The "Buzz" Coin Blog with Dave Harper

Anxious for numbers
Posted by Dave

It’s Monday. It’s June 1. I’m looking for news.

Am I preoccupied with gold knocking on the door of $1,000 a troy ounce for the third time since March of 2008?

No.

What I find myself anxiously awaiting are the May production figures from the U.S. Mint.

How many cents will have been struck?

How many Guam quarters came off the presses? Will I even be able to figure out the where the Puerto Rico quarters left off and Guam began?

It is all kind of fun.

Then there are the 2009 nickels and the dimes. I just had my first telephone report of the find of a 2009 dime in circulation. I assume it is a “P” because it was found in Massachusetts by Richard Hand. He promised to mail it. Will it arrive in the morning mail?

And, of course, there are other things going on in numismatics.

The Long Beach show was held this past weekend and has concluded. For years it was the informal demarcation line between the active collector spring season and the beginning of the sleepy summertime pace.

What will happen after this year's spring show?

With a Baltimore show following it by two weeks, will that become the demarcation line instead? We will have to wait for events to take place to find out.

One bit of news that I wish I didn’t have in hand already saddens me this week. It is the departure on Thursday of Sara Wait of the art department. Her husband has taken a job in Peoria, Ill., and with the end of the school year the family will now follow. It was always a pleasure working with her to make Numismatic News and other products look good. She will be missed, and I wish her all the best.

Monday, June 01, 2009 2:05:56 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Friday, May 29, 2009

Still hooked after all these years
Posted by Dave

Silver passed $15 a troy ounce yesterday. As someone who has watched daily fluctuations and been fascinated by them since 1968 when $2 seemed like a high price, this milestone seems significant.

Sure, the price has been higher before, but it rarely has stayed there. Each time silver pokes its head above $15, it gets my redoubled attention.

This morning as I write this, I was thinking in old-fashioned terms born when we didn’t have nice and handy one-ounce bullion coins.

I often still think in terms of $1,000 face value bags of U.S. dimes, quarters or half dollars struck 1964 and before.

It is in these terms that I measure everything.

The old rule of thumb for these bags is there are 715 troy ounces of silver per bag. Anyone looking up the weight of coins might pipe up that the books say that the coins add up to over 723 ounces, what gives?

The difference is a factor for wear. Indeed if all the coins were uncirculated, there would indeed be 723 ounces of silver in the bag, but since uncirculated coins would more likely trade for a numismatic premium, average wear was taken into account in the development by coin dealers of this handy rule of thumb.

This means a bag currently has a bullion value of $11,046.75, or roughly 11 times face value at the current $15.45 silver price.

So, $1 in standard .900 fine U.S. silver coin is now worth a minimum of $11.

You might wonder why my starting point was 1968. Well, until 1967 the U.S. Treasury controlled the price of silver just as it did the price of gold. It was in that year that the price was freed up and market forces began taking the value beyond the $1.2929 official ounce price. I was aware of silver's price before 1968, but it was in that year that I developed the habit of looking up the price every day in the morning newspaper that I delivered.

In that year, it had gotten really interesting and a record of $2.56 was achieved. That seemed amazing to me and I was hooked.

I still am after all these years.

Friday, May 29, 2009 2:10:55 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [2]

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Stop in Hawaii on way to Guam
Posted by Dave

I had a phone call from retired Coin Market editor Bob Wilhite yesterday. Though he retired almost 10 years ago at the end of 1999, in some ways it seems like he just left.

I see him from time to time at the Crystal Cafe or elsewhere around Iola.

Now what do you think was on his mind?

He had tried to e-mail me a link to an article that he had read and it bounced. The article was about attempts in Hawaii to boost tourism, but there was a little numismatic kicker that he had noticed. He thought it was funny and figured I would, too.

A hotel, as part of its tourist-booster package, gives guests two Hawaii state quarters.

I laughed, too, but of course part of my good humor derived from the obvious enjoyment Bob was having relating the details to me.

While I rather doubt that the two quarters will be sufficient inducement to visit Hawaii if the beaches, sea breezes and laid-back ambiance won’t do it, perhaps just getting people to think about Hawaii for any reason helps.

Then again, perhaps we should organize a twofer. Stop in Hawaii overnight to collect the quarters on our way to Guam for a June 4 ceremony at Skinner Plaza in Hagåtña, where Mint Director Ed Moy will introduce the new territorial quarter along with the governor and first lady.

Are you laughing yet?

Well, remember, with the banking system so backed up here in the continental United States, you might just have to go to Guam to get the new coins before Thanksgiving.

Thursday, May 28, 2009 2:03:05 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

An impression and the latest cent sales
Posted by Dave

The second Lincoln cent design of 2009 seems to be making it into the hands of the public much faster than the first design did.

That is my impression. I do not have a national survey to report on this.

