1.
Trillion dollar coin
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The concept gained more mainstream attention by late 2012 during the debates over the United States fiscal cliff negotiations and renewed debt-ceiling discussions. After reaching the headlines during the week of January 7,2013, use of the dollar coin concept was ultimately rejected by the Federal Reserve. Five days later, Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn announced that Senate Republicans would end their threat to block an increase in the debt ceiling, the issuance of paper currency is subject to various accounting and quantity restrictions that platinum coinage is not. According to the United States Mint, coinage is accounted for as follows, Since Fiscal Year 1996, as authorized by Public Law 104-52, the PEF eliminates the need for appropriations. All circulating, bullion and numismatic operating expenses and capital investments incurred for the Mints operations, by law, all funds in the PEF are available without fiscal year limitation. Revenues determined to be in excess of the amount required by the PEF are transferred to the United States Treasury General Fund as off-budget and on-budget receipts, seigniorage is deposited periodically to the General Fund where it reduces the governments need to borrow. S. C. §5112 of the United States Code for the Treasury Department to mint, thus, if the Treasury were to mint one trillion dollar coins, it could deposit such coins at the Federal Reserves Treasury account instead of issuing new debt. In 2000, the bullion was replaced with platinum bullion coins. Philip N. Diehl, former director of the United States Mint, however, Castle says he never intended such a use. The platinum coinage provision was passed by a Republican Congress over the objections of a Democratic Treasury in 1996. Professor Jonathan H. Adler of the Case Western Reserve University School of Law has said that he believes the legality of the dollar coin to be dubious. The idea for the Treasury Department to mint a coin and send it to the Federal Reserve in order to pay off the debt was first popularized by Populist Presidential Candidate Bo Gritz in 1992. As a standard part of his speeches, he would hold up a five-inch example coin. The specific concept was first introduced by Carlos Mucha, a lawyer who commented under the name beowulf on various blogs, at that time the idea also found some support from legal academics such as Yale Law Schools Jack Balkin. Once the debt ceiling crisis of the summer of 2011 was resolved, however, the concept gained renewed, and more mainstream, attention by late 2012 as the debt-ceiling limit was being approached once again. In early January the economist Paul Krugman endorsed the idea and asserted that opposition to the idea was coming from people unwilling to admit the truth that money is a social contrivance and his endorsement attracted considerable media attention. Former Mint director Diehl was widely cited in the media debunking criticisms of the coin, Congressman Jerry Nadler endorsed the idea and it was featured in the international press by January 4,2013. S. Mint with a credit card offering mileage rewards and then depositing the coins at a bank to pay off the credit card debt
2.
Obverse and reverse
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In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse means the back face. The obverse of a coin is commonly called heads, because it depicts the head of a prominent person. In fields of scholarship outside numismatics, the front is more commonly used than obverse. For prints and drawings with material on both sides the one judged as more significant will be the recto, a convention now exists typically to display the obverse to the left and the reverse to the right in photographs and museum displays, but this is not invariably observed. Following this principle, in the most famous of ancient Greek coins, the tetradrachm of Athens, the obverse is the head of Athena, similar versions of these two images, both symbols of the state, were used on the Athenian coins for more than two centuries. The opposite side may have varied from time to time and this change happened in the coinage of Alexander the Great, which continued to be minted long after his death. The various Hellenistic rulers who were his successors followed his tradition and this script alone style then was used on nearly all Islamic coinage until the modern period. The type of Justinian II was revived after the end of Iconoclasm, without images, therefore, it is not always easy to tell which side will be regarded as the obverse without some knowledge. After 695, Islamic coins avoided all images of persons and usually, the side expressing the Six Kalimas is usually defined as the obverse. The form of currency follows its function, which is to serve as an accepted medium of exchange of value. Traditionally, most states have been monarchies where the person of the monarch, if not provided for on the obverse, the reverse side usually contains information relating to a coins role as medium of exchange. Additional space typically reflects the countrys culture or government, or evokes some aspect of the states territory. Regarding the euro, some regarding the obverse and reverse of the euro coins exists. This rule does not apply to the coins as they dont have a common side. A number of the used for obverse national sides of euro coins were taken from the reverse of the old pre-euro coins of some individual countries. Several countries continue to use portraits of the monarch and the Republic of Ireland continues to use the State Arms. The Chrysanthemum Crest was no longer used after the war, and so, the side on which the date continues to be regarded as the reverse. Following ancient tradition, the obverse of coins of the United Kingdom almost always feature the head of the monarch
3.
American Platinum Eagle
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The American Platinum Eagle is the official platinum bullion coin of the United States. After over two years of work, the coins were first released by the United States Mint in 1997 and it is offered in 1/10, 1/4, 1/2, and 1 troy oz varieties and consists of.9995 fine platinum. The American Platinum Eagle is authorized by the United States Congress, proof and uncirculated versions of the coins are also made for coin collectors. The proof American Platinum Eagles are unique in the fact that they are the only U. S. bullion coins that have an alternating design on the reverse. Because it may be considered commodity platinum rather than a rare coin, collectibles such as rare coins and dolls are forbidden from being held in such an account. Thus, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission believes that the Platinum Eagle will not appreciate beyond its metal value. Note, The 1/10, 1/4, and 1/2 troy oz coins are identical in design to the 1 troy oz coin except for the markings on the side that indicate the weight. As is often the case with bullion coins, the values of these coins are their legal values reflecting their issue. They are legal tender for all public and private at their face values. These face values do not reflect their intrinsic value which is much greater, from 1998 to 2002, proof versions of the American Platinum Eagle carried a different reverse design under a program entitled Vistas of Liberty. Each year a bald eagle was depicted in a different region of the United States or a United States themed design, from 2006 to 2008, a three-year series of designs known as The Foundations of Democracy was issued to represent the three branches of government. In 2009, the United States Mint introduced a new six-year platinum coin program and this new series explores the core concepts of American democracy by highlighting the Preamble to the United States Constitution. The themes for the designs for this program are inspired by narratives prepared by the Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts. All denominations of the proof American Platinum Eagles carry the yearly design and these coins are the only U. S. bullion coins that change reverse designs every year. American Gold Eagle American Silver Eagle Eagle Canadian Platinum Maple Leaf Platinum coin Platinum as an investment United States Mint American Eagles page Brochure from the U. S. Mint, American Platinum Eagle Pictures Platinum Eagle Guide 2007 10th Anniversary Platinum Eagle Set
4.
Currency
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A currency in the most specific use of the word refers to money in any form when in actual use or circulation as a medium of exchange, especially circulating banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a system of money in common use, under this definition, US dollars, British pounds, Australian dollars, and European euros are examples of currency. These various currencies are recognized stores of value and are traded between nations in exchange markets, which determine the relative values of the different currencies. Currencies in this sense are defined by governments, and each type has limited boundaries of acceptance, other definitions of the term currency are discussed in their respective synonymous articles banknote, coin, and money. The latter definition, pertaining to the systems of nations, is the topic of this article. Currencies can be classified into two systems, fiat money and commodity money, depending on what guarantees the value. Some currencies are legal tender in certain jurisdictions, which means they cannot be refused as payment for debt. Others are simply traded for their economic value, digital currency has arisen with the popularity of computers and the Internet. Currency evolved from two basic innovations, both of which had occurred by 2000 BC, originally money was a form of receipt, representing grain stored in temple granaries in Sumer in ancient Mesopotamia, then Ancient Egypt. In this first stage of currency, metals were used as symbols to represent value stored in the form of commodities and this formed the basis of trade in the Fertile Crescent for over 1500 years. Trade could only reach as far as the credibility of that military and it is not known what was used as a currency for these exchanges, but it is thought that ox-hide shaped ingots of copper, produced in Cyprus, may have functioned as a currency. It is thought that the increase in piracy and raiding associated with the Bronze Age collapse, possibly produced by the Peoples of the Sea, brought the trading system of oxhide ingots to an end. In Africa, many forms of value store have been used, including beads, ingots, ivory, various forms of weapons, livestock, the manilla currency, the manilla rings of West Africa were one of the currencies used from the 15th century onwards to sell slaves. African currency is still notable for its variety, and in many various forms of barter still apply. These factors led to the metal itself being the store of value, first silver, now we have copper coins and other non-precious metals as coins. Metals were mined, weighed, and stamped into coins and this was to assure the individual taking the coin that he was getting a certain known weight of precious metal. Coins could be counterfeited, but they created a new unit of account. Most major economies using coinage had several tiers of coins, using a mix of copper, silver, gold coins were used for large purchases, payment of the military and backing of state activities, they were more often used as measures of account than physical coins
5.
Platinum
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Platinum is a chemical element with symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious and its name is derived from the Spanish term platina, translated into little silver. Platinum is a member of the group of elements and group 10 of the periodic table of elements. It has six naturally occurring isotopes and it is one of the rarer elements in Earths crust with an average abundance of approximately 5 μg/kg. It occurs in some nickel and copper ores along with some deposits, mostly in South Africa. Because of its scarcity in Earths crust, only a few hundred tonnes are produced annually, Platinum is one of the least reactive metals. It has remarkable resistance to corrosion, even at high temperatures, consequently, platinum is often found chemically uncombined as native platinum. Because it occurs naturally in the sands of various rivers. Platinum is used in catalytic converters, laboratory equipment, electrical contacts and electrodes, platinum resistance thermometers, dentistry equipment, and jewelry. Being a heavy metal, it leads to health issues upon exposure to its salts, compounds containing platinum, such as cisplatin, oxaliplatin and carboplatin, are applied in chemotherapy against certain types of cancer. Pure platinum is a lustrous, ductile, and malleable, silver-white metal, Platinum is more ductile than gold, silver or copper, thus being the most ductile of pure metals, but it is less malleable than gold. The metal has excellent resistance to corrosion, is stable at temperatures and has stable electrical properties. Platinum reacts with oxygen slowly at high temperatures. It reacts vigorously with fluorine at 500 °C to form platinum tetrafluoride and it is also attacked by chlorine, bromine, iodine, and sulfur. Platinum is insoluble in hydrochloric and nitric acid, but dissolves in hot aqua regia to form chloroplatinic acid and its physical characteristics and chemical stability make it useful for industrial applications. Its resistance to wear and tarnish is well suited to use in fine jewelry, the most common oxidation states of platinum are +2 and +4. The +1 and +3 oxidation states are common, and are often stabilized by metal bonding in bimetallic species. As is expected, tetracoordinate platinum compounds tend to adopt 16-electron square planar geometries, Platinum has six naturally occurring isotopes, 190Pt, 192Pt, 194Pt, 195Pt, 196Pt, and 198Pt
6.
