In early October 2011 an article published by Professional Jeweller caused some controversy, the article in question regarded Nicholas James‘ collection “Savage Sovereigns”. Although the article itself was by no means derogatory the reaction in the comment box below was far from pleasing, as a group of anonymous industry insiders (who else reads Professional Jeweller?) proceeded to rip away at the concept of the collection.
[sic] …the sovereign, its revival in the Great Re-coinage of 1816, it seemed that the coin had been involved in London’s history for as long as it had been minted; this is what sparked the idea of linking the collection of rings with the mythologies of Victorian London. Each ring discusses a particular part of the cities 19thcentury underbelly, featuring heavily is the “Jack the Ripper” legend, with each ring hinting at aspects of the infamous case. Whether that be the black rhodium plated “Ripper” with cuts to reveal the true 18ct gold construction, or the “Tom” (Tom was common slang for prostitute in the Victorian East End) formed in 18ct white gold, embellished with Burmese rubies and intricate flower inspired engraving that beautifully wraps around the outside of the ring, and continues onto the interior of the band.
“Scott Campbell is a sort of semiotician, studying the signs, symbols, and text, commonly found in tattoo culture. His work investigates a familiar lowbrow vernacular, and points out the irony existing within that imagery. His precise technique and masterly of his particular style is only matched in strength by his concern for the human condition. Through the act of chronicling working-class iconography, customarily inked onto skin, Campbell creates a new narrative for the consideration of those recognizable images. He pays tribute to individual stories, and as a result, he records a specific history, which in turn becomes a collective one.” — OH WOW
Big Business 3 is a book and poster series by Chinese creative agency Senseteam. Very reminiscent to embroidered patchwork, this series cuts apart and reconfigures currencies from countries around the world in the hopes of examining identity and cultural desires that link wealth, branding, human expressions and ethnicities.
Why Pennies are economically inefficient and should be abolished. The author is working on a follow-up to this video. Help him out here: http://blog.cgpgrey.com/work-in-progress/
oops.
The crash also triggered a chain reaction, four other vehicles crumpled into each other. One of them, a truck full of candy.
South Porcupine community services officer Const. Marc Depatie to CTV News. He said that passers-by have not been tempted to help themselves to a few extra dollars. ‘We are going to be using magnets and other less sophisticated means of collecting the cargo.He told cbc.ca that the rock ‘acted as a can opener,’ effectively peeled the side of the truck back, allowing coins to catapult onto the highway.
I have a few tokens and coins in my collection from fantasy and sci-fi genre; think Battle Star Galactic cubits… for RPG, LARPers and the like, you can take a look at Realm Coins up on KickStarter, although not as detailed as Campaign Coins it should be a nice, affordable alternative for people to use in general for all sorts of RPG games and board games.
These sort of small, niche manufacturing runs aren’t cheap and the companies that do this sort of thing (still here in the United States) with the quality one would expect are hit or miss. The closest one I found that showed promise is Wendells, Inc. out of Minneapolis: http://www.wendellsinc.com/minting/process.html
Gamer Bling has a fantastic writeup on Campaign Coins:
Gamer Bling is a numismatist. And by that he doesn’t mean that he’ a Gary Numan fan, although he is; he means that he is a coin collector, and he geeks out over coins the way other people geek out over whatever it is that they geek out about, many examples of which, like PVC statues of underclad Japanese anime girls, are things that are generally not admitted in public.
Gamer Bling collects coins. And he is geekily proud of his collection inasmuch as it has coinage from a variety of legal entities that no longer exist, like Yugoslavia, the free city of Danzig, France when they were a military powerhouse, and whatever company it was that thought the d20 Book of Erotic Fantasy was a good idea (Gamer Bling didn’t really see a need to read a guide that defined gnomes by the fact that they liked to have sex in groups, and probably using PVC anime statues as props, too).
NPR’s Planet Money reporters recently investigated the $1 presidential coin program, which was a Congressional effort to get more $1 coins into circulation while also trying to be educational. The problem is that nobody really wants them. Well, not nobody. Sixty percent of the coins make it into circulation. But that other 40 percent?
This is still a trending hack option from 2009… loopholes, gotta’ wonder.
At least several hundred mile-junkies discovered that a free shipping offer on presidential and Native American $1 coins, sold at face value by the U.S. Mint, amounted to printing free frequent-flier miles. Mileage lovers ordered more than $1 million in coins until the Mint started identifying them and cutting them off.
Coin buyers charged the purchases, sold in boxes of 250 coins, to a credit card that offers frequent-flier mile awards, then took the shipments straight to the bank. They then used the coins they deposited to pay their credit-card bills. Their only cost: the car trip to make the deposit. [more]
btw, Right now, pennies 1981 and older are worth 5 cents!start hoarding…
