News Archive (2008)

December	November	October
September	August

International News at Coins Market

Lincoln Set of Proofs Sells Out in Two Days
Numismatic News

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
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.”

U.S. investigators have cracked what they're calling a "million-dollar gold coin scam" involving counterfeit versions of the Royal Canadian Mint's famous one-ounce Maple Leaf coin.

The recent Coin World “Coin Values” (or Trends as we long-time dealers call it) features a number of price reductions in the various Liberty Head gold series. This has caused some interesting pricing anomalies that have major ramifications for collectors of rare date gold coins.

Discovered by chance, these coins are an important find, being of great historic significance. NGC was pleased to evaluate and provide protection for these great treasures.

NGC recently graded a number of gold Unites of the British monarch James I (1603–1625) from the Chipping Norton Hoard, discovered in the 1980s in an undisclosed location near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of a technological and historically significant event, The Perth Mint has released the First Man On The Moon 2009 Silver Proof ‘Orbital’ Coin. This coin is the fourth of five in a set of releases that are part of the Perth’s Orbit and Beyond series.