ISO 4217
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The ISO4217 code list is used in banking and business globally. ISO4217 codes are used on tickets and international train tickets to remove any ambiguity about the price. The first two letters of the code are the two letters of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes and the third is usually the initial of the currency itself, so Japans currency code is JPY—JP for Japan and Y for yen. This eliminates the problem caused by the dollar, franc, peso and pound being used in dozens of different countries. Also, if a currency is revalued, the currency codes last letter is changed to distinguish it from the old currency. Other changes can be seen, however, the Russian ruble, for example, changed from RUR to RUB and these currency units are denominated as one troy ounce of the specified metal as opposed to USD1 or EUR1. The code XTS is reserved for use in testing, the code XXX is used to denote a transaction involving no currency. There are also codes specifying certain monetary instruments used in international finance, the codes for most supranational currencies, such as the East Caribbean dollar, the CFP franc, the CFA franc BEAC and the CFA franc BCEAO. The predecessor to the euro, the European Currency Unit, had the code XEU, the use of an initial letter X for these purposes is facilitated by the ISO3166 rule that no official country code beginning with X will ever be assigned. Because of this rule ISO4217 can use X codes without risk of clashing with a country code. ISO3166 country codes beginning with X are used for private custom use, consequently, ISO4217 can use X codes for non-country-specific currencies without risk of clashing with future country codes. The inclusion of EU in the ISO 3166-1 reserved codes list, the ISO4217 standard includes a crude mechanism for expressing the relationship between a major currency unit and its corresponding minor currency unit. This mechanism is called the exponent and assumes a base of 10. For example, USD is equal to 100 of its currency unit the cent. So the USD has exponent 2, the code JPY is given the exponent 0, because its minor unit, the sen, although nominally valued at 1/100 of a yen, is of such negligible value that it is no longer used. Usually, as with the USD, the currency unit has a value that is 1/100 of the major unit, but in some cases 1/1000 is used. Mauritania does not use a decimal division of units, setting 1 ouguiya equal to 5 khoums, some currencies do not have any minor currency unit at all and these are given an exponent of 0, as with currencies whose minor units are unused due to negligible value. There is also a code number assigned to each currency
7.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
8.
Ductility
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In materials science, ductility is a solid materials ability to deform under tensile stress, this is often characterized by the materials ability to be stretched into a wire. Malleability, a property, is a materials ability to deform under compressive stress. Both of these properties are aspects of plasticity, the extent to which a solid material can be plastically deformed without fracture. Also, these properties are dependent on temperature and pressure. Ductility and malleability are not always coextensive – for instance, while gold has high ductility and malleability, lead has low ductility, the word ductility is sometimes used to encompass both types of plasticity. Ductility is especially important in metalworking, as materials that crack, break or shatter under stress cannot be manipulated using metal-forming processes such as hammering, rolling, malleable materials can be formed cold using stamping or pressing, whereas brittle materials may be cast or thermoformed. High degrees of ductility occur due to bonds, which are found predominantly in metals. In metallic bonds valence shell electrons are delocalized and shared between many atoms, the delocalized electrons allow metal atoms to slide past one another without being subjected to strong repulsive forces that would cause other materials to shatter. Ductility can be quantified by the fracture strain ε f, which is the strain at which a test specimen fractures during a uniaxial tensile test. Another commonly used measure is the reduction of area at fracture q, the ductility of steel varies depending on the alloying constituents. Increasing levels of carbon decrease ductility, many plastics and amorphous solids, such as Play-Doh, are also malleable. The most ductile metal is platinum and the most malleable metal is gold, DBTT is important since, once a material is cooled below the DBTT, it has a much greater tendency to shatter on impact instead of bending or deforming. For example, zamak 3 exhibits good ductility at room temperature, DBTT is a very important consideration in selecting materials that are subjected to mechanical stresses. A similar phenomenon, the transition temperature, occurs with glasses and polymers. In some materials the transition is sharper than others and typically requires a temperature-sensitive deformation mechanism and this can be problematic for steels with a high ferrite content. This famously resulted in serious hull cracking in Liberty ships in colder waters during World War II, DBTT can also be influenced by external factors such as neutron radiation, which leads to an increase in internal lattice defects and a corresponding decrease in ductility and increase in DBTT. The most accurate method of measuring the DBTT of a material is by fracture testing, typically four point bend testing at a range of temperatures is performed on pre-cracked bars of polished material. For experiments conducted at higher temperatures, dislocation activity increases, the temperature at which this occurs is the ductile–brittle transition temperature
9.
Bullion coin
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A bullion coin is a coin struck from precious metal and kept as a store of value or an investment, rather than used in day-to-day commerce. Under United States law, coins that fail the last of these requirements are not coins at all, bullion coins are usually available in both gold and silver, with the exceptions of the Krugerrand and the Swiss Vreneli which are only available in gold. The American Eagle series is available in gold, silver and platinum, bullion coins are typically available in various weights. These are usually multiples or fractions of 1 troy ounce, bullion coins sell for a premium over the market price of the metal on the commodities exchanges. Reasons include their small size and the costs associated with manufacture, storage. The amount of the premium varies depending on the type and weight. The premium also is affected by prevailing demand, the ISO currency code for gold bullion is XAU. ISO4217 includes codes not only for currencies, but also for precious metals and certain other entities used in international finance, the European Commission publishes annually a list of gold coins which must be treated as investment gold coins in all EU Member States. The list has legal force and supplements the law, in the United Kingdom, HM Revenue and Customs have added an additional list of gold coins alongside the European Commission list. These are gold coins that HMRC recognise as falling within the VAT exemption for investment gold coins, the following list presents only the most common coins included in the European Commission list. Silver coin Palladium coin Platinum coin
10.
Platinum Koala
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The Platinum Koala is an Australian platinum bullion coin minted by the Perth Mint and is the most famous series of platinum coins of Australia. The Platinum Koala is notionally legal tender, that is a means of payment. On 18 June 1987, the Australian Government approved the minting of platinum and this decision was made based on the success of gold coins issued a year earlier. The minting of the began in September 1988 in Perth. For marketing purposes,2 ounce,10 ounce and 1 kilogram coins of silver, gold and platinum were introduced in 1991, together with the American Platinum Eagle, the Platinum Koala is one of the very few series of platinum coins which are still being produced. Minting of 1/10 and 1/2 oz 2010 coins has been announced and will not exceed 2,500 and 1000 pieces, respectively. However, it will be enriched with the new 1/10 and 1/2 oz animal-related platinum coins depicting platypus, frill-necked lizard, saltwater crocodile, wombat, echidna, brolga, dolphin, all these coins have coloured backgrounds. The obverse depicts the Queen of Australia, Elizabeth II, the initials JB of the reverse face designer James Brown are present on most coins. Other designers of the coin include Raphael Maklouf, Miranda Cornell, the annual series contain coins weighing from 1/20 ounce to 1 kilogram. The Platinum Koala never reached the popularity of the American Platinum Eagle, like most investment platinum coins, Platinum Koalas are sealed in a protective plastic case. The coins are sold at prices that reflect the current price of platinum, since November 1986, Perth Mint has used more than 18 tonnes of platinum for minting. About 85% of them were sold making the Gold Corporation one of Australias top 30 export earners. American Platinum Eagle Platinum as an investment Canadian Platinum Maple Leaf Platinum Panda the face value of 1991 tenth oz platinum Koala is Fifteen Dollars
11.
Isle of Man
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The Isle of Man, also known simply as Mann, is a self-governing crown dependency in the Irish Sea between England and Northern Ireland. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann, the Lord of Mann is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. Foreign relations and defence are the responsibility of the British Government, the island has been inhabited since before 6500 BC. Gaelic cultural influence began in the 5th century and the Manx language, in 627, Edwin of Northumbria conquered the Isle of Man along with most of Mercia. In the 9th century, Norsemen established the Kingdom of the Isles, magnus III, King of Norway, was also known as King of Mann and the Isles between 1099 and 1103. In 1266, the became part of Scotland under the Treaty of Perth. After a period of alternating rule by the kings of Scotland and England, the short form often used in English, Mann, is derived from the Manx Mannin, though sometimes the name is written as Man. The earliest recorded Manx form of the name is Manu or Mana, the Old Irish form of the name is Manau or Mano. Old Welsh records named it as Manaw, also reflected in Manaw Gododdin, the name for an ancient district in north Britain along the lower Firth of Forth. The oldest known reference to the calls it Mona, in Latin, in the 1st century CE, Pliny the Elder records it as Monapia or Monabia. Later Latin references have Mevania or Mænavia, and Eubonia or Eumonia by Irish writers and it is found in the Sagas of Icelanders as Mön. The name is cognate with the Welsh name of the island of Anglesey, Ynys Môn, usually derived from a Celtic word for mountain. The name was at least secondarily associated with that of Manannán mac Lir in Irish mythology, later, a Manannán is recorded as the first king of Mann in a Manx poem. The island was cut off from the islands around 8000 BC. The first residents were hunter gatherers and fishermen, examples of their tools are kept at the Manx Museum. There were also the local Ronaldsway and Bann cultures, during the Bronze Age, burial mounds became smaller. Bodies were put in stone-lined graves with ornamental containers, the Bronze Age burial mounds created long-lasting markers around the countryside. The ancient Romans knew of the island and called it Insula Manavia although it is whether they conquered the island
12.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
13.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
14.
