New Feature: U.S. Coin and Currency Production

Jul 24, 2012 | administrative, web

Continuing my research into numismatic topics and some writing I am doing, I had created a information page for all of the United States federal government agencies, departments, and commissions, that are involved in the production of coins & currency. Rather than search all over the web for this information, here it is one one place.

To see the fruits of my labor, click on the top tab that says “U.S. Coin & Currency Production.” There you will find a snapshot of the information about the U.S. Mint, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Federal Reserve Board, Commission of Fine Arts, Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, and the Department of the Treasury including where they are located and tour information.

If you find any errors or omissions, please feel free to contact me with the updated information.

New Feature: Club Listing

Jul 15, 2012 | administrative, web

For a while, I have been doing a lot of research into various numismatic topics. One of the lists I have been keeping are of the various national and regional clubs and organizations related to numismatics. Rather than keep that to myself, I am making it a permanent part of this site for everyone to use.

When you click on the top tab that says “Join A Club,” there are lists of clubs and organizations categorized as National and International Organizations, Collecting Type Specific Clubs and Organizations, and U.S. Regional Clubs and Organizations. The list omits local clubs because there are too many to list. If you are interested in finding a local club, check the site of the regional organization associated with where you live to see their updated list.

If you find any errors or omission, please feel free to contact me with the updated information.

Happy Collecting!

Blog News

May 19, 2012 | administrative

Over the last few weeks I have taken advantage of a period of convalescence to work on a few things. I did not want this time going to waste.

First, I am writing a book about collecting. I am taking some of the stories that have been posted on the blog, rewriting them to fit in the context of a book, and adding new content. Some of that content has appeared as posts over the last few weeks. Buyers of the book will have content not published on the blog and a ready reference for their collecting need. The current working title is Collecting Numismatics: A Guide To Enjoying Your Collection.

A feature that will set this book apart from others is that it will be available in e-book format only! It will be available to purchase from the major e-book retailers. The price has not yet been determined, but it will be affordable.

Another project has been to set up an account on Pinterest. Pinterest is the newest entry on the social media scene that is based on sharing images. Think of it as Twitter but with pictures. Users create boards and pin pictures to their boards, whether the pins are from other websites or uploaded. The images of the 350 New Israeli Sheqalim I posted on Sunday May 13 were uploaded and pinned to a virtual bulletin board on Pinterest.

There are not a lot of coin people on Pinterest, yet. The ANA Pinterest account was used during the National Money Show in Denver to pin photos from the show. I will use it in June for the Whitman Baltimore Expo. Hopefully, we can interest more coin people to join and share their pictures.

For the big news, the Coin Collectors Blog will be moving! If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen a tweet about the “SNEAK PEEK” of the new blog. You can see the new blog at coinsblog.ws. I thought that after 5½ years and over 850 posts, it was time to try something new.

I am planning on a June 1, 2012 move.

If you are subscribed to the RSS Feed from Feedburner at http://feeds.feedburner.com/CoinCollectorsBlog or subscribed for email updates from Feedburner, then you will continue to be notified when new articles are posted. If you are not using the Feedburner feeds, you might want to change now so you do not miss anything.

Please do not submit comments on the new blog because they will be deleted! In order for me to ensure that everything is properly transferred, I will be wiping out the entire database and reloading all of the posts saved from the current blog on May 31 to start fresh.

Once the blog is transferred, I have some ideas I want to try. Stay tuned!

2012

Jan 1, 2012 | administrative

Happy New Year!

As we begin a new year, we should look forward to better times for our hobby, our nation, and our world. I wish you and yours a Happy and Healthy 2012 and hope that you find the key coin of your dreams!

More To Come

Sep 24, 2011 | administrative, personal

Hello. I hope you are still out there!

I am still here. I had to take time off to take care of something personal.

Over the next few days, I will post a few articles I started but did not have a chance to finish before having to take time off. I also have ideas about alternative collection options—one given to me by a member of my local coin club.

Having some time off, I had time to think about the blog and what to do in the future. I really like writing this blog and appreciate the feedback from those who read these articles. But it’s time to do more and make it more interesting. It’s time to go beyond the blog!

Over the next few months, I will be transitioning this blog off of Google’s Blogger to another hosting platform. Moving will allow me to offer more information in way that I can better manage from a central location. The new platform will include the blog, a podcast, and more. The “more” will be announced in the future.

