CoinWeek News Wire for April 6, 2018: Twit on Bitcoin, Fake Banknotes, Gold Caper

April 6, 2018

CoinWeek News Wire Jack Dorsey — Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has Bitcoin on the brain.

Coinweek News Wire for April 6, 2018 ….

Current Events

1.) Filipinos Not Happy With New Coin Designs

Even with this breakdown, it’s obvious that it’s not going to be easy to distinguish which coin is which. All have similar colors, identical layouts, and some are only a few millimeters bigger than others. For example, the PHP10 coin is only 2 millimeters bigger than the PHP5 — imagine having to examine each coin in your purse while riding a jeepney…

2.) Kitchener artist Meghan Sims designs CNIB coin

A design submitted by Kitchener artist Meghan Sims was chosen by the Royal Canadian Mint for the fine silver coin that honours the 100th anniversary of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. It’s part of a set that includes a bronze medallion that celebrates a century of help given to generations of blind and partially sighted Canadians…

3.) CIBC celebrates Vaisakhi with unique commemorative gold and silver coins

The one ounce silver coins are available at $59.95 and the 10 gram gold coin is priced at $625. These limited-edition Vaisakhi coins have images of Khanda and Ikk Onkar, key symbols within the Sikh religion…

4.) One Rise East designs alternatives to Royal Mint’s “predictable” A to Z of Britain coins

Design agency One Rise East has created a set of 26 coins to represent an A to Z of modern-day Britain, as an alternative to the collection released by the Royal Mint…

5.) India to mint Rs 350 coins to commemorate 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh Ji

…[A]t the back of the coin, the picture of Takht Shri Harimandir Ji Patna Sahib will be engraved and “350TH PRAKASH UTSAV OF SRI GURU GOBIND SINGH JI” will be written in devanagri style on the upper part of the coin and in English on the lower part of the coin…

Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency

6.) U.S. Gov’t Cuts Bitcoin Futures Watchdog CFTC Budget

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman, J. Christopher Giancarlo, is reportedly taking a $1 million USD reduction in the agency’s annual budget as a personal affront after requesting a 13 percent increase.

CFTC Spokeswoman Erica Elliott Richardson said in an email to Bloomberg: “We are absolutely astounded by the decrease in the CFTC’s budget.”

Reddit logo

7.) Reddit dumps bitcoin as payment option

Since 2013, you’ve had the option of paying for Reddit Gold membership with bitcoin in addition to the usual credit card and PayPal choices. However, you now have to do it the old fashioned way: a moderator has confirmed that Reddit has stopped accepting bitcoin. It’s not a backlash against bitcoin, then, but it’s still something of a blow for the digital money format to lose one of its earlier big-name adopters…

8.) For world’s ‘unbanked,’ bitcoin is the future

The poorest places in world are severely underbanked, none more so than Sub-Saharan Africa where a staggering 66 percent lack access to basic financial institutions. But, we are now now seeing 90 percent digital mobile penetration in these unbanked places. While these areas may not be able to access traditional banks, they can access the blockchain from their phones. We are seeing the dawn of a new financial system…

9.) In bitcoin work world, job benefits like pay, retirement plans get a rethink

“Younger individuals are more hesitant to invest life savings with banks, because of what happened in 2008,” Beaudry said. “They are young, and they want the ability to be their own bank and have access to money they believe is rightfully theirs. And full control.”

10.) Satoshi Nakamoto’s Birthday Coincides With Law on Confiscation of Gold

To register for a P2P Foundation profile, one must put in their birth date. Nakamoto’s birthday isn’t public, but people around the world followed his page every day to find out when his age changes.

The result of this is a birth date of April 5, 1975, a date that mashes together two important points in American history…

11.) Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says bitcoin will eventually be the single global currency

Dorsey, a personal investor in bitcoin, expects the cryptocurrency to be used for simple things like coffee and said its ascendance to world’s currency will occur over 10 years, “but it could go faster,” the U.K.-based [Sunday Times] reported…

12.) Sorry Jack, Bitcoin will not become the global currency

In other words, to meet the energy costs of Bitcoin mining, on these numbers a single currency future might need somewhere in the region of 44,000 nuclear power plants.

Feel free to argue for different orders of magnitude in the comments, but bear in mind that the World Nuclear Association counts 450 reactors in operation today…

13.) The Ancient History of Bitcoin

Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, counts himself a cryptocurrency skeptic. He argues that today’s profusion of the exotically named tokens—more than 1,500 have been issued—resembles the 19th century heyday of “free banking,” when commercial banks issued their own private-label monies in many countries, including Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S.

There’s one crucial difference between then and now, though, and it has nothing to do with high-speed computing…

News Wire Crime & Punishment

14.) NCIC Crime Bulletin

From the Numismatic Crime Information Center (NCIC):

Fraudulent Credit Card Purchases

A long-time PNG dealer (who wants to remain anonymous) says his company has seen a significant increase in the number of attempted, fraudulent credit card purchases coming from the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area. These attempts are apparently linked to a source or sources in Venezuela and involve stolen credit card numbers.

The attempted purchases were made via the company’s online store and online ordering system. Some attempted fraudulent credit card purchases appeared to be “tests” with the buyer trying to order only $100 of merchandise, but other attempts involved orders for $1,000 of merchandise.

Any dealer who has experienced a recent influx of suspicious orders or purchases with stolen credit cards please contact NCIC.

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Please contact the NCIC’s Doug Davis if you have any questions or information about any of the cases above. You can reach him at (817) 723-7231 or email him at [email protected].

