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Wa She Wong Collection of Chinese and Other Asian Coins Tops $10.7 Million at Hong Kong Auction
Filed Under: Auction News, Bowers and Merena, Featured, Ponterio, World Coins
Exclusive NGC-graded sale marks most important array of Chinese coinage offered at auction in 20 years
Over 300 anxious bidders filled the live auction floor for the highly anticipated sale of the Wa She Wong Collection and other Asian Coins on Dec. 3-4. The Hong Kong auction, presented by Ponterio & Associates, a division of Bowers and Merena Auctions, featured 1,107 lots with total sales reaching $10.7 million.
“A collection of Chinese coinage of this magnitude has not come to market in over 20 years and it surely did not disappoint,” said Rick Ponterio, executive vice president of Bowers and Merena. “We saw such spirited bidding, the sale of the first 487 lots took an astounding 11 hours with many of the lots selling for multiple times their estimated value.”
Drawing worldwide attention, the collection is a compilation of Wa She Wong’s lifelong passion for collecting which contained multiple rarities missing from major exhibits including many scarce pattern coins that were never released into general circulation. Headlining the collection, the 1890 Kwantung Mint Specimen Set, lot 220, began with an estimated value of $300,000 and realized a staggering $718,750. The set represents a landmark in Chinese minting as the first silver coinage produced with modern machinery.
Another important coin was the extremely rare “Flying Dragon” Szechuan 30 Cash Struck in Copper, lot 311. Opening at $12,500, lively bidding quickly brought the coin to a final selling price of $460,000. “The buyer had been searching for this rarity, one of only two known in private hands, for more than 30 years. The two other examples known to exist are housed in public museum collections,” said Ponterio.
All major rarities in the collection were certified by the Numismatic Guarantee Corporation (NGC), a market leader in grading Chinese coins, and pedigreed as “Wa She Wong Collection” on individual holders. Additional highlights of the Wa She Wong Collection include:
- Lot 3, 1920 “Yuan Shi Kai” Dollar Struck in Gold, MS-64 (NGC), realized $138,000
- Lot 27, 1911 “Long-Whisker” Dragon Pattern Dollar Struck in Silver, MS-65 (NGC), realized $431,250 (Ex: Kann Collection)
- Lot 130, 1844 Changchow Military Rotation Dollar, AU-50 (NGC), realized $103,500
- Lot 139, 1909 Honan Pattern 20 Cash Struck in Copper, AU-55 BN (NGC), realized $126,500
- Lot 147, 1930 Hunan Pattern 500 Cash Struck in Copper, MS-63 BN (NGC), realized $103,500
- Lot 162, 1897 Kiangnan Dollar, Plain Edge, Proof-66 Cameo (NGC), realized $373,750
- Lot 172, 1899 Kiangnan 50 cents, AU Details (NGC), realized $172,500 (Ex: Kann Collection)
- Lot 219, 1888 Kwantung Mint Specimen Set, Seven Three Reverse Pattern, K-16/20 (NGC), realized $546,250
- Lot 234, 1898 Shensi Mint Specimen Set, K-156/159 (50¢, 20¢, 10¢, 5¢), realized $258,750
- Lot 340, 1935 Shensi Soviet Dollar, Large Hammer & Sickle, XF Details (NGC), realized $92,000
- Lot 475, 1921 British Trade Dollar, AU-55 (NGC), realized $43,700
In day two of the sale, Asian coins and paper money also performed very well. A standout coin in these sessions was lot 1123, a 1929 Austrian Pattern “Sun Yat Sen” Dollar, MS-61 (NGC), which realized $207,000. This rarity was discovered as part of the Richard Platch Estate, an engraver at the Vienna Mint that was responsible for several important Chinese patterns. Additional highlights from day two of the sale include:
- Lot 1039, 1897 Kiangnan Dollar, Ornamental Edge, MS-62 (NGC), realized $103,500
- Lot 1195, 1912 Shandong Gaobianbao 50 Tael, High-Sided Sycee Ingot, Choice Very Fine, realized $86,250
- Lot 2138, Banque De L’Indo-Chine 5 Piastres Specimen, Gem Uncirculated 66 EPQ (PMG), realized $57,500
Additional material from the Wa She Wong Collection will be offered at Ponterio & Associates’ next Hong Kong sale in August 2011 and the company is currently accepting consignments of Chinese and other Asian coins and paper money.
