Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2019 i COINage

My first American Numismatic Association convention was in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1977, and it was both exhilarating and overwhelming because of the sheer size of the bourse compared to the many local shows I had previously attended around hometown Chicago. There also were a tremendous number of club meetings, seminars and other events available for visitors. The 2019 ANA summer convention, now known as the World’s Fair of Money® (www.WorldsFairofMoney. com), will be held in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois, August 13-17. Attend it and you, too, will discover it is both exhilarating and overwhelming, but certainly also enjoyable and educational. Many collectors attend a show with a “want list” or “wish list” of coins, bank notes, tokens and/or medals they are seeking to purchase for their collections. Others…

With so many things to see, do, and buy at coin shows, you’re probably already flipping through the show schedule in the pages near the end of this magazine to see when and where the next expo is being held. But before you head to the next coin show, there are a few things you’ll want to know to help make the most of your experience at a show. • You’re going to be doing a lot of walking; so be sure to wear supportive, comfortable shoes. Sneakers and flats will be your best friends. Heels and flip-flops? They’ll leave your dogs barking! • Planning to buy or sell a lot of coins? Bring along a rolling tote case. You’ll see a lot of these at the next coin show,…

VALUABLE NEW ISSUES Check your change for “W” quarters [PELHAM, ALABAMA] Just 2 million of each of the five 2019 quarter dollars issued will feature the “W” mintmark of the famous West Point Mint. This seems like a lot of coins, but it represents only one out of every 200 or so 2019 quarters. They are being distributed to banks and financial institutions through the Federal Reserve system, mixed in with their more common Philadelphia and Denver Mint counterparts. “If the Guide Book went to press today, we would list the coins around $25 each in average Mint State condition, based on feedback from coin dealers around the country,” said Jeff Garrett, senior editor of the Guide Book of United States Coins. “Higher-grade ‘gem’ examples have sold for hundreds of…

When gold prices rise as rapidly as they did in May 2019, we tend to see ads offering to buy your gold for “top dollar” placed in newspapers, with “offices” set up in hotel rooms or other temporary quarters. Such operations often offer grossly lower prices than market values for both bullion and rare coins. About a decade ago, a managing editor of a Beaumont, Texas, newspaper spent eight months testing a variety of these price offerings from traveling gold buyers. He borrowed a beautiful rare coin worth $13,000 from me and was told it was worth $250. Another rare coin valued fairly at $10,000 garnered an offer of only $60. The traveling gold buyers play on customer ignorance, and this particular investigation led to criminal and civil charges against…

It is now clear that the first circulating currency issued by the United States was not the Demand Notes of 1861 as was commonly believed for decades, but the Treasury Notes of the War of 1812 printed in 1815 forty-six years earlier. The War of 1812 triggered our nation’s first severe financial crisis since the Revolution. Yet for the most part, it is a forgotten conflict. Often called our nation’s, “Second War of Independence,” the conflict erupted after an extended disagreement with Great Britain over trade tariffs and their continued capturing and impressing of U.S. citizens for British maritime service, including prosecuting their war against France. The war lasted more than two years, and ended in something of a stalemate but did confirm American Independence. Following the disastrous attempts at…

Today in 2019, when a Hollywood star is going to be present at a local celebration, many people will be in attendance just to see that person. In coin shows of the past years there was also a trend in this direction when certain well-known names were to expected to be in attendance. The show that invariably attracted the most attention in this respect was that of the American Numismatic Association (ANA). Perhaps the most famous of the people who drew attention to themselves was Walter Breen. From the late 1950s until his death in 1993, he was the instant star of any coin gathering. His hippie-style clothing was almost a draw in itself and his unkempt beard was instantly recognizable. Walter was well known for his encyclopedic knowledge of…

December 2019 will mark my 70th year as a coin and medal collector. It occurs to me that my life in numismatics has spanned a world of change with which I have been associated and which I have followed from the inside. Just possibly, my experiences may provide clues to why things have gone as they have in the numismatic world around me and possibly even how what may develop tomorrow. My first real awareness of coins came in the summer of 1943, when I was 3, my brother John, 5. My family was living on the grounds of the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts. One afternoon my father returned from his job with GE in Pittsfield and presented us with a handful of glittering silvery objects bearing a…