Coin Collecting News

In a market-leading initiative designed to help create a new generation of coin collectors, The Perth Mint has announced Young Collectors, the first Australian legal tender coin program exclusively designed, packaged and priced for 8 to 12 year-old children.

With the number of mature-aged collectors in decline around the world, Perth Mint Sales and Marketing Director Ron Currie said that the industry was in agreement that new initiatives were needed to boost participation in one of the world’s oldest hobbies.

“Young Collectors is set to tackle the challenge with a program of annual releases portraying themes appealing to children,” he said.  “It starts in 2008 with the release of 12 Australian Animal $1 coins on brightly illustrated information cards.”

Mr Currie said that the program would also appeal to adult collectors wishing to share their passion for coins.  “We’re hopeful that they will see Young Collectors as the ideal way of igniting young people’s interest in the hobby.  Consequently, we’ll be promoting the program as a great gift idea, particularly for people looking for traditional toys with educational value and enduring appeal.”

Featuring the Wedge Tailed Eagle, Grey Kangaroo, Australian Sea Lion, Palm Cockatoo, Echidna, Platypus, Ghost Bat, Common Wombat, Green Turtle, Splendid Wren, Frilled Neck Lizard and Whale Shark, Young Collectors portrays many popular Australian animals.  Each coin’s accompanying presentation card offers fascinating animal facts validated by expert staff from two leading Australian Museums. Continued

By Kathleen Duncan   Pinnacle-Rarities

The summer ANA, hosted in a various cities around the country, is the largest numismatic convention of the year. While dealers and collectors have come to expect an active show, no matter the market condition, this show exceeded the expectations of all.

The pre-show festivities began with auctions by Superior, Bowers and Merena, and Stack’s. The most notable of these was definitely the Stack’s sale, with prices realizing over $20 million. Their star performer was a sensational 1797 Draped Bust, Small Eagle Half Dollar, graded NGC MS66, claiming a robust $1.38 million.

PNG dealers began setting up tables Monday afternoon, and the festivities continued all week, with many staying until Sunday (a requirement for table holders the ANA is considering dropping). The show opens most mornings for dealers at 8AM and non-stop action continues until 7PM each evening. A typical day on the bourse means making hundreds, if not thousands of decisions each day, eating a hasty bite for lunch behind the table (sometimes conducting business simultaneously), having a late dinner at 8 or 9 PM or attending an evening auction… a bit of sleep and then repeat each day for the remainder of the week. By Friday the floor was notably quieter, as many (myself included) were ready to head home.

Heritage held the event’s official auction, realizing over $40 million in sales. Although many items fetched impressive prices, there were some bargains to be found, and a fairly high percentage of lots failed to meet consignor reserves. I don’t think this is a reflection on the market in general, but probably a result of a limited amount of available funds from the participants. Between the various auctions and the business done via private treaty, well over $100 million dollars in business was conducted last week. Below are a few of the Heritage prices that seemed surprisingly strong, even in this hot market. The first coin, the 1804 14 Stars dime, was purchased by the consignor for $161,000 in January of 2007 out of a previous Heritage auction, yielding an impressive rate of return. Continued

Experts at SPPN meeting settle four decades of uncertainty

A panel of leading numismatists determined the questionable 1853 United States Assay Office of Gold $20 proof, prooflike, and similar coins to be forgeries produced from transfer dies. The panel’s discussion was the main program at the annual meeting of the Society of Private and Pioneer Numismatists (SPPN) held in Baltimore, Maryland Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 as part of the American Numismatic Association’s World Fair of Money.

The Transfer Die Forgeries first appeared during the late 1950’s, “discovered” by Paul Franklin through a bank teller in Arizona. Franklin and John J. Ford Jr. sold hundreds of these pieces throughout the 1960’s as genuine pieces struck in San Francisco by the U.S. Assay Office in 1853. An arbitration hearing of the Professional Numismatists Guild in the late 1960’s ruled that the pieces were not proof, but could not come to an agreement on the authenticity or vintage. For the next forty years the authenticity of the Franklin Hoard pieces lay in question.

In 2006 Donald Kagin, Ph.D. and David J. McCarthy of Kagin’s, Inc. of Tiburon, Calif. were processing images of one of Kagin’s client’s collection for the upcoming 2nd edition of Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States. McCarthy noticed that the client’s unquestionably authentic 1853 Assay Office $20 bore bag marks in the same location as repeating depressions on the questionable Franklin Hoard coins. The marks of the original coin appear on all of the Franklin pieces, despite the best efforts of the forgers to evidently hide them with die polish. The panel agreed that the discovery of this authentic coin and the matching of the marks was the “smoking gun” in the case, condemning all of the Franklin pieces as the products of a one-to-one transfer die made from this authentic host coin.

