HomeNewsCoinWeek News Wire for April 21, 2017

CoinWeek News Wire for April 21, 2017

News Wire - April 21, 2017 Graphic

By Coinweek ….

CoinWeek News Wire for April 21, 2017

Brain Food

1.) Our money is filthy but mostly harmless

Most of the bacteria on American notes were harmless commensals that had flaked off hands, faces and mouths, but there were others that cause acne, strep throat, the H-bug, two species infecting vaginas, and other microbes associated with contaminated food, with dairy production, and with fermentation.

Although billions of the world’s bank notes change hands in commerce, in food service, travel, and the sex trade, very few of us will catch infections from money.

We are more likely to contract diseases from the far more heavily contaminated public transport, door handles, telephones, ATM machines and computer keyboards…

2.) The British Pennies Defaced in Protest by a Suffragette

There’s a long history of the defacement of currency as a political act, from the battering and bending of a mid-fourth century Roman coin featuring the face of the emperor Valens to 1970s coins stamped with paramilitary slogans in Northern Ireland. Recently on the British Museum blog, Thomas Hockenhull, the institution’s curator of modern money, shared a 1903 penny that has the suffragette slogan “Votes for Women” engraved over the face of Edward VII

3.) Fake money was part of everyday life in Roman Cumbria

THERE can’t be many archaeologists or metal detectorists in Cumbria who haven’t come across at least one Roman coin-like object which the experts would call a barbarous radiate.

These copies of small bronze coins of emperors such as Victorinus and Tetricus II were made in the period 270 to 286 AD and form an accepted but irregular coinage used throughout Roman England…

Current Events

4.) Argentina Returns 16th-Century Coins to Bolivia

The coins are of the type known as macuquinas: hand-hammered pieces turned out by the Potosí Mint, a facility founded in the 16th century by the Spanish colonial administration.

Four of the coins were identified as colonial-era Bolivian currency by the Peruvian Embassy in Buenos Aires, a “noble gesture” that facilitated the repatriation of the pieces, the foreign ministry said…

5.) Zimbabwe Cash Crisis – Bond Coins Rule the Roost

In crisis-torn Zimbabwe, things have changed; coins are no longer for children’s piggy banks, they are now treasure items for adults who are failing to get cash from banks due to a worsening liquidity crunch in the economy.

Banks are now dispensing large amounts of coins to depositors because they have run out of notes to honour their obligations to the banking public…

6.) Keep the change: Travelers left behind nearly $1 million in coins, currency in airports last year

For its fiscal year 2016, the Transportation Security Administration reported that passengers left behind more than $867, 812.39 in coins and currency in the plastic bowls and bins at various U.S. airport checkpoints. That’s about $102,000 more than the amount left behind in 2015, and the more than $484,000 left behind in 2008.

What happens to all that money?

Back in 2005, Congress passed a law saying TSA gets to keep that unclaimed cash, and spend it on any sort of civil aviation security efforts it deems fit…

7.) Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Act 2017: what do collectors and dealers need to know?

On 23 February 2017, the UK Parliament passed the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Act 2017, to implement the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Curiously, the Act is both wider and narrower than you might expect

The Future Is Now

8.) South Korea begins coinless society trial

Cha Hyeon-jin, one of the officials behind the scheme, says that while no long-term decisions have been made, there’s a “good chance” that going coinless could eventually lead to a totally cashless society in South Korea at some stage in the future

Under the Radar

8.) Royal Australian Mint releases special ANZAC two dollar coins

Four million specially-designed two-dollar coins have been put into circulation today as part of commemorations for Tuesday’s ANZAC Day

Crime & Punishment

9.) Live in North Vancouver? Missing your cash and old coins?

If you’ve got a collection of cash and coins tucked away, you may want to check to make sure your treasure is still safe. If it’s not, North Vancouver RCMP may have saved your booty.

The police are looking for the owner of a “significant amount of cash and rare coins” after the valuables were seized from a 21-year-old man of no fixed address in the Lower Lonsdale area April 6…

10.) 93-year-old Las Vegas doctor convicted of drug charges wants gold coins back

A 93-year-old doctor and his medical assistant — who both were convicted last month of running an illegal prescription pill mill — are seeking the return of dozens of gold coins and roughly $50,000 in bonds the government seized from them

Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin Illustration - News Wire11.) UK’s Royal Mint to sell digital gold

The UK’s Royal Mint (TRM) and CME Group recently announced that AlphaPoint and BitGo are helping develop a trading platform for a new blockchain-based product, Royal Mint Gold

12.) Bitcoin taxation is broken. Here’s how to fix it.

An exemption for small gains would take most of the headache out of using digital currencies like Bitcoin

13.) Bitcoin Wallets Under Siege From ‘Large Collider’ Attack

A group called the “Large Bitcoin Collider” claims it can smash open bitcoin wallets by using a so-called brute force attack, which directs mass amounts of computer power at individual wallets in order to guess their private keys.
The project, which has been underway for months, relies on a distributed network of computers (similar to bitcoin itself), and invites anyone to participate—those who do could potentially share in the proceeds of the wallets cracked open

14.) ‘User-Generated Currency’: Bitcoin and the YouTube of Money

Communities of any flavor can now be empowered to agree on credit-issuing policies and governance structures, and enjoy internal marketplaces from which to buy and sell goods or services, without relying on access to national money.

Today’s first use cases are produced by early adopters, and already we see hundreds, nearing thousands, of cryptocurrencies on the market and counting.

But as technical barriers to entry are removed, we are on the precipice of millions of user-generated currencies, of all shapes and sizes. This is similar to inflection points in user-generated content we saw with the rise of WordPress for blogs and YouTube for video…

15.) North Korea Stole Bitcoins from the South, Truth or Propaganda?

According to the South Korean news outlet Yonhap News Agency, the country’s cryptocurrency exchanges were continuously drained out of about $88,000 equivalent to 100 million Korean won in Bitcoin on a monthly basis. The alleged involvement of North Korean hackers was mentioned to the media by Choi Sang-myong, a senior official at Hauri Inc., a cyber security firm

Treasure & Archaeology

Gold Coins on Piano - News Wire16.) Shropshire piano gold coin hoard declared treasure

The largest hoard of gold sovereigns in Britain, found hidden in an old piano, has been declared treasure.

The discovery was made in Shropshire before Christmas when the piano’s new owners had it retuned and repaired. Shrewsbury Coroner’s Court decided the find qualified as treasure, which means ownership now lies with the Crown. It will be offered for sale to museums.

The tuner who found the hoard and Bishops Castle Community College, which owns the piano, will share a reward…

17.) Medieval coins unearthed during community dig in Erpingham, England

Medieval coins unearthed during a community dig in Erpingham at the weekend could help support a fundraising campaign to celebrate the village’s role in one of the country’s greatest military victories

Upcoming Auctions & Events

18.) Texas Metal detecting convention coming

The Texas Association of Metal Detecting Clubs annual convention will be in Temple this weekend at the Mayborn Convention Center. Admission is $3 at the door. Kids 12 and under are free. Admission includes educational seminars that will be held throughout the day

19.) Local West Virginia Coin Collector Club to Begin Meetings in May

Richard Vann is starting a Coin Collecting club in the area and he would like to see it grow county wide, if not state wide. Vann will be holding his first meeting on May 6that 10:00 am located at the Sistersville Park Pavilion. He also wants to train people on the correct ways to use metal detectors

Just for Fun

20.) DIY Coin Sorting Machine from Cardboard

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