Recently I have been collecting these coins after I gave one to my father for his birthday.� These are a few of them, most of them I have to keep sealed so as not to get them in bad condition.� The one that is slabbed I got as a prize from a coin show. These coins have been around since 1986 and are 1oz of fine silver.� So this means you have to be extremely careful ( as you would do with any coin ) and wear gloves.� Other than that it is a pretty easy set to collect although you should start by getting the proofs out of the way since they can be expensive.� They are not in circulation and will most likely never be.� I am still not quite sure when I will be going to the PAN show in Gettysburg but I will update you on that later.� Stay happy and enjoy your collecting.�

Two months ago, one of our friends brought us a coin collection for us to figure out the approximate value of it. Our friend and her three siblings had inherited the collection after their mother passed away. The coin collection had several amazing coins! There were large cents, a 40% silver proof Eisenhower dollar, shield nickels, a half dime, silver dollars, an uncirculated Indian Head Cent (this was in packaging from F.W. Woolworths for less than a dollar!!), a �bent silver 1 Real coin from the 1750's, A Carson City Morgan Dollar, �a couple of lettered edge capped bust half dollars and many other interesting coins. After we looked at the coin collection, we told her the approximate retail value.

Our local coin show was held last month.� They have the coin show twice a year.� I like the coin shows because I can help at the kids table, show an exhibit, buy coins, and say hello to the dealers.� We helped set up tables the night before the show started. In the morning of the show, we went and quickly set up our exhibits. Then we went and enjoyed a hike with our grandparents that were visiting us. After the hike we went home, had lunch, and dropped them off at the airport. After we dropped them off, we went back to the coin show. I walked around browsing the dealers' cases and saw several interesting coins. I also sold several of my coins that I did not want in my collection anymore. About half an hour later I was still browsing and looking for the first thing I wanted to purchase that day when I came across a dealer that had several large cents. Because I collect large cents, I quickly got interested and looked through the dealer's box. Next to the other coins there was a 1795 S-78 (Sheldon-78) large cent in the grade AG-3 that I quickly noticed. It caught my eye! Not having that date of large cent in my album I asked the dealer how much it cost. After looking at it he said that it cost more money than I brought with me to the show.� I had my dad drive me home to pick up more money. After I went back to the coin show I went back to that dealers table and bought the large cent then I wandered around and bought several other large cents that I needed for my collection.

Although insignificant, the military coinage of Germany during World War I is an interesting niche of period numismatics. When Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in June, 1914, by a radical Serbian nationalist, the delicate peace that had survived in Europe for nearly a century since Napoleon was broken. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia came to their ally Serbia’s aid. Germany, led by Fredrick Wilhelm II, in turn backed the Austro-Hungarian army and invaded France by going through Belgium, a neutral country, drawing France and Great Britain into the war. On the western front between German-occupied land and France, things moved very slowly and both sides turned to trench warfare. Under these circumstances the German military issued occupational coinage under the direction of Helmuth von Moltke. This raises the question; what is military occupational coinage?

It's been a while since I last blogged about LKNS, but that doesn't mean we haven't been up to anything.� Quite the contrary.� We've been working on an exciting new project.In September 2022, LKNS took a tour of the Osborne Mint in Cincinnati, Ohio.� Osborne Coinage Company has been around in one form or another ever since 1835.� It has changed names, owners, and addresses over the years, but it has always been in Cincinnati and is the oldest still-operating private mint in America.� Their heritage includes presidential campaign medals for Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S Grant, and Franklin D Roosevelt, among others.� They made store cards for businesses around the Civil War era, as well as company store tokens for coal mines and other businesses.� In the Second World War, they made all the familiar little red and blue ration point tokens and shipped them out by the boxcar load (in fact, they have a complete set of 24 blue and 30 red tokens on display in their facility).Every year LKNS awards Membership medals to our newest members who have applied for membership, paid their dues, and attended at least three LKNS events.� Last year we realized we were running out of medals and would not have enough to go around at the end of this year.� We needed to mint more medals.� Since we had this relationship with Osborne Mint, why not have them strike our next batch?� After all, if they were good enough for Abe Lincoln, they ought to be good enough for LKNS!We sent them our logo artwork and made a few suggestions as to how it might look rendered in three dimensions.� They produced test strikes seen in the accompanying photo.� As you can see, the results were outstanding!� This 39mm design rendered in Goldine brass has a slight dome to the obverse.� The relief has a satin frosted finish while the field remains bright and reflective.� The reverse (not shown) is a near-mirror image of the obverse.� This was done to achieve higher relief on the obverse.� Those familiar with the minting process know that this is a lot of metal to push around, so this design helps with that.� The finished product will have the Osborne mint mark on the reverse.� Our medal will be produced in two styles:� the first with an integrated loop at the top of the design to accommodate a jump ring connected to a ribbon drape; the second without the loop and ribbon drape.� The first will be issued to our new members who have earned the Membership Medal.� Our returning members this year will receive one of the non-looped versions, as a memento of being a member during this significant year in LKNS history.Our tour of Osborne Mint was fantastic, and our hosts were most generous and accommodating.� Perhaps I'll write more about our tour along with more of the story behind our medals in another blog post.