More and more of the older state quarters seem to be finding their way into circulation if what I am getting is any guide. I had a beautiful Delaware quarter come my way the other day.

The recession is making people dig into their accumulations to pay daily bills. This is something that could go on for years. It is also something that might break the quarter habit for many people.

If you have been faithfully saving the coins in any quantity and you arrive at nearly the end of the 10-year program to find out that what you have squirreled away is not really worth anything more than face value, the whole hoard might eventually get dumped as money is needed.

Or, it could be something of collector’s remorse. If you have been faithfully accumulating rolls of the coins and circumstance forces you to stop, you might just feel frustration and guilt and give the whole effort up.

Either way, if the phenomenon occurs, we could experience lower mintages in future years as these coins clog the banking system, requiring fewer orders for new coins from the Mint.

This could be a little bit like what happened to coin mintages in the 1880s. Numbers were down because all of the silver coins that disappeared from circulation during the inflationary crisis spawned by the Civil War found their way back into circulation after the Resumption Act that went into effect Jan. 1, 1879, made the dollar basically as good as gold after a lapse of almost 18 years.

We’ll see.

Starting the day off in the dentist’s chair is no fun, but it happens more and more as my teeth age and fillings age and need replacement.

It gives me a chance to ponder the great questions of the age.

The one I chose today has to do with an e-mailed question that was thrown out to me to think about by Mack Martin, a type collector who puts together great exhibits.

I happened to give him the Bank Note Reporter Most Inspirational Exhibit Award down at the Memphis paper money show on Saturday. It was a great Baby Bonds exhibit (Southern state bonds with a vignette of a baby on them).

But Mack’s question to me yesterday is another one of those coincidences I wrote about on Tuesday. It had a lot to do with state quarters, which I wrote about Wednesday.

He said he was a type collector. That means collecting just one of a given design instead of a whole series. But Mack asks, with the proliferation of state quarters (50 types), and Lewis and Clark nickels and its successor design (5 types) and other denominations starting off new design series, how will a type collector in 100 years cope?

The whole point of being a type collector is to have some of the fun and variety of the many series of coins struck by the U.S. Mint, but not the expense of having to buy all of them, including expensive key dates.

What will type collectors do in the future? Will this approach to collecting still exist?
They are all good questions. I will probably have to think about them again after I get out of the dentist’s chair because I don’t think I can quite trust any thoughts I might come up with during the treatment.

What do you think?

As I finish up the July 15 issue of Numismatic News, I can mention that on the Mint Statistics page that the state quarter mintage box makes a one-week comeback.

I had an e-mail from Halbert Carmichael. I first met him in 1987 at the Charlotte American Numismatic Association convention.

His point to me in his recent e-mail was that he thought it was about time to bring them back onto the page. That’s a difficult task considering the First Spouse box, the Kennedy half dollar box and the list of various Presidential dollar options that the Mint currently sells.

But fundamentally, Halbert is right. It has been a long while since the box appeared, so it is time to bring it in.

What has changed since the last time it appeared was the inclusion of the Oklahoma and New Mexico mintage totals.

The Denver quarter with the Oklahoma design now has the distinction of having the lowest mintage total in the series. It is 194,600,000. That is the first issue to slide under 200 million.

We have touched the low 200 millions before with the P-mint Iowa of 2004 at 213,800,000, Ohio of 2002 at 217,200,000 and Maine of 2003 at 217,400,000, but none has gone below the mark.

We probably can thank the current nonrecession recession for reaching this new low. Coin demand is down in the banking system. Perhaps the last three states will challenge Oklahoma for the overall low point for the entire 10-year series. We’ll see.

We have come a long way from the Virginia of 2000 where the Philadelphia issue racked up a mintage of 943,000,000 and Denver came in at 651,616,000.

Coin demand in the economy has never recovered to the highs achieved in 2000 at the very peak of the tech boom. It is beginning to look like it never will. Perhaps that is why there are so many noncirculating products listed on the Mint Stats page. The Mint and its employees need something to do.

Ever notice the frequency of coincidences? As I headed to lunch yesterday, I had to stop at the post office to send off an anniversary card. It was bigger than usual and I wanted to have correct postage. There was a line. I had to wait. There is nothing wrong with that except Lyle Mork had yelled across the street to me on my way in that he wanted to join me for lunch. He was waiting for me.

I was expecting to have lunch with Cliff Mishler. When he is in town, he usually shows up on Monday. On our way to the Crystal, Fred and Kathy Borgmann arrived with the same idea in mind.

Gosh, some days I have to eat alone. Such is the power of coincidence.

At work I checked the Mint schedule to see when the uncirculated coin sets were due out. There is nothing specific posted, just a July/August window.

In yesterday’s mail, I had a letter from a reader who had a couple of things to say. One was related to uncirculated coin sets. He noticed Mint Statistics called the 2007 uncirculated coin set a 20-coin set. Oops.

