I have said that I do not like painted coins then I admit to buying painted coins.
So far, I have stayed away from strictly screen printed and lenticular printed coins but I have lauded some painted coins and added them to my collection.
If there is something that I prefer over everything else is a coin whose design is based on the engraving. For that reason, I have complemented and purchased $20 for $20 coins from the Royal Canadian Mint. Their $20 for $20 program produces .9999 pure silver coins sold with the face value of $20 (in Canadian funds). They are available directly from the RCM to Canadian and United States buyers only.
Last year, I purchased the Bugs Bunny and the Superman “Man of Steel” coins directly from the Royal Canadian Mint. My final price was $16.46 each in U.S. dollars after the exchange rate and the credit card company’s conversion fee. Sure these are gimmick coins, but I like the themes.
This year, the RCM has issued a Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice $20 for $20 coin. With a mintage of 300,000 coins, numismatists who are also fans of the movie can add this silver coin to their collection. Based on the image, it appears that Superman is overpowering Batman.
Looking at the coin’s aesthetics, it is a good looking coin. The artists at the RCM are very capable and have come up with really nice designs. While the concept of the $20 for $20 (US$15.14 as I type this) may be somewhat of a gimmick for a coin with 7.96 grams of silver ($3.90 when silver is $15.32 per ounce), the design is engraved art struck into a silver planchet that is affordable for many collectors.
I have not had the opportunity to see the movie. I do enjoy comics and comic-related stories, but I am not a hardcore fan. I like both characters and have always been a fan of Wonder Woman now played by Gal Godot. But the coin intrigues me. I might buy the coin before seeing the movie!
Like any good movie, here is the “trailer” the Royal Canadian Mint produced for the coin:
1974-D Experimental Lincoln cent pattern made using an aluminum planchet (J2151)
Once again the U.S. Mint is saving us coin collectors from ourselves and preventing a legally obtained collectible from being owned by the collecting public. In a canned statement that had to have been copied from previous canned statements, U.S. Mint Principal Deputy Director Rhett Jeppson said that the agreement to return the only known version of a 1974-D Aluminum Lincoln cent pattern “is not only good for the integrity of the coin collecting hobby but for the integrity of the government property and rule of law.”
In 1974, as part of the effort to find a composition that would replace the 95-percent copper planchet for the one-cent coin that was used at the time, the U.S. Mint struck 1.4 million as patterns with the intent on destroying all of the coins struck when completed.
Congress did not like the concept fearing that their silver color would confuse them with other coins. Additionally, the aluminum composition could not be detected in vending machines nor would show up on an x-ray if swallowed. The coins were melted down.
Patterns that were struck for this test were made entirely in Philadelphia.
Which brings us to the story of the 1974-D cent pattern in this story.
Harry Lawrence who retired as deputy superintendent of the Denver Mint in 1979 owned this coin. Lawrence died in 1980. Harry’s son, Randall, discovered the coin in 2013 after moving to La Jolla from Denver and selling a bag of his father’s old coins to Michael McConnell at the La Jolla Coin Shop.
McConnell had the coin graded by Professional Coin Grading Service as MS-63 and determined it to be a genuine pattern. They were going to offer the coin for auction when the government stepped in to stop the sale and demanded its return.
Michael McConnell (left) and Randy Lawrence (right) returned the rare 1974-D penny made from aluminum back to the U.S. Treasury Department Thursday afternoon. — Nelvin C. Cepeda
There is one caveat to this story: there is no record of Denver ever striking such a coin. According to Randy Lawrence, the coin was given to his father when he retired from the Denver mint.
When Lawrence and McConnell sued the government to end the demand order, it is reported that Alan Goldman, former interim Mint director who headed the aluminum cent project, speculated in his deposition that the coin might have been made as part of a practical joke. Goldman allegedly named a suspect whose name was not released but is reported to be deceased.
The ensuing lawsuit lasted about two years and was settled today with McConnell returning the coin to the U.S. Mint on March 17, 2016.
The precedence this ruling is more dangerous for the hobby than people think. The most important issue is that it puts into jeopardy the status of the five 1913 Liberty Head nickels. Created under allegedly similar circumstances, the U.S. Mint has no record that these coins were ever produced. Although the government has tacitly agreed not to pursue that coin, there may be a time when someone with a more parochial view might use this situation to recover alleged chattel as property of the state.
Rulings like this will likely keep any surviving 1964-D Peace dollars hidden from the public. This will partially bury the history of turmoil in the coinage markets of the early 1960s. Hiding history is never good for anyone.
Credits
1974-D Aluminum cent courtesy of PCGS via Coin World.
Not long ago an acquaintance asked if I was attending the National Money Show in Dallas. I said that I had wanted to but there was a conflict that prevented me. He said that it did not matter because there were too many shows and it does not pay to go to all of them.
