J&T Coins LLC Blog

By MICHAEL SASSO msasso@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Liquidation looms for National Gold

Published: March 5, 2010

TAMPA – Mark Yaffe, a Tampa businessman who became one of America’s leading gold coin dealers, will see much of his empire dismantled after a bankruptcy judge’s decision Wednesday.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Michael Williamson on Wednesday converted National Gold Exchange’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case to Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The judge’s action spells the end for the gold and rare coin company because Chapter 7 bankruptcy leads to a company’s liquidation.

National Gold’s chief creditor, Sovereign Bank, already had seized most of the company’s assets months ago, but was prevented from selling them when National Gold filed for bankruptcy protection last summer.

Those assets include millions of dollars in gold and rare coins and Yaffe’s unusual collection of antique music boxes, which are similar to player pianos.

Now, with the judge’s order, the bank is authorized to liquidate the items. Richard McIntyre, National Gold’s bankruptcy attorney, expects the music boxes could sell for at least $7 million, while the coins should sell for more than $5 million.

Meantime, Yaffe is trying to sell his opulent mansion in Tampa’s Avila community to pay his creditors. The 29,000-square-foot residence is stocked with his renowned collection of music boxes.

Yaffe’s troubles started last summer when a lawyer sent a letter to Sovereign Bank claiming Yaffe was improperly using some National Gold assets to pay for his mansion.

Acting on the tip, Sovereign Bank quickly began an investigation and found several problems at National Gold, including missing coins and faulty accounting.

Despite his company’s liquidation, Yaffe expects to continue in the gold coin business, McIntyre said. He recently has received loans from his father and others allowing him to launch a new, if much smaller, coin operation called Phoenix Gold, McIntyre said.

Mint Stats: Mint Hikes Prices for Gold Buffalo, Spouse

By Debbie Bradley, Numismatic News March 04, 2010

Other News & Articles

• Mint Stats: Mint Hikes Prices for Gold Buffalo, Spouse
• Think Twice Before Cleaning Any of Your Coins
• Disabled Vet Proof Prices Rise

 

Keep an eye on sales of gold Buffaloes and First Spouse coins in coming weeks, because they’ve seen a price hike.

When gold edged above a $1,100 an ounce average for a week on the London Fix, the Mint increased prices in accordance with its policy to reflect market prices. The change took place Feb. 24.

The price of First Spouse coins increased by $25 and gold Buffaloes by $50. The proof First Spouse coins went from $704 to $729, uncirculated First Spouse coins went from $691 to $716 and 2009 Buffalo gold coins increased from $1,360 to $1,410.

And in its first week of sales, the coin honoring Disabled American Veterans sold more than 98,000 coins, almost one-third of its total mintage of 350,000.

Think Twice Before Cleaning Any of Your Coins

By Dr. R. S. Bart Bartanowicz, Coins Magazine March 03, 2010

Forrest Gump’s words rang in his head, “Stupid is as stupid does.” Our numismatist’s 1945 “micro S” Mercury dime had come back from the grading service as “cleaned.” The dime’s value had been greatly diminished by his less than artful cleaning.He remembered the day of his fateful mistake. The sun was shining, birds were singing and flowers were in bloom. Amid all this loveliness, he was sorting his coins.

He had quite a few Mercury dimes in two-by-two holders. Looking through them, the 1945 “micro S” dime literally leaped out at him.

He had forgotten about this purchase of many years ago. It was a gem coin that he had meant to send off to the grading service. Examining the dime, he was impressed by the luster and wonderful strike.

The only thing wrong was some dark “rim toning” from 3 to 6 o’clock. The toning was a genuine distraction to the rest of the coin.

Examining the coin through his loupe, he saw that the coin had never been cleaned as was evidenced by the luster and lack of hairlines. The dark bluish hue of the rim toning just did not sit well. Without the toning the coin would be stunning.

What to do was his quandary.

The toning would not impact the coin’s high grade, but it would have so much more eye appeal if it were totally white. In his head he heard voices saying “Clean the coin. Clean the coin.”

Cleaning any coin went against the advice he always dispensed to newcomers, which was:

“Don’t clean coins unless you’re willing to suffer the consequences from a botched cleaning.”

It was only a little toning and a quick little swish of a commercial coin cleaner would eliminate it. What could go wrong? To be safe he would experiment with a coin or two from his pocket change to make sure he had his technique down so as not to mar the luster or leave any hairlines.

He had cleaned coins in the past with a simple washing, such as his coffee can purchases of coins deposited in can and jars over the years. He seldom used commercial coin cleaning solutions unless the coins had been badly contaminated with dirt, grease, PVC slime/residue and other foreign matter.

