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 Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Thought about First Spouse?
Posted by dave
Have you noticed that Martin Van Buren First Spouse half-ounce gold coins are on sale? You can be forgiven if in the midst of the Thanksgiving holiday preparation that you missed it. This is not intended to be a slam at the Mint. It is simply an observation about the calendar, which gets awfully crowded with family and social obligations of the season at this time of year. The coin is the fourth this year and the eighth in the series. Price is the same as for other recent issues. It is $549.95 for the proof, which usually outsells the uncirculated nowadays as we are beyond the sellout excitement generated by the first three issues. The uncirculated is priced at $524.95. The Dolley Madison issue was recently taken off sale, but the four for the year 2008 are all still available. The Madison is the first issue to go off sale without achieving a sellout. The proof sales total is 18,355 and the uncirculated sales total is 12,541. That is about 9,000 short of the total possible combined maximum of 40,000. Sales numbers for the succeeding issues so far are lower. Check the various First Spouse issues out at www.usmint.gov.
12/2/2008 8:51:51 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) 
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Monday, December 01, 2008
Wilde funeral date set
Posted by dave
Just as we were putting the Numismatic News issue to bed before heading off last week to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner with our families, details arrived about the funeral of former American Numismatic Association treasurer Adna G. Wilde Jr., who died Nov. 17 at the age of 88. Certainly they will appear in the following issue, but I would like to share them here as well. His funeral will be held at 9 a.m. Eastern Standard Time at Arlington National Cemetery. He served in the 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army in Italy during World War II and had a military career that saw him retire as a lieutenant colonel. The American Numismatic Association, which he loved and served since 1947 first as a member and later as president, executive director and parliamentarian, will hold a memorial service the same day at 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time at headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., a place that Mr. Wilde also loved. More importantly, a scholarship fund has been set up in his honor that is most appropriate. Donations can be made to the Adna G. Wilde Jr. Summer Seminar Scholarship Fund in care of the American Numismatic Association, 818 N. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80903. Wilde was a co-founder of the event with Edward C. Rochette in 1968. It has grown from 17 students to around 400 each year. It is one of the ANA’s great contributions to our shared hobby. Rest in peace, Adna. Your beloved ANA is carrying on.
12/1/2008 9:06:16 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, November 26, 2008
And then there was one
Posted by Dave
Only the one-ounce “W” uncirculated platinum American Eagle remains on sale to collectors. The fractional sizes and the four-coin set have been taken off sale by the U.S. Mint. The latest sales numbers show that the lowest total is currently held by the very same one-ounce coin at 980, according to this week’s Mint Statistics sales figures. The next lowest sales total belongs to the half ounce, which is at 1,257. Interestingly, the quarter ounce is at 1,923. When I spoke to Dan Knauth, a collector who watches these numbers closely, for last week’s Coin Chat Radio program, he was scratching his head about higher totals previously announced. Since I talked to him the reported number has declined. Good job, Dan. If something seems illogical, even with Mint reported sales numbers, perhaps it is. The tenth-ounce sales number is 2,485 and the four-coin set stands at 2,158. Remember, if you are trying to figure out the total mintage of any of the coins, you have to add the single-coin sales figure to the four-coin set total. For example, the one-ounce coin is 980, and when adding 2,158 in the four-coin set, we get a current number of 3,138. How long will the one-ounce stay on sale? I don’t have any word on that, but perhaps its final individual-coin sales total will creep closer to the numbers for the half ounce. Let’s watch and see.