Panorama of the 2013 National Money Show bourse floor at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans
I was a bit shocked.
When you enjoy something, there is never too many or too much. I try to go to as many coin shows as possible whether they are as large as the World’s Fair of Money or a local show with 30 tables that meets in a local hall. If I cannot be at a coin show, I love to go to car shows including ones where I can bring my vintage Mopar.
It is difficult to find a car show in the winter. Owners of classic, vintage and antique cars would rather park our babies under cover than take them out in bad weather. This is a good time to find all of the coin shows.
I woke up my baby this past weekend!
There are not enough coin shows, especially when the weather is not suitable for car shows. Since I have been attending these shows for a while, I know many of the local dealers at the smaller shows and a few more of the dealers at the larger shows. For me, this makes the show fun.
I asked why he thought there were too many he complained about the costs. He felt that he had to buy something at every show in order to justify his attendance.
When I go to a show, I have a budget I keep to, collecting goals for that day, and the knowledge that if I come home with money in my pocket I can still have a good day if I see people and talk about coins and collecting.
Maybe the problem with my acquaintance is that he sees going to shows as a buying trip while I look for the experience. He might consider talking to some of the people, make friends, and see if he could learn something from these dealers. Even if I do not spend money, if I learn something I will have had a good time.
What began as an English proverb as “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb” may become a relic of history. Aside from the weather implications the markets are experiencing a lion-like robustness that even has the governors and branch presidents of the Federal Reserve issuing conflicting statements about the future of interest rates.
While the professionals are attempting to figure out what the economic numbers are saying, one thing is clear that the U.S. Mint is on pace to break its 2015 sales for American Silver Eagle bullion coins. March opens with the U.S. Mint announcing that it has another 1 million silver coins ready for sale. This is the fifth time in 2016 that the U.S. Mint has made this type of announcement.
Year to date, gold prices are up about 17-percent and silver prices are up 11-percent. This has not stopped the buying of bullion coins. One Canadian dealer recently informed me that they sold out of a specific silver issue from the Royal Canadian Mint because of high demand, especially from the United States.
This is reaching beyond collectors. While the numismatic world was focused on Dallas for the National Money Show, my business kept me in the D.C. area as a vendor at one of the largest antiques shows in the mid-Atlantic region. Although coins are a very minor part of the show, some dealers that were selling silver coins had high volumes of sales. One dealer reported that he sold out of the 30 American Silver Eagle bullion coins graded MS-70 by the middle of the show’s second day.
An informal poll of attendees to the National Money Show suggests similar sales performances.
Even though there may be areas of the economy that has not caught up to the current economic trends, it is difficult to find an analyst or pundit that does not believe that the current trends will end in the short term.
It is likely that March will go out like a raging bull, even if I could not find a one-armed economist to disagree!
Charging Bull by Arturo DiModica is a bronze sculpture that stands in Bowling Green Park just south of the Financial District in lower Manhattan.
During an election year, especially one that has become very contentious, having any legislation passed would be seen as something of a miracle. This past month, there was only one bill introduced in each chamber.
H.R. 4592: Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Act
Sponsor: Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA)
• Introduced: February 23, 2016
• Referred to the House Financial Services Committee
Introducing bill like this one to honor the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame simultaneously in both chambers is common. Members that want to push this type of legislation for the people back home can hope that it is taken up at one end or the other on Capital Hill. It only slightly increases the odds of passage.
For this bill, it is proposing a gold $5, silver dollar, and clad half-dollar coins “with such design being emblematic of the game of basketball.” The bill calls for a design competition with the selected designer receiving a $5,000 award.
The bill calls for the usual surcharges ($35 for the gold coin, $10 per silver, and $5 per half dollar) that will be paid “to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to fund an endowment that will enable the further operations of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.”
For some reason, when I saw this bill all I could think about was that old commercial starring Michael Jordan and Larry Bird competing for a fast food lunch. If you do not remember, here is the ad:
I am convinced that if there is something to celebrate there is a coin, medal, or token to collect in its honor.
Today, my challenge is to determine if there is something numismatically available to collect for Leap Day, that once every four years celebration of the 29th of February.
For today’s collecting adventure we venture into the world of geocaching. For those not familiar with geocaching, it is an adventure activity in which the participants use the global positioning system (GPS) to navigate to find small containers with treasures. The small containers are called a “geocache” or “cache.” These geocaches contains a logbook that is signed with by the finder with a code name and placed back where it was found.
Almost anything can be included in the geocache for a prize. One such prize is a geocoin. Similar to a challenge coin, a geocoin is a specially designed medal that is the prize for finding the geocache. There is a worldwide community of geocache enthusiasts that you can find at geocaching.com.
