Innehållsförteckning för January 2020 från Coins

In my last column, I told you about my efforts to sell coins, jewelry, and silverware at the World’s Fair of Money in August. I was able to sell the items relatively easily on the seemingly infinite bourse. In addition, I had the name and address of a firm that would purchase the rest of the jewelry I had left at home. With a couple of shipments from home to the firm plus the jewelry I had sold at the show, I was able to write checks to a widow for a little more than $20,000. After disposing of the coins from two small accumulations, I was now ready to sell coins from my collection. One of the main ones was a 1911-D Strong D quarter eagle. This is the…

COLLECTORS THRIVE on set completion, and many 20th century series are relatively easy to complete. For example, if you consider completion as having one of each date/mintmark combination, without major varieties, then you’ll have little difficulty assembling complete sets of Buffalo and Jefferson nickels, Roosevelt dimes, Peace dollars, and so on. The same is true for Walking Liberty half dollars, Franklin half dollars, Kennedy half dollars, and Eisenhower(Ike) dollars. It’s true that most of the series I listed have key coins, coins with relatively low mintages and often prices that are multiples of those for other coins in the series. As just one example, look at Peace dollars. With a mintage of only 360,649 pieces, the 1928 (P) has been a tough coin from the day it was issued, and…

Members of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee were met with a robust agenda of coin and medal designs when the group met Oct. 15. The CCAC’s role is to advise the Secretary of the Treasury on any theme or design proposals relating to circulating, bullion and commemorative coins, Congressional Gold Medals and other medals produced by the Secretary. On the docket was the review and discussion of candidate designs for the following items: • 2021 American Liberty gold coin and silver medal • 2021 and Beyond Washington Crossing the Delaware quarter design • 2021 U.S. Navy 2.5-ounce Armed Forces silver medal • 2020 Women’s Suffrage Centennial silver medal: historic focus and modern focus Seen here are the artist-submitted designs for the 2021 and Beyond Washington Crossing the Delaware quarter which…

More positives than negatives dominate the current coin market, yet market instability continues. Much of this instability is due to the wild ride bullion gold and silver have been taking. Gold has remained above the $1,500 an ounce level within the past month, but I wouldn’t describe it as solidly above that level. Silver has ranged between the $17.50 to $19 an ounce level, more recently remaining near, yet below its benchmark $18 price. This in turn has impacted all bullion and many bullion-impacted coin prices. Copper and nickel composition coins are not impacted by these gyrations, however, the instability of equity markets has taken some discretionary money out of the hands of potential buyers. Better date, better condition coins are proving to be the most stable, especially in the…

IT HAS been said that coin collecting started as the hobby of kings. The reason is that, in the distant past, it was only the nobility who could afford to strike special coins and medals and were usually awarded to each other. Fortunately for us, our hobby has become far more affordable of late–although there are still several major auctions of high-end coins that can make us think otherwise. For any of us who think those high end-pieces are the norm, let’s look at the other end of the price charts and see what sort of United States coinage is still attached to good prices. Let’s focus on United States silver. 20th Century Dimes The 20th century has seen a lot of dimes minted, but only three different designs for…