Coins DIG

With close to 1,000 witnesses watching, a young Millard Fillmore impersonator and his equally sprite make-believe wife Abigail poured from a wooden bucket a stream of coins bearing the face of the 13th president and Moravia native.

The United States Mint Thursday released its 13th presidential dollar coin, honoring Millard

Why waste everyone’s time? Let’s skip the appetizers and get to the meaty stuff right now: The Morgan silver dollars poised to increase the most in value in the years ahead are the 1895, 1892-CC, 1894, 1878-CC, and the 1883-CC. Pretty bold prediction, eh? At this point, the reader now has three options: (1) Stop reading and act upon this information, (2) Stop reading and get on with life, or (3) Continue on, evaluate the analytical approach to identify the “Top Five” Morgan dollars, and then implement a variation of (1) or (2) above. If you’ve gotten this far, we encourage you to continue on with option (3).

First, a little background info on the Morgan silver dollar…

A silver coin dug up as part of a hoard is the oldest piece of Roman money found in Britain, experts believe.

The coin, which has been dated to 221BC, was found near Hallaton in Leicestershire with 5,000 other coins, a helmet and decorated bowl.

Uncovered by archaeologists in 2000, the coin's significance has just been recognised, the county council said.

It said the coin, which has the Goddess Roma on one side, was "something very special".

The other side depicts mythical twins Castor and Pollux sat on galloping horses.

Iron Age shrine

When starting your ancient coin collection, follow these 5 guaranteed steps: doing a preliminary research, planning a budget, familiarize the coins, finding the right dealer, arrange your collection.

If you have lots of time to spare, why not start a new leisure activity? Coin collecting is fun but a rather expensive hobby. If you are interested in collecting ancient coins, follow these steps.

Do preliminary research

Gold's best year in three decades still didn't see it match the returns of an interest-bearing cheque account for anyone who bought the most malleable of metals during the last peak in January 1980.

Investors who paid US$850 ($1174) an ounce back then earned 44 per cent as gold reached a year high of $1226.56 on December 3 in London.

With every bit of evidence that the mini-Depression of 2009 is behind us, and signs pointing to economic recovery and expansion, collectors will have the rare opportunity to ring in the New Year at the Florida United Numismatists convention with the Heritage auction featuring, amid other rarities, one of the five known examples of the 1913 Liberty Head nickel.

It has a rich history and a performance as an investment that would please any owner.Of the five coins, two are off the market permanently in museums. The Norweb specimen was donated to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Numismatic Collection in 1978, and the Aubrey and Adeline Bebee specimen went cross-country to the Colorado Springs. Colo., museum of the American Numismatic Association, the national coin club, in 1989.

Heritage Auction Galleries and Ivy Press announced Dec. 1 the release of the 136-page book Gobrecht Dollars. It is the most thorough review to date of the existing scholarship on these controversial and much sought-after coins, according to Heritage.

“This reference book, the result of five and a half years of work, is intended for the general numismatist that is looking for a deeper understanding of these fascinating coins,” said Mark Van Winkle, editor of the tome and chief cataloger at Heritage. “It gathers together the diverse threads of the Gobrecht story without delving into the more speculative areas of die markers and their possible consequence for establishing emission sequences.”

A London restaurant has asked diners to sign away their right to sue before consuming Christmas pudding, a traditional Yuletide treat that sometimes contains coins or charms.

Neleen Strauss, the owner of High Timber in central London, acknowledged that the idea was a bit silly but she said she would rather be safe than sorry.

''It has created a bit of a stir in the restaurant and people looked at it disbelieving at first,'' she said Thursday. ''I thought it was going to be a pain but decided to do it to cover my backside.''

Recipes for Christmas pudding -- sometimes known as a plum pudding -- are varied, but generally involve a rich boiled or steamed mixture larded with fruits and spices.

Traditionally silver coins are hidden in the mix so that some portions have them and others don't.

The “plunk” was as ordinary as the thousands of other sounds made by coins being dropped into the trademark red kettles.

What those counting the generous donations made Tuesday to The Salvation Army in Jacksonville found something anything but ordinary.

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This year Stafford-based Coins for Anything Inc. debuted at No. 1,518 on the Inc. 5000, a list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., for 210 percent revenue growth between 2005 and 2008. The company reported $2.8 million in revenue in 2008 and is on track to make about the same this year.

The business idea bloomed when Morin started selling Challenge coins, typically military medallions with an organization’s emblem, on eBay for extra cash.

A mother e-mailed him asking for a Marine mom-designed coin, and after finding no coins like that on the market, Morin designed and ordered 100 ‘Mother of Marine” coins that sold out within hours. His own mom, who helped mail the individual coins, gave him a $500 loan to start the business.