The Royal Mint reveals special coin collection celebrating Her Majesty The Queen’s reign – featuring The Queen’s signature for the first time on UK coinage.

As people across the world begin to celebrate Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, The Royal Mint, the original maker of UK coins, has today launched a special three coin collection honouring Her Majesty’s reign.

The first coin in the collection focuses on Her Majesty’s awards and honours, recognising individual service in many forms. The second coin highlights Her Majesty’s work with charities and as a patron, whilst the third and final coin celebrates the Commonwealth, a ‘family of nations’ she has championed throughout her reign.

Each coin in the collection is united by featuring Her Majesty The Queen’s signature in the centre of each design. This marks the first time ever that this has featured on UK coinage during Her Majesty’s reign – a fitting tribute to mark The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Clare Maclennan, Divisional Director of Commemorative Coin at The Royal Mint said, “As we celebrate Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, we are delighted to reveal a coin collection marking Her Majesty’s incredible reign. Each coin design in the collection is united by the inclusion of Her Majesty’s signature, which is the first time this has ever featured on UK coinage during her reign. This special coin collection provides collectors with a wonderful and unique way to mark this incredible milestone in history, making the collection a perfect tribute for anyone looking to celebrate The Queen’s reign.”

The coin collection has been designed by Irish artist and illustrator P. J. Lynch who has represented three key areas of Her Majesty’s reign with richly symbolic designs that were inspired by and feature The Queen’s signature, as a symbol of her personal commitment to others.

P. J. Lynch said of his design, “When creating this series, I initially focused on The Queen’s hands; she is so often shaking hands – it is how she welcomes and communicates with the people she meets. It led me to consider her signature, which is so symbolic, an instrument of state when she signs official documents, but also her personal promise and commitment.”

The coins forming this collection celebrating Her Majesty The Queen’s reign, are available as gold Proof, silver Proof Piedfort, silver Proof and Brilliant Uncirculated editions from The Royal Mint’s website, www.royalmint.com/queens-reign.

Thomas Uram to Receive American Numismatic Association’s Highest Honor

Thomas Uram, a dedicated promoter of numismatics, is the recipient of the first-ever Chester L. Krause Memorial Distinguished Service Award, the American Numismatic Association’s (ANA) highest honor.

The award will be presented at the Chicago World’s Fair of Money® (August 16-20). The ANA Board of Governors made the decision to rename the accolade – formerly known as the Farran Zerbe Memorial Award for Distinguished Service – at its April meeting to honor the memory and contributions of the renowned numismatic publisher and to name Uram as its first recipient.

Uram has been a stalwart supporter not only of the hobby, but of the ANA, which he joined as a Young Numismatist in 1974, and of the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists (PAN), of which he is currently the president. He has served on the ANA board, as chair of two ANA committees, and as the assistant host club chair for the Pittsburgh World’s Fair of Money.

In 2012, the Pennsylvania resident was appointed to the United States Mint’s Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC). According to former United States Mint Director David J. Ryder, Uram’s “enthusiasm for numismatics and his efforts to strengthen the interface between the Mint and the ANA have been unceasing” and resulted in an elevated relationship between the two organizations.

According to Ryder, Uram was instrumental in the passage of the 1921 Silver Dollar Coin Anniversary Act, which authorized the minting of 2021 Morgan and Peace dollars. “It was Tom who first brought this important coin program to my attention, and his leadership was the single most driving force in getting this legislation passed,” said Ryder. “I can think of no contribution more meaningful to numismatics today.”

A collector of U.S. 2-cent pieces, medals and “curved” coins, Uram is the recipient of numerous numismatic awards recognizing his dedication to the hobby:

  • ANA Presidential Award (2011)
  • Radford Stearns Memorial Award for Achievement in Exhibiting (2014)
  • Radford Stearns Memorial Award for People’s Choice exhibit (2015)
  • Numismatic Ambassador (2017)
  • ANA Glenn Smedley Memorial Award (2019)
  • ANA Medal of Merit (2020)

A more detailed article about Tom Uram and his contributions to the hobby will appear in the August issue of The Numismatist, the official publication of the ANA.

Fabled sunken treasure ship’s bell donated to US Naval Academy

Gift from California business executive Dwight Manley honors ship’s brave Captain, Commander William Lewis Herndon

SS Central America Bell

The 268-pound ship’s bell from the legendary “Ship of Gold,” the SS Central America that sank in 1857, has been donated by Dwight Manley of Brea, California to the United States Naval Academy. (Photo courtesy of California Gold Marketing Group.)

(Annapolis, Maryland) May 23, 2022 – The United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland has received an important piece of American and naval history, the bell from the SS Central America, the legendary “Ship of Gold” that was led by Commander William Lewis Herndon (1813-1857). The famous ship sank in 1857 while carrying 578 passengers and crewmembers and a king’s ransom of California Gold Rush treasures.