For one of the meeting at my coin club, two of our young numismatists taught some of us old folks about geocaching and showed off some of the geocoins they have found or collected from various sources. Some of the designs were phenomenal. There was one geocoin made for a gathering of Maryland enthusiasts that was so well done that I have been looking to buy one since.
Without the constraint of rules, laws, and congress, some have created quite a number of interesting geocoins to celebrate the leap year. To celebrate Leap Day and the geocaching community for the inspiration, here are some of the interesting geocoins I have found on my online search.
Have you ever looked at a coin and wondered where the design ideas come from? Have you ever said to yourself that you could do a better job? Then here is your chance!
There is a caveat: you have to be an artist of some type and a U.S. citizen 18 years of age or older. Phase I of the competition is the evaluation of up to five examples of your work submitted digitally to the U.S. Mint who is hosting the competition committee. You have to be able to submit a digital portfolio. Even if your work is good and you think you can be part of the competition, you either have to be able to take a good picture of your work or find a photographer who can help.
The “expert jury” will review your portfolio and select no more than 20 artists for the second phase.
Phase II, those selected artists will be asked to submit one design along with a plaster model of both the obverse and reverse for the proposed coin. Only one artist’s design will be selected
The winning artist will receive $10,000 and have your name etched in numismatic lore for being the designer of the coin. For this, your initials will appear on the coin, the Certificate of Authenticity, and in places like the Red Book!
“Artists are expected to distill the program’s design theme to its essence, representing a complicated subject on a very small palette.” A silver dollar is 38 millimeters in diameter!
Cassie McFarland holds up Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Dollar with her design
Remember Cassie McFarland? She was the artist from California who entered the National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin competition and won the design contest. This is the coin whose clad half-dollar won Coin of the Year honors for the most innovative coin on a commemorative that was just about a sellout (over 1 million coins struck).
Artists are always looking for a something to add to their portfolio. McFarland has had her picture in nearly every major newspaper throughout the United States and the image here has made the rounds on social media. I hope she has been able to boost her career with this. She definitely deserves any attention she receives.
Think about it… your design on thousands of coins in the hands of collectors, preserved forever. Cassie’s design is. How about you?
Collection of old pre-decimal coins from during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
As a collector of Maryland colonial currency, I was reading about the differences with exchange rates and the problems the colonies faced when they started to issue paper currency. While reading the references, the amounts did not make sense until I figured out the old British monetary system. Once that was figured out, it was easier to understand the disagreements between the colonies about the values each was expecting their currencies to maintain.
A very short, simplistic, and incomplete history begins with the Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror. His invasion of England from Normandy on the northern shores of what is France today in September of 1066 and coronation on December 25, 1066, marks the birth of what would become England.
During the next nearly 50 years, William I (1066-87), William II (1087-1100), and Henry I (1100-35), most of the emphasis has been to finish the conquest and consolidate the ruling under the single crown. The Treaty of Alton (1102) and the subsequent conquest of Normandy (1106) was capable of consolidating power and allowed Henry to attempt to create a sustainable government. Insurgencies from Whales, Rebellion of 1115-20 and the crisis of succession, where is his wife Matilda had not conceived a child, did not allow Henry to finish his work by his death in 1135.
£sd Symbolism
The pound symbol is a fancied “L” based on the Latin librae for weight or balance. It was intended that the 240 pence could be placed on a balance to weigh one pound sterling. The shilling, adapted from the Latin solidus, for solid, was the primary coin of commerce represented with an “s.” For the pence, it used the “d” from the Latin denarius, the smallest Roman coin. Multiple denominations are separated with a slash. For example, 1 shilling can be written as “1/-” while 2 shilling and 3 pence might be written as “2/3d.”
Henry I was succeeded by Stephen, the grandson of William I, with much contention. The problem was that Stephen’s younger brother, Henry of Blois, was embraced by Henry I and subsequently by the Normans. The subsequent civil war lead to a period called “The Anarchy” (1135-1154). During that time Stephen tried to continue with Henry’s reforms but was not able to hold on to the control of the government. Toward the end of his reign, Stephen recognized Henry as the heir to the throne.
With a peace treaty negotiated by Stephen, there was a new peace during the coronation of Henry II in 1154. During the peace, Henry II continued to consolidate power of Norman and Anjou (today this is northern France) and reconstructed the English government.
As part of his reconstruction, Henry II decided to base the currency on the troy pound. The troy pound was based on the Roman libra, which was the basis of weight that England accustomed with. In order to make the money more acceptable, it was divided into 20 units which were originally called testoons. Later, it was renamed as the shilling. As an attempt to make the testoon (shilling) the major unit of currency which corresponded to the Roman solidus. As the solidus was divided into 12 denarii, the testoon was divided further into 12 units with one called a penny and multiples called pence. This was to keep current with the current standard that a pound sterling weight 240 pennyweights.
