From parkquarters.com :

"Legislation to create at least 56 newly designed quarters over a ten-year period is now a presidential signature away from law. America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act (H.R.6184) passed in the House of Representatives July 9, 2008 and unexpectedly made its way through the lame duck session of the Senate on Wednesday.

It is all too common for legislation to take months and sometimes years to pass. Hope for 2008 action on H.R.6184 dwindled further as the political season approached and the resulting lame duck members of congress returned to Washington D.C. to close out the year. Few would have expected its Senate passage by Unanimous Consent this year.

President Bush will likely sign the bill into law within ten days. With that, commemorative national park or site quarters at the rate of five different designs per year for each state, D.C. and U.S. Territory will be issued beginning in 2010. The legislation authorizes a second round of quarters at the discretion of the Treasury Secretary, which could push the series into 2020.


The commemorative quarters are to be designs as "emblematic of a national park or other national site in each State, the District of Columbia, and each territory of the United States, and for other purposes."

Additionally, a silver coin that is a duplicate of each quarter is to be struck from .999 fine silver and have an impressive diameter of 3.0 inches with a weight of 5.0 ounces. No modern coins of such size have ever been issued by the United States Mint.

The National Parks Quarter bill first appeared in the House of Representatives when Rep. Mike Castle introduced it on June 4, 2008. On June 26, Senator John Barrasso brought a similar measure (S.3214) before the Senate, showing his support for park and site coins.

For any legislation to become law, both houses must first agree to and pass a common bill and the president must sign it.

The United States Mint just wrapped up the 50 State Quarters® Program and will spend 2009 issuing six commemorative quarters to honor the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands"

I have started a thread in the forums regarding this news and welcome some comments: Discuss the new National Park Quarters

Continent: Europe Country: East Germany Denomination: 1 Pfennig Year: 1977

After the Allied victory of World War II, Germany was divided into 4 provinces and it's capital, Berlin, was also divided into 4 parts. In 1949 the 3 provinces controlled by the U.S., Britain and France were combined to become the Federal Deutsche Republic, or West Germany. At the same time the remaining province which was under Soviet control because the Deutsche Democratic Republic, or East Germany. East Germany also comprised of the Soviet controlled part of Berlin. East and West Germany remained divided until 1990 East Germany used marks and pfennigs which were pegged equal to the West Germany currency. Although the official value was a 1:1 exchange, on the unofficial markets the exchange was frequently lower and West German marks were worth as much as 10 times that of East German marks. The obverse of the coin shows the East German Coat of Arms. There is a hammer and a compass in the center which represent the industrial workers and intellectuals respectfully. Around the edge of the obverse is rye which represents the farmers. The reverse shows the denomination with oak leaves on both sides. The mint mark "A" is visible over the "1."

Pricing and Coin Info
[Submitted by Nicholas]

I've finally had some time to devote to Coinbrag.com and I've made an upgrade that I have wanted for a long time. Now when you search for coins you will see pictures of the coins in the search if pictures have been submitted for that coin. I hope you all find this as useful as I do when searching.

I have been adding quite a few coins and pictures over the last few days and I see some others have as well. We've passed the 10,000 coins mark in the database and there's over 1800 pictures! Contributing coins to our database has also given me a few more chores to add to my "to do" list so I will be working to improve the site.

Sometimes when I make improvements, things go wrong that I don't notice right away. If you notice a bug please report it in the Bugs/Suggestions area. I greatly appreciate an extra pair of eyes. Suggestions for improvements are also welcome!

The following is a 3 minute video about the United States 1-cent coin. The video talks about the new Lincoln pennies coming in 2009. It shows some prototype pictures however, I believe those are out dated and the more current ones I posted last month here: New Lincoln Cents Are On the Way Soon!. Anyway, I found the video interesting and thought I'd share it.


I came across this video as I was checking up on Doug's blog, NumismaticBlog.com. Doug is the creator of one of the MySpace coin groups I frequent (one of my favorite groups) and he's got a lot of good stuff on his blog about coins.

