News Archive (2008)

December	November	October
September	August

International News - October 2008

The Brackley Hoard Of Silver Groats Coins to be Sold
By Morton and Eden Ltd

London auctioneers Morton & Eden expect bids of £30,000 for coins found in field

In the summer of 1465, as the Wars of the Roses raged, an unknown person hid his worldly wealth in a secret location in a Northamptonshire field and went into hiding. He never returned to claim his money.

Twenty years ago in 1989 the Austrian State Mint passed from the Treasury into the ownership of the central bank. The mint was given the freedom to produce and sell products in accordance with the demands of the modern numismatic and investment markets.

A number of valuable ecclesiastical treasures given to a former Archbishop of Canterbury have been found dumped in a river.

A sellout punctuated by temporary failure of the U.S. Mint’s Web site and a backed up telephone system characterized the offering of the Lincoln Coin and Chronicles set that began at noon Eastern Daylight Time Oct. 15.

No Limit for Buffalo
By Numismatic News

No limits were imposed by the Mint as it planned to begin accepting orders for the proof 2009 one-ounce Buffalo gold coin Oct. 29.

Perhaps the Mint thinks the high price will deter an overwhelming number of orders.

Denmark’s national bank has released the first denomination of a brand new bank note series, a 50 krone.

For some months possible designs for the new issues by artist Karin Birgitte Lund have been posted at www.nation albanken.dk, the Web site of Danmarks Nationalbank. Karin won the right to design the new notes in a contest conducted in January 2007.

The 13 Mexican local issues that I mentioned were on order in last month’s issue arrived and I bought four of them. They are the basis for this month’s column. The six San Martin medals I ordered also arrived, although I erred in that one is not a San Martin medal. Probably the first time anybody ever purchased something in error.

Five numismatic organizations issued a warning about the threat posed by Chinese-made counterfeit coins to unsuspecting consumers.

The American Numismatic Association, Professional Numismatists Guild, Industry Council for Tangible Assets, Numismatic Guaranty Corp. and the Professional Coin Grading Service issued the consumer advisory.

I found Tim Day’s Sept. 22 “Viewpoint” predicting doom and gloom for coin collecting to be of interest, perhaps about 10 to 15 years behind the times, but of interest.

There were three particular points he made I’d like to address here, all of which I’ve heard before.

His first statement of interest is, “When you try to sell your coins back to the dealer community, all of a sudden your treasures are now common junk.”

Analysis of numismatic auctions conducted during the last two weeks of October points to several trends.

First, prices for many coins are holding up beautifully, as though there's no reason to be concerned with the economic storm the world is experiencing. Many people keep much of their money in areas they understand, like stocks, real estate and coins, and often they don't venture into multiple investment types.