Sovereign (British coin)
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The sovereign is a gold coin of the United Kingdom, with a nominal value of one pound sterling. Prior to 1932 it was a circulating coin within Britains then Gold Standard currency. Today it is used as a coin and is sometimes mounted in jewellery. Named after the English gold sovereign, last minted in 1604, minting these new sovereigns began in 1817. The gold content was fixed by the act of 1816 at 1320/5607 troy ounces. This weight has remained almost constant — rounding at 10−6 g took place on its legal redefinition in the rather than fractional system of coin weights. Sovereigns have been minted in the United Kingdom from 1817 to 1917, in 1925, in the past Australia, Canada, and South Africa all occasionally minted the coins. Today, they are minted at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, Wales, in addition to the sovereign, the Royal Mint also struck ten-shilling half sovereigns, two-pound double sovereigns, and five-pound quintuple sovereign coins. Only the sovereign and the sovereign were commonly struck for circulation. In 2009, The Royal Mint released a new coin in the sovereign series and this was succeeded by a portrayal of Saint George killing a dragon, engraved by Benedetto Pistrucci. In Victorian times it was the practice of the Bank of England to remove worn sovereigns and half sovereigns from circulation, consequently, although a billion sovereigns have been minted in total, that figure includes gold that has been coined and recoined a number of times. When gold coins were withdrawn from circulation in 1933 in the US. It was actually the half-sovereign that had the most circulation in Victorian Britain, many sovereigns languished in bank vaults for most of their lives. In 1889 and 1890 Orders in Council were made permitting members of the public to hand in any gold coins that were underweight and have them replaced by full-weight coins. A proclamation was issued in November 1890 that any gold coin struck before 1837 would cease to be legal tender with effect from 28 February 1891. This recycled gold was subsequently reminted into 13,680,486 half sovereigns in 1892 and 10,846,741 sovereigns in 1900, Sovereign obverse dies were also used in the nineteenth century to create farthings once they had become worn. Sovereigns were produced in large quantities until World War I, at time the UK came off the gold standard. From then until 1932, sovereigns were produced only at branch mints at Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Bombay, Ottawa, the last regular issue was in 1932
15.
Copper
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Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of copper has a reddish-orange color. Copper is one of the few metals that occur in nature in directly usable metallic form as opposed to needing extraction from an ore and this led to very early human use, from c.8000 BC. Copper used in buildings, usually for roofing, oxidizes to form a green verdigris, Copper is sometimes used in decorative art, both in its elemental metal form and in compounds as pigments. Copper compounds are used as agents, fungicides, and wood preservatives. Copper is essential to all living organisms as a trace dietary mineral because it is a key constituent of the enzyme complex cytochrome c oxidase. In molluscs and crustaceans, copper is a constituent of the blood pigment hemocyanin, replaced by the hemoglobin in fish. In humans, copper is found mainly in the liver, muscle, the adult body contains between 1.4 and 2.1 mg of copper per kilogram of body weight. The filled d-shells in these elements contribute little to interatomic interactions, unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in copper are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak. This observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of copper, at the macroscopic scale, introduction of extended defects to the crystal lattice, such as grain boundaries, hinders flow of the material under applied stress, thereby increasing its hardness. For this reason, copper is supplied in a fine-grained polycrystalline form. The softness of copper partly explains its high conductivity and high thermal conductivity. The maximum permissible current density of copper in open air is approximately 3. 1×106 A/m2 of cross-sectional area, Copper is one of a few metallic elements with a natural color other than gray or silver. Pure copper is orange-red and acquires a reddish tarnish when exposed to air, as with other metals, if copper is put in contact with another metal, galvanic corrosion will occur. A green layer of verdigris can often be seen on old structures, such as the roofing of many older buildings. Copper tarnishes when exposed to sulfur compounds, with which it reacts to form various copper sulfides. There are 29 isotopes of copper, 63Cu and 65Cu are stable, with 63Cu comprising approximately 69% of naturally occurring copper, both have a spin of 3⁄2
16.
Mule (coin)
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In numismatics, a mule is a coin or medal minted with obverse and reverse designs not normally seen on the same piece. These can be intentional or produced by error and this type of error is highly sought after, and examples can fetch steep prices from collectors. The earliest mules are found among ancient Greek and Roman coins. The name derives from the mule, the offspring of a horse. Several prominent mule errors have been discovered in recent times, one of the most famous is the Sacagawea Dollar/Washington State Quarter mule featuring the obverse of a Statehood quarter and the reverse of a Sacagawea dollar. This coin was struck on a Sacagawea dollar planchet, several thousand of the coins were reported to have been minted before the error was discovered, and mint employees recovered and destroyed most of them. As of April 2013,14 are publicly known to exist and have been certified, in March 2014 the Royal Mint confirmed a pair of mule 2014 bullion coins struck in 999 fine silver, approximately 38,000 £2 Lunar Horse coins and 17,000 £2 Britannia coins. The Lunar Horses were struck with the denticled Britannia obverse while the Britannias were stuck with the non-denticled Lunar Horse obverse. In February 2009, Coin World reported that some 2007 Abigail Adams medals, from the U. S. Mint, were using the reverse from the 2008 Louisa Adams medal. These pieces were contained within the 2007 First Spouse medal set, the U. S. Mint has not released an estimate of how many mules were made. EBay prices in March 2009 were reported as high as $925.99, in 1967, a New Zealand 2 cent coin was issued, featuring the obverse of the Bahamian 5 cent coin, see Coins of the New Zealand dollar. The Winter Olympic coins produced in the Royal Canadian Mint Olympic coins program for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver featured several mules which entered circulation, sometimes mints use proof dies in the production of business coins. Coins produced when an identifiable proof die is married with a business die are known as handsome mules, as can be seen in the accompanying image, the details on proof coins are often noticeably sharper. The telltale difference between the image of the reverse of two 1958 Franklin halves shown in the photograph is that the right wingtip on the proof coin has one fewer feathers
17.
Farthing (British coin)
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The British farthing coin, from fourthing, was a unit of currency of one quarter of a penny, or one nine hundred and sixtieth of a pound sterling. It was minted in bronze, and replaced the earlier copper farthings and it was used during the reign of six monarchs, Victoria, Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, George VI and Elizabeth II, ceasing to be legal tender in 1960. It featured two different designs on its reverse during its one hundred years in circulation, from 1860 until 1936, the image of Britannia, and from 1937 onwards, like all British coinage, it bore the portrait of the monarch on the obverse. Before Decimal Day in 1971, there were two hundred and forty pence in one pound sterling, there were four farthings in a penny, twelve pence made a shilling, and twenty shillings made a pound. Values less than a pound were usually written in terms of shillings and pence, values of less than a shilling were simply written in terms of pence, e. g. 8d, pronounced eightpence. A price with a farthing in it would be written like this, pronounced nineteen, as of 2014, the purchasing power of a farthing in 1960 ranged between 2p and 7p. The original reverse of the coin, designed by Leonard Charles Wyon, is a seated Britannia, holding a trident, issues before 1895 also feature a lighthouse to Britannias left and a ship to her right. Various minor adjustments to the level of the sea depicted around Britannia, some issues feature toothed edges, while others feature beading. Over the years, seven different obverses were used, Edward VII, George V, George VI and Elizabeth II each had a single obverse for farthings produced during their respective reigns. Over the long reign of Queen Victoria two different obverses were used, and the reign of Edward VIII meant that no farthings bearing his likeness were ever issued. The farthing was first issued with the so-called bun head, or draped bust of Queen Victoria on the obverse, the inscription around the bust read VICTORIA D G BRITT REG F D. This was replaced in 1895 by the old head, or veiled bust, the inscription on these coins read VICTORIA DEI GRA BRITT REGINA FID DEF IND IMP. Coins issued during the reign of Edward VII feature his likeness, similarly, those issued during the reign of George V feature his likeness and bear the inscription GEORGIVS V DEI GRA BRITT OMN REX FID DEF IND IMP. The obverse shows a portrait of the king, the inscription on the obverse is EDWARDVS VIII D G BR OMN REX F D IND IMP. The pattern coin of Edward VIII and regular-issue farthings of George VI and Elizabeth II feature a redesigned reverse displaying the wren, one of Britains smallest birds. George VI issue coins feature the inscription GEORGIVS VI D G BR OMN REX F D IND IMP before 1949, and GEORGIVS VI D G BR OMN REX FIDEI DEF thereafter
18.
Sort (typesetting)
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When the form was no longer needed all of the type had to be sorted back into the correct slots in the type case in a very time-consuming process called distributing. This sorting process led to the pieces being called sorts. It is often claimed to be the root of such as out of sorts and wrong sort. During the hot metal typesetting era, printing equipment used matrices to cast type as needed during the typesetting process, the popular Linotype cast entire lines of text at once rather than individual sorts, while the less popular competitor Monotype still cast the sorts individually. Later, when phototypesetting replaced hot metal typesetting, sorts disappeared entirely from the printing process. History of western typography Matrix Typeface Typography Typeface anatomy Nesbitt, Alexander The History and Technique of Lettering 1957, Dover Publications, ISBN 0-486-20427-8, Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number, 57-13116. Typowiki, a wiki at typophile. com Metal Type - For Those who Remember Hot Metal Typesetting
19.
George III of the United Kingdom
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He was concurrently Duke and prince-elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire until his promotion to King of Hanover on 12 October 1814. He was the third British monarch of the House of Hanover, early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of Britains American colonies were soon lost in the American War of Independence, further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. In the later part of his life, George III had recurrent, although it has since been suggested that he had the blood disease porphyria, the cause of his illness remains unknown. After a final relapse in 1810, a regency was established, on George IIIs death, the Prince Regent succeeded his father as George IV. Historical analysis of George IIIs life has gone through a kaleidoscope of changing views that have depended heavily on the prejudices of his biographers and the sources available to them. Until it was reassessed in the half of the 20th century, his reputation in the United States was one of a tyrant. George was born in London at Norfolk House and he was the grandson of King George II, and the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. As Prince George was born two months prematurely and he was unlikely to survive, he was baptised the same day by Thomas Secker. One month later, he was baptised at Norfolk House. His godparents were the King of Sweden, his uncle the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, George grew into a healthy but reserved and shy child. The family moved to Leicester Square, where George and his younger brother Prince Edward, Duke of York, Family letters show that he could read and write in both English and German, as well as comment on political events of the time, by the age of eight. He was the first British monarch to study science systematically and his religious education was wholly Anglican. At age 10 George took part in a production of Joseph Addisons play Cato and said in the new prologue, What. It may with truth be said, A boy in England born, historian Romney Sedgwick argued that these lines appear to be the source of the only historical phrase with which he is associated. Georges grandfather, King George II, disliked the Prince of Wales, however, in 1751 the Prince of Wales died unexpectedly from a lung injury, and George became heir apparent to the throne. He inherited one of his fathers titles and became the Duke of Edinburgh, now more interested in his grandson, three weeks later the King created George Prince of Wales. Georges mother, now the Dowager Princess of Wales, preferred to keep George at home where she could imbue him with her moral values
20.