These solutions had been used with inexpensive coins. He considered this to be conservation vs. letting the coins deteriorate due to surface contamination.

He used a cotton ball to apply the cleaner in a gentle blotting motion so as not to create swirl marks or hairlines. Still the toning seemed resistant and stubborn.

As he prepared to blot again he heard the voices: “A little more pressure and rub it just a tiny bit to remove it all.” Now other voices called out to him: “Don’t do it. Don’t do it.”

Snapping back to the present, our numismatist murmured, “just a little rub,” as he applied the cotton. He followed the cleaning with a quick rinse of the coin in water. The toning had disappeared and the coin look wonderful, but perhaps with a sense of foreboding he did not examine the coin under magnification.

Now, weeks later, he had the dreaded results. “Stupid is as stupid does.” He would, of course, be quiet about his failure. Had the coin come back without mention of the cleaning and in the grade he wanted he would have proclaimed himself to be a genius.

The moral to our story is that sometimes things are best left alone. With cleaning coins you need to know what you’re doing.

There are several things along the way one needs to consider before cleaning any coin. The first one is: Why do you want to clean the coin? If it’s because of toning, remember toning is a natural condition that should not affect the grade unless it is covering marks, blemishes etc. Secondly, can you stand looking at a botched job? For instance, a “pink coin” is not attractive. This has been known to happen with copper and bronze pieces.

Thirdly, can you afford to lose the value of your coin if it is damaged in the cleaning? Additionally, get all the advice you can. Discuss the cleaning with a dealer or fellow collector.

There are books that discuss the cleaning of coins and all the pitfalls. Getting educated will help.

Finally, if you have a coin that you are tempted to clean, consider selling or trading in the coin to someone who may appreciate it. There are collectors who actively seek attractively toned coins. This is the preferable route to ruining a coin’s numismatic value.

If after all this you are still intent on cleaning your coin do be careful. Try your cleaning technique on some coins from your pocket change.

Looking over the demographics of the hobby most of us are not chemistry majors. Cleaning, or better said conservation is best left to the professionals.

Fakes Share Certain Surface Characteristics

By F. Michael Fazzari, Numismatic News February 25, 2010

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• Fakes Share Certain Surface Characteristics

If someone asks you to name some of the defects commonly found on counterfeit coins what would you say? What would you look for on a coin that you suspected to be counterfeit?

Did you say weight? One authenticator that I have worked with routinely weighed any coin he suspected might not be genuine. I cannot argue with his thoroughness, yet there were many times I had to suppress a smile or comment.

You see, most of the coins that were out of tolerance were not very good fakes to begin with. Besides, long ago, the people making deceptive fakes became more careful about the weight of their products.

Did you say color? As I have discussed here before, color gives us an important clue about the alloy composition of a particular coin.

What about its surface texture?

Let’s examine a group of recently made counterfeit coins from various countries to see what they have in common. Before looking at the illustrations, I’ll give a short description of what each looks like to the naked eye.

The coin in Figure 1 is a Danish 5 ore, KM#794.1 made of bronze. It grades MS-68 red. There are no marks on it and its surface is fully lustrous and spot free. And why not? It was probably just made to order a few weeks ago.

Figure 2 is a 30X view of a 1936 French 20 francs, KM#879. This coin would also grade very high, perhaps MS-66 because of a few dings. Its reeded edge feels very sharp to the touch and the fields of this fake are almost semi-prooflike. This would be an awesome coin if it were genuine.

Both of these coins fall into the category of “too-good to-be-true” and that alone should make one suspicious of their authenticity. The counterfeiters are not stupid. They have learned that it is easier to pass a dark, slightly circulated coin off as a genuine specimen.

The counterfeit Russian ruble, KM#19.2, in Figure 3 is an example of a coin that might have a better chance of passing undetected because it appears to have circulated. This coin is gray with dark accents around its relief.

Its “details” grade is XF/AU. However, there is virtually no actual friction wear on the coin. There are many “fresh” contact marks on its surface and there are also many depressed marks that were transferred from the original coin used to make the fake dies. These depressions have the same surface as the rest of the coin and will carry over to similar coins having a different date.

Figure 4 shows part of the reverse on a circulated Bust dime that is counterfeit.

Now let’s take a look at the micrographs to see what these coins have in common. All have small pimples on their relief. The Russian coin also has many in the field.

