Yearly Archives: 2010
Gold Declines Slightly, Silver Drops 1.4%
2010 Royal Canadian Mint Specimen Set Pays Tribute to Northern Harrier
The Royal Canadian Mint's Winter 2010 Collection -- Product Spotlight
Earlier this month, the Royal Canadian Mint released its first new collector coins of 2010. To follow up on our recent 2010 Proof Set Spotlight honouring the Canadian Navy's centennial as the theme of its 2010 Silver Dollar, we're now pleased to tell you about another perennial favourite -- the annual Specimen Set which pays tribute to one of Canada's remarkable feathered friends.
2010 Royal Canadian Mint Specimen Set Coins (not to scale) - CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
The Royal Canadian Mint 2010 Specimen Set includes seven Canadian coins with a combination of superb brilliant and frosted relief finishes on lined backgrounds.
US Mint Numismatic Sales Slide, Bullion Coins Lead
Austrian Snowboarding and Ski Jumping Coins Celebrate 2010 Winter Games
To celebrate the Winter Games, the Austrian Mint in Vienna has issued two silver 5 Euro coins. Each displays a winter discipline in which Austria is a world-leading performer.
Austrian 5 Euro Snow-Boarding and Ski-Jumping 2010 Winter Games Silver Coins
(Click coins image to enlarge)
The first has as its theme ski jumping. One sees the helmeted ski-jumper captured in his flight from the end of the steep ramp against a background of trees in an alpine forest. The second design shows a female snow-boarder as she performs a hair-raising air trick, flipping her snowboard up over the rim of the half-pipe in which they perform.
Gold Falls 1.3% in New York, Silver Tumbles 2.5%
Gold, Silver, Metal Prices: Commentary – 1/27/2010
US Mint 2009 Annual Report Released, Bullion Coin Revenue Hits Record
Gold Rises for Second Day, Silver Retreats Below $17
US Mint Gold Buffalo and First Spouse Coin Price Cuts
America the Beautiful Quarters, CCAC Dropped the Ball… AGAIN!
While catching up on the weekend's reading I came across an article Debate rages in coin world: Theodore Roosevelt or George Washington on new quarter? The article is about how the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee debated whether to recommend that Teddy Roosevelt be placed on the obverse of the new America the Beautiful Quarters.
Introduced in 1932, the Washington Quarter was intended to be issued as a one-time circulating commemorative to honor the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth. The quarter was born of controversy when Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon chose John Flanagan's depictions over what had been determined to be a more artistic version by Laura Gardin Fraser. Although Mellon was a collector of great fine art that was later donated to the National Gallery of Art, many knew he was a sexist and refused to consider that a woman's work was better than a man's.
As the Great Depression deepened, no quarters were struck in 1933. Toward the end of the year, US Mint director Nellie Tayloe Ross was asked by the Federal Reserve to produce more quarters for circulation. Rather than use a new design, Ross ask the Treasury Secretary William Woodin for permission to continue to use Fraser's design. Since Ross and Woodin did not want to undergo a new design competition, the Fraser designed continued until it was "updated" in 1999 for the 50 State Quarters Program.