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

The Burnishing Process Defects on a coin can be removed or lessened (especially on its flat surface) by a process called “Burnishing.” A small round or cup-shaped metal tool is pushed into the surface to smooth out defects to the surface such as scratches in order to make them less noticeable. Of course, doing this to the coin alters the level of its original surface, depending on how much pressure is applied. Keys to the detection of this alteration are usually changes of color, a depression, remaining evidence of the defect and disruption of any trace of metal flow that may have remained on ..read more

The subhead of an article by Maurice Gould in the April 1965 issue of Coins magazine caught my attention. It reads, “It was a big day in Boston when they sold the famous Daniel Edward Groux collection, but today nobody knows who won.” The story told by Gould dates to the early days of collecting in the United States. Namely it goes back to 1855 and a lottery planned by Prof. Daniel E. Groux, of Washington, D.C., to dispose of his numismatic collection. Groux came to America in the 1840s and established himself as a self-proclaimed language teacher and a professor of numismatics. An advertiseme ..read more

$10 1950A FRN with intermediate-size back plate serial number 1597. Back 1597 was also mated with 1950B and C FRN faces. Peter Huntoon This article focuses on intermediate-size back plate serial number 1597 on $10 1950A, B, and C FRNs, a variety that few people know about because little has been written about it. Decades ago, someone pointed out 1597 on the back of a $10 Federal Reserve note from the 1950 series. Here is what I learned about it. The notes bearing the variety were printed from an 18-subject flat plate. Those were the last plates used to print notes on wetted paper. Consequently ..read more

Adobe Stock When someone uses the term ‘cashless society,’ we think of the demise of coins and bank notes. The use of physical cash has declined in recent years, but who would expect the check rather than coins and bank notes to go extinct due to the rise of cashlessness? According to a Reserve Bank of Australia 2022 survey, transactions involving paper checks make up a mere 0.2 percent of all financial transactions. Consumer payments using checks were half of this figure. The Australian Banking Association indicated paying by check has declined by about 90 percent over the past 10 years. At ..read more

DALLAS, Texas (April 18, 2024) — One of the finest collections of high-end Sovereigns to come to market in the last decade will shimmer in the spotlight when the collection of Ayden Ezen is sold in Heritage’s CSNS World & Ancient Coins Platinum Session and Signature® Auction May 8-10. What began as a hobby with the purchase of an 1836 Sovereign some four decades ago grew into an elite collection that would provide 250 lots for the auction’s single-owner stand-alone session. “Once started, his collection grew — in quantity and in quality,” says Cris Bierrenbach, Executive Vice President of ..read more

2024-W silver American Eagle. (Image courtesy United States Mint.) We’ve got some big movers this month, when looking at the latest sales report from the U.S. Mint through April 14 compared to our last look through March 10. The largest jump is seen in the 2024-W collector silver proof American Eagle. It increased by a whopping 7,108 units for a total of 238,925. Coming in next is the 2024 silver proof Greatest Generation coin, which saw a bump of 5,168 to 22,349. Rounding out the movers and shakers is another silver coin, this time the 2023-S proof Peace dollar. It jumped by 4,473 for a ..read more

Wikicommons One of my earliest childhood memories was a trip to St. Augustine, Florida, where my parents took me to the “fort made out of seashells” from the early Spanish explorers. My father bought me a replica 8 reals pillar of Hercules coin. Some 60 years later, I have this coin and a genuine specimen side by side. The facsimile coin from all those years ago remains my favorite coin in my collection. Fred S. Back when I was in high school in 2002, I went to buy a Coke from the Coke machine. The kid in front of me put his quarters in the machine, but one of the quarters kept coming back ou ..read more

It seems like most new numismatists get started by their association with a relative or friend who is one and shares their passion. However, there are alternative ways to spark an interest in numismatics among children. Here’s one example. Coin-collecting kids at the U.S. Mint Sharon McPike From 2015 to 2019, I taught a class on Coin Collecting at the annual 4-H Exploration Days camp on the Michigan State University campus (just over a mile from where I work). Most years, I co-taught this class with Brett Irick, who is the current vice president of the Central States Numismatic Society and&nbs ..read more

Gold bar Wikicommons Rare coins are back in the spotlight. The early April Spring Whitman Baltimore Expo auction conducted by Stack’s Bowers Galleries realized more than $32 million hammer price in a massive 14-session sale. There was something for everyone in this auction. The sale included U.S. coins, bank notes, numismatic Americana, and physical cryptocurrency. The Americana session included a collection of Indian Peace medals and a gold Washington Funeral medal with its original jewelry encasement. Carson City-minted $20 double eagles highlighted the half eagles, eagles, and double eagles ..read more