Odyssey Marine Exploration Responds To Recent Media Reports Following Spain's Black Swan Shipwreck Press Conference

Tampa, FL - May 8, 2008 - Following a significant amount of international media coverage based on a press conference held by the Spanish Ministry of Culture in Madrid on May 8, 2008, Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NasdaqCM: OMEX) wishes to publicly address the most frequently asked questions by media and the public.

To clarify, Odyssey was not in attendance at the press conference, which was presided over by representatives of the Spanish government as well as Spain's legal counsel. Our statements are therefore based on media reports of the actual event and Spain's Responses to the Court's Interrogatories that Spain filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on May 8, 2008.

What is Odyssey's point of view regarding Spain's definitive statement that the site code-named "Black Swan" is that of the "Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes y las Animas"?

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Stamp machines licked by too-high cost, too few users

(I can't tell you how sad that the story below makes me. Just a month or so ago the vending machine at my post office was removed. Now my main source of $1 coins is gone. The last time I used the machine in January, I was still getting 1979 Susan B. Anthony, 2000 Sacagawea, and the 2007 George Washington dollars in change. Now the vending machines are gone! . . . I went to the bank next door to try and get the new James Monroe dollar and they stopped getting the coins after James Madison. They had bags and bags of James Madison left if I wanted them, but I can forget any Presidents after him. - A.C. Dwyer)

The postage stamps are still around. But the vending machines that dispense them are going the way of the singing telegram and the Pony Express.

You will still be able to buy stamps at the counter or by using a credit or debit card at full-service Automated Postal Centers in some locations. But by May 12, all but a few of the Postal Service's coin-fed stamp machines will have vanished from area post offices, another victim of rising costs and falling patronage.

"There are two reasons why the Postal Service is removing its vending equipment," says Gary Sawtelle, a spokesman for the Central Florida district, which includes Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties. "The equipment is . . .

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Spanish Government confirms its interest in the Odyssey treasure find

A legal battle over the ownership of some 500,000 silver coins is now underway in earnest.
The Spanish Government has confirmed its aspirations over the treasure found and recovered by the United States company, Odyssey Marine Exploration.

‘It’s all ours’, said the General Director of Fine Arts, José Jiménez, who said that the silver coins and other items found in May 2007 can be claimed ‘with guarantees’ for the Spanish Government.

Jiménez said that after Spanish experts inspected some of the 500,000 silver coins, now thought to have come from the Spanish galleon ‘Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes’, off the Algarve coast in 1804, it was clear the treasure was from a boat of the Spanish Armada and Spain will recover it all. . . .

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Tampa's Odyssey Marine identifies two wrecks in court

Nearly a year after Odyssey Marine Exploration recovered roughly $500-million in coins from a shipwreck it code-named "Black Swan," the Tampa treasure-hunting company has finally gone public with the ship's suspected identity.

Odyssey said Thursday that evidence may point to the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes y las Animas, a Spanish ship that sank near Gibraltar in 1804. The disclosure — filed under seal in Tampa federal court this week but subsequently unsealed by Magistrate Judge Mark A. Pizzo — should have little impact on the protracted legal battle between Odyssey and the government of Spain as to who owns the vessel's treasure. . . .

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Presidential $1 Error Coins: James Monroe

There is no doubting that a great number of collectors continue to search through rolls of Presidential Dollars looking for error coins. Take, for example, this evidence: the coins were released on February 14, 2008, and NGC has already received a handful of submissions of error coins. While the earliest issues of the series were found without edge lettering, the more recent issues do not exhibit this error in abundance (if at all).

Instead, NGC is seeing different sorts of errors, which are as a general rule much more scarce. For example, . . .

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United States Mint Moves Forward to Create a Modern Ultra-High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin

WASHINGTON - Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson has authorized the United States Mint to issue a one-ounce ultra-high relief 24-karat gold coin, creating a 2009 version of what many have called the most beautiful gold piece ever made: the 1907 Augustus Saint-Gaudens $20 Double Eagle. The mintage of the new coin will be unlimited for one year. Among the production specifications approved by Secretary Paulson are the new coin's business-strike finish and a diameter of 27 millimeters.

Only 2009-dated coins will be minted. The coins will go on sale in early 2009, although sales may continue into 2010 if inventory exists. . . .

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How to Detect Fake Silver Eagles (coins.about.com)

Q. How Can I Avoid Silver Eagle Coin Fraud and Other Fake Silver Coins?

Coin fraud is an unfortunate reality in the coin collecting marketplace, but you can avoid buying fake silver coins, and avoid coin fraud in general, by learning how to spot fake coins. We will use a fake Silver Eagle to demonstrate some easy steps to avoid buying fake coins.

A. Avoiding coin fraud boils down to one basic point: knowledge. If you want to avoid buying fake silver coins and becoming a victim of coin fraud, you first need to learn what the genuine coin looks like. Then it's just a matter of making some comparisons, and employing a little bit of common sense. To give an example, we'll use a fake silver coin type that is being produced in large numbers in China: the fake American Silver Eagle Bullion coin.