Rare coin expert, real estate developer, philanthropist, and former sports agent Dwight Manley of Brea, California donated the Central America’s 268-pound bronze bell to the Academy where there has been an important tribute monument to Commander Herndon for the past 162 years. The historic bell was formally dedicated on May 23, just prior to the 2022 annual monument climb by the Academy’s freshmen (“plebes”).

A distinguished career naval officer, Herndon sacrificed his life in a brave effort to save the Central America. “He saved the lives of 152 passengers before he made the decision to go down with the ship,” according to the Naval Academy.

The Central America sank in the Atlantic Ocean 150 miles off the North Carolina coast during a hurricane on September 12, 1857. In 1860, a 21-foot-tall granite obelisk was dedicated in Herndon’s honor near the center of the Naval Academy campus.

Prior to his important assignment as Master of the United States Mail Steamship Central America in 1855, Herndon served with distinction during the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 and led a successful South America expedition in 1851 that resulted in his acclaimed 1854 report, Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon.

“Commander Herndon is a revered and honored name in the U.S. Navy. His legacy has been part of the annual rite of passage at the Academy with his monument scaled by the current year’s plebes. It is my extreme privilege to be able to unite the bell with the monument so all in attendance each year can experience the sounds Commander Herndon heard as he went down with the ship after 40 hours of valiant effort to save every woman and child aboard,” said Manley who spoke at the bell’s May 23 dedication ceremony.

Last August, Manley met at Annapolis with Naval Academy Superintendent, Vice Admiral Sean S. Buck, to offer the gift of the recovered, historic bell, and the Department of the Navy accepted the offer.

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Meredith Berger approved the gift “to support and educate the Brigade of Midshipmen,” and in a letter to Manley she expressed the Department of the Navy’s “sincere appreciation.”

The bell was discovered 34 years ago, 131 years after the ship sank. It is larger than most ships’ bells of the era, measuring nearly two feet tall and a little over two feet wide at its lower flange edge.

SSCA bell on ocean floor

Using a remote-controlled submarine in 1988, the 268-pound bell from the fabled “Ship of Gold,” the SS Central America that sank in 1857, was discovered 7,200 feet under the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. (Photo courtesy of California Gold Marketing Group.)

“The site of what we thought might be the SS Central America was discovered in 1988 about 7,200 feet below the ocean’s surface. Using a robot submarine, we located a bell and could see part of the embossed lettering on it, MORGAN IRON WORKS NEW YORK 1853. That provided additional evidence that the shipwreck site was indeed the Central America,” explained Bob Evans, the chief scientist and historian on the recovery missions who also attended the bell’s dedication ceremony at the U.S. Naval Academy. “The bell provided spectacular and undeniable confirmation we located the ship.”

The Central America was a 280-foot long, three-masted side-wheel steamship carrying what Life magazine later called “The Greatest Treasure Ever Found,” tons of California Gold Rush-era gold coins and assayers’ ingots. The loss of the valuable cargo was a major factor in the economically devastating financial panic of 1857 in the United States.

1943/1942-S Lincoln Cent Discovered

Previously Known 1943-S Doubled Die Obverse Cent Discovered to Actually Be a 1943/1942-S Overdate

By Tom DeLorey
ANA LM-1696

Full obverse of the 1943/42-S cent. Photo courtesy Numismatic Guaranty Company and David Lange. Used with permission.

About 45 years ago, collector Del Romines came into my office at Coin World’s Collectors Clearinghouse with two well-worn 1943-P nickels that he thought were 1943/2-P overdates. I thought that he might be right, so I took pictures of his coins, published them in Coin World, and asked if anybody had a higher grade specimen that could verify the overdate. One week later a member of my local coin club, Bern Nagengast, cherrypicked a sharp BU specimen at a coin show, and the 1943/42-P Jefferson nickel was confirmed. At the time people were amazed that it had taken almost 35 years for the overdate to be noticed.

About a month ago longtime collector James Elliott contacted me via the Internet and said that another collector in the die variety collecting field, Pete Apple, had recommended that he contact me about a 1943-S cent that he had with a known Doubled Die Obverse that he thought was also a 1943/2-S overdate. As with Del Romines and his 1943/42-P nickels, I think he is right, and my fellow die variety specialists Bill Fivaz, John Wexler and James Wiles agree with me, as does noted Lincoln cent specialist and author David Lange. In our unanimous opinion, the 1943/1942-S cent is a true overdate!