At the conclusion of the discussion moderator Kagin asked the panel to accurately and succinctly title the coins in question. The experts unanimously agreed these pieces are best described as Transfer Die Forgeries. The panel also agreed efforts need to be taken to educate the numismatic community about these false coins.

The approach and decision of the panel is historic, creating a model for future forums to discuss other numismatic controversies. The SPPN would like to seek answers to other mysteries and controversies in the field of pioneer numismatics and is soliciting future topics for discussion.

The Society of Private and Pioneer Numismatists has been a non-profit organization since 1992. Membership is $35 per year and includes a subscription to the Brasher Bulletin, a thrice annual publication featuring articles by leading Private & Pioneer coinage experts and historians. S.P.P.N. is operated from the offices of Kagin’s, Inc. in Tiburon, CA. For further information, please contact Kagin’s, Inc. at 888.8KAGINS or 415.435.2601.

Spanish Coins Face Stealth Sale by Secret Museum, Frank Lorenzo Is Said to Change Hispanic Society of America

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press, in NYC: News Analysis

NEW YORK, August 6 — Under a leaking ceiling on 155th Street in West Harlem, paintings by Goya and Velasquez hang in near obscurity in the Hispanic Society of America. Surrounded by the vacant shells left by museums which have decamped to lower Manhattan, and with controversial airline investor Frank Lorenzo now taking a leading role on the board of trustees, the Hispanic Society has taken to selling off the treasures collected by its founder, Archer Milton Huntington. Last year a 13th century Koran was sold in London.

On August 6, Sotheby’s began cataloguing for immanent auction a collection of 38,000 coins which Huntington lent to the American Numismatic Society. The HSA’s board of trustees have assumed unfettered discretion to under-promote, under-protect and ultimately sell off Huntington’s collection, in a process some analogize to Lorenzo’s treatment of airlines during his heyday.

“This is to cry,” a Spanish art lover sighed during a recent visit. It didn’t have to be this way — and the coin sale could still be stopped. Potential bidders should be aware of the history, particularly how the sale may run counter to not only the spirit but also the letter of Huntington’s intent.

Despite Huntington’s transfer of the coins to the American Numismatic Society being described as a “permanent” loan, the HSA has fought and litigated to regain the coins, but only for the purpose of selling them, not for display. In early 2007, the HSA drafted a Loan Agreement which gave it the right to cancel Huntington’s transfer. In response to persistent questions from the New York correspondent of the Madrid newspaper La Razon, HSA management denied the intent to sell the coins. But in a contemporaneous series of court filings and letters to the New York State Attorney General viewed by Inner City Press, the HSA refers to its board of trustee’s January 23, 2008 resolution to “deaccession” the collection — museum terminology for selling off. Then Sotheby’s today began cataloguing the coins for sale.

During an August 6 visit to the American Numismatic Society’s new location at 75 Varrick Street, Inner City Press observed a team from Sotheby’s and a spin-off company specializing in coin sales, Morton & Eden, preparing to catalogue the coins, which number 38,000. A sworn affidavit by Sotheby’s David Redden spells out the auction house’s demands during the cataloguing process: a separate, carpeted room to which they will have their own key, Internet access and, strangely, the right to bring in their own food. Once catalogued, the coins will be sold the highest bidders. Pending a legislative proposal in New York State, A995A, which would limit the uses of “deaccession” profits, the Lorenzo-led Hispanic Society of America could put the proceeds to any use whatsoever. Continued

All the 6000 medals for the 2008 Olympics Games have arrived in the capital from the Shanghai Mint, ready for their debut on August 8. For the first time in Olympic history, the medals for the Beijing Games blend metal and jade.

Inlaying jade

The Shanghai Mint, under the China Banknote Printing and Minting Corp, works mainly in casting metal coins for circulation, and precious metal badges. It is the provider not only of the medals for the Olympic Games and Paralympics, but also of the medals for demonstration events, and commemoration badges.

For the first time in Olympic history, the medals for the Beijing Games blend metal and jade. The technology of inlaying jade into metal can be dated back to the Han Dynasty almost 2000 years ago.

Blending metal and jade is a new technique in minting coins. It is not easy to bond jade perfectly with metal. The key to the process lies in the inner layer of the medal metal and the groove of the jade ring. A seal ring is put between the inner layer and the groove to join the metal and jade together. The seal can also buffer the effect of vibration to protect the jade against impact.

Working with jade

The Jade ring must be matched with the medal metal, so it must comply with the necessary outer and inner diameters. Jade rings used for casting Olympic medals have been subject to rigorous quality controls, and those not up to the standard have been discarded.

To make use of those jade rings that do meet the quality criteria, metal medals were produced to fit the jade rings, and more than ten different sizes of seal ring were designed. Continued