Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In the fall of 2007 the Central Bank of Ireland issued a nice pair of gold and silver commemoratives celebrating traditional Irish influence on European Celtic culture. The design of these two coins is quite lovely and displays great interweaving of faces and symbolic items representing Irelands heritage in literature, music, construction and new technology.

The gold coin is small (though we pictured it larger here so you can see the detail) and affordable, having been issued at 50 euro and the silver coin is even more practical at an issue price of 35 euro. A two-piece set is also available from the Central Bank of Ireland website, so check it out and celebrate in style with new precious metal commemorative coinage from Ireland.

Black Death, Prairie Dogs, Fleas and a Human Case in AZ

Back in May I posted several snippets on the recurrence of the plague in squirrels in the Denver park system. Now I just read a story at the USA Today website about a woman in northern Arizona contracting the plague from a flea bit. Seems that fleas can carry the disease from rodents to humans, and of course a bit from an infected animal would do the trick as well. Out in Arizona they are cautioning the populace about flea collars for house pets, staying away from rodent dens and wearing gloves when skinning your squirrels and prairie dogs!

Of course, as I mentioned in those postings from may, medical advancement has provided us with antibiotics to fight Black Death in humans, so the woman who caught it in Arizona should be on antibiotics now and is hopefully doing well. Never the less, the USA Today article notes that eight of the 48 human cases of plague reported in Arizona since 1977 have resulted in death. You can never be too careful, I guess.

On the other hand, you can handle medieval coins all day long and not worry a bit, so I suggest leaving the prairie dogs alone and taking up numismatic pursuits. Many coin dealers offer good selections of Medieval coinage, check out the new items in Tom Cederlind's buy or bid sale, look at the coins in Classical Numismatic Group's website, or stop by Allen Berman's website. Explore the world of Medieval coins through Medievalcoinage.com, check out European Medieval issues through Alex Basok's well designed Rusty Pennies site, investigate the stellar website of Marc Breitsprecher for ancient coins or contact Liz Cottam for more on Celtic coins at the Chris Rudd website. I'm sure you'll have some fun and I guarantee that you'll not pick up a single plague infested flea.

Chinese Milled Coinage in High Demand

During the first half of 2007 there has been a rise in demand for milled Chinese coinage. Several key Provincial issues have been driven up in price, particularly in the higher grades. Choice examples of the popular Kweichow Auto dollar have roughly doubled in value during the last six months and other scarce and desirable types have experienced similar drives.

Our contributors are busy working on the appropriate 19th and 20th Century updates which we hope to have completely entered into NumisMaster by the end of August. For a taste of what's in store, check out the current 20th Century listings for Kweichow on NumisMaster. This is the first area we have analyzed and updated to fully reflect this new trend.

While on the subject of China, I'd like to mention a pair of interesting, well-designed and useful websites I've come across in my Internet travels. The first offers a nice compact overview of the history of Chinese coinage, perfect for the beginner or for those who wish to expand their basic knowledge of China's coinage development. You can view this site at Chinese Cash Overview. The second site centers on Chinese silver Sycee, but it also contains good information on Chopmarked foreign silver coins, which circulated in China between the ages of cast cash coins and milled silver issues. You can access this vast and informative site at Sycee On Line to learn more about cast sycee, chopmarked coins and other Chinese numismatic and financial subjects.

You may have noticed that my Blog sat relatively quiet last week, with only my usual Friday Fix posting popping up thanks to electronic editor Maggie Pahl. That's because I was traveling in Costa Rica with my eldest son's high school Spanish Club. We had a great time exploring the culture and getting to know the wonderfully friendly people of San Jose. This was a homestay visit, so we had the priviledge of experiencing first hand daily life, food and activities of our host families. Daily trips brought us to the rainforest for hikes, horseback riding, zip-lining, river cruises, beaches, volcano visits and hot springs. What a great and varied country!

On a numismatic note, I was careful to observe the currency and means of exchange in day to day practice. Seemed that most places in San Jose used Colones, while tourist venues had items and services priced sometimes in Colones and sometimes in U.S. Dollars. Some services, like the fishing boat my son and some friends chartered, insisted on payment in U.S. Dollars. In the larger cities like San Jose, debt cards were easily used, while out in the more rural areas cash was a necessity. Tourist centers, like Jaco, often accepted any of the three aforementioned means of exchange and would often round down to avoid giving out change. Of the current coins in circulation, the most often used are the 100 and 500 Colones. In any given day the most prominent coin piling up in anyones pocket will be the 100 Colones and I noticed dates from 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000. The 100 Colones dated 2000 is a completely different type, with major changes to the arms and legend. The 1999 date 100 Colones has differences in the arms, which constitute a variety.

The coin smaller denominations are not often given out. In fact, many cash registers only contained the 100 and 500 Colones and nothing smaller. In some places I did get change of smaller denominations; the 50 Colones from 1997, 1999 and 2002, the 25 Colones from 1995, 2001 and 2003, the 20 Colones from 1983 and 1985, 1988 and 1994, the 10 Colones from 1983, 1999 and 2002, the 5 Colones from 1985, 1989, 1993 and 2001, and of course the 2005 aluminum 5 and 10 Colones all turned up sometime during our stay. We also noticed that the 2000, 5000 and 10,000 Colones banknotes have become the core of most business transactions of consequence. The 1000 Colones notes were few and far between and all seen were very well worn and tattered, making us wonder if they are on their way out, with a new 1000 Colones coin possibly on the horizon?

My host family was so kind as to search through drawers and put together a group of some of the older, out of circulation coins for my collection. One recent coin they turned up, which no longer seems to circulate is the little brass 1 Colon of 1998. A pair of stainless steel pieces; a 1 Colon from 1993 and a 2 Colones from 1984, were located. Also found were a 10 Centimos of 1975, a nice aluminum 25 Centimos dated 1986 and a 1984 50 Centimos. One more fun fact that materialized during their search was when a pair copper-nickel of 5 Centimos dated 1976 and 1978 were pulled out of a large canvas bag and laid on the table for me. I asked what was contained in the remainder of the bag and discovered that the whole back was little copper-nickel 5 Centimos. My host family said they used these to ante up in various card games, like poker chips! What a wonderful paralell to our U.S. 1 cent coin, which is used for betting in social club card games with retirees to teenagers coast to coast!

More Plague in Denver

Seems that the Black Death, which was killing squirrels in Denver has now spread to a primate in the Denver Zoo. A capuchin monkey has died of plague, possibly contracted from the carcass of a dead Black Death squirrel.

Probably an oddity, but the step from rodents to primates is not a good sign. Remember however, that we 21st Century primates have the destinct advantage of an antibiotic regime that can defeat the Black Death. If fact, the other capuchin monkeys at the Denver Zoo are being given prevetative antibiotics right now as a precaution.

From a collecting point of view, Black Death brings thoughts of Medieval Coinage, and for those interested in Medieval coins, I highly suggest stopping by the Medieval Coinage gallery. This gallery has lots of sharp illustrations, and in other parts of the Medieval Coinage website you will find addition images and offers of coins for sale. This is also the place to get Robert Levinson's new book on early dated coins from 1234-1500, a great reference for the earliest dated coins from European issuers.

 Another good source for Medieval coinage is professional numismatist and author Allen G. Berman. Berman has authored two broad general references on world coins under the Warman's imprint. Warman's Companion - World Coins & Currency primarily covers modern coins and banknotes, while Warman's Coins and Paper Money covers a much broader spectrum including Ancient and Medieval coins. At Berman's website you will find inexpensive examples of many Medieval coins for sale.