The Wa She Wong sale wraps-up an outstanding week of auctions in Hong Kong for Spectrum Group International. Spectrum Wine Auctions’ sale on Dec. 5 realized $4.4 million – the highest since the company formed a year ago, and John Bull Stamp Auctions hosted its largest sale ever Nov. 25-28 with $3.5 million in total sales.
Bowers and Merena’s next auction is the January 2011 Tampa Bay Rarities Sale which is scheduled for Jan. 4, immediately preceding the FUN Show in Florida. The sale will feature Part II of the impressive Malibu Collection. Ponterio & Associates’ next auction is the January N.Y.I.N.C. Auction scheduled for Jan. 7-8 in New York.
For a complete list of auction highlights and prices realized, visit the firm’s web site at www.bowerandmerena.com or call 800-458-4646.
For more information about Bowers and Merena and Ponterio & Associates, or to consign to an upcoming auction, call 800-458-4646. For media inquiries, ask for Director of Operations, Brian Kendrella. Complete prices realized for all past auctions are available at www.bowersandmerena.com.
2011 U.S. Army Gold and Silver Commemorative Coins
The US Mint has announced the final design selections for the 2011 U.S. Army Commemorative Coins. The program will include a $5 gold coin, silver dollar, and clad half dollar.
For the past two years, commemorative coin programs have only included a silver dollar. Both of next year’s programs will each include multiple coins. Between the program to honor the U.S. Army and the program for the Medal of Honor, there will be a total of five commemorative coins issued in the coming year.
The design selections made by the Secretary of the Treasury are shown below. As in the past, I will also mention the recommendations made by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) and the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA). All of the original design candidates can be found here.
The 2011 Army $5 Gold Coin obverse represents service in war with depictions of soldiers from different eras, including the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the modern era. The obverse was designed by Joel Iskowitz and sculpted by Phebe Hemphill. The CCAC had recommended a different view of the five soldiers from the waist up, although significant support for the selected design was also expressed. The CFA had recommended a full length view of three soldiers from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and World War II.
The reverse of the coin is based on the official U.S. Army emblem, as sculpted by Joseph Menna. This selection followed the recommendation of the CCAC, with the rearrangement of the inscriptions “United States of America” and “Department of the Army” that they had suggested. The CFA favored an alternate design with a border between the emblem and inscriptions.
The 2011 Army Silver Dollar depicts a male and female soldier with a globe in the background to symbolize the Army of the 21st Century. This was designed by Richard Masters and sculpted by Michael Gaudioso. The CCAC had recommended this design, also suggesting that the female be altered to depict an African American woman. This was not acted upon, although the goggles originally present on the male soldier were removed. Removal of the goggles had been suggested for the $5 gold coin candidates. The CFA made no recommendation, questioning “the legibility of the figures, the multiplicity of elements, and the jarring depiction of goggles on some of the soldiers.”
For the reverse, an image of the Great Seal of the United States with the seven core values of the Army is presented. The reverse was designed by Susan Gamble and sculpted by Don Everhart. The CCAC had recommended a design portraying a solider carrying a wounded comrade, while a third solider provided cover. The CFA had recommended the selected design since it was “the only option that properly balances the proposed depiction of human figures on the obverse.”
The 2011 Army Half Dollar is intended to symbolize service in peace. The obverse depicts a solider surveying, two servicemen building a flood wall, and the Redstone Army rocket, as designed by Donna Weaver and sculpted Charles Vickers. Both the CCAC and CFA had rejected all obverse design candidates, including the selected design. The CCAC commented that the designs were “too cluttered and lacked focus”, also questioning the accuracy of some images. The CFA commented, “the multiplicity of design elements and pictorial complexity was excessive for an object at the size of a coin.”
The reverse design depicts a Continental solider armed with a musket, as designed by Thomas Cleveland and sculpted by Joseph Menna. This design was recommended by both the CFA and CCAC.
Yoko Donates Gold Lennon Coin
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By World Coin News December 16, 2010 |
Other News & Articles
A unique 22-karat gold version of the new John Lennon £5 coin of Alderney has been donated by Yoko Ono to Great Britain’s Alder Hey Hospital’s Imagine Appeal for auction next year to raise money.
