Author Archive
Posted on September 8, 2011 by Ron Guth
Congratulations to the owner of the ESM Collection, who just become the first person to complete a PCGS Registry Set of United States Half Cents by Major Variety. He attained this goal with his purchase of the 1797 Gripped Edge Half Cent (graded PCGS Good-6) at the recent Goldberg Coins and Collectibles sale of the Davy Collection – Part II. Miller’s Gripped Edge Half Cent is ranked third in the Condition Census, but it is the only one certified by PCGS thus far, making it the only possible option for anyone working on a PCGS Registry Set. Understandably, competition for this particular coin during the auction became intense. Against a pre-sale estimate of $30,000, the coin sold for $195,500.
From the PCGS CoinFacts website: “The 1797 Gripped Edge Half Cent is an extremely rare variety, with just over a dozen known, most of which are in low grade. The dies used to strike the Gripped Edge are the same used on the 1797 Low Head (Cohen 3a) and 1797 Lettered Edge (Cohen 3b) Half Cents. Ron Manley thinks the Gripped Edge Half Cents were struck later than the Lettered Edge Half Cents, but later than the Low Heads. The “gripping” consists of what appear to be a series of irregular indentations on the edge of the coin. The purpose of the gripping is unknown, but it is similar to experimental “gripped” edges on 1797 Large Cents. According to Roger Cohen (1981), the first appearance of a 1797 Gripped Edge Half Cent was in the 1907 sale of the Matthew Stickney Collection. Today, this variety ranks as one of the rarest and most desirable of all Half Cent varieties.”
Posted on July 14, 2011 by Ron Guth
The Lincoln Cent is now over one hundred years old. In 1909, Victor David Brenner’s immortal image of Abraham Lincoln was placed on a new one cent piece and has since been placed on billions more. However, Brenner’s image is not so immortal after all. Over the years, mint engravers have tweaked the image of Lincoln such that it no longer matches Brenner’s vision. Check out the images above. The one on the left is from a 1909 Cent and shows Brenner’s image in all its original glory. The image on the right is from a recent Cent and shows the Mint’s modern vision of what Lincoln should look like. Seems like a big difference. What do you think? Which do you prefer?
To their credit, the Mint modified Lincoln’s image in 2011 in an attempt to bring it closer to the 1909 version. Here’s how it turned out:
Posted on June 14, 2011 by Ron Guth
Image courtesy of David Akers/Paramount
I want to tell you about the 1828/7 Half Eagle, one of the rarest US coins, but one which is essentially off the radar. It’s rarer than an 1804 Silver Dollar, an 1894-S Dime, a Brasher Doubloon, and many more recognized rarities, yet it doesn’t even show up on the list of the 100 Greatest U.S. Coins.
Perhaps the rarity of the 1828/7 Half Eagle is its problem. After all, if it never shows up on the market, how can anyone even know about it? For instance, the last time an 1828/7 Half Eagle appeared on the market was 1999, over ten years ago. Today, we hear about all the coins that sell for over a million dollars, but how can we even value a coin that has been AWOL for more than a decade?
When researching the 1828/7 Half Eagle, I could only find five different examples and one of those is the unique BD-2 (Bass-Dannreuther 1-A, illustrated above).
What rarities can you think of that are relatively unknown?
Posted on February 25, 2011 by Ron Guth
This week, like every week, I’ve spent part of each day working on the Condition Census. As part of our grading process, we identify and photograph any coins that are potential Condition Census candidates. After the images are sent to me, I integrate them into PCGS CoinFacts to ensure that the Condition Census is up-to-date and accurate. Since these coins are considered the best-of-the-best, I get to see some pretty amazing coins (or, at least, pictures of coins).
In the past two weeks, hundreds of images came through from the High Desert Collection (one of the best collections in the PCGS Set Registry). Virtually every coin in this amazing collection qualifies for the Condition Census, and many are at the very top. I’d like to share one of my favorite coins from this collection — a 1776 Pewter Continental Dollar in PCGS MS65+. I’ve always liked Colonial coins, but this is one of the most historic of them all. It’s a large coin, bigger than a U.S. Silver Dollar. The fact that it is made of pewter, a soft metal prone to corrosion, makes the grade all that more incredible. I haven’t researched the history of this coin yet, but I’m sure that whoever owned this coin over the past two centuries, took very special care of it. It is an amazing coin and I encourage you to take a peek at it.
As I run across more coins from this special collection (and others), I’ll let you know.
Have fun!
Posted on February 15, 2011 by Ron Guth
We recently added rating and comments capabilities to the individual coin pages on PCGS CoinFacts. This way, viewers can leave feedback on what they like (or dislike) about the information we’re presenting and/or comments on how we can improve the site. One of the first comments we received pointed out the lack of diagnostic images for Washington Quarter varieties. So, today, we now have images in place for ALL Major Varieties in the Washington Quarters, plus several of what we call the Minor (or Die) Varieties. Check them out when you get a chance and, now that you can, let us know what you think!
