On a lighter note, after saving pocket change for nearly two years, I was able to fill a one galling container and an old beer pitcher. Using all the strength left in my aging arms, I carried the container and pitcher to the local bank that offers free coin counting for customers. Even though I am not a customer, my wife is and I deposited the results into her account to save money on the fees.
During the counting process, two of the bags in the machine filled and the teller had to replace them. But after a little more than a half-hour of feeding coins into the machine and checking the rejection bin, all the coins that were countable were counted and I came up with the following totals:
Coin Type
Quantity
Value
Dollar coins
18
$18.00
Quarters
1405
$351.25
Dimes
1247
$124.70
Nickels
793
$36.95
Cents
2108
$21.08
Total
$551.98
While I am not surprised that there were more cents than any other coins, I was a bit surprised as there were less than one thousand nickels. Over the next few days I carefully looked at the amount of change and figured out that most of the time, I am receiving quarters and dimes for most transactions ending with a 5. Change of 25, 35, and 45 cents does not require a nickel to be used while change of 55-cents adds a nickel to two quarter—of course I could have received 3 dimes and a quarter, but that was not the case while I was watching carefully.
Of 5,571 coins counted, 38-percent were the lowly Lincoln Cent that represented 3.8-percent of the total value. Although I still maintain that the United State should not end the coin’s production, seeing these results can lead to an interesting discussion. And before you do respond, an informal conversation at the Royal Canadian Mint during the World’s Fair of Money that they are delaying the buy back of their one-cent coins because of social issues brought up by merchants and many citizens. It appears that while many say they were for the elimination of the one-cent coin, when it really happened there are some significant objections being heard. We can discuss this further in the spring after the RCM begins their buy-back program.
There were several rejected coins including six wheat-back Lincoln cents from the 1950s. Somehow a steel cent ended up in the pile—but that may have happened when my cleaning people picked up a stray coin I may have dropped and added it to my pitcher. I also found several foreign coins including Canadian Cents (sorry, I am keeping those), two one-cent coins from Jamaica, a penny from the United Kingdom, a Canadian 5-cent coin, a 5 Eurocent coin with a French reverse, and two 1976 Bicentennial Quarters. There were also three buttons and a $1 note buried in the pitcher.
Proceeds are being donated to three different charities as well as being used for a nice dinner out with my wife. A special donation (on top of divided donation) of the $21.08 from the proceeds of the cents will be donated to Common Cents, creators of the Penny Harvest and the “Official Charity” of the Coin Collectors Blog.
If you are not following me on Twitter or Pinterest you are missing some interesting extras that may not make it to the blog. While I can include Twitter updates on this page (see the right column), pins to Pinterest are a little more elusive unless I remember to click the box to post the pin to Twitter.
My newest pins on Pinterest came from the U.K.’s Daily Mail Online from a story about Evan Wondolowski, an artist who uses currency and coins to make portraits of politicians and celebrities. These portraits are made using shredded Federal Reserve Notes on newspaper. He make a portrait of President Obama using Lincoln Cents including 1943 Steel Cents.
Wondolowski is the Creative Director and co-owner of Mozaiks, and artist-based clothing company. His art can be see at his website The Art of E and usually depicts images of greed and politics.
Based on a few emails I received a few people did not pick up that my last post, Treasury Overhauls Circulating Coins, was an April Fool’s Joke!
I am happy it fooled a number of people since it takes a lot of work to come up with something that looks good and could be believable if it wasn’t posted on April 1.
Aside from the date, there are a few other subtleties I hid through the post for fun:
Unless the world is falling apart, I cannot think of any reason why the Secretary of the Treasury would make this type of announcement on Sunday. Geithner may be a hard working person but unless the economy and markets are crashing, he was probably spending the weekend with his family.
Although I found real numbers to calculate real weights, I just multiplied all of the Mint’s numbers by .75 and rounded up. I didn’t think there were many chemists or metallurgists who would try to validate my calculations.
Notice that when I mentioned the discontinuation of the half-dollar, I did not mention who was on the obverse except to say, “the coin honoring the last assassinated president.” I know, it was an esoteric omission but it allowed me to do the next one—
As far as I know, there is no such person named “Cathleen Towson” associated with the Kennedy family. It was a play on Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Townsend is the eldest child of Robert and Ethel Kennedy and was once Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor. If you did not know, Towson is the name of a town northwest of Baltimore and the home of Towson University.
Another subtle try to drop a hint was in the last paragraph where I wrote, “It may be foolish to think….”
Finally, if you keep up with the tags at the end of the post, the tag was “Fun” and not something like “U.S. Mint” or anything more serious.
