Coins August 2021

My two pocket pieces are a 1965 Churchill Crown—and a brand-new glow-in-the-dark Barbados Dollar! David Wyndoze From Facebook Several years ago, prior to a vacation with my wife, I went to my local bank for some cash to take with us. I asked for a few $100.00 bills that we use in emergencies. I was happily surprised when I received a 1928 note “Redeemable in Gold” in extra fine condition. I quickly put that aside and did not use it. Joe Wisconsin Recently, I purchased a large quantity of nickels, dimes, and quarters from a friend. She had been dropping the coins into a large piggy bank for over thirty years. I bought the coins sight unseen, and since then I have been looking at each coin in hopes of finding something rare or unusual. Many of…

COLLECTORS OF early United States large cents tend to fall in love with the beauty of the designs, but also tend to have to save up for meaningful purchases. The earliest large cents of a brand new United States Mint can be very expensive for someone just breaking into the field. But the humble one-cent coin we still use today has undergone some changes in the past that qualify as both amazing and intriguing, as well as cost saving. Let’s peer into a couple of specific times in our history when there was a lot going on with our one-cent coins. Not 1856, but 1857 Most numismatic reference books state that 1856 is the first year of issue of the Flying Eagle design for the new, small-sized cent. Those listings tend to…

My coin collecting history runs as follows: I started collecting in the mid 1950s, when I was about 12 years old. At first, my acquisitions were obtained primarily through roll searches, but I occasionally bought and/or traded for coins I needed. For the most part, I put aside my collecting and collections during my college years, although I did sell coins to buy an engagement ring for my fiancée, later my wife. When I finished my formal education, I resumed my collecting, initially focusing on completing the incomplete sets formed earlier. In the late 70s/early 80s, my coin activities took another turn, as I started and ran a part-time mail-order business for a decade. Since that time, I have continued collecting, purchasing more and more expensive items as my finances permitted. As…

IN THE 1970s, when the General Services Administration sold the last of Morgan dollars from a once-vast government hoard, interest from most collectors centered on high-grade specimens from the Carson City Mint. Perhaps because of its low mintages, or that it was a true mint of the Old West, there has always been strong demand for coins with the mintmark CC. It all began with the California Gold Rush of the late 1840s. Not all ’49ers made it to California. Some stopped on the way to try their hand at prospecting. In 1850, gold was discovered in what is now Nevada, but the results were disappointing and the bulk of the gold was still found in northern California. In 1859, however, all of this was to change with the discovery of…

Scholarship applications are now being accepted from young numismatists, ages 13 to 21, for the first Coin University program in San Francisco, California, July 24-31, 2021. As many as 25 all-expense scholarships will be awarded by the Witter Coin Scholarship Fund (www.WitterCoinFund.com)and will include expenses for a parent or guardian to accompany any winners under the age of 18. “The past year of the pandemic has kept many young collectors’ hobby activities limited to social media and other online resources. The Coin University project will give them hands-on experience and expand their knowledge in grading and authentication of U.S., world and ancient coins and other topics from an all-star team of veteran numismatists,” explained Seth Chandler, the owner and chief numismatist at Witter Coin Co. in San Francisco. “The YNs will be…

I STARTED COLLECTING coins in the mid 1950s, and like most collectors, then and now, I was hooked on Lincoln cents. At the time, all the Lincolns I encountered had wheat stalks on the reverse, were “Wheaties,” in other words. The end to new Wheaties came with the 1958 cent, replaced by 1959 cents with a representation of the Lincoln Memorial on their reverses. 1959 was an auspicious year for me, as that’s when I graduated from high school. Of course, the year was also the 50th anniversary of the Lincoln cent, which had begun in 1909, with Victor D. Brenner’s design. 1909 wasn’t just chosen at random, as it was the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth on February 12, 1809. Obviously, that would make 1959 the 150th anniversary or sesquicentennial…