Finding the value of your coins has never been easier, faster or cheaper.

NumisMaster, the online price guide from Krause Publications, is now offered to coin collectors for $79.95 per year or $9.95 a month. The guide to the entire listing of coin values can be accessed at numismaster.com

“With more than 1 million price listings and 500,000 images, identifying and valuing your coins has never been easier,” said Dean Listle, Krause numismatic publisher.

NumisMaster is powered by more than 55 years of collected coin data and analysis, with up-to-date pricing provided by Krause’s experienced staff of market analysts, the same experts who have given you the Standard Catalog of World Coins series for more than half a century.

“We have refined the search function to make it faster and easier to use, we’ve lowered the price and we’ve added more pricing,” Listle said. “Now is a great time for collectors to see all that NumisMaster has to offer.”

Log on to NumisMaster.com and experience:

• A simple Find My Coin search
• Saved searches that speed your quest for coin detailsEasy paths for creating MyPortfolio of coins
• Quick clicks for tallying a coin Want List

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Wizard Coin Supply, a global provider of coin supplies and coin collecting accessories, is proud to announce the launch of its New Book Advisory. The Advisory is a free service where subscribers are made aware through periodic email notices of newly released coin books as they are added to Wizard’s inventory. The Advisory is available as an option as a seamless part of the user registration process on Wizard’s website.

“At Wizard, we are determined to be the number one retailer of current release numismatic books,” says Lady Karin Herndon (Wizard eschews traditional titles in favor of thematic ones). “Our new Advisory service, along with our broad selection and deeply discounted price structure, make Wizard the best choice for buyers of coin, currency and related hobby books.”

“The Advisory is the perfect response to feedback we’ve received from our customers looking for an effortless way to keep track of the many new books that are released each year,” adds Wizard’s Fair Maiden Traci Poole. “There are no membership cards to return and no minimum number of books to purchase.”

Wizard currently offers nearly 300 coin book titles and is actively seeking to grow this list, giving Wizard the broadest selection of any in-print numismatic book and supply dealer in the industry. “Wizard’s inventory goes beyond the popular, name brand publisher titles carried by our competitors to also include less well known books from smaller publishers and self-publishing authors. While our focus is primarily on bringing our customers in-print books at the best possible price, we also stock out-of-print books when we can obtain mint copies in quantity,” says Sir Wayne Herndon who handles product selection for Wizard. (more…)

By Doug Winter - www.raregoldcoins.com

When the Immovable Object met the Irrestible Force in the Battle of the 1878-CC Half Eagle who won? Read today’s blog to see what happened when two won’t-be-denied collectors jousted over a rare coin and (maybe) failed to do their due diligence.

The 1878-CC half eagle is one of my favorite issues. It is among the scarcest gold coins struck at the Carson City mint. There are an estimated 75 or so known in all grades with the majority in the Fine to Very Fine range. It is clearly a rare date in Extremely Fine and it is very rare in About Uncirculated with probably no more than ten to twelve accurately graded examples currently known. In the higher AU grades it is extremely rare and I know of no more than three or so true AU58’s.

So this means that when a nice example of the 1878-CC half eagle becomes available, it sends off shock waves in the Carson City gold collecting community. This is exactly what happened back in May of 2007 when a really nice PCGS AU58 was offered as Lot 2303 in Heritage’s Platinum Night session of the Central States auction.

After strong floor bidding, the coin in question brought $41,400 to a phone bidder. I can remember sitting in the audience at the time of the sale and thinking, “hmmm…that sure seems like a strong price for an 1878-CC half eagle.” My thinking, at the time, was that the coin was worth around $32,500 to $35,000 and maybe, at a stretch, it might bring as much as $37,500.

A lot has happened in the Carson City gold market since then, it appears. There are now a couple of new collectors who are very strong buyers, especially if a coin is in a PCGS holder and either the finest graded or close to it. This has meant some very strong prices for appropriate coins in the last year or two. (more…)

By Jim Fehr, Numismatic Director of North American Certified Trading

Politically, the pro-silver factions in this country have always been very strong. The Bland Allison Act and Sherman Act in the late 1800’s required the U.S. Government to purchase large quantities of silver and coin it into silver dollars that, at the time, were not being used in circulation. Therefore, Morgan silver dollars flooded into the treasury vaults. In 1918 the Pittman Act was enacted in part, to sell off the excesses holdings of silver in the treasury vaults, not more than 350 million silver dollar pieces were to be melted.

But pro-silver factions helped convolute the Pittman Act. Due to their influence, one provision of the PittmanAct required the U.S. government to buy domestically one silver ounce for each silver dollar ounce the Pittman Act required be melted and sold.The silver was sold to England at $1 per ounce. In other words, as the government was buying up all the silver dollars in circulation and melting them, along with what was stored in the treasury vaults, they were also forced to replace the melted dollars with domestically bought silver bullion - which they then coined into the new 1921 Morgan silver dollars.

Yet, because of the domestic silver purchase provision in the Pittman Act, many of the silver dollars were never melted and in this way the government unintentionally kept a hoard of about 155 million silver dollars for over 40 years. Since silver dollars during the early 1900’s were used frequently only in Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, circulating Morgans dried up quickly.

Fast forward to Kennedy. From 1960 to 1964, the government suddenly released over 152 million silver dollars, at face value. The government was the last to learn that many of these coins were worth more than face value because they were prized by collectors.Three years later in 1967, silver prices were up enough to make any silver dollar worth over face value in bullion alone. Afraid to let go of any more too cheaply, the government held back 2.8 million of the lower mintage Carson City dollars. (more…)