The largest haul of ancient coins ever found has revealed new secrets thanks to the painstaking work of a team of Italian experts. Specialists at the Italian National Research Council (CNR) have just concluded a two-year project involving the analysis and restoration of the cache of Roman coins, which was discovered by accident in Libya nearly 30 years ago. ''As well as the number of coins, this haul is exceptional as it sheds new light on so many areas,'' said Salvatore Garraffo of the CNR's Cultural Applied Technology Institute.

''It provides information about the history of the economy, about the circulation of currency in the area during the first half of the 4th century AD, about metallurgy and about monetary production at the time''.

The cache, which was unearthed during agricultural work outside the city of Misurata, comprises 108,000 coins dating to between 294 and 333 AD.

Jim Dawson of Florida sent in a 2009-P Puerto Rico quarter that shows multiple die chips and die breaks on the reverse.  The most prominent is on the top of a cloud and folks on eBay have been offering these as having an “extra cloud.”  Please believe me, this is a die

Break and not a cloud.

John Benton of Utah sent in four different 2007-P Wyoming quarters. They all show a multifaceted die break on the upper left side of the rider’s hat. Three of them exhibit a die crack on the obverse that runs from the base of Washington’s bust through the “Q” of QUARTER to the rim. Interestingly, they were also all struck through grease that worked itself from the peripheral tooling into the dies.  In this case the grease covered areas of both the obverse and reverse dies. Notice how the offending grease migrated upon the coins with each one representing specimens with possibly dozens or more strikes in between that would have shown the progression of the migration more precisely.

The very mention of Carson City causes most collectors’ ears to perk up a bit. And everyone knows that the main United States mint is, and always has been located in Philadelphia. Three other locations of early U.S. mints in the South have been Dahlonega, Ga., Charlotte, N.C., and New Orleans, La.

In addition to Philadelphia, the current mints are the famous San Francisco branch mint, the Denver Mint and the toddler West Point, N.Y., facility which has been in business since only 1973 as compared to 1792, 1854 and 1906, respectively, for the other three.

But how many of us have heard of the U.S mint that was located in The Dalles in Oregon? Could we have had a “TD” mintmark? Or perhaps “DC,” as it was originally known as Dalles City. I invite you to take a walk with me, back to the mid-1800s, as we learn about this fascinating story, and some of the people and the events that transpired.

A Proof-65 1904 $20 gold piece realized $72,450 to highlight Scotsman Auction Company’s Midwest Summer Sale 2009 that was held July 24 at the St. Charles, Mo., Convention Center.

This price and all prices cited here include a 15 percent buyer’s fee.

The $20 was housed in a Professional Coin Grading Service green label holder. It was described by the catalog as, “the obverse portrait, stars and numerals are all frosted with pleasing satiny texture, though the reverse devices are less so rewarded.”

Overall, the nearly 1,300 lots in the auction brought a total of $1,444,801.

The second highest price achieved was the $38,525 recorded for a 1916-D Mercury dime that was graded MS-65FB (Full Split Bands) by the Professional Coin Grading Service.

The dime was described in the catalog this way: “Very few marks affect the surfaces of this platinum-tan coin, limited to a tiny abrasion and a singular tick on Liberty’s neck, although certain angles of lighting will reveal a pair of nearly invisible diagonal hairlines rising through the back of Liberty’s cap.”

An MS-68 1864 Seated Liberty quarter fetched $26,737.50. Only one other has been graded by PCGS in the same grade, the catalog notes, and there is none finer.

The unique coin is insured for $7 million for the five-day public display by co-owners, Steven L. Contursi of Laguna Beach, California, President of Rare Coin Wholesalers of Dana Point, California, and Donald H. Kagin, Ph. D., President of Kagin's in Tiburon, California.

Sponsored by the nonprofit, Congressionally-chartered American Numismatic Association, the World's Fair of Money is expected to attract more than 10,000 visitors who will see the one-of-a-kind gold piece that was described by a former President of the association as "the single most important coin in American numismatics."

The show will be held in the Los Angeles Convention Center West Hall A, 1201 S. Figueroa St., and is open to the public daily from 10 am. to 6:30 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, August 5 - 9.

While geocaching Hesaj Ester stumbled upon a hidden treasure that led to a find of over two million dollars in old gold coins!“  I couldn’t believe my eyes!”, Ester said, “I have been geocaching for years and this is the first time that I found anything like this. It’s a strange day!”

Ester said that he got up early this morning and logged on to geocaching.com, a central website that players use to get information related to their game. He was immediately greeted with a cache, GC080401, that was just posted. It was very near his work so he left early, hoping to be the first person to find it. Apparently there are ‘bragging rights’ for the first player to find one of these hidden treasures. After a short search of a heavily wooded area he discovered a fairly large wooden box.

“I sort of knew something was strange when I tried to lift it, it weighed like fifty pounds”, Ester said.

Gold coins (ie coins made mostly of gold metal) that are legal tender in Australia are certainly available. The image to the left shows a recent issue of legal tender gold coin from the Royal Australian Mint. However the legal tender value assigned to such coins ensures that they will never circulate (as opposed to being hoarded in collections).

The coin shown has a legal tender value of A$200. The Royal Australian Mint retails this coin for A$650. And with 0.5 troy ounces of gold in the coin it has a market value of around A$403 at todays* gold price. The relative orientation of these three numbers is most significant.

Setting the legal tender value.

In order for the mint to avoid making a loss the retail price of the coin must be more than the gold value in the coin (ie the material cost of production). And in order for the mint to avoid being inundated with arbitrage driven demand then the legal tender value must be equal or less than the retail price. However with both these conditions met it is possible for the legal tender value to be more or less than the gold value in the coin and it is the orientation of these two values with respect to eachother that will determine if the coin circulates.

Floyd Howze of North Carolina sent in the first report to Numismatic News of a 2009-P Guam Territorial quarter with an obverse doubled die. The variety is typical of the obverse doubled dies that have been seen on many dates and types of the state quarter series with centralized doubling restricted to Washington’s earlobe.

The underlying secondary image is south of the primary image of the ear. Diagnostic die markers (fingerprints) specific to this variety include die breaks through the designer/engravers’ initials on the base of bust, a die crack above Washington’s eye (what appears to be a horizontal die crack further up is a bag mark) and on the reverse, a die crack centered at the top of the island.

I listed it in the Variety Coin Register on July 17, 2009, for the date, Mint, denomination and type as VCR#1/DDO#1.

He also sent in a 2009-P Guam quarter with a die clash on the reverse, which shows raised distorted areas in the field to the right-center of the island. Generally speaking, die clashes are a low interest variety type, but I always like to show the first one or two that get reported for any of the new state/territorial quarters.