By Edward Elmer for Lew Rockwell.com

Governments are inveterate despoilers of the freedom, wealth, and lives of their citizens. As consolation, the citizens usually receive little more than lofty words and pretentious sentiments from the political leaders in charge of the looting, murder, and enslavement. Less commonly, governments produce something concrete, such as a marble palace for the ruler or an alabaster temple for the commemoration of some supposedly noble public goal.

However, one of the few universal, tangible products of government which citizens experience directly is their government’s medium of exchange. Even this government product usually offers a lopsided exchange for the citizen. Base metals and paper are usually offered to the subject in return for his much more valuable and often unjustified faith in the validity of his government.

At the outset, the numismatic history of the United States is as singular as its political history. Just as the new government was remarkable for the powers its Constitution did not permit, so the new U.S. coinage was unusual for what it did not depict. There were no representations of any political figures, ancient or contemporary. Odd as it may seem to modern Americans, the faces of Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson did not make it onto America’s earliest coinage. Such bygone greats as Caesar and Alexander were also notably absent.

Our early American predecessors seem to have bypassed the rich symbols that abounded on the coinage of preceding nations. There were no gods or goddesses, nor was the mint impelled to create a mythological parallel to the Roman she-wolf nursing Romulus and Remus. Though the new nation was rich in folklore, none of its earliest coins depicted traditional examples, such as Washington’s felling a cherry tree or Franklin’s flying a kite.

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Article from the Filipino Numismatist website with no notation as to its Author.

Recently, I was surprised to know that the Philippine Numismatic and Antiquarian Society, (Founded on March 16, 1929 and One of the oldest Numismatic Clubs in the World
) is bombarded with political controversy. Two factions emerged, a newly set of elected officers facilitated the establishment of a new governance mostly composed of younger members while the other faction, the incumbent officers, who declined to submit to the majority, remained and decided to continue their own version of the organization. So now, there are two Philippine Numismatic and Antiquarian Societies. Both are competing against each other and have concluded their respective auctions both on same set of dates. The incident started when last December, the organization held its annual election. Majority of the officers who won the election elected their pick for presidency. However, the minority of the group did not accept the mandate. Thus, started the creation of two organizations. The first one is headed by Tomas De Guzman, Jr. or “Temboy” as he is known to fellow numismatists. On the other hand, Atty. William Villareal leads the other faction and installed himself as president otherwise.

It’s a disgust to see how greed took over on this once prestigious and respected organization. If Gilbert Perez and other pioneers are here to witness such debacle, they could have scolded these members as if they are just five-year-old kids. It’s a pity how PNAS devolved rather than evolved, since most dealers now control the organization’s interest. Nowadays, online auction such as Ebay became available to local dealers, agents, and collector. The market of coins, ephemera, and other antiquities are big business especially that the market of silver, gold, and other strategic metals is on the rise. Greedy officers in order to protect their interest have manipulated the organization for so many years that they resorted to every corrupt means just to maintain and stay in power. I myself had campaigned for the organization’s reform. But since I have realized that the people whom I trusted my faith with were also dealers who just wanted to replace their competitions and push for their own version of monopoly, I have decided to throw the towel and leave the fight between them inside their own ring. Meanwhile, I can campaign for reform in my own turf, through the Internet. (more…)

By Jim Fehr - North American Certified Trading

Which are the best markets today? With all the touting that goes on, it’s important to always keep in mind that no one knows which coins will perform best. Based on the history of the certified rare coin market, however, some areas appear more promising than others.

You probably already know which coins have been doing exceptionally well over the past five to ten years but lets take a look at them again.These are series that are widely collected by date or have such a strong collector or numismatic appeal that they have risen repeatedly over the past decade and still seem to be a good value today.