When two dealers get together to discuss a suspect coin you’ll often hear them mention a rough, granular surface or pimples. These characteristics are commonly found on fakes made by casting. More recently, they are seen on fakes struck using dies made by a spark erosion process. Many of the new Chinese counterfeit coins have these defects and they cannot be polished off without affecting the coin’s design. Do you see the tiny pimples in each of the micrographs?

One note of caution is in order. I have found that sooner or later, every defect seen on a counterfeit will turn up on a genuine coin and the reverse is also true. For instance, environmental damage can give a genuine coin a rough granular appearance and a few stray pimples on a coin does not prove it’s a counterfeit. In fact, one variety of 1883-CC Morgan dollar is covered with little pimples on its reverse.

Should you wish to appreciate the severity of the Chinese assault on numismatics, log on to eBay and check out what’s available under copies and replicas. For the moment, most of these coins will fool many collectors but they are easily detected by major dealers and numismatists.

Nevertheless, I have already alerted you to the fact that at least one Chinese outfit, possibly with help from the highest authorities, is producing much more dangerous fakes that the ones I illustrate here.

As always, buy from reputable dealers. If you don’t feel comfortable about your authentication skills, purchase slabs and have any suspicious coins checked by a major grading service.

Previewing 2010 Boy Scouts Silver Dollar Coins

By Coin Update Staff on February 17th, 2010
Categories: US Coins, United States Mint

This year the United States Mint will issue 2010 Boy Scouts of America Centennial Silver Dollars in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the organization. The coins are currently scheduled for release on March 23, 2010.

The commemorative coin program was proposed under H.R. 5872: Boy Scouts of America Centennial Commemorative Coin Act. The bill was introduced by Rep. Peter Sessions of Texas on April 22, 2008. The bill was passed by the House on May 15, 2008, passed by the Senate on September 27, 2008, and signed into law by the President on October 8, 2008, becoming Public Law No: 110-363.

The designs for the 2010 Boy Scouts Silver Dollars were unveiled by the United States Mint on December 17, 2008. The obverse (heads side) of the coin features an image of a Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and female Venturer saluting. The inscription “Continuing the Journey” is included, along with the anniversary dates of the organization “1910″ and “2010″. The reverse (tails side) of the coin features the Boy Scouts of America universal emblem. Inscriptions include “Boy Scouts of America” and the Scout motto “Be Prepared”.

The obverse of the coin was designed by United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program Master Designer Donna Weaver and engraved by United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Charles Vickers. The reverse was engraved by United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Jim Licaretz.

The coins are struck in a composition of 90% silver and 10% copper. Each coin has a weight of 26.73 grams and a diameter of 1.5 inches.

The 2010 Boy Scouts Centennial Silver Dollars will be minted in proof and uncirculated versions with a maximum mintage of 350,000 coins across all product options. These coins will be available directly from the United States Mint with sales currently scheduled to begin on March 23, 2010 at 12:00 Noon ET.

Introductory pricing of $33.95 for uncirculated coins and $39.95 for proof coins will be available from March 23, 2010 to April 22, 2010. After this period, regular pricing of $35.95 for uncirculated coins and $43.95 for proof coins will become effective. In general, commemorative coins remain available for sale until the maximum authorized mintage has been sold or a pre-announced date, typically in mid-December.

Coin Update News:

2010 Lincoln Cent Exchanges in Washington DC on February 25

By Coin Update Staff on February 23rd, 2010
Categories: US Coins, United States Mint

Washington, DC area coin exchanges for the newly designed 2010 Lincoln Cent have been rescheduled for February 25, 2010. The exchanges had previously been scheduled to take place on February 11, 2010, but were canceled due to a fierce winter storm that had closed down federal agencies for much of the week.

Although the Washington DC exchanges had been canceled, the official launch ceremony held in Springfield, Illinois proceeded as planned on February 11. Approximately one thousand people were on hand to witness the official presentation of the 2010 Lincoln Cent, which features the Union Shield on the reverse. Following the launch ceremony, a coin exchange was held where attendees were allowed to exchange currency for rolls of the new Lincoln Cents. There were a total of 20,000 rolls, or one million coins, exchanged at the Springfield event.

The February 25, 2010 Washington DC exchanges will be held at the US Mint sales counter located at Union Station and the first floor of the US Mint’s headquarters at 801 9th Street NW. The rolls will be available from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Exchanges will take place at face value, with currency exchanged for the corresponding number of 2010 Lincoln Cent rolls. There will be a minimum of two and a maximum of six rolls imposed.

