Coins

finding the first coins of the year

I like a lot of your readers always start by reading the coin finds section and look forward to it every month. I started CRH in the 70’s as a kid getting 2 rolls of cents a week. I managed to fill most all of the common dates in my blue folders this way. As I grew my interest changed and coin folders were put aside, now many years later I am happy to say I have completed many series of US coins and some Canadian. I look back on those early days of CRH very fondly, the thrill of finding a coin I needed to fill a spot in those old blue folders will always be cherished. Robert Harding Address withheld Just a day ago, I found a “W” mint mark Tallgrass…

undervalued beauties in different u.s. coin series

VIRTUALLY EVERY collector wants to find some good buys, real sleepers, when building his or her collection. That desire often leads us down the road to looking for coins that have low price tags, and that we think will jump up in price in the future. And while that frugal collector living in all of us has a good point, sometimes the undervalued coins are lurking where we least expect them. Let’s take at least a brief glance at several United States coins series and see if we can point out some undervalued pieces within them. Then we’ll see if they qualify as sleepers. Importantly, as we get into this, we’re going to focus on an unexpected group, the proofs. Mercury Dimes The United States Mint produced a series of proof sets…

barber dimes poised to rise in value

IN MY 65+ years of experience with U.S. coins, I’ve always had a fondness for Barber-designed coins, particularly the silver pieces. The reason for this fondness is not difficult to determine: Although scarce, they were still found occasionally in circulation when I started collecting. Thus, to me as a junior collector, Barbers were the oddballs. The dimes looked nothing like the Mercury dimes so prevalent at the time, or the Roosevelts that were still relatively new in the early 1950s. I knew from my 1958 Red Book (A Guide Book of United States Coins) that the Barber silver pieces were designed by Charles E. Barber, Chief Engraver of the Mint. What I didn’t know at the time was how he got the assignment, or why the previous Seated Liberty design was…

the two-cent piece

ALTHOUGH THE two-cent piece was coined for less than a decade, from 1864 to 1873, this short tenure does not really illustrate its importance. Many of these coins continued to circulate and it was not until after 1890 that their use became rare in the marketplace. By the 1890s, of course, the coins were well worn but still recognizable. Most collectors view the two-cent piece as an odd denomination because it was coined for such a short time. However, it had been under consideration as a coin on more than one occasion before late May 1864 when minting actually began at the Philadelphia Mint. Because small change was often in short supply in the early United States, in 1806 Congressman Uri Tracy introduced a bill for a two-cent piece. The reasoning behind…

coin adventures with 'falco dog'

I AM A coin dealer and collector, and I have spent a lifetime loving the history and beauty of coins. I have harnessed this same passion and channeled it into every aspect of Gobrecht Numismatics. Coins have given me such joy, allowed me to meet so many interesting people and taken me on some wild escapades. It gives me such pleasure to reminisce and re-tell some of my adventures. This one is about “Falco Dog” and will incorporate my dear German Shepherd, Falco, who has since passed. During one early morning in 2008, I was in my shop reading my teletype messages. I noticed that a couple of dealers were selling the James Adams New Discovery Dollar Error coin of three varieties – one was a Plain Edge variety and the…

memorializing nasa challenger astronaut christa mcauliffe

THE UNITED States Mint will be releasing a new commemorative silver dollar to honor the life of Astronaut Christa McAuliffe. McAuliffe, a civilian high school social studies teacher, was among a crew of seven who were killed when NASA Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just after launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on January 28, 1986. She was the first and only participant in NASA’s Teacher in Space Program. The Teacher in Space Program was announced by Reagan in 1984 as a project to help inspire students into gaining an interest in mathematics, science, and space exploration, as well as to honor the teachers across the country. Through an extensive process, over 11,000 applicants were narrowed down to two. McAuliffe was chosen as well as one other to be her back up in the…