10 Pounds of Scotland

The Scots have a colorful (and tragic) history of fighting the domination of the English that ended, more or less, with the butchery that was the Battle of Culloden (16 April 1746), in which tired, hungry, and somewhat unenthusiastic Scotsmen armed with swords, at best, took on England's best, armed with bayonet-fixed firearms. So it was with some surprise that upon giving a 20 pound note with the likeness of the Queen on it to a cashier for my first purchase in Glasgow's Central train station (a local map book), the 10 pound note I got as change looked like this:

When the typical 10 pound note I see in London looks like this:

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Posted by serge, March 18, 2010. Post has 0 comments.
banknote Pound Scotland United Kingdom

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar (Roman military and political leader who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire) was the first to print his own bust on a Roman minted coin:

BTW. The Roman currency during most of the Roman Republic and the western half of the Roman Empire consisted of coins including the aureus (gold), the denarius (silver), the sestertius (bronze), the dupondius (bronze), and the as (copper). These were used from the middle of the third century BC until the middle of the third century A.D.

Posted by serge, March 17, 2010. Post has 0 comments.
coin Julius Caesar Rome

Vancouver 2010 badges

Badges of the Olympic Games for Collectors in Vancouver 2010, Canada

Posted by serge, February 24, 2010. Post has 1 comments.
badges Canada collectible Olympic Games

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is a historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman raising the flag of the United States atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.

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Posted by serge, February 23, 2010. Post has 0 comments.
flag stamp United States war ww2

Happy or not? (Chinese version)

China command was always very strong on all Olympic games and we not sure that Chinese leader is happy or not for current medal counts (2 gold, 1 silver award and one bronze):

20 Chinese renminbi yuan (¥) banknote (CNY).

By the way, the distinction between yuan and renminbi is analogous to that between the pound and sterling. Renminbi (simplified Chinese: 人民币; traditional Chinese: 人民幣) translates as people's currency.

Posted by serge, February 19, 2010. Post has 0 comments.
award China medals Olympic Games yuan

Happy or not?

While South Korea has won only four medals (3 gold, and one silver), North Korea has not won anything yet. I do not know whether happy Kim Jong Il the victories of one half of the Korean people, or not?!

Tow bones of 100 North Korean won (₩) (KPW) issued by the Central Bank of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Posted by serge, February 17, 2010. Post has 0 comments.
Korea medals Olympic Games won

Canadian defaced money

We continue Canadian subject which is so popular today. But we will be creative and we will show you how with the whole love to Canadian Dollars we improve their view:

And another $20:

PS. We don't like defaced money, but we can't ignore this appearance.

Posted by serge, February 15, 2010. Post has 0 comments.
Canada defaced money dollars

Olympic Games

How do you think athletes can be considered as collectors? Bowls on the shelf, golden and bronze medals hanging on the wall … yes! Definitely - yes. So, let’s watch on TV the XXI Olympic Winter Collectors Games, which starts today - on February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the resort town of Whistler, British Columbia and in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond. The 2010 Winter Olympics will be the third Olympics hosted by Canada (1976 - Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec and the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta).

PS. of course, we get involved not only with the success of collectors actions and sport performances on this Games who use CollectionStudio for tracking their invaluable awards but with all other guys!…

Posted by serge, February 12, 2010. Post has 0 comments.
Canada collectors fun Olympic Games

Coins or tokens for brothels

During archeological research in Pompeii a set of Roman tokens – spintria – was found, usually depicting sexual acts or symbols:

Spintriae from Pompeii

There were usually struck from brass or bronze, and were little smaller than a U.S. quarter. Spintriae may have been used to pay prostitute, who at times spoke a different language. While this is subject to argument, the numbers on them line up with known prices for Roman prostitutes. Some theorize them gaming tokens, and they may have been produced for only a short period, probably in the 1st century A.D.

Spintriae are a popular target of collecting and depending on the condition have a high auction price. Because of its relevance to the numismatic market, beware of huge modern forgery.

See more spintriae in details.

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Posted by serge, February 10, 2010. Post has 3 comments.
Roman Empire token

Features of slow matrix

Russian 2 rubles coin.

Defects (or the effect - it is really like to see) is called Rolling shutter due to the slow speed of reading from the matrix and the lack of closure. Occurs now only in mobiles. SLRs such masterpieces can not.

Photo was taken using Sony Ericsson k770i.

Posted by serge, February 5, 2010. Post has 0 comments.
coin effect rouble Russia