The American Numismatic Association announced the winners of the 2012 Young Numismatist Literary Awards Competition June 28 in Colorado Springs, Colo. Winners were presented with cash prizes and gift certificates to build their personal libraries, courtesy of contest sponsor Whitman Publishing.

Awards were presented in three categories: the Bill Fivaz Young Numismatist Literary Award, for writers ages 8-12; the Q. David Bowers Young Numismatist Literary Award, ages 13-17; and the Kenneth E. Bressett Young Numismatist Literary Award, ages 18-22.

Chad Nevins, 10, of Las Vegas, flew to Colorado Springs with his father, Russell, to accept the Fivaz Award in person from Fivaz himself. He received a plaque, a $500 cash prize, and a $500 voucher for numismatic references published by Whitman.

Go deeper into the world of coins through an insightful and intriguing program led by the experts of KP Numismatics!

Nevins’ article, “How I Found Freedom with a Pocket Full of Change,” arose from a school assignment about Ellis Island. He and his father selected world coins from their collection, and Chad used them to tell the story of a 20-year-old Polish immigrant who passed through Ellis Island in the late 1930s.

“We wrote about a woman who collected coins with her grandpa,” said Chad Nevins. “We thought writing about the coins would make the article more special.”

Garrett Ziss placed second for “Historical Coin Changes,” and Frederic Fosco took third for “The 1969-S Double(d) Die Obverse Lincoln Cent.” Second and third place winners receive $200 and $100 Whitman Publishing book certificates, respectively.

Ian Garcia won first place in the Bowers category for “The Mysteries of Numismatics: Explicit Art Tokens.” Q. David Bower’s son, Lee, read a personal message from his father before presenting the award to Garcia, who likewise received $1,000 in cash and prizes.

Ermin Chow took second for “Canada Enters a World of Polymer,” and Cole Schenewerk placed third for “The Myriad Metals Used in Coinage.”

In the Bressett category, John McKearney received third place for “The Rise of Virtual Currency: How ‘Bitcoin’ Revolutionizes the Future of Numismatics.” No first- or second-place awards were given.

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I got to see one each of the gold Olympic Medal and the Paralympic Medal which was on loan to the museum hosting the FIDEM International Medals Congress in Glasgow Scotland last month (The art medal show is on view thru September at the University of Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum). It features the London Games logo on the national side, with a stadium and Winged Nike on the Olympic side (as dictated by recent traditions.) Sadly the gold content is very very small, as they are lightly plated silver planchets.

The award medals tend to be prized items and very very rare in private (not an award winner’s) hands. The most collectible medal is the participation medal, which participants receive. That is a managable collection.

In recent years, the Paralympics are held in the same venues a few weeks after the regular olympics. This year’s Paraolympic award medal is of a distinctive design and very nicely done featuring a pattern of feathers.

The US Olympic Training center in Colorado Springs has a display, as well as the International Olympic museum in Switzerland. Often returning winners will have theirs on in a local museum or library display for a while.

They were quite a draw to the exhibition area at the University.

Olympic commemorative coins have been issued since the 1951 Helsinki games, Russia is already issuing coins for their 2014 games.

Dealer set up and early bird admission are Thursday afternoon. Public hours are Friday and Saturday, and a short time on Sunday.

Club meetings start early on Saturday with the Every Country Group meeting during breakfast time (as many dealers like to attend that forum, and those that do, do not loose bourse table time). I will be speaking at the afternoon meeting of the Chicago Coin Club on the 40th Anniversary of the Standard Catalog of World Coins – where it has been and what it is becoming in the digital age.

Come on out and enjoy a nice selection of World Coins and World Paper Money.

George

I thought something fitting and well done for a Good Friday.

George

The Cook Islands have come up with something I have found interesting. The look like coins, they have the legends one may expect, the country name, the Queen’s portrait, however, rather than a denomination they have “Commemoration.” Perhaps this is in a move away from issuing NCLTs. The obverse features a starburst, and the reverse a view of the ship at sail. Then, using the same “Commemoration” obverse, there is a series of six color appliques showing the 1997 movie views, and then three other images seperately of the ship at sea or with two views of it sinking. This will be an interesting move away from coins and into commemorative medals.

Two graphic images rather than sculptural have been issued. The first is for Alderney and struck at the Royal Mint. It has a two dimentional highlight from the seaman’s memorial statue, with the ship sailing on a linear bowling alley sea. The second is from Jersey, and has the ship plunked down on a mirror surface sea.

As I really want to end  this series on a positive note, so we will leave you with a Perth Mint product for Tuvalu with a wonderful image of the ship in port being assisted by a small tugboat, at top is the White Star Line flag. And lastly a very small gold coin from Cook Islands with a very well designed 3/4 view of the ship with just a hint of the iceberg.

So, now, after five days of this Titanic stuff I’ll be moving on to other topics, hopefully also of interest.