Ono is the widow of the famous Beatle songwriter/singer/musician.
The coin is part of the British Royal Mint’s Great Britons series of £5 silver Alderney coins.
Lennon was chosen to accompany in the series such luminaries of history as Winston Churchill by choice of the British public.
A Royal Mint public poll this summer nominated Lennon as the historical figure most deserving of a place in coin history. The poll saw over 30,000 votes cast and just over 92 percent of them nominated the Beatle.
The gold Lennon coin will be sold by Bonhams auction house in June 2011.
Yoko Ono said: “In the year when my husband John would have been 70 I am thrilled that the British public voted him top of their list of Great Britons. This special one-off gold coin, made by the Royal Mint, is being donated to Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool, of which I am a patron. This amazing place, one of Europe’s biggest and busiest children’s hospitals, is very close to my heart and I hope that they can auction this coin and use the proceeds from it to help continue the incredible care and support they provide for children in the North West and all of Europe.”
by Debbie Bradley
Summary
Dealers say new rules imposed by the U.S. Mint on the sale of 5-ounce silver bullion coins are far from clear.
This article was originally printed in the latest issue of Numismatic News.
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Dealers say new rules imposed by the U.S. Mint on the sale of 5-ounce silver bullion coins are far from clear.
“I think there is some question on exactly how those rules apply, and we don’t have answers to the questions,” said Michael Haynes, CEO of American Precious Metals Exchange, one of 11 companies authorized by the Mint to sell the new America the Beautiful coins.
APMX has ordered 3,000 sets, the maximum allowed per distributor.
“We have ordered them. That’s good. We’re players, but we need to understand the rules,” Haynes said.
New rules say the authorized companies can only sell one coin of each design to a household to ensure wide distribution of coins to the public. And they are to be sold according to a price structure set by the Mint.
“We understand we can sell one coin, but we don’t know what public means,” Haynes said. “We think it means citizens of the United States, but we are awaiting further clarification.”
The new rules just won’t work, said Ross Hansen, CEO of Northwest Territorial Mint, which sells bullion coins, but is not one of the 11 authorized purchasers.
“The U.S. Mint has made a mess of this,” Hansen said.
There are 11 authorized purchasers of the 5-ounce coins, but all but one of them are wholesalers, he said. They aren’t set up to sell individual orders to the public.
Then there’s the matter of price fixing, Hansen said. The Mint said the authorized purchasers can’t sell the coins for more than 10 percent above the price at which they acquire them from the Mint.
“But this is bullion and price fluctuates with the price of bullion,” Hansen said. “So they’re trying to enforce a fixed cost with a commodity whose price is always in flux.”
An authorized purchaser who ordered the coins when they were first offered on Dec. 10 would pay the Dec. 13 bullion price of $29.33 an ounce for the coins. That would put the cost of a set of five coins, one of each design, at $782 when the $9.75 per coin premium set by the Mintis added in. Add to that the 10 percent markup allowed to the distributors and it puts the cost for each set at $860.20 plus shipping.
“You can give manufacturers a suggested retail price, but you can’t control what your retailers ultimately sell their product for,” Hansen said. “I can’t do that as a wholesaler and neither can the U.S. Mint.
But the Mint does, and that’s just arrogance, Hansen said.
“They don’t communicate well with their retailers,” Hansen said. “They just say, this is the way it is. They don’t make partners out of their distributors and retailers, and that’s what they need to do, make them viable partners.”
Hansen said this confusion could have been solved with a 10-minute conversation between all involved.
“But they’re not working with their authorized purchasers as true partners,” Hansen said. “That’s one reason I’ve never signed up with them. They’re such pain in the rear ends to deal with.”
The new sales rules are “ridiculous,” said Bill Hodges, owner of Southern Coin Investments in Atlanta, Ga., who sells numismatic and bullion coins.
“I strongly feel that some distributors won’t handle them at all, and I don’t blame them,” he said.
It’s tantamount to price fixing, Hodges said.
When dealers were first allowed to place orders with the 11 distributors, Hodges signed up for 20 sets at $1,500 each from one wholesaler. But that deal no longer is valid because of the Mint’s new rules.