Early on, it was clear that pence was not small enough of a denomination and was further divided into four parts, two halfpennies or four farthings (quarter pennies). This division was used because the one pennyweight coin representing a penny could not be cut further to represent smaller denominations. Farthings were further divided into smaller denominations using tokes until coins were first used in the 17th century.
To understand this system, I came up with the following table.
Denomination
Years struck
Equivalents
Relative to a Pound
Nicknames
Quarter farthing
1839-1853, 1868
1/16 d (16 = 1 penny)
1/3840 pound
Third farthing
1827-1913
1/12 d (12 = 1 penny)
1/2880 pound
Half farthing a
1828-1856
1/8 d (8 = 1 penny)
1/1920 pound
Farthing
1860-1956
1/4 d (4 = 1 penny)
1/960 pound
Halfpenny
1672-1860
1/2 d (2 = 1 penny)
1/480 pound
ha’penny
Penny
1707-1970
1d
240 pence = 1 pound
Three halfpence
1834-43, 1860-62
11/2 d
1/160 pound
Twopence
1797
2d
1/120 pound
Threepence b
1547-1970
3d
1/80 pound
Groat
1836-1855, 1888
4d
1/60 pound
joey, sixpenny bit
Sixpence
1551-1970
6d
1/40 pound
tanner
Shilling
1503-1970
1/- (12 pence)
1/20 pound
bob
Florin
1849-1970
2/- (24 pence)
1/10 pound
two bob bit
Half crown
1707-1970
2/6p (26 pence)
1/8 pound
Double florin
1887-1890
4/- (52 pence)
1/5 pound
Crown
1707-1965
5/- (60 pence)
1/4 pound
Sovereign (pound) c
1817-1917, 1925, 1957-
240 pence
10 Shillings
Half guinea
1699-1816
10/6d
1/8 ounce of gold
Guinea d
1663-1814
21/-
1/4 ounce of gold
Notes:
Half farthing was originally made for Ceylon
Three halfpence produced for circulation in the British colonies, mainly in Ceylon and the West Indies
A one pound coin made of gold was called a Sovereign
The guinea came into English after the Guinea region of West Africa was discovered by the British and mined its gold
Not listed is “quid,” the nickname of a one-pound paper note
This was the system until Decimalization Day on February 15, 1971.
Today, British coins are divided into 100 pence to one pound. The coins struck for circulation by the Royal Mint are 1 Penny, 2 Pence, 5 Pence, 10 Pence, 20 Pence, 50 Pence or Half-Pound, £1 (pound), and £2. Paper currency is issued for denominations of £5 and greater.
United Kingdom modern decimalization redesign of 2014 resembles a shield.
Credits
Image of pre-decimalization coins courtesy of Coincraft
Image of 2014 United Kingdom shield set courtesy of the Royal Mint
Since having the Numismatic Dictionary active for over a month, the reception has been more than my expectations!
According to the server statistics, there have been over 500 unique visitors to that page with more 20-percent returning for another look. Since I put a bit of work into that database, it is nice to see it is being used.
I also received feedback with corrections and requests for additions. Corrections are wonderful and encouraged. If you see something wrong, send me a note and I will make the correction.
Recently, I was notified that the company whose notebook-like program decided to close its virtual doors. Its concept was simple: act like a notebook that you can stuff anything into. Although other programs passed it in some features, it was still a solid way of keeping a digital notebook. Now that they are out of business, I do not want to rely on what we call “abandonware.”
As I was reviewing a few of the notebooks I created, I found now with a lot of numismatic notes. This notebook contains lists, ideas, and other items of numismatic information. Rather than keep them hidden from the public on my disk, I will start to publish what I find as part of my Collector’s Reference section.
Today begins with two additions:
Key Date Coins is a list of coins that may be considered key dates for their series. Determining key date coins sometimes is a matter of opinion, especially on older series. My notes had several lists which I used a basic polling system, mintage statistics, and third-party grading company’s population reports to determine what to add. This list only does this for non-gold coins. I will try to find similar references for gold coins and add them in the future.
Mints and Mintmarks documents every branch mint operated by the U.S. Mint and provides a little information paragraph about them including the branch mint in Manila while the Philippines was a colony of the United States.
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During an election year, especially one that has become very contentious, having any legislation passed would be seen as something of a miracle. This past month, there was only one bill introduced in each chamber.
Since having the 
Recently, I was notified that the company whose notebook-like program decided to close its virtual doors. Its concept was simple: act like a notebook that you can stuff anything into. Although other programs passed it in some features, it was still a solid way of keeping a digital notebook. Now that they are out of business, I do not want to rely on what we call “abandonware.”
