Vatican City plans to honor the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy with a circulating commemorative €2 coin due for release in October. Pope Francis has designated the period from Dec. 8, 2015, to Nov. 20, 2016, as the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
Heritage Auctions’ Sept. 8 and 9 Long Beach world coins auction offers a collection of 143 Brazilian Imperial medals and decorations in 107 lots. According to the firm, “It is perhaps the most interesting and advanced group of Brazilian pieces in a couple of decades.”
For their latest series of coins issued as a set by the Royal Mint, Glyn Davies and Laura Clancy captured watercolor-style portraits of some of Britain’s best loved natural landmarks. Creating real watercolors was the first step in the process that brought the designs to Proof .925 fine silver £5 coins.
No ruler of ancient Greece may be as well known and widely discussed as Alexander III, Alexander the Great. The Macedonian ruler destroyed the Persian Empire and helped spread Hellenistic culture. A “Nearly Mint State” gold stater of Amphipholis, issued circa 330 to 320 B.C. by the ruler, is offered in Ira & Larry Goldberg Coins & Collectibles’ Pre-Long Beach auction...
The British vote to exit the European Union one of the most significant moments in EU history — is subject of a new program of three Proof commemorative coins from the Cook Islands. The program is being issued by Coin Invest Trust, a private Lichtenstein-based company.
Mexico’s Caballito peso series was issued from 1910 to 1914. The coin was intended to mark the War of Independence and was, according to the Bank of Mexico, as such, the first commemorative coin of its kind in Mexico.
Nearly a century after the steam technology altered the course of British coinage, modernization came to Chinese coins. Machinery, dies and other equipment were ordered from the Heaton Mint in Birmingham, England, arriving in China in 1888. When it opened in 1889, the Kwangtung Mint facility became the first Chinese mint to use modern technology.
The 76.7-millimeter uniface bronze medal shown is something of a mystery. It presents a high-relief facing bust of an intent-looking gentleman of mature years with no identification except for an ornate Tughra or royal signature placed against the right rim. Research reveals that the portrait is that of the last king of Afghanistan, Muhammad Zahir Shah (ruled 1933...
In the late 1700s, a serious shortage of coinage in England led to an abundance of counterfeit coins and merchant tokens to fill the shortfall unaddressed by the Royal Mint since the 1775 pennies. In June of 1797, inventor Matthew Boulton received royal permission to strike copper coins at his private mint in Soho, Birmingham, to help fill the need.
Malta’s newest circulating commemorative €2 coin celebrates something really old. The 2016 coin, due for release in August, honors a megalithic temple complex from the Neolithic Period on the Mediterranean island of Gozo. The Ġgantija temples are the earliest of the Megalithic Temples of Malta.
