Last October, World Coin Appreciation (WCA) released a neat coin shaped like a miniature cassette tape, to honour the memory of Lou Ottens, a Dutch inventor working for the tech giant Philips, who created the cassette system in 1963, and who died in 2021. Now, they're back with the concept, this time marking 60 years since the [...]
The 2,600 year old Lydian Stater, possibly the world's first government issued coin, is reproduced for WCA's latest issue Introduced into the Lydian Empire by King Alyattes in the latter part of the 7th century BCE, the Lydian Stater is considered by most numismatic historians to be the first example of a state-issued coin in history, [...]
World Coin Appreciation debuts a trio of skateboard coins sporting beautiful 900 year old Chinese art Wang Ximeng was a Chinese painter from the Northern Song Dynasty, born in 1096 in Kaifeng, China, and dying just 23 years later, leaving behind a sparse body of work. However, that work left an enduring legacy in the [...]
An icon of the firearms world, the Mauser C96, comes to numismatics with a shaped, gilded silver coin The Mauser C96, also known as the "Broomhandle Mauser," is a highly distinctive semi-automatic pistol that gained iconic status in the early 20th century. Designed by Paul Mauser and introduced in 1896, it featured a unique broomhandle-shaped grip, [...]
Albrecht Dürer's now iconic 'Rhinoceros' has appeared on coins a few times over the last decade, most notably with Art Mint's excellent antiqued issue from late 2021. One of the most famous artists to come out of the Northern Renaissance, Dürer was especially noted for his woodcuts, which often make the transition to coins really well. Scottsdale Mint's [...]
We can always rely on World Coin Appreciation, a rare Chinese producer, to offer up something a little different from the norm, and often with an Asian leaning. We were super impressed with their Sanxingdui artifact coin , which shone a light on a little known, but incredible fascinating culture in Ancient China. This one is of a [...]
Lou Ottens, the Dutch inventor of the tape cassette tape is celebrated on an unusual silver coin. Just don't try to play it... Who doesn't remember their first Walkman cassette player? Well, anybody under the age of 25 for a start! In a time when you can fit 20,000 songs on a card tinier than your [...]
Last year, World Coin Appreciation debuted the first in its new series with the title, 'Mysteries of the World Latitude 30 North'. It's unusually specific, and clever, showcasing some of the great ancient cultures that have existed along, or near, the 30th Parallel North. There are quite a few, and the first issue was a very striking mask [...]
Situated about 40 km south of the Turkish city of Izmir, Ephesus was an Ancient Greek city state, built from the 10th century BC by Greek colonists. One of the twelve cities that formed the Classic Greek Ionian League, Ephesus was particularly famous from the late 6th century BC, because of its impressive Temple of Artemis, now considered [...]
It's such a ubiquitous part of everyday life, that it's hard to believe Email is only 50 years old. In 1971, Ray Tomlinson developed the first networked Email service, running on ARPANET, and using the now commonplace '@' symbol. Just a few years later, and the system became formalised into what we still use today. Over 300 [...]
