The "Buzz" Coin Blog with Dave Harper

How will our design artwork be judged?
Posted by Dave

The Mint said Friday that it was looking for up to six new artists to be designers in its Artistic Infusion Program.

That’s a good thing.

The new designs that have been created in the last 10 years for the various quarter programs, the nickel redesign and the current four commemorative designs on the cent will be the evidence that future generations will examine to determine what sort of period the United States was experiencing in its numismatic art.

Will we be judged by our posterity as was the period 1907-1917 as being a time of great creativity, or will we be condemned for our modern tendency to grab old designs?

The Ultra High Relief gold $20, the Buffalo gold bullion piece and the earlier Buffalo commemorative silver dollar may be beautiful designs, but they are the product of plundering our artistic past rather than being an expression of our own generation’s artistic creativity.

I know there is a sense among some collectors that any old design is superior to anything new. I think that is unfortunate. It shows a timidity that we will be heartily condemned for.

We could be viewed like the kid in the back of the class who hopes the teacher won’t call on him because he didn’t do his homework.

I hope that won’t happen. Certainly the sheer numbers of state quarter designs give this generation some artistic claims of its own.

Monday, August 31, 2009 2:12:26 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Friday, August 28, 2009

Where did summer go?
Posted by Dave

Though the Labor Day weekend is still a week away, I can’t help but look at the calendar and see that August is almost over.

I have the usual wistful feelings, but I also feel an excitement start to build. With the beginning of autumn comes the autumn collecting season.

Business activity picks up. News activity picks up. The show calendar in Numismatic News requires more and more space to list all of the events that are held in a three-week period.

Yes, I will miss the usual outdoor summertime activities, but the advent of the fall collecting season is like coming home, or reconnecting with an old friend.

At root, it’s what I do.

Fortunately for me, it is also what a lot of other people do and have done for many years.

Nothing can change the fact that collecting is an indoor pursuit. It is something to do after the chasing around of summer has been completed and a different form of relaxation is required.

Summer is going away again. But now that’s old news.

Bring on that coin collecting season.

Friday, August 28, 2009 2:08:21 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Coin of the Year time
Posted by Dave

The nominating panel for the Coin of the Year Awards meets next month here in Iola, Wis. It will review submissions of 2008-dated coins for consideration for the awards that will be given at the World Money Fair in January 2010 in Berlin, Germany.

It is an interesting process, but in the first instance it requires that individuals and issuing mints make nominations and get them to us here at the home of World Coin News, the sponsor of the awards since they were first given in 1984.
Lisa Bellavin is coordinating these submissions for the panel. Her e-mail is Lisa.Bellavin@fwmedia.com.

Anyone can make a nomination in any form, but to be truly useful to the panel, please try to include an image if you can and as much of the descriptive information as possible: denomination, weight, composition, diameter, etc.
The fun part, of course, will occur when voting begins online for the People’s Choice Award.

But first, help us to assemble the list of choices.

Send in your nominations.

Thursday, August 27, 2009 2:07:27 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Whistling past the graveyard
Posted by Dave

Nobody likes bad news. Nobody likes to be tagged as the bearer of bad news. That is what makes it so hard to deal with the current soft market in coins.

The market is down from its peaks in 2007 and 2008. But it is hard to quantify.

Better coins simply stop trading when business conditions weaken. Those that do trade can still generate headlines.

Then the chorus sings, “See, the market is still strong.” But is it?

It is to make this determination that I await more definitive evidence.

I remember the serious recession we had after the peak of the market in 1980. We had an internal debate at Numismatic News as to what we should do with the coin prices listed in Coin Market.

Instead of outright price declines, dealers just refused to purchase coins.

Instead of saying it in some straightforward manner that they could not resell the pieces at current price levels and taking a pass, dealers began to say that the coins didn’t make the grades they claimed to be. Coins that were MS-65 at the peak of the boom were suddenly -64, then -63, etc.

This infuriated the owners of the coins. While they would feel the injury of not being able to sell some coins when they wanted to, they also suddenly felt the sting of being told in an offhand fashion that they somehow had purchased overgraded coins.