1980 Summer Olympics
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The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russia. The 1980 Games were the first Olympic Games to be staged in Eastern Europe and they were also the first Olympic Games to be held in a socialist country, and the only Summer Games to be held in such a country until 2008 in Beijing, China. These were the final Olympic Games under the IOC Presidency of Michael Morris and this prompted the Soviet-led boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics. The only two cities to bid for the 1980 Summer Olympics were Moscow and Los Angeles, the choice between them was made on 23 October 1974 in the 75th IOC Session in Vienna, Austria. Los Angeles would eventually host the 1984 Summer Olympics, eighty nations were represented at the Moscow Games – the smallest number since 1956. Six nations made their first Olympic appearance in 1980, Angola, Botswana, Jordan, Laos, Mozambique, cyprus made its debut at the Summer Olympics, but had appeared earlier at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. Sri Lanka competed for the first time under its new name, Benin had competed previously as Dahomey and Zimbabwe competed for the first time under that name. The Soviet invasion spurred Jimmy Carter to issue an ultimatum on January 20,1980,65 countries and regions invited did not take part in the 1980 Olympics. Many of these followed the United States boycott initiative, while others cited economic reasons for not coming, iran, under Ayatollah Khomeini hostile to both superpowers, boycotted when the Islamic Conference condemned the invasion. Many of the boycotting nations participated instead in the Liberty Bell Classic, also known as the Olympic Boycott Games, in Philadelphia. However, the nations that did compete had won 71 percent of all medals, competitors from three countries – New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain – competed under the flags of their respective National Olympic Committees. Some of these teams that marched under other than their national flags were depleted by boycotts by individual athletes. The impact of the boycott was mixed, some events, such as field hockey and equestrian sports, were hard hit, while others such as boxing, judo, rowing, swimming, track and field and weightlifting had more participants than in 1976. Athletes from 25 countries won Olympic gold and competitors from 36 countries became Olympic medalists, Italy won four times more gold medals than they won in Montreal and France multiplied its gold medal tally by three. Romania won more medals than it had at any previous Olympics. In terms of medals, the Moscow Olympics was Irelands most successful games since Melbourne 1956. The same was true for Great Britain, third World athletes qualified for more events and took more medals than they did at any previous Olympics. 21 percent of the competitors were women – a higher percentage than at any previous Olympics, There were 203 events – more than at any previous Olympics
21.
Central Bank of Russia
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Its functions are described in the Russian constitution and in the special Federal Law. The decision to create a State Bank of the Russian Empire was made by Emperor Peter III on May 1762, however, due to the coup on June 28,1762 and the murder of the Czar, the project was implemented. This ukaz also ratified the Statues of the bank, according to the Statute, it was a state-owned bank, intended for short-term credit of trade and industry. In early 1917 the Bank had 11 branches,133 permanent and 5 temporary offices and 42 agencies, on 7 November 1917 the Russian State Bank was disestablished and replaced by The Peoples Bank which existed until the establishment of the Soviet Gosbank. The Central Bank of the Russian Federation was established July 13,1990 as a result of the transformation of the Russian Republican Bank of the State Bank of the USSR and it was accountable to the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. In June 1991, the charter was adopted by the Bank of Russia, according to the constitution, it is an independent entity, with the primary responsibility of protecting the stability of the national currency, the ruble. It holds the right to issue ruble banknotes and coins through the Moscow and St. Petersburg mints. The central bank issues commemorative coins made of precious and non precious metals as well as investment ones made of precious metals, in 2010 in honor of its 150th anniversary it issued a 5-kilo commemorative gold coin Alexander II. Under Russian law, half of the profit must be channeled into the governments federal budget. The Central Bank of Russia is a member of the BIS, the Bank of Russia owns a 57. 58% stake in Sberbank, the countrys leading commercial bank. The Governor was appointed by the Emperor of Russia, the Chairman was appointed by the Premier of the Soviet Union. The President of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank is the head of the banking system of the Russian Federation. The Head is chosen by the President of Russia, and serves for four-year-terms after appointment, a Head may be appointed for several consecutive terms.5 points to 17 percent. This caused a run on the rouble, and on January 29, constitutional Economics and the Bank of Russia. Fordham Journal of Corporate and Financial Law
22.
Bald eagle
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The bald eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the contiguous United States and it is found near large bodies of open water with an abundant food supply and old-growth trees for nesting. The bald eagle is a feeder which subsists mainly on fish. It builds the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for any species, up to 4 m deep,2.5 m wide. Sexual maturity is attained at the age of four to five years, Bald eagles are not actually bald, the name derives from an older meaning of the word, white headed. The adult is brown with a white head and tail. The sexes are identical in plumage, but females are about 25 percent larger than males, the beak is large and hooked. The plumage of the immature is brown, the bald eagle is both the national bird and national animal of the United States of America. The bald eagle appears on its seal, in the late 20th century it was on the brink of extirpation in the contiguous United States. Populations have since recovered and the species was removed from the U. S. governments list of endangered species on July 12,1995 and it was removed from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife in the Lower 48 States on June 28,2007. The plumage of an bald eagle is evenly dark brown with a white head. The tail is long and slightly wedge-shaped. Males and females are identical in coloration, but sexual dimorphism is evident in the species. The beak, feet and irises are bright yellow, the legs are feather-free, and the toes are short and powerful with large talons. The highly developed talon of the toe is used to pierce the vital areas of prey while it is held immobile by the front toes. The beak is large and hooked, with a yellow cere, the adult bald eagle is unmistakable in its native range. The closely related African fish eagle also has a body, white head and tail
23.
Demidov
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Their progenitor, Demid Antufiev, was a free blacksmith from Tula, where their family necropolis is preserved as a museum. His son Nikita Demidov made his fortune by his skill in the manufacture of weapons, peter the Great, with whom he was a favorite, ennobled him in 1720. For two centuries, the Demidov plants produced a portion of Russias iron and steel. The Palace of Westminster was one of notable buildings constructed of Demidov metal products. Nikitas son, Akinfiy Demidov, increased his wealth by the discovery and working of gold. He also founded the Siberian town of Barnaul, whose central square still bears his name and he also commissioned the Leaning Tower of Nevyansk. His fortune was inherited by his eldest son Prokofi Demidov, whilst his younger son Nikita Akinfievitch Demidov became an arts patron, akinfiys nephew, Pavel Grigoryevich Demidov, was a great traveller and benefactor of Russian scientific education who befriended Carl Linnaeus and Pallas. He established the Demidov Lyceum in Yaroslavl, the Demidov chair in Natural history at Moscow University, a bronze monument to him was installed in Yaroslavl in 1828. He was created a Count by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, nikolays son Count Pavel Nikolayevich Demidov fought as an officer in his fathers regiment and received his baptism of fire at the battle of Borodino in 1812. After the war, he entered the Chevalier Guards regiment and he received his discharge in 1831 with the rank of captain when he entered civil service as governor of the province of Kursk. In 1834, he entered service in the Ministry of the Exterior as court Huntsmaster, later State Councillor, Count Pavel Demidov is best known for his philanthropy, primarily for having founded the Demidov Prize. He married the well-known society beauty and maid-of-honour to her majesty the Empress Alexandra Feodorovnya Aurore Stjernvall in 1836 and their son, Pavel Pavlovich Demidov, who became the 2nd Prince of San Donato, was the grandfather of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia. Nikolays second son, Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato, was a well-known traveller, in 1840, he acquired the Italian title of Prince of San Donato and married Princess Mathilde, daughter of Jérôme Bonaparte. His Villa Demidoff is a landmark of Florence. Anatoles great grand nephew, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, was regent of Yugoslavia between 1934 and 1941. The second and last Prince Lopukhin, Paul, was granted the right to pass his title and name to his great-nephew, Nicolas Demidoff, the revolution impoverished the princes Lopukhin-Demidoff, who settled to Finland where they owned the manor of Anttolanhovi near Mikkeli. The dowager princess Natalie deceased in 1957, in 1798, Nikolay Nikitich Demidov was made a Family Commander of the Russian Grand Priory of the Order of Saint John, by Czar Paul I. In 1811, a Ukase was enacted which brought this institution to an end, however, by personal grant of the Emperor, the title of Hereditary Commander was held by some descendants who qualified
24.
Nizhny Tagil
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Nizhny Tagil is a city in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located 25 kilometers east of the virtual border between Europe and Asia. Rivers and ponds take up one third of the citys territory, Nizhny Tagil spans 22 kilometers from north to south and 21 kilometers from east to west. The city is built around the extinct volcano Lisya Mountain and this mountain with a watchtower on its top is a symbol of the city. Another mountain, Medved-Kamen, is located in the part of the city and is 100 meters high. High rock walls break into the Tagil River, neighboring cities include Yekaterinburg 130 kilometers to the south, Serov and Priobye in the north, Perm in the west, and Alapayevsk and Verkhnyaya Salda in the east. The citys climate is temperate continental, the altitude of the city varies from 170 to 380 meters. This makes Nizhny Tagil one of the rare natural store-rooms on the Earth, there are many mineral deposits containing 63 elements of the periodic table. The history of Nizhny Tagil begins with the opening of the Vysokogorsky iron ore quarry in 1696, the deposits were particularly rich, and included lodes of pure magnetic iron. The surrounding landscape provided everything needed for a successful and productive mining and smelting operation — rivers for transport, forests for fuel, and suitable climate. Over the following decades, the city developed as one of the centers of Russian industrialization. According to some sources, the copper for the skin of the Statue of Liberty was mined and refined in Nizhny Tagil, in early 2007, a mass grave with 30 murdered girls and women was found near Nizhny Tagil. They had been abducted in the city by a prostitution gang between 2002 and 2006, a frightful, fictionalized description of Nizhny Tagil and these murders appears in “The Bourne Sanction, ” by Eric Van Lustbader, chapters 28,30,34 and 39. Within the framework of the divisions, Nizhny Tagil serves as the administrative center of Prigorodny District. As a municipal division, the City of Nizhny Tagil is incorporated as Nizhny Tagil Urban Okrug, a large portion of the land within the bounds of the city is dominated by the facilities of the various factories located in this industrial city, including those of Oxochem. Nizhny Tagil is a center of the Middle Urals. Such highly power-intensive industries as ferrous metallurgy, engineering, chemistry, a total of 606 manufacturing companies operate in Nizhny Tagil. Nizhny Tagil Iron and Steel Plant is a leading Russian steel company, uralvagonzavod is well known in Russia as the main producer of modern tanks on the territory of the former Soviet Union and Russia. It is the largest main battle tank manufacturer in the world, the T-72, T-90, and T-14 are produced in the city
25.
