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 Thursday, September 13, 2007
Cederlind Offers Rare Ancients
Posted by tom
Children, Parents & Even Grandmothers on Ancient Roman Coins
In looking over the current Tom Cederlind catalog a few interesting items jumped out at me. Though young rulers, babies and mothers and often times wives of Emperors were depicted on various Roman coins over time, I don't every recall seeing a Grandmother on an ancient coin. Of course, I am not really too well versed in Ancients, but I do always look over the ancient sections of the many auction catalogs which land on my desk weekly and I don't remember any Grandmothers, but here in this Cederlind offering is a bronze coin featuring Julia Maesa, grandmother to Elagabalus and Severus Alexander. This coin is flanked by select coins of her two grandson's making for excellent representation from their time period ranging from 218 to 235 A.D.
After a bit more page turning I stumbled across another unusual Roman type from Domitian, which features his infant son seated on a globe. Cederlinds lot description tells the tale of Domitian and his wife Domitia, whose son died in infancy. During his rule from 81 to 96 A.D. Agustus Domitian had this silver Denarius struck to honor the memory of their son, who seems happy in Heaven. On the reverse of this type, the boy sits atop a globe, surrounded by stars, with the legend roughly reading " the son of the Emperor Domitian is now in the Heavens." It's an outstanding piece and quite rare.
Aside from the fine selection of ancient Roman coins this buy or bid sale closing October 1st also contains an unusual array of Byzantine coinage as well as a good grouping of Medieval English coins. Two standouts include a Kingdom of Wessex silver penny from Edward the Elder, sharply struck and well preserved and a classic bronze follis of Nicephorus I which could easily have been the basis for a string of modern imitative fantasy copper coins from St Hildegard. 
Lots You'll Like
9/13/2007 4:47:06 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
DuPont Explosion Bonded Quarter Pattern
Posted by tom
Patterns at Heritage Long Beach Sale
Session Five of the upcoming HeritageLong Beach Auction contains a nice run of United States patterns. There are some of the classic pieces such as the popular Judd-1655 Coiled Hair Goloid Metric Dollar in copper and a Judd 346 Seated Liberty muling also in copper. These types always generate high interest, but this grouping also has a few more obscure pieces well worth the look.
An outstandingly sharp strike of the Liberty Head nickel design for a proposed alloy change to 50% nickel and 50% copper, Judd-1710, is offered as lot 3033. This pattern piece grades proof-67 and is a real dazzler.  There are several International Nickel Company Inc. strikes from 1964 when the U.S. Mint farmed out some of the composition testing for new nickel based coinage brought on from higher silver bullion prices. Many of these pieces were designed by Gilroy Roberts and had hubs produced by the Medallic Art Company. Some were struck by General Numismatics, which evolved into The Franklin Mint. All display Dr. Paul D. Merica of INCO on the obverse and the INCO laboratory on the reverse. This sale contains one of the Dimes from this series and three of the quarters including one of the scarce type three patterns with the revised design pictured here.
 
Finally this sale contains an undated DuPontBenjamin Franklinquarter pattern produced in 1964 under the same U.S. Mint program as the INCO pieces. In their search for a replacement for silver, DuPont experimented with a patented method called Detaclad. Detaclad was a process of explosion bonded laminating designed to adhere 75% copper onto 25% nickel. Judging by the results on this piece, it must have worked pretty well. DuPont eventually supplied 70 million pounds of Detaclad coin blank stock to the U.S. Mints in Philadelphia and Denver during the 1960's. This was a great start for the new Detaclad division which DuPont built up to an 11 million a year buisness before selling it to Dynamic Materials Corporation in mid 1996.
Lots You'll Like
9/12/2007 6:08:24 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, September 07, 2007
Second Best Thing to the Windows
Posted by tom
 Tom's Inescapable Truths
While removing your windows for a home renovation always brings on the rain drops, it is the roof replacement which brings on the rain and the wind gusts.
Tom's Inescapable Truths
9/7/2007 1:29:52 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday Fix
Posted by tom
Friday Fix
London pm fixes for 9-7-07
Gold $701.00
Silver $12.57
Platinum $1,289.00
Palladium $334.00
Friday Fix
9/7/2007 11:07:42 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Discovery in Portuguese Gold
Posted by tom
B R Propels a Coin to the Top in Portugal
Just had a moment to look through the latest Dix Noonan and Webb auction, scheduled to close at Coinex on September 27th. Most of the sale is comprised of a fine selection of ancient coins, but near the end DNW provides a few unusual Early Medieval coins as well as a few coins from the Crusader States. One of the major highlights is a gold Solidus stuck by the Suevi in Gallaecia. These imitative types are listed by Alberto Gomes in his Moedas Portuguesas and are considered to be the first gold coins struck in Portugal.
