LOOSE CHANGE: MARCH 14, 2021

A researcher’s inquiry recently got me thinking about an interesting item I’d once found in a pile of unprocessed materials in the ANS Library. It was an auction catalog put out by a division of the U.S. Department of Defense to sell World War II escape & evasion kits, also called barter kits.

These kits, each containing a handful of gold objects, including coins, were, according to the catalog, issued to pilots and paratroopers to barter their way out of difficult situations if they were downed in unfriendly territory. Reportedly, none were ever used for this purpose, so the kits were gathered and shipped off to the New York Assay Office, where they sat until 1979, when they were offered for sale in this auction.

Two kinds of kits were issued, one for the Atlantic region, containing gold rings, half- and one-pound gold sovereigns, and twenty- and ten-franc gold coins, and one for Southeast Asia, containing gold rings, a gold embossed pendant, a gold four-linked chain, and a 21-jewel Swiss calendar watch.

To read the complete article, see:
WORLD WAR II BARTER KITS (http://numismatics.org/pocketchange/barter-kits/)

The February 22 launch and instant sell-out of The Royal Mint’s Three Graces silver and gold coins underscores the intense demand that exists for modern tributes to classic coin designs. The release of such coins needs to be handled very carefully with as level a playing field as possible since they often amount to the numismatic version of a winning lottery ticket with huge aftermarket potential much as did the November 5 launch of the V75 American Gold Eagle.

In November 2019, the Royal Mint launched a new series of silver and gold collector coins called The Great Engravers, which pays homage to the most famous numismatic motifs in British numismatic history and the engravers who created them with tribute coins made using the original dies combined with 21st-century coin minting technologies.

To read the complete article, see:
The Coin Analyst: From Una and the Lion to the Three Graces – Classic Royal Mint Motifs (https://coinweek.com/world-coins/the-coin-analyst-from-una-and-the-lion-to-the-three-graces-classic-royal-mint-motifs/)

During WW2, a Great Dane named Juliana was awarded the Blue Cross Medal in 1941 after she extinguished an incendiary bomb by peeing on it.

To read the complete article, see:
What is an interesting fact of history that most people don't know? (https://www.quora.com/What-is-an-interesting-fact-of-history-that-most-people-dont-know)

See also:
Juliana (dog) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliana_(dog))

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web