Powder metallurgy
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Powder metallurgy is a term covering a wide range of ways in which materials or components are made from metal powders. PM processes can avoid, or greatly reduce, the need to use metal removal processes, thereby drastically reducing yield losses in manufacture, Powder metallurgy is also used to make unique materials impossible to get from melting or forming in other ways. A very important product of this type is tungsten carbide, WC is used to cut and form other metals and is made from WC particles bonded with cobalt. It is very used in industry for tools of many types and globally ~50. Other products include sintered filters, porous oil-impregnated bearings, electrical contacts, the PM press and sinter process generally consists of three basic steps, powder blending, die compaction, and sintering. Optional secondary processing such as coining or heat treatment often follows to obtain special properties or enhanced precision and this produces precise parts, normally very close to the die dimensions, but with 5-15% porosity, and thus sub-wrought steel properties. There are several other PM processes which have developed over the last fifty years. A preform made by the press and sinter method is heated and then hot forged to full density. Here the powder is filled into a mould, normally consisting of a metallic can of suitable shape, the can is vibrated, then evacuated and sealed. It is then placed in a hot press, where it is heated to a homologous temperature of around 0.7. This results in a part of full density with as-wrought or better. HIP was invented in the 1950-60s and entered production in the 1970-80s. In 2015, it was used to produce ~25, 000t/yr of stainless and tool steels and this part is then heated or otherwise treated to remove the binder to give a brown part. This part is then sintered, and shrinks by ~18% to give a complex, invented in the 1970s, production has increased since 2000 with an estimated global volume in 2014 of 12, 000t worth €1265millions. Powders employed in ECAS can avoid binders thanks to the possibility of direct sintering, without the need of pre-pressing, the most common of these technologies is hot pressing, which has been under use for the production of the diamond tools employed in the construction industry. Spark plasma sintering and electro sinter forging are two modern, industrial commercial ECAS technologies, additive manufacturing is a relatively novel family of techniques which use metal powders to make parts by laser sintering or melting. This is a process under development as of 2015. Sintering involves the production of a solid metal or ceramic piece from a starting powder
26.
Alexander von Humboldt
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Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a Prussian geographer, naturalist, explorer, and influential proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher. Humboldts quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography, Humboldts advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement laid the foundation for modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt travelled extensively in Latin America and his description of the journey was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. Humboldt was one of the first people to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean were once joined and this important work also motivated a holistic perception of the universe as one interacting entity. Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin in Prussia on 14 September 1769 and he was baptized as a baby in the Lutheran faith, with the Duke of Brunswick serving as godfather. At age 42, Alexander Georg was rewarded for his services in the Seven Years War with the post of Royal Chamberlain and he profited from the contract to lease state lotteries and tobacco sales. He first married the daughter of Prussian General Adjutant Schweder, in 1766, Alexander Georg married Maria Elisabeth Colomb, a well-educated woman and widow of Baron Hollwede, with whom she had a son. Alexander Georg and Maria Elisabeth had three children, a daughter, who died young, and then two sons, Wilhelm and Alexander and her first-born son, Wilhelms and Alexanders half-brother, was something of a neer do well, not often mentioned in the family history. Alexander Georg died in 1779, leaving the brothers Humboldt in the care of their emotionally distant mother, Humboldts mother expected them to become civil servants of the Prussian state. The money Baron Holwede left to Alexanders mother became, after her death, instrumental in funding Alexanders explorations, due to his youthful penchant for collecting and labeling plants, shells and insects, Alexander received the playful title of the little apothecary. On April 25,1789, he matriculated at Göttingen, then known for the lectures of C. G. Heyne and his brother Wilhelm was already a student at Göttingen, but they did not interact much since their intellectual interests were quite different. His vast and varied interests were by this time fully developed, at Göttingen he met Georg Forster, a naturalist who had been with Captain James Cook on his second voyage. Humboldt traveled with Forster in Europe, the two traveled to England, Humboldts first sea voyage, The Netherlands, and France. In England, he met Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, the scientific friendship between Banks and Humboldt lasted until Bankss death in 1820, and the two shared botanical specimens for study. Banks also mobilized his scientific contacts in later years to aid Humboldts work, Humboldts scientific excursion up the Rhine resulted in his 1790 treatise Mineralogische Beobachtungen über einige Basalte am Rhein. Humboldts passion for travel was of long standing, Humboldts talents were devoted to the purpose of preparing himself as a scientific explorer. During this period, his brother Wilhelm married, but Alexander did not attend the nuptials, Humboldt graduated from the Freiberg School of Mines in 1792 and was appointed to a Prussian government position in the Department of Mines as an inspector in Bayreuth and the Fichtel mountains
27.
Alexander II of Russia
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Alexander II was the Emperor of Russia from 2 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881. He was also the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Finland, Alexanders most significant reform as emperor was emancipation of Russias serfs in 1861, for which he is known as Alexander the Liberator. In foreign policy, Alexander sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, despite his otherwise pacifist foreign policy, he fought a brief war with Turkey in 1877–78, pursued further expansion into Siberia and the Caucasus, and conquered Turkestan. Although disappointed by the results of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, among his greatest domestic challenges was an uprising in Poland in 1863, to which he responded by stripping that land of its separate constitution and incorporating it directly into Russia. Alexander was proposing additional parliamentary reforms to counter the rise of nascent revolutionary, born in Moscow, Alexander Nikolaevich was the eldest son of Nicholas I of Russia and of Charlotte of Prussia. Personal and official censorship was rife, criticism of the authorities was regarded as a serious offence, aleksandrs alleged lack of interest in military affairs resulted from his reaction to the effects of the unsavoury Crimean War of 1853-1856 on his own family and on the whole country. Unusually for the time, the young Alexander was taken on a tour of Russia. He also visited many prominent Western European countries in 1838 and 1839, as Tsesarevich, Alexander became the first Romanov heir to visit Siberia. Alexander II succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father in 1855, the first year of his reign was devoted to the prosecution of the Crimean War and, after the fall of Sevastopol, to negotiations for peace led by his trusted counsellor Prince Alexander Gorchakov. The country had exhausted and humiliated by the war. Bribe-taking, theft and corruption were everywhere, in 1867 he sold Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million after recognising the great difficulty of defending it against the United Kingdom or the former British colony of Canada. After Alexander became emperor in 1855, he maintained a generally liberal course, despite this, he was a target for numerous assassination attempts. On 13 March 1881, members of the Narodnaya Volya party killed him with a bomb and this step had been followed by one even more significant. The hint was taken, in all provinces where serfdom existed, the emancipation was not merely a humanitarian question capable of being solved instantaneously by imperial ukase. It contained very complicated problems, deeply affecting the economic, social and political future of the nation, the emperor gave his support to the latter project, and the Russian peasantry became one of the last groups of peasants in Europe to shake off serfdom. The architects of the manifesto were Alexanders brother Konstantin, Yakov Rostovtsev. On 3 March 1861, six years after his accession, the law was signed and published. The changes included universal military conscription, introduced for all classes on 1 January 1874
28.
