May 4, 2007
One Coin You’ll Never Toss
Officials from the Royal Canadian Mint unveiled the world’s first 100 kilogram (220.5 pound) coin made from pure gold bullion today – it’s worth one million Canadian dollars (approx $903,098 USD).
A record-breaker for value, the coin features a fetching portrait of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II by Canadian portrait artist Susanna Blunt on one side and a maple leaf designed by senior engraver Stan Witten on the other.
The coin will never make it into general circulation – with good reason, at 53cm in diameter and three centimeters thick, it’d never fit in your handbag.
A North American tour has been organized for the coins, scheduled to start in two weeks. Tours to other areas in Europe and Asia are under consideration.
Each coin takes up to eight weeks to create, as they are hand crafted. Future minting of the $1M coin will be restricted to ‘minting on demand’ for collectors and specialized investors.
Death Comes Slowly
Patna, a remote village in the Jharkhand state of eastern India has become an unlikely destination for sightseers. The village’s leading attraction is a man who’s spent the past six years lying in a grave he dug for himself, waiting to die.
Basanta Roy, who is thought to be 103, dug his grave close to the spot where his wife is buried – she died in the late 1990s. Roy spends the day clearing weeds from his grave site and keeping it tidy. The rest of his time, he spends lying in the grave, mourning his wife.
Shyam Narayan Ram, a senior government official in the area commented, “He cleans his grave each day and waits for his death, which seems to be eluding him.”
Makes you wonder if Death is like a city bus - if you wait ten years, will five come along at once?