1. Key Date Coins; XF to MS65.

The best performing area of the rare coin market for the past nine years running. Think maybe they are topping out? Prices seem a bit silly relative to other coins? Acquisition cost relative to bids are too high? Well it doesn’t matter. These coins are the best, rarest, most known and most sought after, and they are being bought up by coin buyers with the deepest of deep pockets. They are desirable, rare, and not often seen for years at a time.They rarely go down and if they do it’s proportionally less to the rest of the market. This all translates to plenty of upside.

2. Early Walking Liberty Halves, MS64 and higher.

Rare date Walkers prior to 1929 have seen modest price increases over the last three years, but have done very well over the last ten. Rare dates from 1916 to 1928-S in gradesMS64 and higher are constantly in demand and are always on dealers want lists. Among the earlier dates, 1917-D , 1917-S , 1918-S, 1919-D, 1919-S, 1920-D, 1920-S, 1921-P, D and S, 1923-S and 1928-S are dates that inMS63 and higher grades have seen the strongest demand and the biggest price jumps in the series over the last nine years. A 1921-D in MS65 now trades for two half times more than it did in 2002 (more…)

By David L. Ganz, Numismatic News

This is a two part column talking about auction pedigrees (Part I) with a focus on the Mickley-Hawn-Quellar 1804 silver dollar and the Anderson-Dupont-Yoder 1838-O half dollar. Part II tells the fascinating story of tracking down a footnote - a price realized 20 years ago - on a pedigreed piece highlighted in my new book, “Profitable Coin Collecting,” which Krause will publish July 20. Rare coins are white hot. On April 17, Heritage sold the David Quellar family specimen of the 1804 silver dollar for $3.7 million, and the Yoder family 1838-O half dollar (a circulated proof-45) for $276,000. Both coins and all others quoted refer to the hammer price plus the buyer’s premium, if any, charged winning bidders.

Both pieces realized prove the state of the market when looked at in the context of the lengthy pedigree that each offers. The 1804 dollar goes back 140 years; the 1838-O half dollar covers a half century of the coin market with its ups, downs, and sideways momentum.

For more than 40 years, I’ve been writing about the rare coin market and auction sale trends, and have charted the path that I called in one book “planning your rare coin retirement.” It’s become more important to me as I get nearer to my own; my 57th birthday (coincidentally my 43rd year as a coin writer) comes up July 28.

Read Mr.Ganz’s Full Article Here

By Laura Sperber - Legend Numismatics

Whew, what a show! It by far blew away our expectations. The show itself did the trick, as many collectors appeared, not just the locals, to shop and BUY the coins they needed. Even though GOLD is strong, generics or that area did not drive this show. This is one of the few major shows we have attended in the past year where BOTH retail and WHOLESALE were strong for us.

The attendance of both dealers and collectors was far greater than what we had anticipated. Even PNG day was active. Part of why also may have been the fact there were no major shows in the past 3 weeks (which does seem like an eternity). Most important, everyone’s attitude was upbeat and no one complained about the timing of the show (it wasn’t on top of a show, no religious holiday, tax time was over, etc).

As with all the shows this year, this show was especially dry of great coins. Sure, there was lots dreck around, BUT (big BUT) it seems more collectors were willing to step up and pay strong for real quality. People are appreciating great coins again and they clearly are rising to the values they deserve to be at.

We saw many collectors complain about their hunger for coins. You can’t go out and buy GEM Bust material, great Type, or even something like a GEM better date and higher grade Peace Dollar. There was one dealer we know who was trying to buy for the 5 GEM Morgan sets and who knows how many GEM Saint Saints he is building. We also saw someone who represented a substantial investor trying to spend a few million (yes million) but were totally stymied by lack of coins. Then there were the smaller collectors who always buy a coin or two at a major show telling us they couldn’t find anything. Mark our words prices WILL rise soon.

The CAC market is super strong. We have already seen clear-cut extreme demand and in just about very case, prices are at serious premiums. Every dealer we spoke to who handles CAC told us they sold most of what they had in the beginning of the show. The skeptics and boo birds who tried their best to hurt CAC now are clearly seeing it is a true force in the market and is unquestionably growing each day. (more…)