I had a lot of fun putting this together. I hope it brightened your April Fool’s Day!
In a rare Sunday announcement, Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner announced that beginning in 2013, the U.S. Mint will change the size and composition of U.S. coinage in an effort to the government additional money.
Beginning in 2013, all coins struck by the U.S. Mint will be made of a inox (stainless steel) and will have its diameter reduced in size by 25-percent. The thickness of the coins will not change. For colored coins, the one-cent coin will be plated with copper to maintain its traditional color. For the dollar coins, the inox planchettes will be treated with titanium nitride (TiN) to add hardness to the coin and give it a golden color. Titanium will be used as a coating on the silver-colored coins.
Titanium appears to be a good choice in that it is a strong metal and resistant to corrosion making ideal to protect the steel core. Since titanium has a high melting point (more than 3,000°F) and will give the new coins a unique electromechanical signature, it will make the new composition difficult to counterfeit.
New size and composition changes are expected to cut total production costs by 50-percent the first year and another 25-percent by 2014. Thus, the one-cent coin that now costs 2.1 cents to produce will cost the government 0.525 cents by 2014.
Treasury has no plans to demonetize the coins that are currently in circulation. It is expected that both old and new coins will circulate side by side allowing the market to adjust on its own.
It was also announced that 2012 will be the last year that the half-dollar would be struck. Since the last time half-dollars were sold to the Federal Reserve for circulation was in 2002, Treasury did not see the need to continue to use valuable resources producing a non-circulating coin. This will end the 49 year run for the coin honoring the last assassinated president. Spokesperson for the family, Cathleen Towson said that the family understood that the needs of the nation outweighs her father’s image on a coin. Towson said that her father would approve on behalf of the people.
These changes would make specifications the new U.S. coins as follows:
Denomination
Cent
Nickel
Dime
Quarter Dollar
Presidential & Native American Dollars
Composition
Copper Plated Inox 2.5% Cu Balance Inox
Titanium Plated Inox 2.5% Ti Balance Inox
Titanium Plated Inox 2.5% Ti Balance Inox
Titanium Plated Inox 2.5% Ti Balance Inox
Titanium Nitride Plated Inox 2.5% TiN Balance Inox
Weight
1.875 g
3.750 g
1.701 g
8.505 g
6.075 g
Diameter
0.56 in. 14.29 mm
0.62 in. 15.91 mm
0.53 in. 13.43 mm
0.72 in. 18.20 mm
0.78 in. 19.88 mm
Thickness
1.55 mm
1.95 mm
1.35 mm
2.15 mm
2.00 mm
Edge
Plain
Plain
Reeded
Reeded
Edge-Lettering
No. of Reeds
N/A
N/A
88
111
N/A
Geithner said that the new coins should “mollify the critics of the Mint’s production costs from both sides of the aisle.” He also announced that sample coins will be made available to the vending and other coin handling machine manufacturers so that they can properly program their machines to accept the new coins.
In a separate statement, Republican presidential candidate and congressman Ron Paul of Texas said that the announcement is a travesty thrust on the American people. Paul insisted that the Federal Reserve take control of the money manufacturing process, “stop messing around,” and convert the coins to silver and gold.
The announcement emphasized that none of the design features will change. Current running programs will continue. In 2013, the new America the Beautiful Quarters® Program will include:
White Mountain National Forest (NH)
Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial (OH)
Great Basin National Park (NV)
Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine (MD)
Mount Rushmore National Memorial (SD)
Presidential Dollars will honor the following presidents:
William McKinley (1897-1901)
Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
William Howard Taft (1909-1913)
Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
The theme for the reverse of the 2013 Native American Dollar will be announced later this year.
Maybe Treasury has taken their mandate to find new alloys for circulating coinage too far. It may be foolish to think that the size changes would be in the best interest of the country. But stranger things have happened and it just might work!
Today begins a relatively new tradition called “Cyber Monday.” Cyber Monday was first used by the National Retail Federation in 2005 to describe the Monday after Thanksgiving when people return to work and use their employer’s faster Internet connections to shop for bargains. Since I am not selling anything I had to find something that could substitute and be a little fun. I found a video.
According to the video’s main page, Tai Star stacks 3,118 coins on a dime. It claims to be a records, but that is not confirmed. However, it makes for an interesting video:
The MSNA was founded in 1972 that could function as a central organization for Maryland. From humble beginnings out of John Henry’s vision with nine charter clubs, MSNA now represents 20 Maryland clubs.