Hodges called Mint officials and told them that if the Mint wants wide distribution of the coins, restricting coins to the 11 authorized purchasers isn’t the way to do it.
“They are shutting out our company and hundreds of companies around the country,” Hodges said. “We’re getting calls from hundreds of people, and we keep telling them, we can’t help you.”
That’s what is really frustrating, Hodges said.
“The U.S. Mint needs to employ some people with business and marketing experience to help decide the best means of doing distribution,” Hansen said.
The current plan isn’t working, he said.
“We have 35,000 people in our database, which means we could distribute the coins widely, but we have no opportunity, Hodges said.
“What I hate the most is all the people who call us and we can’t help.”
JPMorgan has quietly reduced a large position in the US silver futures market which had been at the centre of a controversy about its impact on global prices for the precious metal.
The decision by JPMorgan was an attempt to deflect public criticism of the bank’s dealings in silver, a person familiar with the matter said. The person added that the bank’s position in silver would from now on be “materially smaller” than in the past.
This, of course, led ZeroHedge to claim victory, “proving” their conspiracy theory correct.
JPMorgan said in a statement: “It is absolutely incorrect to say or imply that the Nymex, CFTC or any other exchange or regulator has instructed or asked us to reduce our position.” The bank declined to comment on whether it had reduced its position in the silver market.
I thank an anonymous commenter on the previous thread who points out that CFTC’s December Bank Participation report shows a decrease of futures shorts in the US Bank category for the Nov 2nd to Dec 7th period from 30,760 contracts to 26,332 contracts. Each contract is for 5k ounces, so this represents roughly 22 million ounces of silver.
Oh no – wait – I just got the idea to refine the data by looking at the CFTC’s options report too. The difference between the Nov and Dec reports shows that the options positions held by US Banks in silver changed as follows (changes in positions):
Long calls: -224
Short calls: +979
Long puts: +386
Short puts: -910
All of these transactions have the same directional delta – they all act to increase the short position held by US Banks, by a total of 2499 contracts. In the interest of thoroughness, I’d better back that out from my 4428 short futures decrease, and adjust the net change in short exposure to 1929 contracts, or 9.645mm ounces. Actually folks, don’t panic, this is GOOD news – it means that my $475 Trillion target price for silver was WAY too low! Let’s check the new math: 3B / 9.645mm = 311. $29 x {(1.25) ^311}, rounding down, is 40 with THIRTY zeroes after it.
| $40,316,364,189,638,100,000,000,000,000,000 |
I’ll be honest, I don’t think that silver will get that high, so I’m going to stick with my $475Trillion/ounce original math.
In two previous reviews of the silver market, the CFTC has dismissed claims of manipulation. Most analysts say there is little reason to believe the price of silver is being systematically manipulated.
Analysts and traders said that JPMorgan’s large short positions on New York’s Comex exchange, a division of Nymex, were hedges for the bank’s long positions in physical silver and London’s over-the-counter market.
LONDON (Commodity Online): In the past three years gold investments have ensured a return of 113 per cent as the prices of the yellow metal soared every month following the uncertainty in the global markets.
Moreover, many new investors have jumped into the fray as they lost faith in other investment options like equity. World over equity market had suffered a huge setback following the economic crisis.
There has been a huge 113 per cent increase worldwide in investments in gold from 2007 till November 2010. Investment in gold stood at 353 tons as against 168 tons in 2007 globally in spite of ups and downs in production and volatality of price.
There has also been a considerable increase in investment of gold through Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). In India, the biggest importer and the top consumer of the yellow metal, net value of gold investment through ETFs till October 2009 was Rs 1,169 crore as against Rs 312 crore for the corresponding period last year.
ETFs had dealt with gold worth Rs 2,850 crore till end September 2009 from 2.44 lakh investors. Over 1.47 lakh people invested in gold through ETFs by March end this year, a 65 per cent increase in six months.
According to analysts, the trend to invest in gold is the result of the global economic meltdown of 2008. Reason for the sudden hike in gold prices is the US government’s quantiative easing policy and consequent pumping of $600 billion into the market without productive backing by June next.
