Новости нумизматики и коллекционирования

The National Bank of Kazakhstan issued a commemorative silver coin "TOBET" series of coins "Heritage of Kazakhstan".

«TӨBET» is an ancient name of Kazakh national sheep-dog. Rock paintings on the territory of Almaty region indicate the existence of the Tobet breed on the territory of modern Kazakhstan dating back more than 4 thousand years. The modern Tөbet is a symbol of the unique ethnic and cultural heritage of Kazakhstan, a witness of the entire Kazakh history and culture.

Obverse: face value of the coin «500», and inscription «ТЕҢГЕ» in the lower sector; an image of the state emblem of the Republic of Kazakhstan, framed with inscription «ҚАЗАҚСТАН РЕСПУБЛИКАСЫ»; «Ag 925 24 g» means metal, standard of coinage and weight; face value «500 ТЕҢГЕ» in the lower sector; protruding edge along the circumference.

Reverse: An image of a Tobet family against stylized mountains and rising sun. The images of the sheep-dog on the foreground and the sun are gilded; an inscription «ТӨБЕТ» in the upper and number «2014» in the lower sectors; protruding edge along the circumference.

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy half-dollar, the United States Mint will offer its first-ever gold half-dollar.

It features the original 1964 obverse (heads) design created by United States Mint Chief Engraver Gilroy Roberts with a special 1964-2014 inscription. 

Obverse: A portrait of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the youngest-ever-elected president. United States Mint Chief Engraver Gilroy Roberts based this profile on a portrait prepared for Kennedy’s presidential medal.

Reverse: Based on the Presidential Seal and was created by United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Frank Gasparro. It consists of a heraldic eagle with a shield on its breast holding a symbolic olive branch and bundle of 13 arrows. It features the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, HALF DOLLAR and ¾ OZ. .9999 FINE GOLD. A ring of 50 stars surrounds the design, which gives this coin the distinction of having more stars than any other U.S. coin ever produced for circulation.

This medal has been designed to commemorate Poland joining the European Union, which is one of the most significant events in Polish history.

10 years of Polish membership in the European Union was the time of great changes within all areas of the country’s activity. These last years were the period of its rapid development and establishing the position of Poland in the international political and economic arena.

Numerous motifs of national symbols refer to the theme of this amazing medal.

In the central part of the medal – flags of Poland and the European Union. Below – dates of the Polish membership in the European Union: 2004-2014. In the lower part of the medal, along the rim – an inscription: 10 lat POLSKI W UNII EUROPEJSKIEJ (10 YEARS OF POLAND IN EUROPEAN UNION).

The medal’s obverse shows an emblem of the Republic of Poland against an outline map of the country.

One of our favourite coin producers, the Dutch-based company Numiscollect, has announced its latest coin series featuring the world-renowned producer of pottery, Royal Delft. The last remaining producer from 32 earthenware factories established in the 17th century, Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles continues to this day to manufacture porcelain of the highest quality from the central location they have operated from since 1916, at the Rotterdamseweg in Delft.

This first coin celebrates the role of the Dutch East India Company, a ground-breaking business of immense influence whose trade with the Far East made the Netherlands a great power of the age. Delft porcelain was inspired by the Chinese blue on white style and gave birth to an industry that filled a gap caused by the slow death of the brewing industries of the region.

The quality of the artwork on this coin is plain to see. Beautifully struck in sterling silver, the trade vessels at full sail are expertly realised, and the hand-made and hand-painted disc of Royal Delft porcelain inset into the coin makes each piece unique. If you have an interest in the subject, there can be little to complain about the execution here.

Likewise the obverse has had a lot of attention paid to it. Issued for the Cook Islands, these coins typically have the usual profile portrait of Queen Elizabeth II surrounded by a text inscription describing denomination and date. In this case it’s clear they’ve gone a great deal further. The Queens Head has been circumnavigated by an extremely intricate patterned design representative of the work of Royal Delft. It’s a great touch and one can assume the coin would look superb in a nimbus frame, allowing both sides of this large, 50mm diameter coin to be simultaneously displayed.

Unique concept coin with a real Royal Delft™ porcelain piece inserted. The piece is handmade and hand painted. The motive Dutch East India Company is related to the Netherlands and from the same time period as the Royal Delft™ started.

The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. It is often considered to have been the first multinational corporation in the world and it was the first company to issue stock. It was a powerful company, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts, negotiate treaties, coin money, and establish colonies.

The 2015 Year of the Goat coin issued by Tokelau is dedicated to the eighth of all the animals in the Chinese zodiac. Highlighting the powerful prancing goat motif, the oval-shaped coin has been struck in silver with the worldwide mintage symbolically limited to 2015 pieces.

The obverse of the coin bears a relief effigy of Her Majesty Elizabeth II and the national symbol of Tokelau depicting a traditional tackle box commonly used by local fishermen. The obverse inscriptions include the Queen’s name, the face value of the coin and its issuing country.

