The Coin Collection History

Knowing for certain the coin collection history is impossible. However, it is generally believed that the hobby of coin collecting began soon after the minting of the first coins around 650 B.C., this hobby has been around a long time.

Coins were first developed because of a need to standardize the weights of gold. Gold and Silver were used as payment in exchange for goods and services. The original system used carefully weighed amounts that represented a specific value. However, dishonest dealers began to cheat the system by passing off lower quality metals and representing them as gold and silver. Coins quickly became the newest form of payment for goods.

Greek artists were first commissioned to create designs for coins at the beginning of the fifth century. The depiction of gods, goddesses, and mythical heroes were commonly used, and Alexander the Great began the popular trend of using realistic designs on the coins.

The fourteenth century Italian scholar and poet nicknamed the father of the Renaissance, Francesco Petrarca, is said to be the first coin enthusiast. He brought much attention to the hobby of coin collecting and was probably was the most famous coin collector of his time.

The hobby of coin collecting was treasured for its artistic and economic value, and soon became popular with popes during the Renaissance period. There is evidence that the popes turned were passionate about their hobby. Evidence also points to Roman emperors who used to pay higher prices than the face value for the coins that were not in circulation. Coin collecting was soon referred to "The Hobby of Kings", a tile given by the enthusiastic renaissance nobility. Kings like Louis XIV of France, Ferdinand I, and Henry IV of France were also great coin collectors. Elector Joachim II of Bradenburg started the Berlin coin cabinet.

The first international convention for coin collectors was held on August 15th through the 18th in 1962 in Detroit, Michigan. It was sponsored by the American Numismatic Association and the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association. It was estimated that 40,000 people were in attendance.

Coin minting did not begin in the United States officially until the beginning of 1792. The passing of the Coinage Act legalized the United States dollar as the official unit of monetary exchange throughout the states. The Philadelphia Mint was the first to manufacture US coins when it coined the US Silver Dollar. The Denver Mint began producing coins in 1906, and the San Francisco Mint and the West Point mint mainly produce proof sets and gold coins. Every coin in the United States is marked with a P, D, S or W, depending on the mint where it was produced.

While the exact coin collection history is not known, millions of people today consider themselves coin collectors or coin hobbyists, and more are joining their ranks every day. Several museums showcase valuable and rare coin collections, including the Smithsonian in Washington D. C. as well as the American Numismatic Society in New York City which was established in 1891 to encourage education concerning coin collecting.

Source: coincollectingalbum.com

U.S. Mint Sales: Silver Proofs Generate Over $18 Million

The 2009 silver proof set continues to sell at a good clip. Sales rose by 79,200 this week to 350,572. This is just the second week where recorded sales numbers appear.

That seems like a large number when you consider that collectors are asked to pay $52.95 for each one of them. That's more than $18 million since sales began July 17. Such is the appeal of a new offering and how deep collectors are willing to dig into their pockets to buy what they want. Already readers are reporting receipt of the sets and are examining them closely.

Sales of the two-roll sets of Formative Year cents continue to creep forward. The satisfaction of reaching the round number 300,000 will have to wait at least another week and perhaps two. The increase in sales was only 3,944 sets this week to reach 294,030.

Native American Philadelphia dollar rolls did reach a nice round figure. They passed the 50,000 mark to reach 50,215. This is only an increase of 535 on the week, though.

Bullion American Eagles continue to plow forward. The one-ounce gold was up 15,000 to reach 71,000 and the silver American Eagles rose by 525,000 to reach 2,325,000.

Sales of the Ultra High Relief rose by 865. That is almost identical to the increase of last week.
Source: numismaster.com

Kellogg & Humbert 43-Ounce Gold Ingot

(1855-57) Kellogg & Humbert 43-Ounce Gold Ingot. Recovered From the S.S. Central America. 97 mm x 42 mm x 17 mm. CAGB-534. From the obverse or top and reading downward in vertical orientation, NO (number abbreviation in typical style) 701 followed by the rectangular, bordered incuse imprint of KELLOGG / & / HUMBERT / ASSAYERS. Below are 43.39 OZ / .911 FINE / $817.12. After a medallic turn, the serial number 701 is repeated on the back.

