LOOSE CHANGE: DECEMBER 20, 2020

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V23 2020 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 23, Number 51, December 20, 2020, Article 35

Here are some additional items in the media this week that may be of interest. -Editor

A handful of Roman coins were uncovered in a dig described in this BBC News story passed along by Dick Hanscom. Thanks. -Editor

The destruction of a "clearly high status" Iron Age village "may represent reprisals after the Boudiccan revolt", an archaeologist has said.

More than 17 roundhouses were discovered in a defensive enclosure at Cressing, near Braintree in Essex.

The excavation by Oxford Archaeology East ahead of a housing development began during the first lockdown and lasted eight months.

Mark Ferguson published an article this week on the Linn's Stamp News website, Coin World's sister publication. -Editor

"While the item written about is not a numismatic item, it is the ultimate Long Beach collectible and I thought perhaps a lot of the coin guys who regularly go to Long Beach would be interested in reading about this, also in light of the fact that David Lawrence Rare Coins has been dispersing the large grouping of stamp dies from American Bank Note Company."

Postmarked 100 years ago, on Dec. 16, 1920, the famous "Mitchell card," as this United States postal card has been known, is so rare that, after considerable searching, an image of it cannot be found online for the collecting public to see.

In fact, in 2013, experts from the United Postal Stationery Society only had a poor quality, black-and-white photocopy of the card to use for a scholarly article about it in the society's journal, Postal Stationery.

"The card was produced for international use at the 2c rate. During WWI the domestic postal card rate was temporarily increased from 1c to 2c to help cover part of the costs of the war. After the war, the domestic postal card rate went back down to 1c. The 3 known (Scott #UX36) cards were mistakenly revalued to 1c along with 2c cards that were produced for domestic use.

"The postmark on the card turned 100 years old on Wednesday. I had a virtual online champagne-style party with the owners. They're really excited to own this piece during its 100th anniversary of the postmark!"

To read the complete article, see:
Century-old postal card rarity surfaces (https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamps-postal-history/century-old-postal-card-rarity-surfaces)

The Guardian published a nice article about the detective work behind solving that 2017 rare book heist. -Editor

During the investigation, Ward and his colleagues trawled through 50 hours of CCTV footage, eventually identifying two cars used in the burglary, and vehicle insurance records provided the investigation's first lead. "It became apparent that the people we were identifying were Romanian nationals," says Ward. "But they weren't known to our criminal systems." Around two weeks after the burglary, Ward received a phone call from a senior officer with the Romanian national police. Ward listened as the man recounted intelligence that connected the raid to an organised crime gang that operated out of Romania. Following the call, the two forces opened a joint investigation.

Over the subsequent months, officers linked the Feltham raid to a series of other burglaries at commercial warehouses across the UK. Elsewhere, the thieves had stolen high-value electronics rather than books. But the break-ins all carried the hallmarks of a professional team. As the scale of the gang's activities began to emerge, the case was elevated to the Metropolitan police's specialist crime squad, led by detective inspector Andy Durham, and Ward joined the team to assist with the investigation. Their first goal was to try to prevent further offences. "There was an ongoing risk to London and to the UK from this organised group," says Durham. "But the other main objective was recovering these books." That meant grappling with an unprecedented question: what might an organised crime gang want with a trove of rare books?

Howard Berlin passed along this update on the investigation into the giant gold coin theft from a Berlin museum in 2017. -Editor

Berlin police raided more than a dozen jewelry stores and apartments on Wednesday with suspected links to the 2017 heist from the city's Bode Museum.

Three years ago, thieves stole a €3.75 million ($4.6 million) giant gold coin called "Big Maple Leaf," which has never been recovered.

During Wednesday's raids, police seized suspected counterfeit coins, counterfeiting tools and a five-digit sum of money, according to the police and the Attorney General's Office in Berlin.

Police are still evaluating the evidence, but those targeted are suspected of involvement in commercial receiving of stolen goods and commercial counterfeiting. No arrests have been made.

The eight suspects, aged between 14 and 51 and of different nationalities, are suspected of having procured stolen gold in order to melt it down and use it to produce counterfeit collectors gold coins.

These coins were allegedly then sold through jewelry stores operated by family members in the Berlin districts of Neukölln and Reinickendorf.

"I saw this coin when in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (Art History Museum Vienna) back in 2009. A few pictures I took below."

As we approach the end of a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad year, it can help to have a little perspective. One of my favorite writers is Tim Urban who produces the Wait But Why blog. An August 22, 2013 post I just came across puts time in perspective with a series of excellent graphics marching through weeks, years, centuries, all of recorded history and far beyond. Check it out. Exercise for readers: how would you map the timeline of numismatics? -Editor