Coin appraisals

The stuiver was a coin used in the Netherlands until the Napoleonic Wars. It was worth 16 penning or 8 duit. Twenty stuivers equalled a gulden, which made the stuiver the Dutch equivalent to the shilling.

After decimalisation of Dutch currency, the name “stuiver” was preserved as a nickname for the five-cent coin until the introduction of the euro; to this day, the name is still often used to refer to the five euro cent coin, which has almost exactly the same size and shape.

The English denomination name stiver is derived from stuiver.

The Coin walk is a type of coin trick in which a coin is flipped over the fingers to create the illusion of a coin walking across the back of the hand. It is one of the most famous coin manipulation tricks. It is also known as the coin roll, knuckle roll, and the steeplechase.

In Coin collecting, brockage refers to a type of error coin in which a side of the coin has both the normal image and a mirror image of the opposite side impressed on it. This is caused by an already minted coin sticking to a die and impressing onto another coin. Brockage is relatively rare and, in good condition, coins showing definite brockage can sell for large amounts of money.

The twenty pence coin, which features the horse (an Irish hunter) that was on the half-crown coin that was produced for the Irish Free State in 1928, was introduced on October 30 1986. This is first Irish decimal coin that was of a different size to the corresponding decimal British coinage which had until this point remained the same.

The coin has a yellow-brass colour due to its composition which is 79% copper, 20% zinc and 1% nickel, it was determined that this composition would reduce production costs by 25% as against cupro-nickel then used. The edge of the coin has six bands, alternately finished smooth and grained. The mass of the coin is 8.47 grams, whilst the diameter is 2.71 centimetres. The coin was provided to relieve the expense of creating the lower value coins and also to assist the public and traders alike by creating higher value coin which could assist in the removal of some five and ten pence coins. In 1982 the then Minister for Finance, Ray MacSharry, announced that a twenty or twenty-five pence coin might be designed, in August 1984 the twenty pence was decided, the Arts Council recommended the horse design.

The coin was worth 1/5 of the Irish pound and was withdrawn in 2002 with the advent of the euro.

• Coinage (Dimension and Design) Regulations, 1986
• New Coinage (Twenty Pence) Order, 1986

The design of the Israeli 10 agorot coin was briefly a subject of controversy. In a press conference called by Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat in Geneva, in December 13, 1988, he claimed that the obverse design of this coin incorporates a map of a “Greater Israel” that “goes from the Mediterranean to Mesopotamia, from the Red Sea to the Euphrates”, and thus reflects Zionist expansionism. Israel denied this, maintaining that the 10 agorot design was selected for historical value, and “was closely patterned after a coin issued in 37–40 B.C.E., during the Roman siege of Jerusalem, by Mattathias Antigonus II, the last Hasmonean King”. [1]

The design, by Nathan Karp, first appeared on the 100 (old) shkalim coin issued by the Bank of Israel on May 2, 1984 [2]. When the shekel currency was replaced by the new shekel (September 1985) the design was copied to the new 10 agorot coin, which was equal in value to the old 100 shkalim coin. This design was also adopted as the symbol of the Bank of Israel.

The bes was an Ancient Roman bronze coin produced during the Roman Republic. The bes, valued at two-thirds of an as (8 unciae), was only produced in 126 BC by C. Cassius in combination with the dodrans, another very rare denomination which was valued at three-fourths of an as.

The one pound coin was introduced on 20 June 1990. The design is of a red deer, by the Irish artist Tom Ryan, and based on photographs taken by Sean RyanThe Wild Red Deer of Killarney, Sean Ryan, ISBN 1-902011-09-0 of red deer from the Irish national deer herd in Killarney National Park. In 2000 a coin was issued in honor of the new millennium. The design was based on the “Broighter Boat” in the National Museum of Ireland. Alan Ardiff and Garrett Stokes designed the coin. The coin was first issued on 29 November 1999.

The Irish pound coin, which was introduced in 1990, remains the largest Irish coin introduced since decimalisation at 3.11 centimetres diameter. Its mass was 10 grams. The coin was almost identical in dimensions to the old penny coin that circulated before 1971, and was quite similar in diameter to, but thinner than, the half-crown coin. The edge was milled, and a dotted line runs along the edge of each face.

During the early circulation of the coin, many payphone and vending machines which had been changed to accept the pound coin also accepted the old penny instead, the latter coin no longer legal tender and of little value to collectors. As a result, losses accrued to vending machine operators due to the substitution of the penny coin, and further costs were associated with updating the machines so they would no longer accept the pennies improperly. Further, coins dated 1999 (produced by the Royal Mint not the Central Bank of Ireland) were refused by many vending machines (including but not limited to parking meters in Dublin), although they conformed to standard.

Reference

• Decimal Currency Act, 1990
• Coinage (Dimension and Design) (One Pound Coin) Regulations, 1990

The Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) is a third-party appraisal service for grading rare coins. It determines the condition and authenticity of each coin it grades to provide consumers with an independent knowledgeable rating on which to judge the coin. It was founded in 1986, and is located in Newport Beach, CA.

In the May 26 2003 edition of Coin World, the hobby newspaper had announced that they had conducted an investigation of PCGS, NGC and ANACS, three of the leading grading services along with several other grading services. In this investigation, several coins were sent to each grading service. In no case did the grading services agree on the grade of any given coin, and in some cases the difference in grading was seven points off (it is standard in U.S. numismatics to grade coins on a point-scale from 1 (poor) to 70 (perfect)). In one case ACCGS had graded a coin as “cleaned” and several grades lower than PCGS which PCGS had not noted was “cleaned”. However PCGS has a policy for reimbursing customers if they had wrongly attributed, wrongly authenticated, or significantly overgraded a coin.

In 1990 the FTC(Federal Trade Commission), which oversees business ethics and fraud, filed a civil action against PCGS alleging exaggerated advertising claims. PCGS did not admit wrongdoing, but agreed to submit its advertising for review for a period of five years. In a filing in Federal district court in Washington, the company agreed to include a statement in its newspaper and television advertising affirming that certification by P.C.G.S. does not guarantee protection.

Commemorative

may refer to:

• Commemorative coin

• United States Commemorative Coin

• Commemorative issue - a special edition of a book, magazine, or other item released around, or in memory of, a special event or occurrence.
• Commemorative stamp
• Commemorative plaque

The sextans was an Ancient Roman bronze coin produced during the Roman Republic valued at one-sixth of an as (2 unciae). The most common design for the sextans was the bust of Mercury and two pellets (indicating two unciae) on the obverse and the prow of a galley on the reverse. Earlier types depicted a scallop shell, a caduceus, or other symbols on the obverse.