Curator & Collector

Mystery Medallion

After blogging on either numismatics or museums for almost every single day during February, it’s time now to review what others have been up to during the Groundhog’s month. If any new readers have chanced this way, Curator and Collector covers, in an approximately equal number of posts, numismatics and museums. In terms of numismatic content, North American numismatics, including news, coins, and paper money, is the main, though not exclusive focus. My own chief interest is in Canadian coins; for an example, see my brief post on my “mystery medallion” that I purchased for a few dollars.The bloggers in this edition of Coin Carnival are not so restricted, with several focussing on ancient Greek and Roman coins; others cover historic US coins, while still others write about bullion prices, US Mint releases, and coin catalogue sales. Unfortunately, I seem to be the only one discussing Canadian coins (I blame Canada). Without further ado, then, here–and in a decidedly unliterary post, hammered out bit by bit–is our first Coin Carnival!

Ed Snible of A Gift for Polydektes has been covering the sale of duplicate catalogues from the American Numismatic Society. One such post has a couple of important links to check out.

Brian of Ab Urbe Condita, a beautiful and stylish site, has a photograph up of an Athenian tetradrachm. I must confess to being particularly partial to the design of the owl of Minerva, if I may refer to the patron goddess of Athens in this way.

Jerry over at Ancient Peddler likes ancient coin reverses. He has also started a coin photography discussion group on Yahoo.

Wayne Sayles was not active on his blog during the month of February, nor was David Welsh of Ancient Coins.

Paladin at Ancienti has suffered no such lapse this February. He has just learned how to zap coins, and was quick to showcase a fine effort.

A.C. Dwyer of Coin Collecting was not active last month. On the other hand, the A.C. Dwyer of Coin Collecting News was most active, with many interesting points to check out.

Scott of Coin Collector’s Blog has a couple of interesting posts on coin-grading companies and the the coin grading scene, although from my experience I’m not sure I agree with his assertion that the American grading companies dominate the grading of Canadian dealers’ Canadian coins. That would make for an interesting study, in any case.

No update this month from Coin Finds.

The anonymous blogger behind Coin of the Day, though, has many posts, including one with a particularly nice photograph of a silver 1918 half dollar that he won at a coin show. This is very motivating to yours truly to go and attend a coin show. Unfortunately, I could not attend either of the last two in town due to house moves of family and a friend. The same blogger also has a nice coin from a dealer’s junkbox.

Coin Update has a beautiful site site with a veritable plethora of links in each post. Make this your coin news site, if you haven’t already. As an example of one of his posts, I note this typical one from Leap Day.

Coined for Money faithfully brings us information and pictures of his finds. He has a particularly nice picture of a news find: a 1794 penny from a recently auctioned collection.

Ed at Hobby Blog has nothing new, but his archives reward curiosity. His blog was very inspirational to me when I decided to start this blog.

One of the great things about the internet and blogging is the sheer amount of new information one can readily and quickly find. If you’re interested in finding some popular coin forums, look no further than Michael’s Mint News Blog, where you can see a very fine post on the subject. Michael, like many other bloggers, also had some thoughts on the 60 Minutes story on the efficacy of making pennies.

For a lovingly-presented series of coins, one of which is a Spanish one featuring the pillars of Hercules on its reverse, see Doug Barger’s post at NumismaticBlog. He also has a quiz for you.

Ron Goldstein, the blogger behind the blog A Poor Man’s Guide to Collecting Ancient Coins, has a nice little post, on the famous Athenian tetradrachm that I like so much. He also relates the story of his first ancient coin, something that may bring back memories for many collectors of their own first ancient coins.

If you didn’t know that Constantine was declared “divine” after his death, then read SCOTVS CAPITIS blogger Scott Head’s post on the subject.

James of Sestertius Collector has a “couple” of coins commemorating Aurelian and his (Aurelian’s, not Jame’s!) wife.

“Titus” of The Punch Die has a “nicely toned silver denarius” featuring Septimius Severus. The photo is a good one, but what makes the post interesting is Titus’s note about the inscription on the coin celebrating a victory over some enemies, who turn out to be Romans. He also has a post on buying and cleaning uncleaned coins. I think this Canadian coin-collector may have now caught a bug…!

Last, but not least, we have Tom Chao’s permalink-less, but excellent, banknotes blog. Be sure to check it out for frequent updates on the world of banknotes, or, shall I say, banknotes around the world.