By David L. Ganz

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., abruptly canceled a hearing first slated for Oct. 31, and then Nov. 7, that had been designed to deal with the administration’s attempt to take control from Congress of coinage size, weight, composition and design, and another congressman’s attempt to hijack the cent melting prohibition for a constituent who wanted to melt pennies and send the metal to China.

Opposition mounted from Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., ranking minority member of the full committee, which has charge of all coin and currency matters. The full committee was once known as the Banking and Currency Committee and Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Special subcommittees used to handle coinage matters and developed an expertise in the field; more recently, the full committee has handled coinage matters as an ancillary or subsidiary function to the main work of the unit.

On Oct. 31, the committee had scheduled a grueling day of hearings on several bills, two of which had numismatic consequences. One was canceled because of Republican opposition led by Bachus; the unit unanimously approved and sent to the House floor four other matters including one coin bill. Read Full Story

By Henry T. Hettger on Numismatic News

I was the underbidder on a raw unidentified 1796 U.S. large cent. It was advertised on eBay and closed Oct. 19. It was advertised as very fine, not mentioning the corrosion, and for Early American copper purposes, it might grade good or AG, depending on removal of crud and verdigris.

The very fine details help to clearly identify the variety as 1796 NC-7 Stemless Wreath. The date position seemed to match, and the lowest point of the “7” appeared to point directly to a dentil below. The reverse was clearly of the stemless type, first seen, although extremely rare on the 1796 cent. It is believed this 1796 large cent was actually coined in 1797 as it is paired with the stemless reverse die of 1797 S-143, a scarce number in 1797-dated cents. The S-143 stemless reverse appeared to match precisely in the eBay auction photograph. Read Full Story

Bill Eckberg’s research article in this issue, on the “Science of Half Cent Values,” struck a particular chord with me, because it reminded me of how differently market values are determined in different U.S. coin series.

Demand alone can explain the high values spread across the Morgan dollar series, for example. The scarcest date in the series, the 1893-S, commands a price of $7,500 in VF-20: for an R1, on the Sheldon scale!

The 1889-CC, of which a couple of original bags are still credibly attested, will cost the aspiring owner $25,000 in baggy MS-60! In my opinion, it’s a matter of familiarity breeding demand. Every corner coin shop and flea market will display dozens of Morgan dollars. Buy a few common dates, and you may aspire to go after the scarcer ones. But there’s never any lack of supply. If you’ve got the dollars to spend, someone will have the coins - even an Unc. ‘89-CC.