Tag: history

New at 123ish.com: Let Comedians Say What They Want – That’s Their Job!

Are you offended by what Louis C.K. says? Or Aziz Ansari, or Kathy Griffin, or, for another example I forgot to include, Bill Maher and his ill-timed rant about comics right after Stan Lee passed?

So am I! I’m offended every day, but I have discovered a wonderful secret to cure perpetual offended syndrome! It’s a hard cure, you have to work for it. Here’s a meme to pass around social media and help others find this path to enlightenment:

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The Top Five Most Remarkable Commemorative US Coins

This is part of a series of blog posts I wrote for a coin collecting site circa ~2015 that seems to have disappeared off the Internet. Note any prices mentioned in this series are from 2015.

Commemorative coins exist in a strange twilight of monetary policy. Three committees of Congress oversee the decisions for whom and what gets commemorated, namely, the Committee on Housing, Banking, and Urban Affairs; the Committee on Banking and Financial Services of the House; and the Citizens’ Coin Advisory Committee. One can well imagine the kinds of spirited debates that take place as everybody pushes their own pet project.

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Strategic Money: Coins And Currency Of World War II

This is part of a series of blog posts I wrote for a coin collecting site circa ~2015 that seems to have disappeared off the Internet. Note any prices mentioned in this series are from 2015.

More than any other conflict in world history, World War II was a battle of wits. It started with cryptographers fighting the first international “hacking” war in attempting to break the German Enigma machine code; it ended with the scientific race to develop and deploy the atom bomb.

In between, each nation involved challenged its brightest minds to hatch the most advanced schemes to come out ahead – and the money of this era reflects that struggle in its historic record.

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New post at 123ish.com: We Always Need A Black Mirror

Netflix’s Black Mirror has been critically acclaimed and widely praised, but also gets its share of fan hate? The new episode “Bandersnatch” gives us a great opportunity to re-examine the series’ cultural position.

Join me as I illustrate why Black Mirror isn’t just any TV anthology series. Along the way we revisit some classic genre anthology TV series from decades past, including the one that used to scare me silly as a kid!

 

Notable Collector’s Silver: The Peace Dollar

This is part of a series of blog posts I wrote for a coin collecting site circa ~2015 that seems to have disappeared off the Internet. Note any prices mentioned in this series are from 2015.

It was the very last circulated silver dollar ever produced by the US Mint. It’s not a particularly expensive series to acquire – the key dates do tend to be pricey, but the series is so much shorter, after all, and nothing like the complexity of Morgan dollars.

But it has an astounding story to tell.

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The Saga Of The 1933 Gold Double Eagle

This is part of a series of blog posts I wrote for a coin collecting site circa ~2015 that seems to have disappeared off the Internet. Note any prices mentioned in this series are from 2015.

The Royal Canadian Mint recently completed melting down over two hundred thousand gold coins, after selling what they would to collectors. The coins were $5 and $10 denominations unearthed in a vault at the Bank of Canada, which the Canadian government simply decided it was time to fire off.

This brings to mind the melting of United States gold coins, in particular the 1933 Gold Double Eagle – and why it’s a fascinating saga that still drags on today.

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What The Confederate Flag Controversy Means To Coin Collectors

This is part of a series of blog posts I wrote for a coin collecting site circa ~2015 that seems to have disappeared off the Internet.

DISCLAIMER: The intention of this post will be to discuss the state of certain collectible coins which happen to bear controversial symbols. This is to be done while disregarding any political ideas for or against them. Hobbies such as coin collecting frequently run into this situation. Readers are advised to keep the debate on-topic in their comments.

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