The Coronavirus and Numismatics in the short term
Now that the rollercoaster ride of this past week has pulled into the station, let us off, and is preparing for next week’s run, we can step back and assess our next move.
With the announcement of canceling of sports tournaments to the restriction on large gatherings and the declaration of states of emergency has caused everyone to rethink their short-term schedule. In numismatics, the canceling of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, dubbed March Madness, forced PCGS to cancel a launch they had scheduled with the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. PCGS was going to offer specially slabbed Hall of Fame commemorative coins as part of the coin’s launch.
Shortly after Maryland Governor Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency in Maryland, Whitman canceled the March expo scheduled for the Baltimore Convention Center. Stack’s Bowers Galleries, the official auctioneer of the Whitman Expo, will move their auction to their California offices and hold the auction online.
A few of the small local shows have sent notices that their shows will go on as scheduled. These are shows that are held in local meeting halls, hotel ballrooms, or other smaller facilities. Many times, the dealers outnumber the patrons. These shows will likely not exceed the 250 person limit expressed by the state of emergency.
Although the COVID-19 virus pandemic is something to worry about, we can get past the fears by following the common sense approach promoted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
According to the CDC and the National Institute of Health (NIH), the only way the virus spreads is person-to-person through respiratory droplets. The virus does not live on surfaces that long. If everyone maintains the proper precautions, there should be no problem handling numismatic items. Dealers should take care in how they present their wares and their interaction with the public.
Collectors going to shows must also take precautions. If you are not feeling well, do not attend the show. Do not rub your face and then touch the merchandise. Wear gloves if you do not feel comfortable.
And please wash your hands!
Because of the way we do things, handwashing is one of the most effective measures to control the spread of many of our health issues, including COVID-19.
To put the importance of handwashing into perspective, the concept of basic sterilization did not exist during the Civil War. This lead to the rampant death of soldiers to infectious diseases, many of epidemic proportions. About two-thirds of the 660,000 deaths were because of infections. That number could have been much less if the doctors just washed their hands.
When you go to the smaller coin show, wash your hands before entering. Clean your hands frequently with a sanitizer that contains at least 60-percent alcohol. If you have alcohol preps, you can use those to wipe your hands then apply hand lotion to prevent your hands from drying out.
If you touch a lot of items, you should wash your hands in between. Wash them before diving into that junk box and after you are finished.
And do not touch your face!
We all have these habits that involve touching our face, hair, or other parts of our head. I know these habits are tough to change. As a member of the Society of Bearded Numismatists, I am regularly rubbing or scratching the area under my chin. I have been forcing myself to stop.
If you do not feel well or are uncomforatble, stay home.
The situation may cause temporary changes, but that does not mean cowering in the corner. Use the time to your advantage. Catch up reading those numismatic books on your show. Update your collection’s catalog. Organize new purchases.
You can organize family time around numismatics. Talking about coins and their history is better than watching everyone else panic on social media.
Summer Numismatic Road Trip
It has been said that the dog days of summer is when it is very hot causing a period where there is a lot of inactivity or stagnation. There has been little of the dog days here in the nation’s capital. Aside from a lot of work to do, severe storms can wreak havoc with electrical lines—which causes computers not to work. July has been an interesting month and I hope August is more like the dog days without the same heat and humidity!
For something a little different we turn to the technology website CNET. CNET is a long time resource for the consumer technology community that was acquired by CBS Interactive last year. With the commitment of growth from CBS, CNET has been expanding their technology coverage in a number of interesting ways. For CNET, reporter Daniel Terdiman, writer of the Geek Gestalt blog, is taking another road trip. Road Trip 2010 brings Daniel to the east coast where he has visited a few sites of numismatic interest.
While in Washington, D.C., Daniel stopped at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing where he was given a tour Behind the scenes with the next-gen $100 bill. Daniel opens up his trip report by saying, “I’m staring at $38.4 million in cash, and it’s hard not to drool.” It is a nice look behind the scenes at the BEP from the eyes of someone who is not a collector. Do not forget to check out the stacks of money in the photo gallery.
After making other stops, Daniel was in Philadelphia and visited the US Mint. Daniel opens his article talking about the gold-colored planchets that will be struck into dollar coins. Aside from watching the minting process, he spoke with the U.S. Mint’s Chief Engraver John Mercanti about the technology used in creating coins. Daniel spoke with Engraver Joseph Menna about the digital production process—do not forget to watch the YouTube video. When you check out the pictures and when you get to picture 18 imagine the amount of money you could make on the error market if you had access to this bin!
Finally, stopping in New York City required a stop of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Located at 33 Liberty Street in lower Manhattan, it is the branch of the Federal Reserve that distributes U.S. currency worldwide. Eighty feet below the bedrock that the building is constructed on is the gold vault where 36 countries have deposited $255 billion worth of gold. More gold is stored at the New York Fed than anywhere in the world including the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Since photography is not allowed at the N.Y. Fed, they did provide pictures that Daniel used in his report.
