US Mint to Unveil Abraham Lincoln Commemorative Coin Designs on 145th Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address
US Mint
United States Mint Deputy Director Andy Brunhart will unveil the 2009 Abraham Lincoln Commemorative Coin designs on Wednesday, November 19, 2009, at 10:30 a.m. (ET), during the Dedication Day Ceremony at Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The ceremony and unveiling will take place on the 145th anniversary of the day that Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address. Surcharges from sales of the coins are authorized to be paid to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission to further its work.
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Tour of Errors Shows Interesting Problems
By Ken Potter, Numismatic News
John Rising of Missouri sent in a No Date Wheat cent with a very interesting, rarely seen, error type. At first glance, I knew it was a Brockage-Counter-Brockage strike, but not exactly how it occurred. According to Alan Herbert, even just a Counter-Brockage is one of those error types that you have try to visualize the sequence of what happened step by step to fully comprehend the cause.
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Ancient Chinese coins on display at Eretz Israel Museum
JERUSALEM POST
Some 3,000 years ago, the Shang Dynasty (1700-1027 BCE) in China was using cowries as money. Toward the end of that era, the first coins appeared, except that they weren’t the round coins we’re familiar with. Those only made their appearance around the fourth century BCE. No, those first Chinese coins looked like spades and knives and made their appearance around the eighth century BCE.
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Collecting quarters is fun, but don’t expect a big payout
Herald Net
Time is up, folks. Some of us who dawdled along for 10 years, tossing state quarters in big jars, have to get the lead out. Actually, it’s time to get the nickel-copper-clad out. That’s what state quarters are made from. Hawaii is on the streets. It’s the 50th and last coin in the United States Mint’s 50 State Quarters Program.
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Seated Liberty 50¢s rise
By Mark Ferguson for COIN VALUES
Values for Seated Liberty half dollars, in all grades, are continuing their steady climb higher. With a few exceptions, this rising trend in values is gradual with no substantial jumps. The Seated Liberty design type stretches from 1837 through 1891 and constitutes the largest design series in U.S. coins, because it encompasses six denominations from half dimes through dollars.
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Coins struck from rusted dies show corrosion detail
Coin World
Among coinage struck in the first century of the U.S. Mint’s full-scale operations, beginning in 1793, it is not uncommon to encounter coins struck from dies that rusted because of improper storage.Some coins were struck for circulation from those rusted dies. Other pieces exhibiting rust contamination were struck as restrikes at dates later than the date on the coin, using uncanceled dies sold by the Mint as scrap metal.
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New Zealand Series Honors Iconic Bird
By Kerry Rodgers, World Coin News
New Zealand has announced a new annual series of legal tender coins to be issued over the next three years to both celebrate and promote conservation of New Zealand’s iconic kiwi - that chicken-sized, endangered, half-blind bird that can’t fly, has hairy feathers, nostrils in the end of its nose and lays the largest egg in the world for its body size.
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Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee Meets November 24
US Mint
The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) will hold a public meeting at noon (ET) on Monday, November 24, 2008, at the Thayer Hotel, 674 Thayer Road, West Point, New York, 10996. The purpose of the meeting is to conduct business related to the CCAC’s responsibility to advise the Secretary of the Treasury on themes and designs pertaining to United States coinage.
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