Coin Fraud - Fake Silver Coins

Follow these 6 easy steps for detecting fake silver coins in general:

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PCGS Displays Unique "Hot Lips" Morgan Dollar Set at Long Beach

The Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) will display the only complete grading set of "Hot Lips" dollars, one of the most interesting of all the different varieties in the popular Morgan dollar series (1878 – 1921), at the Long Beach Coin, Stamp & Collectibles Expo, May 29 - 31, 2008.

“Some Morgan dollars were struck at the New Orleans Mint in 1888 with a doubled die obverse that produced significant doubling of Miss Liberty’s lips, nose and chin. A faint second eyelid is also visible,” explained Ron Guth, PCGS President.

1888-0 VAM-4 photo by Rob Joyce The unusual variety is listed as 1888-O VAM-4 (for the “VAM” reference book created by Morgan dollar researchers, Leroy C. Van Allen and A. George Mallis), but many collectors refer to it simply as "Hot Lips." . . .

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Barack Obama Featured on Medallion

A 2008 Barack Obama 1 ounce pure silver medallion is being offered by Vision Trading Partners of Las Vegas, Nev.

The obverse depicts the bust of Obama encircled by legends "United States Of America" along the upper rim and "Obama 2008 along the lower rim." Eight stars flank Obama, symbolizing the year. An American Eagle is featured on the reverse.

Numismatic News contributor Ken Potter of Michigan designed the obverse. . . .

Full story at: Barack Obama Medallion Link

De Beers discovers treasure ship off Namibian cost

While we usually associate the diamond business with mines, there are companies who hunt for gems in the open sea. A popular hunting ground is the coast of Namibia, where ships comb the sandy sea bottom in hopes of sucking up diamonds that were washed offshore in ages gone past.

De Beers is one such company and it announced a significant find on Wednesday — though not of diamonds. The company believes it has located a treasure ship that could date back to the 15th century. The ship was laden with thousands of gold coins and a hoard of more than 50 elephant tusks. . . .

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Stupid Investment of the Week: Special state quarters add up to chump change

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- On a recent trip to help my ailing in-laws in upstate New York, I came across a full-page ad in the Finger Lakes Times saying that "the last restricted rolls" of Empire State quarters would be sold in the next 48 hours. The ad was built to look and read like a newspaper story, and I tore it out of the newspaper, figuring it might be fodder for Stupid Investment of the Week. . . .

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Rare coin found in garden

A GAME of garden football ended with an historic find by North Devon grandmother Sylvia Nutton.

While moving a plant out of harm's way when her three young grandsons started their game at her home in Knowle, Sylvia uncovered a small silver coin. Investigations with the help of Barnstaple library and the Museum of North Devon have revealed that it could be more than 450 years old. The coin is believed to be a Queen Mary I groat dating from 1553-54. . . .

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Lawmaker seeks to replace dollar coins with paper bills

I think someone forgot to tell Rep. Guyer that coins can last something like 18 years in circulation versus a mere 18 months for the dollar bill. So in the end, I wonder which is truly more environmentally damaging. - A.C. Dwyer

BOSTON - Rep. Denis Guyer wants to get rid of some of the coins in the MBTA’s subway system, and he admits its not just pocket change he’s worried about. The Dalton Democrat also lives in the same town as Crane & Co., the exclusive supplier of paper stock used to make dollar bills and other U.S. currency, and he’d like to preserve some jobs.

Guyer has filed legislation that would require the T to return paper money whenever a rider would get back $5 or more in change.

The lawmaker said the dollar coins fill up a pocket needlessly and coins made from mined elements are more environmentally damaging than paper currency made of cotton and recycled materials. . . .

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COUNTERFEIT PCGS HOLDERS

In recent days, counterfeit coins in counterfeit PCGS slabs have begun to appear on eBay, the online auction site. All of the counterfeit coins/holders seen so far are coming out of China. Alert members of the PCGS Message Boards were the first to notify PCGS of the counterfeit coins/holders.

The coins themselves range from poor-quality counterfeits to well-made fakes. The counterfeit PCGS holders are well-executed, but with minor differences from a genuine holder. PCGS anticipates that authentic coins will eventually be placed into counterfeit PCGS holders in the future, perhaps with elevated grades and/or inappropriate designators (Full Bell Lines, Prooflike, etc.), although none have been seen to date.

The on-line PCGS Certificate Verification is a method for confirming that a particular certificate number matches the information in the PCGS database, but the counterfeiters are aware of this detection method and are now using valid certificate numbers (see below).

PCGS has contacted U.S. governmental agencies, including the FBI, U.S. Customs, the Secret Service, and US Postal authorities, to enlist their assistance in pursuing enforcement or legal remedies against these counterfeiters. Also, PCGS is a member of eBay's CCW Group, which monitors eBay for fraudulent listings and asks eBay to discontinue auctions of suspicious coins and/or suspend violators.

