Canada Issues Latest Notes in Plastic Money Series

The Bank of Canada has unveiled the latest bills in its new polymer note series, the $5 and $10 denominations, a move that comes as it highlights progress made in the fight against counterfeit currency. 

The new $5 note features images of Canadarm2 and Dextre — robotic contraptions that help to build and maintain the International Space Station. The space station's . . .

Read more at CBC News

A Look at the World's Weirdest Money

Canada's New Plastic Currency

From talking JFK coins to glow-in-the-dark quarters, here's a look at some of the world's weirdest money . . .

Read more at The Week

SS Central America Treasure Hunter Hunted by U.S. Federal Marshals

The search for a treasure hunter who found sunken gold and then stiffed his partners by vanishing with the loot could be coming to a highway near you.

The U.S. Marshals Service began using alerts on digital billboards in Ohio and Florida late last month to locate fugitive treasure hunter Tommy Thompson, who remains wanted after failing to appear in an Ohio court last year following his 1987 discovery of millions of dollars in gold bars and coins from the SS Central America, a . . .

Read more at Fox News

NGC Security Image Archive Reaches 7 Million Coins

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NGC security images show the obverse and reverse of a coin in its NGC holder immediately after encapsulation 

 SARASOTA, Fla. (April 29, 2013) – Numismatic Guaranty Corporation® (NGC®) announced that its online certification verification database includes images for more than 7 million NGC-certified coins. Accessible for free through the “Verify NGC Certification” tool on the . . .

Read more at Numismatic Guaranty Corporation

Royal Mint Issues Silver “Year of the Snake” Coin

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Just months after the successful launch of a new fineness of 99.99 gold and 99.9 silver in their highly-regarded bullion range, The Royal Mint has announced an innovative strategic partnership with precious metals dealer A-Mark to distribute a version of their traditional 1oz Silver Britannia Bullion coin, specially designed to celebrate the Chinese ‘Year of the Snake’.

Shane Bissett, The Royal Mint’s Director of Bullion and Commemorative Coin said . . .

Read more at The Royal Mint

Avoiding Counterfeit Gold and Silver

In March 2012, a 1 kilo tungsten gold bar turned up in the United Kingdom.

Then in September 2012 there were reports on a slew of 10 oz tungsten gold bars bought and sold in New York's jewelry district.

The big problem with these news reports is that they have given little to no solution on . . .

Read more at Resource Investor

Tortugas Shipwreck Treasure Revealed

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., a pioneer in the field of deep-ocean exploration, has published a new series of scientific papers on the Tortugas shipwreck which was originally excavated in 1990 and 1991.

The Tortugas shipwreck is believed to be the remains of the 117-ton Buen Jesús Nuestra Señora del Rosario, one of the vessels sailing with the 1622 Tierra Firme treasure fleet bound for Spain.

The papers are included in . . .

Read more at Odyssey Marine Exploration

Gold and Silver Not to be Legal Tender in Arizona

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PHOENIX - Gov. Jan Brewer refused Thursday to make Arizona the second state in the nation to declare privately minted gold and silver coins, bars and ingots to be legal tender in the state.

In vetoing the measure, Brewer said she shares the concerns of proponents that the dollar isn't worth what it used to be. And she said it's likely to get worse . . .

Read more at Arizona Daily Star

Family Discovers Treasure in Hidden Safe

Last week, a Tennessee family embarked on a treasure hunt straight out of the movies -- and their amazing discoveries were posted to Reddit last night.

Just over a week ago, Reddit user evilenglish posted that he'd discovered a 'secret safe' in his grandparents' old farmhouse in Tennessee.

The poster was helping his family clear out the house to prepare it for sale when he noticed a block of concrete on the . . .

Read more at Huffington Post

Baseball Hall of Famers to Judge Coin Design

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Joe Morgan, Brooks Robinson, Ozzie Smith, Don Sutton and Dave Winfield to Judge Obverse Design

(COOPERSTOWN, NY) – Five of the game’s greatest players of the 20th century will help select the design of the coin destined to become a favorite of baseball fans and coin collectors for . . .

