No, I don’t have any parts of my collection visible or displayed. Like many of the older collectors, I have the big black safe in the basement. Unfortunately, coins and bills are so easily picked up or lost without being noticed. Maybe good old Mike on HSC sells products in display cases, but true collectors or accumulators would never put them on a coffee table. I seldom talk about my collection to people other than collectors themselves. Yes, heck of a hobby. Roy E. Robertson, Annapolis, Md. Yes. I have since I was young. I build individual displays for educational purposes about coins ..read more

This five-pound gold bar, recovered from the famous Atocha shipwreck, which was sunk in 1622, will be auctioned on May 7. When the Spanish treasure galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha sank in 1622 off what is now Key West, Fla., she took down untold treasures in gold and silver. And now a particularly famous piece of treasure from the wreck is crossing the auction block. One of the largest gold bars ever recovered from a Spanish colonial shipwreck is up for sale on May 7 in an auction conducted by Daniel Frank Sedwick, LLC in Winter Park, Fla. The gold bar, listed in the sale as lot 96, weighs ov ..read more

There has been a slump in collector purchasing activities recently, accompanied by modest price decreases in some usually popular areas. Dealers that service the general public, which is now speculating in precious metal composition coins, are seeing some slowdown, although some report more buying than selling. Don’t misunderstand these as being signals; the collector market is not in correction mode. What we are seeing is outside forces impacting the business of coins. The economic realities are that this is an equity market in uncertain territory accompanied by higher-than-anticipated infla ..read more

1908 $10 Indian Gold Eagle Coin eBay With gold prices soaring this year, public demand for gold has varied around the globe. In China, the world’s largest gold-consuming nation, private sector demand for gold bars and coins, as measured by weight, rose more than 26 percent in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the first quarter of 2023. This huge increase in demand has been prompted by fears of weak Chinese stock markets, real estate markets, and the prospect of the Chinese yuan currency falling in value. In India, the world's second-largest gold-consuming country, demand initially slacked ..read more

Ancient coins France has just returned more than 8,500 ancient coins to Turkey, the coins having been seized as having been illegally imported. The thought of ancient coins being surrendered to Turkey leaves some collectors numb. Memories of the Decadrachm Hoard and other coins being repatriated to Turkey in the past can leave the false impression the coins will go in the front door of a museum, then out the backdoor. There is always the fear that coins in private collections and museums might be in danger of being repatriated to any of an increasing number of countries that have a Memorandum ..read more

It’s time to dust off your passports and get excited about seeing some of the coins you usually only read about. We are headed to the United Kingdom! Numismatic News, World Coin News, and Bank Note Reporter editors Maggie Pahl and Sophia Mattimiro have teamed up with a seasoned travel agency to bring you a week immersed in world coins in London and Wales. Our adventure features amazing numismatic attractions, such as the British Museum’s collection of money, Coinex 2024, a VIP tour of the Royal Mint, and more! A week of sensational coin exploration awaits. To view the full itinerary, check ou ..read more

Roman denarius commemorating the opening of the Colosseum. Baldwins Auctions The Roman Emperor Titus only ruled for two years, from AD 79-81, but his reign saw two hugely significant events in the Roman world. The first was the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, which completely destroyed the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. These two locations have since become arguably the most important archaeological sites from the whole of the Roman world, yielding artistic masterpieces and everyday items and providing a window into Roman life at the time. For Titus, who’d only been emperor for a few m ..read more

Adobe stock Yes, stop making them for general circulation. We are losing too much money minting them. Before minting is stopped, the public and businesses need to be educated on rounding. Rounding should only apply to cash transactions anyway. For us collectors, maybe the Mint could place limited edition cents and nickels in mint and proof sets. Or just produce limited edition sets of each at a reasonable price. Gary, North Carolina No, the U.S. Mint should not stop making cent and nickel coins. Despite being produced at a financial loss, we need them to make accurate change or pay for a ..read more

Adobe stock People have been trying to figure out why, since Valentine’s Day this year through last Friday, the price of gold has soared more than 20 percent, and the price of silver has jumped almost 29 percent. (Note, however, that prices early this week are down from last Friday’s closes.) We now know what happened. Demand for gold has been so strong from the Chinese government and private citizens, already the world’s top gold-consuming nation, that imported supplies have not kept up with demand. Chinese people want to own gold to protect their finances against weak real estate and stock ..read more

The 100th anniversary of National Coin Week (April 21-27) opened with a rather startling remark appearing in an April 18 Wall Street Journal article proclaiming, “Coins are good as junk for many Americans.” The article, which reaches an investor-oriented audience with little interest in collecting, was meant to show how the Pennsylvania waste management company Reworld makes money by reclaiming coins that somehow ended up in the trash. The NCW theme for this year is “Money is history you can hold in your hands.” It doesn’t sound like the public wants to hold coins in their hands if you read t ..read more