Free Republic

So on Thursday Newsom was again roasted online when he announced that California is getting its own $1 coin to honor innovation in the state and asked the internet for submissions. He was already going to invite some choice responses from that simple invitation, then he made it worse by beginning his tweet with, "Calling all members of the Tortured Coin Designers Department," a reference to Taylor Swift's new album, "The Tortured Poets Department."

U.S. — Leaders in the Lone Star State awoke this morning eager to learn how they would be able to address the border crisis as a federal court once again flipped a coin to see if Texas would be allowed to enforce laws today. The daily routine, consisting of finding out whether law enforcement officers would have the power to enforce laws depending on the whims of different federal judges, has swung wildly from one day to the next, leaving Texas officials wondering which side of the argument currently had the advantage. "Step right up for the daily coin flip...

A "very rare" ancient gold coin found recently in the mountains of central Norway could be lost cash that once belonged to an early monarch, according to Norwegian officials. The gold coin was discovered by a metal detectorist in Vestre Slidre, a rural city known for skiing, in Norway's south-central Innlandet County. Technically called "histamenon nomisma," the coin was first introduced around 960 C.E. and used as standard Byzantine currency, the Innlandet County Municipality said in a news release. That means the artifact would have traveled more than 1,600 miles from its origin site to the spot where it was...

(The Hill) – The U.S. Mint has announced five new women who will be circulated on quarters in 2024 as part of the third year of the American Women Quarters Program. The circulation is an initiative of the U.S. Mint in consultation with the Smithsonian National Women’s History Museum, which was approved by Congress alongside the National Museum of the American Latino in 2020. The fate of the Latino Museum is up in the air amid a dispute in Congress, but thus far the women’s museum is moving forward and set to be built in the next 10 years —...

The 102-year-old Infinity Credit Union will stop handling coins at its five Maine locations on Sept. 1 as part of its merger with Deere Employees Credit Union in Illinois, becoming the first financial institution in the state to do so. The coins curtailment by Maine’s oldest credit union does not appear related to the shortage of them during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when business and bank closures slowed circulation. Deere said the change is to keep all of its credit unions, including the Infinity ones in Maine, under the same system focused on digital transactions. Infinity is the...

"The coins, discovered in the ground and remarkably well preserved, possess an astonishing luster and a newfound freshness rarely observed in coins of this kind," said Andy Salzberg, executive vice president of the Certified Collectibles Group.

Thinking of buying precious metals for SHTF (economic collapse)scenario. In a SHTF scenario would one ounce of silver be worth more or less if it were an American Silver Eagle (coin), a one ounce silver round, or a one ounce silver bar? Same goes for gold. Also, in an American SHTF scenario , would a silver coin minted in Canada or Australia be worth more or less provided their economies had not collapsed. As far as I know the US mint only mints Silver Eagles and Gold Eagles. Why are some other rounds called coins. I understand that in order...

He’s “Butterfingers” Biden. The president accidentally dropped and then had to chase a challenge coin as it rolled away from him Monday during an awkward exchange with a senior military officer. The oldest-ever president had to bend down to retrieve the coin after a failed handoff with US Air Force Col. Ethan P. Hinkins, whom Biden greeted before meeting with a group of Minnesota lawmakers at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport. Biden has given out several presidential coins during his administration, including to Pope Francis and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “I know my son would want me to give this to...

Outgoing Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) was fined roughly $15,000 by the House Ethics Committee on Tuesday after it found evidence that the 27-year-old lawmaker broke House rules by promoting a cryptocurrency that could have benefitted him financially. The committee’s seven-month investigation found that Cawthorn purchased $150,000 in “Let’s Go Brandon” coin in December 2021, a cryptocurrency named after the “F— Joe Biden” chant mocking President Biden, and that he sold it all by January 2022. The investigation also found that Cawthorn promoted the coin in photos and videos and encouraged others to invest in it as its value plummeted. The...

The coin at the centre of the story was among a small hoard discovered in 1713. It was thought to have been a genuine Roman coin until the mid-19th century... The final blow came in 1863 when Henry Cohen, the leading coin expert of the time at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, considered the problem for his great catalogue of Roman coins. He said that they were not only 'modern' fakes, but poorly made and "ridiculously imagined". Other specialists agreed and to this day Sponsian has been dismissed in scholarly catalogues...A chemical analysis also showed that the coins had been...

