DANIEL WEBSTER | Coins Belgians honor Maigret creator

Inspector Maigret ensured the literary immortality of Belgian writer Georges Simenon, and now has led the author to numismatic longevity as well.
Simenon is honored on Belgium's new silver, 10-euro commemorative proof coin. The coin appears on the centennial of Simenon's birth and stands as a conciliatory gesture by Belgians toward the controversial writer.
This was the man who remained prosperously at work during the Nazi occupation, seeing his novels published and many films made from the popular Inspector Maigret series.
Simenon was also much more, during a long life of incredible productivity.
Beginning as a teenage journalist, he wrote novels about the gritty life he saw in Lieges. Later, his scene changed to Paris and even Connecticut, where he lived for several years.
He wrote under many pseudonyms. Pulp fiction was his staple, but his creation, Maigret, led crime literature into deeper waters. The psychology of crime and murderous impulse was Maigret's subject.
The psychology of the author was at least as intriguing. His catalog, surpassing Don Giovanni's, recorded 20,000 sexual encounters, and a list of broken marriages.
It was the art, not the man, that makes Simenon revered -- and a natural choice for a commemorative coin.
The proof coin has been designed by Luc Lucyx to pair creator and fictional hero. It costs $34.95 plus $4.50 for shipping. Queries go to the Coin and Currency Institute, Box 1057, Clifton, N.J., or to Mailcoin-currency.com.
Down east
The Maine quarter, after a showy inauguration in early May at the Philadelphia Mint, was put into circulation early this month.
The coin, the 23rd in the state series, depicts Pemiquid Lighthouse and coastline with a three-masted schooner sailing by.
Auctions galore
As the summer auction season heats up, Stack's will sell 1,250 lots of U.S coins, including many patterns, on June 10 at Le Parker Meridien Hotel in Manhattan. The sale will include a range of silver dollars and rolls of coins. Queries go to www.stacks.com.
The auction industry reaches a peak in late July, when dealers and collectors converge on Baltimore for the annual convention of the American Numismatic Association.
XDaniel Webster is a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.