2011 America the Beautiful Quarter Design Candidates

By Rhonda Kay on Feb 19th, 2010 in American the Beautiful Quarters, Coin or Numismatic News, Featured Coin News Articles, Making and Designing Coins, United States Mint News and Information | No Comments 

Five popular sites from five different U.S. states will be honored in 2011 on the reverse side of Washington quarters.

Listed in the order of their release, the sites will be Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania, Glacier National Park in Montana, Olympic National Park in Washington, Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi, and Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Oklahoma.

These five newly designed quarters are part of the quarter series that begins in 2010 and is called the America the Beautiful Quarter Program. They are much like the popular 50 State Quarters Program, touted by the US Mint as the “most successful coin initiative in US history” and produced between 1999 and 2008. The difference is the America the Beautiful Quarter Program features 56 US National Sites.

The quarter design process is quite involved, and the America the Beautiful Quarter Program presents unique challenges. First, the national sites have many notable elements but the diameter of the quarter is slightly less than one inch. Second, the order of the national sites had to be determined. Third, the designs had to be drawn by US Mint artists and reviewed by various parties, to include the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) and the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC). For the 2010 designs, that process had to be sped up in order to get the first 2010 quarters produced. The two review entities have already submitted their recommendations regarding the 2010 candidate designs to the Secretary of the Treasure, and an announcement about the final selections is expected at any time.

The 2011 design candidates have also been drawn, and have followed a more typical timeline. Three to four designs have been created for each location. It usually takes the Mint about 18 months from the time coin legislation is passed to the time new coins are produced. The CFA and CCAC have reviewed the designs and submitted their recommendations.

The following are high resolution images of the candidate designs by order of their upcoming release in 2011 (click on any image to enlarge it):

Pennsylvania: 2011 Gettysburg National Military Park Quarter Design

 

Montana: 2011 Glacier National Park Quarter Designs

 

Washington: 2011 Olympic National Park Quarter Designs

 

Mississippi: 2011 Vicksburg National Military Park Quarter Designs

 

Oklahoma: 2011 Chickasaw National Recreation Area Quarter Designs

 

In all cases, the US Mint will be issuing the new quarters by the order in which the federal government took control of a site. A new quarter will be released five times a year until the final coin is released in the year 2021. The 2011 quarters will be the 6th through 10th quarters in the series and will be the first year that two American Civil War military parks are honored.

George Washington, the first President of the United States, will still be featured on the obverse of the new quarters. His portrait, designed by John Flanagan, has been on the quarter dollar since 1932. That same image was slightly modified by William Cousins for the release of the State Quarters, and it will be used again on the new series.

For additional information on the America the Beautiful Quarters Program, check out the sister site to CoinNews that is dedicated to the new series at America the Beautiful Quarters.

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Minting the medals on Sussex Drive

 To make the undulating Olympic medals— each of which is unique — the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa had to reinvent the wheel, and then some. In the process, Maria Cook discovered, it set a new standard for future games.

  The Ottawa CitizenFebruary 15, 2010Be the first to post a comment    

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Photograph by: Julie Oliver, The Ottawa Citizen

See the medals today

Where: Boutique of the Royal Canadian Mint, 320 Sussex Dr.

When: Today from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

What: Visitors can see the larger-than-life designs of the Vancouver 2010 athlete medals depicted on the exterior of the mint’s historic building and view and photograph the Vancouver 2010 athlete medals.

What else: Visitors can exchange coins to receive the 2010 Lucky Loonie.

OTTAWA — The athletes standing on the podium in Vancouver will receive gold, silver and bronze medals made at the Royal Canadian Mint on Sussex Drive. For the athletes, they represent the highest achievement in their sport. At the mint, they are celebrated as the pinnacle of craftsmanship.

“Their true journey starts now,” says Renato Romozzi, the mint’s design co-ordinator.

“When these medals find their rightful owners, they are going to represent Canada all over the world. We’re so proud. They’re such beautiful medals.” The mint assembled 34 engineers, engravers, die technicians, machinists and production experts to make the 615 Olympic and 399 Paralympic medals.

It was probably the most challenging job ever faced by the mint, says Romozzi, 53.

“I don’t think we’ve made anything that comes close to the complexity,” he says.

“We’ve never put together a group of people like we did for this medal; a lot of people, a lot of technologies.” It was the final step of a two-year creative process that spanned the country.

“It’s all done with love,” says Romozzi.

The medals were designed by artist Corrine Hunt, 50, and industrial designer Omer Arbel, 33, both of Vancouver. Hunt, of Komoyue and Tlingit heritage, comes from a renowned family of West Coast artists.

