United States Mint to launch new coin at 16th President’s summer home

Presidential $1 Coins bearing the image of one of our Nation’s most admired leaders will enter into circulation on November 18.

In honor of the release of the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential $1 Coin, the United States Mint invites the public to a launch ceremony on November 19, to be held at President Lincoln’s Cottage on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C. The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential $1 Coin is the 16th release in the United States Mint Presidential $1 Coin Program. The coin’s obverse (heads side) design, by United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Don Everhart, features an image of Lincoln with the inscriptions ABRAHAM LINCOLN, IN GOD WE TRUST, 16TH PRESIDENT and 1861-1865. The coin’s reverse (tails side) design, also by Everhart, features a dramatic rendition of the Statue of Liberty, with the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and $1. The year of minting or issuance, 2010, E PLURIBUS UNUM and the mint mark are incused on the coin’s edge. To view and download high-resolution images of the circulating Abraham Lincoln Presidential $1 Coin, go to http://www.usmint.gov/pressroom/index.cfm?action=photo#Pres.

President Lincoln’s Cottage is the most significant site associated with Abraham Lincoln’s presidency after the White House. President Lincoln lived there for one quarter of his presidency and was living there when he drafted the Emancipation Proclamation and deliberated critical issues of the Civil War. Lincoln commuted three miles daily by horseback or coach to the White House, last visiting the Cottage the day before his assassination. The National Trust for Historic Preservation opened the Cottage to the public in 2008 after a seven-year restoration. Today, the Cottage offers intimate, guided tours providing an in-depth, media-enhanced experience, highlighting Lincoln’s ideas and actions through historical images and voices. For more information about the Cottage, go to http://www.lincolncottage.org.

Presidential $1 Coins that are produced for daily cash transactions last for decades, are 100 percent recyclable and can save the country hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

Like previously released Presidential $1 Coins, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential $1 Coin will be shipped to banks and other financial institutions in rolls, unmixed with other $1 coins. Banks may order and store each Presidential $1 Coin up to three weeks prior to the introduction, so they will have supplies on hand on the release date. The coins will be available in unmixed rolls for two weeks after the introduction of each design. The special ordering process begins again when each new Presidential $1 Coin is released.

The ordering period for unmixed quantities of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential $1 Coin will begin on October 28. To order boxes of wrapped rolls ($1,000 minimum order) of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential $1 Coin, depository institutions may use FedLine Web® Access Solution. In addition, local Federal Reserve Bank offices can handle special requests for $2,000 bags of unmixed Abraham Lincoln Presidential $1 Coins, $2,000 bags of mixed $1 coins, and orders for Abraham Lincoln Presidential $1 Coins after the special order period ends on December 2, while supplies last.

Presidential $1 Coins are also educational and fun to collect, with four new designs issued each year. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential $1 Coin is featured in collectible products available for purchase via the United States Mint’s Web site at http://www.usmint.gov/catalog, or by calling 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468).

News and Analysis on coins, coin markets, and the coin collecting community #24

A Weekly Column by Greg Reynolds

The purpose this week is to put forth clear, constructive points regarding the collecting of modern U.S. coins. Readers who are already familiar with modern coins may wish to skip to section three, where John Albanese, Jeff Ambio and I provide advice and guidelines for collecting modern coins.

Before the rare U.S. coin auction climate starts to heat up again, I am continuing to address issues that are of interest to beginning and intermediate collectors. This week, I am revisiting the topic of modern coins, partly because many readers last week falsely and unfairly concluded that I was condemning modern coins. I was not saying that only pre-1934 coins should be collected and I was not referring to the artistic elements of the designs of coins minted after 1934. I was discussing the FACTS that distinguish classic from modern U.S. coins.

Indeed, there is a need to clarify some matters relating to recommendations for collectors and values in the marketplace. Last week, I wrote a two part series on 1933/34 being the dividing line between classic coins and modern U.S. coinage. (Please click to read part 1 or part 2.) Two weeks ago, I covered dealer recommendations regarding modestly priced coins for beginning and intermediate collectors.

