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 Friday, September 28, 2007
The Proposition
Posted by tom
Tom's Recommended Film of the Week
The Proposition
Australia in the 19th Century was as least as wild as the American West from what I understand of the history. There were aborigines, outlaws and lawmen, though I think in many ways their outlaws were more brazen and bloodthirsty and their lawmen more civilized than what we had in our western territories. At least that's how it seems in The Proposition.
The interesting thing about The Proposition is our perception of the characters as good or evil and how this changes as the film progresses. A simple premise takes on added meaning over time and with added character interaction. Intentions and true natures are revealed through situations and our stance shifts, as does that of the characters. The plot draws substantially from Jaws, in that a lawman is undermined in his responsibility to serve and protect the community from a savage force by bureaucratic callousness, petty townspeople's demands and sloppy performance of subordinates, forcing him to step outside the normal boundaries of law enforcement to resolve the problem. There are also similarities to A History of Violence in that a man is compelled to destroy his brother in order to escape his past.
All these classic themes are there in The Proposition, plus solid performances by Ray Winstone, Danny Huston and Guy Pierce and good camera work of stark scenery. You might even discover something new about the use of camels in western Australia. But I will caution potential viewers that this is a very violent and grim film, similar in nature to the spaghetti westerns and the Peckinpah films of the 70's. If that doesn't deter you, I think you will find value in The Proposition.
Tom's Recommended Film of the Week
9/28/2007 12:58:56 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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Gold Continues it's Ascent
Posted by tom
 Gold Climbs Higher on the Back of the Weakening Dollar
A quick look back over our Friday Fix postings indicates that gold has been rising steadily for the last seven weeks. The other metals we post, silver, platinum and palladium have been following suite over the same time period.
The struggles of the U.S. dollar and it's continuing decline against a very vibrant Euro provide a genesis for the movement of investment money into metals portfolios and futures. I would guess that this trend might continue through the fall months, as employers continue to use attrition to control costs, evaporating jobs and weakening the economy, while credit problems put banks and mortgage companies in possesion of more houses.
Sounds like recession, feels like recession, metals responding as if in recession. My two-cent advice? Proceed with caution on any financial decisions, spread your investments with a mind to increasing stability and make yourself essential to the economy lest you fall between the cracks.
News You Can Use
9/28/2007 11:26:18 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday Fix
Posted by tom
 Friday Fix
London pm fixes for 9-28-07
Gold $743.00
Silver $13.65
Platinum $1,377.00
Palladium $343.75
Friday Fix
9/28/2007 10:35:19 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, September 27, 2007
Act Quickly, These U.S. Lots Close Today!
Posted by tom
Two Exciting U.S. Coins At Todays Heritage Auction
In just three hours the Heritage Long Beach U.S. Coin Auction will begin and I wanted to point out two stellar lots which will be sold befor the day is through.
The first will cross the block in about three hours at 1PM Pacific Coast time. It's an MS-65 1723 Hibernia pattern silver Farthing, with tremendous eye appeal.  This William Wood type is very rare, with only about 20 pieces known and I double there could more than 2 or 3 that look this nice. Current bid is riding at the sweet figure of $18,000.
The second coin of exceptional note will be sold shortly after 7PM Pacific Coast time this evening as lot 1153 of the sale. Another dazzler, graded Proof-65, with gorgeous toning, this 1827/3 Bust Quarter restrike should garner much attention. Recent research by Karl Moulton indicates that about 25 silver examples exist of this type, 9 or less being original strikes and the remainder being restikes made during two production runs. This coin has a sellers protective reserve set at $79,000.
Check out the listings for both of these  coins at the Heritage website, where you can read more about their origins and rarity, but do it quickly if you want to be a part of the bidding action.
Auction Lot of the Week
9/27/2007 1:05:02 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007
So-Called Dollars, Serbian Patterns and NumisMaster
Posted by tom
Rare Ecuador & Seriba plus So-Called Dollars at Long Beach
Out in Long Beach this week collectors and dealers will be gathering for the Fall Long Beach Coin Expo to buy and  sell coins, medals, tokens and ephemera of all sorts. Heritage will hold a number of auctions in conjunction with this show, including a Medals & Tokens auction and a World Coin auction. My company, Krause Publications, will have a booth at the show, with demonstrations of our NumisMaster coin catalog website. Stop by the booth and Beth will show you how NumisMaster can help you in your hobby pursuits. Tell her that Tom's Blog sent you!