PCGS has called for eBay to stop accepting listings of any rare coins from Chinese sellers. Ebay recently pulled several auctions of counterfeit coins/holders at the urging of PCGS.

PCGS urges consumers not to purchase rare coins from Chinese sellers on eBay. While legitimate, authentic coins exist in China, the plethora of fakes and fraudulent listings on eBay increase the likelihood that coins purchased from Chinese sellers will be counterfeit. . . .

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Floris man finds coin collection in his backyard

"Most of the coins have withstood corrosion and weathering, but with a little washing up, they could be very valuable." - Now there's a statement that would make a collector cringe! - A.C. Dwyer

Coins found down old clothesline pole

FLORIS — Art Cochell has discovered a coin collector’s paradise in his own backyard.

A couple years ago when he was tearing down part of an old clothesline pole on his property, Cochell noticed some antique coins on the ground that had fallen from the severed pipe.

Cochell has lived at the residence for around five years now. He had heard a rumor that the man who lived in the house prior had put coins down the clothesline pole.

When they cut down part of the iron pole, some of the coins must have fallen on the ground. Cochell said curiosity got the best of him, so he took his flashlight and metal detector and discovered more coins embedded in the ground.

Most of the coins have withstood corrosion and weathering, but with a little washing up, they could be very valuable. Cochell estimates the coins that he has already recovered are valued at . . .

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Half dimes trace roots to pre-Mint workshop

It would be difficult to pick out one coin of the United States as being the most historic. After all, you have the first 1793 Chain reverse cent, which ranks as the first coin made inside the brand-new U.S. Mint, or the first dollar of the United States, the 1794. There is an awfully good case to be made, though, for the 1792 half dime, normally called the half disme.

While not technically a coin produced in the U.S. Mint facility, it is still a coin that was of great interest to the likes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Moreover, the 1792 was the first of an . . .

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Coins Mark 2008 Beijing Olympics

Athletes won't be the only ones in pursuit of Olympic gold and silver this summer.

Coin collectors will be able to acquire proof gold and silver commemorative coins issued by the China Mint in honor of the games it will host Aug. 8-24.

The precious metal commemorative coins reflect the games' theme, "One World, One Dream."

The complete proof 18-coin set, issued in three series, features six gold coins that are each one-third troy ounce and 12 silver coins that are each 1 troy ounce. The collection has a mintage limited to 60,000 worldwide, with 3,000 sets earmarked for the United States.

"With over a billion people in China alone, the limited mintage of these coins makes one realize that they may become as rare and treasured one day as ancient rare art pieces from Chinese history," said . . .

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The finest known set of rare 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition commemorative coins at Santa Clara Expo

(Santa Clara, CA) -- The finest known set of 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition commemorative coins will be exhibited during the first three days of the April Santa Clara Coin, Stamp & Collectibles Expo. The show will be held in the Santa Clara, California Convention Center, Thursday through Sunday, April 10 - 13, 2008.

"This outstanding exhibit showcases five superb condition gold and silver coins, registered by Pan-Pac officials as the sixth of 24 original complete sets made at the time," said Ronald J. Gillio, Expo General Chairman.
Originally sold for $200 in 1915 and now valued at $700,000, the historic Pan-Pac set will be displayed courtesy of Steven L. Contursi, President of Rare Coin Wholesalers, Dana Point, California

The display also includes: . . .

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Coin Cleaning - A good thing or not?

To Clean or Not

Last month, I ended my column by saying that I would talk about coin cleaning this month. Most books with guidelines for beginning coin collectors offer the following advice: Never clean your coins! You may have heard similar admonitions on shows like "Antiques Roadshow," when discussing antiques of all sorts, including furniture, weapons, and silverware. Someone will bring in a treasure from the attic, and an appraiser will say something like, "This is worth $7,000 to $10,000, but it would have been worth 10 times as much if you hadn't cleaned it."

In fact, many more coins have had their values lowered by cleaning than have benefitted from the process. Thus, the stock advice is to avoid cleaning like the plague.

But is cleaning always a bad thing to do? Do some coins benefit from cleaning? Is there "good" cleaning as well as "bad"? The answers to these questions are . . .

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Dealer Identifies Fake Morgan Dollars in Illinois

Fake Morgan dollars identified by Montgomery, Ill., dealer Tom Campbell of Tom's Fine Coins led to an April 4 arrest of an individual who was attempting to sell them through online classified ads.

"About half were common date," Campbell said. "All weighed 18-19 grams and were attracted to a magnet, some weak, some strong."

Approximately 20 coins ultimately were involved, though Campbell initially attempted only to buy two 1885-CC dollars for $280. He asked the seller to bring them in person and he would pay $40 per coin more. They arranged to meet in a public place in Plainfield, Ill.

When Campbell realized they were fake . . .

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