Viewed from the side, the medal forms a gentle wave shape, inspired by the ocean, mountains and snow drifts of British Columbia.

“They will be unique,” says Jim Greensfelder, a Florida collector who wrote a reference guide to Olympic medals.

“There’s never been a medal that’s had that (wavy) contour,” he says. “People will recognize it as being very distinctive for Vancouver and Canada.” No two medals are alike. Each of the 1,104 medals is engraved with a different segment cropped from two drawings by Hunt.

She chose to depict a killer whale or orca on the Olympic medals “because of its strength and beauty and athleticism, as well as the idea that the orca travels within its community,” she says.

“Just as the athlete is not alone but it is always surrounded by his or her community, which would be the team or nation.” Hunt’s orca is drawn in four panels as it might appear on a traditional bentwood box “used to contain the treasures of our culture,” she says. “The idea was that the athletes would receive their treasure from this box.” For the Paralympic medals, Hunt drew a raven in three parts in the style of a totem pole. The raven is associated with creativity.

“My uncle is paraplegic,” she explains. “He’s risen above all these challenges to become the captain of a fishing boat and an engraver and he taught me how to engrave.” Each athlete will receive a scarf printed with the master artwork in which they will be able to find their fragment.

“All the medals together make the complete art work,” says Arbel. “Every athlete’s story is unique, but together they’re part of a larger Olympic whole.” Weighing between 500 and 576 grams, the medals are among the heaviest in Games history.

“Athletes like them heavier,” says Greensfelder. “They feel like it’s more substantial, that it’s worth more.” The Olympic medals are circular, 100 mm in diameter. The Paralympic medals are a squared-circle and measure 95mm by 95mm.

For the first time, Paralympic medals are equal in size to Olympic medals. “Paralympic are usually much smaller,” says Romozzi. “These set the standard now for the rest of the world to follow.” While the mint produces circulation coins in Winnipeg, the Crown corporation’s Ottawa headquarters makes collectors’ coins and medals, including military medals and Order of Canada medals.

It has made Olympic medals once before, for the 1976 Montreal games.

Romozzi, a native of Ottawa and a graduate of Algonquin College in electro-mechanical technology, met with Hunt and Arbel in Vancouver to discuss how the mint could bring their design to life.

“We bumped heads on the shape,” he recalls. “It was pull, take, give.” Arbel’s original proposal consisted of two discs that opened and contained an interior cavity. Arbel envisioned the medal as a locket that could hold an item of sentimental value such as a lucky charm or a photograph.

The locket idea fell away. But the undulating surface would push the mint team to the limit.

“The challenge for us was to strike a medal with bumps,” says Romozzi. “This is not something that is very common in our industry. Coins are flat. Some have high relief, but nothing like this.” They experimented with press settings and designs of dies, metal blocks imprinted with undulations which give the medals their shape. Many early attempts were melted down.

“Every time you struck, the dies would move apart,” recalls Romozzi. “The undulations don’t actually meet each other. That’s where we had a lot of trouble. It was so critical for the shape to be exactly what we needed and to be consistent.” Not least of all for the laser machine which etches the motifs onto the medals. “The laser follows the bumps,” says Romozzi. “If they’re all different, the laser freaks out.” The 102-year-old mint is a familiar landmark in Ottawa. Sitting on a bluff above the Ottawa River, it resembles a castle with its stone walls and turrets.

The medals were made at the plant inside, which is organized into rooms equipped with large machines. Each medal took 24 hours to complete and went through more than 30 steps.

The metal came from Vancouver mining giant Teck Resources, a Games sponsor.

They supplied 1,950 kilograms of sterling silver (for the silver and gold medals), 2.05 kilograms of gold (to plate each gold medal with six grams of gold), and 903 kilograms of copper (for the bronze medals.) Production started at a massive furnace where the raw materials are melted down. “It looks like molten lava,” says Romozzi. “It’s red hot.” The liquid metal exits the furnace through a device that forms it into bars about 60 centimetres long and 15 mm thick. These bars pass through a machine in which two giant rolling pins compress them to the required thickness of 9.2 mm.

As the metal gets thinner, the bars stretch to strips about 2.5 metres long.

The strips are chopped into square plates called blanks, which measure 106 mm by 106 mm.

Washed, rinsed and heated in the furnace, the blanks are ready to be struck. Each blank is hand-placed on the press between the two dies. The medal is struck nine times with 1,900 tonnes of pressure, the weight of 760 cars piled on top of each other.

“The tonnage is incredible. We’ve never struck anything as high as 1,900 tonnes,” says Romozzi.