The US Federal Reserve Board, by quantitative easing, has decided to release $600 billion for eight months since November by re-purchasing treasury securities into the market. The main objective of pumping money into the market would be to bring down unemployment and increase general consumption to stabilise the economy.
With this concerns, investors will go for safe and secured instruments of invsetments like gold and hence investing in gold will go up despite skyrocketing prices.
According to analysts, precious metals will probably give investors the best returns among commodities in the next year, and livestock the worst, Goldman Sachs Group Inc said.
Precious metals will advance 28 percent over 12 months and livestock 4 percent, analysts said. Extreme weakness in US demand over the past two years has allowed China to grow unconstrained without any competition for raw materials. This is likely to change in 2011 with a stronger US that is likely to bump up against a China that is consuming dramatically more commodities than pre-crisis.
Gold will reach $1,690 an ounce in 12 months, from $1,390 now, and probably peak the following year, Goldman estimates. Gold in exchange-traded products backed by the metal reached a record 2,105 metric tons on October 14 and holdings were last at 2,093 tons
Filed Under: Auction News, Bowers and Merena, Column: Coin Rarities, Featured, Proof Coinage, US Coins
News and Analysis of scarce coins, coin markets, and the coin collecting community #31
A Weekly Column by Greg Reynolds
I. The Malibu Collection
In Tampa, on Tuesday, Jan. 4, B&M will auction the second part of the Malibu Collection, among other consignments. The focus here is on Malibu’s collection of Proof Liberty Seated Quarters dating from 1863 to 1891.
This sale will occur almost exactly two months after B&M auctioned the first part of the Malibu Collection, in Baltimore. In my column of Nov. 17, I reviewed the sale of the Malibu set of Standing Liberty Quarters. On Nov. 4, B&M also auctioned Malibu’s business strike Liberty Seated Half Dollars and silver dollars. On Jan. 4, B&M will auction Malibu’s sets of Proof Liberty Seated Quarters, Proof Liberty Seated Half Dollars and Proof Liberty Seated Dollars, plus a few other coins from the Malibu collection, as well as a wide variety of items from other consignors.
This Jan. 4 auction will be conducted just prior to the FUN Convention. Please see last week’s column for a discussion of FUN Convention auctions and a review of the O’Neal Collection of Indian Head Half Eagles that Heritage will offer. (As always, clickable links are in blue.)
Since the collector who formed the Malibu collection has not granted permission for his name to be mentioned, the code name Malibu is employed for his overall collection, sets of specific series, and the collector himself. Other coins from the Malibu Collection may be auctioned in Baltimore in March. Most of the coins in the Malibu collection are, or were, included in set listings in the PCGS and NGC Registries.
Besides Malibu’s set of Standing Liberty Quarters, which was complete and excellent, each of his sets seems to be a ‘work in progress’ with some missing dates that are not difficult to find. It is sad that his sets of Proof Liberty Seated coins were not completed as he seems to have had both the budget and the dedication to ‘complete’ sets of ‘later date’ Liberty Seated Proof Quarters, half dollars and silver dollars, those dating from 1858 onwards.
Starting in 1858, Proof Sets were publicly offered by the U.S. Mint each year. Before then, Proof coins were released quietly to collectors and dealers who had contacts at the Philadelphia Mint or elsewhere in the U.S. Treasury Dept. While Proof sets were not available to collectors every year prior to 1858, my impression is that these were often available to collectors who took the initiative to seek Proof coins.
Generally, it is customary to define a set of each series of Proof Liberty Seated silver coins, or of Proof Liberty Head gold coins, as a collection of one of each issue from 1858 onwards. Pre-1858 Proofs tend to be much rarer, and a set of all Proof Liberty Seated coins would not be feasible.
Clearly, the Malibu collector was in the process of assembling sets of Proof quarters and halves dating from 1858 to 1891, and of Proof Liberty Seated Dollars dating from 1858 to 1873, which was the last year of Liberty Seated Dollars. The Malibu 1858 to 1891 set of Proof Liberty Seated Halves contains twenty seven Proofs of different dates, and a second Proof 1887 Half Dollar. This half set is missing eight dates.