Continent: Asia Country: China Denomination: 1 Yuan Year: 2002

Originating with the shells of sea snalls between 3,000 and 4,500 years ago, China is one of the first places to adopt currency in addition to a barter trade system. Over the years China has used a variety of currencies. Today, in the People's Republic of China, Renminbi is the currency in use. Renminbi, which translates to "Peoples' Currency," is divided into Yuan, Jiao and Fen. 1 Yuan = 10 Jiao = 100 Fen. Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use currency separate from the mainland. November's Coin of the month is the 1 Yuan coin. It is currently traded at about .15 cents USD. The value of the Yuan has risen in the last 3 years against the dollar. The flower on the reverse of the Yuan is a chrysanthemum, a flower cultivated for over 500 years in China as an herb often brewed in tea to aid against the flu.

More Info
[Submitted by Nicholas]

Continent: Europe Country: Austria Denomination: 1 Ducat Year: 1915*

The gold 1 ducat coin from Austia is an interesting one. For one, this coin was not actually minted in 1915. In fact, all of the 1915 1 Ducat coins are restrikes. It's estimated that only a million were minted between 1920 and 1936. Austrian coins have frequently kept the same dates over the years commemorating different events. The front of the coin has Emperor Franz Joseph I and the reverse has a crowned double-headed imperial eagle. The pictures used for this Coin of the Month is from an eBay auction being sold by amc_atticfinds. You can view the auction here: Auction for 1915 1 Ducat Gold Coin. I like that seller as they are pretty honest about the coin. They mention that the coin is dated 1915, which it is. But they do not claim the coin is minted then. Kudos to them for their honesty.

More Info
[Submitted by Nicholas]

If you have not already heard, in 2009, the United States Mint will mint and issue four different one-cent coins in recognition of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and the 100th anniversary of the production of the Lincoln cent. While the obverse will continue to bear the likeness of President Lincoln currently on the penny, the reverse will change to bear four different designs, each representing a different aspect of the life of Abraham Lincoln.

Contrary to other reports, after these new coins are issued in 2009, the 2010 Lincoln one-cent will not revert back to it's previous design but will "feature a reverse design that will be emblematic of President Lincoln's preservation of the United States of America as a single and united country." Read the full story from the U.S. Mint.

I find this news especially appealing as the rumors continue to fly around of the one-cent's demise and inevitable phasing out from our currency. It looks like that will not be happening any time in the near future.

Earlier today a truck heading from the Philadelphia Mint to Miami, Florida was involved in a wreck on Interstate 95. The U.S. Mint truck rear-ended the back of another truck which caused it to flip over spilling out $187,000 worth of Nickels. That's 3,740,000 nickels! Nickels were all over the highway and in the grass. The highway was shut down for hours as Secret Service and U.S. Treasury agents retrieved the coins. Unfortunately one of the guards was killed in the accident. The two drivers were hospitalized. The accident occurred in Mims, FL which is not too far south of Daytona Beach. Anyone trying to pick up the coins runs the risk of being charged with a federal felony.

It had never occurred to me that our coinage would be transported via semi-trucks across the country. In fact, I had never really thought about it. I do find it interesting to know that many times I've traveled the highways and it has been possible that a truck full of dimes or quarters has whizzed by in the opposite direction.

Picture of the Nickels

I added a table that converts the dollar into 90 different currencies. I included some currencies no longer in use like the European money that was replaced by the Euro.

This data will not be updated regularly (at least not for now). It is a good reference guide though. The values of world currency on the exchange are constantly changing however most of the time those values do not vary more than a few cents in either direction.

Coinbrag Currency Conversion Table

I've made some changes to the Pricing sheets of CoinBrag. I put all of the averages together in a table to make finding the important information faster.

More importantly, I've added "CBV" values to the website.

What are CBVs?
CBV stands for "CoinBrag Value". I've been collecting data to create a unique price guide for coins listed in the CoinBrag database. I will explain more about CBV in the future.

The important thing about CBV is that the value is NOT calculated in with any of the values that the CoinBrag community has submitted. I was determined to keep these values separate. CBV exists purely as an extra bit of pricing information.