Atonement

After the Academy Awards, I usually try to watch all the films, which I have not yet seen, that were nominated for best picture. I figure if they took the honor of an Academy nomination, it's probably a good idea for me to watch them. So this week I viewed Atonement.

Normally I don't go in much for romances, but I do like some of the Jane Austin based films and war pictures are ok by me, so Atonement looked like a good opportunity. The film is directed by Joe Wright, who also directed Pride and Prejudice. It has a war segment and offers some odd emotional crossings, so I came to it expecting to be at least lightly entertained.

Atonement however, turned out to be an excellent picture. Clearly much thought was put into its development from the novel by Ian McEwan. I really enjoyed the scene transitions, which help to blend the crossing story lines. Judging by the disc extras these moments came straight from the novel and proved perfect for use in the film editing. Atonements blending of sounds and scored music also provided a great treat for me. The typewriter clacks really helped to hold the film together and brought added emotional effect when needed. Powerful acting from James McAvoy and Keira Knightley brought an elevation, which kept Atonement from becoming overly melodramatic in it's themes of class distinction and snobbery.

In a way, Atonement might be compared to Titanic in its method of story telling and I think that is a good thing for the potential viewer to hear. If you enjoy this type of film, jump right in, but even if British romantic drama is not your cup of tea, I think most viewers will be able to appreciate the fine craftsmanship which went into making Atonement.

Back in 1988, Stack's held a spectacular auction of gold coins in conjunction with the annual Chicago International Coin Fair. CICF was co-founded and grown into one of the largest foreign coins shows in the U.S. by Chicago coin dealer Ed Milas. By 1989 Stack's was offering another fine sale at CICF, now owned by Krause Publications and three years after that Ed Milas sold his outstanding collection of Multiple Talers through Spink Zurich.

This week will see the 33rd incarnation of the annual CICF, this time at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare and Stack's will be returning with two excellent offerings to be held at the Doubletree Hotel on Thursday the 24th.

As friend and fellow blogger, George Cuhaj, noted in his posting yesterday, the first catalog will offer the Michael S. Tallent collection of British hammered coinage. This is an outstanding offering of classic British hammered and offers something for every collector in this field. I was most impressed by the vast array of rare Sovereign types, which includes two Henry VIII sovereigns, second and third coinage issues, two Mary I fine sovereigns of thirty shillings, and a James I Rose Ryal of thirty shillings from the second coinage issue, amongst others. In silver coinage the collection offers many varieties of the horseman Crown's, including a good selection of those struck at both the Shrewsbury and Oxford mints. Of particular interest to me was the extensive offering of Civil War issues. Tallent built an excellent collection of Ormonde coins from the Great Rebellion, in which is contained one of the true rarities for the Ireland collector, the Ormonde twopence or half groat. This is a very tough coin to acquire and the Tallent piece is very attractive. If however, you already have one in your Ireland collection, perhaps you might consider the less attractive, but also quite rare Cork sixpence also offered in this sale. And if both of these are leaving your bored, maybe you will perk up when you learn that this sale also offers an imitation Blacksmith's Halfcrown of the confederate Catholic's at Kilkenny? Three very rare coins offered in consecutive lots just about midway through the sale, which begins at 4pm on Thursday afternoon.

As George also mentioned in his blog posting, the second sale, which begins directly after the close of the Tallent Collection, presents the Polish collection of Alicia and Sid Belzberg. This sale offers a dazzling compilation of Polish and Russian rarities, a list of which would be way too long for me post here. On the other hand I do feel the need to note one particular gold piece of special interest. The Belzberg collection contains an extremely rare example of the 1772 2 Ducat of Princess Isabella Czartoryska. This is the first time I can recall seeing this type offered for public sale. Neither the Standard Catalog of World Coins nor Friedberg have this type listed.

After the Belzberg collection the remainder of the second auction catalog is devoted to various other coins from around the world. There are many medieval coins, ancients, Latin American, Italian and lots of this and that, such as this platinum 25th Anniversary medal of the Sultan of Brunei from 1992. And of course, to tie things up in a nice little package, you should note that in the Tallent catalog Stack's put together a nice little offering of Multiple Talers. I wonder what Mr. Milas would think of that?