DEUTSCHKATHARINENBERG, Germany - German treasure hunters were to begin digging Tuesday for what they claim to be plunder buried by the Nazis in a man-made cavern near the Czech border.
The area's mayor, Hans-Peter Haustein, and a man who found the coordinates for the buried booty in a notebook among his deceased father's belongings, maintain that a scan of the spot has revealed that a large quantity of metal is about 20 yards below the surface. They believe it to be either gold or silver, based on the scan with a sophisticated metal detector.
On Tuesday, a drilling company was to start work on the site, about 100 yards from the Czech Republic in the eastern German state of Saxony, boring a hole so that a camera can be snaked down to the find to determine exactly what it is.
Haustein — an amateur treasure hunter who is also a member of Germany's parliament for the opposition Free Democratic Party — said the process could take several days, depending on how much rock needs to be penetrated.
"We have no time pressure," he said. "Our top priority is safety — we can't allow anything to happen."
Haustein has been working with Christian Hanisch to find the suspected treasure for about eight weeks, after Hanisch found the notebook in the belongings of his father, a former Luftwaffe radio operator who died last year.
Haustein said last week that he was convinced they had found the storied Amber Room treasure, but later acknowledged that while there could be "cultural treasures" in the cavern, such as paintings or amber paneling, they are not things that show up with a metal detector.
The Amber Room — named for magnificent wall panels of golden-brown amber — was stolen by the Nazis from a palace outside St. Petersburg during World War II and has never been recovered in its entirety.
Experts have been skeptical of Haustein's claim, pointing out that stories of the Amber Room surface regularly, only to be proved wrong, and that the Amber Room had no significant amounts of gold or silver in it. Posted by Yahoo
WASHINGTON - Americans nostalgic for the "Era of Good Feelings" can order bags and rolls of the James Monroe Presidential $1 Coin starting at noon (ET) on February 14. President Monroe, whose administration was so named because of the general good will and prosperity the Nation experienced, is the fifth President to be honored in the United States Mint's Presidential $1 Coin Program.
The James Monroe Presidential $1 Coin will be available in 250-coin bags offered at $319.95 and in 25-coin rolls offered at $35.95. The bags and rolls contain coins that were struck at the United States Mints at Denver and Philadelphia for use in everyday financial transactions. The dramatic portrait of James Monroe graces the obverse, and the awe-inspiring image of the Statue of Liberty is on the reverse. Incused on the coin's edge are the inscriptions "2008," "E Pluribus Unum," "In God We Trust," and the mint of origin. The canvas coin bags and the specially packaged rolls of James Monroe Presidential $1 Coins display the mint of origin, the monetary value of the contents ($25.00-rolls, $250.00-bags), and the genuine United States Mint logo.
Customers may add the James Monroe Presidential $1 Coin Bags and Rolls to their collections by ordering through the United States Mint's secure Web site, www.usmint.gov, or by calling 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468). Hearing- and speech-impaired customers may order by calling 1-888-321-MINT (6468). A shipping and handling fee of $4.95 per order will be added to all domestic orders.
As an added convenience, customers may enroll in the United States Mint's Online Subscription Program to receive future bags and rolls of Presidential $1 Coins when they are released. For more information about this carefree ordering method, please visit www.usmint.gov.
The Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 honors former Presidents in the order in which they served in our Nation's highest office. Each year, the United States Mint will issue four Presidential $1 Coins bearing dramatic portraits on the obverse and the striking image of the Statue of Liberty on the reverse. Presidential $1 Coins honoring John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren will be available later in the year.
Contact: Press inquiries: Michael White (202) 354-7222
Customer Service information: (800) USA MINT (872-6468)
Source: US Mint Press Room
2000-P Lincoln Cent Variety Has an Extra Beard. The 2000-P "Extra Beard" Lincoln Cent doubled die variety shows hub doubling on Lincoln's neck, along the left side of the beard. According to variety coin expert Ken Potter, who first reported the Extra Beard variety in Numismatic News, the doubling was probably the result of a misalignment of the die during the hubbing process at the Mint. The doubling appears near the center of the coin, consistent with other doubled die varieties that have been found since the Mint began using the single-step hubbing process. What makes this coin different is that the doubling is offset, or turned to the side, which means that the Mint worker who did the hubbing may have first placed the die into the machine rotated a little bit.
When the kiss of the metal occurred, an impression of the small "extra beard" area was made before the die seated to true. Since the Mint releases very little information about its processes, a fair bit of this is educated speculation, but the explanation seems to make sense.
Extra Beard Variety Diagnostics
As shown in the photos, the extra portion of beard runs along the left edge of the normal beard, with the "beard hairs" going in a downward direction rather than forward. In addition, the specimen Potter examined shows trails on the edges of the letters of LIBERTY (see second photo.) These trails appear at the southwest corner of the letters LIB and extend a short distance southwest. These trails have been noted before on Lincoln Memorial Cents, but the cause has never been determined by experts. Some kind of hubbing mishap or misalignment is widely believed to be the method by which the marks are being made, but the mechanics of how it happens are a mystery. Perhaps the Extra Beard rotational doubling error will help experts determine a more certain explanation for the trails.
The specimen in the photos was discovered by James P. McCarthy of Wisconsin, and first reported via email to Numismatic News on January 1, 2008. According to Potter, at least two other specimens showing this kind of Extra Beard doubling are known by other variety experts, but they don't know yet if they all come from the same dies.
Article from About.com
The United States Mint has confirmed that some of the James Monroe dollar coins have been struck on quarter planchets. It is believed that absolutely all of these error coins were caught by the private coin wrapping company and that none will make it to the public. However history shows that these errors always somehow find their way out of the mint, one way or another. If one of these escapes the mint and makes it out intop the public, it could be worth several thousand dollars.