Dealers seeking membership in the Certified Acceptance Corp. have until May 1 to apply. John Albanese, founder and president of the New Jersey-based company, announced the initial application period closing date in a March 13 release.

CAC, which began operations late last year, has more than 150 dealer members, Albanese said. Members are authorized to serve as CAC Submission Centers, accepting coins submitted for the firm’s evaluation.

CAC experts examine coins previously certified by either Professional Coin Grading Service or Numismatic Guaranty Corporation. CAC then affixes a green sticker to the holder of each coin that, in its judgment, fully merits the grade that was assigned.

“CAC’s objectives are to give consumers an easy way to identify higher-end coins and provide a formal basis for independent trading of those coins,” Albanese said. “We want the market to reflect what they’re really worth.”

Eligibility for CAC membership is determined primarily by an applicant’s record of quality service, reputable business practices and fair treatment of collectors and other dealers. Length of service and volume of business also are considered. Read Full Numismaster Article

By David Ganz

Establishment of a Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission with a $1 commemorative coin produced from February 2010 to February 2011 is one of the requests before Congress.

The bulk of the bill would establish a commission to honor the 2010 centennial of the birth of Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States. The bill, H.R. 5235, was introduced Feb. 6 by U.S. Reps. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif. and Roy Blunt, R-Mo. In addition to the $1 coin, a stamp in his honor is also mentioned.

Ronald Wilson Reagan remains an American hero - the genuine article - a man so revered that a recent Gallup poll ranks him first of all the men to hold that office, a position over George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and even Franklin D. Roosevelt. Reagan is the rare person who has positively affected the lives of tens of millions of his fellow-countrymen, and in the process, changed the course of world history.

Several years ago, Grover Norquist, chairman of the Reagan Legacy Project, claimed to be “spoiling for a fight” in an effort to carve Reagan’s face onto Mount Rushmore. He also had a more serious plan, however: keeping alive the late Sen. Paul Coverdell’s bid to put the Gipper on the $10 bill.

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By David L. Ganz

Litigation between the government and the Langbord family over 10 1933 double eagles continues in Philadelphia in United States District Court. The latest skirmish was an attempt to depose a number of former government officials on the issue of what they were thinking at the time that they agreed to allow the King Farouk specimen of the 1933 $20 to be sold at public auction.

In a 2002 sale, the Farouk 1933 double eagle was sold by Sotheby’s and Stack’s for $7.59 million. No doubt this was a motivating factor in Joan Langbord’s decision to try and legalize 1933 $20s that were found in a bank’s safety deposit box thanks to the decision made long ago by Israel Switt, a jeweler and sometimes coin dealer in Philadelphia, who was Langbord’s father.

Switt’s metaphorical fingerprints are on all of the known 1933 double eagles that previously circulated and were seized by the government. This includes the Barnard specimen seized in 1947; J.F. Bell’s coin offered by Stack’s in 1944, the Flanigan specimen of 1943, the James A. Stack specimen seized in 1951 and others.

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Jeff Makkos of Ohio reports finding a double struck 2007-P James Madison dollar in a Mint-issue set. The type of double strike involved is what errorists refer to as an “In-Collar Double Strike with Rotation Between Strikes.”

The cause may be due to two different scenarios.

The first possibility is that the coin was struck normally and then reentered the coining area falling back over the collar where it was forced back into the collar by a second strike in a position rotated just a few degrees away from the original strike.

Another possibility suggested by CONECA president Mike Diamond, is that coin remained in the collar while the inner sleeve of the collar broke loose and rotated within resulting in the same effect.

Because a coin normally expands in diameter ever so slightly upon ejection it is difficult for it to completely reenter the collar unless forced. The forcing of the coin into the collar often results in it only being forced part way and and edge that looks to have two levels or what is known as a “Partial Collar.” Makkos’ coin does not show a partial collar, indicating that it was either forced all the way back into the collar during the second strike or could have been in a rotating collar.
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By Allen Mincho, Bank Note Reporter

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the time gold soared to over $1,000 per ounce, it was the time that the bear in “bear market” rose up on its hindquarters to maul even such an established Wall Street name as Bear, Stearns.

What is one to make of such times? And, more important for those whose role it is to report, advise and generally pontificate, what can one say to bring clarity and direction to a currency market caught in an American economy that is beginning to appear closer to that of Argentina than Switzerland?

A look at history gives annoyingly little guidance, nor does it offer black-line rules that can be applied to the situation in which we seem to find ourselves today. During the past bout of “stagflation,” the term applied to the economy of the 1970s where inflation was high and growth low, the currency market rose steadily through the decade. As inflation and interest rates reached record levels not seen since the Civil War, the currency market erupted in an orgy of speculative excess, with prices of many type notes doubling and tripling within an 18-month period, buoyed by record prices for precious metals and an economy where confidence had disappeared and fear reigned. Read Full Numismaster Article