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The Most Hyped Coin in History Have you ever wondered why some error coins are so well-known and worth so much money, while others are virtually ignored? Take, for example, the 1937-D 3-legged Buffalo Nickel. The missing leg was caused by a Mint worker being careless while cleaning a coin die; he accidentally erased part of the leg. This sort of accidental erasure is known to exist on most circulating coin types to a greater or lesser degree. Why do we know about the 3-legged Buffalo Nickel, and why are specimens worth many hundreds of dollars or more? Because of hype. A coin dealer who happened to get an early good supply of 3-legged Buffaloes decided to "specialize" in them. He promoted them heavily in his advertising and told everyone who would listen how rare and special they were. Once the 3-legged Buffalo Nickel got listed in the Red Book as a recognized variety, its fame was assured, because back then additions to the Red Book canon were very rare. Despite this intriguing history, the 3-legged Buffalo is far from being the most hyped coin in history. That honor goes to Read more... The Most Hyped Coin in History originally appeared on About.com Coins on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 03:23:53. Permalink | Comment | Email this New Penny Design Enters Circulation
The U.S. Mint has officially released the new 2010 U.S. Cent during a ceremony at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. The 2010 Cent is noteworthy because it represents a change in reverse design for the venerable coin, which has borne the image of the Lincoln Memorial on it reverse ("tails" side) for 50 years. In 2009, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln Cent, and the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, the U.S. Cent had four different reverse designs, each issued about three months apart. Starting this year, the penny reverse depicts the union shield. The thirteen stripes represent the 13 colonies that formed the original Union. The upper portion of the shield represents the Federal Government, which is supported by the unity of the States. The new permanent Lincoln cent reverse was designed by United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program Associate Designer Lyndall Bass, and sculpted by United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Joseph Menna. The 2010 Cents have been released to the Federal Reserve System for distribution to banks, and should appear in circulation in coming weeks. New Penny Design Enters Circulation originally appeared on About.com Coins on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 05:49:39. Permalink | Comment | Email this Coin Dealer Ethics - Elderly Lady and Her Jar of Coins The idea for this week's Coin Dealer Ethics discussion was sent in by Sandy B. in Corpus Christi, Texas. She wrote:
Sandy's message reminded me of a scene I witnessed at one of those local coin shows in Las Vegas, Nevada, run by Bick International. It was the last Bick show I ever went to, because I ended up getting thrown out! The scenario below probably won't be of much help to Sandi and her efforts to gain advice on how women should handle coin dealers, but I'll have an article written next week in response to her question. Here's this week's scenario: I was standing at the table of the only coin dealer at the show who had any ancient coins in pick boxes, a wonderfully friendly fellow by the name of Roy Comnick (of Comnick's Coins in Prescott Valley, AZ.) An elderly lady, probably at least 80 years old, came up to the table of the dealer next to us (whose name I don't know.) This dealer had a prominent sign that said BUYING COINS. The elderly lady, (who we'll call "Agnes,") was carrying a good-sized jar of mixed U.S. coinage, mostly pre-1850 silver and copper coins such as large cents, half cents, etc. She asked the dealer with the BUYING sign if he would look at her coins and tell her how much they were worth. The dealer produced a felt tray and asked the lady to pour her jar of coins onto the tray, which she did. I could see the Bust Dollars and Half Dollars, high grade Large Cents, and a scattering of smaller silver coins that I couldn't quite make out. The dealer got out his loupe and looked at a few of the coins closely and asked the lady where she got them as he examined them. She said they belonged to her father and that she had run across them while going through some old family trunks in preparation for selling her house. She said she brought them to the coin show to get an appraisal and sell them since none of her children had any interest in them. The dealer (who evidently wasn't listening) asked her if she wanted to sell them, and she replied, "That's why I'm here." While all of this is going on, I stood there watching with some interest. I've seen what happens when people bring in their jars, bottles and boxes of old coins, and I was waiting to see if this lady would be treated any differently. We weren't dealing with Wheat Pennies and worn out Mercury Dimes here! This was obviously auction-quality material that needed more than just a quick 3 minute assessment before counting up the face value and buying the silver at bullion spot price. After 3 or 4 minutes, the dealer made a sort of grumbling sound and said that her coins weren't exactly in mint state and that copper isn't a precious metal, but "how much do you want for them?" The lady replied that she didn't know; she had brought them in to have them appraised because she didn't know anything about coins. The dealer responded that he didn't have time at this busy show (it was actually quite dead) to do full appraisals for free, but if she wanted to sell them to name a price and he'd take it or leave it. The lady seemed a little uncertain here, and began rounding up her coins to put them back in her jar when the dealer spoke up again, "Lady, your coins are not in mint state grade. You can take them around to every table here, and nobody is going to pay you more than I will, assuming they're even buying. Do you see any other BUYING COINS signs in here? Save yourself the time and trouble and just name a price. I'm having a good show; I'll probably pay