Read more at National Baseball Hall of Fame

Atheists Sue to Remove 'In God We Trust'from U.S. Currency

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The 1864 two-cent coin was the first to display "In God We Trust." 

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), is suing the United States Treasury Department to remove the words "In God We Trust" from all U.S. currency, because they claim the motto is offensive to nonreligious citizens. 

Nineteen plaintiffs and the FFRF filed the lawsuit, Newdow v. Congress in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Feb. 1. The civil action claims the motto In God We Trust violates . . .

Read more at The Christian Post

The Least Valuable Coin in the World

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You wouldn't think an entire country could turn on a dime, but after 155 years, Canada has finally turned on the penny.

According to National Post, the Canadian government has halted distributing pennies to financial institutions, bringing the tawny, maple-leaf-adorned coin one big step closer to total extinction. The Canadian Press reported . . .

Read more at The Huffington Post

Pieces of Eight from West Cornwall Shipwreck Sold

Coins recovered from a West Cornwall shipwreck that still inspire visions of pirates and buried treasure have sold at auction.

The 17th Century Cob and piece of eight were recovered from the wreck of HMS Association, lost at sea in . . .

Read more at Falmouth Packet

Coin Collector May Have Only 1912 Buffalo Nickel

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AMERICUS — In 1960, when Chuck Wachob was 17, he worked at a bank in Middletown, Pa., handling bags of money from the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. His job was specifically to roll coins for the bank to use.

At that time he was an amateur coin collector. He had an eye particularly for buffalo nickels. When he would . . .

Read more at Americus Times-Recorder

Audit at N.Y. Fed Find Gold Purer Than Thought

NEW YORK -- The U.S. government’s gold in New York is safe in a vault underneath Manhattan, and some of the precious metal there is purer than previously thought.

That’s according to a first-ever audit conducted last year by the Treasury Department of U.S. gold on deposit at Federal Reserve banks in New York and . . .

Read more at The Los Angeles Times

Minting Coins Cost U.S. Taxpayers $436 Million: Chart of the Day

Pennies and nickels have cost more than their face value to mint since 2006, resulting in a loss of at least $436 million to U.S. taxpayers.

The chart of the day shows that in 2012, the penny cost almost 2 cents to make and the nickel more than . . .

Read more at Bloomberg

Discovery Channel to Air Recovery of 48 Tons of Silver from the Gairsoppa Shipwreck

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Tampa, FL - February 7, 2013 - Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NasdaqCM: OMEX), pioneers in the field of deep-ocean exploration, will be featured on Discovery Channel’s SILVER RUSH premiering with three back-to-back episodes on February 24 at 8-11 PM ET.

Film crews for the Discovery Channel series were onboard Odyssey’s ships during 2012 operations and captured the record-breaking recovery of 48 tons of silver bullion from the Gairsoppa site.

Read more at shipwreck.net

Rare Coin Belonging to Deceased Mountaineer Found in Attic

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A man who died in a climbing accident unknowingly bequeathed a valuable inheritance to his family - a rare coin struck after the turbulent birth of the United States.

The humble half-cent coin, minted in 1796, lay undiscovered for 50 years inside a matchbox before it was found by the family of Mark Hillary during a clean-out.

The coin fetched . . .

Read more at the International Business Times

National Collector's Mint Lied About Ground Zero Silver in WTC Commemorative Coins

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The Federal Trade Commission is coming down hard on a company seeking to cash in on phony 9/11 memorabilia.

National Collector's Mint, based out of Port Chester, NY, was advertising a 9/11 commemorative coin that purportedly contained actual silver from ground zero.

In fact, the silver was just an imitation . . .

Read more at The Daily Mail

U.S. Mint Sells Out 2013 American Eagle Silver Coin

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They may not be making any platinum coins, and they may not be able to sell their presidential dollars, but the U.S. mint has reportedly sold out of its 2013 American Eagle silver coin.

However, sales so far this month have yet to . . .

Read more at MarketWatch