Coin Talk

Some coins seem to have been created to immediately catch the eye, to command center stage by their sheer magnitude. This is one such coin, which was clearly not intended for everyday use. To the contrary, its creation is a product of the time in Brazil, in the state of Minas Gerais, in southeastern Brazil, where gold was being extracted in the rivers, streams and fields in unprecedented amounts in the 1720s.




Lisbon and the Tagus River, 1572

In terms of natural resources, Brazil was gold rich and silver poor. Gold poured out of Portugal's colony as a virtual river to Lisbon, much the same way silver and gold flowed to Spain from her colonies to Seville, Vigo and beyond. The gold and silver from the New World played a large part in financing the economic growth and power of Europe, filling the coffers not only of Spain and Portugal, but also the coffers of governments and banks in the United Provinces, France, Belgium, England and Italy...

Just thought I would share. I had submitted an article to the ANA and while it didn't get picked to be in the Numismatist they recently published it their new Reading Room. They really made it look nice too. I'm happy.

https://readingroom.money.org/the-hudson-fulton-celebration-medal/

I was able to make some arrangements with Ian at Great Collections to play with some pretty cool stuff at the ANA show.

I did a deep dive into the United States Mint's foreign coinage contracts and communications with South Korea.

The U.S. Archives are awesome!

I only wish the Korean archives was as transparent and open..

Korean Coins at the United States Mint

Dahlonega, Georgia

I recently visited the city of Dahlonega, Georgia. The area has been on my must-see list for quite a while for several reasons - “there’s gold in them thar hills”; there was a branch mint of the U.S. Mint located here; hiking; wine tasting. The numismatic angle is what put the place on the map for me. I’ve cobbled together a few notes about the area - enjoy and please post pictures of any and all Dahlonega coins!!!


Fun fact: The name Dahlonega is from the Cherokee-language word Dalonige, meaning “yellow” or “gold”.

Georgia Gold Belt & Georgia Gold Rush

The largest quantities of gold...

Not doing much active collecting these days, but I still pore over the 10 cent bins.


From top L:
Australia pennies 1936, 1942
Australia 50 cents 1978 (worth $.33 face?)
New Zealand penny 1940 (nice condition)
Spain 10 centimos 1878
Portugal 10 escudos 1988

UK pennies 1889, 1898, 1900, 1916, 1920x2, 1921, 1929, 1936, 1937, 1948
UK halfpennies 1917, 1928
Ireland penny 1935
China 10 cash Qing, Republic (I'd have to check the subtype, but pretty worn)
Luxembourg 25 centimes 1946, 1947
Switzerland 20 rappen 1959, 1970, 1975x2 (About $0.20 face value each?)
Germany 1941 5 pfennig

France 10 centimes 1856x2
France 5 centimes 1924 (nice condition)
Netherlands 5 cents 1979 (fun copper toning)
Italy 5 centesimi 1922
India 1 anna 1918
Santa Clara VTA token, 1 ride
Norway 1 krone 1966

Mexico 50 centavos 1965
Mexico 20 centavos 1967
Argentina 1 centavo 1985
Argentina 50 centavos 1952
Argentina 25 pesos 1965
Argentina 1 peso 1960
Colombia 10 centavos 1959, 1964...

A pair of Republican Quinarii I’ve been wanting for a few years now...especially the first one…

I finally found the right ones in Jacquier Auction 51 last week. (Sammlung R.L., a multi-generation family collection, formed c. 1890s-2010.)

(So, not actually mine yet, just coins I’ve won at auction.)

C. Fundanius AR Quinarius (1.67g). Crawford 326/2.


T. Cloelius AR Quinarius (1.75g). Crawford 332/1a.




What makes them interesting:

These are the first coins to depict a bound captive and trophy (what Lauren Kinnee [2016, 2018] calls the “trophy tableau monument” -- or just "trophy tableau"). Trophies appeared on Greek coins, but the captives were a Roman innovation -- a succinct representation of their imperialistic outlook and attitudes toward non-Romans.

In this case, the trophies (mannequins adorned w/ captured weapons, armor, carnyxes) are also being crowned by...

Late last December [2023], I decided to take a road trip to visit all the coin shops I could while driving back home from California to Colorado. My goal was to find as many cool Dansco products and coins as I could. As well as meet other coin collectors.

Four states, 1500 miles, 23 coins shops, a disastrous hotel stay, and 10 days later, I arrived back home with:

Dozens of albums & pages, 15 lbs of world coins, 200 world current notes, and many stories to share.




...

Padre Junipero Serra 250th Anniversary National Commemorative Medal of the United States

A bit of history in a medal.

Over the past few years, I have been on a “mission” to visit all 21 of the Spanish Missions in California. As of August 2023, I have visited 13 of the 21. Here are pictures of my favorites so far (in terms of architecture, preservation, museum quality, etc.).



Several of the missions had the Padre Junipero Serra 250th Anniversary National Commemorative Medal on display in their museums. Having lived here in California for 35 years I can’t help but to have heard of Padre Junipero Serra and the California Missions. I had not, however, heard of or seen this medal before. I also...

Tonight was one of Legend's Regency auctions (the “boutique” sales they hold about once every two months) and there were plenty of Morgans (as usual). What I found interesting is that many of these were very familiar. I often have seen a few Morgans that I have previously bid on pop up but tonight there were many. So I figured it would be interesting to compare the results.

The first is a nice semi-pl 1880-S. This coin I first saw on Instagram in an NGC MS 64 star holder. It was cracked out and sent to PCGS, where it also got an MS 64. Someone later upgraded it to an MS 65 and sent to Great Collections (April 2020), where it brought 1,293.75 (when including the buyer's fee). Tonight at Legend it ended at 1,204.38 (when including the buyer's fee). Given that the market was still queasy in early 2020 (before taking off in the following months of that year), this isn't a great result.

GC (April 2020): 1,293.75
Legend: 1,204.38...