Here’s a sample…
Posted on January 31, 2011 by Ron Guth
I’m writing this while on a jet plane returning from the Berlin Money Fair in Germany’s capital city. The Money Fair is really two shows in one: first, a place for mints from all over the world to showcase their current and future projects and second, a place for coin dealers, big and small, to buy, sell, and trade. Just as the cultures of Germany and America are different, so are coin shows. Here are some observations to prepare you if you ever get the chance to go:
Tables: in Germany, table space is sold by the meter, so you’ll see smaller dealers with as little as a meter wide display area tucked in between dealers with spaces up to five meters (roughly fifteen feet or more) or more. The most expensive tables are enclosed booths which are also sold “by the meter.”
Displays: most dealers and collectors in Europe use plastic trays with spaces for individual coins. The coins are usually loose, with slips of paper underneath them that bear relevant descriptive information. The trays are covered with a thick piece of clear plastic that can be removed easily in order to handle the coins. Locked display cases are rare.
Lighting: usually ambient or indirect lighting, though some areas are bathed in sunlight (more properly called daylight because the sun is not always shining in January in Berlin). Hardly any dealers use the lamps and lighting that are mainstays of American coin shows, thus making it difficult to grade coins.
Food: the main lobby of the Estrel Hotel offers several restaurant choices, but vendors wheeling carts of food around the bourse floor are very popular.
Grading: all over the board, ranging from ultra-tight to ultra-loose. That’s why PCGS is there.
Fun level: high. At the opening bell, there are usually scores to hundreds of people waiting to get in. Floor activity is brisk and the aisles are often quite crowded. Often, there are long lines of people at some of the mint displays.
The Berlin Money Fair has something for everyone. I’ve often said that one can build an entire minting operation just by visiting this show. Vendors offer everything from planchet preparation to coin designing to actual minting presses to packaging for the final product, and everything in-between. And, you’ll be able to see (and buy) some great coins from all over the world.
Posted on October 17, 2010 by Ron Guth
Coins are everywhere! They’re in your pockets, they’re on your dresser, they’re in your piggy bank…and now, they’re in your hotel.
This is an image of a cement sculpture that my wife and I just ran across on a trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We were staying in the Mayo Hotel, a grand hotel that was once one of the largest in the country, where oil tycoons entertained guests and celebrities. For some years, it lay empty and abandoned, but recently underwent a major renovation. The redo looks great and the rooms are stunning. We knew we were staying in a special property, but the coolness factor ratcheted up significantly when we came in through the Cheyenne Street entrance and ran across this wonderful sculpture. It’s massive (at least seven feet tall) and looks just like the obverse of a Buffalo Nickel (although facing in a different direction). We have no clue as to who made it or when, and its in an inconspicuous place, so few people will ever see it. We asked our friend Jason Carter (who is a coin dealer headquartered in Tulsa) about the sculpture and he had never heard of it.
Coins are everywhere…even in places where you least expect them!
Posted on October 11, 2010 by Ron Guth
Yesterday, I got to enjoy a little numismatic “dream come true.”
My wife and I were in Clayton, Georgia attending a nephew’s wedding. Clayton is north and east of Atlanta, nestled in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. The wedding and reception were a lovely affair on Saturday night, but by early Sunday morning, most of the family and friends had already cleared out. Our flight wasn’t until late in the evening, so we decided to explore a little. Our first visit was to the Tallulah Gorge just south of Clayton, a dramatic canyon with beautiful waterfalls and a forest of trees just beginning to show their fall colors. Next was a side trip to Dahlonega, Georgia, just north of Lake Lanier and home to a former branch mint. The original Dahlonega Mint burnt to the foundation in 1878, but some of the artifacts and history have been preserved in the Dahlonega Gold Museum. This museum is housed in the old Lumpkin County Courthouse, where the first floor is dedicated to the Dahlonega Mint and the second floor is dedicated to the history of law and justice in a remote city in Georgia. It’s a small museum, but for a coin nerd, it’s nirvana. The highlight is “The Vault,” a small safe around the back of the visitor’s desk, where a complete set of Dahlonega gold coins is on display. Other highlights include the assayer’s gold pocket watch, the cased box of weights used in the mints, and an original stamping machine used to crush rock as an early step in the gold extraction process.
No visit to Dahlonega is complete without a meal at the Smith House, where guests are seated together at long tables for a family-style offering of heaping bowls of fried chicken, sliced ham, beef, mashed potatoes, fried okra, and way too much more. We almost missed it, but there’s an actual gold mine shaft inside the Smith House that was discovered in 2006 during a renovation.
After lunch, we took a trip just outside of town to the Consolidated Gold Mine, formerly the largest and most productive gold mine east of the Mississippi. We donned our hard hats and went underground for a tour of the original mine, where we saw some of the quartz veins that held the gold and little brown bats that clung to the walls. I asked the tour guide if there was any chance that the mine might reopen now that gold has hit record highs, but he said that the mine had been converted to a historic site and that mining was prohibited there. After the tour, we panned for gold and “grubbed” for gems, a touristy but surprisingly fun time, plus now I have a small vial containing the tiny flecks of gold I found.