11/26/2008 8:36:24 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Supplies dwindle at year end
Posted by Dave
Precious metal purchasers are continuing to run the Mint on a merry chase. Supplies of U.S. Mint bullion coins have gotten even tighter, with just two coins remaining available, the one-ounce American Eagle gold coin and the one-ounce American Eagle silver coin. Yesterday, the Mint sent a memorandum to its authorized purchasers to explain what will happen as the year comes to a close and the New Year’s demand begins. It follows below: November 24, 2008 MEMORANDUM TO ALL AMERICAN EAGLE AND AMERICAN BUFFALO BULLION COIN AUTHORIZED PURCHASERS SUBJECT: 2008 and 2009-Dated Bullion Coin Products With the exception of the American Eagle Gold One-Ounce and American Eagle Silver One-Ounce Bullion Coins, all 2008-dated bullion coins have been depleted. Weekly allocations will continue for these two products. The final 2008 allocation for these coins will be provided on Monday, December 15, 2008. There will be no bullion allocations during the week of December 22, 2008. 2009-dated American Eagle Gold One-Ounce and American Eagle Silver One-Ounce Bullion Coins will be made available for sale via the standard allocation process on Monday, December 29, for pricing December 30 and order pick-up on Friday, January 2, 2009. Allocations for these products will continue until the United States Mint is able to meet demand. The quantities of blanks that we have been able to acquire from our suppliers continue to be very limited, while demand for bullion coins remains high. As a result, it is necessary for the United States Mint to delay the launch of other bullion coins until later in 2009. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep you informed as additional information becomes available. Thank you for your patience and your continued support of the United States Mint Bullion Coin Program. Greg Hernandez Public Affairs Deputy Director United States Mint (202) 354-7207 www.usmint.gov
11/25/2008 8:57:29 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, November 24, 2008
Calendar says inaugural medals
Posted by Dave
Before coming to work this morning, I had to shovel the sidewalk. Iola, Wis., had its first dusting of snow for the season. Fortunately for me, the inch or so that fell was fairly easy to clean away, otherwise I might be feeling the effects in muscles that I seem only to use during the winter months. It is nice to know some things don’t change despite the upheaval in the world economy and financial markets. The day still has 24 hours and there is still a winter season in Iola that begins as it is this week with deer hunting season and the woods are full of hunters wearing blaze orange during the day and spending money in the restaurants and taverns at night. Another thing that has become traditional is the issuance of inaugural medals when a President is sworn in. All advance indications are that the inaugural ceremony itself on Jan. 20, 2009, is going to attract millions more people than usual. That likely means larger numbers of purchasers of inaugural medals than usual. Sales information usually becomes available around the beginning of the new year, just in time to be available for a Numismatic News issue with a Jan. 20 cover date. While I have one or two inaugural medals in my collection, I do not consider myself a collector of them. In fact, one of them I received as a gift years ago from Chet Krause who thought I would appreciate it more than he did. Will you be a buyer when the medals become available? Let me know. Post your comments below.
11/24/2008 8:56:26 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, November 21, 2008
More sales numbers and sellouts
Posted by Dave
Yesterday the proof one-ounce gold Buffalo sold out. The latest sales number is 11,543. That won’t exactly make this issue scarce. The tenth-ounce proof is also sold out. Its sales total is similar at 10,861. The proof half ounce, quarter ounce and four-coin set are still on sale. Sales totals are 2,003, 3,909 and 7,287, respectively, for these. For the uncirculated versions of the Buffalo coin with “W” mintmark, the quarter- and the tenth-ounce are off sale. They have sales totals of 3,787 and 12,608, respectively. For the uncirculated coins still on sale, the one-ounce is 2,729. The half ounce is 2,474 and the four-coin set is 5,331. Letting these numbers sink in probably helps in understanding why some collectors are so excited about the platinum American Eagle “W” uncirculated coins with lower sales numbers. The quarter- and tenth-ounce coins are sold out and the individual coin totals are 2,027 and 2,504, respectively. The four-coin set is also sold out. It has a sales number of 2,165. The ounce and half ounce are still on sale with the sales numbers of 669 and 1,061, respectively All the proof platinum American Eagles are still on sale and the 10th anniversary set has gone back on sale after a long hiatus. That will disappoint at least one collector who called me several weeks back wondering why I hadn’t declared it sold out so he could sell his sets on eBay for more money. The uncirculated and proof gold American Eagles are all still on sale as is the uncirculated “W” silver American Eagle. The proof version of the silver American Eagle is no longer available. To find out the current sales figures that I didn’t provide here, just check the Mint Statistics elsewhere on the NumismaticNews.net Web site.
