Innehållsförteckning för May 27, 2025 från Numismatic News

The United States Mint was honored at the 32nd Mint Directors Conference (MDC) in Cape Town in early May with the 2023 American Women Quarter honoring Jovita Idar recognized in the Best Circulating Coin or Coin Series category. Designed and sculpted by United States Mint Medallic Artist John P. McGraw, the reverse design of the ninth coin in the American Women Quarters™ Program depicts the Mexican-American journalist, activist, teacher, and suffragist with her hands clasped. Within her body are inscriptions representing the causes she fought for and the regional newspapers she contributed to. The inscriptions are “MEXICAN AMERICAN RIGHTS,” “TEACHER,” “JOVITA IDAR,” “NURSE,” “EVOLUCIÓN,” “ASTREA,” “EL HERALDO CRISTIANO,” “LA CRUZ BLANCA,” “JOURNALIST,” “LA CRÓNICA,” “EL PROGRESO,” “LA LIGA FEMENIL MEXICANISTA,” “QUARTER DOLLAR,” “E PLURIBUS UNUM,” and “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.”…

A visit to a local coin shop recently spurred some pricing additions to NumisMaster. In the generic world silver coin pile were three of the 2022 1-ounce silver $2 coins from Niue from the “Yu-Gi-Oh!” Japanese manga series. I knew these coins existed but had never seen them in person. And there’s a good reason: the 2022 release of eight 1-ounce silver coins featuring characters from the series only had mintages of 250 per design. This is part of a larger trend for the last decade or more, where coin producers are issuing coins with extremely low mintages, what I call “boutique mintages.” A mintage of 250 1-ounce silver coins in an American series would be unheard of but is entirely normal for the modern market, which is rife with…

Many years ago, I had a great collecting idea: I would buy only key coins (think 1909-S VDB Lincoln cents) and gold (think U.S. pre-1933 gold). This led to another great idea: I would buy as many different Saints (Saint-Gaudens double eagles or $20 gold pieces) as I could afford. At the time, relatively common Saints were selling for around $500 each, and I managed to buy a couple of dozen certified coins before I lost interest and started work on a PCGS Registry Set of Washington quarters. [A PCGS Registry Set is a set of coins certified by PCGS that is ranked in comparison with similar sets registered by other collectors. NGC also has Registry Sets.] This proved to be a huge mistake. If you’ve read my columns/articles recently,…

Coin of the Year Presents the COTY 100 The process for the 2025 Coin of the Year (COTY) awards began in early January with a worldwide call for nominations. From roughly 7,000 coins released in 2024, mints, banks, and enthusiasts submitted nearly 550 for consideration. A nominating committee then narrowed this number into the COTY 100, which contains 100 2024-dated candidates from 38 countries. Over 35 mints and central banks are represented in this group. This selection features 10 outstanding coins in 10 specific categories. Voting has already commenced, and our panel of over 100 judges is casting ballots designed to select one coin in each category as a winner. A second round of voting by that same expert panel will then choose one of those 10 category winners as…

Has United States commemorative coinage taken a questionable turn, or will this be a boon to coin collecting? Coins depicting Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman will soon appear on non-circulating legal tender commemoratives. The United States is following the example of such countries as Great Britain and Canada, each of whom has, for some time, been issuing coins that shock traditional collectors but are eagerly sought by non-traditional collectors and—very important—by the non-collecting public. Other countries have featured everything from dinosaurs and the Titanic to fictional movie characters on such NCLT coins for some time. What’s important for U.S. coin collectors to recognize is the attention this draws to coin collecting. Coins have been in the headlines quite often recently. President Donald Trump drew attention to the 3.96 cents it…

Here are some answers sent from our e-newsletter readers. Read more responses at www.numismaticnews.com. If you could time travel and get any coin fresh from the Mint, which would it be and why? 1916 Standing Liberty Quarter! Rarely available now. Steep price now. The most beautiful coin design in silver of all that was a product of the US Mint. My opinion, of course. HorstAddress withheld I would like to have a Dohleonega gold coin because it is one that I will probably not buy in today’s market, but certainly would like to have. Name and Address withheld Any 1844 doubled die New Orleans or Dahlonega gold coin. Name and Address withheld I have always enjoyed the Octagonal Panama-Pacific International Exposition $50 gold piece of 1915 from the San Francisco…

My favorite coin in this column is a 1912-D Liberty Head nickel, aka V-nickel. As you can see, it’s a PCGS-graded AU55, with a CAC “Green Bean.” At this point, you may be thinking, “Why did Mike pick this particular V-nickel? It’s not a key coin in the series, by any stretch of the imagination.” The Liberty Head nickel was designed by Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber to replace the unlamented Shield Nickel. Back when I was a junior collector, the Liberty Head nickel was known almost exclusively as the “V” nickel because of the large Roman numeral five (V) on the reverse. In fact, I didn’t know it was a Liberty Head nickel until many years later. The V-nickel series ran from 1883 through 1912, with the illicitly…