Though it is a known die variety, and has been for many years, it has only ever been recognized for its die doubling. It is currently listed as such in the “Cherrypickers’ Guide” by Bill Fivaz and the late J.T. Stanton as variety FS-101 (019.5) among the 1943-S cents. [The (019.5) number is an obsolete reference number from the earlier editions of the CPG, which is noted because it might be found on older TPG slabs.]

The misalignment of the designs between the 1942-dated hub and the 1943-dated hub pivots around a spot on the left obverse rim. Because of this swing the coin shows only trivial doubling on the word LIBERTY close to the pivot point, but some fairly strong doubling almost due North and South at the base of the 1. There is similar doubling under the top curve of the 9 and along the right side the leg of the 9. There is extra metal below the sharp left angle of the 4 that corresponds in scale to the doubling on the 1 and the 9. Fairly rare early die state coins will also show similar doubling on the base of the 4, but this feature apparently was either worn off or polished off of the die early in its die life.

Elliott gets the credit for first suggesting that the doubled die was actually an overdated die, ever since he asked the question back in July of 2020 in a private online forum, “Lincoln Cent Errors and Varieties Only,” on Facebook. As he pointed out, “the extra metal to the upper right side of the 3 matches a 2.” He provided an overlay to show how an underlying 2 could account for that extra metal. As my colleagues and I have confirmed, this extra metal does not line up with any part of the 3 if the entire 1943 date is doubled in a North-South direction, the same way that the 1 and the 9 and the 4 are doubled.

As seen in the attached overlay of a 1943 date and a 1942 date created by die variety specialist Dr. James Wiles, owner of the Variety Vista website, the high arched curve of the upper right part of a 2 falls into the field to the right of the top of the 3. Study the pictures of the overdate, and see that the blob of raised metal to the right of the top of the 3 cannot align with any part of a 3 that is doubled only North and South.

There is extra metal inside the top of the 3 that corresponds with the upper left curve of the 2, though its similarity to the upper left curve of the 3 must be acknowledged. However, it does seem to match the angle of the upper left curve of the 2 more than that of the 3. There is extra metal below the center “tine” of the 3 that corresponds with the lower left curve of the 2, above the base of the 2 (which is not present).

If you are wondering why there is nothing else inside the bottom of the 3, look at the images of normal 1942 and 1943 dates and see that the 2 is rather short, the same height as the 4, while the 3 is much taller, the same height as the 9. Only a 3 could be down there if the 3 were doubled, and there is nothing.

Why is the base of the 2 missing and the upper right curve of the 2 weak? This is a function of the hubbing process. Back then blank dies were polished down to a very shallow cone on the end to help the positive steel hub transform the negative steel die more effectively. As the hub came into contact with the die blank the center of the design would form first, and then spread outwards as the hub sank deeper and deeper into the die.

Eventually the die became work hardened from all this pressure, and so the hub stopped entering the conical die blank before the design impression had reached out all the way to the rim of the die. The die now needed to be annealed, or heated in an oven to a certain temperature and allowed to cool slowly overnight. This softened the die steel. On the next working day it was put back under a design hub for another impression. Sometimes this process had to be repeated more than once, depending upon the diameter and relief of the design, the skill of the annealer, the skill of the hubber, etc., etc.

If the second (or third) hub impression happened to be from a different hub with a different date, the result should be an overdate “IF” the earlier date was sufficiently formed during the previous impression(s). Dual date hubbing could have happened near the end of any calendar year when the Engraving Department was still producing dies for current usage from the current year’s hub while simultaneously producing dies from the next year’s hub in order to have some ready to be used on January 2nd.

The same thing happened with the 1909/8 gold double eagle, the 1918/7-D nickel, the 1918/7-S quarter, the 1942/41-P&D dimes, and the 1943/42-P nickel. It has been speculated that it is no coincidence that six of the seven modern hubbed overdates occurred during wartime, when the Mint would be less inclined to scrap out a blundered but perfectly usable die. It is also possible that one or more of the skilled hubbers was off serving his country in the military.

On this particular die the outer parts of the design, such as IN GOD WE TRUST, were not formed by the first impression, and so they could not be doubled by the second impression of the hub. Over in the word LIBERTY, the BERTY shows some very trivial die doubling (being close to the pivot point), while the LI show no doubling at all because they did not exist before the second hubbing. The upper right curve of the 2 was incompletely formed by the first hubbing, while the flat base of the 2 was not formed because it lies closer to the rim.

Closeup of LIBERTY on the 1943/1942-S Lincoln cent, showing very minimal die doubling on the BERTY because this area was so close to the pivot point. Photo courtesy Numismatic Guaranty Company’s Variety Plus archive. Used with permission.

