Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 27 i Coin Collector

SOLD FOR £809 Belgium, 2007 €50 Albert II and Paola gold essay SOLD FOR £303 France, 1554 silver testoon, Henry IV, very fine SOLD FOR £215 France, 1803 1 franc Napoleon ‘Premier Consul’, ‘AN 12’, silver coin, fine SOLD FOR £946 France, 1964 500 ‘Nouveaux Francs’, Molière, UNC SOLD FOR £440 Germany, Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, 1895 20 mark gold coin SOLD FOR £189 Austria, 1854 commemorative silver medal for wedding of Franz Joseph I of Austria and Elizabeth of Bavaria SOLD FOR £206 Tuscany, 1666 silver luigino, Maria Maddalena Centurioni, Fosdinovo SOLD FOR £748 Maldives, 2015 5000 rufiyaa, 50th anniversary of independence, UNC BUY AND SELL ON DECAMPE, MORE THAN 80 MILLION COLLECTABLES ARE WAITING FOR YOU!…

I have often been highly critical of Münze Deutschland because what my homeland has produced numismatically over the past few decades has often bored me and sometimes even embarrassed me. However, the German mints have shown, for example with the polymer coins, that they can compete at the world-class level of coin minting. And with a new umbrella brand called Münze Deutschland, an attempt was made to avoid being overshadowed by the big names in the industry. This year, Münze Deutschland took a risk with a curious idea: an experiment with an uncertain outcome. For the 2024 European Football Championship, an €11 coin was introduced (Figure 1). For the first time in the history of the Federal Republic (excluding the €25 silver coins), there was a ‘crooked’ denomination. This choice…

80th anniversary of D-Day A new brilliant uncirculated 50p coin from The Royal Mint marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day. As these events will soon be moving beyond living memory, this new coin is particularly poignant. On D-Day, 6 June 1944, more than 132,000 ground troops and 18,000 paratroopers from the UK, USA, Canada and other Allied nations successfully stormed five assault beaches along the Normandy coastline in France, aiming to break through Hitler’s Atlantic Wall defences. This was the largest amphibious assault in history, and by gaining a foothold on mainland Europe, the Allies were able to open a second front against Germany that helped turn the tide of World War II. On the reverse, artist David Lawrence has paid tribute to the immense bravery of the troops with…

Petition Crown of Charles II sells for world record at auction A Petition Crown of Charles II, one of the most important British coins ever struck, has been sold for CHF949,375 (£826,440) (including buyer’s premium) to become the most expensive British silver coin ever sold at auction. The coin was included in a joint sale on 8 May of the Cope collection of prized British and Roman coins by Numismatica Ars Classica, Classical Numismatic Group and Numismatica Genevensis. The Petition Crown of Charles II was struck by celebrated medallist Thomas Simon in 1663 to petition the king to rehire him as the sole chief engraver at The Royal Mint (lot 1306). Making use of new mechanical technology, Simon printed a message around the edge of the coin entreating the king…

The history of banknotes issued in Singapore goes far back into colonial times, when the only paper money in the region was provided by private banks. They were replaced in 1898 by the first issues of the government of the Straits Settlements, denominated in Straits dollars. The Malaya Board of Commissioners of Currency took over responsibility in 1939 and continued after a name change in 1953 to the Board of Malaya and North Borneo Commissioners until Singapore declared its independence in 1967. EARLY ISSUES There were eight private banks who issued notes in Singapore between 1840 and 1898, and all of these are extremely rare today. The Oriental Bank Corporation, to name but one, operated from 1845 to 1883 when it collapsed (Figure 1). In its day, it was the…

This is Canada is a new coin series illustrating some of the wonders and wildlife that are synonymous with the country, with each coin featuring a reverse design by a regional artist and a compass frame. A different theme will be featured on four $20 pure silver coins each year, and for 2024 it is Wondrous Waters, featuring a different view of the bodies of water that surround Canada. The second 2024 coin depicts the Arctic Coast, which encompasses two-thirds of Canada’s coastline. The coin’s reverse, by Inuvialuit artist Myrna Pokiak, presents an artistic representation of Canada’s Arctic coast featuring a berry picker and multiple animals. The obverse features the effigy of His Majesty King Charles III by Canadian artist Steven Rosati. The first 2024 coin was Pacific Coast, next…

At the Heritage Auctions Europe sale from 13–18 May, the key item was a 25c of 1891 from the reign of Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (1890–1948); one of only two examples struck for that year (lot 358). On the obverse, there was a left-facing portrait of Queen Wilhelmina at the age of ten with a pearl necklace and loose hair. On the reverse, there was a wreath of two oak branches tied together, which contained the value indication, mint master’s mark (a halberd for HLA van den Wall Bake) and mint mark (the staff of Mercury for the Royal Dutch Mint in Utrecht). After the crown passed to Queen Wilhelmina on 23 November 1890, an order was passed to the Board of the Mint to propose a new design for…

Rivers and coastlines were vital to our ancestors, providing food and allowing for trading and easy travel between settlements. It is no surprise, then, that water deities were hugely important to ancient civilisations. Plato famously said: ‘We who live between the Pillars of Herakles and Phasis inhabit some small part of it around the sea, just like ants or frogs around a pond.’ Like all Greeks, he knew that their island colonies depended on their mercantile ships and naval prowess – so it was important to ensure the gods favoured their sailors and ships. This is why so many Greek and Macedonian coins feature images of Poseidon, god of the sea. Poseidon was considered temperamental, and easily offended, so these images were intended to placate and flatter. Poseidon was usually…

A part from a brief period spanning around two generations from about AD 286 to AD 325, there was no official coinage struck in the Roman province of Britain. Coinage was either imported from the far away capital, Rome, or, later, from one of the regional mints that sprang up in the third century (see Coin Collector, Issues 14−15). Some irregular coins, the so-called ‘barbarous radiates’ were undoubtedly produced in Britain, but they were an unofficial coinage of necessity and not the work of a state mint (see Coin Collector, Issue 3). It used to be thought that some coins such as the ‘BRITANNIA’ asses of Antoninus Pius (Figure 1) were struck by a travelling mint operating in the province, but we now know that these too were struck in…

Sometimes you come across medal groups that do not seem quite right. I bought such a group some years ago, a no-clasp Egypt Medal of 1882–89 with a Khedive’s Star and a single British War Medal (BWM) for World War I (Figures 1–2). Given the gap of around 30 years between the Egypt campaign and World War I, the absence of other medals might suggest the group was incomplete. Of more concern was that the Egypt Medal was named to a cook and the BWM to a stoker petty officer, a fairly radical change of career. The only medal impressed with an official number was the BWM. However, the initial and surname J Kingston are the same on the Egypt Medal and BWM. Could these be medals to a father…