By comparison, a silver dollar is struck twice with between 200 and 300 tonnes.

“There’s so much material,” he says. “Pressing it once doesn’t fill it properly. We have to squish it nine times. The press looks like it’s taking a big bite every time it comes down.” The blank is struck in three sets. In between each set, the blanks are heated in a 600C furnace for four hours to make them softer.

After the strikes “you’ve got this thing that looks like a little pizza,” says Romozzi. “The design is right in the centre. You’ve got all this excess material around it.” A milling machine trims the surplus. Another tool cuts a slot in the edge of the medal in which a hanger for the ribbon is inserted.

The next step is to etch the artwork onto the discs with a laser machine which is programmed to apply the motifs. This proved a struggle.

The pattern of the artwork on the front of the medal goes through the Olympic rings or three Paralympic agitos. But the machine could not laser on the rings.

“Our guys did the most incredible thing,” says Romozzi. “They did something the (machine’s manufacturer) didn’t know you could do. They trained the laser to know what the rings were. They would jump over, laser inside and jump out.” On the reverse side, the medals contain the official names of the Games in English and French, Vancouver 2010’s emblems, and the name of the sport and event the medal was awarded in. Finally, each medal is clad in transparent protective coating to prevent wear and tarnishing.

After 402 days, the medals were finished. The $2 million feat was part of the mint’s sponsorship of the Games.

“They shipped out Jan. 8, so we lost them,” says Romozzi. “It was a sad moment. We got so attached to them.” In the search for a medal that would reflect Canada and delight athletes, the design team learned “just how much meaning a small object could have,” says Arbel.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Greek Economic Turmoil Could Hurt Euro

By Richard Geidroyc, World Coin News February 12, 2010

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At the moment it may appear to be unthinkable, but all European Union eyes are on Greece, which due to economic problems could find itself uninvited from continuing in the EU’s euro currency union.

European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet recently called the suggestion an “absurd hypothesy,” but on Jan. 15 Greece presented the European Commission with a three-year budget plan with deficit-reduction measures aimed at reducing what is now Europe’s biggest budget shortfall. There is serious concern that the deficit led to downgrading Greece’s debt during December 2009, sparking a rout in its bonds.

Mitul Kotecha is the head of global foreign exchange strategy for Calyon in Hong Kong. His quoted in the Jan. 18 The Wall Street Journal newspaper as saying, “Although debt concerns are unlikely to dissipate quickly, especially given Greece’s inability to convince markets of its plans to cut its burgeoning budget deficit, the ‘risk on’ tone is likely to have a stronger hand later in the week, driven in large part by strong Chinese data.”

When asked only a day earlier by the Reuters news reporting service what he thought of talk Greece might be forced to leave the “euro zone,” Trichet said, “I do not comment myself on absurd hypotheses, so that would be my response.”

The Jan. 15 Bloomberg Business Week reported Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker, who is identified as the head of the group of euro-area finance ministers, as saying, “Two things won’t happen: Greece won’t go bankrupt; but it has to make enormous efforts. The second point is that the hypothesis that a country will leave the eurogroup or euro zone is not a question.”

Juncker continued that leaving the euro zone would “cause unmanageable problems for a country.”

Talk like that could be likened to saying South Carolina won’t secede from the Union if Abraham Lincoln is elected president. In this current situation the EU might have to bring in the financial troops to bail out Greece somehow.

And they might have to. Goldman Sachs analyst Themistoklis Fiotakis, based in London, told Bloomberg Business Week Greece’s economic plan “still leaves a number of sources for uncertainty, which could aggravate a nervous market,” continuing, “Part of the euro underperformance can be linked back t the evolving pressures around Greece’s fiscal challenges.”

Greece joined the currency union at its onset in 2001, dumping its drachma currency for the euro. Greece now issues coins and bank notes exclusively in euro denominations, but all this would have to change if Greece becomes officially ineligible to continue as a currency union participant. Should Greece revert to the drachma its currency would experience currency exchange rate fluctuations against the euro as does any other foreign currency, including the U.S. dollar.

Greece and Italy both struggled to fulfill EU economic requirements to join the currency union when the currency union was being initiated. There are a number of additional countries now waiting to join the euro zone, but no nation to date has opted out voluntarily or involuntarily. If Greece was to leave the currency union this could present another dimension to the future of the entire EU.

Butler Created 1864 Medal for Black Troops

By R.W. Julain, Numismatic News February 10, 2010

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Although the United States military has awarded special medals for bravery, notably the Medal of Honor, in the 19th century there was only one medal struck as an award to a body of troops for a particular battle.

