Numismatic News October 31, 2023

Numismatic News staff are busy readying the 2024 Coin Show & Auction Guide, and we want your show included – for free! The Show & Auction Guide is a semiannual supplement to Numismatic News, World Coin News and Bank Note Reporter magazines. Featuring the hobby’s most complete listing of coin shows taking place throughout all next year – as well as a comprehensive list of numismatic auction firms – you’ll want to be sure to have your club’s or organization’s show among them. This year’s Show & Auction Guide will appear in the Nov. 28, 2023, issue of Numismatic News and the January 2024 issues of sister publications World Coin News and Bank Note Reporter. Show listings can be submitted via an online form at https://hs.numismaster. com/submit-a-show-listing, or details can…

Do you search pocket change for interesting finds? Why or why not? Sure do. I even pick up change off the ground. About 10 years ago, I found a beautiful ’43 Mercury dime on the sidewalk while walking to work. I check Coinstar machines too. Made a true believer out of my wife after she saw some of the silver I have recovered. Now she checks the machines when I’m not with her. Gary North Carolina Not only do I search through my loose change but also the “need a penny ...” bowls by cash registers and coin returns on Coinstar machines. Never know when you might find a wheat cent, but I usually get Canadian nickels out of Coinstars Chris R. Grosse Pointe, Mich. Yes I do. I haven’t…

World Silver Bullion an Enjoyable Collecting Area Thanks for finally putting into Numismatic News an article on silver bullion coins (Mark Benvenuto’s Beyond the Mainstream, Oct. 10 issue). That is one category that my wife and I have been collecting for years now and greatly enjoy. We haven’t been detailed enough to try for every issue of any particular series, although we do have our favorites Mine are the Australian “K’s”, that is to say Kangaroo, Koala and Kookaburra. Like the China Pandas, a different design each year, always “cute” at least, if not always beautiful. Also Panda most years and a broad swath of other examples, depending on what catches our eye. Always popular are Lunar New Year issues. Pandas are attractive because, like American Eagles, they increase in…

ANNOUNCE MINTS The first-ever set featuring reverse proof versions of the 2023 Morgan and Peace silver dollars will become available to collectors on Nov. 9. The Morgan and Peace Silver Dollar programs were relaunched in 2021 and were immediately popular with collectors. The coins symbolize two important eras in the development of the nation. The Morgan dollars represented the country’s westward expansion and industrial development in the late 19th century, while the Peace dollars reflect a nation taking its place among major world powers. This new two-coin set includes 2023 Morgan and Peace dollars with reverse proof finishes. Both are produced at the San Francisco Mint and carry an “S” mintmark. Each reverse proof coin is struck in .999 fine silver and packaged in a single black box, with an…

■ The legend “In God We Trust” on our coins appears to be awkward. Why couldn’t the legend have been phrased as something such as “We Trust in God?” The January 1748 The Pennsylvania Gazette used “In God We Trust” to describe the colors of Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania militia. In 1785 Isaac Watts’ Psalter was modified for an American audience by Joel Barlow, including Psalm 115: 9-11 with words phrased as “In God We Trust.” The phrase as it now reads gained traction in both the North and the South by the time of the Civil War. ■ Why did it take so long for “In God We Trust” to appear on all of our coinage? Legislation was passed allowing the Mint director to use “In God We Trust” on…

When collectors talk about early United States silver dollars, the discussion invariably centers on the Draped Bust coins of 1795-1804. As early as the 1850s, these were extremely popular with collectors. The beginning of this design goes back to 1795, when silver coinage was less than a year old at the Philadelphia Mint. Less than 2,000 dollars were struck in 1794, the first year of coinage, but with the arrival of a more powerful press in late April 1795, coinage resumed strongly. Through the remainder of that year, more than 200,000 pieces were delivered by Chief Coiner Henry Voight. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the early dollar coinage is that it was technically illegal. The basic mint act of April 1792 required that silver coins be struck at a…