Coin News for February 18, 2010

By Tim Shuck on Thursday, February 18, 2010
Filed Under: Coin News Daily

Buffalo and Moravia Duke It Out Over Millard Fillmore
Wall Street Journal
Buffalo and Moravia, N.Y., are vying for a piece of the Millard Fillmore action. The two communities both claim this mostly forgotten president, whose very name is associated with mediocrity, and whose oft-cited greatest achievement—installing a bathtub in the White House—was a hoax perpetrated by the writer H.L. Mencken. The U.S. Mint this week is releasing the Millard Fillmore presidential dollar coin, with an official launch ceremony on Thursday in Moravia (pop. 4,000), near his birthplace. Some people in Buffalo are miffed.
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Minting the Medals on Sussex Drive
Ottawa Citizen
The athletes standing on the podium in Vancouver will receive gold, silver and bronze medals made at the Royal Canadian Mint on Sussex Drive. For the athletes, they represent the highest achievement in their sport. At the mint, they are celebrated as the pinnacle of craftsmanship. “Their true journey starts now,” says Renato Romozzi, the mint’s design co-ordinator. “When these medals find their rightful owners, they are going to represent Canada all over the world. We’re so proud. They’re such beautiful medals.” The mint assembled 34 engineers, engravers, die technicians, machinists and production experts to make the 615 Olympic and 399 Paralympic medals.
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Classic Greek Coins
NGC
We now advance our survey of Greek silver coins to Asia Minor and the Levant, areas now mainly occupied by the nations of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Though not part of the Greek homeland, it was heavily colonized by Greeks, many of whom were familiar with these regions through trade. Many different cultures were represented in this part of the world, including Greeks, Persians, Phoenicians, Samaritans, Jews and Egyptians, to name just a few. A great variety of coinage was struck, and we’ve narrowed it down to merely 10 major types that would make an excellent starter collection.
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Bill Would Ban Federal Currency in South Carolina
The Palmetto Scoop
South Carolina will no longer recognize U.S. currency as legal tender, if State Rep. Mike Pitts has his way. Pitts, a fourth-term Republican from Laurens, introduced legislation earlier this month that would ban what he calls “the unconstitutional substitution of Federal Reserve Notes for silver and gold coin” in South Carolina. If the bill were to become law, South Carolina would no longer accept or use anything other than silver and gold coins as a form of payment for any debt, meaning paper money would be out in the Palmetto State.
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Early Czech Silver Coins Go On Display
Radio Praha
Some of the earliest silver coins discovered in the Czech lands feature in a new exhibition that has just begun at the National Museum. Many were minted in Prague, and some were found during reconstruction work at Prague Castle. And, says the show’s curator, the coins were used in the buying and selling of slaves. “Unique Bohemian and Moravian Silver Treasures from around the Year 1000” is the title of the exhibition, which is on at the National Museum’s New Building, just off the top of Wenceslas Square. Its curator Luboš Polanský told me more about the show.
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Former Coin Dealer Tom Noe Appeals Conviction
Cleveland.com
Tom Noe. the imprisoned rare coin dealer and political operative now serving 18 years in prison for raiding a $50 million investment portfolio he had managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to overturn his conviction. Noe was once a well-known Republican kingmaker from the Toledo area who triggered a nationally watched scandal in 2005 that led to the conviction of 18 others for minor and major offenses.
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About the Author

Tim Shuck is a life-long Midwestern resident, and started collecting coins after finding an Indian Head cent on the ground at his childhood farm home. Additional encouragement came from looking through a collection of well-worn late 19th and early 20th century coins kept by his grandfather in an old leather coin purse. Current collecting interests include U.S. types from the Civil War era through the early 1930's, and Colonial and Early American coins.