Q. David Bowers, in Appendix IV of the enormous A California Gold Rush History, enumerates all of the ingots recovered from the S.S. Central America, both by assayer and serial number as marked on the ingots, and by assayer and weight. The assayers represented include:

–Blake & Co. Opened in 1855, based in Sacramento, California. Only 34 ingots from this company were recovered. The company’s ingots have beveled edges and may have seen limited circulation in California.

–Harris, Marchand & Co. Operated two offices, one in Sacramento (founded 1855) and a second in Marysville, California (opened in 1856). All of their bars have a circular coin-shaped counterstamp on the front. One unique bar is known from the Marysville office. Total bars recovered: 37.

–Henry Hentsch. Hentsch, a native of Switzerland with many business connections, opened his assay office in February 1856 next door to his bank. The Guide Book speculates that many of his ingots were likely exported to Europe. Ingots recovered: 33.

–Justh & Hunter. Opened San Francisco assay office in 1855 and Marysville office in 1856, remaining in business through 1858. Ingots recovered: 86 (60 in the 4,000 series ascribed to San Francisco; 26 in the 9,000 series attributed to Marysville).

–Kellogg & Humbert The most well-known names in the coinage of California gold coins–and ingots, after the S.S. Central America recovery. That they escaped the scandals exposed by James King of William for underweight coinage gave their products currency and credibility, and as expected, their ingots constituted the majority found aboard the ship. Ingots recovered: 346, ranging in gross weight from less than 6 ounces to 934 ounces.

The incredible Bowers volume is as much an essential part of the legacy of the S.S. Central America recovery as the gold coins and ingots themselves. The largest bar recovered from the S.S. Central America is dubbed the “Eureka” bar. Weighing 933.94 ounces (almost 78 pounds) of .903 fine gold with a nominal value in 1857 of $17,433.57, that single bar contained more gold than all of the California gold ingots of the period that were known–combined–before the treasure recovery.

Bowers classifies this as a “medium to large size ingot,” those weighing 40 to 55 ounces. The bar is now bright yellow-gold, unsurprising considering the high-purity gold it contains. It has clearly been conserved to remove the dark purple-brown patina that many of the SSCA ingots displayed, as the plate on page 433 of the Bowers reference shows the same ingot beforehand. Another memorable ingot that demonstrates the enormous calamity that was the foundering of the S.S. Central America, this piece weighs more than 3.5 pounds and contains almost 40 ounces of pure gold.

Source: coinlink.com

Gold exchange files bankruptcy, faces lawsuit over coins

National Gold Exchange, which bills itself as the world's largest wholesaler of rare gold and silver coins, is fighting for survival after its bank declared its loan in default.

Based at 14309 N. Dale Mabry Highway, National Gold Exchange filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Tampa.

The company lists estimated assets of $10 million to $50 million and estimated liabilities of $50 million to $100 million. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protects a company from its creditors while it reorganizes its finances.

The move comes as Sovereign Bank declared National Gold Exchange in default of $35 million in loans.

The bank claims in a Hillsborough circuit court lawsuit that National Gold Exchange and its owners, Mark and Alan Yaffe, violated certain loan covenants, and it demands repayment.

The bank also alleges in its suit that National Gold Exchange sold up to $15 million in valuable coins to pay for a multimillion-dollar home for Mark Yaffe in the pricey Avila community of north Hillsborough County.

Those coins were part of the collateral for National Gold Exchange's $35 million loans.

In a 2006 survey by the Tribune, Alan Yaffe's home in Avila was listed as one of the five largest in Hillsborough County.
Source: 2.tbo.com

Multimillion Dollar Collection

This multimillion dollar collection came to us totally unexpected. The collector had been following our LV Collection (where that collector ran out of room to keep his coins) and realized he had the same predicament. We got a call to go check out this deal. Not knowing what to expect we brought a small empty rolling bag. When we arrived at this collector’s house we saw a few double row boxes stacked up. We figured he had slightly exaggerated about the size of his collection and this would be a quick and easy trip-NOT!