Jeff Ambio certainly understood my central points last week. Ambio is the author of three books regarding U.S. coins and is one of the leading cataloguers of coin auction lots. In regards to “the 1933/34 diving line, I [Jeff] agree with your basic contention that coins minted prior to that period are much scarcer than those minted after. I [Jeff] also agree with your opinion that collectors paying huge sums of money for post-1934 coins in high grades should reconsider their buying strategies.”

The collecting of State Quarters is discussed in the second section. Strategies for collecting modern coins are addressed in the third section.

I. Commonality of Modern Coins

Although post-1934 coins are generally extremely common in contrast to pre-1934 U.S. coins, people who very much like post-1934 coins and enjoy collecting them should do so. Last week, in part 2, I emphasized that people should not spend large sums on a post-1934 coin solely because such a coin is, or is claimed to be, a condition rarity.

Indeed, I am against the rather common practice of spending thousands of dollars for common coins. For example, auction records reveal that a considerable number of businesses strike Roosevelt dimes have each sold for thousands of dollars.

Generally, I am very concerned about people spending even $35 over face value or bullion (‘melt’) value for a very common coin. Mint errors and recognized unusual varieties are different topics. I am herein referring to standard issues. I am aware that the 1955/1955 Double Die cent is scarce overall. It is, though, a mint error, or, at least, an accidental issue. U. S. Mint officials did not plan in advance for the numerals and some other devices of these cents to be doubled. Errors and unusual varieties require separate discussions, and tend to be exceptions to rules. (more…)

The First and Only Bimetalic Commemorative Coin Minted by the US

The Library of Congress, founded on April 24, 1800, is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution. Also the world’s largest library, it houses 119 million items– 18 million books; two million recordings; 12 million photographs; four million maps; and 53 million manuscripts.

The library’s rare book collection is the largest in North America and includes the oldest surviving book printed in North America – the Bay Psalm Book, printed in 1640; the world’s largest book, John James Audubon’s Birds of America, which is 1 meter high; and the world’s smallest book, Old King Cole, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. This book is so small that its pages can be turned only with the use of a needle- and equally sharp eyes.

President Thomas Jefferson played a key role both in the U.S. Mint’s history and in the Library of Congress’ development. Jefferson proposed the decimal coinage system we use today and advocated founding a mint on U.S. soil. A lifelong reader, Jefferson donated his personal collection of 6,487 books to Congress for $23,950 after the British burned the new Capitol and Library in 1814. On Christmas Eve 1851, another fire destroyed two-thirds of Jefferson’s collection. Although many of the volumes have been replaced, nearly 900 remain missing and the Library is engaged in a worldwide search to replace them.

Not only does the Library of Congress supply whatever research Congress needs, it serves all Americans through its 22 reading rooms on Capitol Hill, its Web site (http://www.loc.gov/), and as a monument to our nation’s love of learning.

These commemorative coins are called the coins of many firsts.” The first commemorative coins of the new Century, they are also the first-ever gold and platinum bimetallic coins in the nation’s history. For the bimetallic version, the outer ring is stamped from a sheet of gold, then a solid core of platinum is placed within the ring. The coins contain about one-half an ounce of precious metal.

The bimetallic coin design was inspired by the graceful architecture of the library’s Jefferson Building. The outer ring is stamped from a sheet of gold, then a solid core of platinum is placed within the ring. Then, the gold ring and platinum core are simultaneously stamped forming an annular bead where the two precious metals meet. The obverse depicts the hand of Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom, raising the torch of learning aside the dome of the Thomas Jefferson Building. The coin’s reverse is marked with the Library of Congress seal encircled by a laurel wreath, symbolizing its national accomplishment.

Designers: John Mercanti, obverse; Thomas D. Rogers Sr., reverse