You had to be there. The release of the first Kennedy half dollars was the biggest thing to hit coin collecting in many years. As the July 1964 issue of Boy’s Life put it, no other coin had quite the same reception as the 1964 Kennedy half dollar. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963. A few […]
Morgan Dollar VAM Variety Silver Dollars Forty years ago, extensive research was published by Leroy C. Van Allen and A. George Mallis on the variation of the dies used to strike Silver dollars. The term VAM is an acronym for “Van Allen-Mallis”. Silver dollars are created by striking metal blanks with hardened dies containing the
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Between 1971 and 1978, the United States Mint released a $1 coin with President Dwight D. Eisenhower on the obverse. Commonly called “Ike Dollars”, these coins did not see much popularity. Because of their bulky size, Americans tended to associate them with 90% Silver Dollars, such as the Morgan or Peace Dollar. Eisenhower Ike Dollar
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Notes on Merovingian Tremissis This gold coin dates from between 580AD and 630AD. The Merovingian Dynasty was based in ancient Gaul (which is now France) and dates from the middle of the 5th century AD. One side of the coin has a central cross design but none of the letters can be read, which means it
Certification Organizations Several independent organizations exist for the sole purpose of grading coins, including the highly reputable Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) or Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC). For a nominal fee, individuals can submit a coin for grading, which will be returned certified, graded and sealed in a tamper-evident plastic container known as a “slab.”
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Precious metals futures ended from flat to nearly unchanged in their start to the new trading week on Tuesday. U.S. markets closed Monday for Presidents Day. Gold for April delivery dipped 20 cents, or less than 0.1%, to settle at $1,238.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. “Gold’s resilience
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United States Mint circulating coin output fell to the lowest monthly total of the year 2016 in the month of December. Only 696.8 million coins came off the presses at the Philadelphia and Denver Mints. This weak performance left the circulating coin production total for the entire year at just over 16 billion, a decline
Coin Grading Following in the footsteps of the coin grading scale, there is also a Universal Rarity Scale that was developed in 1992 by Q. David Bowers, a famous numismatist. This was to better assess the rarity of a coin quickly and accurately. 5 Components of Coin Grading 1Strike This refers to the process of
COMMON COIN TERMS As you get into the wonderful world of currency searching, it is important to understand some of the common coin terms used in the hobby. Below is a table of the common coin terms and definitions. We add things to this list as necessary, it is obviously not a hugely extensive list
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All coins struck in the United States are struck by a pair of dies. A die is a steel rod with a face that is the same size as the coins that it will be striking. This steel rod will contain the design for one side of the coin. Two of these steel rods (dies)