Hermitage Museum
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The State Hermitage Museum is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, it was founded in 1754 by Catherine the Great and has open to the public since 1852. Its collections, of only a small part is on permanent display. The collections occupy a complex of six historic buildings along Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace. Apart from them, the Menshikov Palace, Museum of Porcelain, Storage Facility at Staraya Derevnya, the museum has several exhibition centers abroad. The Hermitage is a state property. Since July 1992, the director of the museum has been Mikhail Piotrovsky, of the six buildings in the main museum complex, five, namely the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage and Hermitage Theatre, are open to the public. The entrance ticket for foreign tourists more than the fee paid by citizens of Russia. However, entrance is free of charge the first Thursday of every month for all visitors, the museum is closed on Mondays. The entrance for visitors is located in the Winter Palace. A hermitage is the dwelling of a hermit or recluse, the word derives from Old French hermit, ermit hermit, recluse, from Late Latin eremita, from Greek eremites, literally people who live alone, which is in turn derived from ἐρημός, desert. Originally, the building housing the collection was the Small Hermitage. Today, the Hermitage Museum encompasses many buildings on the Palace Embankment, apart from the Small Hermitage, the museum now also includes the Old Hermitage, the New Hermitage, the Hermitage Theatre, and the Winter Palace, the former main residence of the Russian tsars. In recent years, the Hermitage has expanded to the General Staff Building on the Palace Square facing the Winter Palace, the Western European Art collection includes European paintings, sculpture, and applied art from the 13th to the 20th centuries. It is displayed, in about 120 rooms, on the first, drawings and prints are displayed in temporary exhibitions. Since 1940, the Egyptian collection, dating back to 1852 and it serves as a passage to the exhibition of Classical Antiquities. A modest collection of the culture of Ancient Mesopotamia, including a number of Assyrian reliefs from Babylon, Dur-Sharrukin, the collection of Classical Antiquities occupies most of the ground floor of the Old and New Hermitage buildings. Its floor is made of a marble mosaic imitating ancient tradition, while the stucco walls
29.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
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Native metal
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A native metal is any metal that is found in its metallic form, either pure or as an alloy, in nature. The gold group consists of gold, copper, lead, aluminium, mercury, the platinum group consists of platinum, iridium, osmium, palladium, rhodium, and ruthenium. Amongst the alloys found in native state have been brass, bronze, pewter, German silver, osmiridium, electrum, white gold, only gold, silver, copper and the platinum metals occur in nature in larger amounts. The others usually occur as isolated pockets where a chemical process reduces a common compound or ore of the metal. Non-metallic elements occurring in the state include carbon and sulfur. Silicon, a semi-metal, has found in the native state on rare occasions as small inclusions in gold. Native metals were prehistoric mans only access to metal, since the process of extracting metals from their ores, however, they could be found only in relatively small amounts, so they could not be used extensively. Gold is the most well known of the native metals, most gold is mined as native metal and can be found as nuggets, veins or wires of gold in a rock matrix, or fine grains of gold, mixed in with sediments or bound within rock. The iconic image of gold mining for many is gold panning, Native gold is the predominant gold mineral on the earth. It is sometimes found alloyed with silver and/or other metals but true gold compound minerals are uncommon, Native silver occurs as elongated dendritic coatings or irregular masses. It may also occur as cubic, octahedral, or dodecahedral crystals and it may occur alloyed with gold as electrum. It often occurs with silver sulfide and sulfosalt minerals, various amalgams of silver and mercury or other metals and mercury do occur rarely as minerals in nature. An example is the mineral eugenite and related forms, silver nuggets, wires, and grains are relatively common, but there are also a large number of silver compound minerals owing to silver being more reactive than gold. Natural alloys of the platinum group metals include, native osmium, rutheniridosmine, ruthenium, palladium, platinum Pt, in addition gold, copper, iron, mercury, tin and lead may occur in alloys of this group. As with gold, salts and other compounds of the platinum group metals are rare, native platinum and related metals and these metals occur associated with ultramafic intrusions and placer deposits derived from those intrusions. Native copper has been mined as an early source of the metal. The term Old Copper Complex is used to describe an ancient North American civilization that utilized native copper deposits for weapons, tools and this society existed around Lake Superior, where they found sources of native copper and mined them between 6000 and 3000 BC. The same deposits of copper on the Keweenaw Peninsula and Isle Royale were later mined commercially
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Noble metal
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In chemistry, the noble metals are metals that are resistant to corrosion and oxidation in moist air. The short list of noble metals comprises ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, osmium, iridium, platinum. More inclusive lists include one or more of mercury, rhenium, on the other hand, titanium, niobium, and tantalum are not included as noble metals although they are very resistant to corrosion. The term noble metal can be traced back to at least the late 14th century and has different meanings in different fields of study. Only in atomic physics is there a strict definition, which includes only copper, silver, for this reason there are many quite different lists of noble metals. In addition to this function as a compound noun, there are circumstances where noble is used as an adjective for the noun metal. A galvanic series is a hierarchy of metals that runs from noble to active, platinum, gold and mercury can be dissolved in aqua regia, a highly concentrated mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid, but iridium and silver cannot. Palladium and silver are, however, soluble in nitric acid, ruthenium can be dissolved in aqua regia only when in the presence of oxygen, while rhodium must be in a fine pulverized form. Niobium and tantalum are resistant to all acids, including aqua regia, in physics, the definition of a noble metal is most strict. It requires that the d bands of the structure be filled. From this perspective, only copper, silver and gold are noble metals, as all d-like bands are filled, however, d-hybridized bands do cross the Fermi level to a small extent. In the case of platinum, two d bands cross the Fermi level, changing its chemical behaviour such that it can function as a catalyst. Metallic elements, including noble and non-noble metals, The columns group and period denote its position in the periodic table, the simplified reactions, listed in the next column, can also be read in detail from the Pourbaix diagrams of the considered element in water. Finally the column potential indicates the potential of the element measured against a Standard hydrogen electrode. All missing elements in this table are either not metals or have a standard potential. Arsenic, antimony and tellurium are considered to be a metalloids and thus cannot be noble metals. Also chemists and metallurgists consider copper and bismuth to not be noble metals because they easily oxidize due to the reaction O2 + 2 H 2O + 4e− ⇄ 4 OH− +0.40 V which is possible in moist air. The film of silver is due to its sensitivity to hydrogen sulfide
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Iridium
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Iridium is a chemical element with symbol Ir and atomic number 77. A very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group and it is also the most corrosion-resistant metal, even at temperatures as high as 2000 °C. Although only certain molten salts and halogens are corrosive to solid iridium, finely divided iridium dust is more reactive. Iridium was discovered in 1803 among insoluble impurities in natural platinum, Smithson Tennant, the primary discoverer, named iridium for the Greek goddess Iris, personification of the rainbow, because of the striking and diverse colors of its salts. Iridium is one of the rarest elements in Earths crust, with production and consumption of only three tonnes. 191Ir and 193Ir are the two naturally occurring isotopes of iridium, as well as the only stable isotopes, the latter is the more abundant of the two. Iridium radioisotopes are used in some radioisotope thermoelectric generators, Iridium is found in meteorites in much higher abundance than in the Earths crust. Similarly, an anomaly in core samples from the Pacific Ocean suggested the Eltanin impact of about 2.5 million years ago. A member of the platinum metals, iridium is white, resembling platinum. Because of its hardness, brittleness, and very high melting point, solid iridium is difficult to machine, form, or work, thus powder metallurgy is commonly employed and it is the only metal to maintain good mechanical properties in air at temperatures above 1,600 °C. The measured density of iridium is only lower than that of osmium. Iridium is the most corrosion-resistant metal known, it is not attacked by almost any acid, aqua regia, molten metals, or silicates at high temperatures. It can, however, be attacked by some molten salts, such as cyanide and potassium cyanide, as well as oxygen. Iridium forms compounds in oxidation states between −3 and +9, the most common oxidation states are +3 and +4, well-characterized examples of the high +6 oxidation state are rare, but include IrF6 and two mixed oxides Sr 2MgIrO6 and Sr 2CaIrO6. In addition, it was reported in 2009 that iridium oxide was prepared under matrix isolation conditions by UV irradiation of an iridium-peroxo complex and this species, however, is not expected to be stable as a bulk solid at higher temperatures. The highest oxidation state, which is also the highest recorded for any element, is known in one cation, IrO+4. Iridium dioxide, IrO2, a powder, is the only well-characterized oxide of iridium. A sesquioxide, Ir 2O3, has described as a blue-black powder which is oxidized to IrO2 by HNO3
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Palladium
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Palladium is a chemical element with symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston and he named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself named after the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, acquired by her when she slew Pallas. Palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium form a group of elements referred to as the platinum group metals and these have similar chemical properties, but palladium has the lowest melting point and is the least dense of them. More than half the supply of palladium and its congener platinum is used in catalytic converters, Palladium is also used in electronics, dentistry, medicine, hydrogen purification, chemical applications, groundwater treatment, and jewelry. Palladium is a key component of cells, which react hydrogen with oxygen to produce electricity, heat. Ore deposits of palladium and other PGMs are rare, recycling is also a source, mostly from scrapped catalytic converters. The numerous applications and limited supply sources result in considerable investment interest, Palladium belongs to group 10 in the periodic table, but the configuration in the outermost electron shells is atypical for group 10. Fewer electron shells are filled than the directly preceding it. The valence shell has eighteen electrons – ten more than the eight found in the shells of the noble gases from neon onward. Palladium is a soft metal that resembles platinum. It is the least dense and has the lowest melting point of the platinum group metals and it is soft and ductile when annealed and is greatly increased in strength and hardness when cold-worked. Palladium dissolves slowly in concentrated acid, in hot, concentrated sulfuric acid. It dissolves readily at room temperature in aqua regia, common oxidation states of palladium are 0, +1, +2 and +4. Palladium was first observed in 2002, Palladium films with defects produced by alpha particle bombardment at low temperature exhibit superconductivity having Tc=3.2 K. Naturally occurring palladium is composed of seven isotopes, six of which are stable, the most stable radioisotopes are 107Pd with a half-life of 6.5 million years, 103Pd with 17 days, and 100Pd with 3.63 days. Eighteen other radioisotopes have been characterized with atomic weights ranging from 90.94948 u to 122.93426 u and these have half-lives of less than thirty minutes, except 101Pd, 109Pd, and 112Pd. For isotopes with atomic mass unit values less than that of the most abundant stable isotope, 106Pd, the primary mode of decay for those isotopes of Pd with atomic mass greater than 106 is beta decay with the primary product of this decay being silver. Radiogenic 107Ag is a product of 107Pd and was first discovered in 1978 in the Santa Clara meteorite of 1976
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Johnson, Matthey
