More nations continue to thank their healthcare workers by designing coins to recognize them, with Italy expressing its gratitude on a just released 2021 circulating commemorative €2 coin.

In her Feb. 27 presentation in the American Numismatic Society series Money Talks, Dr. Irene Soto Martin discusses fourth-century solidi found in Egypt and their importance to a study of the period's economy.

The Perth Mint adds the stingray to the Deadly & Dangerous series in 2021, with a limited mintage $100 gold coin and a silver dollar, each with an underwater scene colorized with metallic paint.

The RCM offers an annual coin set in a Specimen Finish and the 2021 theme continues the endangered species awareness program with a Blanding's turtle as the subject of the Specimen dollar.

A March Amsterdam sale offers a 1917 Dutch bronze medal created in response to German torpedo boats attacking the neutral nation's cargo ship SS Amstelstroom, killing some crewmembers.

While commemorative glow-in-the-dark coins aren't new, Barbados 2020 $1 coins minted by the RCM go a step further, with a million of them issued for general circulation and collecting.

Many know of the ship "Admiral Gardner," but the man by that name also ran a political campaign in the late 1700s, and for his cause a penny-sized token was issued. An example is offered Feb. 17 by Baldwin's.

A coin of Oliver Cromwell established a world record in Dix Noonan Webb's Jan. 21 auction, as the gold 50-shilling piece from Marvin Lessen's collections realized £471,200, more than three times its high estimate.

The brightly colored, graceful flamingo is reproduced in pink and light green titanium by the Pobjoy Mint on a 2021 $5 coin for Fiji; an Uncirculated copper-nickel dollar version is also offered.

A Sierra Leon 2020 Proof gold $4 coin offered by the Pobjoy Mint in 2021 complements the nation's 2020 Big Cat silver $4 coin series, reusing the lion design from that silver series.

The Fédération Internationale de la Médaille d’Art congress and exhibition planned for Tokyo, postponed from its original October 2020 date, is reset for December 2021.

Coins of the English Civil War are historic and collectible, with one interesting example an AU-58 1645 silver shilling of Carlisle, England, in the Feb. 2 and 3 Ira & Larry Goldberg Pre-Long Beach auction.

2021 gold $100 and silver $1 coins in the Australia at Night series for Niue use selective plating and finishing techniques to feature the wombat, a native marsupial that is critically endangered.

The Royal Canadian Mint features the swift, graceful schooner 'Bluenose' on several 2021 coins in celebration of the 1921 launch of what soon became one of Canada’s favorite national symbols.

In H.G. Wells' classic alien invasion novel "The War of the Worlds," Martians lay waste to Great Britain with giant Tripods. So why does the Royal Mint's new coin show the war machine with four legs?

The Royal Mint acknowledges five anniversaries in 2021 with commemorative coins, with coins offered in multiple versions, some offered only in sets available now; more releases are anticipated.

Coins are fertile ground for learning history, as found in the Jan. 19 and 20 Classic Numismatic Group auction of the Peter J. Merani Collection of ancient Roman and papal coins and medals.

A new £2 coin marking the life and work of author H.G. Wells is called out on social media and in online fan forums for having elements on the reverse that are inconsistent with the works presented.

Examples of coins reflecting customs popularized during the reign of Queen Victoria, the private addition of enameling to bring color to a coin and individually engraving coins into “love tokens,” are offered.

An undated sovereign of 30 shillings minted at Tower Mint in the late 16th century provided a fascinating example of the era when coins were used for jewelry as well as commerce.