Bukhara is the capitol of Bukhara Province in Uzbekistan and goes way back in time to about the 3000 BC. It is located on the Silk Road and has long been a center of trade, scholarship, culture, religion and wealth.

Recently the 18th century coin listings for Bukhara in "The Standard Catalog of World Coins" have been moved under the heading "Central Asia" along with similar issues of coins from Khiva and Khokand. There were local rulers in Bukhara until 1920 when it became the Bukharan People's Republic in 1920 but only lasting  to 1925 when it was finally absorbed by the U.S.S.R.

In AH 1303/1886 AD the last emir, Alim Khan, established the silver and gold enameled medals in lapis and torquoise for faithful, meritorious and benevolent services. Three varieties are known and the third variety which I do not have is smaller in diameter lacking the outer Greek border.

The first example illustrated is flat, uniface and measures 39.83 mm. The second example is slightly cup shaped, uniface and measures 43.62 mm but on the reverse are two tiny jeweler's hallmarks with one having "84" which could be the fineness. These are really difficult to find with the enameling completely intact. I read once where the gold versions were awarded to Muslims and the silver versions were actually awarded to non-Muslims. The gold versions are about 6 times rarer than the silver versions but all are rather uncommon in today's marketplace.

The huge copper 10 kopeeks struck at the Kolyvan Mint (KM mint mark) during the reign of Catherine the Great always fascinated me. These are really heavy and carrying them around in a strong sack while shopping must have been quite an effort. These were struck dated 1763  through 1781. Special novodels were also struck during this same period.

The other day I received my usual monthly parcel from my good friend Juozas Minikevicius located in Jurbarkas, Lithuania. These parcels usually include new coins and banknotes but much to my surprise this one also had two wonderful looking Siberian 10 kopeeks with a note saying they had the official mint countermark of a Russian "H' ( = N for novodel). I had never heard of Siberian novodels with such a countermark so I immediately contacted Robert Julian who is the editor for the Russian Numismatic Society journal here in the states for the story. It seems that one of the mints in Russia started striking these shall we call them "museum copies" for various displays back in the 1990s. These are aged in various manners and really would fool the uninformed but the little "H" countermark located in the bow under the crowned and supported shield gives them away as this countermarking was never done to the original novodels. When they first appeared in the Russian marketplace they were very inexpensive but in today's Russian market Juozas mentioned that they are rather expensive now for what they really are but almost everything in Russian numismatics has been escalating very quickly.

The obverse has a crowned E II monogram within sprays while the reverse has a crowned and supported shield bearing the denomination with the legend "MONETA CIBIRSKAR". The example dated 1767KM weighs 66.85 grams and measures 46.20 - 46.32 mm while the example dated 1781KM weighs only 58.53 grams and measures 47.24 - 47.77 mm. Both have the usual oblique milling.

The most common inquiries we have been getting lately are for Chinese Imperial crowns that are not listed in any of the Standard Catalogs. Of course the usual response is please check the weights and then contact us once again. Most of the time they are found to be underweight and looking carefully at the scans one will notice the irregular pearls around the edge or in the inner circles.














Not to be left out the republican era coin illustrated came directly from an internet vendor in the mainland. It is very similar to the Y# 513 series of one yüan silver coins we list under Chinese Soviet Republic - Szechuan - Shensi Soviet except the entire designs are much thicker than the genuine issues. It features the Communist arm and hammer displayed on a globe on the obverse and large denomination at center of the reverse. Measuring 38.99 mm and being very underweight at 20.15 grams along with having very weak edge reeding we can safely call this coin a rogue.

Way back when I was a senior in high school in North Tonawanda, New York, I had to do a paper for Sociology class, if I recall correctly. Now this was in 1956, back in the days where all the clocks in the schools had Roman numerals and were usually flanked by pictures of Presidents Washington and Lincoln. There was no Spanish on canned goods unless it was from El Paso or other southern border canneries that specialized in Mexican foodstuffs. Rock and roll was the music … hot rods were the mode of transportation back and forth to high school.

Getting back to my paper, I really chose a difficult subject – headhunting in various parts of the world. It really was a very difficult subject to research as I scoured through decades of issues of National Geographic magazines and visited local libraries.

Being an art major I did a lot of colored drawings illustrating the various cutting and dissecting patterns and adding text for the various methods used for processing the victims. As we all had to step up to give a 5 minute presentation to the classroom I was only into a minute or so and illustrating the various cutting and dissecting patterns on the chalk board when the teacher suddenly said, “Colin, I'll give you an A+ if you quickly sit down!” My paper went along with her to various teacher conferences.

The other day I uncovered one of my highly prized possessions: a simple silver badge measuring 44.18 mm in diameter with a total weight of 21.41 grams surmounted by a crown. This badge has VILLAGE HEADMAN / SARAWAK engraved on it.  It was issued during the reign of the Brooke Rajahs, which ended after World War II.

 Headhunting was rather popular between the warring tribes of Sarawak but was finally "severed" in 1899 when the various factions of the Orang Ulu groups decided to put an end to the practice and unite in a new era of peace and harmony. They decided to compete in sports such as long boat races instead. Of course during the brutal Japanese Occupation in World War II the anti-Japanese insurgents in Sarawak were once again at war, but this time with a common enemy. Rumor has it that the 1899 peace agreement might have been shelved for the duration of the occupation.

The gruesome practice of headhunting amongst the warring tribes was showcased at the state's 45th Anniversary celebrations marking the formation of Malaysia. Sarawak is very rich in oil deposits and timber, but the majority of the population is poor or low income and political unrest is very prevalent.