Although Daniel did not get much of a tour through the New York Fed, the series of numismatic-related articles are still a good read from someone without a numismatic background. You may want to check out stories on some of his other stops, including the one place I want to visit!
The Saturday Evening Post
Very few publications can trace its roots back to colonial times. One of those publications is The Saturday Evening Post. The Post was founded as The Universal Instructor of Arts and Sciences by a Samuel Keimer. Keimer moved to Philadelphia from New York after failing to secure work. He rented space from Hugh Meredith who printed the paper. The paper was not exactly successful and was ridiculed by Benjamin Franklin in The Mercury using the pseudonym “Busy Body.” After nine months, Keimer sold the paper to Franklin and Meredith on October 2, 1729.
The new partnership changed the title of paper to The Pennsylvania Gazette and Franklin began to edit the paper into a more readable half-sheet (half of a broadsheet) that was published twice per week. After a few weeks the work load forced Franklin change it to a weekly publication.
Franklin and Meredith dissolved their partnership on July 14, 1730. Franklin continued to publish The Pennsylvania Gazette as the paper’s sole publisher until he made David Hall a partner in 1748. Hall had been working for Franklin and writing for The Pennsylvania Gazette for five years prior to becoming a partner.
By 1765, Franklin and Hall dissolved their partnership. By May 1766, Hall partnered with William Sellers to continue publishing The Pennsylvania Gazette. Following Hall’s death in 1772, his sons William Hall and David Hall, Jr., continued in their father’s place.
The partnership of the Hall brothers and Sellers continued in William Sellers died in 1804. Shortly after Seller’s death, William transferred his partnership to David, Jr. who continued publishing The Pennsylvania Gazette. In 1810, David Hall, Jr. partnered with George W. Pierie until the partnership dissolved in 1815. Hall partnered with Samuel C. Atkinson until Hall died on May 27, 1821.
Following Hall’s death, Atkinson partnered with Charles Alexander. Alexander was a business partner of Atkinson in other ventures. Atkinson and Alexander decided that the paper needed a new character to keep readers interested and capture new readers. They revamped the paper and on August 4, 1821, debuted the first edition of The Saturday Evening Post. The new paper included weekly news stories but included poetry and short stories from contributors like Edgar Allan Poe, Harriet Beecher Stowe, James Fenimore Cooper, and many other famous authors.
Through the 19th century, The Saturday Evening Post changed hands several time until it was purchased by Curtis Publishing in 1897. Curtis Publishing brought the paper to a new level especially when it hired a 22-year old artist named Norman Rockwell in 1916. During the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s Rockwell was joined by N.C. Wyeth, J. C. Leyendecker, John Clymer, and John E. Sheridan to create some of the most memorable cover illustrations in history.
Curtis Publishing stopped publishing The Post in 1969 after losing a defamation case (Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130 (1967)) and ordered to pay $3 million in damages.
The Saturday Evening Post was revived in 1971 as a quarterly publication with an additional focus on the coverage of heath issues and disease prevention. In 1978, ownership was transferred to the non-profit Saturday Evening Post Society who continues to publish The Post as a bi-monthly publication.
Through this long history, The Saturday Evening Post continues to publish a variety of stories including those of general interest. One of The Post’s regular columns is “Collectible News & Notes.” As part of the column, The Post features a collector and their passion for what they collect. In the July/August 2010 issue (Vol. 283, No. 4), your blog host is the featured collector.
I was contacted via email by the writer of the article. After we exchanged a few notes, he called me one afternoon. I happened to have been driving to a local grocery store when he called. I spent most of our one-and-a-half hour conversation while sitting in the parking lot in front of the grocery store. It was a pleasant conversation and I am sure I gave him more information than he asked for. He distilled the conversation into a nice article that appears on one page—even though there is a minor mistake (in the caption under the picture, it should say that I am still looking for a 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent in change).
Two weeks after our discussion, a local freelance photographer visited my home to photograph me and my coins. The photographer was a pleasant woman who also took pictures of my dogs. My wife liked the pictures that appear in the magazine.
It might be difficult to find a copy of The Post on newsstands. The magazine has a higher subscription circulation than from newsstands. You might find a copy in a bookstore that has a large magazine section. Otherwise, it should appear on their website in a few months.
The Saturday Evening Post dates back to Benjamin Franklin. It has featured great authors, artists, and other Americans. Now, I am part of that history. How cool is that!
Cover image courtesy of The Saturday Evening Post.
Paying In Pennies
Normand Czepial of Ripon, Quebec was not happy with the increase of his property taxes by nearly $4,000. When he went to pay his tax tax bill, Czepial filled a children’s pool with 213,625 pennies and carted them down to City Hall to protest the higher taxes.
Ripon Mayor Luc Desjardins refused the payment and was forced to tell Czepial to find another way to pay his tax bill. In Canada the Currency Act says “A payment in coins… is a legal tender for no more than… twenty-five cents if the denomination is one cent.” This meant that Czepial was 213,600 over the limit. He wrote a check to pay the property tax.