Today, when proof sets are issued every year and the U.S. Mint catalog is filled with innovative issues for collectors, it may seem strange that there were periods when no or few new proof issues were available. The period of the coinage shortage in the 1960s was one of them, as proof coinage was stopped by the Mint in favor of what are called Special Mint Sets. At the time, Raymond Young’s article, “The Ups and Downs of U.S. Proof Coins,” appeared in the January 1966 issue of Coins magazine, no proof sets were being produced for collectors. “There are times in this century the U.S. Mint has suspended the issue of proof coins,” Young wrote. “On the basis of what has happened before, present-day collectors might take heart in…

Serious collectors know a must-have treasure when they see one, and that was exactly what happened when a massive Justh & Hunter gold ingot crossed the auction block at Heritage Auctions’ April 30-May 4 CSNS U.S. Coins Signature® Auction, in which numerous new auction records were set. The last of 60 bids drove the final result for the ingot to $2.13 million, to lead the total for the event to $31,691,002. That total, when added to the $9,406,921 CSNS U.S. Currency Signature® Auction April 29-May 2 and the $6,666,665 CSNS World & Ancient Coins Platinum Session and Signature®Auction May 1-2, boosted the total for the events to $47,764,588. The ingot that led the U.S. Coins event, from The Marcello and Luciano Collection, is a behemoth. It measures 218 mm (nearly…

The Tower of London has a dark and chilling history spanning centuries. Often, visitors to this iconic castle and World Heritage site aren’t aware of the nearly 1,000 years of history contained in what is now more of a complex than a single tower. In the 1070s, William the Conqueror, who led the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, embarked upon an ambitious construction project—a massive stone fortress in London. Known as the White Tower, it loomed over the London skyline, symbolizing the Norman control over the defeated Saxons. Over time, subsequent monarchs expanded and adapted the Tower for various purposes. Henry III and Edward I added defensive walls, smaller towers, and an enlarged moat, transforming the Tower into England’s largest and strongest concentric castle. They also expanded the inside,…

■ What was the reason the United States recalled all gold coins in 1933? The stock market crashed in 1929, followed by the failure of more than 5,000 banks throughout the following three years. England abandoned the gold standard in 1931. All this put the United States in an awkward position, ending in following England’s example. ■ Are gold and silver the only objects that can be considered to be specie for payment purposes? The term specie refers to something that is either given or received in the same or a similar form in Latin. Specie for monetary purposes is usually made in gold or silver; however, debt to be repaid in specie has also been accomplished by shares of stock, real estate, goods and services, or in slaves prior…

Earlier American wars produced a fair number of Congressional medals, especially for the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. The war with Mexico in the late 1840s created a few such medals, but for the Civil War, they are few and far between for official issues. In this essay, we will cover two medals: the 1864 medal struck at the order of General Benjamin Butler and the medal awarded to George Robinson for saving the life of Secretary of State William Seward in April 1865. “COLORED TROOPS BEFORE RICHMOND” With the election of Abraham Lincoln as president in November 1860, all knew that the South would try to secede from the Union. The only question left was whether the new chief executive would let them go in peace. In…

For decades, a mystery has intrigued generations of numismatists on both sides of the Atlantic. The striking similarities between Oscar Roty’s (1846–1911) “The Sower” and “The Walking Liberty” by Adolph Alexander Weinman (1870–1952) cannot be ignored. And yet, no concrete evidence has been discovered so far that unambiguously confirms what can only be perceived as highly likely: Weinman’s acclaimed design was largely influenced by Roty’s. A recent collaboration has brought both masterworks closer than ever. A project between French and American artists commissioned by the Monnaie de Paris celebrates a long-standing friendship between the two nations. Conceived as a three-year project, the series was launched in 2024 with coins simultaneously displaying Roty’s and Weinman’s designs. It will end in 2026 with a collection of French coins celebrating the 250th anniversary…

Arguably, one of the quietest programs at the United States Mint is the American Innovation Dollars. First issued in 2018, this program is now in its seventh year and has a few years still to go before the entire program is completed. The number of each coin design produced is usually large, at least the main mint in Philadelphia and the branch mint in Denver have serious output for most years. Importantly, there are always proofs issued for each design, which are marketed towards collectors and to which collectors and non-collectors alike gravitate. But, it is notable that what can be called the regular issues are not being released for general circulation. Rather, these are being sold directly from the Mint to anyone who is interested, in rolls of 20…

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