what you ask." It's worth pointing out here that her coins were likely worth thousands of dollars each. This was one of the most remarkable rip-offs I had ever witnessed, and my heart starting pumping faster and my palms were getting damp as I saw where this was going. The little old lady looked up hopefully into the dealer's face, and tremulously asked, "Do you think they're worth as much as a thousand dollars? I'd probably take that, they're nothing to me, I didn't even know I had them until last month." I saw the coin dealer's pupils briefly dilate, and old poker-playing tell that lets you know your opponent has just made a BIG hand. He knew he was getting a huge gift, and as my blood starting rushing faster through my veins, in response to the outrage I was feeling, the coin dealer said, "Lady, a thousand dollars is a lot of money for these coins. Why don't I give you $700 in cash and we'll call it a deal." He was a masterful pro at this rip-off business, and already had the cash out of his pocket, counting off the hundreds while the lady watched uncertainly. This was the point at which I finally lost it. I said to the lady (who knew I had been standing there watching the whole time,) "Ma'am, your coins are worth several thousand dollars EACH probably. Don't take his offer! Take them around and get some other offers first!" I would have said more, but the dealer had practically jumped across his table and gotten in my face and said, "This is none of your business. Get out of here." Then, turning to the lady, this dealer (who had never seen me before in his life) said, "I know this woman, she's a real shark. She hates to see anybody else make a sale. I'll give you the thousand dollars for your old coins, but that's a GIFT, take it or leave it now." I told the lady, "Leave it! Go get more offers! Your coins are EARLY BUST DOLLARS, those are very valuable coins!" At this point, the coin dealer shouted for the bourse chairman, for security, and for the police, all in one long shout. Heads everywhere turned our direction, and several people in police or security uniforms came running from everywhere at once. The coin dealer pointed at me and demanded that they throw me out. He said that I was interfering with his business and intimidating his customers. One of the security guards reached behind his belt and produced a set of handcuffs, and I got the point. By this time, a man that I presume was the bourse chairman came running over and rather anti-climatically told me to leave the show and that I wasn't welcome there again. I protested that this dealer was about to steal from this woman, but by then a security guard had me by the arm and was hustling me toward the exit, a little more forcefully than strictly necessary since I wasn't struggling (just shouting) and I had bruises on my arm the next day. I do not know whether that lady sold her coins to that charlatan or not. I tried to find out who he was after the show, by calling the bourse chairman's office and enquiring about who was in that spot, but I didn't have the booth number and I hadn't bothered to pick up one of their flimsy little show programs. There are two sides to this debate, regarding the actions I took that day. One side says that I was right to try to warn the lady (although I could have perhaps been more discreet or handled it differently once I saw the value of her coins.) The other side says that I had absolutely no right at all to say a single word; the transaction was none of my business and it was wrong of me to interfere. What do you think? Should I have spoken up? What would you have done? Share your thoughts via the comments link below and next week we'll have a look at your responses. Follow-Up - You can read the follow-up to this column, where we look at some of the readers' responses about the elderly lady and her coins. Coin Dealer Ethics - Elderly Lady and Her Jar of Coins originally appeared on About.com Coins on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 04:41:43. Permalink | Comment | Email this What About Cheerios Pennies?
I should have foreseen the email avalanche I was about to be buried under! Although almost nobody can turn up a Cheerios Dollar these days, there are 10,000,000 Cheerios Pennies out there, and I feel like I've heard from fully half their owners! Most of them want to know how to get the $10,000 their coin is worth. I've had to break the bad news to these folks, that only the Cheerios Dollar coin is valuable. As for the Cheerios Penny? Well, it's not so bad that they might as well just go spend it, but as long they keep it on that little card, it's worth a few bucks on eBay. Then again, if they keep it on the little card, it'll probably get PVC damage from the plastic sealing it in. (Or are these cards made from archival-quality packaging by some chance? Does anybody know?) I actually had a bear of a time finding a decent-quality photo of the Cheerios Penny on its little card. I finally tracked one down on an interesting site called X-Entertainment.com. The site is run by a fellow who collects (among other things) the junk that manufacturers put into cereal boxes for the kids to find. He has a page about the Millenios special edition collectible box on which he states that the Cheerios Penny and Dollar coin premiums were actually placed into five different kinds of cereal! Can anybody confirm this detail, and tell us which five cereals were included in the promotion? Update: Reader Fred says (in the Comments below) that there were five different flavors of Cheerios, and that the coins were found in boxes of them all. The flavors included Honey Nut Cheerios, Team Cheerios, and maybe Frosted Cheerios. Fred also tells us that he used a metal detector on the boxes of cereal at the stores to tell which boxes might have the larger (dollar) coins in them! How devilishly clever! Thank you for sharing, Fred! :) Cheerios Coins - Additional ReadingPhoto by Matt C. of X-Entertainment.com, (used with permission.) What About Cheerios Pennies? originally appeared on About.com Coins on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 at 22:00:06. Permalink | Comment | Email this Coin Grading Made Simple Learning how to properly grade coins is perhaps