Coin Collecting News

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. Continued

A new penny, but why?
LA Times - Editorial
In honor of the upcoming bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, the U.S. Mint is giving the 100-year-old Lincoln penny a new look. The front will continue to show his profile, but the Lincoln Memorial on the back will be replaced by images that are intended to evoke different aspects of his life, such as a log cabin and young Abe sitting on a log, reading. This is expected to create a big buzz in the coin-collecting world, but in truth, the only makeover the penny needs is a disappearing act.
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New penny designed partly in Philadelphia
By Peter Mucha - Inquirer
As a teen, Charles Vickers, a sculpture/engraver for the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, had to split firewood using a wedge and a wood-headed hammer called a maul. So, a few years ago, when the mint assigned him to submit one of four new designs for the penny, an image immediately came to the Jenkintown gentleman’s mind: Lincoln’s reading a book while taking a break from splitting logs with a double-banded maul.
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The Central Bank of Bahrain issues new notes
Bahrain Tribune
The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB)Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) issued new currency notes and coins worth BD11.9 million, in the run-up to Eid Al Fitr; which have been delivered to commercial banks in the Kingdom. The new notes and coins are being issued to meet the increased demand for new currency.
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Collecting South Carolina Colonial Notes
By William Brandimore, Market Update
South Carolina notes are as varied as those from North Carolina. They feature lots of Latin mottos and my particular favorites carry vignettes of Hercules slaying the Nubian Lion; Prometheus having his liver devoured by a vulture and a figure who may or may not be Atlas, carrying a huge boulder.
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Design Changes in Store for Dollars and Cents
By Maggie Pahl, Market Update
After much attention and debate, the “In God We Trust” motto is making its home on the obverse of Presidential dollars in 2009.
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Half Dimes 70-Percent Off
Coin Collector’s Blog
Representative Frank Lucas, a Republican who represents Oklahoma’s 3rd District and a coin collector, introduced H.R.?6942 “to provide for the return of the half-dime as the new 5-cent circulating coin.” The text of the bill is very simple, it calls for the removal of “Paragraph (5) of section 5112(a) of title 31, United States Code” (31?U.S.C.?§5112(a)) that describes the current nickel as “a 5-cent coin that is 0.835 inch in diameter and weighs 5 grams.” In its place, the bill calls for “a clad half-dime that is based on the size and shape of the half-dime or 5-cent coin produced in the 1870s.”
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Re-engraving a mystery
By Tom DeLorey
The unexplained re-engraving at the Philadelphia Mint of an obverse and reverse pair of 1938 proof Jefferson nickel dies, as previously revealed by Michael Fey in a press release sent to the numismatic press in June of this year, is not unique after all. At least five different 1938 proof nickel obverse dies were enhanced by an engraver who hand carved details directly into working proof dies, and it remains to be seen if ANY 1938 proof nickel dies have the elusive “normal” design.
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A virtually non-stop flow of bourse floor traffic, nearly $35 million of coin and bank note auctions and visits by California’s Attorney General and former Governor, Jerry Brown, and Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, highlighted the busy September 18 -20, 2008 Long Beach Coin, Stamps & Collectibles Expo.

“Gold jumped about $40 an ounce on opening day, and we saw many ‘new faces’ among the thousands of attendees. Thursday is usually a busy day, and attendance this time was about 20 percent higher than recent, previous opening days,” said Ronald J. Gillio, Expo General Chairman.

“I’ve had a table at every Long Beach show since 1995, and this was my best opening day Thursday,” said Peter Walters of Columbia Collectibles in Irvine, California who specializes in Civil War to World War I era items.

The multiple auction sessions of U.S. and world coins, paper money and tokens and medals conducted by Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, Texas, official auctioneer of the Long Beach Expo, generated nearly $35 million in prices realized bidding.

Several hundred children took part in a Saturday “treasure hunt” at the show. Among the free numismatic gifts given to the participants were more than 100 modern proof and mint sets donated by collector Dennis Riley of Maryland, according to Walter A. Ostromecki Jr., coordinator of the show’s youth activities.

The Long Beach Stamp Club provided free stamps to help youngsters start collections.

A coin collector, Attorney General Brown walked the bourse floor for about an hour on Friday, September 19, accompanied by American Numismatic Association President Barry Stuppler and ANA Executive Director Larry Shepherd. He then met with collectors and dealers in an informal question and answer session organized by Stuppler in his role as President of the California Coin and Bullion Merchants Association. Continued

(Edina, Minnesota) – The introduction next year of new designs for the common Lincoln cent is being praised by a coin expert, but he doubts the practicality of pennies in pocket change.

“The Mint has been producing cents for circulation for 215 years since 1793 and they’re fun to collect, but the usefulness of one-cent denomination coins is questionable. Pennies may go the way of the two-cent, three-cent and twenty-cent denomination coins that were eliminated in the 1800’s,” said Gary Adkins of Edina, Minnesota, President of the Professional Numismatists Guild, a nonprofit organization composed of many of the nation’s top rare coin experts.

“Any new design will be exciting for collectors and should make non-collectors take a closer look at their pocket change. But this may be the beginning of the end for pennies,” said Adkins.

“Next year’s 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth will offer collectors and history buffs the opportunity to re-ignite their interest in the Lincoln penny, one of the most popular and affordable collectibles for children and beginning collectors since the Lincoln cent was first introduced in 1909.”

Adkins explained that pennies have changed significantly since they were first struck by the Mint over two centuries ago.

“In 1793, one-cent coins were virtually pure copper and big — about the size of a modern quarter-dollar – they’re very popular today with collectors. Because of rising commodities prices, there’s very little copper in the little pennies produced now. Since 1982 they’re composed of zinc with a thin copper coating, and even with the reduced use of copper it sometimes costs more than a cent to make a penny.” Continued

1915 50C Panama-Pacific Half Dollar, Judd-1960 (previously Judd-1793), Pollock-2031, R.8, PR64 NGC. Die trial issue of the 1915 Panama-Pacific half before the S mintmark was added. Struck in gold with a reeded edge. This remarkable coin is one of only two pieces known and its illustrious pedigree goes back as far as Virgil Brand.

The story of this coin is best related in the Pollock reference. Pollock had carefully examined the #1 specimen, the Farouk-Norweb coin, but the same history and mysterious circumstances apply to this piece: “…planchet file marks and traces of an undertype, indicating that the half dollar dies were impressed on a cut-down $20 gold coin, which had been filed to remove high-relief details.

This piece is remarkably thick: 2.4 mm at the edge versus 2.1 mm for a regular-issue Panama-Pacific half dollar.

“The characteristics of the coin suggest that it was made clandestinely. Since the piece is overstruck instead of being made using a new planchet of normal thickness, it can be inferred that there was a desire on the part of the manufacturer that no mention of the piece be made in the bullion account books, and thus if may have been produced secretly at the Mint in the same manner as the 1913 Liberty nickel or the Class III 1804 dollar. The only other known example of the variety, listed as No. 2 in our census (this piece), is reportedly also struck over a cut down $20 gold piece.”

Close examination shows fine file marks that presumably would have effaced the design of the double eagle. However, a small remnant of the undertype survives on the reverse with a faint trace of what appears to be an O and a period to its left, located between the H in HALF and U of UNITED.

Ex: Virgil Brand; B.G. Johnson; Celina Coin Co.; A. Friedman; 1979 ANA Sale (New England, 7/79), lot 1365, where it realized an amazing $27,000.
From The Sound Beach Collection. (#62267)

Sold in the Heritage 2003 November Signature Sale #334 Lot 11252 for $165,000