 On a serendipitous note it's fun to observe that one of the major highlights of the Heritage Medals & Tokens sale is a good run of So-Called Dollars, which comes just ahead of the release of a new  edition of the Hibler and Kappen So-Called Dollar reference catalog. The new H & K book should be available in late November at a cost of $50 for the standard version or $150 for a color edition. You can get more details and order this new edition by contacting Paul Cunningham at cunninghamchips@hotmail.com. Paul often sets up at Long Beach, so you can look for him at the show. The issue of Numismatic News, which should be available at Long Beach, also happily contains an ad from Jeff Shevlin the So-Called Guy, SoCalledGuy@hotmail.com, with a large selection of So-Called Dollars for sale.
 The Long Beach World Coin auction from Heritage contains a slew of great items, all the way from extreme rarities like the 1850-GJ Ecuador 8 Escudos, which was absent in the extensive Eliasberg collection, to some lovely scarce items like the 1733 proof copper Penny of the Isle of man. In this sale you'll also find scarce modern items, like the Order of Malta 50,000 Liras 2004 gold coin, along with classics like the outstanding 1648 Pontefract Siege Shilling.
One particular trend throughout this auction is the inclusion of many pieces of pattern coinage. A quick search of the word pattern on this particular catalog at the Heritage website turns up 80+ lots!There's a Prussian white metal 2 Thaler pattern of 1819A, which seems to be a discovery piece, a run of Victorian Bronze pattern Penny pieces, a unique Korean copper pattern of the 1888 1 Warn and a pair of extremely rare aluminum-bronze patterns of Serbia.
The Serbian coins are engraved by Wolfgang Lauer with a young portrait of Alexander I and  dates of 1890-E. They are denominated as 1 Dinar and 2 Dinar and should garner quite a bit of attention, as both are historically significant and rare enough to set their own market value. We'll record their closing price in NumisMaster after the sale.
Auction Lot of the Week | Lots You'll Like
9/25/2007 12:36:43 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, September 21, 2007
Silver Surfer Steady On
Posted by tom
Silver Surfer Quarters Level Off
Here it is, about two months since my last update on the market for the controversialSilver Surfermovie promotional quarter and I'm happy to report that prices seem to have stayed stable.
On July 20th, eBay prices for the Silver Surfer Quarter were ranging between $25 and $35 or so. Today, eBay prices are about the same. There are less coins being offered, but most all of those opening within or below the $25 to $35 range are selling. Those offered for much higher figures are mostly going unsold. Those opening at $9.99 are usually driven up to at least $16 before closing.
So, for the moment, the Silver Surfer promotional quarter is riding steady on in the wake of a successful movie run.
 If you were waiting for the market to stabilize before buying a Silver Surfer Quarter, I would say that this would be a good time to take the plunge, before the DVD release of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer on October 2nd.
News You Can Use
9/21/2007 4:20:22 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Vodka Lemon
Posted by tom
Tom's Recommended Film of the Week
Vodka Lemon
Hiner Saleem
has an interesting outlook on life. You'll have no doubts about that after watching Vodka Lemon.
Born in Iraqi Kurdistan territory, Saleem left in his teens to avoid the oppression of SaddamHussein. His Kurdish origins have effected all of his films, may of which have been shot in Kurd territories in Armenia and more recently even in Iraq, after the U.S. invasion. Many of the elements in Saleem's films may seem symbolic, but in reality his recollections of Kurdish life coupled with what he experiences while shooting in Kurdish locations often dictates this artists sense of style. Put simply, if it looks good and rings true Saleem may use it in the film.
This approach gives Vodka Lemon an artistic quality. A story, which seems simple, but becomes more complex the more you mull it over. Framing and photography present the film as if it were a series of paintings in a gallery. Characters which you understand immediately, without any dialogue, but which you feel compelled to continue following just to see how they will navigate this barren existence. The situations are established and the viewer is left with as much hope for the characters as they lack for themselves. But the immortal theme of "love finds the way" is never far from the scope of the camera and, as the endorsement of Best Film from the Venice Film Festival indicates, Vodka Lemon provides a sense of satisfaction.