Something similar can be seen on the 1943/42-P nickel, on which the top of the date is closest to the rim. It shows a strong base of the 2 from the original hubbing, but not the center or top of the 2. The result was a 3 over a partial 2. By contrast, if only the bases of LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST were formed by the 1942 hub impression, the letters were simply finished normally by the subsequent 1943 impression.

Several specimens of the 1943/1942-S cent have been examined. Only the earliest die states show doubling at the bottom of the upright of the 4. Middle to later die states show some strong vertical die polish lines, as might have been caused by the use of an emery stick to clean the die, in the field above the date.

The die variety will continue to be listed in the “Cherrypickers Guide” as FS-101, though a new description of it will be forthcoming. The description in the Numismatic Guaranty Company’s Variety Plus archives will also be amended.

I would like to thank James Elliott for having the wisdom to look at “what everybody knows is so” and asking questions. I would also like to thank Bill Fivaz, David Lange, John Wexler and Dr. James Wiles for their invaluable contributions in adding yet another overdate to the canon of American die varieties. To those of you who were amazed when I published the 1943/42-P nickel some 35 years after it was first struck, all I can say 79 years after the 1943/1942-S was first struck is: “KEEP LOOKING!!!”

The Royal Mint celebrates His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge’s 40th Birthday

Thomas Docherty Studio Shots for Prince Williams 40th – 12

The Royal Mint is celebrating The Duke of Cambridge’s 40th birthday with a commemorative £5 coin, featuring a portrait of His Royal Highness. The £5 coin has been unveiled ahead of The Duke’s milestone celebration next month, with a regal design which pays homage to the senior member of the Royal family, and second in line to the throne.

Designed by Thomas T. Docherty, designer and engraver at The Royal Mint, the coin features Prince William’s portrait, depicted at a three-quarter angle to present a dynamic quality, and set amid his Royal Cypher and the number ‘40’ to reflect the stature and maturity of the future King.

Available in a range of base and precious metals finishes, the commemorative design has been struck on the opposite side of his grandmother’s effigy, the fifth definitive portrait of Her Majesty The Queen by Jody Clark. On the £5 coin struck in silver and gold, the edge inscription: ‘HRH THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE’ complements the theme with an original numismatic feature.

The new range also includes a limited-edition two-coin set featuring a quarter ounce gold celebration coin and a 1982 Sovereign, marking the year the Prince was born. The collection will also include a limited-edition coin made of 5oz of fine gold and minted to the highest quality to mark the special occasion. Combining traditional craftsmanship and innovative laser technology, the high relief finish gives the portrait an enhanced three-dimensional appearance.

The original maker of coins has been trusted to tell the story of monarchs for centuries and the new release is the first UK coin featuring an individual portrait of HRH available at The Royal Mint.

Clare Maclennan, Director of Commemorative Coin at The Royal Mint, said: “As the trusted maker of coins for the monarchs, we are celebrating His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge’s landmark 40th Birthday with a commemorative coin fit for a future King. The elegant design features a portrait of HRH alongside his Royal Cypher and the number ‘40’, which pays homage to the maturity and grace of the Prince who has become a senior member of the Royal Family, a devoted husband and a loving father of three, through the eyes of the world. Marking this extra special occasion, we have also struck a limited-edition gold coin made with 5oz of fine gold and struck in high relief to elevate the artistry of the design. Our limited-edition precious metal coins combine fine craftsmanship and rarity, making them an attractive keepsake for collectors and investors.”

Speaking of the design, Royal Mint designer Thomas T. Docherty said: “The design strikes a balance between the fresh energy of His Royal Highness being a young dad with the ceremonial nature of his Royal position. A three-quarter angle of the portrait creates a more dynamic portrait rather than a traditional side-on profile. I used certain clay sculpting techniques on a digital platform to achieve the style needed for the design, to translate effectively from two to three dimensions. Using technology, we can now produce designs and sculptures with better efficiency compared to when I began my career 17 years ago. There’s a high level of skills and craftsmanship needed to sculpt designs – the tools are different but the principles remain the same.”

The project has been a labour of love for the 40-year-old father-of-two from Glasgow who moved to South Wales to study at Cardiff Metropolitan University twenty years ago. The experienced coin designer joined The Royal Mint in 2005 and his works include the 2008 £2 coin commemorating the centenary of the 1908 London Olympics, the Remembrance Day 2016 Alderney £5 coin and the 2018 Bicentenery of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein £2 coin.

Thomas added: “Even though our lives are a million miles apart, I understand how it feels to have just turned 40 and to have a young family of my own, so I wanted to ensure I captured His Royal Highness accurately at this stage in his life. I am incredibly proud to have designed and sculpted this coin, it will forever stand as a major achievement and highlight in my career.”

The HRH The Duke of Cambridge range is available from today at The Royal Mint.

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