To my advertisers: I sincerely THANK YOU for your support and I guarentee you will be transitioned to the new platform with the same terms and placement options as you have today. Eventually, there will be additional options to reach what I hope is a larger audience.

To my readers: Please patronize my advertisers. Keeping them happy will convince them to continue their support which will help with my new plans.

I promise you that my plans will be fun and different from what everyone else is doing.

Thank you for hanging out with me on the Coin Collector’s Blog. It has been a fun (almost) six years and I hope we can do many more together!

Make Me Learn Something New

Sep 16, 2011 | administrative, advice

Do you have a question?

Really… is there something you are trying to find out or do you have a coin you are trying to identify?

If so, drop me a note.

Over the last few weeks I have been receiving questions in some very odd places. Someone sent a question via Twitter about a coin that was made part of their avatar. Another person invited me onto Facebook wanting to ask a question. And recently, an anonymous person left a question as a comment to one of my posts.

I do not mind answering questions. In fact, I like the attention! And once I get past my ego loving the attention, I think I do a pretty good job answering questions. If I cannot answer your question, I have a few contact I can ask. A lot of times I learn something in the process, which satisfies my curiosity.

If you send questions asking about the identification of an item, I ask that you please send clear images of the front and back. These are great questions. Some of the images I have seen has lead to interesting stories including one about prohibition.

Please do not send offers to purchase or invest in anything. I will not respond to those requests.

Also, I treat all email as private communications. Private means that it will stay between you and me and will not appear on the blog. I will not publish anything we discuss on the blog without asking your permission. I promise!

You can click the link above to contact me or the Email Me link in the left column. Go ahead… make me learn something new!

New Page: Bill Tracker

Nov 26, 2010 | administrative, legislative

You might have noticed a new element at the top of the list today. It is a widget that allows me to connect pages of information to the blog. These are not blog posts but will use the blog’s template to give the information a seamless feel. The first page created is a numismatic bill tracker that covers all of the bills that have yet to pass the 111th congress. It is intended to be an extension of my previous report, this page uses the information offered by govtrack.us to provide a status of individual bills.

While this page was manually generated, I am looking into automating page updates and provide notification as top when things change for the next (112th) congress.

Remember, since the Mint Does What It’s Told by Law to Do, then we should watch what is coming out of congress. After all, it is congress that passes the laws!

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

Nov 25, 2010 | administrative, history

Thanksgiving was first celebrated in 1621 by the Dutch settlers at Plymouth, Massachusetts to celebrate a successful harvest. It was a tradition that the Pilgrims brought with them from Europe. After the birth of the United States, President George Washington issued a proclamation honoring the Thanksgiving harvest during his presidency. The only other president to issue a Thanksgiving proclamation was President James Madison. As part of his attempt to maintain the union, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation that made Thanksgiving Day a national holiday in 1863.

After Lincoln’s proclamation, it was traditional to celebrate Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. In a move to increase the holiday shopping period to promote more spending, President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed to have congress pass a law to move Thanksgiving earlier in the month. In December 1941, Roosevelt signed a bill that set Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November.

Be thankful for your life.
Be thankful for your family.
Be thankful for our hobby.
Be thankful for everything.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Image of the Lincoln Dollar courtesy of the U.S. Mint.

Welcome to the New Look Coin Collector’s Blog

Oct 9, 2010 | administrative

I became a bit tired of the old look and wanted something a little brighter. When I went to look at the Blogger templates I found that the fine folks at Google changed some of the underpinnings of their system. If I wanted to use one of their new templates and the new features that came with it I had to “upgrade.” The upgrade was not that easy. I had first created a private version of the blog to test what I wanted. Unfortunately, the fine folks at Google did not give me a way to cop my work to this blog. I had to re-enter everything manually. So much for technology!

Speaking of technology, the new background shows my hobby combined with technology. That picture was taken a five years ago after purchasing a 17-inch Apple Powerbook G4. The coins sitting next to to the notebook are Walking Liberty Half Dollars that I was reselling online. I still use that Powerbook because the drivers for my scanner do not work on my 27-inch iMac!

Behind the scenes, it will be easier for me to manage the blog and make minor changes as the mood strikes.

I hope you like the new look!

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