Posted on December 22, 2022
If there is a world where issuers of sovereign gold coins are being subtle about it, we are not in it. This year has seen some of the biggest pomp on the numismatics market ever, and it has come from both the usual suspects and some less known candidates.
Old Chuck will be feeling that one for a while, we're sure. As Elizabeth passed away, numismatists grew ever restless. Change was coming. Change, for numismatists, isn't always a good thing. Believe it or not.
Starting from December 8, British coins will now bear the image of King Charles III instead the late Elizabeth. The monarch wasted no time posing, though the first coins in distribution will be a 50-pence commemorative.
The Royal Mint had some choice of wording, saying that the first generation of new coins is aiming to perhaps attract a Gen Z group of investors. We're sure both the new coins and the ones going out of circulation will appeal to many numismatists, as depleted inventories in related areas have been asserting.
Croatia has been all over the news lately for all the wrong reasons, to numismatists. It yet again placed conspicuously high in the soccer World Cup final for a country with less than four million populace. But before it did that, it went ahead and minted the world's smallest coin.
The Croatian Mint entered the Guinness World Record book, beating Switzerland's shabby mints with a miniature 0.05g, 1.99mm coin. Something about small cities, too. As it happens, the coin issued was part of Croatia's regular sovereign, kuna. They are going out of mintage as we enter into 2023, marking the last European Union nation to adopt the euro. Surely, a new world order of some kind?
We know, Napoleon. History is a lie agreed upon. But can one coin really usurp a nation? It would seem so in the case of Canada. The discovery of an English quarter noble where it shouldn't have been raised a lot of questions. Numismatics News gives us a lot of possible picks as to who our new earliest Canadian settlers might have been. Chinese? Another Chinese? Aztecs? But how can we know?
Columbus has had some heat thrown his way in recent times, and perhaps with no good reason to begin with. As the coin informs us, it might not have been him that discovered America. As to who did it, well, would you dare to pick out someone from the guesses?