Another reason why I am excited is that I have not been to a coin show since the 2008 World’s Fair of Money that was held at the Baltimore Convention Center. A bad knee has prevented me from going to coin shows. Although my knee does not feel better, I am going to the convention center a few hours before the MSNA meeting and visit the bourse. I am going to try to limit my walking, but I look forward to doing this. (And this will allow my wife to stay home read in peace!)
Obviously, I will bring my new iPhone 4S with me which will allow me to tweet about my adventures. Follow @coinsblog on Twitter to read my tweets. Hopefully, I will be able to take pictures and pass them along in real time.
Those watching television in the evening had the opportunity to watch two shows were numismatics played a role in the story. On Monday night, CBS’s Hawaii Five-0 had a story that included Spanish gold escudos and the Hawaii over-print dollars.
After a child found a disembodied hand floating in the water, the fingerprints identified its former owner. When they went to search his home, the Five-0 team found Spanish gold coins soaking in a tank of water. McGarrett and Danny Williams went to a local museum to learn that a Spanish galleon carrying a cargo of gold coins sunk near the islands. Being good detectives, Five-0 traces the search for the galleon to a diving company that specializes in searching for lost treasure. As part of looking for the rest of the body, Five-0 and the Coast Guard finds an abandoned boat—or what they thought was abandoned. This leads them to go diving to see what was below the surface.
In an underwater wreckage, they find a body. When the body was examined, the wallet contained currency that was washed out. Using whatever forensic techniques they used to identify the note, they enhanced the image to find that it was a Series 1934A Federal Reserve Note issued in 1942. The forensic scientist explains how the Hawaii overprint notes were issued in case the notes were captured by the Japanese during an invasion. If that happened, the notes could be demonetized, making them useless.
The note was used to help identify the body and the gold escudos were used to trace who was responsible for the murder. To see the full episode of “Mea Makamae,” you can watch it on CBS’s website here.
One of my favorite shows is History Detectives on PBS. For those who have not seen the show, History Detectives explores the history behind artifacts that people find or are handed down by family members to discover its history and the history behind the objects. Anyone who loves history may want to add History Detectives to your must see list.
This past week, Gwen Wright, who is also a professor of architecture at Columbia University, investigate a stock certificate issued by the Harlem Associated Heirs Title Company.
The person who initiated the investigation was a collector of stock and bond certificates, a part of numismatics called scripophily. Those who collect these certificates have interests in financial history, the signatures, or artwork on the certificates. Early certificates were hand autographed by the presidents and treasurers of the companies making them more desirable. Today, stock certificates are a thing of the past since stocks are transacted electronically.
In this investigation, Wright traces the certificate to the history of Harlem. Originally, the area we know as Harlem was a remote area of Manhattan island, far away from what we know today as downtown where most of the people lived. The area was dotted with exclusive vacation homes of the rich with a section of land that was granted to a group of people. By the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th century, New York City grew so much that Harlem was no longer a remote area and the city worked with developers to develop the land regardless of alleged ownership. The Harlem Associated Heirs Title Company was a group who tried to reclaim the property after the turn of the 20th century.
Of course I left out some details. Watch the segment from this week’s show:
William H. (W.H.) Brett was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1893. Brett was the son of William Howard Brett who introduced the “open shelf” concept to libraries allowing books to be more freely accessed. The senior Brett’s work in Cleveland became a model for other library systems throughout the country.
W.H. Brett served in the Army during World War I and attended Dartmouth College before returning to Cleveland as a businessman. He was appointed as the 29th Director of the U.S. Mint by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1954. Brett succeeded Nellie Tayloe Ross after her retirement from the U.S. Mint serving five full terms.
W.H. Brett was a guest on the television game show “What’s My Line” that aired on November 25. 1956. Making this episode interesting is the reference to Ivy Baker Priest who also previously appeared on the show.
Appearing on the show as a panelist is Burgess Meredith who was on Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s “Red List” accused of being a communist sympathizer because of Meridith’s support of labor unions.
Actor and director Charles Laughton was the mystery guest on this episode.
Ivy Baker Priest was born in Kimberly, Utah in 1905. A staunch Republican, Priest began her political career as a delegate to the 1932 Republican State Convention. In 1934, her bid for the Utah legislature came up short but was elected as co-chair of the Young Republicans for the western states. While serving for the Republican National Committee, she helped organize Republican women’s study clubs throughout Utah.
In 1950 Priest ran for congress against incumbent Reva Beck Bosone (D). The race attracted national attention for being the first time two women were running for the same seat. Bosone won that election with 53-percent of the vote.
