Sometime as far back as the Iron Age a person decided to stash a number of coins deep in a cave for safekeeping. Fast-forward to a modern climber who discovers four of these coins and kicks off a full-scale archeological dig at Reynard’s Kitchen Cave in England’s Dovedale Valley. To date, 26 coins have been… Read more »
Over one thousand years ago near modern-day Cambridge, England, King Ethelbert II of East Anglia, decided to mint coins to commemorate his very successful reign. The only problem was that doing so signaled his independence from the King of Mercia. Offa, the king, didn’t like this one bit. In fact, it’s largely believed that it’s… Read more »
A brooch, a comb and some tweezers don’t seem like they are particularly interesting items. In fact, they can probably be found in many women’s bathrooms today. But archeologists found some of those items that were anything but ordinary on a recent dig. In what was once a Roman villa in Leicester, England, archeologists dug… Read more »
At some point in their lives, most people have worked at a job that they felt didn’t pay them what they were worth. What today’s beleaguered workforce doesn’t have to deal with, however, is getting paid in a currency that is worth next to nothing. For many years, coal miners had to put up with… Read more »
Imagine firing up your metal detector, waving it back and forth over the earth rhythmically. You hear the long-awaited ping, and begin to dig into the dirt, not knowing if you’ll find a tin can, or something a little more interesting. Now imagine discovering that ping was set off by a treasure from the 7th… Read more »
On May 5th, 1862, an army of Mexican citizens and soldiers defeated a well-armed French troop nearly three times its size. The battle at Puebla was a moral victory for Mexico, but it was not a battle that led to independence. Mexico declared independence from Spain on September 16, 1810. A commemorative coin was issued… Read more »
Part of Oregon’s pioneering history is up for sale. Later this week, “The Riverboat Collection,” which contains several pioneer coins that haven’t been seen for years, will be auctioned in Chicago and. Two Pacific Company $1 gold coins are the stars of the collection. The historical significance of these coins makes them priceless. Hint: they… Read more »
The story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition has special significance to all of us in Portland and Vancouver. On March 20th, the mint released the latest Native American $1 One Dollar Coin, commonly known as the “Sacagawea,” honoring Lewis and Clark’s journey through the Northwest Quadrant. The Corps of Discovery as it was known… Read more »
The most talked-about coin of 2013 isn’t made of metal, produced by a mint, or accepted in vending machines (yet). This year may be remembered as the year of the bitcoin. And while the bitcoin has captured headlines and imaginations worldwide, don’t count out the humble metal coin just yet—unless it’s the Canadian one-cent piece…. Read more »
On November 21, the United States Mint opened sales for the newest release of the First Spouse Gold Coin Program, which features Edith Roosevelt, the wife of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States. The seventh year of this half-ounce gold coin series that highlights the spouses of the presidents began a week… Read more »
