At last, a Tuesday Trivia that is actually being held on Tuesday. Thank goodness for reminders. I’m also trying out a Javascript solution to hide the answers.

1. In what state did the gold rush that began in 1848 take place? Answer California

2. What is a double denomination error? Answer A note with one denomination on one side and a different denomination on the other side.

3. When did Australia strike its first commemorative coin? Answer 1927 (florin)

4. Who was appointed Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint in 1948, serving until late 1964? Answer Gilroy Roberts

5. When a design is recessed, rather than raised, it is called intaglio or what? Answer Incused

The Bank Of Jamaica has issued 1,000 gold and silver coins to celebrate late reggae star Bob Marley.

The commemorative coins bearing the star’s dreadlocked likeness are being sold for $100 (£55) each.

Made by the British Royal Mint, they were intended to mark the 60th anniversary of Marley’s birth in 2005 - but have only been issued now.

“We’ve received quite a bit of interest already,” said bank spokeswoman Jacqueline Morgan.

There was no explanation given for the delay in issuing the coins.

It is the second time the Bank of Jamaica has issued coins bearing Marley’s likeness in his homeland.

“The coins to commemorate his 50th birthday have totally sold out,” Morgan said.

Marley, who died of cancer in 1981, was one of the most iconic figures in music, and arguably one of the most famous Jamaican in history.

He shot to fame in the 1970s with hits such as No Woman No Cry and I Shot The Sheriff.

In February it was announced that his home in Jamaica was to be declared a national monument, 25 years after his death.

(via BBC)

Update: I’m not sure of the details of ordering, but I would imagine this page at the Bank of Jamaica is where they would be offered. It’s possible they’re already all sold out. You can try e-mailing the address on that page to get more information.

WASHINGTON – The United States Mint announced today that commemorative quarter-dollar coins honoring North Dakota, the fourth coin in the United States Mint’s 50 State Quarters Program to be released in 2006, will go on sale beginning August 28, 2006, at noon (ET), and will be available for approximately 10 weeks. The North Dakota quarter-dollars are available in two-roll sets (40 coins per roll), including one roll each from the United States Mint at Philadelphia and Denver, and in bags of 100 and 1,000 coins.

Each coin roll in the two-roll set is presented in a specially designed United States Mint paper coin wrap that prominently displays the 50 State Quarters Program logo, a “P” or “D” representing the roll’s mint of origin, “ND” designating the State of North Dakota, and “$10” representing its dollar value. Two-roll sets will sell for $32.00, bags of 100 coins for $35.50, and bags of 1,000 coins for $300.00. Each bag is marked with the mint of origin and the dollar value of its contents ($25.00 or $250.00). These bags and two-roll sets feature quarters used in regular transactions that were struck on our main production floors at the United States Mint at Philadelphia and Denver. There is no order limit on these products.

North Dakota was admitted into the Union on November 2, 1889, becoming our Nation’s 39th state. The reverse of the North Dakota quarter depicts a pair of grazing American bison in the foreground with a sunset view of the rugged buttes and canyons that help define the State’s Badlands region in the background. The coin’s reverse design also bears the inscriptions “North Dakota” and “1889.”

Customers can purchase the North Dakota quarter-dollars in bags and two-roll sets by using the United States Mint’s secure website, www.usmint.gov, or by calling 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468). As an added convenience, customers can participate in a subscription-ordering program in which specific products, such as bags and two-roll sets, are charged and shipped to the customer automatically as each product is released. For more information about this ordering method, please visit www.usmint.gov. Hearing- and speech-impaired customers may order by calling 1-888-321-MINT (6468). A shipping and handling fee of $4.95 per order will be added to all domestic orders. Quarter bags of 1,000 coins will have an additional charge of $7.95 per bag because of their weight and size.

Contact: Press inquiries: Michael White (202) 354-7222 Customer Service information: (800) USA MINT (872-6468)

(via US Mint)

SAN CLEMENTE – Just like that, he disappeared. His company closed. And thousands of customers who had depended on John Baker for 14 years watched the value of their investments disappear too.

That was 27 years ago. Now John Baker wants to advertise his services again. To relaunch his groundbreaking company. With hopes that the wealth of certified coins and medals he produced from 1965 to 1979 will regain their lost fortune.

Once he hobnobbed with the rich and powerful – the director of the U.S. Mint, the president of the Franklin Mint, and foreign heads of state who granted him privileges to buy cash on the day it was issued and remove it from their countries.

Then he lost it all. He didn’t mean to. Or want to. In fact, of all the people left high and dry by his departure from the nationally known “99 Company,” probably none was left more high and dry than this man now struggling to walk to a chair on his front porch, this man wearing boxer shorts and an untied apron, this man who misplaced the single most valuable coin he ever owned: John Baker.

AN IDEA IS BORN

John F. Kennedy’s death in 1963 led to the birth of John Baker’s greatest idea.

Like the rest of the country, Baker first mourned Kennedy. Like the rest of the country, Baker stood in line in March 1964 to purchase newly minted Kennedy silver half-dollars. What he did next, however, was not like the rest of the country.

“I didn’t realize it was going to change my life,” says Baker, 68, “and the lives of thousands of other people.”

He drove to the Northfield, Ohio, post office. He glued three Kennedy half-dollars on three envelopes and stuck stamps partially over each coin. And he asked the clerk to postmark them.

She looked at him funny. Then politely said no. You couldn’t just glue money to the outside of an envelope and mail it through the U.S. mail.

That’s when Baker, the charismatic son of a salesman, demonstrated how he’d managed to sell $1 million worth of life insurance by age 22: He didn’t take “no” for a “no.” Not from – in order – the clerk, her supervisor, the postmaster, the Cleveland district office and finally the Postmaster General’s Office in Washington, D.C. – which, after talking to the genial Baker, instructed the clerk to postmark his coins.