Priest continued to be active and worked to gain support for eventual Republican nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower during the 1952 convention. She became co-chair of the Eisenhower’s national campaign committee and worked to get women out to vote. Eisenhower rewarded Priest by appointing her as the 30th Treasurer of the United States.
Ivy Baker Priest was the mystery guest on the television game show “What’s My Line” that aired on August 29, 1954. Watch as she stumps the panel:
Appearing on WML after Priest on the same show was Debbie Reynolds.
Ivy Baker Priest is the mother of Pat Priest, better know for playing Marilyn Munster on the 1960’s hit sitcom, “The Munsters.”
Ivy Baker Priest died from the complications of caner in 1975.
After writing Collecting a Herd of Buffaloes, a reader and I have been discussing creating another type collection that would best represent the Lincoln Cent. The thought was that since the Lincoln Cent is over 100 years old with so many key (1909-S VDB, 1914-D, and 1931-S) and semi-key dates (1910-1915 S mint coins, 1924-D, and 1926-S) with some very interesting errors and varieties (1955 DDO, 1922 No/Weak D, and various small and large dates), that collecting the series may be too challenging for someone just starting collecting.
How does someone represent a series that spans over 100 years? First, looking at the basic type-set there are a lot of holes in the series. For example, after collecting the Type 1 Lincoln Cent (VDB on the reverse), the wheat-back design continues until 1958 with the only “change” being the zinc-coated steel cents struck in 1943. Aside from being uninteresting, it did not represent the history that the Lincoln Cent has seen through its first 50 years.
If we look at 20th century history, there seems to be a pattern of history being recorded every decade, or so. It is not a perfect cycle, but close enough to look at putting together a series by decade accounting for history, type changes, another of other factors to make the collection interesting. The first coin of this set is the 1909 VDB. With more than 27 million coins struck in Philadelphia, it is possible to get a fair price on a nice uncirculated red example. Since the Lincoln Cent was first struck in Philadelphia, it is appropriate to start a collection with the first coin produced for the series.
There was a lot of history in the 1910s. For collectors, much of the coins of the first half of the decade are expansive to find in higher grades. The only year that is affordable in higher grades is 1919. In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles officially ended the “War to End All Wars” (World War I) and the economy in the United States was still producing goods not only to rebuild the military but to sell to war-torn Europe. The high demand for cents made 1919 the year with the highest production making it more likely to find good examples in high grades.
The Roaring Twenties was known for its sustained economic stability, industrial growth, new inventions, art deco, women’s suffrage, and the wide acceptance of jazz music. It was also the decade that saw the growth of the organized crime controlling the illegal flow of alcohol and speakeasies. The demand for coins were great, especially in the second half of the decade. Almost any Lincoln Cent from 1926 through 1929 can be affordably purchased in uncirculated grades so we decided on 1927 to be a good representation of the era.
All went well until October 29, 1929, Black Tuesday. Subsequent years marked a great panic that included bank runs and high unemployment. Things became worse when Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon insisted on draconian measures that would close what he considered weak banks and transfer assets to larger banks at pennies on the dollar that wiped out many people’s savings. Rather than trying to infuse cash into circulation to try to spur the economy, Mellon advocated deep federal spending cuts to balance the federal budget and opposed economic stimulus measures. His plan did not help the economy and plunged the country deeper into the Great Depression. Mellon was accused purposely sabotaging the economy and colluding with bankers and industrialists to profit from the crisis. Just before a vote on the whether articles of impeachment would be sent to the full House from the House Judiciary Committee, Mellon was appointed Ambassador to the Court of St. James (United Kingdom) and resigned as Treasury Secretary.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated, he appointed William Woodin as Secretary of the Treasury. Working with his predecessor, Ogden Mills, these men came up with a plan to try bring the country out o the depression. Part of the plan was to have FDR order gold withdrawn from private hands. Since Woodin was a coin collector, he made certain that the order include an exception for “rare and unusual coin types.” To honor Woodin and to have the collection represent the era, this Lincoln Cent collection will include a nice 1933 cent.
It is generally accepted that World War II began on September 1, 1939 when German invaded Poland although Japan invaded China in 1936. With Germany and Italy trying to conquer Europe and Japan attacking China and Russia from the Far East, there was a passivist movement in the United States. The problem was “over there” and had nothing to do with us. That changed on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese Navy attacked the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. A Declaration of War on Japan was passed on December 8 and on Germany and Italy on December 11. Since copper was necessary for the manufacture of ammunition and other armaments, laws were passed that changed the composition of the Lincoln Cent from bronze (copper-zinc) to zinc-coated steel. When the U.S. Mint struck the steel cents in 1943, it marked the only time in the country’s history that a circulating coin was struck without any copper. Finding high grades of steel cents are relatively easy and inexpensive because so many were minted. Thus, our collection will have one steel cent from each branch Mint.