New research suggests that this coin marks an eclipse of Jupiter by the moon. It happened on January 17, 121 BC and was visible in Antioch, the capital of the Seleucid Empire. The coin itself show Zeus with a crescent moon above his head and a star like object hovering above the palm of his right hand... On one side is a portrait of Antiochos VIII, the king who minted it. On the reverse is a depiction of Zeus, either nude or half-draped, holding a sceptre in his left hand. Above the god's head is the crescent of the moon,...

The Brasher Doubloon, the first gold coin struck in the U.S., is being offered privately at a $15 million asking price, according to numismatic adviser Jeff Sherid. His firm, Los Angeles-based PCAG Inc., is marketing the coin on behalf of a collector he would only identify as a former Wall Street executive. What is a gold coin worth today? The doubloon is dated 1787 — 11 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, the same year the Constitution was written and five years before the federal mint opened in Philadelphia. Metalsmith Ephraim Brasher, George Washington’s next-door neighbor on New...

The coin is one of only three of its kind in existence. The other two are part of the Smithsonian's collection.The coin trading world has a new gold standard, after the only known 1822 half eagle $5 piece in private hands sold at auction in Las Vegas for $8.4 million, experts said Friday. Douglas Mudd, curator and director of the Edward C. Rochette Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado, confirmed the coin is one of three of its kind in existence and the auction price Thursday was the highest for a U.S. gold coin struck by the U.S. Mint. The...

Archaeologists in Israel have discovered a rare coin minted about 1,900 years ago, when the Jewish people revolted against Roman occupation, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced (IAA) last week. The bronze coin is so rare, that out of 22,000 coins found in archaeological excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem, just four are from the revolt, known as the Bar Kokhba revolt, Donald Tzvi Ariel, head of the Coin Department at the IAA, said in a statement. A cluster of grapes and the inscription, "Year Two of the Freedom of Israel," appear on one side of the coin, and on...

This super-rare 22-carat gold coin featuring the Queen's uncle has sold for £1million in a new British record. The coin shows Edward VIII before he abdicated and its buyer is now celebrating netting the 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity'. The sovereign was snapped up by a private buyer in the UK, having been located by the Royal Mint from a collector in the US.

Described as the most valuable U.S. nickel in existence, a rare nickel from 1913 is expected to sell for between $3 million and $5 million at auction. The Eliasberg 1913 Liberty Head Nickel, one of only five ever produced, will be auctioned by Stack’s Bowers Galleries in August. “The other four 1913 Liberty Head Nickels have gone on to private collectors and museums, including the Smithsonian,” explained Stack’s Bowers, in a statement. Named for Louis E. Eliasberg Sr., the banker and famed coin collector who bought it in 1948, the nickel will be auctioned at the American Numismatic Association’s World’s...

When is a penny worth $300,000? When it's one of the first copper coins struck at the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, in 1793. The annual Florida United Numismatists (FUN) convention is being held in Tampa this week, and three historic coins, including the pricey penny, went up for auction Thursday evening. Mark Borckardt, a senior numismatist with Heritage Auctions in Dallas, said the George Washington-era penny is one of about 500 in existence. The 63rd annual FUN Convention also features 'over 600 dealer booths, a competitive exhibit area, 15 educational programs' and a host of other activities. FUN describes itself...

A bronze coin that was in circulation in the time of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who decreed that the Jews must be annihilated and during whose reign the Maccabean revolt made famous in the Chanukah story took place, has been discovered at the Tower of David archaeological site in Jerusalem. The discovery, made during routine maintenance work, was a surprise to archaeologists working at the Tower of David citadel. The archaeologists believed they had thoroughly excavated the site during the last few decades. Nevertheless, chief conservator Orna Cohen noticed a metal object among the stones of the Hasmonean Wall inside...

An exceptionally rare gold coin emblazoned with the face of the Roman Emperor Nero dating back to around A.D. 60 has been discovered by archaeologists working on excavations on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. The coin, which archaeologists say most likely came from a Jewish home, was found in the ruins of wealthy villas from the first century A.D. and according to the archaeologist Shimon Gibson "belonged to the priestly and aristocratic quarter located in the Upper City of Jerusalem". Gibson, who is an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and part of the team carrying out...

One civilization's trash is another civilization's treasure. A ship in Israel's Caesarea Harbor was filled with bronze statues headed for recycling when it sank about 1,600 years ago. Now, thanks to a chance discovery by a pair of divers, archaeologists have salvaged a haul of statuary fragments, figurines and coins from the seafloor. The coins found in the wreckage date to the mid-300s A.D. Some show Constantine, who ruled the Western Roman Empire from A.D. 312-324, and who unified the Eastern and Western Roman Empire in A.D. 324; he ruled both until his death in A.D. 337. Other coins show...