This particular example differs slightly in legends and style from the ones Gomes pictures. It is also a bit different than the one sold through Sotheby's Geneva in November 1986. In fact, as Michael Metcalf states in his analysis of this specific specimen for the DNW auction, the B R flanking the figure on the reverse of this coin most likely stands for Bracara, the capital of the Suevi territory in Gallaecia. That small distinction makes this coin a unique example and possibly the earliest of these imitative gold coins struck in Northern Portugal.
Any modern day coin collector from Braga, Galicia should find this a most fascinating coin. Take a look at the DNW website, even if the estimate of 20,000-25,000 pounds is over your budget limit. It's a great opportunity to look and learn and you may find something within your budget in the many other selections up for bid in this sale.
Auction Lot of the Week
9/7/2007 10:00:25 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Fear and Trembling
Posted by tom
Tom's Recommended Film of the Week
Fear and Trembling or Stupeur Et Tremblements
Sometimes the most interesting moments in life are created by human dynamics. How we interact is an amazing thing, and the differences in our approach to those around us is vast. Most all situational comedy and drama is based either on physical predicaments or mental and verbal ironies. We enjoy watching others go through uncomfortable situations mainly because we ourselves have likely experienced similar entanglements.
Fear and Trembling
takes some of these basic principles and couples them with cultural differences to form a most uncomfortable, yet oddly amusing film. Its pinpoint comedy is formed through the clash of Japanese and Western European cultures, combined with inter-office dynamics common to all societies. Think about a combination of The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Gung Ho, and you'll be in the right neighborhood.
Everyone if the cast of Fear and Trembling does a great job of conveying the excessive natures expressed in the story. Sylvie Testud is brilliant as the central character and her office mates and eventual rulers are played to the hilt by Kaori Tsuji, Taro Suwa, Bison Katayama as the middle management dicatator, Yasunari Kondo, Sokyu Fujita and Gen Shimaoka. Alain Corneau directed this offbeat film and found the humor in all the little places it could possibly pop up.
Be forewarned that there are some uncomfortable situations depicted in this film. Also, there is one scene containing full frontal nudity, though it will not be anything you expect and is decidedly non-sensual. Keep in mind that Fear and Trembling is based on a true story and told through the eyes of a Belgian woman, Amelie Nothomb, who, for personal reasons, wanted to become more Japanese. Mixed up? So is she, but if you like dark comedy, you may enjoy this little gem.
Tom's Recommended Film of the Week
9/7/2007 9:59:02 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, September 06, 2007
Diana on Five Ounces of Gold
Posted by tom
Diana Lingers On
Last week my Blogging Pal and numismatic neighbor, George Cuhaj, wrote a nice posting on the anniversary of Princess Diana's death. George noted that Princess Di has been immortalized on coins, stamps and at least one fantasy banknote. Check out George's Blog posting for illustrations, more links and his experienced take on sculpture.  When he was writing this posting, George asked my opinion on what coins to illustrate and I suggested my favorite off the wall Diana coin, which is a 10 Dollar silver piece from Liberia, KM#350, showing Diana wearing protective gear and observing a minefield. There is a similar coin type listed for Mongolia, KM#202, a 500 Tugrik, though I have never seen that piece.
One area that George did not cover in his Blog posting was Diana medals. So when the Coincraft special flyer from Richard Lobel arrived a few days ago serendipity lent a hand.
Coincraft is offering an unusually large gold Memorial Medal of Princess Diana. The obverse sports a nice depiction of Diana facing right with birth and death dates of 1961-1997 below. The obverse legend reads: IN MEMORY OF DIANA PRINCESS OF WALES. The reverse identifies the medal as Princess Diana's Pattern Gold Fifty Pounds and notes it as a Milestones of the Millennium piece. The weights and measures are included at the bottom of the reverse. At five ounces of .999 fine gold this piece carries about $3400 in melt value alone. Coincraft is offering the medal at 1,870 pounds or about $3780, just about $400 over melt.