On the way out of town, we stopped at a roadside stand and bought a bag of boiled peanuts, a popular treat in Georgia, but alien to California. If you’ve never had them, you don’t know what you’re missing!
Our next stop was Stone Mountain, a massive granite outcropping where Gutzon Borglum carved the Confederate Mermorial into the side of the mountain. We’ve all seen it on the Stone Mountain Half Dollar, but viewing it in person really conveyed its grandeur and magnitude.
We had 45 minutes remaining before we had to leave for the airport, so we decided to hike the walking trail up the mountain. We didn’t have enough time to make it to the top, but we came close, and we were certainly high enough to enjoy the incredible views.
Being a numismatist gives us a special connection to these places, something ordinary visitors will never “get” or understand. If you’re ever in the Atlanta area and have a day to kill, be sure to visit Dahlonega and Stone Mountain. You may not strike gold, but you’ll be the richer for it.
Posted on October 4, 2010 by Ron Guth
When one ponders the fabulous collections built by the Norweb family, the Garretts, Waldo Newcomer, and Louis Eliasberg, it’s only natural to ask, “How’d they do it?”
The answer: they did it just like you…one coin at a time. But, they did it with style!
Take the case of Waldo Newcomer. He became really serious about coin collecting in 1902, just after his father died and left him a hefty sum of money. I don’t have my notes in front of me, but Waldo and his brother split roughly $2 or $4 million. Picking the lower number puts $1,000,000 in Waldo’s pocket, plenty of money with which to indulge a hobby in 1902. As a result of this sudden influx of money, and his above-average income for the time, Waldo was able to acquire such neat items as the 1907 Indian Head $20 (old Judd 1776), the 1870-S $3, a Brasher doubloon, and lots of other unique and unusual rarities.
Waldo benefitted from living during a time when coin prices were very inexpensive relative to personal income. For instance, he purchased his 1870-CC $20 at face value! In 1911, he paid $1,450 for the unique 1870-S $3. Let’s say he was making $2,000 in 1911 (a healthy annual salary for the time) – that means the 1870-S $3 represented almost three-quarters of his annual income. If the 1870-S $3 is worth $5 million today, Waldo would have to be making nearly $7 million dollars a year to keep the same ratio. Waldo might have been the kind of talent that could earn that kind of money today, but for the rest of us, the 1870-S $3 will be forever out of reach (thankfully, it’s a permanent part of the Bass Foundation collection, so we won’t even be tempted).
Waldo was a contemporary of fellow Baltimore collector, John Work Garrett, with whom he corresponded and no doubt shared time together. One can only imagine the two mega-collectors swapping coin stories and perhaps doing some coin-trading among themselves.
As much as modern collectors like to live vicariously through the great numismatists of the past, we can still enjoy collecting today at our own level and pace. Building a collection is all about the journey, and we can “do it” and have just as much fun as Waldo did back when he was collecting. There are still plenty of affordable coins, there are rarities to chase, there are fellow collectors to meet and become friends with, there is lots to learn, and there is much fun to be had.
Posted on September 23, 2010 by Ron Guth
The only known 1943 Lincoln Cent mistakenly struck on a bronze planchet at the Denver Mint has been sold for a record price of $1.7 million by Legend Numismatics of Lincroft, New Jersey. The unique coin, not publicly known to exist until 1979, is graded PCGS MS64BN.
The new owner is a Southwestern United States business executive who wants to remain anonymous. He also purchased in the same transaction through Legend a 1944 Philadelphia Mint cent struck on a zinc planchet, graded PCGS MS64, for $250,000, and an experimental 1942 Philadelphia cent mostly composed of tin for $50,000. The unnamed new owner plans to exhibit these coins and others at the Florida United Numismatists convention in January.
“The 1943-D bronze cent is the most valuable cent in the world, and it took four years of aggressive negotiations with the coin’s owner until he agreed to sell it,” said Laura Sperber, President of Legend Numismatics.
“The new owner is a prominent Southwestern business executive who’s been collecting since he was a teenager, searching through pocket change looking for rare coins,” explained Sperber. “As a youngster he thought he’d actually found a 1943 copper cent in circulation but it was not authentic. He still has that in his desk drawer, but now he’s the only person to ever assemble a complete set of genuine 1943 bronze cents, one each from the Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco Mints. He will display that set at FUN along with his 1944 Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco zinc cents.”
The anonymous collector who formerly owned the coin “donated it to a charitable organization so they could sell it with all of the proceeds going to the charity,” according to Andy Skrabalak of Angel Dee’s Coins and Collectibles in Woodbridge, Virginia who acted as agent on behalf of the former owner.
“As a specialist in small cents, this transaction is the ultimate accomplishment for me and I’m privileged to be part of it. I don’t think it will ever be duplicated in my lifetime,” said Skrabalak.
Zinc-coated steel was used for producing cents in 1943 to conserve copper for other uses during World War II, but a small number of coins were mistakenly struck on bronze planchets left over from 1942.
“We estimate that less than 20 Lincoln cents were erroneously struck in bronze at the Philadelphia and San Francisco Mints in 1943, but this is the only known example from the Denver Mint,” said Don Willis, President of Professional Coin Grading Service.
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