the U.S. Mint. (more…)

The year 2008 will mark the Bicentenary of the War of Independence that brought Spain into combat with the forces of the First French Empire and triggered the uprising of May 2, 1808.

The Royal Spanish Mint has chosen to join in the celebration of this event of importance for Spain, which marked the beginning of a new historical cycle and produced a change in the previous political systems.

The five coins come blister-packed so as to wholly preserve the engraving and luster, and are presented in a deluxe jewel case together with the respective certificate of authenticity issued by the Royal Spanish Mint.

The coins may be acquired as single items, as a silver set comprising the Cincuentin and the three 8-real coins, or as the full set consisting of all five coins.

8-Escudos Gold  

The obverse features a reproduction of the oil painting “General José de Palafox on horseback” by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes.

The reverse shows an adaptation of the engraving entitled “How brave!”, one of the most dramatic plates from Goya’s “Disasters of War” series, housed in the National Chalcography.

Cincuentín Silver

The obverse reproduces the oil painting entitled “May 3, 1808 in Madrid: the executions by firing squad on the mountain called Príncipe Pío “, painted by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes.

The reverse depicts an adaptation from Goya’s oil painting “May 2, 1808 in Madrid: the battle with the Mamelukes”, housed in the Prado Museum. (more…)

The 2008 CNA Convention will take place this week starting on Thursday the 17th and running through Sunday the 21st.

The annual event will take place at the  Crowne Plaza Hotel 101 Lyon Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1R 5T9

Ian Bennett, Master of the Royal Canadian Mint will be attending the opening of the bourse at 10:00 on Friday morning. He will then remain at the Mint’s booth for a signature period, during which he will gladly sign the Mint’s centennial book, the Annual Report or any other item you may wish to bring or purchase locally. The Royal Canadian Mint will also be exhibiting its $1 Million Dollar Gold Coin.

The Canadian Numismatic Company has been appointed as the Official Convention Auctioneer for the 2008 Ottawa CNA Convention. Catalogues are available throught their website at: www.cpnum.qc.ca. The auctions will fgeature a wide range of rare and collectible Canadian coins and currency, and will be held in three sessions.

There is also an educational Symposium to be held on Thursday the 17th as follows:
9:30 – 10:30 The Canadian Numismatic Bibliography: by Paul Petch  Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow…
10:30 – 11:30 Early tokens of a Town in East Kootenay by  Ron Greene
11:30 – 12:30 Collecting Newfoundland Decimals  by Phil Carrigan
1:30 – 2:30 Pritchard & Andrews, Ottawa Token by  Scott Douglas & Chris Faulkner
2:30 – 3:30 1859 Wide 9 Over 8 Cents  by Rob Turner
3:30 – 4:30 Recent Collector Coin Counterfeits by Henry Nienhuis
4:30 – 5:30 Commemorative Silver Dollars by Michael Turini  (more…)

By David Slone

Great figures from coinage systems of the world in ancient times.

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (646AD - 705AD) was the fifth caliph of the Umayyads, which was the ruling dynasty that built a huge medieval Islamic empire stretching west across North Africa into Spain and as far east as Pakistan. Whilst the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England lacked a written language, Abd al-Malik created the world’s first widespread uniform currency - the dinar.

Previous to his reign (685-705AD), the Arabs used silver Sassanian coins from the Persian empire and gold and copper Byzantine coins from the Byzantine or Roman empire, centered around it’s capital city, Constantinople.

Abd al-Malik had agreed to a decade long truce with the then Byzantine emperor, Justinian ll, a truce which was then broken when the emperor refused to accept al-Malik’s new Islamic coins in place of money bearing a picture of Christ or the cross.

Although the new gold dinars and silver dirhems were very similar in size and weight to the coins they replaced, their design for the day was completely revolutionary. Come 697AD the caliph had abandoned portraits of rulers or emblems of cities to adorn his coins in favor of simplistic inscriptions of verses from the Koran. (more…)