The centrepiece of the reverse is a prancing goat surrounded by the following natural elements of Chinese tradition: fire, water, earth, wood and air. The name of the coin is indicated at the bottom of the reverse. The Chinese believe that people born in the year of the goat are mild mannered, pessimistic, shy  and sympathetic. Creativity, dependability, intelligence and calmness are among their distinctive features. They are simply blessed with an immense talent for creative stuff! The Year of the Goat coin is presented within an attractive case making it a beautiful gift for someone born in 2015 or any other Goat year!

The current trend for embedding all sorts of stuff inside coins continues, from the ubiquitous Swarovski crystals to such interesting items as nano chips and windows. It doesn’t always work and we’re sure you’ve looked at quite a few coins and thought ‘Why?’. This isn’t one of those cases; far from it. With the series debut back in 2011 winning the 2012 Coin Constellation award for New Technology, that coin and its subsequent siblings all reached sell-out status pretty quickly and the first coin in particular now commands multiples of its issue price.

Each coin in this ‘Sea Treasures’ series is composed of 25g of fine silver struck into the shape of a particular mollusc, a large phylum of invertebrate animals with around 85,000 distinct species. The concave reverse sides have a hologram effect applied, upon which is added a real pearl. The overall effect is quite striking and the popularity of the series is plain to see.

The Triangle Sail Mussel (Hyriopsis Cumingii) is the fourth release in the series, and Dutch producer Numiscollect has decided to do something a little different this time around. Instead of the usual mintage of 2,000 pieces, the silver coin has been reduced to 1,500. The remaining 500 pieces have been gilded and a two-coin box has been made available which we’ve yet to see images of.

The mussel itself is a species is recorded from China (Hebei, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hunan provinces) and from northern Viet Nam. In China it is known to occur in the freshwater lakes Poyang, Dongting, Taihu, Hongze and Shaohu and Gaobao in China and along the rivers, and from Cau Day, and Ai Loc in Viet Nam. Like most freshwater species in the region, it is seriously overfished in its native environment.

It’s an interesting series and we’ll put a Coin Series Profile up on them shortly. The coin will ship later this year in the Autumn. The first coin in the series is depicted below and was the award winner.

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. His plays have been translated into every major language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. Through the early years he chiefly wrote tragedies including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth. These are now considered some of the finest works in the English language.

New Zealand Mint has issued this coin to mark the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth.

The coin reverse depicts famous heroes of Shakespeare’s tragedies: King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet in engraved relief.

This features the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the left and a coloured portrait of Shakespeare engraved in a conventionalized frame on the right.

On September 15, 2014 the Central Bank of the Russian Federation issues a silver proof commemorative coin in denomination of 25 Roubles «The 450th Birthday Аnniversary of Galileo Galilei» (fine metal content 155.5g, fineness 925/1000, diameter 60.0 mm). The coin has the rim raised on both sides of the coin along the circumference.

The obverse: the relief image of the Emblem of the Bank of Russia — the two-headed eagle with wings down, and the semicircular inscription under it «БАНК РОССИИ» (BANK OF RUSSIA), framed with a circle of beads. The inscriptions along the rim divided by dots indicate the denomination of the coin «ДВАДЦАТЬ ПЯТЬ РУБЛЕЙ» (TWENTY FIVE ROUBLES) and the year of issue «2014», between them — the indication of the metal according to the D.I. Mendeleyev Periodic System of Elements, purity, trade mark of the Saint-Petersburg Mint and the fine metal content.

The reverse side of the coin performed in a regular edition (catalogue number 5115-0101) depicts the relief images of the Galileo Galilei’s portrait with a telescope in his hand, the Leaning Tower of Pisa to the left and a celestial globe and a picture of the Moon to the right, all against the background of the heliocentric system and a fragment of an engraving from Galileo Galilei’s writing «Dialogue concerning the two chief world systems». The inscriprions are: at the top along the circumference «ГАЛИЛЕО ГАЛИЛЕЙ» (GALILEO GALILEI) and at the right — the dates in two lines «1564», «1642».

Before they captured the hearts of generations of Australians, kangaroos captured the imaginations of early explorers. These curious creatures were depicted in words and artworks which seem inaccurate today, but are filled with the beauty of these animals capturing people’s imaginations. Woodthorpe’s hand-coloured engraving was published in George Barrington’s A Voyage to Botany Bay, where he described kangaroos as, ‘about the size of a common deer, of a dark tan colour… its hind legs are much longer than the fore, and with them they leap and spring forward with amazing rapidity.

The Silver Somalian Elephant coins feature beautiful renditions of the majestic creature and the 2015 coin is no different showcasing two elephants roaming the African savannah.

Beginning with their initial release in 2004 this series has depicted the magnificent African Elephant, the largest land animal in the world. Each year features a new design with an Elephant family traversing the Serengeti. The designs are fantastic and have helped to propel this coin series to the status of one of the most sought after bullion coins in the world!