But that error has been on the page for about a year. Someone could have pointed it out at any time, but it came as I was mentally gearing up for the 2008 set. The listing for the 2007 set will be changed to 28 coins to reflect the arrival of the Presidential coins last year.

None of this is remarkable, but it is interesting how random events get channeled and suddenly become related events.

My thanks go to David Rickard for his sharp eye on the Mint Stats page.

World paper money is the place to be right now judging from what I saw at the paper money show in Memphis, Tenn., over the weekend.

There were more buyers who came from overseas to do business than has been the case in many years if ever. I have now been to 20 shows in a row.

Prosperity in Russia has given collectors from that country the means to go on a buying spree in the United States as their counterparts in the coin field have been doing.

The strong euro has armed European buyers with the means to take huge quantities of material home with them.

One American dealer said that stuff is not ever coming back in his lifetime.

A Chinese Ming note that had a hammer price of $33,000 on Thursday night at the Lyn Knight auction was talked about. That was more than four times the high estimate of $7,500.

Even the low end, the notes that are used for countless promotions have gone up in price. Another world dealer said the common notes bought by the thousands or tens of thousands are now more than a dime apiece.

Boy. the dollar is weak when it takes a dime to buy one note of a modern defunct or near worthless currency. But such is the compelling power of the idea of collecting these days.

What of the American market? The balance of opinion seems to weigh in on the underachieving side, but that was as much a function of the lack of fresh material as it was the slightly weaker attendance. All the major players were there looking to buy.

I am glad I was able to attend the show and even gladder to be home. I owe a special thanks to show chairman Mike Crabb and a double special thanks to his wife Julia for all their help this year.

I’m sweating and it is not the Memphis heat. I have so many assignments here that it will be a wonder if I can get them all done.

I have to check out the exhibits so I can give the “Bank Note Reporter Most Inspirational Exhibit Award” tomorrow at the Society of Paper Money Collectors meeting.

It would be an easier task if Martin Delger didn’t pack the place with more than 100 cases year after year.

There are a number of people I have to interview for Coin Chat Radio. My handy recorder is in my jacket pocket (yes, I am wearing a suit).

Photos need to be taken for the next issue of Bank Note Reporter and I need a few dealer quotes to go with them. Tomorrow is a solid day of meetings and I won’t get much chance to simply float with the current on the bourse floor.

It is good to have a purpose at a show. You get more done that way, but if you happen to be looking for me at the bourse table, you probably won’t find me. It might be quicker to have me paged.

Just know that I’m not hiding.

I’m on the road again, heading to Memphis, Tenn., to attend the International Paper Money show that has been held there annually since 1977.

I will not be alone. As the premier paper money event in the nation, it will attract a large group of avid paper money collectors. They will not be deterred by the high price of gasoline or the level of inconvenience at the airports.

The market remains hungry for fresh material and the only chance of finding it is to be the first one in line as your favorite dealer source sets up today on the bourse floor at the Cook convention center.

Lyn Knight’s auction also begins tonight and it is not short of desirable material.

Currently, the paper money market is suffering from the problems of success. There are more buyers with money than ever before and they are chasing a limited supply of notes.

Perhaps the irony in this is that when the show was founded, it was located in Memphis as a cheap and easily driveable venue for people who were engaged in an activity that was then coin collecting’s poor relation.

Anyone who bought any significant pieces in 1977 can now add a couple of zeroes to the price.

What will collectors in 2039 be saying about the notes purchased this year?

The Mint gives collectors another reason to attend the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Baltimore at the end of July.

It will put on display an example of the Ultra-High-Relief $20 gold piece that will be sold to collectors next year.

The coin will be 27 millimeters in diameter and be about 50 percent thicker than current one-ounce bullion coins. It will contain one-troy ounce of gold.

This generation of collectors grew up with stories of Theodore Roosevelt’s commitment to give the United States a coinage worthy of ancient Greece. His chosen instrument was Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who came up with a completely impractical design in 1907 that met Roosevelt’s standard but couldn’t stand up to the demands of mere commerce.

Bankers didn’t like high relief because the coins would not stack properly. With much business conducted with gold coins, the artist simply provided bankers with something to hate on a daily basis.

Roosevelt believed that low commerce was no place to invoke the name of God and asked that the motto be omitted from the new $20. It was, causing another uproar from average Americans.

Now in this age of subprime loans going sour we can see how unusual a coalition of bankers and average Americans is.

This peculiar coalition saw to it that the coin was modified. The relief was massively lowered and “In God We Trust” was added.

America ended up with a coin unworthy of ancient Greece, but it satisfied the American people. This is kind of like the story of the Wisconsin state quarter. Whatever you say about the cow, the corn and the cheese, it was the choice of the people. The people don’t always choose art.

To see an example of real coinage art, go to the ANA convention.

No doubt Roosevelt would approve.