Of course this isn't the only Di medal available for collectors. If you are looking for something less weighty, try eBay or look at the other Diana Medals offered through Coincraft's website.
Lots You'll Like
9/6/2007 12:36:53 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Sunday, September 02, 2007
Apocalypto
Posted by tom
Tom's Recommended Film of the Week
Apocalypto
There's been plenty of talk and lots of good and bad reviews from all corners on Apocalypto and Mel Gibson. It's fun to read them and good to form your own opinion. For me, Apocalypto turned out to be an interesting action/adventure film within a Mayan setting. It was entertaining because it was out of character. You don't come to a film like this expecting to see a Die Hard style plot, but here it is. If any of you have seen Brick, you know the feeling; Noir in a High School setting catches you off balance.
When I finished watching Apocalypto my first thought was that I had seen this story before. Different setting, different time frame, same chase'em down plot. In trying to think of which film I was relating Apocalypto to, I discovered, over a few days of thinking, that it was actually many, many films, all with similar stories.
Like The Naked Prey, or Die Hard, Apocalypto pits one driven man against many ruthless killers. All the talk about historical accuracy is somewhat lost on me, as I can only see this film as an action adventure piece set in an unusual time period. Aside from documentaries, I highly suggest that viewers should not mistake entertainment films for history lessons. I love JFK for it's intricate and mystifying plot, but I would never take it as historically accurate.
The same is true of Apocalypto. Enjoy this film for it's great action, fast pace, irony and heroism.
Tom's Recommended Film of the Week
9/2/2007 11:00:12 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, August 31, 2007
Friday Fix
Posted by tom
Friday Fix
London pm fixes fro 8-31-07
Gold $672.00
Silver $11.95
Platinum $1,268.00
Palladium $330.00
Friday Fix
8/31/2007 4:15:43 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, August 24, 2007
Great Italian Coins in UBS Sale
Posted by tom
Italian, Russian & French Coins Stand Out in UBS Sale
Spent more time looking through the upcoming UBS Auction 73 catalog and discover several additional delights. There was an impressive run of French material, and more importantly in todays market, there was also a fair sized run of Russian coins.
Most impressive h owever was the very large selection of Italian numismatic items. In addition to coins from unified Italy, this sale offers substantial groups of many Italian States issues including Medieval silver issues from Savoy and early gold coins from the Vatican and Venice, Colonial Italian coins from Somalia and Eritrea, a nice Tuscan medal, a scarce Mezzo Scudo of 70 Soldi from Venice and many other interesting items such as this sharply detailed 2 Doppie of Genoa stuck under the rule of the Biennial Doges in the name of Conrad II.  These coins are distiguished by their date, 1616 for this coin, and the mint masters or magistrates initials, which in this case are IZ for Joseph Zinus. A similar example grading gVF and with some heavy doubling sold in January 2007 for $2,400, but I would expect this example to sell closer toit's estimate of about $3300.
Auction Lot of the Week | Lots You'll Like
8/24/2007 5:24:18 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday Fix
Posted by tom
Friday Fix
London pm fixes for 8-24-07
Gold $660.85
Silver $11.70
Platinum $1,240.00
Palladium $323.00
Friday Fix
8/24/2007 10:58:01 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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The Queen
Posted by tom
Tom's Recommended Film of the Week
The Queen
HRM Queen Elizabeth II is the fifth longest reigning monarch of Great Britain and the UK, at present, and one of the more prominent world Royal figures of my lifetime. This stature, coupled with the fact that Helen Mirren won a Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Elizabeth II in The Queen, drove me to watch this film. I must admit, I was none too excited coming in, as Royal films are not particularly my favorites and I am not an aficionado or follower of Royal Family news.
That being said, I do heartily recommend The Queen. Stephen Frears put a fine group together for this film and did a great job of directing their efforts. The disc even offers an audio commentary from Robert Lacey, British historian and Royal expert.
After viewing The Queen one can see that the highly nuanced screenplay by Peter Morgan sets up both compelling and vulnerable figures in Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair. There is no bashing here, no easy one-dimensional figures. All the main characters, with speaking parts, are well developed and imbibed with spirit. Morgan establishes a counter point between commitment to State and responsibility to Family which relates to most all of us in one way or another. This is what drives the film and keeps our interest, and I was pleased to see that Morgan won awards for Best Screenplay from both the Golden Globes and Venice Film Festival in 2006.
Tom's Recommended Film of the Week
8/24/2007 10:44:48 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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