This was the highly sought-after 1864 “Colored Troops before Richmond” medal, which is an extraordinary reminder of the Civil War and the bravery of black troops in the Union Army.

The election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in November 1860 set off alarm bells throughout the South. The President-elect was seen as an abolitionist wanting to free the slaves, which was not quite true. He did not believe in slavery but felt that it had to be gradually abolished to avoid bloodshed between North and South.

Prior to the Inauguration on March 4, 1861, several Southern states had either seceded from the Union or had signaled their intention of doing so. Lincoln had privately sent assurances of his real views to influential Southerners, but they had been ignored.

Actually the question of slavery was not the only issue troubling the South. In 1830, for example, South Carolina had threatened to secede over the tariff laws, but President Andrew Jackson made it plain that he would personally lead a federal army to end any such plans and the secession movement cooled for the time being, only to regain momentum during the late 1850s.

Had cooler heads prevailed in South Carolina the secession of the Southern states might well have gone peacefully despite Lincoln’s wish to preserve the Union. In early 1861, for example, there were mass meetings by ordinary citizens all over the North asking that the South be allowed to depart in peace.

However, Rebel demands that the North evacuate Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor proved a sticking point and local troops opened fire on the federal installation April 12, 1861. The small federal force under Major Robert Anderson was soon forced to surrender and the Civil War was a reality. By sheer luck, no one was killed or seriously injured in the bombardment, but that would not be the case for the next four years of brutal conflict.

In the opening weeks of the war both sides thought that an easy victory would soon be theirs and long-term planning was not even considered. For the first major battle, at Bull Run (Manassas), Union sightseers even drove out by carriage to watch the North triumph, but instead the South won an overwhelming victory and the roads to Washington were soon clogged with retreating Union soldiers and civilian families.

Despite the loss at Bull Run, the Lincoln Administration still thought of a short war and the reunification of the Union while the South also believed a limited war was in the cards, with the North letting the South go in peace after it was demonstrated that the South would otherwise fight. Both sides were in for terrible surprises and four long years of carnage was to prove this very well.

Some of the Union victories in 1861 and 1862 resulted in slaves being freed but the Administration was uncertain how to handle this. Some commanders attempted to enroll black soldiers, but were promptly rebuked by Washington. It was not until early 1863 that Lincoln gave the go-ahead to enroll blacks in Union regiments; by war’s end some 179,000 of them had served, with 37,000 losing their lives.

It is little known, but in the death throes of the Confederacy – in early 1865 – Southern military commanders and civilian authorities increasingly used slaves to support the army, some of them even being promised their freedom under special circumstances. The irony of this was not lost on the front lines where the majority of the Southern troops came from families that owned no slaves.

While some black Union regiments served in the West, along the Mississippi line of battle, others were used under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the Virginia theatre of operations. It was under these circumstances that the battle of New Market Heights erupted in late September 1864.

The general in charge of the black troops in Virginia during this turbulent period was the flamboyant Benjamin F. Butler, who is better known to historians as “Beast” Butler because of his draconian military rule in New Orleans in 1862. Butler even hanged gambler Lewis Mumford for trying to tear down the United States flag after federal forces had retaken the city. Butler’s rule was perhaps unnecessarily harsh, but citizens were soon able to walk the streets of New Orleans, day or night, without fear of being robbed or killed by local criminals.

At New Orleans Butler had employed ex-slaves as “civil guards,” though they were never enrolled as soldiers in a formal sense. Butler saw their value and suggested that the government raise levies of black troops, but his advice came too early in the war.

During the summer of 1864 Gen.Grant, by now the supreme commander of the Union armies, was slowly driving Gen. Robert E. Lee back towards the Confederate capital at Richmond. It was a bloody fight to the finish and the wily Lee was a master of using his smaller army against the overwhelming Union superiority in men and materiel. Lee’s major advantage was the fact that he was on home ground and defense requires fewer troops than attack.

Grant continually shifted his battle lines in an attempt to force the issue, but Lee was able to move his meager and ill-fed forces in time, inflicting heavy casualties on the North. By the latter part of September, however, a major battle was shaping up a few miles southeast of Richmond, on the New Market Road. Two forts, Harrison and Gilmer, were strongly defended by elite Confederate troops and were important links in Richmond’s slowly crumbling defense perimeter.

Grant ordered that the two forts be taken as soon as possible and Gen. Butler’s black regiments were assigned a critical role in the assault. Skirmishes broke out on Sept. 28, but the real fighting would come the following day.

