Capital Treasures

Capital Treasures is currently on hiatus; Thanks for visiting.

The information on this website will remain up for archive purposes.

1941: approximately 300 miles southwest of Ireland, the S.S. Gairsoppa was on its way back to England from Calcutta, India when it was struck down by a German U-boat during World War II, causing it to sink almost 3 miles below to the North Atlantic ocean floor, bringing down 85 men (save one who survived on a life boat for 13 days) and an estimated 240 tons of silver bullion on board. The 412-foot steel-hulled SS Gairsoppa was a British steam merchant ship that was in service during the war. She sailed with several convoys, before joining Convoy SL 64. Running low on fuel, she left the convoy and headed for Galway, Ireland, until her unfortunate demise.

2012: reported on Wednseday, a haul of 48 tons of silver bullion, worth about $38 million according to current rates — about 20% of the estimated total potentially in the wreck — was recently recovered by Odyssey Marine Exploration of Tampa, Florida, making it probably the most complex, deepest, largest and heaviest precious metal recovery in history, and aided by new robotic technology. 1,203 silver bars, equalling approximately 1.4 million troy ounces, have been transported to a secure facility in the United Kingdom, according to the company. Silver recently traded for about $27 per troy ounce, making the value hover around $38 million. After being under water for 71 years, the silver no longer lusters, and could be mistaken for iron, although it can once again be refined and still holds value as a precious metal.

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What is Seed Money?
Seed Money looks like the real thing – pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters – but is far more valuable. Use it to solicit surprise and smiles from friends and strangers alike, and then tuck these paper coins in soil to grow colorful flowers and delicious vegetables. It’s tender for tending!

Seed Money will be lovingly designed and made by Lea Redmond and her pals at Slide Sideways and Porridge Papers. This initial run of currency will include hand-illustrated pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, and will be letterpress printed in Nebraska on thick custom papers embedded with seeds. Available in rolls for sharing and spreading the wealth, these lightweight, whimsical – and practical! – coins will slide easily into a purse or pocket.

What can you do with Seed Money coins?
All sorts of delightful things! And they’re certainly not just for gardeners!

• Secretly tuck them into medians, public parks, or your friend’s front yard.
• Leave a few with your tip at a restaurant.
• Place them in coin return slots to surprise strangers.
• Playfully try to use them at your local coffee shop or bakery.
• Leave them on sidewalks for people to stumble upon.
• Give them as a unique gift or party favor.
• Grow an entire backyard flower/food garden with the full set of coins.
• Pass them out at your farmer’s market just for fun.
• Send a roll to a politician with a letter expressing your opinion on agribusiness subsidies.
• If you run a retail shop, hand over a few along with the real change.
• Lock up a few rolls in a safety deposit box at your bank just in case Malthus was right. Or perhaps your porcelain piggy bank is more secure?

In early October 2011 an article published by Professional Jeweller caused some controversy, the article in question regarded Nicholas James‘ collection “Savage Sovereigns”. Although the article itself was by no means derogatory the reaction in the comment box below was far from pleasing, as a group of anonymous industry insiders (who else reads Professional Jeweller?) proceeded to rip away at the concept of the collection.

[sic] …the sovereign,  its revival in the Great Re-coinage of 1816, it seemed that the coin had been involved in London’s history for as long as it had been minted; this is what sparked the idea of linking the collection of rings with the mythologies of Victorian London. Each ring discusses a particular part of the cities 19^th century underbelly, featuring heavily is the “Jack the Ripper” legend, with each ring hinting at aspects of the infamous case. Whether that be the black rhodium plated “Ripper” with cuts to reveal the true 18ct gold construction, or the “Tom” (Tom was common slang for prostitute in the Victorian East End) formed in 18ct white gold, embellished with Burmese rubies and intricate flower inspired engraving that beautifully wraps around the outside of the ring, and continues onto the interior of the band.

[ via f7jewellery ]

“Scott Campbell is a sort of semiotician, studying the signs, symbols, and text, commonly found in tattoo culture. His work investigates a familiar lowbrow vernacular, and points out the irony existing within that imagery. His precise technique and masterly of his particular style is only matched in strength by his concern for the human condition. Through the act of chronicling working-class iconography, customarily inked onto skin, Campbell creates a new narrative for the consideration of those recognizable images. He pays tribute to individual stories, and as a result, he records a specific history, which in turn becomes a collective one.” — OH WOW

[ via http://strictlypaper.com ]

Big Business 3 is a book and poster series by Chinese creative agency Senseteam. Very reminiscent to embroidered patchwork, this series cuts apart and reconfigures currencies from countries around the world in the hopes of examining identity and cultural desires that link wealth, branding, human expressions and ethnicities.

[ via http://strictlypaper.com ]

 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-to-scrap-the-penny-this-year/article2386120/

Death To Pennies

Why Pennies are economically inefficient and should be abolished. The author is working on a follow-up to this video. Help him out here: http://blog.cgpgrey.com/work-in-progress/

oops.
The crash also triggered a chain reaction, four other vehicles crumpled into each other.  One of them, a truck full of candy.

South Porcupine community services officer Const. Marc Depatie to CTV News. He said that passers-by have not been tempted to help themselves to a few extra dollars. ‘We are going to be using magnets and other less sophisticated means of collecting the cargo. He told cbc.ca that the rock ‘acted as a can opener,’ effectively peeled the side of the truck back, allowing coins to catapult onto the highway.

Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2122781/It-vehicular-carnage–5MILLION-coins-spill-highway-horror-crash.html
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/world/Copy_of_crash-sends-millions-of-canadian-coins-candy-onto-highway1333108079952#ixzz1qbyerUAk

I have a few tokens and coins in my collection from fantasy and sci-fi genre; think Battle Star Galactic cubits… for RPG, LARPers and the like, you can take a look at  Realm Coins up on KickStarter, although not as detailed as Campaign Coins it should be a nice, affordable alternative for people to use in general for all sorts of RPG games and board games.

These sort of small, niche manufacturing runs aren’t cheap and the companies that do this sort of thing (still here in the United States) with the quality one would expect are hit or miss. The closest one I found that showed promise is Wendells, Inc. out of Minneapolis: http://www.wendellsinc.com/minting/process.html

Gamer Bling has a fantastic writeup on Campaign Coins:

Gamer Bling is a numismatist. And by that he doesn’t mean that he’ a Gary Numan fan, although he is; he means that he is a coin collector, and he geeks out over coins the way other people geek out over whatever it is that they geek out about, many examples of which, like PVC statues of underclad Japanese anime girls, are things that are generally not admitted in public.

Gamer Bling collects coins. And he is geekily proud of his collection inasmuch as it has coinage from a variety of legal entities that no longer exist, like Yugoslavia, the free city of Danzig, France when they were a military powerhouse, and whatever company it was that thought the d20 Book of Erotic Fantasy was a good idea (Gamer Bling didn’t really see a need to read a guide that defined gnomes by the fact that they liked to have sex in groups, and probably using PVC anime statues as props, too).

Read More:

http://gamerbling.wordpress.com/character-sheets-tools/campaign-coins/

Coins from the Vale of York hoard in #100objects. Available on Apple: http://bit.ly/rlLbOq and Amazon: http://amzn.to/nUXbs5

http://twitpic.com/734d9h