Free Republic

If you want to decide which football team takes the ball first or who gets the larger piece of cake, the fairest thing is to toss a coin, right? Not necessarily. A new mathematical analysis suggests that coin tossing is inherently biased: A coin is more likely to land on the same face it started out on. "I don't care how vigorously you throw it, you can't toss a coin fairly," says Persi Diaconis, a statistician at Stanford University who performed the study with Susan Holmes of Stanford and Richard Montgomery of the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 1986,...

Rare coin find stuns historians A man with a metal detector has unearthed a Roman bronze coin so rare it bears the face of a mystery emperor who "ruled" Britain for a matter of days. Brian Malin, from Oxfordshire, found it in a field in the county. It bears the face of Emperor Domitianus and is only the second coin ever found which bears the image of the self-proclaimed ruler of Britain and France in 271AD. A similar coin was found in France 100 years ago but until now its uniqueness had meant both Emperor Domitianus and the coin were...

Very Rare American Coin Found in Britain Thursday October 9, 2003 2:16 AM LONDON (AP) - A 351-year-old coin, one of the first ever minted in colonial America, has been found in Britain, an auction house said Wednesday. The rare New England silver sixpence turned up when relatives of a deceased British man were rummaging through his belongings. They sent it to an expert for identification. ``It just came through the post in an unregistered envelope but when I opened it I recognized the sixpence straight away and my heart leapt. It is exceedingly rare and a very exciting find,''...

Stellar cellar discovery (WANG CHUNSHENG) 01/21/2003 About 3 tons of ancient coins were unearthed from a cellar in Lushan County, Pingdingshan City of Central China's Henan Province, last Monday. The cellar also contained dozens of iron ware pieces and a porcelain bowl. It was found during renovations of an old house at the Lushan No 2 Senior High School. The cellar is in irregular cuboid form and occupies 1.2 by 1.4 by 0.7 cubic metres. Some experts believe the owner of this fortune dug the cellar to store food in case of emergency. More than 30 types of coins were...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO(AP) - Is California defined by panning prospectors, sea swept cypresses, the movie industry or the Golden Gate Bridge?</p> <p>Those are the top choices among proposed images for the state's upcoming commemorative quarter and Californians now have the chance to cast their vote on what design should be used.</p>

This is a website selling commemorative coins of Bush "stolen presidency". Check out the letters from algore and Ed Kennedy. http://www.stolenelectioncoin.com.

Viking treasure hoard yields astounding finds 06/24/2002 STOCKHOLM: Four years ago, a farmer digging in his fields in Sweden's Baltic island of Gotland came across a Viking coin. He called a friend from the local museum, and together they soon uncovered another 150 Viking relics. But the crops growing in the fields hindered their work and they gave up. The following summer, with crops that year infected by lice, they resumed their search - and on July 16, 1999, came across the biggest Viking-period treasure hoard so far discovered. It had been lying there for about 1,100 years. The Spillings...

WAYNESVILLE, Mo. -- With the flip of three coins, Cliff Hammock is Waynesville’s new mayor. The flip of the coins settled a tie vote after the municipal election last week. Hammock and John Morrissey both received 330 votes. By law, either candidate could have requested a new election. Both decided to leave it to chance. Morrissey picked heads as three quarters tumbled out of a jar on to a desk. Two of the three coins were tails up, making Hammock the winner. He will be sworn in April 18.

WASHINGTON - The golden Sacagawea dollar coin was supposed to be jingling in pockets across the country by now. Instead, the U.S. Mint is cutting back on production because people just aren't interested. For now, the Mint won't make any more new dollar coins for banks, retailers and others to use to make change. But it will produce some coins for collectors. Since their much ballyhooed debut just more than two years ago, the golden-colored dollar coins have struggled to catch on and become a staple in cash registers, change purses and pockets. But the sour U.S. economy, which ended...