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Johnson Matthey is a British multinational speciality chemicals and sustainable technologies company headquartered in the United Kingdom. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has been a constituent of the FTSE100 Index since 2002, Johnson Matthey traces its origins to 1817, when Percival Norton Johnson set up business as a gold assayer in London. In 1851 George Matthey joined the business and its name was changed to Johnson & Matthey, the following year the firm was appointed Official Assayer & Refiner to the Bank of England. In 1874, the company was commissioned to manufacture the kilogram reference standard, made from 90% platinum and 10% iridium, beginning in 1957, the company published a journal, Platinum Metals Review. In the 1960s Johnson Matthey formed a subsidiary, Johnson Matthey Bankers, in the early 1980s the bank expanded its activities outside the bullion business and started making high-risk loans. The quality of some of these turned out to be worse than expected. The size of the loans grew to exceed the level of the banks capital, to prevent a wider banking crisis the Bank of England organized a rescue package on the evening of 30 September 1984, purchasing JMB for £1. Most of JMBs business was sold to Mase Westpac. In 1989, worldwide annual turnover of Johnson Matthey was £1.43 billion, with plants in Evere, Wayne. In 2008 Johnson Matthey acquired Argillon, a business specialising in catalysts, in October 2010 Johnson Matthey acquired InterCAT, a supplier of fluid catalytic cracking additives for the petroleum refining industry, for $56.2 million. Today, around one third of all cars worldwide are fitted with a Johnson Matthey catalyst, process Technologies supplies catalysts, licenses technologies and delivers other services to the petrochemical, syngas, oil refining and gas processing industries. Precious Metal Products manages, distributes, refines and recycles precious metals and fabricates products using precious metals, Johnson Matthey offers seven metal separation of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium and ruthenium. Products include advanced coatings for glass manufacture, catalysts for the production of nitric acid, fine Chemicals supplies active pharmaceutical ingredients and catalysis and chiral technologies to the pharmaceutical, fine chemical and agrochemical industries. It is also a globally integrated supplier of research chemicals under the Alfa Aesar brand name, new Businesses targets new opportunities in areas adjacent to the company’s current businesses and which align with its core technology competencies. This division includes Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells and Johnson Matthey Battery Technologies, Johnson Matthey identifies Sustainability as an integral part of its growth strategy and a key driver for its competitiveness. In 2007 Johnson Matthey set itself six targets to achieve by 2017, in 2013/14 Johnson Matthey reported a reduction in carbon intensity to 149 tonnes CO2 equivalent / £ million sales. As a result of Johnson Matthey’s nitrous oxide abatement catalysts more than 64 million tonnes CO2 equivalent of N2O has been prevented from entering the atmosphere, the violation related to the selective screening of wastewater samples for compliance analysis. Following the charge Johnson Matthey Inc contributed $750,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Official site London Stock Exchange profile Yahoo
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Moritz von Jacobi
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Moritz Hermann von Jacobi was a German Jewish and Russian engineer and physicist born in Potsdam. He furthered progress in galvanoplastics, electric motors, and wire telegraphy, in 1834 he began to study magnetic motors. In 1835 moved to Dorpat to lecture at Dorpat University and he moved to Saint Petersburg in 1837 to research usage of electromagnetic forces for moving machines for Russian Academy of Sciences. He investigated the power of an electromagnet in motors and generators, while studying the transfer of power from a battery to an electric motor, he deduced the maximum power theorem. Jacobi tested motors output by determining the amount of zinc consumed by the battery, with financial assistance of Czar Nicholas, Jacobi constructed in 1839 a 28-foot electric motor boat powered by battery cells. The boat carried 14 passengers on Neva river against the current, the boat fared at the speed of three miles for hour. The transfer of power from a source with a fixed internal resistance to a load. This law is of use when driving a load such as a motor from a battery. Jacobi obtained his theorem by applying common sense, in 1838, he discovered galvanoplastics, or electrotyping, a method of making printing plates by electroplating. The way in which works is analogous to a battery acting in reverse. The stereotype was a taken from a form of movable lead type. This technique is used in relief printing and he also worked on the development of the electric telegraph. In 1842-1845 he built a line between Saint Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo using an underground cable. In 1867 he was a Russian delegate to the Commission on measurement units at the Paris Worlds Fair and he was a strong proponent of the metric system. He was a brother of the mathematician Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, archived from the original on 2006-10-06. Jacobis Theorem Also known as the Maximum Power Transfer Theorem, misunderstanding of it retarded development of dynamos, march 30,2001 Jacobis motor - The first real electric motor of 1834
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Numismatics
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Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. Early money used by people is referred to as Odd and Curious, the Kyrgyz people used horses as the principal currency unit and gave small change in lambskins, the lambskins may be suitable for numismatic study, but the horse is not. Many objects have been used for centuries, such as shells, precious metals, cocoa beans, large stones. Today, most transactions take place by a form of payment with either inherent, standardized, Numismatic value may be used to refer to the value in excess of the monetary value conferred by law, which is known as the collector value. Economic and historical studies of use and development are an integral part of the numismatists study of moneys physical embodiment. First attested in English 1829, the word comes from the adjective numismatic. It was borrowed in 1792 from French numismatiques, itself a derivation from Late Latin numismatis, genitive of numisma, throughout its history, money itself has been made to be a scarce good, although it does not have to be. Many materials have been used to form money, from naturally scarce precious metals and cowry shells through cigarettes to entirely artificial money, called fiat money, many complementary currencies use time as a unit of measure, using mutual credit accounting that keeps the balance of money intact. Modern money is essentially a token – an abstraction, paper currency is perhaps the most common type of physical money today. However, goods such as gold or silver retain many of the properties of money, such as volatility. However, these goods are not controlled by one single authority, coin collecting may have existed in ancient times. Caesar Augustus gave coins of every device, including old pieces of the kings, petrarch, who wrote in a letter that he was often approached by vinediggers with old coins asking him to buy or to identify the ruler, is credited as the first Renaissance collector. Petrarch presented a collection of Roman coins to Emperor Charles IV in 1355, the first book on coins was De Asse et Partibus by Guillaume Budé. During the early Renaissance ancient coins were collected by European royalty and nobility, Numismatics is called the Hobby of Kings, due to its most esteemed founders. Professional societies organized in the 19th century, the Royal Numismatic Society was founded in 1836 and immediately began publishing the journal that became the Numismatic Chronicle. The American Numismatic Society was founded in 1858 and began publishing the American Journal of Numismatics in 1866, in 1931 the British Academy launched the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum publishing collections of Ancient Greek coinage. The first volume of Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles was published in 1958, after World War II in Germany a project, Fundmünzen der Antike was launched, to register every coin found within Germany. This idea found successors in many countries, in the United States, the US mint established a coin Cabinet in 1838 when chief coiner Adam Eckfeldt donated his personal collection
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Ivan Ivanovich Tolstoy
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Ivan Ivanovich Tolstoy was an Imperial Russian Politician. He served as Vice President of the Russian Imperial Academy of Arts while Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich was Academy President and he later served as Imperial Minister of Education in the Witte Government. Out of My Past, The Memoirs of Count Kokovtsov Edited by H. H. Fisher and translated by Laura Matveev, the Memoirs of Count Witte Edited and translated by Sydney Harcave, Sharpe Press,1990. Works by Ivan Ivanovich Tolstoy at LibriVox
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Saint Petersburg Mint
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Saint Petersburg Mint is one of the worlds largest mints. It was founded by Peter the Great in 1724 on the territory of Peter and Paul Fortress and it is a part of the Goznak State-owned corporation. К истории создания Банковского монетного двора // Хранитель Эрмитажа, Сборник воспоминаний и научных статей к 100-летию со дня рождения И
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Basel
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Basel is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine. Basel is Switzerlands third-most-populous city with about 175,000 inhabitants, located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany. In 2014, the Basel agglomeration was the third largest in Switzerland with a population of 537,100 in 74 municipalities in Switzerland, the official language of Basel is German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect. Basel has been the seat of a Prince-Bishopric since the 11th century, the city has been a commercial hub and important cultural centre since the Renaissance, and has emerged as a centre for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry in the 20th century. It hosts the oldest university of the Swiss Confederation, There are settlement traces on the Rhine knee from the early La Tène period. The unfortified settlement was abandoned in the 1st century BC in favour of an Oppidum on the site of Basel Minster, probably in reaction to the Roman invasion of Gaul. In Roman Gaul, Augusta Raurica was established some 20 km from Basel as the administrative centre. The city of Basel eventually grew around the castle, the name of Basel is derived from the Roman-era toponym Basilia, first recorded in the 3rd century. It is presumably derived from the personal name Basilius, the Old French form Basle was adopted into English, and developed into the modern French Bâle. The Icelandic name Buslaraborg goes back to the 12th century Leiðarvísir og borgarskipan, Basel was incorporated into Germania Superior in AD83. Roman control over the area deteriorated in 3rd century, and Basel became an outpost of the Provincia Maxima Sequanorum formed by Diocletian, the Alamanni attempted to cross the Rhine several times in the 4th century, but were repelled. In a great invasion of AD406, the Alemanni appear to have crossed the Rhine river a final time, conquering and then settling what is today Alsace, from this time, Basel has been an Alemannic settlement. The Duchy of Alemannia fell under Frankish rule in the 6th century, and by the 7th century, based on the evidence of a third solidus with the inscription Basilia fit, Basel seems to have minted its own coins in the 7th century. Under bishop Haito, the first cathedral was built on the site of the Roman castle, at the partition of the Carolingian Empire, Basel was first given to West Francia, but passed to East Francia with the treaty of Meerssen of 870. The city was plundered and destroyed by a Magyar invasion of 917, the rebuilt city became part of Upper Burgundy, and as such was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire in 1032. Since the donation by Rudolph III of Burgundy of the Moutier-Grandval Abbey and all its possessions to Bishop Adalbero II in 999 till the Reformation, in 1019, the construction of the cathedral of Basel began under German Emperor Heinrich II. In 1225–1226, the Bridge over the Rhine was constructed by Bishop Heinrich von Thun, the bridge was largely funded by Basels Jewish community which had settled there a century earlier. For many centuries to come Basel possessed the only permanent bridge over the river between Lake Constance and the sea, the Bishop also allowed the furriers to found a guild in 1226
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Face value
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The face value is the value of a coin, stamp or paper money, as printed on the coin, stamp or bill itself by the issuing authority. The face value of coins, stamps, or bill is usually its legal value, however, their market value need not bear any relationship to the face value. For example, some coins or stamps may be traded at prices considerably above their face value. The face value of bonds usually represents the principal or redemption value, interest payments are expressed as a percentage of face value. Before maturity, the value of a bond may be greater or less than face value, depending on the interest rate payable. As bonds approach maturity, actual value approaches face value, in the case of stock certificates, face value is the par value of the stock. In the case of stock, par value is largely symbolic. In the case of preferred stock, dividends may be expressed as a percentage of par value, the face value of a life insurance policy is the death benefit. In the case of so-called double indemnity life insurance policies, the beneficiary receives double the value in case of accidental death. The face value of property, casualty or health insurance policies is the amount payable. Face value can be used to refer to the apparent value of something other than a financial instrument, in this context, face value refers to the apparent merits of the idea, before the concept or plan has been tested. Face value also refers to the price printed on a ticket to an event, concert. In many jurisdictions, re-selling tickets for more than face value constitutes ticket scalping and is illegal, taking someone at face value is assuming another persons suggestion, offer, or proposal is sincere, rather than a bargaining ploy. Denomination Nominal value Melt value Par value Place value