11/21/2008 9:01:50 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, November 20, 2008
Coins mark end of finds era
Posted by Dave
The debut yesterday of the Abraham Lincoln commemorative silver dollar celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birth started me thinking. In a strange way, this silver dollar and the four special cent designs that will be issued in 2009 will stand as the last hurrah for the veterans of the circulation finds era. Even though there are still many of us who got started in numismatics checking through our change and rolls from the local bank on a regular basis, our numbers can no longer grow. From here they can only shrink because of demographics. You have to be at least 50 years old to have any kind of memory at all of that period of time, and that is a number that works only if you agree with me that the circulation finds era ended in 1968. I pick 1968 because that is the year I began to collect nickels. They were the last coins left in my area that had any variety of dates to examine. I had done all the other denominations as much as I could. The few silver dimes and quarters that were found in change were usually shiny new 1964 and 1964-D coins. Some hobbyists might put the end of the circulation finds era in late 1964 or early 1965 when the roll and bag boom went bust and marked the peak of public participation in numismatics. Even with the state quarter program I doubt that there are as many committed collectors now as then even though there might be more casual accumulators. Whatever date you choose for the era’s end, you still end up with collectors in their 50s. Fortunately for the hobby, it is a large group and collectors in their 50s have been the most active and most numerous for the last 100 years. Since many of us started with the Lincoln cent in the circulation finds era, in a roundabout way these new 2009 coins commemorate the circulation finds generation and the experiences we have had in numismatics.
11/20/2008 8:59:42 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Spotlight: good or bad?
Posted by Dave
A columnist in the New York Post wrote about the continuing high demand for bullion coins, both U.S. and foreign. I happened to see it and John and Nancy Wilson kindly e-mailed me a copy in case I had not. My thanks go to them. There was nothing in it that the numismatic media have not been reporting for some time now. What is significant is the fact that it is mentioned in a non-hobby paper. Often when numismatic trends are discussed outside the hobby, the trend is getting close to coming to an end. We had wonderful press in 1989 about coins going to Wall Street. That year happened to be the high point for Morgan silver dollars. They haven’t returned to those heights since. The rest of the hobby areas also began a downturn that lasted until the mid 1990s. We’ve had a great run since the last coin market bottomed. This was fueled in part by the state quarter program. But another factor that helped is that gold and silver bottomed out in 2001 and began an upward climb. Now don’t get me wrong, bullion speculation is not numismatics, but there is a connection. Many dealers generate nice cash flows handling bullion coins. When demand gets particularly hot, as has been the case this year, the demand for metals spills over into coins not usually as appealing to the bullion coin buyers because they are not even troy weights, such as U.S. $20 gold pieces. While it is always good to be noticed, pardon me if my first thought this time is “Yikes.”
11/19/2008 8:52:46 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, November 18, 2008
When Lincoln's lessons apply
Posted by Dave
It is an interesting historical coincidence that just as we are about to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, the nation elects a President who deeply admires him. Certainly the crises that face the nation in 2008 are not the same as those that afflicted the country during Lincoln’s term of office, but the quality of dogged determination to set a goal and see things through despite the distractions and panics of those around him is certainly one that is needed in the coming months. Tomorrow is the official unveiling of the Lincoln silver dollar (An earlier version posted two hours before this is written said four cents. My apologies. My automatic pilot must have kicked in as I was writing, but a kind reader sent me an e-mail about it.) The chosen place is Gettysburg, Pa., where the tide-turning battle for the Union was fought in early July 1863. Tomorrow also happens to be the anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The timing and location are good choices by the Mint for the event. But while I am on the subject of Lincoln, there is something else that can be studied by our new leaders from the Lincoln administration. That is how the U.S. Treasury managed to raise the incredibly large sums to fight the Civil War without sending the country into an inflationary death spiral as some worry about today with our banking system bailout. Salmon P. Chase’s Treasury was forced to be innovative. National Bank Notes were introduced, but instead of just printing them, every bank in the country that wanted to issue them had to first buy federal bonds – debt – to back them. These bonds guaranteed that should the bank go bust, the bonds could be sold to cover the value of the notes to holders of the currency. The bonds were loans to the Treasury to pay for the war. The bonds also were assets of the banks that held them. This is a concept that has worked for almost a century and half. Even today, federal bonds are the assets of the Social Security trust fund. They also are loans to the federal government. Chase proved that large sums of money properly handled need not be inherently destructive and in fact were beneficial. On the other hand, the South had no such innovative finance. Paper money was printed in larger and larger quantities and an inflationary spiral helped destroy the Southern economy ahead of the Union Army.