After going through the coins and giving him our opinion, he asked “are you ready for more?” we said sure. Next thing we knew, there were 220 DOUBLE ROW boxes of certified coins next to us! The boxes contained coins from OLD HOLDERED MS 65FB Mercs to GEM MS68 Morgans all PCGS or NGC certified! One box that stood out was full of PCGS/NGC MONSTER MS67 Walkers-including some better dates! Mr. McClaren explained to us he had been collecting these coins over the past 20+ years and stopped buying in quantity a few years ago. He too ran out of storage space at his bank. When he looked at us and asked how we’d get all this back to NJ, we figured he meant some time later on. Nope, he said he didn’t want to lug the stuff back to the bank, take it all home now! So needless to say, we had to rent a 16 foot truck and suffer through a bumpy ride back to NJ. We can not even imagine how big or how many safety deposit boxes he had all this stuffed in!

There are also hundreds of rolls of RAW Dimes through Morgans. After a quick look of the raw coins, we saw many GEM’s as well as many unbelievable GEM certified coins! This certainly was not your typical big pile of junk/modern Proof Set deal we so often see. We will post a few of the McClaren coins today. We expect to be posting them possibly through the end of the year! Like us, you’ll be totally amazed at what is in the collection-especially the stunning quality of so many coins.

Source: coinlink.com

Errors Sometimes Look Like Something Else

Steve Conner of Texas sent in a 1952-D Lincoln cent that shows die cracking and chipping from the "9" in the date to the Denver mintmark. This was a fairly common area of breakage this year that even today often fools many collectors into believing that the series of cracks and chips might be a secondary Denver mintmark hanging between the tail of the "9" and the primary "D."

It's a question that has come into me about this date so many times over the past 25 years that I'd have to guess that for every person who asks about it that there are hundreds of others who are wondering what this effect is but didn't bother to ask. So now you know. It should also be mentioned that similar effects are also frequently seen on cents dated 1951 and in the early 1970s.

Conner's second coin is another 1952-D cent with a series of similar die breaks and chips from a different die. It demonstrates just how extremely similar these effects can be on this date. His next coin is a 1955-S Lincoln cent that shows a good size die break between the "B" and "E" of LIBERTY and a die break within the lower loop of the "5" of the date. Error-variety specialists refer to elongated die breaks found between the "B" and "E" of LIBERTY as "BIE Cents" as the die break often looks like the letter "I" sandwiched between the "B" and "E."

Though the error-variety type is largely ignored today, at one time it was so popular that an entire club, known as the BIE Guild (BIE in this case stood for the "Best In Errors)" was formed around the collecting of these minor variations and guidebooks were published in the late 1960s through the early 1970s.

This one was listed in the BIE Guild's 1972 BIE Handbook as 55S-4F+5 where it is one of the very few BIEs they nicknamed, which in this carried the moniker "Sausage BIE"  perhaps because it is one of the larger BIEs known.

The variety is also listed in Gene Cohen's massive 600-page 1969 limited edition hardcover classic, The Classification and Value of Errors on the Lincoln Cent as 55S-B650. Interestingly, Cohen, listed a fair number of Lincoln cents of various dates with the lower loop of the "5" completely broken out (along with some earlier stages before it was completely broken out) but these coins, even today, often get mistaken for exhibiting a secondary Denver mintmark within the lower loop of the "5" just because it's shaped that way. The big clue here that it is not a "D" is that none of these show the open center of the Denver mintmark, but are solid just like most other die breaks. The reason that these are shaped like a "D" is very simple: the lower loop of the "5" is shaped like a "D."

His next coin is a 1952 Lincoln cent with large curved die cracks that surround a large die break on Lincoln's head. Die cracks that emanate from within Lincoln's head and extend through the rim are nicknamed "Spiked Head" die cracks by many in the hobby even though it is an error-variety type that has lost favor with collectors over the decades (except when they are found on proof coins).

