Coin Collecting News

Dallas, TX. A lengthy list of significant American numismatic rarities is included in the catalog for the June 2008 Summer FUN Signature® Auction. The Official Auction will be held in West Palm Beach, June 26-27, with the concluding Internet sessions on June 28-29. The auction is now posted by Heritage Auction Galleries on their HA.com website, and is available for inspection and bidding.

“The strong market is continuing to bring great rarities onto the Heritage auction block,” commented Heritage President Greg Rohan, “Summer FUN contains rarities from the inventory of Anaconda Rare Coins, the Charleston Collection; the Compradore Registry Collections; the George Gee Collection of Buffalo Nickels; Part One of the Glenwood Collection; Part Two of the Estate of Robert R. Rollins Collection; Part Two of the Estate of Francis A. Sullivan, Jr., and the Fern E. Wagner Trust. Hundreds of consignors are participating in this popular FUN event!”

“Heritage is pleased to present another exciting Summer FUN auction,” concluded Rohan. “Repeating our pleasure from the May 2008 Long Beach auction, we are honored that another professional colleague has entrusted his coin holdings to us. Heritage thanks our friends Adrian Crane and Brandon Kelley for consigning the inventory of Anaconda Rare Coins, without reserve. We wish Adrian well in his future plans in Costa Rica, and know that our bidders will take delight in so many wonderful coins.”

Highlights from Heritage’s Summer FUN Signature Auction:

Lot 8: 1776 Continental Dollar, CURENCY, Newman 1-C, Pewter, AU55 PCGS. Newman 1-C, Breen-1089, R.3.

Lot 134: 1871 1C MS66 Red PCGS. Ex: Joshua and Ally Walsh Collection.

Lot 210: 1864-L on Ribbon Indian Cent, PR64 Brown PCGS, Snow-PR1
From the Fern E. Wagner Trust. Continued

(Baltimore, Maryland) — This year’s annual PNG Day conducted by the Professional Numismatists Guild in conjunction with the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money® convention will be Tuesday, July 29, 2008, in Hall A of the Baltimore Convention Center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Collectors are cordially invited to attend; however, an invitation is required for admission.

“Invitations to attend the PNG Day are available free from participating PNG member-dealers as well as from PNG headquarters,” said Robert Brueggeman, PNG Executive Director. A directory of members is available at the PNG’s web site (www.PNGdealers.com) or you can contact the PNG office.”

More than 60 PNG member-dealers will have booths, prominently designated with PNG banners, for buying and selling numismatic merchandise at the Baltimore PNG Day show.

“To showcase our membership to the collecting pubic, PNG has made arrangements with the ANA and the Central States Numismatic Society to hold two PNG Days each year in conjunction with those organizations’ annual conventions. This gives collectors an opportunity to meet many of the experienced, trustworthy PNG dealers at a less frantic pace than often found during large shows,” explained PNG President Gary Adkins. Continued

The American Numismatic Association Board of Governors has voted unanimously to acknowledge that the “Lamp of Knowledge” is and remains the official seal of the Association.

The vote, taken during a conference call on June 2, authorizes the use of the Lamp of Knowledge on certificates, awards, the ANA Federal Charter, Bylaws and Code of Ethics documents. The ANA will continue its use of the current ANA logo for marketing purposes until a new logo is selected by the membership and confirmed by the Board. The current logo, created around the Peace Dollar, has been in use since 2003.

ANA President Barry Stuppler, who has championed the creation of a new logo, announced plans last winter to ask five accomplished medallic artists to develop designs for a new logo. Those designs, which were submitted in April, were to be displayed on the ANA website and published in The Numismatist. Members would then vote on their favorite designs.

“We received some beautiful artwork,” Stuppler said. “However, the designs we received would be difficult to use in a variety of ways as required for a logo. As a result, we have decided to seek additional input from artists from a variety of disciplines.”

Stuppler said that once artists have been identified and additional submissions received, the membership would be asked to provide input.

“We want to be sure that we make the right decision in selecting a logo for this Association and that the voices of our membership are heard,” Stuppler said. Stuppler emphasized that no operating funds will be utilized to develop or implement a new logo. “We will need to raise about $62,000, and no new logo will be implemented until those funds are in hand.” He added that the fundraising effort has been seeded with a $2,000 anonymous donation.

Stuppler said the decision to use the Lamp of Knowledge as the official seal recognizes the desire of many members to utilize the time-honored symbol. “It’s an important icon to so many of our members,” he said. “I think that placing the old logo on official medals, awards and documents is a vital step in responding to the wishes of the membership.”

The Lamp of Knowledge was adopted for use by the ANA from the University of Michigan seal. According to an article by ANA Historian Q. David Bowers in the June issue of The Numismatist, it appeared in the ANA magazine as early as 1908.

On June 25, 2008 Stacks will host a spectacular one-day sale of a truly remarkable collection. The new auction facilities were inaugurated last month with the sale of The Minot Collection. The auction will begin at 12:30pm sharp with the sale of the Glenn E. Bergstrom Collection and other important properties.

Kicking off the sale will be a small offering of colonial and early American pieces, with the 1737 3 Hammers Higley copper undoubtedly at the fore. There are perhaps six to twelve examples known in all grades, making this coin so rare that most advanced specialists cannot boast a specimen of their own!

After this auspicious beginning, the sale continues with solid offerings of minor coinage, including an attractive (and affordable!) 1804 quarter dollar. An 1823/2 quarter also commands attention, while the 1835 proof quarter (the Eliasberg specimen) combines great beauty with a great pedigree. A 1916 Standing Liberty quarter in AU-58 (NGC) represents a good opportunity to acquire a relatively affordable example of this scarce issue. Moving into the half dollars, a beautiful 1795 Overton-114 example in MS-64 (NGC) (finest known) steals the limelight, and is followed in turn by a number of attractive Draped Bust half dollars and, later, an excellent 1861 Scott restrike Confederate half dollar. Continued

By Doug Winter  - www.RareGoldCoins.com 

How are soaring energy prices going to affect the coin market? I got my first taste of the New Reality today when I decided not to attend a coin show because of what I thought was an exceptionally high price for an airline ticket.

The other day I received an email from Whitman Expos regarding their August Atlanta show. I believe that this show is in its third year and I have attended the previous conventions. Even though it is a brutal flight for me to get to Atlanta from the Northwest, I’ve always looked forward to the show. I love Atlanta, I like the Whitman people and want to support their shows and I have some good clients in the Atlanta metropolitan area. So even though this had never been a “major” event on the coin circuit, I was still happy to attend it.

That is, until I went on my airlines’ website yesterday and looked up the price of a round trip ticket to Atlanta. Even booking the ticket more than two months in advance, the best fare I could find was close to $800 and that was with a lovely three hour layover on the way home in Dallas. To get a convenient round trip ticket was nearly $1,000.

Now I know that the airlines are hurting and that Americans have had the luxury of really cheap airfare for the past decade. But when I figure a $1,000 plane ticket on top of a $200 per night hotel (I don’t like to share rooms when I travel and I’d rather camp out under a bridge than stay at a cheap hotel), the price of a table at a show, meals, etc., a show like the Atlanta Expo suddenly gets expunged from my schedule.

I wonder how many other dealers are feeling the same way about non-essential shows. No matter how expensive airfare gets, I’m still going to attend the ANA and FUN shows and I will continue to attend West Coast shows because of the convenience factor. But instead of going to three Baltimore shows per year, I’ll probably cut back to two to reduce expenses. Continued