What I do have are anecdotal reports of receipt of the Formative Years design by collectors in Dallas, Texas, and Puerto Rico. The latter location was also fortunate in the first release.

However, it has been less than two weeks since the formal introduction of the Formative Years design in Lincoln City, Ind. It took much longer for this type of report to reach me after the first release in February.

What I also detect is a greater anxiety level among collectors. They are much more attuned to the second cent release than they were to the first. This is perhaps due to the all the excitement they witnesses the first time and a desire not to miss it the second time.

For some, this anxiety is almost becoming bitter. It is as if they were invited last to a party and they knew it. Now all they can do in the revelry is complain that they were the last to arrive.

I think we should just enjoy it. When I was a young collector in the 1960s I marveled at how fortunate the collectors of the 1907-1916 period were with all the beautiful new designs.

What I learned along the way was that many collectors of the envied time did not appreciate what was going on as it was occurring, with the major exception of the Lincoln cent because of the prominent V.D.B. initials.

When collectors look back on the present time in 2060, are they going to see a hobby enjoying an exciting time to be collectors, or will the overwhelming evidence be that we couldn’t take it?

Collectors of the future, of course, will have the advantage of final sales and mintage numbers while we are waiting week to week. The current Lincoln two-roll set sales figure is 222,826, up almost 23,000 since last week.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009 2:04:01 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Not doubled but DC quarter still a find
Posted by Dave

I spent part of my Memorial Day weekend at a family backyard barbecue at my nephew’s house on Sunday.

In between games of pitcher’s hand, tossing a football, ladder ball and the general chitchat, my 12-year-old grandnephew said that he had obtained a District of Columbia quarter in circulation. It is hard to find here as elsewhere. It was the first he had seen.
He wondered if I wanted to see it.

Sure, I wanted to see it.

The coin was a 2009-D. When new coins finally make it to my neck of the woods, they usually are from Denver.

We were out in the sunshine and I could not see Duke Ellington’s name on the piano in the bright light, so I asked if there was any evidence of doubling.

My grandnephew looked at it and quickly said there wasn’t. So, other readers will have to continue to scour their change for the design and see if a second example of the strongly doubled “E” in Ellington can be found.

I hope so.

Last week’s reader poll registered the opinion that the error is overrated by a 76 percent majority, but that number could easily swing the other way if more and more examples of it can be found in circulation. There is nothing like a few thousand collectors with newly found coins to help persuade the rest of us that the find is significant.

This was the only numismatic conversation I had during my entire weekend. I guess that means I relaxed.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 2:01:10 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Friday, May 22, 2009

American Eagle shortage ending?
Posted by Dave

Gold buyers for most of the past year have interpreted the shortage of American Eagle gold and silver bullion coins as an indication that the prices of precious metals should rise, even when the exchanges, which trade “paper gold,” were declining.

Now there are indications that the American Eagle shortage is ending.

In the prior two weeks, the 14 purchasers authorized to buy the American Eagle coins from the U.S. Mint have not taken the maximum number of coins that are available, leaving the Mint with an extra 39,000 one-ounce gold American Eagles and 185,000 extra silver American Eagles.

These numbers are not large, but the trend is confirmed by Coin Market editor Harry Miller. He reported in his weekly column on the Coin Market at a Glance pages in Numismatic News yesterday that premiums on these coins have returned to the normal levels that prevailed before the shortages began. Indiana dealer Julian Jarvis three weeks ago was the first to point in this direction in an interview for Coin Chat Radio and Numismatic News.

If this is indeed the end of the shortage, will gold buyers interpret this as an indication that gold bullion prices should stay where they are or fall?

I think you know the answer to that question.

Interestingly, “paper gold” has been rising in price in recent days, now over $950 a troy ounce.

Perhaps gold buyers will find in this market a new best friend and market indicator.

Friday, May 22, 2009 1:54:17 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Thursday, May 21, 2009

In the moment, but too much
Posted by Dave

How many times can I stammer the word “in” in asking a question?

I tried to find out yesterday morning when I was interviewing U.S. Mint Director Ed Moy for Coin Chat Radio at http://coinchatradio.fwpublications.com/.

Our topic was the possibility of creating a Strategic Coin Reserve to meet any unexpected surges in coin demand from the Federal Reserve System or to have coins available in case the usual supply chain is disrupted.

One of the questions I wanted to ask I unfortunately began by trying to say, “In your tenure,” but I got stuck on “in” repeatedly. My mind kind of went blank so I stopped. I apologized for the problem and then recovered myself to ask the question, which was basically that in Moy’s tenure as Mint director he has seen dropping coin demand even before the recession kicked in.

I asked whether the dramatic drop in coin demand we are experiencing is more than just a recessionary demand reduction?

Find out his response by checking out http://coinchatradio.fwpublications.com/ today after 11 a.m. Central Daylight Time.