I think that a review of the centennial (and other) Titanic commemoratives have been a good experience and it is a fitting anniversary to remember, however, I still think that some country could have recognized the Carpathia’s part in the story. They really do go hand-in-hand.

The second entry is a 25 cent denomination and has a color printing divided into two scenes.The first image is of the ship at pier side with cheering crowds in teh foregoround, and the other is a side view of the ship sailing at night. The daylight clouds of the pier view blend into the sea waves of the nighttime view. Both coins are artistically well done.

The Cook Island coin is distinctive and creative as it includes a colored rendering of the skylight on the main staircase made famous in many of the 1997 movie scenes. The lines of the leaded glass window extend into raised lines with additional design elements on the field of the coin. One of the two views of the ship is quite different too, in that it depicts the ship in ruins as it looks today on the ocean floor.

There are other commemoratives already out for the Titanic centennial, and doubtless there is still time for more to be announced.

George

But by far, the lore of events at sea rests heavily on the decisions of the captain of the ship. White Star Line’s Edward J. Smith had a life at sea and was given command of the R.M.S. Titanic for was was expected to be one last round trip as a perk upon his forcoming retirement. As he died on that faithful evening, we will never know his side of the story.

Until this year, personalities have not been honored on coins (there is now a set with color appliques featuring stars from the blockbuster 1997 movie). So we must turn to the art of the medal which honor the captains in sculptural format.

In 1980 Allen Sloan of Gloucester, Mass. honored Smith with a very limited edition portrait medal (in the 1979-80 era, Sloan also designed and had cast medals depicting Einstein and von Zeppelin among several others). Sloan’s meda is bronze with a dark patina, and was cast at the C.A. Brown art foundry of Cranston R.I. (Mr. Sloan currently specializes in landscape paintings with a golf theme, and does very nice work.) The rendering of Smith’s portrait on the obverse and the Titanic on the reverse are done in a very straightforward style. The reverse highlights the ship, with just a hint of the impending disaster to come, and does not dramatize the sinking.

Captain Arthur Rostron of the Cunard Line’s R.M.S. Carpathia was well respected and was thrust into the part of the hero by proximity. The Carpathia was a night out from New York on a trip to the Mediterranean, and about 60 miles from the Titanic, arriving early in the morning to retrive passengers in lifeboats. Among those saved was Margaret “Molly” Brown of Denver, and soon after the event organized several honors for Roston and the Carpathia’s crew, among which were a silver loving cup for the Captain, and medals in gold (senior officers), silver (junior officers) and bronze (crew) (A silver example is the the collection of the American Numismatic Society, and several have been offered in the past several years via auction, the illustrated example is from a Bonham’s sale). Although fewer than 350 were made, they do appear on the market regularly.

A little known medal was privately done by Theodore Spicer-Simpson. It is a bronze uniface, with a handsome profile to the right. This is by far the scarcest of all the medals, I could not even find my scan of it (I ruthlessly sold my example during the movie craze of 1997).

The highest award was a Congressional gold medal. Designed by John Flanagan (later known for the design of the Washington Quarter of 1932), Struck at the U.S. Mint with dies cut by the Medallic Art Company. Rostron was presented a gold example. Unlike many U.S. Mint medals, examples were not sold to the public, however, bronze uniface and two-sided examples exisit. This image is from the Medallic Art Company.

The reverse has an artistic and heroic representation of lifesaving at sea. One partial rescue boat and one to be rescued, sculptured as classical male nudes, and with just a hint of the iceburg in the background. Certainly done to evoke the horor of the event and an action dramatized by accounts, although not one witnessed directly by Rostron. Would the medal have had the same effect if the participants were in evening clothes and wearing life vests? Certainly not.

Roston went on to a full life in the servce of the Cunard Company, retiring as Commodore of the line in 1931. In 1919 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He died in 1940 at the age of 71.

The Cook Islands oval entry, however,  is visually distrubing to me. I do not mind the pad printing for the design, it is a nice choice. It took me several sightings to realize that the large break in the side of the ship is an insert of a fragment of recovered coal. (Coal recovered from the debris field is the only salvaged Titanic item which can be legally owned, and there were tens of thousands of pounds of it). For a long time it looked to me as if the ship was hit in the side with a missle. The marketing of the item in the second hand market very often does not point out the small fragment of coal.

The second Cook Island entry to include a fragment of coal is successful in the execution of both the simple design as well as the placement of coal. A good researcher also has the proper number of funnels with smoke (although a bit heavy in the execution).

Our next post will offer up some medallic tributes.

George

This centennial year has brought about more commemoratives than for any other past anniversary. Two I would like to highlight for their tastefulness are those of Canada and Niue. The Canadian 10 Dollar coin show here is part of a set of three. The Niue 2 Dollar piece is a stand alone item. The Royal Canadian Mint is nearly sold out of their issue, and APMEX is the sole distributor for the Niue issue. Over the next few days I’ll share other current Titanic commemoratives as well as some from the past.

George

Stick around. It is jsut going to get better.

George