Die breaks within the head of Lincoln were often referred to as "Cracked Skulls" and were also somewhat popular in the early days of the error-variety hobby but considerably less so than the so-called Spiked Heads and BIEs. Cohen listed this as a Spiked Head and assigned it listing number 52-47B+57.

Conner also sent in a 1958-D cent that shows multiple die gouges below the date and about the mintmark. I normally ignore the vast majority of smaller die gouges that I encounter but in this case the fact that there is a series of them side by side in the same locality is unusual and at least worth a second look. It is one of those kinds of varieties that even when a seasoned error-variety collector finds a few in a roll and knows they are minor, just has to keep one or two of them anyway "just because."

David Thorne of Florida sent in a 1984 cent that shows what appear to be long dashes through in the US of TRUST. Plating blisters cause are the culprit here. This is a common defect found on the cents produced by the Mint since mid-1982 when the U.S. Mint changed the alloy of the cent from a homogenous brass composition to copper-plated zinc. These blisters can range from round to long streaks like this and any other shapes you can think of. While these blisters are technically an error of a sort, the defect is so common that it is considered inherent to the barrel plating process and not collected as an error by the hobby, but rather looked upon more as a nuisance than anything else.

John Horengic of Maryland sent in a 2008-P $1 Martin Van Buren Presidential dollar with a common error with an unusual effect. This one shows a displaced mostly raised "8" within a recess (ding) on the edge of the coin to the left of WE. The most common explanation for this error type is that it is the result of another coin that has already been edge-marked being pressed up against the rim of an unfinished-edge coin.

Since the edge inscriptions are incuse, the offending coin upon pressure raises a displaced character on the edge of the second coin, (which in this case resulted in an inverted "8" from the offending coin being impressed onto the edge of the second coin).

This is presumed to occur while both coins are passing through the edge-lettering machine. The edge-lettering machine later flattens down most of these displaced elements as the normal inscriptions are applied. The effect is very common, though this one is very interesting because it is barely flattened down due to it being in the recessed area of an edge ding.

The jury seems to still be out on whether or not these can be considered errors or damage from another coin. However, since it starts prior to the end of the minting process and ends within the edge lettering process, I lean towards them being considered errors.

Typical flattened down examples seem to be very common. I found so many of these while looking through rolls of John Adams dollars that I went through looking for doubled edge letter and smooth edge errors in 2007 that I started throwing the ones with a displaced flattened character(s) back into the rolls. Still, this one is unusual in that is shows just a bit of flattening and exhibits more eye appeal than most. It's one I'd keep.

My photo of the edge showing it diagonally, exhibits the errant "8" to best advantage whereas the second image of the edge taken horizontally shows how it lays within an edge ding to best advantage. The edge ding is what protected the "8" from being flattened out more than we see on typical examples of this error type.

For comparison, I also show the edge of a 2007-P John Adams dollar that displays a tilted "T" between the "U" and "S" of TRUST that is flattened down in typical fashion.

Finally, we take a look at a 2009-P William Henry Harrison Presidential dollar that John King Jr. of South Carolina sent in described as exhibiting a peg leg "P" mintmark. The coin has a rather light inscription about its edge and when we get to the "P" mintmark we see that it appears more like a small stubby "D" than a "P."

Last year in December and again in a follow-up story in a January Numismatic News, I featured a 2008-P Martin Van Buren dollar that after some study I was able to prove featured a peg leg "P" due to the leg of the "P" mintmark on the edge-lettering die chipping and the leg of the "P" falling away. Thousands of these coins were later found in rolls across the country with the majority of reports coming in to me from within Michigan. These later reports allowed me to isolate the cause. However, before I made that determination, my earlier writing in December suggested it needed more study to determine the exact cause, suggesting it could also be the result of a weakly set edge-lettering die (which would have been somewhat less significant).

At this point, I am again in the same position of not being able to make a positive call unless more of the errant "P" mintmark Harrison dollars are found and made available to me for study. If nothing else, it gives us all something more to look for. Let me know what you find.
Source: numismaster.com