A set of Proof Liberty Seated Dollars consists of sixteen dates and the Malibu set has eleven plus a duplicate Proof 1873 dollar. The PCGS and the NGC Registries ignore the 1866 ‘No Motto’ Proofs of quarters, halves and silver dollars, as these are mysterious strikings about which little is known, and were not available to the public. While the Malibu sets of halves and silver dollars are important, and will receive much attention when auctioned on Jan. 4th, the topic here is his set of Proof Liberty Seated Quarters.
The Mint coins a new phase: After 50 years, Lincoln Memorial gone from the penny
By Steve Hendrix
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 14, 2010; 9:59 PM
You may have noticed a small change in your small change. More likely, you haven’t.
“Now when did they do that?” asked Victor Schubert, a lawyer from Racine, Wis., squinting at a freshly minted 2010 penny. “And why?”
Schubert and other tourists on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial one recent afternoon were surprised to see a brand-new look to that most familiar of coins.
Gone from the Lincoln penny is the reproduction of the Lincoln Memorial, complete with really tiny seated Lincoln, that has been “tails” since 1959. In its place is a “Union Shield,” a simple acorn of 13 stripes capped with the motto “E Pluribus Unum.” On the “heads” side, the iconic profile of the 16th president by Victor David Brenner remains unchanged.
The U.S. Mint has been stamping out the new design since February; presses in Philadelphia and Denver have produced more than 3.6 billion of them. But officials said the down economy has made banks slow to request new coins. It will be years, they said, before shield pennies become as common as the tens of billions of Lincoln Memorial pennies filling sofa cracks and dresser tops across the country.
Mint spokesman Michael White said there have been few comments from the public about the new design, probably because few have spotted it.
“It’s a phenomenon of notice – once you see one, they’re everywhere,” White said. “But you don’t tend to examine your change unless you’re a coin collector.”
Most visitors to the Lincoln Memorial – where a huge mock-up of the old penny adorns the entrance to an exhibit hall – said they were sorry to see the memorial end its half-century run as the most common edifice in American pockets.
“This building has a lot of meaning for me,” said Schubert, 73, who first came to Washington on a high school trip. Whenever he’s here, he still makes time to walk up the steps to see the giant Lincoln. “I stood right by that column on the corner and looked out over this beautiful expanse and decided I wanted to become a lawyer. I’ll miss seeing it on the penny.”
Then Schubert paused to consider the scale of the change, literally. “Not that I look at pennies very much anyway,” he said.
Janey Hockenhull, chaperoning a group of fifth-graders from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said she doesn’t like to see perfectly good coins get the flip, as it were.
“If something doesn’t need changing, don’t change it,” she said. “What was wrong with the old penny?”
Nothing, Mint officials said, but that didn’t stop Congress from demanding a new one, as it has about every 50 years since the Lincoln penny was introduced in 1909 to mark the centennial of the great man’s birth. Just as that first design, with ears of wheat framing the reverse side, gave way to the Lincoln Memorial penny in 1959, lawmakers directed the Mint to update the coin again this year. (For Lincoln’s actual bicentennial year, 2009, the Mint released four commemorative pennies depicting different phases of his life.)
“It really hasn’t made much of a ripple this time except in coin circles,” said Douglas Mudd, curator of the American Numismatic Association’s Money Museum in Colorado Springs. “I think it was a bigger deal when the wheat penny went away. Some people got very worked up about that one.”
Part of the reason the new penny has dropped without much reaction may be a general new-coin fatigue, Mudd said. After decades when almost nothing on U.S. coins changed except the year they were minted, the past 10 years have seen almost every coin get a makeover.
Starting in 1999, the state quarter project began, replacing the long-standing eagle reverse with images from each state and, eventually, the District. It proved to be the Mint’s most successful program, turning many thousands of people into collectors. (The Mint is now releasing quarters honoring national parks and other scenic sites.)
Thomas Jefferson’s nickel got a facelift in 2006, presenting a head-on view to cashiers everywhere with an image based on a 1800 portrait by Rembrandt Peale.
Coin buffs gobble up every tweak, of course, and Mint officials say it is important to revisit currency design every few decades for security and aesthetic purposes. But they also know that too much change makes people feel funny about their money.
“For me, there’s a little bit of ‘enough already,’ ” Doug Khorey, an English teacher from Pittsburgh, said when he saw the new penny. “It starts to seem like toy money.”