11/18/2008 9:03:35 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, November 17, 2008
When buying seems a triumph
Posted by Dave
On Saturday as I was doing my weekly rounds, I spotted a sign at a gas station stating the price of a gallon of unleaded regular was $1.979. That’s the first time I have seen the price that low in a long time and it is less than half the price I was paying in July. I didn’t need gas, but I had to stop in. How could I not? I wanted to be able to tell everyone I knew what I paid. I pumped less than four gallons into the tank. The pump showed $7.51, which I pushed up to $7.55. Then I went inside. I told the woman at the register that I didn’t really need gas, but I had to stop when I saw the sign. She laughed. She said I wasn’t the only one. She took my money. The next guy to the cash register waved a $10 bill in the air and that was his total tab. He must have done what I had. It was a great feeling, a minor victory in the present economic battle. I didn’t know the other guy. He seemed to be enjoying the moment as I was. Have you ever bought a coin where the purpose was the ability to brag that you got it, or that you got it at an incredible price? Collectors do that. There is a competitiveness behind our acquisitiveness. In fact, the existence of registry sets at the Web sites of the major grading services is a testimonial to this impulse. It seems strange. Another collector craving is privacy. We don’t want to be marked for burglary or robbery. So we have sets that are assembled and sold under assumed names. Understandable. On Saturday I could enjoy a moment in the daily routine. It satisfied my acquisitiveness and neither of us purchasers knew the other.
11/17/2008 9:02:17 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, November 14, 2008
Extra hassle from extra issue
Posted by Dave
Under the heading of “no good deed goes unpunished,” I cannot help but relate this anecdote relating to the first State of the Industry special issue of Numismatic News that we recently put into the mail. It was filled with commentary from the numismatic industry’s leaders as well as from readers. The cover date is Nov. 14. That is three days after the prior regular issue and four days before the following regular issue. It is an extra issue. I received a phone call Wednesday from an upset caller. He wanted to tell me in no uncertain terms that he had canceled his subscription because we had completely changed Numismatic News. I told him we hadn’t completely changed the paper and asked him what was the date of the issue that he was referring to. I thought I knew what he would tell me and I was correct in this. When he told me, I said indeed this particular issue was different, but it was a special extra issue. That didn’t stop him. He wanted me to know that Ken Pines did not have his usual ad on Pages 2 and 3 and rattled off a few more of his favorite advertisers that he did not spot on the usual pages. I repeated that this was a special extra issue and the usual advertisers would be in their usual places in the following issue. I asked why he called me after he had already canceled his subscription. He responded that he wanted to be sure I knew he didn’t like the fact that we had completely changed the paper. I repeated that we had not completely changed the paper, but it was a point I knew I had already lost. After all, he had the evidence. He had a completely different looking issue in his hand. I thanked him for his call.
11/14/2008 8:57:24 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, November 13, 2008
Last platinum numbers before sale
Posted by Dave
Going into the Mint clearance sale Nov. 15 I know some collectors will be evaluating the possibilities of low-mintage American Eagle coins, especially the platinum versions that I have spent so much time on in the last few days. I have the latest sales figures here and that might help those trying to figure out the angles. The “W” uncirculated platinum American Eagle numbers went up a tad. The one-ounce is at 423. The half ounce is 849. The quarter ounce is 2,115 and the tenth ounce is 2,504. The number for the four-coin set is 1,257. The proof platinum numbers start with 1,670 one-ounce coins. The half ounce is 837. The quarter ounce is 1,081. The tenth ounce is 2,398. The four-coin set is 1,571. Other numbers for other Mint offerings are posted in Mint Statistics every Thursday.
11/13/2008 9:35:55 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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