There have been stories in the United States of people paying with small denomination coins but in all cases, the coins were accepted as payment. Unlike Canada, United States laws does not limit the number of coins that could be used in a payment. While a private citizen could refuse to take the coins, governments cannot. It is not something I recommend doing. Government employees have cell phones with cameras and they can do until you as you have done unto them. Caveat emptor.
A Week of Coin Finds
I apologize to my readers for the extended silence. It has been an interesting two weeks. Now that it is over, I can go back to searching the numismatic world for interesting stories.
Well… I have not exactly been silent. Those following me on Twitter (@coinsblog) have seen a some stories of interest—other than the flurry of posts from the US Mint’s broken RSS feed. I tweeted about the following articles:
- Coin Collecting – A great hobby for young and old alike!
- History of Coins: TWO-BITS, FOUR-BITS, SIX-BITS, EIGHT… is a good article that explains where the cheer “Two Bits, Four Bits, Six Bits, a Dollar” came from.
- Bad Bears: The Panda Counterfeit Report. If you buy Chinese Panda coins you want to read this!
In other personal news, I found two 2009-D dimes in change. Considering where I was, I suspect that the dimes could have arrived in the area from a visitor to celebrate Independence Day. I also found a few S-mint cents from the late 1960s which might have also arrived in the pocket of a visitor.
While making a purchase in the suburbs, I was given a 2002 Canadian quarter and a 1964-D Washington Quarter. It was clear that the cashier did not know what she was giving me, but offered to buy them back. I explained to the cashier the difference between modern quarters and those minted before 1965. As I was leaving, she was going through the draw dropping quarters on the counter listening for that distinctive “ping” of a silver coin.
The next day I was buying supplies for my dogs when the clerk questioned one of the notes I handed for payment. When I looked at the note I noticed it was a Series 1957A Silver Certificate with a blue seal. It was a worn note that I might have received in change but did not pay enough attention to notice. I was asked how much it was worth and I thought it would be about $2 in its condition. Rather than keeping the silver certificate, I sold it to the clerk to $1 who could not believe how cool it was. Before taking the dog’s treats home, I told him where he could buy a sleeve to better save his new find. Who knows… I could have piqued the interest of a new currency collector.
At work we have a finicky soda machine. It will take paper dollars only if smooth and inserted in one direction. Rather than fight the machine, I have been using Presidential Dollar coins purchased by the roll from a local bank. While a coworker was having problems with his note, I traded his note for a coin to find it worked without issue. After doing this a few times, I convinced some to purchase their own rolls of Presidential Dollars. It may not increase the circulation of dollar coins by much, but it is a start!
Coin News of the World
Not all coin news comes from the United States. Here are three interesting non-U.S. stories from the last few weeks:
Foggia, Italy—A truck in southern Italy carrying €2 million in one and two euro coins crashed and spilled its load on the highway. Feeling they hit the jackpot, drivers stopped and started to scoop up the coins. On the scene, it was estimated that €10,000 was taken. A later count upped that estimate to €50,000. No arrests were reported.
Driver of the truck and the two cars in the accident were not seriously injured, but they were not the focus of many of the stories. With coins strewn on the roadway and the median, the company responsible for the transport of the coins will be spending the next few days trying to sweep up the coins that motorists did not take.
Zimbabwe—In a country where runaway inflation caused their currency to become worthless and the government made U.S. currency legal tender, Zimbabweans are washing their U.S. dollars so that they can be used.
In this poor country, low-denomination U.S notes are used until they fall apart. But in order to protect currency in crime-ridden areas, notes are carried in shoes or underwear. The obvious sanitary and malodorous issues has made it a problem causing banks and many merchants to refuse to take currency that is dirty and smelly. Some people gently hand-wash their notes and some laundry services have discovered that they can wash notes in the gentle cycle then hang the notes to dry.
Apparently this works for the poor in Zimbabwe since the notes outlive the Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s estimated life span of a $1 Federal Reserve Note of 20-months.
Vienna—Spanish gold dealer Oro Direct S.L.U. bought the world’s largest gold coin at auction for &euro3.27 million (approximately $4.02 million). The 100 kilogram coin with a face value of C$1 million was made by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007. This coin currently holds the world’s record for being the largest coin ever made.
Gold was trading at $1,253.55 per troy ounce in London at the time of the auction.
“We believe that this is a way to demonstrate our opinion that gold is the ultimate store of wealth,” Oro Direct spokesman Michael Berger was reported as saying. “As long as central banks continue to print enormous amounts of paper money, we believe physical gold will be a fantastic investment.”
The following news video is from Reuters:
About the coin in a video by the Royal Canadian Mint:
Images from Italy and Zimbabwe are courtesy of the AP.
Image of the C$1 Million Maple Leaf courtesy of Reuters.
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