Today is a very lucky day according to Cantonese-speaking Chinese. It is 8-8-08 and the word for eight sounds like words for "prosper" or "wealth," according to Mint Director Ed Moy, who was out on a visit to the San Francisco Mint Wednesday to promote sales of the sets.

To mark the occasion, the U.S. Mint began selling a week ago what it calls a Double Prosperity Set that contains a half-ounce American Eagle and a half-ounce gold Buffalo coin. The set is housed in a handsome wooden display case. The price is $1,228.88.

Even with the eights in the price tag, are gold buyers feeling lucky? I noticed this morning that the price is down to $858 a troy ounce, which is a six-month low despite the two eights in the price.

Buyers of the Prosperity set will pay $370.88 over the raw cost of the gold as of today. That is a mark-up of 43 percent.

Perhaps it would be wiser for individuals who want to take advantage of a gold buying opportunity to purchase the two coins individually from their friendly neighbhorhood bullion coin dealer for less money and keep the difference in price, or even buy a more convenient one-ounce coin instead.

Of course, set buyers get a nice box. There is no question about that. There are even occasions in my experience where box prices can get crazy. An example I clearly remember was the wooden box for the six-coin Statue of Liberty Set in 1986. It was trading empty for a time for $100 in the months immediately after issue.

Can collectors count on this box premium lasting over time? That is the dicey part. I wrote about the Constitution boxes in the trash barrel at the Baltimore American Numismatic Association convention yesterday. Those boxes clearly held no premium value.

Persons who want to celebrate an auspicious day on the calendar can buy the set. But celebrating and investing are two different things. Investors who buy the set might not feel as lucky a few days, weeks or months down the road.
 

I met Honest Abe himself at the American Numismatic Association convention in Baltimore last week. It was quite an experience.

The 16th President was spending time at the Whitman booth next to ours on the bourse floor. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to meet him. Dennis Tucker was kind enough to take a photo of the event.

Mr. Lincoln asked me where I was from and I replied that I hailed from Wisconsin. He then launched into a story about his experience in the Black Hawk war in the state in 1832 and the fact that his horse was stolen and he had to walk all the way home to New Salem, Ill.

Not bad.

He asked me what I did for a living. I said that I was a journalist. Then followed another anecdote about a newspaper editor in 1864.

I’m sold.

I had so much fun with it that I personally introduced ANA Executive Director Larry Shepherd to him so I could get a photograph for Numismatic News.

I couldn’t stay long, though, on either occasion. I had to get back to our booth, which was separated from Mr. Lincoln by the width of the entry point to the exhibit area.

Perhaps subconsciously I admired the presidential beard. I rushed to work this morning, feeling somewhat behind where I want to be, in order to get all of the ANA material into this week’s paper. I discovered when I arrived at my desk that I had not shaved this morning. No wonder I got here 10 minutes early.

Oh well.

Instead of time saved, I am slightly more behind as I went back home, shaved and returned.

Sure, my anecdotes can’t compete with Mr. Lincoln’s, but I can keep trying.

The American Numismatic Association convention in Baltimore is over. I am back at my desk for the first time in over a week. I haven’t figured out just how far behind I am yet, though my telephone message light is flashing red and reads that there are eight messages for me.

It was a great convention. It was not the best one ever, but it was good on several levels that we have not enjoyed for a while.

Dealers were happy to be in a town known as a good place to do business. ANA members were pleased to see the problems of prior years being put behind them, so the political environment was relaxed rather than poisoned.

One contentious issue, the location of the 2011 summer convention, was dealt with promptly. At the Professional Numismatists meeting one week ago today, the members let ANA board members and officials know that they thought Indianapolis, the site selected in March, was not a good place to be for business and travel security reasons. Their objections were given forcefully, but often with good humor.

ANA Gov. Cliff Mishler responded to the gathered PNG members as did ANA President Barry Stuppler. The result was action was taken at the Friday ANA board meeting to reverse the previous board decision. Chicago now will be the 2011 convention location.

One longtime dealer present at both meetings said this was the best ANA board he has seen in his professional career.

Whether it is or isn’t the best board ever is less the point than the fact that business is getting done again without rancor and everyone can get on with convention activities that they all look forward to.

Kudos to the Central States board for its generous donation to support this year’s Summer Seminar, which was held for two weeks in late June to early July.

An outright donation of $50,000 was great. The challenge donation was inspired. Dealers and collectors quickly rose to meet it and came up with more than the needed $25,000, so CSNS matched $25,000. That means ANA collected over $100,000. It is necessary for an organization that is still running a large deficit.

Kudos also to Larry Shepherd, the new ANA executive director. His public report was forthright and factual. Employee count is down from 36 to 29.5 due to retirements and natural attrition. Employee morale is up. This year’s deficit has been cut by one-third so far to just over $900,000. It is a large number to be sure, but it demonstrates a certain momentum that we all can hope will be sustained.
That’s enough for today.

Is it really Friday? Convention events make time just fly by. Since the ribbon was cut Wednesday morning, it has been just an incredibly hectic show for me.

The Mint came up with an unveiling of the ultra-high-relief double eagle Wednesday. This was the first opportunity for collectors to see the new coin. Next year they will be able to buy one. Back in 1907 Theodore Roosevelt wanted coins of this kind of be used again just as in ancient Greece. That proved to be impractical because the ancient Greeks didn’t have banks with marble counter tops that required gold coins to stack neatly.

So, next year, 102 years after the first attempt at fulfilling Roosevelt’s dream, will come a second act. The coins still won’t circulate, but collectors will certainly appreciate the artistic qualities of a coin that has the depth of a medal rather than the nearly flat surfaces of a coin.

This is kind of a roundabout way of getting to the meeting of the Citizens Coin Advisory Committee at 9 a.m. today. This body helps the Mint sort good ideas from bad. It is part of the recognition that has been given in recent years to the artistic qualities of coinage.

We don’t know what Roosevelt would make of today’s coin art. Would he consider it something worthy of the ancient Greeks? I don’t know. But I expect he would approve of the importance that is being attached by the government to the artistic factors that he considered so important for American coinage. As a politician, he also would have loved to know how many times his name has come up this week.