Three Exceptional Coin Collections Go Under the Hammer in Baltimore
Paul Fraser Collectibles
‘The #2 collection’ of Standing Liberty Quarters is among the highlights at next month’s US auction… Auction house Bowers and Merena will conduct the official sale of the November 2010 Whitman Coin & Collectibles Baltimore Expo, scheduled for November 4-5. The sale will present more than 3,500 lots of important United States coins and currency, with three consignments in particular standing out…
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Popular. But Did We Do it Our Way?
Numismaster
Many of us as collectors have roots in the circulation finds era. The coins that are the most popularly collected and have the highest prices tend to be those that we started collecting many years ago because we could find them in circulation. I know I am not the only one who committed key mintage figures to memory and treated the 484,000 figure for the 1909-S VDB Lincoln cent as some sort of yardstick against which all other rarities were measured.
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PCGS…It Really Did Start As A Book
PCGS Blog
PCGS is about to celebrate its 25 anniversary! We opened for business in February, 1986. The story about how PCGS came to be tells a lot about the coin market and what happened. And it also tells a lot about what will most likely happen in the future. I was obviously there, so I’ll give you my insider’s view of what happened 25 years ago, and I’ll also give you my feelings about where all of this is going.
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1796 Quarters Preserved in Hoard
Numismatic News
The 1796 quarter had an important place in history and this, combined with its very low mintage, results in it being very valuable. Its current prices are $11,000 in G-4, $82,500 in MS-60 and $235,000 in MS-65. The fact that there even is an MS-65 price for a 1796 quarter indicates that there is more to the story since most often we do not even see prices listed in MS-65 for coins of 1796. The quarter was authorized along with the other denominations on April 2, 1792, but production of the quarter and dime was delayed until 1796.
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2010 Silver Piedfort Maple Leaf Coin Sells Out
Silver Coins Today
Released late last month, the single 2010 Silver Piedfort Maple Leaf Coin from the Royal Canadian Mint sold out in less than a week, leaving only a gold and silver piedfort set remaining. Their quick disappearance from Mint shelves is not entirely surprising owing to their unique design and limited 6,000 mintage. Each coin continues the tradition of a maple leaf image which dates back to 1988 when the first Silver Maple Leaf was introduced by the Mint.
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Quick US Mint Updates
Mint News Blog
There are a number of recent news items related to the US Mint that I wanted to briefly cover. These deal with two upcoming coin launch ceremonies, the 2011 Mint Set, and designs for the 2012 America the Beautiful Quarters. Abraham Lincoln Presidential Dollar. The US Mint announced details for the coin launch ceremony for the 2010 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Dollar. The ceremony is scheduled to take place on November 18, 2010 at 10:00 AM ET. The location will be President Lincoln’s Cottage on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, DC.
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John Lennon £5 coin issued by Royal Mint
BBC
Lennon won the Royal Mint’s public vote for the next “Great Briton” to be immortalised on a limited edition coin. Other names on the shortlist were Jane Austen and John Logie Baird. The Beatles singer, assassinated in 1980, now joins William Shakespeare, Sir Winston Churchill, Charles Darwin and Florence Nightingale in the series. The coin is priced at £44.99.
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ANA Settles Suit, Sets Budget
Numismatic News
News of lawsuits settled and a balanced budget passed came quickly during the open session of a telephone meeting of the American Numismatic Association board of governors held Oct. 26. It was the lesser details that bogged the board down in its discussions during the remainder of the hour and 20 minutes before adjournment into executive session. The board confirmed a 9-0 e-mail vote taken Oct. 21 to settle its legal disputes with the Denver law firm of Davis, Graham and Stubbs and Janet Savage. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
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Viewpoint: Got Gold? Coins? What About a Job?
Numismaster
For those subscribers to Numismatic News who read Viewpoint regularly, this is my third submission for the year. In April, I discussed why gold and silver are no longer money in the modern sense, and we should not lie to ourselves that they are. In July, I offered that a uniform worldwide currency exchange market made commodity-backed currencies superfluous, because convertibility (a key need of currencies) was taken into that market-based mechanism and away from metal content or representation.
