U.S. Mint Says It Has Enough Gold and Silver American Eagle Coins

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States Mint said on Wednesday it has enough American Eagle gold and silver bullion coins to meet demand and does not expect to allocate them in early 2012.

Sales of the U.S. gold and silver bullion coins have slowed in the fourth quarter as precious metals prices retreated from . . .

Read more at: Yahoo News

Treasure Hunter Loses Battle to Change Shipwreck Rules

WASHINGTON — While Congress and the White House publicly battled over detainee policy in a new defense bill, a far more obscure fight erupted behind the scenes involving treasure hunters, doubloons and shipwrecks.

A small tweak in the House version of the defense bill — just two words and two commas — could have made it easier for Tampa-based treasure hunting firm Odyssey Marine Exploration to take custody of a $500 million trove of Spanish coins from an Atlantic shipwreck, which is believed to be the richest . . .

Read more at: Tampa Bay Times

Janitor Finds 200 Year Old Treasure Hidden in Library

A library janitor made a historic discovery after unearthing a collection of Ancient Roman coins which could be worth 'millions'.

Custodian Tanja Hols discovered the unopened wooden box in an archive of the historic state library in Passau, southeast Germany, but thought it looked 'fairly unspectacular' in first glance.

But on closer inspection she found the 'unassuming' box contained 172 well-preserved gold and silver coins dating back thousands of . . .

Read more at: The Daily Mail

Interpol Alerts U.S. Coin Dealers Over Illegal Ancient Coin Sales

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Specialist dealers and collectors are being warned about the illegal sale of the so-called ‘Lava Treasure’ of ancient Roman gold coins and plates after a number of items were recovered from the open market.

INTERPOL and French police are working to recover the ancient coins.

The rare collection, which dates back to . . .

Read more at: newdesignworld.com

Ancient Coin Reveals Unknown Viking King

A British man rewrote medieval history on his lunch break when he unearthed evidence of a previously-unknown Viking king.

Darren Webster, a metal detector enthusiast, stopped by a field near Canforth, northern England, to practice his hobby and uncovered a hoard of silver Viking treasure buried three feet (0.9 meters) below the earth, The (London) Times reported Thursday.

"My machine was telling me that I'd found some kind of silver . . .

Read more at: Fox News

Bill Requires American Steel in both Penny and Nickel

H.R.3693 to require American steel in both the Lincoln cent and the Jefferson nickel

WASHINGTON – Rep. Steve Stivers says it costs 9.22 cents to make a nickel and 1.79 cents to make a penny — and he introduced a bill last week to change that.

Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, joined with Reps. Tim Ryan, D-Niles and Pat Tiberi, R-Genoa Twp., to back a measure to lower the cost of producing pennies and nickels and to ensure they are minted with steel instead of minerals imported from outside the United States.

Currently, pennies are made of . . .

Read more at: Dayton Daily News

Hamas to Use Plastic Coins in Gaza to Combat Shortage

GAZA, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Gaza university student Mohamed Abu Suleiman had this week a tough argument over the change with a taxicab who took him from Tufah neighborhood in eastern Gaza city up to al-Azhar university in the west.

The driver insisted on giving Abu Suleiman a piece of biscuit instead of half an Israeli Shekel (about 0.13 U.S. dollars) because he did not have enough change, after the student paid him two Shekels (0.52 dollars).

"If I accepted the . . .

Read more at: Xinhua News

Museum to Auction Rare 15th Century Spanish Coins

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Rare Spanish coins dating back to the ancient world will be going on the auction block.

Sotheby's announced Thursday that it is selling 37,895 of the rare coins on behalf of the New York City-based Hispanic Society of America. The society's founder amassed the collection more than 100 years ago.

The Hispanic Society of America, founded in 1904, is a museum of . . .

Read more at: Fox News

Why Presidential Dollar Coins Haven't Caught On

Uncle Sam stopped the mass production of $1 Presidential coins this week because most people don't like to use them. Why is that?

There's sad news for those who enjoy the heft of $1 coins in their pocket.

Because there are so few of you, the government this week abruptly halted the mass production of $1 Presidential coins, right after . . .

Read more at: MSN Money

2012 Star Spangled Banner Commemorative Gold and Silver Coin Designs Revealed

U.S. Mint Images

WASHINGTON - The United States Mint announced the designs for the Star-Spangled Banner Commemorative Coins, scheduled for release in 2012.

The Star-Spangled Banner Commemorative Coin Act (Act) (Public Law 111-232) authorizes the bureau to mint and issue up to 100,000 gold $5 coins and 500,000 silver $1 coins to commemorate the bicentennial of the writing of our national anthem.

The coins will be available in proof and uncirculated qualities. The Act requires that the coins' designs be emblematic of the War of 1812, particularly the Battle of Baltimore that formed the . . .

Read more at: usmint.gov

Holy Grail of Gold Coins Sells for $7.4M

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(AP) NEW ORLEANS - An exceedingly rare 1787 gold Brasher doubloon has been sold for $7.4 million, one of the highest prices ever paid for a gold coin.

Blanchard and Co., the New Orleans-based coin and precious metals company that brokered the deal, told The Associated Press the doubloon was purchased by a . . .

Read more at: CBS News

U.S. Mint Says Goodbye to Presidential Dollar Coins

Have you ever seen a $1 presidential coin? Neither have we.

Except that one time when we received seven of them in change from a MetroCard machine in the New York City subway system and, perplexed as to where to fit such weighty coins in our dainty-sized wallet, we relegated them to the bottom of our junk drawer.