With that, he had proof that his were first-day-of-issue Kennedy half-dollars. An idea – and soon an entire industry – was born.

TWO HOBBIES IN ONE

The postmark on one of Baker’s three JFK half-dollars was smudged, so he tore it off and bought a burger. That left two. In 1969, one sold for $18,000 and made national news. That left one. We’ll get to that in a minute.

Back in early 1965, Baker took his three JFK halves, got into his VW and puttered down to Sydney, Ohio, to meet with the editor of Coin World.

“I can still remember what she said,” says Baker. “She said, ‘John, you’ve discovered a whole new world of coin collecting that weds coins and stamps, the world’s two largest collecting hobbies.”

Stamp collectors – known as philatelists – were familiar with first-day issues, which the post office promotes and even postmarks as such. Coin collectors – or numismatists – however, had no way of verifying first-day-of-issue coins. Until Baker came along.

Coin World published his story.

Read the rest of the article.

By TOM BERG The Orange County Register

According to this article, the ANA (American Numismatic Association is having money troubles to the tune of an operating loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

But that’s not all. Christopher Cipoletti, the current president, has been accused of theft and mismanagement.

Here’s an excerpt.

The American Numismatic Association, a nonprofit group that educates hobbyists about coin collecting and money, certainly knows how to lose it.

For the past four years, the Colorado Springs-based organization has operated at a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

But that’s just one of its problems.

The 115-year-old group, federally chartered as an educational, historical and scientific organization, is beset by questions over its finances and complaints that its leadership fosters a culture of excessive secrecy and demands loyalty oaths.

Some of the group’s 32,000-plus members blame the turmoil on Christopher Cipoletti, a lawyer who took the helm as executive director in 2003.

Cipoletti rejects the criticism and maintains that the organization is financially sound, is more open about its dealings than ever before and is expanding its membership and programs.

And he has taken aim at some of his loudest critics. A civil lawsuit filed by the ANA and Cipoletti claims a group of former employees conspired against Cipoletti, harassed and stalked him, falsely accused him of mismanagement and theft and damaged his reputation.

The dispute casts a cloud over what ought to be heady times for collectors. The U.S. Mint’s redesigned state quarters have generated renewed interest in the hobby — ANA membership is up by 4,000 in the past three years, and traffic at its Money Museum in Colorado Springs is growing.

“It’s unfortunate to have such dissension and turmoil in this organization,” said Beth Deisher, editor of industry publications Coin World and Coin Values. “That makes it difficult to move forward.”

A SPECIAL CHARTER

Founded in 1891, the ANA is one of only two federally chartered nonprofits in the nation. The other is the American Red Cross.

The organization does not receive federal funding, but many enthusiasts consider it a quasi-federal institution because of its 1912 charter, a designation no longer given by Congress.

Congress “looks to the association when it comes to numismatic matters,” said David Ganz, a New York attorney who served as ANA president from 1993 to 1995 and who has testified before Congress 15 times on coin and money issues.

Deisher said the ANA is expected to be forthcoming about its dealings, but she said she and others have noticed a “shroud of secrecy” they say began when Cipoletti took charge three years ago.

“The types of materials and information that’s been available to the press and membership in the past is now being withheld, which is very puzzling to us,” Deisher said.

The ANA has delayed publishing financial information, which often is “abbreviated in format,” Deisher said, making it “very difficult to understand what all of the holdings and financial standings are.”

Cipoletti said the opposite is true.

“We’re putting more information out there for the membership than they’ve had. Before I started, most of the discussions about budgets were done in closed executive session,” he said. “People are now learning more about what we’re doing, and it gives them more of an ability to challenge what we’re doing.”

In fiscal year 2001, the organization had a budget surplus of nearly $80,000. The organization has since operated with a deficit.

According to forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service, the ANA posted a loss of $1 million in the 2002 fiscal year. The deficit dropped to $975,000 in 2003 and $266,000 in 2004. Filings for 2005 have not been made, but estimates show a loss of $714,000 for 2005, nearly double the organization’s projections.

Edward C. Rochette, who worked at the ANA for nearly 40 years, primarily as executive director, before retiring in 1996, said he remembers occasional years of operating in the red, but nothing like the current situation.

“We worked very hard for a balanced budget, which doesn’t mean we didn’t have losing years,” Rochette said. “But I don’t recall ever running the deficits the ANA is now carrying.”

The deficits have prompted the ANA to dip into its endowment fund to offset operating expenses, a move criticized by many members. The endowment fund originated from a Texas rancher whose brother was killed by robbers who made off with what was known as one of the best collections of Mexican revolutionary coins and currency.

“They’ve been not only withdrawing funds from the endowment but also taking money the endowment made as income and not putting it back into the endowment, which decreases the inflationary value of the endowment,” said Carl Schwenker, an ANA member from Houston who served for two years as chairman of the organization’s now-defunct finance committee.

Cipoletti said one purpose of an endowment is to use the money when it is needed.

“As a nonprofit, you sometimes do lose money because your goal is to fulfill your mission, not make money at everything you do,” he said.

He described the organization’s financial status as “incredibly healthy,” and attributed the deficits to operating and program expenses, including changing computer systems and providing scholarships.

Tax filings for 2004 show that investment balances increased by $500,000 to more than $11 million, with net assets at $17.3 million.

“This is a nonprofit, and not everything it does is to make money,” said Thomas Hallenbeck of Hallenbeck Coin Gallery Inc. in Colorado Springs, who is the ANA’s assistant treasurer.

“We operate a museum and a library, and museums and libraries lose money. The only thing that makes money are our conventions and seminars, and that’s the way it should be. Not everything is about money.”

Read the entire article