Coin News for February 17, 2010

By Tim Shuck on Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Filed Under: Coin News Daily

Winter Olympic Medals Made from Recycled E-Waste
Scientific American
When Olympic champions are crowned at this year’s winter games in Vancouver, these elite athletes will be taking home more than just gold, silver or bronze medals—they will be playing a role in Canada’s efforts to reduce electronic waste. That’s because each medal was made with a tiny bit of the more than 140,000 tons of e-waste that otherwise would have been sent to Canadian landfills.
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Rare Coin Dealer Sues Google
TCPalm
A Jupiter man in the rare coin industry is accusing Google of invading his privacy and causing emotional distress for incorrectly posting his home address instead of listing the location for his Stuart-based company. In a lawsuit he filed Monday in Martin County Circuit court against Google Inc., Jonathan Harris claimed that having his home address associated with the sale of rare coins leaves him and his family members targets for a home invasion, or worse. Google “publicly disclosed that the plaintiff’s family home is where rare coins can be found, and conveniently provided a map,” wrote Harris, who is acting as his own attorney.
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Counterfeit Detection: Split-Second Authentication
Collectors Society
Occasionally an authenticator can reach a decision about a coin’s authenticity in a fraction of a second. This scenario has played out many times…a collector places a coin in the hands of a numismatist. As soon as the coin touches his hand, he says, “No good.” The response from the collector is usually one of incredulity, and a stream of follow-up questions, “Don’t you need to do more tests? Metallurgic analysis? Diagnostic studies? At least weigh the thing?!” The truth is that sometimes certain attributes of a suspect coin can immediately reveal it to be fake and no further investigation is warranted or advised.
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Collectors Seek to Turn Profit on 2010 Lincoln Cents
State Journal-Register
Amid schoolchildren clamoring for free pennies, alongside a drummer and bugler dressed in Civil War uniforms (Union, naturally), among government officials praising the Great Emancipator were people like Jeffery Boggs of Springfield. For Boggs, the unveiling of the new Lincoln penny at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum on Thursday wasn’t so much about Abraham as Benjamins. “I’ve made about $200,000 in profit,” said Boggs, who last year traveled to Indiana, Kentucky, Washington, D.C., and Springfield’s Old State Capitol for ceremonies unveiling commemorative pennies. “I still have 50,000 rolls—boxes and boxes.”
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If the Story is Cute, Run Away
Dave Harper’s Buzz
Coin errors are both the easiest thing for collectors to understand and the hardest. Everybody understands the concept of something going wrong. However, from there many tend to slide off into silliness. You see cutesy stories or descriptions over time that are written to hype the current value of something online. These stories for the most part don’t stand up for long and buyers end up with a lot of virtually worthless cutesy coins.
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Why Franklin Halves Graded the Same are Valued Differently
PCGS
Knowledgeable collectors of Franklin half dollars are very cognizant of the difference in eye appeal between Franklin half dollars of the same grade. And similar to the Morgan dollar series, where collectors are willing to pay substantial premiums for extraordinary color-toned Morgan dollars, the same is true of the Franklin half dollar! The BIG difference is, the mint state Franklin half dollar is far rarer with exceptional color toning than the mint state Morgan dollar! Because of their true rarity, at today’s price levels, exceptional mint state and proof Franklin half dollars with exceptional eye appeal offer tremendous value when compared to other series in U.S. coinage.
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About the Author

Tim Shuck is a life-long Midwestern resident, and started collecting coins after finding an Indian Head cent on the ground at his childhood farm home. Additional encouragement came from looking through a collection of well-worn late 19th and early 20th century coins kept by his grandfather in an old leather coin purse. Current collecting interests include U.S. types from the Civil War era through the early 1930's, and Colonial and Early American coins.