What is aRMour plating?
What can you tell me about medals and sculpture produced and marketed by the French Mint?
Monnaie de Paris is the oldest continuously operating government owned mint in the world, having been founded in 864 A.D. The mint’s Medals Workshop produces about 100,000 medals annually. New medals are offered; however, some older medals continue to be struck. The mint archive has more than 400,000 tools, some of which date from the 1500s. These can be purchased online or in person at the mint in Paris.
How serious was Great Britain’s counterfeiting problem with the now defunct ‘round pound?’
The British £1 coin, dubbed the round pound by some and as ‘the Maggie’ by detractors of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was issued between 1983 and 2016. In 2014 it was estimated that 3.04 percent of all £1 coins in circulation were fakes. This led to the round coin being replaced with the now current 12-sided ringed bimetal coin of the same denomination.
I get it that a 12-sided ringed bimetal coin is more challenging to fake, but does the coin incorporate other innovative anti-counterfeiting technology?
Among newer technologies added to the current British £1 coin is a three dimensional £/1 logo double image, iSIS integrated secure identification system that involves a specific material composition that is identified through an electromagnetic signal, and aRMour surface plating.
What is aRMour plating?
The Royal Mint doesn’t like to talk about any of the newer technologies used in the current £1 coin. It is known that the plating gives the coins their color. aRMour is applied in one application, resulting in a single layer of an alloy on the coin’s surface. This layer is bonded to the core of the coin. For this reason, there is less chance of loss of the protective layer compared to surface of the coin’s predecessor. The round pound was plated with multiple layers that could chip off through erosion.
I recently acquired a 20th anniversary of 911 silver round with mint mark of a script O over script M. Is that the O over M Mexico City mint mark?
Mexico City has used the O over M mintmark for centuries; however, the script O over M represents the Osborne Mint in Cincinnati. Osborne is the oldest privately operated mint in the United States. They specialize in silver rounds, copper rounds, ingots, and bullets.
It seems like today a private mint needs to be striking coins, not medallions, for foreign countries to stay in business. Is the Osborne Mint involved in striking coins?
According to the Osborne Mint web site, “Our custom minted coins, key tags and medallions are used as safety rewards, commemoratives, keepsakes, giveaways, premiums, challenge coins, Mardi Gras doubloons, political activist items, awards and more.”