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The Numismatic Crime Information Center is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation. P.O. Box 14080 Arlington, Texas 76094.

15.) A St. Paul killer is arrested in cold case shipwreck gold caper

The trial is set for May 14 in Key West. The evidence looks damning, but it’s just that: evidence. The gold bar itself, which went from galleon to museum to who knows where, has not been recovered.

This won’t be Johnson’s first arrest. His criminal career began in St. Paul. In 1996, he’d been a 19-year-old father. His 6-month-old son, Anthony, wouldn’t stop crying…

16.) Cranston Mayor’s stolen coin collection found in Coventry home

Detectives also found a sawed-off shotgun and ammunition as well as a Chinese coin collection with a handwritten note on the back that read, “Presented by the Glen Woods Cranston Crime Prevention + Improvement Association to Mayor Allan Fung on June 24, 2010.”

17.) Special prosecutor appointed in Aubrey Trail weapons case after charge gets dismissed

The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office has been appointed special counsel in a Saline County weapons case against Aubrey Trail, whom law enforcement still considers a person of interest in the death of Lincoln woman Sydney Loofe…

18.) Aubrey Trail changes his mind, doesn’t plead guilty to fraud charges

Aubrey Trail, a person of interest in the death of a Lincoln woman, used a change of plea hearing Thursday for the purpose of not changing his plea.

So, instead of pleading guilty to 14 federal charges of fraud, he was ordered to stand trial May 14 on charges that he helped defraud a Kansas couple out of $400,000…

Banknote News

19.) How Banknotes Preserve National Identity

However, neither cryptocurrencies nor a bank account will ever be able to reproduce the meaning that the national currency carries in itself. They cannot be tied to history, to the cultural values of the country. Their only meaning is the accumulation of wealth…

20.) Swiss Take Top Place in World Banknote Contest for Second Year

Switzerland’s 10-franc bill was named best banknote of 2017, edging out money from Scotland, Canada, Fiji, Norway and Djibouti to give the Swiss National Bank its second consecutive win…

Counterfeit Cavalcade

21.) Fake bank notes hit Malawi

When asked to comment on the matter, Phalombe Police Public Relations officer Innocent Moses admitted that the police are aware of the issue.

“We know about this issue. Our office has received about four complaints from different individuals,” said Moses.

He added by revealing that such cases become rampant during the tobacco growing season in the district…

Fake U.S. $100 Federal Reserve Notes found circulating in the Yukon. Image: Royal Canadian Mounted Police

22.) Bogus U.S. bills circulating in Yukon

Police are advising local merchants and the public to carefully examine any U.S. bills they come into contact with – including those with the serial numbers HF01744544C and HF01744518C, as they may be counterfeit…

Metal Detecting, Treasure & Archaeology

23.) Here’s What Protects Shipwrecks From Looters and Hacks

“That these are war graves is a very important consideration,” Frank Cantelas, Acting Director of the Maritime Heritage Program at the NOAA’s Office of Marine Sanctuaries, told Gizmodo. “There’s usually some tragedy involved, and we need to keep that in mind when we’re looking at these sites.”

24.) 800-year-old coins dug up by detectorists

The seven short cross silver coins were dug up by a group of international metal detectorists on land near Oswestry in the county’s second medieval find of the year.

Local detecting enthusiast Chris Langston, who runs the company Metal Detecting Holidays, found the coins with detectorists from the USA and Australia last week…

25.) 1,500-Year-Old Coin Stash Leaves Archaeologists with Mystery

The earliest coin in the hoard dates to shortly after the death of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (who reigned from A.D. 306-337), while the most recent two coins in the stash date to the reign of Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I (who reigned from A.D. 491-518), said Michael Ierardi, a professor of classics at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, who is studying the hoard. Based on their weight and size, the coins likely date to sometime between A.D. 491 and 498, before Anastasius I reformed the Byzantine Empire’s coinage system…

Museums & Exhibits

26.) Whangarei Museum exhibit highlights quest to recover gold from RMS Niagara

In 1941, Mr Johnstone, his brother Bill (William), a Royal Australian Navy Diver, and a specialty Melbourne team lead by Captain John P Williams were contracted by the Bank of England to salvage the gold bullion from the deep, mine-filled waters east of Bream Head, Whangarei.

After 316 dives and several close escapes with floating mines, this team collectively recovered 555 gold ingots and a handful of artefacts.

Not satisfied, John Johnstone returned with a new, smaller diving bell in 1953 and recovered a further 30 gold ingots.

27.) Recovered letters from SS Gairsoppa shipwreck to go on display in London

More than 700 personal letters were by chance preserved in an airlock onboard the SS Gairsoppa as it sank to the bottom of the Atlantic in 1941. One letter, written on December 1, 1940 by Private Pete Walker was to his “most precious sweetheart”, Phyll.

The Postal Museum exhibitions officer Emma Harper said Private Walker wrote how he’d “wept with joy” after she accepted his marriage proposal, which was also sent via mail…

The five remaining gold bars, worth around NZ$1.4 million in 2006, remain lost to this day…

Upcoming Auctions & Events

Worthy Additions to Your Library

28.) THE WAR AGAINST CASH

We are constantly being told that we are on the cusp of a cashless society. The financial services industry would certainly like to see it that way. We are being enticed with contactless cards, mobile phone payment apps, and methods of bank transfer: all, apparently, for our convenience.

But as Ross Clark argues in this compelling new book, it is not in our interests to surrender the right to use cash…

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