Early on the 29th the Union 10th and 18th Corps (Army of the Potomac) were first sent against Fort Harrison after a tremendous cannonade that shook the earth for miles around. Harrison was in fact carried by storm, black troops leading the way, while a second charge targeted Gilmer. The latter fort was hotly contested, with even a few feet of advance being thought of as good progress.

In the end even the bravery of Butler’s regiments could not overcome the extraordinary Confederate resistance at Fort Gilmer and the Union forces were slowly forced to fall back. Butler himself blamed faulty planning at the Union headquarters though the Southern military commanders knew that they had to retain Gilmer at all costs in order to maintain the Richmond line of defense.

The Union failure to seize Fort Gilmer proved critical because Lee had the time to stabilize his line. Even so, the victory at Harrison was one of those signal events that was to doom the Confederacy within a few months.

Butler was so impressed with the exceptional bravery of his black regiments that he determined to have a medal struck in honor of those individuals whose performance went well beyond the call of duty. He contacted Mint Director James Pollock in Philadelphia and explained what he wanted done. Pollock agreed to have the medals struck at the Mint using the designs created by Gen. Butler and also to be entirely at the general’s expense.

Pollock engaged a former assistant Mint engraver, Anthony C. Paquet, to prepare the dies. Paquet then dealt directly with Butler, sending him samples of the work as it progressed.

The dies were cut directly into steel, requiring a special and demanding skill, but Paquet used a device not often seen in the 19th century. He hired a skilled artist to model the Butler design in plaster, as a guide when preparing the dies. It slowed down the process a little, but made for a very fine medal in the end.

The dies for the 40mm medal were completed in the spring of 1865 and Butler notified Pollock of how many medals were to be struck. He wanted 197 silver and 11 copper medals, though it is likely that Paquet had a small number made for himself, also in copper, to show prospective clients the quality of his work. Another was presumably laid aside for the Mint cabinet.

As soon as they were struck, the finished medals were sent to the Boston jewelry firm of Bigelow and Kennard, where a ribbon and hanger were attached to each of the silver specimens (The copper pieces were retained by Butler for special purposes, perhaps including presentation to key military or political leaders.) Some of the silver had the recipient’s name engraved on the edge, but most apparently did not. The majority of the silver medals had a red, white and blue ribbon attached but not all did and perhaps there was some symbolism attached to this difference.

Butler not only paid for the medals, he made it a point to award them in person when feasible at specially called formations of the troops. One can only imagine the pride of a soldier receiving such an important reminder of his heroism in front of his comrades in arms.

The obverse of the medal shows two black soldiers charging a bastion with the Latin legend FERRO IIS LIBERTAS PERVENIET, or “Freedom will come to them by the sword.” In the exergue we find Butler named as the designer and Paquet as the engraver.

The reverse has the simple, yet eloquent, inscription DISTINGUISHED FOR COURAGE, CAMPAIGN BEFORE RICHMOND 1864 with a wreath separating parts of the wording.

In 1892 Butler published his autobiography (Butler’s Book) and had the following to say about these special medals: “I had the fullest reports made to me of the acts of individual bravery of colored men on that occasion, and I had done for the negro soldiers, by my own order, what the government has never done for its white soldiers – I had a medal struck of like size, weight, quality, fabrication, and intrinsic value with those which Queen Victoria gave to her distinguished private soldiers of the Crimea … These I gave by my own hand, save where the recipient was in a distant hospital wounded, and by the commander of the colored corps after it was removed from my command, and I record with pride that in that single action there were so many deserving that it called for a presentation of nearly two hundred. Since the war I have been fully rewarded by seeing the beaming eye of many a colored comrade as he drew his medal from the innermost recesses of its concealment to show me.”

These medals are rarely seen and named silver pieces are of the greatest rarity as there is little doubt that such medals, for obvious reasons, have been handed down in families for generations. Some of the copper pieces, which were meant for private distribution by Butler, were not awarded and eventually wound up in numismatic circles.

In the Stack’s Americana sale of January 2009 there was an original silver medal – though the ribbon was perhaps a replacement – which brought a strong hammer price of $34,500. Two additional copper medals in high grade, from among the few such specimens ordered by Gen.Butler, brought strong prices, at $6,900 and $4,900. It may well be a long wait before another such assemblage of this magnitude appears at public auction.

There is an odd postscript to this rather special medal. About 1980 the famed Tiffany firm, for whatever reason, struck a small number of silver replicas. These are also seen on rare occasion and, in fact, one was in the 2009 Americana sale.