LOOSE CHANGE: OCTOBER 18, 2020

Is your coin really as valuable as Google tells you?

If you think you might have a valuable coin then it's worth doing your own due diligence which is more than reading the title on a search result. Read thoroughly or watch the video to ensure you are getting truth. Then don't just check asking prices, see what your coin is actually selling for in the marketplace right now (check sold results on eBay). First check that the information is about your coin. Does it have the same mintmark, is it an error or variety -check the details on how to identify accurately, is it the correct year, the correct country, denomination, is it the finest known example of that coin, was it produced in low numbers for that year or only in sets -there are so many small details that can affect the value of a coin.

To read the complete article, see:
Googled the Value of My Coin and it's Worth Thousands -Where Do I Get The Money? (https://www.australian-coins.com/collecting-coins/googled-the-value-of-my-coin-and-its-worth-thousands-where-do-i-get-the-money/)

American Eagle Silver Bullion Mintage

Coin World's Coin Values price guide has long listed the San Francisco Mint as the sole source (accurately) for American Eagle silver bullion coin production for those two years. However, published information from other sources previously identified that 1986 and 1987 production from the first two years of the series also included coins from the West Point and Denver Mint facilities.

Lee Minshull from Lee Minshull Rare Coins Inc. in Palos Verdes, California, submitted the FOIA inquiry seeking clarification of the mintage information. The charted information provided by the Mint, which Minshull shared with Coin World, in response to that request details the mintage numbers and production information from 1986 through July 17, 2017.

To read the complete article, see:
Mint FOIA response confirms origins of American Eagles (https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/mint-foia-response-confirms-origins-of-american-eagles)

Virus Survival on Banknotes

Australian scientists have found that the virus that causes Covid-19 can survive for up to 28 days on surfaces such as the glass on mobile phones, stainless steel, vinyl and paper banknotes.

The national science agency, the CSIRO, said the research undertaken at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) in Geelong also found that Sars-CoV-2 survived longer at lower temperatures.

It said in a statement the virus survived longer on paper banknotes than on plastic banknotes and lasted longer on smooth surfaces rather than porous surfaces such as cotton.

To read the complete article, see:
Virus that causes Covid-19 can survive up to 28 days on surfaces, scientists find (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/12/virus-that-causes-covid-19-can-survive-up-to-28-days-on-surfaces-scientists-find)

The Dawn of the Reverse ATM

With cash a concern to pandemic-wary consumers and merchants payments firms, a new ATM option, called the "reverse ATM," has gained attention in the ATM industry. The machine takes in cash instead of dispensing it, allowing users to convert paper money into an electronic payment. A Toronto-based company, XTM Inc., has deployed a machine at Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto as part of a pilot program, according to a report in Digital Transactions.

The XTM machine activates and dispenses an open-loop, prepaid Mastercard-branded card loaded with the value represented by cash inserted by the user. The cards dispensed by the machines, which feature a 42-inch touchscreen, are EMV- and contactless-enabled, and can be dispensed within a minute after the user inserts his bills.

XTM has three more machines on order for the stadium, which hosts games for the Toronto Raptors National Basketball Association team and the Toronto Maple Leafs National Hockey League.

To read the complete article, see:
Toronto stadium pilots a 'reverse ATM' (https://www.atmmarketplace.com/news/toronto-stadium-pilots-a-reverse-atm/)

The Astronomicum Caesareum of Petrus Apianus

"The most spectacular contribution of the book-maker's art to sixteenth-century science was without doubt the Astronomicum Caesareum of Petrus Apianus. Designed for Charles V and his brother Ferdinand, the volume was in every way a luxurious and princely production. Its pages were large, brilliantly hand-coloured, and filled with ingeniously contrived mechanisms, sometimes with five or even six layers of paper disks, arranged to give planetary positions plus a variety of calendarial and astrological data. Published in 1540 at Apianus's private press in Ingolstadt, the book graphically displayed Ptolemaic astronomy in a fashion fit for a monarch's eyes" (Owen Gingerich, "Apianus's Astronomicum Caesareum and Its Leipzig Facsimile," in Journal for the History of Astronomy 2 (1971), pp. 168-177).

In his 1995 survey of the Astronomicum Caesareum, Gingerich accounts for 111 copies and estimates that there are probably fewer than another twenty-five copies he did not personally examine [the present copy is among those unseen by OG]. Of all the copies inspected by Gingerich, perhaps fewer than ten percent were regarded by him as complete or nearly complete. Our copy has thirty-six full-page plates of woodcut astronomical figures (the figure on G3 verso is also used on the title-page), within frames that resemble astrolabes, with six different patterns of handles, of which twenty-one have a total of sixty volvelles. There are twenty-nine original silk threads and eight tiny seed pearls (measuring 1 mm.), used as sliding indicators. Of the more than one hundred known copies of the Astronomicum Caesareum, numerous are textually incomplete (i.e. lacking some of the fifty-nine printed leaves). Our copy is textually complete, while wanting some of the volvelles, threads, and seed pearls that Gingerich suggests would make up a complete copy.

Mike adds:

To read the complete lot description, see:
[Petrus Apianus]. Astronomicum Caesareum. [Ingolstadt: In aedibus nostris, May 1540]. First edition of the "most.. (https://historical.ha.com/itm/books/-petrus-apianus-astronomicum-caesareum-ingolstadt-in-aedibus-nostris-may-1540-first-edition-of-the-most/a/6230-45195.s)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web