Coin collector and author David Ganz will appear at the Paramus Public Library on Sunday, June 25th at 2:00pm. Ganz, known as “the father of the 50 state quarter program,” will cover such topics as coin investing, commemorative coinage, and building your own coin collection. The talk is free, and will be held in the Emily Howland Meeting Room with a reception following the event.

A dynamic speaker and author of numerous books on coin collecting, David Ganz is a major advocate for the circulation of commemorative coinage, and has served as president or on the board of several coin organizations, including the American Numismatic Society, the American Numismatic Association, the World Mint Council, and the Citizens Commemorative Coin Advisory Committee. His books include such titles as: The Official Guide to U.S. Commemorative Coins, Planning Your Rare Coin Retirement,The World of Coins and Coin Collecting, and The Official Guide to America’s State Quarters.

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BY GENNADY SHEYNER

Copyright © 2006 Republican-American

WOLCOTT — Sometime in the first half of the 11th century, a Muslim shopkeeper in the ancient Israeli city of Tiberias hid a stash of silver and bronze coins under his shop, possibly anticipating a disaster.

The coins remained hidden for about 1,000 years, long after the old city was ravaged by wars and earthquakes. In March, they were discovered by a retired Wolcott High School teacher with an interest in ancient civilizations.

Bill Blair, a Litchfield resident who taught English at Wolcott for 35 years, flew to Israel two days after his retirement at the end of February to take part in an archeological dig in Tiberias, which is located next to the Sea of Galilee about a mile south of the modern city. A lifelong archeology buff, Blair wanted to learn more about the city that housed the Roman, Jewish, Byzantine and Muslim civilizations in the first millennium.

Blair, who was born and raised in Waterbury, said the work was rewarding but far from glamorous.

The group began its workdays at 6:15 a.m. Members used handpicks and hoes to dig through layers of soil and then switched to smaller picks and brushes as they approached potential treasures.

[aCoinDealer] Here are some of my favorite pieces of this story:

After some further digging and brushing, Blair reached down and picked up a clay jug containing 96 wafer-thin silver and bronze coins, some inscribed with Arabic writing.

According to Shulamit Miller, a supervisor with the excavation program, the coins date back to the Fatimid period, around 1033 A.D.

The hoard included both coins that were minted in Mesopotamia (the Iran-Iraq region today) and coins from Constantinople (Istanbul today), the capital of the Byzantine empire.

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I have discovered a software application for coin collectors. It is from PrimaSoft and is called Coin Organizer Deluxe.

Here is part of the description from their web site:

Coin Organizer Deluxe is a Windows software for coin collectors, hobbyists, dealers, and clubs. The software helps you to organize, catalog, and manage all coin related data. For the database novice, Coin Organizer’s intuitive interface and ready-to-use coin inventory solutions make it easy to set up and use.

• Modern Coins: organize and maintain modern coin collections.
• Ancient Coins: organize and maintain ancient coin collections.
• Medieval Coins: organize and maintain medieval to modern coin collections.
• Coin Web Resources: organize web coin resources.
• Coin Contacts: organize coin related contacts.
• Build Coin Glossaries: create dictionary of coin terms.

For the power user, Organizer affords the simplicity of wizards that make it easy to set up and use coin organizers that you create.

Click here to get more information!

Washington — The Senate gave final congressional approval Friday to legislation authorizing the U.S. Mint to create and sell gold and silver commemorative coins that could raise an estimated $8.5 million to help transform San Francisco’s landmark Old Mint into a city history museum.

The House had passed the bill in November, and it now goes to President Bush for his signature. That will allow the Mint to start designing the collectors’ coins, which to the extent possible are supposed to be struck at San Francisco’s current mint off Upper Market Street. Others would be produced at the mint in West Point, N.Y.

The money generated through the coins’ sale will help raise the needed $55 million for seismic upgrades and remodeling to the Greek Revival-style “Granite Lady'’ at Fifth and Mission streets so it can reopen in 2009 as the new permanent home of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society.

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