Homer Hobo Euro Amusement

My posting from last week about the discovery of a Spanish Euro coin artistically modified to sport a portrait of world renowned cartoon character Homer Simpson solicitied several comments from readers. My favorite came from friend and fellow numismatic humorist, Joe Zaffern who glibly offered two dozen doughnuts for any Homer Simpson Euro coin. Joe went on to suggest one of our more creative Unusal World Coin people might want to start a doughnut currency series.

That got me to thinking...which of course Joe knows can be dangerous.

Here's what I am wondering. What world coin could best be modified to showcase Marge, Lisa and Bart? Which, in turn, makes me wonder if there are any coins out there suitable to be worked into displaying Peter, Lois, Chris, Meg, Stewie or Brian Griffin from Family Guy?

Take a few minute out of your busy day and think about your favorite cartoon charcaters. Are there any coins out there aching for a bit of modification to host your personal cartoon hero? It'll be good for a laugh and we all need a few of those.

Gold Bounce a Back A Bit

After enduring a harsh pounding to finish off a tough week, gold is seeing a bit of a rebound this morning with spot sprices rising from $786.50 to about $791.50 as of this posting. Silver also recouped a bit of it's last weeks loss moving from a Friday fix below $13 to about $13.15 as of this posting. 

Platinum and Palladium however, are still on the decline this morning. Palladium slipped from Friday's close of $295.50 to arround $280 as of this posting, with Platinum retreating from $1400 at Friday's London pm fix to the neighborhood of $1390 this morning.

Precious Metals Slide Further

The precious metals slide continued this morning with Gold slipping below the $820 mark and all the rest following suit. Little purks of buying are making for choppy waters however, so we may see minor support at this level.

Platinum sits at $1465 and palladium $315 as of this posting. Sillver has steadied at a little over $14.65.

Crude oil has caught some buyer interest and is experiencing some up-swing. At present crude has climbed to about $115.50.

Gold Dive Continues Below $825

Precious metals continued their nose-dive today with gold falling below $825, silver dropping to $14.65, platinum slipping to about $1525 and Palladium hovering at about $320 at the time of this posting.

A surging dollar and falling crude oil round out the rest of the picture. Crude oil has dropped to about $114.50 as of this posting, with the U.S. dollar at about $1.50 to the Euro this afternoon.

1601-1700 Revisions Continue

Looks like a very busy week ahead for me and my co-workers as we continue our mighty revision of the 1601-1700 coinage for a new 4th edition of the 17th Century Standard Catalog of World Coins. I have been working through this weekend and several of my co-workers have given up their free time over the last few weeks in an effort to complete all the desired changes to our database in time for the new catalog to be available in the market by November of this year.

I have been finding lots of interesting coins as I scan through auctions in search of pertinent information. Some very tough German States issues have been offered here and there over the last eight years.

In the September 5, 2006 UBS Auction 65, I noticed an extremely scarce 60 Kreuzer, or Gulden, of Pfalz-Simmern from 1661. This example realized about $4,600 in VF condition, with a planchet flaw. Someone who knew more than most was willing to pay a very good price to add this scarce example to their collection.

But this is just one example among countless price changes we have been entering over the last few months. With all these dramatic revisions, I am anticipating that this may be one of the best catalogs I have ever had the pleasure of editing.