And perhaps for that very reason, Vice President Joseph Biden announced Tuesday that the U.S. Mint would halt the production of those pesky $1 coins for circulation, because they’re not exactly . . .

Read more at: msnbc

2012 America the Beautiful National Park Quarter Dollar Coin Designs Released

U.S. Mint Images

WASHINGTON - The United States Mint announced the new designs that will appear on the reverses (tails sides) of the 2012-dated coins in the America the Beautiful Quarters Program.

The national sites to be honored next year are El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico, Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, Acadia National Park in Maine, Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii and Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska . . .

Read more at: usmint.gov

Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal Marks 60th Anniversary of Reign

Royal Canadian Mint Photo

Ottawa, Ontario, December 6, 2011 – The Royal Canadian Mint was honoured to host His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada to strike a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, marking the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty's accession to the throne in 1952.

A total of 60,000 of these medals, which will serve to honour significant contributions and achievements by Canadians as they are awarded throughout 2012, are being proudly handcrafted by the Royal Canadian Mint, at its Ottawa facility.

"For over 70 years, the handcrafting of medals has been . . .

Read more at: Royal Canadian Mint

New Circulating Coin Celebrates 200th Anniversary of Charles Dicken's Birth

The Royal Mint is commemorating the 200th birthday of literary giant Charles Dickens with the release of a £2 coin featuring a profile of the author created from titles of some of his most famous works.

Artist Matthew Dent has arranged well known titles from Dickens’ novels to create a unique portrait of the author, literally in his own words.

From his Sketches by Boz, to his last and unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the coin is a uniquely styled bibliography of Dickens’ literary masterpieces, referencing much loved classics including David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol.

On the edge of the coin is an inscription which features . . .

Read more at: The Royal Mint

Can Superman Really Predict Rare Coin Prices?

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Last week a copy reputed to be the finest of Superman #1 sold for a remarkable $2,160,000.00!

Keep in mind, this is a regular for circulation to the masses comic book-NOT the original art work.

For the life of us, even though we have friends who are the top collectors and dealers of comic books, we could never understand how they justify . . .

Read more at: Legend Numismatics

Company Finds 5-ton Stash of Eisenhower Dollars Valued at over $1 Million

CONCORD, N.H. — A New Hampshire-based coin dealer has acquired a 5-ton stash of more than 220,000 rare Eisenhower $1 coins that were tucked away in a Montana bank vault for more than 30 years.

Littleton Coin Company has not disclosed the price, but it said Monday that the coins, most in sealed canvas bags from the U.S. Mint in Denver, are worth well over  . . .

Read more at: The Washington Post

Kiwi Collectors Coins Bring Back Kōwhai after 22 Years

New Zealand Post has begun a new chapter in its highly successful series of collectors coins featuring our national symbol – the kiwi – lovingly pictured in pure gold and pure silver.

"We expect a warm reception for these coins based on their intrinsic beauty and on the popularity of the ‘Icons of New Zealand’ coin series we issued between 2008 and 2010,” Simon Allison, the Sales and Marketing Manager of New Zealand Post’s coins business says.

“The earlier icons series featured a kiwi alongside (respectively) a map of New Zealand (2009), the Southern Cross (2010) and the silver fern (2011).

Those coins made their way to collections all around the world - with the ‘map’ coin selling out completely and only small quantities of the others available on . . .

Read more at: New Zealand Post

Japan Offers $1000 Gold Coins to Bond Buyers

Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi will be rewarding investors who buy more than 10 million yen ($129,000) in reconstruction bonds with gold in the government’s latest attempt to bolster demand for the debt.

Individual investors who hold the bonds for three years will be eligible for a gold commemorative coin valued at 10,000 yen, the Finance Ministry said in Tokyo today. At 15.6 grams, (0.55 ounces), it would be worth about $948 based on prices for the precious metal.

Only a limited number of coins will be . . .

Read more at: Bloomberg News

New Zealand Coin Worth $80,000

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Sick of carrying around small change? A Czechoslovakian mint has come up with the answer – a New Zealand dollar-denominated gold coin worth about $80,000.

The 8.5-centimetre-diameter investment coin contains a kilogram of gold and is legal tender for $10,000.

A limited minting of 150 of the coins will be . . .

Read more at: stuff.co.nz

Rare Silver Coin Find Rewrites Viking History

A CHANCE discovery on Furness soil by an amateur metal detectorist is set to re-write the history books, say experts.

Viking history is being turned on its head by the find of 92 rare silver coins and assorted artefacts dating to around 955 AD, indisputably linking the area with Norse.

The find dates from a time when England was . . .

Read more at: The Westmoreland Gazette

Seal at Zoo Apparently was a Coin Collector

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This sea-lion might have a promising career as a treasure hunter.

Eight-year-old Tasko swallowed a number of coins after they had been thrown into his pool at Adelaide Zoo. Unfortunately for the greedy sealion, his coin eating caused him to become lethargic and underweight.

Zookeepers could not see what was wrong with Tasko. But an endoscopy in June this year revealed there were seven Australian coins in his stomach worth . . .

Read more at: The Daily Mail

U.S. Treasure Hunters Lose Another Round to Spain over $500 Million Shipwreck Treasure

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court's finding that a U.S. treasure-hunting firm must hand over to Spain $500 million in gold and silver coins salvaged from the bottom of the Atlantic in May 2007.

"Now the only thing left for them is to go to the U.S. Supreme Court, though if they're realists they should see they're defeated," the attorney representing Spain in the . . .

Read more at: Fox News Latino