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Proof coinage
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Nearly all countries have issued proof coinage. Preparation of a proof striking usually involved polishing of the dies and they can usually be distinguished from normal circulation coins by their sharper rims and design, as well as much smoother fields – the blank areas not part of the coins design. The dies for making modern proof coins are often treated with chemicals to certain parts of the design take on a frosted appearance. Several other methods have used in the past to achieve this effect, including sand blasting the dies. Proof coins of the early 19th century even appear to be scratched, the term proof refers to the process by which the coins are made and not to the condition of the coin. Certification agencies can grade and assign numerical ratings for proof coins, most proof coins are double struck under higher pressure. This does not normally result in doubling that is readily observable, after being struck, they are separately and individually handled, in contrast to normal coins which are thrown into bins. The U. S. had largely stopped striking proof coins in 1916, beginning in 1936, the U. S. Mint began producing proof coins again. Proof coins through 1942 could be ordered individually from the mint, because of this the lowest mintage for any denomination determines the total number of complete sets that can exist. Consequently, this number is used to indicate the mintages of proof sets for the years 1936 through 1942, sets struck from 1936 to 1942 and, when resumed, from 1950 to 72 include the cent, nickel, dime, quarter, and half dollar. From 1973 through 1981 the dollar was included, and also from 2000 on. From 1950 to 1955, proof sets were packaged in a box,1955 saw both the original box packaging and introduced the flat-pack, where the coins were sealed in cellophane and presented in an envelope. The flat-pack packaging continued through 1964, after which the coins were sealed in various styles of hard plasticized cases, the 1999–2008 proof sets also contain five different Statehood quarters. The 2004–2005 series also contain the two Lewis and Clark nickels, the 2007-2017 proof sets also include Presidential dollars. The 2010-2021 proof sets also contain America the Beautiful quarters, depicting different National Parks, Proof sets containing only 2009 cents, Statehood quarters, America the Beautiful quarters, and Presidential dollars are also available. From 1971 to 1974, proof silver-clad Eisenhower dollars were issued in a plastic case contained in a brown wood-grain finish slipcase box, anthony dollars were struck in 1999. S. Mint to advise the public that these sets were not government-issued sets, a proof Coin & Chronicles set was issued for 2009, which included one each of the 4 different Lincoln Cent designs and a commemorative Lincoln Silver Dollar, presented in special packaging. Other sets, called Prestige Proof sets, also contain selected commemorative coins and these sets were sold from 1983 to 1997 at an additional premium
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Saint Sophia's Cathedral, Kiev
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Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv is an outstanding architectural monument of Kievan Rus. The cathedral is one of the citys best known landmarks and the first heritage site in Ukraine to be inscribed on the World Heritage List along with the Kyiv Cave Monastery complex. Aside from its building, the cathedral includes an ensemble of supporting structures such as a bell tower. In 2011 the historic site was reassigned from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Regional Development of Ukraine to the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, in Ukrainian the cathedral is known as Sobor Sviatoyi Sofiyi or Sofiyskyi sobor. In Russian it is known as Sobor Svyatoi Sofii or Sofiyskiy sobor, the cathedrals name comes from the 6th-century Hagia Sophia cathedral in Constantinople. The first foundations were laid in 1037 or 1011, but the cathedral took two decades to complete. This info has been accepted by both UNESCO and Ukraine, which celebrated the 1000th anniversary of the cathedral during 2011. )The structure has 5 naves,5 apses. It is surrounded by galleries from three sides. Measuring 37 to 55 m, the used to be faced with plinths. On the inside, it retains mosaics and frescos from the 11th century, including a representation of Yaroslavs family. After the pillaging of Kiev by Andrei Bogolyubsky of Vladimir-Suzdal in 1169, followed by Mongolian Tatars in 1240 and it was also greatly damaged in the 16th century, when Poland and Ukraine were trying to unite catholic and orthodox churches. At this period the Cathedral was almost ruined, its roof decayed, following the 1595-96 Union of Brest, the Cathedral of Holy Sophia belonged to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church until it was claimed by the Moldavian Orthodox metropolitan Peter Mogila in 1633. The work continued under the Cossack Hetman Ivan Mazepa until 1767, all of these buildings as well as the Cathedral after the reconstruction have distinctive features of Ukrainian Baroque. The cathedral was saved from destruction primarily with the effort of many scientists, since the late 1980s Soviet, and later Ukrainian, politicians promised to return the building to the Orthodox Church. Due to various schisms and factions within the Church the return was postponed as all Orthodox, although all of the Orthodox churches have been allowed to conduct services at different dates, at other times they are denied access. After events such as those no religious body has yet given the rights for regular services. The complex now remains a museum of Ukraines Christianity, with most of its visitors being tourists
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Cathedral of St. Sophia, Novgorod
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The Cathedral of St. Sophia in Veliky Novgorod is the cathedral church of the Archbishop of Novgorod and the mother church of the Novgorodian Eparchy. The 38-metre-high, five-domed, stone cathedral was built by Vladimir of Novgorod between 1045 and 1050 to replace an oaken cathedral built by Bishop Joachim the Korsunian in the tenth century. It was consecrated by Bishop Luka Zhidiata on September 14, in 1050 or 1052, while it is commonly known as St. It replaced an older wooden, 13-domed church built in or around 989 by Bishop Ioakim Korsunianin. The main, golden cupola, was gilded by Archbishop Ioann in 1408, the sixth dome crowns a tower which leads to the upper galleries. In medieval times these were said to hold the Novgorodian treasury and there was a library there, when the library was moved to the St. Petersburg Spiritual Academy in 1859, it numbered more than 1,500 volumes, some dating back to the 13th century. The current Archbishop, Lev, has reestablished a library there, as of 2004, it housed some 5,000 volumes. A Sunday school is held in the gallery. The cupolas are thought to have acquired their present helmet-like shape in the 1150s, the interior was painted in 1108 at the behest of Bishop Nikita, although the project was not undertaken until shortly after his death. In the 1860s, parts of the interior had to be repainted, a white stone belltower in five bays was built by Archbishop Evfimii II, the greatest architectural patron to ever hold the archiepiscopal office. He also had the Palace of Facets built just northwest of the cathedral in 1433, the nearby clocktower was initially completed under his patronage as well, but fell down in the seventeenth century and was restored in 1673. From the 12th to the 15th century, the cathedral was a ceremonial and spiritual centre of the Novgorod Republic, novgorodians were exceedingly proud of their church, boasting that they were willing to lay down their heads for Holy Wisdom or to die honorably for Holy Wisdom. When one prince angered them, they told him we have no prince, only God, the Truth, on another occasion, they made the cathedral the symbol of the city itself, saying Where Holy Wisdom is, there is Novgorod. The first burial there was Prince Vladimir himself in 1052, the first bishop was Luka Zhidiata in 1060. The last burial in the cathedral was Metropolitan Gurii in 1912, most of the burials are below the floor in the Martirievskaia Porch, on the south side of the cathedral, named for Bishop Martirii. Later burials took place in the Pretechenskaia Papter on the side of the cathedral. Today, there are burials in the main body of the church. Bishop Nikita lies in a glass-covered sarcaphogus between the chapels of the Nativity of the Mother of God and Sts, Ioakim and Anne and the sarcophagus is opened on his feast days so the faithful can venerate his relics
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Palladium coin
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Palladium coins are a form of coinage made out of the rare silver-white transition metal palladium. Palladium is assigned the code XPD by ISO4217, the first palladium coins were produced in 1966. Sierra Leone issued the first palladium coins in 1966, Tonga commenced issuing palladium coins a year later, in 1967, and those issues included the Tonga Palladium Hau. Since then a number of countries have issued coins, including Canada. Most of these have been special commemorative coins, the former USSR, now the Russian Federation, minted the most palladium coins in the world. Some other popular palladium coins minted by other countries are listed below, a bill authorizing the United States Mint to produce and distribute a one-troy-ounce palladium coin was passed into law on December 14,2010. The planned coin would carry a $25 face value, the Canadian Big & Little Bear Constellations are the lowest-mintage coins ever minted by the Royal Canadian Mint, totaling no more than 1200 coins. There are four versions corresponding to four seasons, actual mintages are 297 springs,296 summers,296 autumns, and 293 winters. The Royal Canadian Mint minted palladium maple leafs from 2005 to 2007, in 2009 and these coins are made of 99. 95% pure palladium, each one containing one troy ounce of pure palladium. They are legal tender in Canada, one of the sides bears a single maple leaf, and the other has the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II
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The Tale of Igor's Campaign
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The Tale of Igors Campaign is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language. The title is translated as The Tale of the Campaign of Igor, The Song of Igors Campaign, The Lay of Igors Campaign, The Lay of the Host of Igor. The poem gives an account of a raid of Igor Svyatoslavich against the Polovtsians of the Don River region. While some have disputed the authenticity of the poem, the current scholarly consensus is that the poem is authentic, the Tale of Igors Campaign was adapted by Alexander Borodin as an opera and became one of the great classics of Russian theatre. Entitled Prince Igor, it was first performed in 1890, the story describes a failed raid made in year 1185 by Kniaz Igor Svyatoslavich, Prince of Novgorod-Seversk on the Polovtsians tribe living in the southern part of the Don region. Other Rus historical figures are mentioned, including skald Boyan, the princes Vseslav of Polotsk, Yaroslav Osmomysl of Halych, the author appeals to the warring Rus princes and pleads for unity in the face of the constant threat from the Turkic East. The descriptions show coexistence between Christianity and ancient Slavic religion, Igors wife Yaroslavna invokes natural forces from the walls of Putyvl. Christian motifs are presented along with depersonalised pagan gods as among the artistic images, the Tale has been compared to other national epics, including The Song of Roland and The Song of the Nibelungs. The book however differs from contemporary Western epics on account of its numerous and vivid descriptions of nature, monastery superior Joel sold the manuscript to a local landowner, Aleksei Musin-Pushkin, as a part of a collection of ten texts. Aleksei realised the value of the book and made a transcription for the empress Catherine the Great in 1795 or 1796 and he published it in 1800 with the help of Alexei Malinovsky and Nikolai Bantysh-Kamensky, leading Russian paleographers of the time. The original manuscript was claimed to have burned in the great Moscow fire of 1812, the Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov translated the work into English in 1960. Other notable editions include the standard Soviet edition, prepared with an extended commentary, according to the majority view, the poem is a composition of the late 12th century, perhaps composed orally and fixed in written form at some point during the 13th century. Some scholars consider the possibility that the poem in its current form is a national Romanticist compilation and it was not until 1951 that scholars discovered ancient birch bark documents with content in this medieval language. There are almost identical passages in both texts where only the names are different. The traditional point of view considers Zadonschina to be a late imitation, the forgery version claims the reverse, that Igors Tale was written using Zadonschina as a source. This fact is taken as evidence of Slovo being the original with respect to Zadonschina, proponents of the forgery thesis give sometimes contradictory arguments, some authors see numerous Gallicisms in the text, while others see Germanisms, yet others Bohemisms. Zimin is certain that the author could only be Ioil Bykovsky, current dialectology upholds Pskov and Polotsk as the two cities where the Tale was most likely written. Numerous persons have been proposed as its authors, including Prince Igor, other authors consider the epic to have emerged in Southern Rus, with many elements corresponding to modern Ukrainian language
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