The first written mention of Lithuania is found in a medieval German manuscript, the Quedlinburg Chronicle, on February, 14 1009. By the end of the 14th century, Lithuania was the largest country in Europe. After World War II, Lithuania became part of the U.S.S.R. until it achieved independence in 1992.
Although Lithuania joined the European Union in 2004, it still uses it's own currency. The Euro was to be adopted by January 1, 2010, but due to the current rate of inflation and the economical crisis, this date will be delayed for another three years until 1 January 2013.
The currency of Lithuania is the litas (the plural form is litai). 1 Litas is broken down into 100 centai (centas is the singular form).
March's Coin of the month is a circulating commemorative coin made of 75% copper and 25% nickel from Lithuania. In 2009, the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius was awarded the title European Capital of Culture. To commemorative this, Lithuania has created this 1 Litas coin. Only 1 million of these coins were minted. The reverse reads: "Vilnius, Europos Kulturos Sostine." A woman is shown painting. The easel she is using is shaped like the Gediminas Tower, the only remaining part of the Gediminas Castle, located in Vilnius.
Like most Lithuanian coins, the obverse has the coat of arms of Lithuania, consisting of a knight on horseback holding a sword and shield, is also known as Vytis, or "the Chaser". "Lietuva" is written at the top of the obverse, meaning "Lithuania" written in the native language. Vytautas Narutis is the artist who designed the 2009 1 Litas coin.
Site construction--Updating the Checklist features
I'm currently tinkering with Coinbragger coin checklists so for the next day or so they might not be working properly. If you view the page it's possible you'll see some unusual things. Don't worry, it will be fixed soon as well as newly improved.
This contest is going to be very simple. I just acquired a bank roll of the new 2 Euro Cent coins from Cyprus. I put one aside for my collection and 4 others are reserved. The remaining 45 are FREE to the first 45 people who add a value to the price guide in our database.
It's pretty simple. If you are not already a Coinbragger, Join Free Today. The next step is to pick a coin from your collection that you have either bought or sold in the last year. Find that coin in our database and then add a price. When you are done, post a message on the forum in This thread here.
Free coin, free shipping and handling. It's that easy! Everyone from anywhere in the world is eligible to participate.
The eighth chapter in the Spare Change series is about the U.S. one dollar coins featuring U.S. presidents. To be honest, I'm not overly impressed with these coins. I have not been keeping track of them for some time but I do recall that in the first year there were many error varieties of these coins. The prices they were being sold on eBay were crazy ($2,000 for a Washington dollar without the words on the rim). I couldn't help but wonder if the mint was making mistakes or if these were done deliberately to fuel the fire among collectors. Throughout the 80s and 90s, I rarely saw Eisenhower Dollars or Susan B. Anthony coins circulating. When Sacajawea dollars were first introduced I saw them circulating a little bit for about 3 months and since then it has been pretty rare. I have yet to receive a dollar coin of any president as change though I do hope maybe one day I will. Recently, I was browsing eBay and I saw that some companies have colorized these coins and although some collectors might consider that ruining the coin, others are finding them to be a unique collectible. Check out the colorized dollar coins.
Some facts from Spare Change Episode 8.
Four coins are released per year starting in 2007. The presidents are showing up on the coins in the order they were sworn into office.
The presidential dollar coins weigh 8.1 grams each, consisting of 88.5% Copper, 6% Zinc, 2% Nickel and 3.5% Manganese
The intrinsic value, or melt value, is less than 6 cents using today's market values.
From 2007-2009, "In God We Trust" was on the edge of the coin. In 2009, the mint moved "In God We Trust" to the lower side of the obverse. The edge now has the year, mint mark and stars
There is a companion commemorative gold coin with the First Lady for each corresponding presidential dollar coin.
Islamic Calendar Converter A.D. to A.H., A.H to C.E.
Got your hands on a coin in Arabic with a date like 1371? It's not 600 years old. The coin is actually from 1952. 1371 is using the Islamic calendar to date the coin. You can see the chart for all 1400+ years by linking this link: A.D. dates converted to A.H. or the link on the left side of the page under the new "Coin Tools" menu.
Don't forget to get the free Arabic numbers chart if you haven't downloaded it already.
As of this morning, kaija has 10,156 Bragger Tokens. That is a lot of work and an amazing accomplishment. I am unveiling a new site feature currently being worked on: individual coin galleries. There will be many improvements to this and many new features built in as well. As a way to honor her achievement, only kaija's coins are currently cataloged so check out kaija's coins. There are some great pictures of very nice coins.
Congratulations on over 10,000 coins kaija! (That's halfway to 20,000)
I've often found it tedious to add coins on Coinbrag. In the past I would use the add page and then after going through the motions, the coin was already entered into the database. Other times I go through the trouble of searching for a coin in the database only to find out the coin has not yet been submitted. At that point I can go back to the add page and go through the motions to add the coin I want.
There had to be a better, faster way and today I have implemented just that. First, you can still add coins like you normally would. Now there is also a new way to do it while searching. The best part is when you click the add link from the search, part of the info is filled out on the add page. So if you were browsing 1 Farthing coins from Ireland and wanted to add one, all you'll need to add is year and if applicable then the mint and/or variant features.
Hope the rest of you find this as helpful as I do. My "to do" list is still a mile long and many more changes coming.
Penny Preview: 2010 New Lincoln Cent Reverse Chosen
As you were probably aware, the Lincoln memorial reverse was retired in 2008 and there were 4 new reverses issues in 2009. If you weren't aware, check the news archives for my older reports.
There were 18 designs that were in the running and a winner has been chosen. Behold! The new Lincoln cent reverse:
What do you think? Honestly I liked Design #9 but I don't think the winner (Design #13) is that bad. It fits with the current boring design of most U.S. coins. Am I wrong? Feel free to comment with your thoughts below.
Spare Change Episode 7: Saint Gaudens Double Eagle Gold Coins
I just finished the seventh Spare Change episode and thought I would share some facts about the coin:
The double eagle is the U.S. denomination for $20(1 Eagle = 10 Dollars).
Although Augustus Saint Gaudens designed the art for the double eagles minted from 1907 to 1933, the coin itself was actually finished by Charles Barber after Saint Gaudens died.
Originally it was planned to have roman numerals (MCMVII instead of 1907) but Charles Barber knew that not all Americans knew Roman numerals so he changed it.
Teddy Roosevelt did not want the words "In God We Trust" on coins so the 1907 double eagle does not have the motto. However, an act of congress allowed the motto on the coin and except for some of the 1908 coins, the rest of the double eagles all have the motto on the reverse of the coin.
The St. Gaudens Double Eagle is 90% gold and 10% copper with a weight of 33.436 grams.
Want to see more gold coins? Here's a 9 minute video of a guy with American, Canadian, Australian, Austrian, British and South African gold coins. The video is on Youtube.
Site construction--Updating the Checklist features![](http://www.coinbrag.com/pics/lildontpanic.jpg")
Spare Change Episode 8: Presidential Dollar Coins
Coins from the Republic of India: A brief history
Penny Preview: 2010 New Lincoln Cent Reverse Chosen
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