A simple story, with interesting characters and vast snow packed vistas, Vodka Lemon will leave you with a feeling of what life is like for the Kurds. Humor in the face of insurmountable adversity, or, to quote Saleems grandfather "Our past is sad, our present is catastrophic, but fortunately we have no future."
Tom's Recommended Film of the Week
9/21/2007 3:17:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday Fix
Posted by tom
Friday Fix
London pm fixes for 9-21-07
Gold $737.00
Silver $13.47
Platinum $1,332.00
Palladium $340.00
Friday Fix
9/21/2007 1:28:09 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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An Enigma - Polands Cryptic Coins
Posted by tom
Polish Mathematicians Outwit German Enigma
A year or so ago I got on a Submarine movie kick. I watched Das Boot, The Hunt For Red October, K-19: The Widowmaker and U-571. All great movies which I would recommend, but one caveat I have learned about U-571 is that it lacks a bit of credibility for straying so far from its historical basis.
U-571
portrays a U.S submarine crew capturing a German Enigma Encrytion Machine. Unfortunately there never was a U-571 sub, or an American crew that early in WWII that captured one of these coding devices. Later in the war of course U.S. ships did capture at least one Enigma Encryption Machine, which is on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago along with the German submarine, which was also captured by American servicemen. Other museums also have Enigma Machines and other materials on display, as we are all fascinated by the history of this big little corner of WWII.
Earlier it was the British who got their hands on Enigma Machines and began the work of cracking them at their Benchley Park facility. Mathematicians and cryptanalysts like Alan Turing did an excellent job of breaking the codes, which in turn helped the British Government to decode German communications.
Most of this history is fairly well known, due to the efforts of web based historians like Tony Sales, who have done a great job of telling the now declassified secret stories of codes and code breaking during WWII.  Even so, there are still a few lesser known tales to tell, like the that of American engineers in Dayton, Ohio who built an advanced bombes decoding machine or the Polish Cipher Bureau mathematicians Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Rozycki and Henryk Zygalski, who first cracked the German Enigma Encryption Machine back in 1932 and turned the machine and their work results over to the Allies in France in 1939, at great person risk to themselves even as their own country was overrun by the Germans.
In fact I was pleased to see recently that the Polish Mint was honoring those humble individuals and their almost superhuman efforts on two coins. Both coins have legends noting the 75th Anniversary of the Breaking of the Enigma Codes. The 8g 100 Zlotych gold coin has a mintage limit of 8,000 pieces and sells for $369.95 from Talisman Coins, the U.S distributor for the Polish Mint.  The Nordic Gold (copper-aluminum-tin-zinc) 2 Zlote coin is less expensive at $4.95 and even offers us the last names of the cryptanalysts who cracked the Enigma and that's a honor I am sure they would be proud to see come to light.
Focus Country
9/21/2007 12:34:46 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, September 14, 2007
Plague Hits Northern Arizona
Posted by tom
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.
Focus Country
9/14/2007 6:31:29 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday Fix
Posted by tom
Friday Fix
London pm fixes for 9-14-07
Gold $716.35
Silver $12.50
Platinum $1,297.00
Palladium $331.00
Friday Fix
9/14/2007 11:06:20 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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When We Were Kings
Posted by tom
Tom's Recommended Film of the Week
When We Were Kings
When I was kid, Muhammad Ali was admired and despised alternately by many of the people in my neighborhood. Ali was a big figure, everyone had an opinion, and nobody could ignore him. He expressed himself boldly, had no signs of humility and could back up most everything he said.
The Ali-Frazier bouts commanded high attention with my schoolmates and myself. Everyone had a prediction for each fight and there was much debating in the week’s prior. The same was true of the Rumble in the Jungle, except that most everyone was sure that Muhammad Ali could never beat George Foreman. We had seen what Foreman was capable of, but in 1974 we had only a glimmer of the Greatness that was Ali.
When We Were Kings
is a wild and wooly documentary of one of the biggest Boxing matches of my generation. It showcases some of the most flamboyant figures in the boxing world at the time, including Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Don King. But King's spectacle in Zaire didn't stop at Boxing; it also included performances by James Brown and B.B. King among others. In addition, this documentary includes commentary from boxing authors Norman Mailer and George Plimpton, who were there at ringside, and social commentary from film director Spike Lee.
It's a great behind the scenes look at a world-shaping event in Boxing history.
Tom's Recommended Film of the Week
9/14/2007 10:08:59 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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