Philologist, numismatist and cartoonist Claire Franklin provides insight into her daily thoughts. Recently, in an era not so unlike our own…

The NumisPlace – marketplace for high-quality coins & medals – offers regularly special releases where all dealers upload a choice of coins at the same time. View a selection of their latest release.

Heritage Auctions’ ANA World’s Fair of Money Auction did not take place in Chicago but at the company’s premises. The result is more than impressive: the sale achieved a total result of over $68 million and US coins saw a perfect sell-through rate of 100%, including a 1861 Paquet Double Eagle sold for $7.2 million.

Kolbe & Fanning will auction the Salton library in cooperating with Künker. The extraordinary ensemble is especially rich in works dedicated to ancient coins and medals. Connoisseurs can also look forward to extensive holdings of old European auction catalogues.

With a total of $50m, the ANA sale of Stack’s Bowers Galleries realised the highest result in the company’s history. One piece contributed significantly to this success: a 1804 dollar from the Muscat, Watters, Brand, Childs and Pogue Collections.

Perhaps you know the hypothetical kingdom of Bermania. But it is not the only one of its kind. Every year Kings, Presidents, and Dukes from many imagined nations meet at the MicroSummit. Read more about these phantastic realms, fantasy coins and paper money.

David Hendin will be the next awardee of the ANS Trustees’ Award. The renowned expert on Levant numismatics will receive the award during the ANS Gala dinner in January 2022.

The 11th edition of the British Banknote Yearbook has been published. The price guide to banknotes of the British Isles has been fully updated and contains all newly issued notes of the past four years.

Heritage Auctions has reached the milestone of 1.5 million online bidder-members. This reflects the record membership growth during the pandemic.

Until 30th June 2021, the Banco de Espana exchanged pesetas into Euro. Now the old currency has become worthless. Peseta banknotes and coins worth over 1.5 billion Euro have not been redeemed. Where are they?, Michael Alexander asks.