The new shield design wasn’t dictated by Congress, White said. The law merely called for an image that would be “emblematic of President Lincoln’s preservation of the United States of America as a single and united country.”
Gary Marks, chairman of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, a congressionally appointed body, pushed for the Union Shield, which he said was quite popular during the Civil War, appearing on frescoes in the Capitol and carved into a lot of public marble around town.
“It was on beer mugs, furniture,” Marks said. “For Americans of the time, the Union Shield was broadly seen as a symbol of national unity.”
Mark’s commission selected the shield design from among several proposals, and the Treasury adopted it. You can find the minuscule initials of designer Lyndall Bass and engraver Joseph Menna flanking the shield.
But another advisory body, the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts, had other views. Its members preferred other proposed images, including a stylized flag from the period and a view of the Capitol dome under construction during the Civil War.
“The shield was not one of the three or four [the Fine Arts Commission] focused on, but the Mint didn’t take our advice on this one,” said commission secretary Thomas Luebke.
Luebke and Marks also disagree on whether to shed tears over the disappearance of the Lincoln Memorial from the penny. For Luebke, an architect, the Memorial on the penny and Jefferson’s Monticello on the nickel are worthy elements of the coins that jangle through the land.
“I personally feel that it’s a loss,” he said. “There is something pleasing about these edifices that represent contributions of these presidents.”
Marks, who has a day job as the city administrator of Ketchum, Idaho, prefers more abstract symbols.
“A building is a building,” he said. “It’s a cherished memorial, certainly, but on a coin, I think we’re better served reaching for those iconic, artistic images that communicate our national values. To me, the Union Shield does that.”
e E-Sylum: Volume 13, Number 50, December 12, 2010, Article 25
MORE ON THE RECOVERY OF JULIAN LEIDMAN’S STOLEN INVENTORY
The Star-Ledger of New Jersey reported more details about the recovery of dealer Julian Leidman’s stolen inventory. -Editor
Court papers filed in New York identify the son of a Diamond District jeweler as the man who allegedly bought a multi-million dollar collection of coins and currency stolen in October 2009 from a Maryland coin dealer’s van as he dined in a Montville restaurant.
What the papers don’t show is who the FBI believe was responsible for the theft.
A complaint filed by FBI Special Agent Daniel X. McCaffrey, Jr. details how Yan Kandinov allegedly bought the cache for $80,000 from an unidentified individual who said they had “something for him to look at.”
Kandinov then allegedly attempted to sell the coins to a New Jersey coin dealer, who in turn tipped off the FBI.
On Oct. 11, 2009, Leidman was on his way home to Silver Springs, Md., from the Coinfest show in Stamford, Conn. when he stopped at Tiffany’s Restaurant along Route 46 in Montville. As he dined with family members, thieves smashed the passenger window of his locked minivan and stole two 50-pound cases containing thousands of rare coins and currency. Leidman, the American Numismatic Association’s 2009 Dealer of the Year, believed that he had been tailed by the thieves after he left the coin show, who waited until he was eating to break into his vehicle.
Albert & Sons, a wholesaler of gold and diamonds, was bustling with customers on Nov. 15, the day Kandinov’s trial was delayed. In his office, where a portrait of Al Capone hangs in the corner, Albert Kandinov declined to comment on the pending trial of his son.
To read the complete article, see: Montville coin theft case involved Manhattan jeweler, FBI says (www.nj.com/news/local/index.ssf/2010/12/
montville_coin_theft_case_invo.html)
J&T Coins LLC is pleased to announce that the 2011 1 oz Silver Chinese Pandas are now available for sale.
Since 1983 the Silver Chinese Pandas have been minted on a annual basis by the Chinese Mint. They are one of the worlds most popular 1 oz silver bullion coins. This years design features a mother panda with cub. These coins are proof like, .999 fine silver and 10 Yuan Chinese legal tender. Individually they are in hard plastic capsules. They are also available in mint sealed sheets of 30 and mint sealed buckets of 600. With their limited mintage the 1 oz silver Chinese Panda Series has remained very popular with both investors and collectors.
Click here to order your 2011 1 oz Silver Chinese Pandas.
J&T Coins LLC est 2001