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Mount Hood National Forest Quarters
United States Mint
Mount Hood’s last major eruption was in 1790, 15 years before Lewis and Clark’s expedition to the Pacific Northwest. But on Wednesday, November 17, the public is invited to witness an eruption of a different kind, as thousands of new quarter-dollar coins struck in honor of Mount Hood National Forest are released during a ceremony in nearby Portland, Oregon. The ceremony will take place at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) at the World Forestry Center located at 4033 SW Canyon Road in Portland.
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Holiday Packaged Coin Sets are Often Overpriced
Jacksonville Observer
It’s begun… again. At this time every single year, one day I’ll walk to the mailbox, open it and wonder if I accidentally received the mail for the entire neighborhood. After months of average mail delivery, I discover I have been inundated with scores of catalogs. That will continue for almost two months. It’s the holiday season and I believe that no one told the catalog companies that we’re still in a bit of an economic downturn. My first mail delivery netted 18 catalogs.
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Could a Rusty Coin Re-Write Chinese-African History?
The E-Sylum
It is not much to look at – a small pitted brass coin with a square hole in the centre – but this relatively innocuous piece of metal is revolutionising our understanding of early East African history, and recasting China’s more contemporary role in the region. A joint team of Kenyan and Chinese archaeologists found the 15th Century Chinese coin in Mambrui – a tiny, nondescript village just north of Malindi on Kenya’s north coast.
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No Sellout For Buchanan Gold
Numismatic News
Hopes in some quarters that the Buchanan First Spouse gold coins might sell out may be giving way to despair this week as the proof version registered no sales at all and the uncirculated number actually dropped. Returns no doubt. The maximum number that can be struck and sold is 15,000, so current totals combined put us two-thirds of the way there.
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Emperor Vespasian Leads the Way at Baldwin’s Next Rare Coins Auction
Paul Fraser Collectibles
A Roman aureus leads the London auction ahead of a gold coin from medieval India. Baldwin’s will be having another sale in a couple of weeks’ time: their Autumn argentum Auction, themed on ancient, British and world coins, alongside some commemorative medals. It will not be Baldwin’s most spectacular sale, but will offer collectors some opportunities to pick up investments when they might previously have been priced out of the best items in Baldwin’s summer sales.
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The Coin Market: Alive and Well
Stack’s
The coin market remains alive and well—indeed healthy and dynamic. Choice coins, tokens, medals, and paper money are easier for us to sell than to buy! This is remarkable, considering the confused state of the national and world economy! I guess there is comfort in owning precious things. From what I have read, nice things to possess also include designer watches and jewelry, and even Mercedes automobiles are on the uptick.
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New Guinea Unsuccessful for Germany
Numismaster
Earlier this year a strikingly toned German New Guinea 1894 5 mark (KM-7) graded Proof-66 by Professional Coin Grading Service was sold by Stacks for an impressive $29,325, or six times its Standard Catalog of World Coins value. The bidding was intense. The coin once graced the Eliasberg Collection arguably, “the most desirable pedigree for any coin to have.” Its very existence recalls one of Germany’s least successful attempts at empire building.
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Polymer Notes
PMG
Polymer banknotes are made out of a polymer plastic that gives the paper a very smooth feel. They also have a transparent area, which I find interesting. The use of Polymer banknotes by other countries has increased due to their durability and difficulty to counterfeit. Polymer banknotes were first issued in Australia in 1988 and are made from the polymer polypropylene (BOPP), which greatly enhances durability. In 1967, forgeries of the Australian $10 were found in circulation.
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More on the Royal Mints Dateless Twenty Pence
Paul Fraser Collectibles
A SINGLE mum could pocket £14,000 after discovering two rare 20p coins – including one given in her change after buying a LOSING lottery scratchcard. The Royal Mint produced the dateless coinage in 2008 and only a limited number are now in circulation. Yet pregnant Birmingham mum Sabrina Hussain has managed to find TWO of the rare pieces – which have previously sold on internet auction site eBay for £7,100 each.One was given to her in change after buying a losing scratchcard – and she discovered the other in the bottom of her handbag.
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