I told the Mint director that I got all tongue tied once before when the topic was an auction featuring significant Costa Rican rarities. I got so wrapped up in the specific lots that I lost the general thread of the conversation.

I have an interest in Costa Rican numismatic items and I guess I am still that wide-eyed kid who first subscribed to Numismatic News 40 years ago after picking up a copy at the coin show in Forest City, Iowa.

Once I read the letters to the editor, I was hooked. I sent five of my hard-earned paper-route dollars to Iola, Wis., and the rest, as they say, is is is is ... history.

(The server was down all morning, so apologies to all for the delay in accessing my blog.)

Thursday, May 21, 2009 7:44:19 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [3]

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Fast start for cent roll sales
Posted by Dave

How wound up are collectors about the new Formative Years Lincoln cent design introduced May 14 in a special ceremony in southern Indiana?

Very, if some statistics that I have just obtained are any indication.

On May 15 I wrote about the thousands of people who were present at the debut ceremony to obtain rolls of the new coins for face value.

However, most collectors could not travel to the ceremony. They had to rely on sales of the two-roll Lincoln cent set that the Mint began offering May 14.

While some are still grumbling about the $8.95 issue price, that sentiment seems to be overruled when it comes to taking action.

From May 14 to May 17 the Mint sold more than twice the number of cent sets than it sold in March for the first design.

Where it took about almost two weeks to dispose of 96,000 Brithplace two-roll sets (March 13-March 26), in just three days the orders for the Formative Years set totaled 200,055.

That’s huge. There is no telling where this thing can go. Obviously the Mint is working to increase the quantity available in light of the quick March sellout, but so far I don’t have word as to what sort of demand it is prepared to meet.

I see the Mint Web site is still taking orders, but I also note that the shipping date is now July 15, something that a number of readers have e-mailed to me as it relates to their own orders.

Those collectors who remember the roll and bag boom in the early 1960s might just be feeling a bit nostalgic about now. Perhaps the Mint should offer 2009-dated nickel and dime rolls, too.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 1:50:02 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [4]

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Mouth open, thoughts of coins
Posted by Dave

I spent a significant part of yesterday afternoon in the dentist’s chair. But even spending almost two hours there ended up with a numismatic component.

My dentist inherited a few coins from a grandmother and he knew I am editor of Numismatic News.

So, between having a mouthful of drill or goop used to make a mold for my pending crown, he was asking me questions.

He had a few silver dollars. At first he said a bag – and you know that conjures up the number 1,000 coins in the mind of a collector – but a little later he clarified and said he had around a dozen silver dollars.

They were circulated, so I didn’t have to worry about how to keep them in Mint State. I told him to look under the eagle’s tail feathers on the reverse for the mintmark. There is none for Philadelphia, but New Orleans has an “O,” San Francisco an “S” and Carson City “CC.” I suggested he concentrate on CC coins generally and, the 1889-CC specifically as well as the 1893-S.

(And you’re right, I did not mention the Denver 1921.)

I told him that many of the coins he had were likely common and worth about $12 each. He found that a little hard to believe until I told them that the Mint turned them out by the hundreds of millions.

He also mentioned that he had some Indian cents. I told him the rare dates were 1877, 1908-S and 1909-S. I didn’t get a chance to tell him where the mintmark is on these coins. By then my mouth was steadily filled with things going in an out.

By the end of my session, he decided that since I was coming back in two weeks, it would be easier for me to look at the coins rather so he wouldn’t have to try to remember what I had said.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009 1:56:50 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [1]

Monday, May 18, 2009

Tyler or Spears? I know who wins
Posted by Dave

It is hard for me to get mentally started this morning. My e-mail has the usual large group of messages that have accumulated since I left the office at 5 p.m. on Friday.

The calendar says that one of the news highlights this week is that tomorrow the John Tyler Presidential dollar will be officially introduced at his Sherwood Forest Plantation in Charles City County, Va., 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

This event is significant, but it occurs in the immediate shadow of last week’s launch on May 14 of the second Lincoln cent design for 2009. This has already been followed by a lot of online auction offerings of the new coins.

Also, Tyler was the nation’s 10th President and is not particularly well known. Even if he were very well known, it might help public interest, but in any numismatic series the 10th issue just doesn’t generate the same level of excitement as the first couple of issues do.

What makes this event a little bit unusual is that there will be no coin exchange afterward.

Events of this kind don’t always catch fire the way the Lincoln introductory event did, but they are important. They help keep the public informed and they help point out the historical nature of the issues themselves.

Perhaps I should simply have started out by mentioning Britney Spears. I have done this twice in two years and the level of interest in my blog then pops higher. Why should I do this? Absolutely no reason except it makes me laugh. Sometimes a good laugh is better than anything.

There – I feel much better.

I bet you do, too. After all, we collectors are as human as anybody else.

Monday, May 18, 2009 2:11:51 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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