1974 Sierra Leone Silver 1 Leone - 10th Anniversary of the Bank of Sierra Leone (1964-1974)

You may have noticed the video blog post on this coin from a few days ago and now I am finally getting around to providing some more details on the coin.

I had a chance to visit the country of Sierra Leone back in 2005. Unfortunately the country had recently finished a brutal civil war a few years earlier but I still enjoyed my time there. The movie Blood Diamonds was set in Sierra Leone and, well a fictitious film, illustrated alot of the violence that occurred because of fighting over valuable diamond mines. The country still has many scars in the form of displaced citizens, extreme poverty, corruption and disease but I hope it can recover soon.

I was very happy to see this coin available and bought it immediately. The coin was released in 1974, with a mintage of 40,000 coins, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Bank of Sierra Leone. One side of the coin has the bank logo (a lion guarding a treasure chest) and the other side has a picture of the 1st President of Sierra Leone, Dr. Siaka Stevens. From what I have read Siaka Stevens was a fairly ruthless individual and a borderline dictator, but I like the coin anyways.

One interesting think I read is that when Sierra Leone got independence from England the Leone was valued on par with the British Pound. As of today, one Pound could buy you 6600 Leones! Now that is what I call currency devaluation!

Mintage: 40,000
Mint: Bank of Sierra Leone
Purity: 92.5% Silver
Weight: 28.28 grams (approx. one avoirdupois ounce)
Diameter: 38.61 millimeters
Notes: Came with case and certificate of authenticity

Silver Round I Got In The Mail - Mark Messier Commemorative

Here is a video of me opening up a package I got. It was a commemorative coin of NHL hockey great Mark Messier - a 1 oz 0.999 silver coin produced by the Highland Mint. Enjoy!

Video Blog - Silver 1974 Sierra Leone One Leone Coin

Here is a video on another of my sterling silver coins. This is a 1974 Sierra Leone Silver One Leone coin. I haven't had a change to add a blog page about it yet, but here is a video of it where I give some good views of it and some interesting facts.

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Video Blog - Yugoslavia Olympic Coin

I had a chance to do another video blog today. Here is my Yugoslavia Olympic coin along with some commentary about it and why I bought it.

2002 Horse Privy Mark Silver Maple Leaf

After quite some time of wanting to I finally made my first purchase of a Chinese Zodiac privy mark Silver Maple Leaf. For those of you that don't know, from 1998 until 2009 the Royal Canadian Mint released a series of 12 coins with privy marks to commemorate the signs of the Chinese Zodiac. Each coin was released on a year that coincided with that sign (for example, 2002 was the Year of the Horse).

There was really no real reason why I chose to get the Horse privy first, other than that it was the first coin I had an opportunity to purchase. That probably has to do with the fact that there was a fairly high mintage for this coin, a mintage of 25,000. I think the photo gives a pretty good view of the privy mark but I will make sure to take a video of the coin when a get a few more of the Chinese Zodiac coins (which I plan to in the very near future, since I am going to try and focus my efforts on getting this series of coins).

My 5 Most Wanted - January 18 2011

It has been over a year since I have updated my "5 Most Wanted" coin list so an update is long overdue. This time I chose to make two lists. The first is a list of the "reasonably priced" (less than $50) coins I want and the other is "expensive". In all likelihood I will only be getting the reasonable priced coins in the near future but it is always fun to dream about the expensive ones!

I will make sure to update the lists whenever I get any of the coins on either list.

Top 5 Reasonably Priced:

1. 2011 Wolf - I really like the look of this coin (and of course the 1/2 oz version from a few years ago) and I want to get the Wildlife series coins as they come out (this is the first coin in the series)
2. 2011 Silver Maple Leaf - Just because this one should be fairly easy to get since it is this year's coin
3. 2010 Silver Maple Leaf - I was really slacking last year and never got this coin, but I think it should still be fairly easy to come across.
4. 2009 Ox Privy - The series of coins I am currently working on are the Chinese Zodiac so I would like to get the last coin in this series
5. 2007 Pig Privy - Another needed coin in the Chinese Zodiac series and with a low mintage of 8000 I would like to get this coin as soon as I can
   

Top 5 Expensive:

1. 1998 10 Ounce Silver Maple Leaf - This would be a great one to get because of it's size! I would love to hold this huge coin in my hands.
2. 2010 Gold Plated Olympic Set - This set has the three Olympic Silver Maple coins, which are some of my favorites in my collection, with selective gold plating. I love the look of them.
3. 2010 Gold Plated Olympic Hockey Coin - Instead of selective plating, like the above set, this is a single coin with full gold plating to commemorate Canada winning both hockey gold medals at the 2010 Olympics.
4. 2005 Canada Lynx Set - I love the idea of the 1/2 oz, 1/4 oz and 1/10 oz coins coming with the 1 oz on. From what I have seen they look like a great set.
5. 1998 RCMP Privy - One of the first privy mark coins I have always liked the look of this coin's mark.
   

Another Coin Added to List

When updating the other day I forgot to add the "Gold Plated 2010 Olympic Hockey" coin. The list should now be fully up to date.

Note: I also changed some of the categories of the sub-series' slightly to take into account new coins that have been produced.