the biggest challenge new coin collectors face. Understanding the proper grade for a coin is core to establishing its value. Whether your goal is to make more savvy coin purchases, or to appraise your own collection, being able to grade your own coins is a skill that is not optional. Although grading services have certainly filled an important gap in the marketplace since their inception, the fact is that only a small percentage of all collectible coins have been slabbed (graded and put into a holder.) Even the coins which have been slabbed are sometimes misgraded, and experts such as Q. David Bowers will tell you that you shouldn't use the label in the holder to decide what the coin inside grades at, but grade the coin yourself and let the label be your confirmation. According to Bowers, if the grade on the label is too high, don't buy the coin. If the grade on the label is too low, you may have found yourself a nice bargain! How can you begin learning how to grade? I've got you covered in Coin Grading Made Simple. Coin Grading Made Simple originally appeared on About.com Coins on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 04:45:07. Permalink | Comment | Email this |
Coin Wholesale Price Guides One of the most powerful techniques you can use, when negotiating with a coin dealer, is to know how much he likely paid for a coin, and what price is the lowest he is likely to accept. Fortunately, the coin market is so vast and complex that dealers must rely on price guides to do most of their business. This is especially true of the dealers you encounter at coin shows or in their own shops. Learn what these coin price guides are called, and how to get your own sample copy very inexpensively, in my article about coin wholesale price guides. Coin Wholesale Price Guides originally appeared on About.com Coins on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 03:10:29. Permalink | Comment | Email this Coin Dealer Ethics - Goodwill This edition of "Coin Dealer Ethics" deals with inheritance; not the kind of inheritance where someone dies and you get their fabulous coin collection, but where a coin dealer decides to retire and sell his business to another person. Should the new owner benefit from that dealer's "goodwill?" Here's the scenario: Ernest K. of Honest Man Coins (names are fictional) had been in the coin business for 40 years. He had an excellent reputation, and belonged to numerous numismatic associations, including the ANA and PNG. Although his coin business wasn't large, it had a devoted following of customers, and Ernest attended several coin shows each year which helped him broaden his reach and gain access to a wider range of material. When Ernest retired, he sold the coin business to a single buyer, including the stock, the business name and goodwill, the lease to his excellent downtown location (which still had 14 years left on it at a great monthly rate,) and all other assets that belonged to the business (including the customer list, store fixtures, coin safe, etc.) The "stock," of course, was the coins that Ernest had in his inventory, plus a goodly assortment of coin collecting supplies and books. Basically, Ernest sold everything that you'd find in a normal local coin shop, what business salesmen call a "turn-key operation." Unfortunately, less than a month after the sale, Read more... Coin Dealer Ethics - Goodwill originally appeared on About.com Coins on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 18:00:27. Permalink | Comment | Email this U.S. Mint Warns About Chinese-Made Counterfeit Coins The U.S. Mint has issued a Consumer Advisory warning citizens about the counterfeit U.S. coins that have been flooding into the United States from China. Although counterfeit coins are as old a phenomena as coins themselves, dating back to antiquity, the Chinese-made counterfeits represent an unusually dangerous threat because of the high technology being employed to produce many of them. The U.S. Mint Advisory characterizes the coins as "imitations" and includes a photograph of a Proof Morgan Dollar. The Advisory states that the imitation coins bear dates prior to 1950. You can read the entire counterfeit coin advisory on the U.S. Mint's Web site. I have been warning coin collectors about these Chinese-made counterfeit coins since early 2008, when I obtained photographs and the operational details of a working coin counterfeiting ring based in China. The fake coins are primarily entering the hobby marketplace through online auction venues such as eBay. Learn More About Counterfeit Coins
U.S. Mint Warns About Chinese-Made Counterfeit Coins originally appeared on About.com Coins on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 04:54:54. Permalink | Comment | Email this Uncirculated 2009 U.S. Mint Set Available The U.S. Mint has begun selling one of its most popular annual items - the Uncirculated Mint Set. This attractive set comes in two separate folders, one for the Philadelphia-struck coins, and one for the coins struck at Denver. This year's set has an all-time high number of coins - 36! The 18 coins from each Mint are as follows:
The Cents are struck in the original 95% copper alloy that the Lincoln Cent was struck from in 1909 when it was first issued. They bear the 4 special designs commemorating Lincoln's life which are being issued this year. The cost of this year's Uncirculated Mint Set is $27.95, plus the U.S. Mint charges an additional $4.95 per order for shipping and handling. You can order the 2009 Uncirculated Mint Sets from the U.S. Mint Web site. Uncirculated 2009 U.S. Mint Set Available originally appeared on About.com Coins on Sunday, October 4th, 2009 at 11:00:59. Permalink | Comment | Email this Those Wonderful Small Dollars!
This is just the tip of the iceberg! If small-module U.S. dollar coins interest you, you could spend hours at this fascinating site, and I bet it it'll be a great one to watch for the inside scoop on the Presidential Dollars, too! United States Mint Image Those Wonderful Small Dollars! originally appeared on About.com Coins on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 01:00:50. Permalink | Comment | Email this |
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