Innehållsförteckning för August 26, 2025 från Numismatic News

Florida has officially removed the $500 minimum purchase requirement for its sales-tax exemption on gold, silver, and platinum bullion. Effective today, this important policy change allows all qualifying bullion purchases to be tax-exempt, regardless of the transaction amount. The change was enacted through House Bill 7031, which was signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis following strong bipartisan support in the Florida Legislature. Previously, only purchases exceeding $500 in a single transaction qualified for the exemption, leaving smaller purchases subject to sales tax—a policy that disproportionately burdened small investors, collectors, and dealers. The elimination of this threshold levels the playing field for these consumers while also aligning Florida with a growing number of states that offer full sales-tax parity for precious-metals buyers. Under Florida Administrative Code Rule 12A-1.0371, the $500…

The American Women Quarters Program began in 2022, a four-year program that honors the achievements of American women. The quarters honored women spanning across many different fields, from the arts to the sciences. On August 26, the American Women’s quarters ornaments will be released, one for each of the women honored in 2025: Ida B. Wells, Juliette Gordon Low, Dr.Vera Rubin, Stacey Park Milbern, and last but not least, Althea Gibson. Each ornament includes a certificate of authenticity, an explanation of the ornament’s design elements, and a brief description of the honoree.…

Coins magazine contributor Walter Hazzard took a close look at Canadian small cents for his article, “No Great Bankroll Need: Canada’s transition to the small cent set the stage for a fine collecting series,” in the April 1966 issue of Coins magazine. “North America’s northernmost cents don’t have [the] venerable tradition behind them that some other coins have, but what they lack in antiquity they more than make up in the attraction they hold for collectors,” Hazzard wrote. “Long the most plentiful and widely collected of the Canadian and Newfoundland series, the small cents … offer advantages to collectors not found in more widely known types. In popularity, they seem to be well on their way to rivaling the U.S. Lincolns and show even greater promise as the number of…

Stack’s Bowers Galleries is presenting its 2025 Global Showcase Rarities Night session on Wednesday, August 27. Since its inception in the 2011 official auction for the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money, the firm’s Rarities Night auctions have attracted some of the most important coins and cabinets to cross the block. Leading the way this year is an impressive array of gold coins from the Chicago, Hough Family, and Floyd T. Starr collections, as well as early half dollars from the Iron Eagle Collection; fabulous, conditionally rare Morgan dollars from the Illinois Set, and patterns from the Seven Lions Collection. In addition to Rarities Night, the Stack’s Bowers Galleries 2025 Global Showcase will also present additional United States coins, Numismatic Americana, ancient and world coins, world paper money, and…

The weekly Show Directory lists all coin and paper money events scheduled within one month of the issue cover date. Show dates and times sometimes change at the last minute. Please contact the show promoter BEFORE traveling long distances. SHOW PROMOTERS: Run your show announcement FREE! Just email the information indicated in the form below to numismatics@aimmedia.com. All timely listings are also included in both Bank Note Reporter and World Coin News at NO CHARGE. *Dependent upon date of submission relevant to deadline and space availability. Want to make your show really STAND OUT? Whether you need dealers on the floor or collectors at the gate, Numismatic News offers the best, most qualified coin and paper money collector and dealer audience around – AND we have the means to reach…

Here are some answers sent from our e-newsletter readers. Read more responses at www.numismaticnews.com. Should the U.S. Mint focus more on collector engagement, circulating coinage, historical themes, or something else entirely? The mint’s primary responsibility is to meet the nation’s coinage needs. It should eliminate the production of the cent, half dollar, and dollar coins. It would suffice to just issue the dime and quarter for circulation, plus proofs for collectors, as well as bullion coins for investors and whatever commemoratives are mandated by Congress. The very limited editions of other coins that the mint produces to create instant rarities will have a long-term detrimental effect on the hobby as collectors start to sell them, and there are not enough collectors to buy them. We also have to revert to…

We’ve taken a look at plenty of five-cent pieces of all stripes in past Bargain Collector columns, but maybe it is time to come back to these workhorse pieces of small change, especially after our recent discussion of the much higher-priced Coronet Head $5 gold pieces. The United States Mint had begun the production of a base metal five-cent coin in 1866 and had put the small, silver half-dime to bed in 1873, so the introduction of a new nickel design may not have caused too big a stir in 1883. But this new design – the artwork of Mr. Charles Barber – is the first to sport an allegorical image of Lady Liberty on the obverse, as well as a Roman Numeral on the reverse. Enough has been written…

Brought to you by NumisMaster.com A penny for your thoughts? We know what President Donald J. Trump’s thoughts are about our one-cent coin. In February, he posted, “For far too long, the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than two cents. This is so wasteful!” You have to wonder if the president had read the 1989 edition of the Farmers’ Almanac, which reads: “Only tradition explains our stubborn attachment to the penny. But sometimes traditions get ridiculous.” While the U.S. Mint annual report for fiscal 2024 reports it costing 3.7 cents to strike a 1-cent coin (The report also indicates a 5-cent or “nickel” coin now costs about 13.8 cents to manufacture.) we’re also hearing protests to the idea of sending our cent to the dustbin…

■ The 2020-P Silver American Eagle Emergency dollar bullion coin was minted in Philadelphia because of the COVID-19 epidemic, which caused the other mints to stop production. There is no reference to this coin in either the Red Book or the Coin World price guide. Why is there no evidence of this coin’s existence? I can’t speak to why other publications may not list any specific coin. Between April 8 and 20, 2020, the Philadelphia Mint struck 240,000 Silver American Eagles without mint marks. Bullion SAEs are normally struck at West Point or San Francisco. The 2020-P SAE coins are commonly encountered in the secondary market in Professional Coin Grading Service or Numismatic Guaranty Corporation encapsulations. ■ How were 2020 P Silver American Eagles distributed? The 2020-P SAEs were sold…

In some ways, the Capped Bust half dollar is one of the least known coins of the United States to the beginning collector, but one of the more interesting to the specialist. And even though this series has its share of high-profile coins, there are numerous pieces that can easily be obtained by numismatists of limited means. The story begins in the early 1800s. Mint Director Elias Boudinot resigned his post in the early summer of 1805 and was replaced by a professor of mathematics, Robert Patterson. The new director did not think that the current artwork on United States coins was all that good and asked permission from President Thomas Jefferson to hire a special engraver to redesign all of them. Jefferson hesitated for some time over the request,…

Several years ago, I corresponded with Weimar White, retired chemist and author of the well-received book, Coin Chemistry. Coin Chemistry is a compilation of White’s writings on cleaning coins, conserving them, and what causes toning on coins. Toning on silver coins, he wrote, is like rust on iron. That comment caused me to focus on what I would call “blast white” coins, mint state coins with little or no toning. I remember that White told me that his favorite coin was a high-grade example of a Carson City gold piece, and he would like to have it buried with him when he died. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, Weimar didn’t think his heirs would allow him to be buried with his coin, as it was worth…

You’ve all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, and possibly most of us would agree; however, you need to know what you are looking at, or the image will be useless. That especially applies to numismatics. My thought for this column is to post a lot of images with just a few words. I’ve been fortunate to be able to examine lots of different things at powers of magnification well beyond normal for the average collector or coin dealer, and it has become a blessing. I’ve written before about how easy it is for me to identify something I see on a coin using just a hand lens because I’ve seen that same thing before in greater detail while using a stereo microscope! I like to participate…