Innehållsförteckning för February 2022 från Coins

Numismatics has been making the news recently – for all the right reasons. The online headlines one late October day for WHDH Boston Channel 7 News reads: “Coins, bills from 1800s, early 1900s found in WWI ammunition round.” An earlier story published in The Guardian newspaper leads with: “Rare gold coins dug out of walls of French mansion sold for $1.2m.” A recent Los Angeles Times story headline reads: “It was worth pennies when minted. Now this Colonial American coin could fetch $300,000.” Not to be outdone, the US Sun tabloid has been helping encourage coin collecting with headlines including: “Rare 1969 D penny Lincoln coin sells for more than $2,000 – and you could have the same one in your wallet;” “Rare 1992 Lincoln penny coin sells for more…

I have followed your advice for years about searching the rejection tray of coin redemption sites. Finally, the mother lode of rejects was found. U.S. coins, foreign coins and a token were found. U.S.: 50 cents 1977-D, 2 1968-D, 2 1967, 1953-D, 1951-S, 1950-P, 10 cents 3 clad, 1952-P, 1947-S, 4 5 cent, 2 contemporary 1 cents, 7 1943-D, 1943-P, 1 1941, 1 1937-S, and one Abe Lincoln token. International coins are as follows: Canada 25c 2017 10c ‘69 and ‘72, 5c ‘57, ‘64, and one mex peso 1971, and Ireland 2.5 shillings. This I feel is a grand slam home run as opposed to a mere home run. A gold coin or rare (such as a 1916-D dime) coin can top this find for me John B Benson Address…

THERE IS NO DOUBT that key dates in a wide array of United States coin series are heavily collected, and eagerly sought by collecting enthusiasts of all stripes. The 1856 Flying Eagle cent, the 1909-S VDB cent, the 1916-D Mercury dime, and the 1916 Standing Liberty quarter are four good examples. There are quite a few more. But in all the high energy rushes for these rare dates and mint marks within any series there end up being some rather scarce or even rare pieces that get overlooked. Believe it or not, there are actually some excellent proof coins with low mintages, and yet relatively low prices. Let’s examine a few of them. First, proof Lincoln cents, from 1939 – 1942 The Lincoln cent has such a long history to…

In this column, I’m going to tell you about my trades at two different coin shops. The first involved a series of trades over a several week period, whereas the second was a one-time deal. The first was morally dubious but beneficial for me; the second was the opposite. The first series of trades took place when I was a junior collector, perhaps between the ages of 14 and 16. At the time, I was doing a lot of roll searching, and most rolls I looked through yielded good trading material. Some of this good trading material, however, was good only in the sense that it involved scarce coins with high catalog value. Unfortunately, the coins had problems, such as scratches, crud, obvious cleaning, etc. As for numismatic value, it…

ALTH O U GH N OT AS POPULAR as the lettered-edge half dollars struck before 1837, the Seated Liberty coinage of 1839–1891 is becoming increasingly important to collectors. The detailed studies of this series published by Bill Bugert over the past several years have played a critical role in rekindling interest. First struck in 1794, the half dollar was in widespread favor with the public from its earliest days. By the 1820s this denomination was the most popular silver or gold coin in circulation and only the lowly copper cent saw as much use by the public. In December 1836 the Mint succeeded in mechanizing the production of half dollars by producing them on a steam coining press instead of the old screw presses. Coins could now be minted far…