World Coin News February 2021

Heritage’s final numismatic signature auctions of 2020, held December 17-19 in Hong Kong, focused on Asian coins and currency, along with a small but significant offering of ancient coins. The auction of World and Ancient coins raised over $4.5 million, highlighted by an original strike Kuang-hsü silver Pattern Tael from 1906, graded MS64 by NGC which realized $288,000. Struck just six years after the reestablishment of the Tientsin mint, the series ultimately failed to be introduced into widespread circulation. Still, the design would eventually influence the standard layout of the Imperial issues adopted after 1908. This coin is likely amongst the finest, if not the finest, certified examples of the original pattern striking. A stunning set of patterns for the iconic “Opium” Taels of Yunnan, a set of essais that helped shape…

Are there government mints that have issued legal tender gold-plated coins? You need to define gold plating. Debased coinage adjusting to government or economic needs that could be argued to be gold or silver plated have existed since ancient times. The content of such coins varies from a minor debasement to a thin silver or gold wash over a base metal. Today non-circulating legal tender commemorative coins that are gold or silver plated have been issued by the British Royal Mint, Perth Mint (Australia), Royal Australian Mint, Royal Canadian Mint and likely by others. If a coin is identified in its slab as being from a known collection, a treasure find, or a shipwreck is this identification a novelty, when is it likely the coin brings a higher price? The pedigree of a…

Napoleon Bonaparte; Charlie Chaplin; Bill Cosby; Walt Disney; Gerald Ford; Michael J. Fox; Hirohito, Emperor Shawa; Adolf Hitler; Dustin Hoffman; Anthony Hopkins; Saddam Hussein; Peter Jackson; Billy Joel; Robert F. Kennedy; Mary Leakey; Vivien Leigh; Anastasia Nikolaevna; Richard Nixon; Gwyneth Paltrow; Linus Pauling; Pol Pot; Wayne Rooney; Christiano Ronaldo; Bruce Springsteen; Meryl Streep; Sukarno; Valentina Tereshkova; Margaret Thatcher; Vincent Van Gogh; Sigourney Weaver; Anna Wintour; Malcolm X; Malala Yousafzai…

On February 12th of solar year 2021 a new lunar year will dawn. For the traditional Chinese calendar it is year 4718 - the 38th year of the current 79th sexagenary (60 year) cycle. In the Chinese system of Earthly Branches it is aYear of the Ox. Specifically it is a Xin Chôu [辛丑] or Year of the Metal Ox. Each Year of the Ox (YoO) is the second in the 12-year cycle of animals that form the Chinese zodiac. Their order of precedence was determined by the Great Race devised by the August Personage of Jade. The trusting Ox would have come in first but was tricked by the Rat who had hitched a ride on its back, only to jump off just before the finish line, leaving the Ox to…

THIS MONTH we revisit the nation of Tanzania, which we began discussing in our last issue, and its coins from the late 19th century to modern times. There are three coinage regimes: German East Africa, (British) East Africa, and the modern country itself. A very reductionist glance at the situation there in the late 19th century shows native sultanates in decline on the mainland and foreign sultanates on the islands, of which the Sultans of Zanzibar were the top dogs. All were making their money off slaves, with a sideline of ivory, and a bit of gold. People would just go over the border of their country and steal people and sell them to the Omanis in Zanzibar. They did it for centuries. The Europeans were looking for raw material for their factories…

IN 1663 THE Russian economy was in a shambles as a result of the copper coinage that had begun in 1655-1656. A desperate war-time measure, the policy of substituting copper for the traditional silver had been a resounding failure, primarily due primarily to incompetence and dishonesty in high places. Czar Alexis Mikhailovitch ended the program in 1663, returning the nation to the ancient standard of silver. The disastrous war with Sweden had ended in 1661 but the Polish war dragged on until 1667, when Moscow was able to win important concessions from Warsaw. Ukraine, whether it liked it or not, was now an integral part of the Muscovite domains. Alexis was faced with a series of uprisings, all which were put down with the utmost severity. One of the most dangerous was…