From 1944-1946, spent shells from military training grounds were collected and melted to use for striking coins. Using those shells, the bronze composition returned and copper cents began to circulate driving the unpopular steel cents out of circulation. As a type, these coins are known as “Shotgun Cents” because of the use of the shell casings. Since both V-E Day and V-J Day both happened in 1945, this set will include a 1945 Lincoln Cent.
Following 1946, the composition of the cent changed slightly to a bronze that included copper (.950), zinc and tin (.050). This would remain the composition until 1982. Before then, the reverse design would change to the Memorial Reverse in 1959. First, we need a coin for this new composition. For this we decided on a 1955 cent. Aside from being plentiful and inexpensive in uncirculated red grades, it was the year that the Brooklyn Dodgers finally won the World Series—a fitting tribute for the decade. Then, add a 1959 first-year Memorial Cent to the collection to complement the first issue wheat-back cents.
Finding uncirculated red Memorial Cents are very easy. Many were struck in the billions and many were saved in collections and rolls making them highly available and very affordable. Choosing Memorial Cents is a matter of trying to match the dates with historical significance. For example, after the coin shortages of the early 1960s, the U.S. Mint stopped producing coins with mint marks. By omitting the mint marks, it was felt that collectors, who were initially blamed for the shortage, would not hoard coins. Once it was determined that collectors were not the cause of the shortage, mint marks returned to the Lincoln Cent in 1968. So let’s add a 1968-D cent to the collection to include the first coins struck with a mint mark after their removal in 1965.
The 1970s was an interesting decade that included the resignation of Richard Nixon, the American Revolution Bicentennial Celebration in 1976, and my high school graduation. But for the Lincoln Cent, this collection will have a 1974-S to represent the last S mint marked coin struck for circulation in San Francisco. Although some cents were struck in San Francisco in the 1980s, they were struck without mint marks and cannot be differentiated from coins struck in Philadelphia.
One more change in composition came in 1982 when the Lincoln Cent went from bronze to copper-coated zinc. Also in 1982, there was a change in the dies that caused both large and small dates to appear on both compositions. To mark this transition, the collection will include a set of all seven varieties that includes coins from both Philadelphia and Denver. Rather than buying these coins individually, the collection can include a pre-packaged set that can be bought from any dealer, at a coin show, or online for under $25. It is a perfect way to mark the transition.
For the Lincoln Cent, history there after was bland. But the collection needs a representative from the copper-coated zinc era to end the 20th century. We chose a 1999 Lincoln Cent for no other reason that while thinking about it, the song “1999” by Prince came up in the discussion. Since the song was release in 1982 on the album titled “1999,” it seemed a fitting tie in for the collection.
Next is a 2001 cent to celebrate the start of a new century/millennium (we count years from one, not zero!) and one from 2008 as the last Memorial Cent of the series. Of course the set will include the four types from the Lincoln Bicentennial and Cent Centennial celebration. However, since the bronze (copper-zinc) versions are available from the sets sold by the U.S. Mint, the set will include those instead of the copper-coated zinc coins that were circulated.
Finally, this collection ends (for now) with a 2010 Shield Reverse Cent so that we continue with the pattern with including an example from the first issues.
<UPDATE>
One of the reason I love my readers is that they can pick up on something I miss. One reader reminded me that a type set should include a Lincoln Cent with no designer initials. After the U.S. Mint removed the “V.D.B” on the reverse of the early 1909 cents, Victor D. Brenner’s initials did not reappear on the coin until 1918. So that the set is complete, a first-issue without initials 1909 is an affordable option.
</UPDATE>
When complete, our Lincoln Cent representative collection looks like:
1909 VDB, first issues
1909, for the first year of no “VDB” initials
1919, end of World War I
1927, the Roaring Twenties
1933, the Great Depression
1943 P-D-S Steel Cents
1944 Shotgun Shell Cents
1955, the 50s
1959 first issues of the Memorial Reverse Cents
1968-D, return of mint marks
1974-S, last year of S-mint circulated coins
1982 7-coin copper/zinc cents
1999, copper-coated zinc cents
2001, the new millennium
2009, 4-coin copper set
2010, first issues of the Shield Reverse
This collection is 26 27 coins making it more manageable and affordable than collecting the entire set. Dates can be changed or added to represent significant family events, such as the birth of family members. Youngsters can enhance their collection by writing a paragraph or two about each of the coins.
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