By Doug Winter - www.raregoldcoins.com

When you list the great rarities in the quarter eagle denomination, there are issues that everyone knows about. The 1796 No Stars and With Stars, the 1804 13 Stars, the 1841, the 1854-S and the 1863 are famous coins that are well-regarded outside of the specialist community. But there is one issue that is every bit as rare as the ones that I mentioned above although its fame is not as widespread. This is the 1834 With Motto and it’s the subject of a brief look in today’s blog. (NOTE: throughout this article the terms With Motto and Capped Head are used interchangeably for this variety. Both terms are numismatically correct).

The background of this issue is very interesting. As the Mint was preparing to strike gold coins in 1834, the price of this metal was rising quickly. By the time the quarter eagles were ready to be released into circulation, they had an intrinsic value of $2.66. This, obviously, meant that any pieces that were released would be melted by speculators or bullion dealers. As a remedy, the Mint passed the Act of June 28, 1834 which lowered the weight of this denomination by nineteen grams as well as the quality of the gold used from .916 fine to .899 fine.

Of the 4,000 quarter eagles struck in 1834 with the old Capped Head design, only a small number escaped the melting pot. Estimates of survivors range from a low of twelve to fifteen (Breen and Akers) to a high of twenty to twenty-four (Dannreuther). Given the (un)availability of this issue over the past decade, my personal feeling is that Dannreuther’s estimate is too high and that the total known is somewhere in the area of fifteen to eighteen. This includes at least two that are impounded in museum collections (Smithsonian and ANA/Bass) plus two that are impaired or damaged. (more…)

By Tim Shuck for CoinLink

Political favoritism, incompetence, corporate greed — phrases right out of news headlines regarding the current financial crisis. It would be easy to believe that the present situation is unique, unprecedented in our history, but that is likely not true. From 1893 to roughly the end of the century there was another crisis in the American economy. It has been estimated that as many as 15,000 businesses, 600 banks, and 74 railroads failed; and that 10%, perhaps even 20%, of American were unemployed in the worst of those years. Causes of that debilitating event included declining building construction; depressed agricultural production, at least partially attributable to adverse weather; an overbuilt and over capitalized railroad system; and (a numismatic connection at last) the gold standard and monetary policy. But, in a bizarre reversal of the situation today, the U.S. government was bailed out by private citizens.

The events that culminated in the Panic of 1893 had their start in the early 1870s. Following the end of the Franco-German War, Germany established a national gold standard and placed 8,000 tons of silver on the world market. The result was predictable: silver prices declined, particularly in reference to gold, at the same time vast amounts of the metal were being mined in the American West. There was one potential bright spot: silver was the preferred medium of payment in trade with the Orient, particularly China. To better position U.S. coins for that purpose, the U.S. Liberty Seated dollar was discontinued by the Mint Act of February 12, 1873, and a new, heavier Trade dollar was introduced.

But, with the availability of low-priced silver, coupled with a reduced need for silver by the Treasury for coinage, miners and other silver interests foresaw the inevitable result. Walter Breen describes their response: “the silver lobby and their ignorant partisans nationwide called the bill the “Crime of ‘73″. As if to add insult to injury, Congress in June 1874 demonetized all previous silver dollars and revoked their legal tender status” (Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, 1988). Not about to give up, the silver lobby intensively lobbied Congress in the next few years, vying with those who instead favored a gold standard. Their persistence was rewarded on February 28, 1878, in the form of the Bland-Allison Act, which mandated a new silver dollar and the purchase by the Treasury of millions of dollars of silver bullion each month for the production of those coins.

The euphoria of this victory for silver was short lived. While the new Morgan dollars circulated in the West and South the rest of the country generally preferred paper money. At an international monetary conference, also authorized by Bland-Allison, European delegates rejected U.S. propositions for unrestricted silver coinage under a bi-metallic standard (silver and gold); which, unsurprisingly, would have further benefited silver interests. Nevertheless, U.S. silver dollar production continued apace even though the price of silver continued to decline under a glut of bullion. Sensing that something needed to be done (sound familiar?) Congress again acted, or perhaps reacted, producing the Sherman Act of July 14, 1890. (more…)

The Andrew Jackson dollar coin released in mid-August is the seventh coin of the long-term Presidential Dollar series from the U.S. Mint. It also represents the third type of “mini-dollar” produced by the Mint since the Susan B. Anthony dollar was introduced in 1979. While popular with collectors, these small dollar coins have yet to be widely accepted by the public in spite of several government-sponsored promotional efforts. Because of this there have been renewed calls to abolish the paper one dollar bill to make the dollar coin the dollar of choice; though of course there would not really be a choice once paper dollars were removed from circulation.

Those opposed to the idea of eliminating the dollar bill often argue the aspect of convenience. There will still be higher denomination bills to carry in the wallet, so what difference does it make if there are a few ones in the mix? Dollar coin proponents counter from a perspective of cost savings. It costs about two to three times more to mint a coin than it does to print a dollar, but a coin has an estimated life span of 15 years compared to 18 months for the paper. But those coins weigh a lot more and are not as convenient to carry, say the bill proponents, and so it goes.

Though it might seem that this coin/currency debate is a fairly recent one, it has been ongoing for over thirty years. As early as 1975, near the end of the Eisenhower dollar series, the Mint commissioned the Research Triangle Institute to study coin denominations and alternative coinage systems. In its 1976 report the Institute recommended either eliminating the dollar coin, or reducing its size to save millions on production costs. Also noted was the fact that the Eisenhower dollar was not popular with the public (other than as a keepsake), most likely because it was cumbersome to carry and use due to its large size. The Institute recommended that if kept as a denomination the dollar coin should be sized between the quarter and the half dollar. (more…)

Heritage Auction Galleries will offer the very first $2 note ever printed by the U. S. Government in their upcoming Long Beach Currency Signature Auction, to be held September 17-19, 2008.

This first of a kind, Serial Number One note is a true miracle of survival, and has obviously spent countless hours, days and years traveling throughout our systems of commerce. Referencing the 2005 Memphis catalog by Smythe, this note has now had four owners in the past one hundred years, two of whom have owned it for approximately seventy of those years.

It can originally be pedigreed to ANA Member #187 Abe Hepner, who owned the note for the first half of the 20th Century. He sold the note in the 1950’s. The note was exhibited by the second owner at the 1971 and 1972 ANA Conventions, as well as the 1973 Greater Eastern Numismatic Association show, then quietly resided within the collection of an unnamed third owner, who eventually offered the note in Smythe’s 2005 sale.

The note was catalogued and graded raw as a Very Good. PCGS has now encapsulated the note, and has agreed with the original assessment.

The face of the note bears a portrait of Alexander Hamilton, with a double Serial #1 and plate position A, designating that this is the top note from the first sheet printed, as there were four notes to a sheet, with letters as plate positions running from top to bottom.

“Due to an inability to pay its debts in gold or silver during the Civil War, the U. S. Congress authorized the printing of a new series of paper notes, called Legal Tenders, in denominations of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, and $1000″ said Jim Fitzgerald, Consignment Director for Heritage. “Initially resisted by the people, who were accustomed to the established gold and silver coinage, the Legal Tender Act of 1862 firmly established the paper money as a legitimate form of currency in the United States.” (more…)