Laura Sperber of Legend Numismatics, a Monmouth County coin dealer, sells some of the rarest — and most expensive — coins ever to hit the market. How about $5 million for a nickel?

In 1976, Laura Sperber’s eyes were drawn to a 1913 “Liberty Head” nickel, one of the rarest of coins, at a New York City coin show.

“To me, that was, wow, the Holy Grail,” said Sperber, now 48. “They let me hold it, and right then and there that forever changed me. It was the coolest thing and I just knew I had to be a coin dealer.”

Years later, in 2003, Sperber, a partner in Legend Numismatics Inc., would buy that same coin for about $1.8 million and sell it it a year later for $2.5 million. “At that point, my dreams were fulfilled. I did it.”

It was just the start. Sperber bought a second 1913 Liberty Head (there are only five in existence and two are in museums) in 2005 for $4.15 million and sold it earlier this year for $5 million. At the time, it was the second-highest price ever paid for a coin, she said. Read Full Article

The year that is about to close marks two noteworthy and related centennials. In 1907, America’s greatest sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, died. Also in that year, the federal government issued the gold coins — in $10 and $20 denominations — that it had commissioned Saint-Gaudens to design.

Most people know of Saint-Gaudens for his large-scale public works that ennoble certain lucky American cities, including and especially New York. But as a fine exhibition mounted by the American Numismatic Society at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York attests, the master sculptor was equally adept on a scale as small as a coin.

…By this point, the visitor may wonder why the American Numismatic Society would mount their show in one of the hardest-to-enter buildings in New York. Once I’d been cleared, I saw why. The groin-vaulted galleries of York & Sawyer’s splendid building, marked off by wrought-iron fences by Samuel Yellin, America’s greatest artist in iron, may well be the most exhilarating exhibition spaces in the entire city. Read Full Story

On 31st December 2007, Dr Lawrence Gonzi, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Malta and Michael C. Bonello, Governor of the Central Bank of Malta, Will Receive the First Maltese Euro Money in Valletta.
The Maltese authorities will welcome the new currency with a big public event in the Grand Harbour of the capital, Valletta. The National Euro Changeover Committee will commemorate the adoption of the Euro with breathtaking firework choreography at the stroke of midnight.

‘Malta’s accession into the Eurozone will make the country more attractive for local and foreign investment by increasing Malta’s competitiveness. What is more, the Euro is currently at its peak and knows an unprecedented strength. We are proud that Malta is now at the very heart of Europe,’ says Dr Gonzi.

All ATMs will start dispensing Euro as from midnight. National symbols such as the Maltese Cross, the Coat of Arms and the Mnajdra Temple Altar will be the faces of the new Euro coins.

Some 1.3 million people choose the Mediterranean island as their holiday destination every year. ‘The adoption of the Euro represents a significant incentive to boost the number of people visiting Malta’ added Tonio Fenech, Parliamentary Secretary of the Maltese Ministry of Finance.

By Ken Potter - I reported upon a Spiked Head die crack on a proof 2007-S Thomas Jefferson Presidential dollar in the Nov. 13, 2007, issue of Numismatic News. What I did not say was that it was actually just one of several Spiked Heads found on proof coins submitted to me in the past year and a half.

New to the list of significant die cracks on proof coins are 12 examples dated 1998-S, 1999-S, 2000-S, 2005-S and 2006-S, spanning all denominations from nickels through a single Sacagawea dollar. The “list” was originally started with a Spiked Head 2002-S silver Kennedy half dollar that headlined the April 15, 2003, issue of NN. This coin prompted a long string of finds that followed as folks began to check other denominations and dates closer.

The 10-part series of reports ran intermittently with the last appearing in the June 14, 2005, issue up until my recent Jefferson dollar story. Read Full Article