Thems fightin’ words in this here business.

Bad feelings multiplied. Dealers began haunting the room where the American Numismatic Association board of governors met. They were the official keepers of grading standards. They were finally forced to declare in 1985 that grading standards had changed.

This gave everybody a black eye.

Wouldn’t it simply be easier to adjust prices downwards in a slow market?

We didn’t in the early 1980s. I won’t hold my breath waiting for it now.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 2:07:04 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

What are you thinking?
Posted by Dave

Online communications are a wonder. So much information gets passed back and forth each day it makes my head spin. I couldn’t do my job without this medium.

However, the tendency to abbreviate certainly can make some things less than clear.

I had an e-mail the other day that had “Online subscription” in the subject line.

The text of the e-mail was simply:

“.......?”

Was this an inquiry from someone who wanted to subscribe to something? If so, to what publication? Perhaps it is Numismatic News, since that is what I am usually associated with, but it could also be World Coin News, or Bank Note Reporter, or Coins magazine, or Coin Prices. Or was it to one of our several e-newsletters?

Sometimes e-mail writers don’t make distinctions, leaving me with questions and not answers.

Was the message a criticism?

Was it something on the order of: “I didn’t see a way to subscribe on your Web site. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.”

Hey, perhaps my mind isn’t agile enough for this form of communication.
So humor me, if you have a request, give me a little more to work with.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 2:07:38 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Monday, August 24, 2009

Who wants the unc. version?
Posted by Dave

The Disabled Vets commemorative silver dollar was unveiled on Saturday by Mint Director Ed Moy.

They will be sold to collectors in uncirculated and proof versions when they become available in 2010.

This is not the first veterans related theme for the commemorative silver dollar series.

There were the Vietnam Memorial, Prisoner of War and the Women in the Military issues of 1994 among others.

All three have held up in value reasonably well. The first two are nicely above issue prices while the third is hovering just below issue prices. This is not bad for the modern commemorative series.

The keys are the uncirculated pieces. Their numbers are lower than the proofs.

Consequently, their prices on the secondary market are higher.

Will this spur hobbyists to order more uncirculated coins this time? I doubt it. There is something ingrained in the collector mind when it comes to placing orders for commems – proofs always attract more orders.

So the uncs of the 2010 issue will probably be outnumbered by the proofs by about two and a half to one.

Check back with me in 2011 to see if I’m right.

Monday, August 24, 2009 2:07:25 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Friday, August 21, 2009

How many sets will be sold?
Posted by Dave

Are you pawing the ground to get your order in to the U.S. Mint for the four-coin set of 2009 Lincoln cents when they become available next week on Aug. 26?

The price is just $7.95 each, making it one of the most affordable offerings this year.

However, there are only four cents in the set. If you figure the relationship of face value to price, you get a staggering 198.75 times face value – and that is without figuring in the $4.95 per order handling charge.

Will anyone be making that calculation?

Who am I to ask?

I didn’t think that so many people would think $8.95 was too much to ask for a two-roll set of Lincoln cents. Now I know better.

Perhaps mollifying that crowd is the fact that the cents in the set will be made of the historical bronze alloy that was used in 1909. That is 95 percent copper and five percent tin and zinc.

Even Alan Herbert, who is a purist in his description of bronze in his Coin Clinic column, will be happy with the return of the historical alloy as opposed to the more recently used 95 percent copper five percent zinc alloy that is brass.

See, Alan? You have managed to teach me something after all these years.
But now I have to go figure out how many sets of those proof bronze cents I want next week.

Friday, August 21, 2009 2:07:08 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Stamp those Polk dollar coins
Posted by Dave

Remember the Presidential dollar? You would be forgiven if you said you don’t. They have definitely been put in the shade by the Lincoln cents this year.

We are suffering from the third-year curse of lack of interest and a run of Presidents who few remember, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t do important things.

Today, the James K. Polk Presidential dollar is formally introduced at 10 a.m. at the former President’s home in Columbia, Tenn.

Remember what he did? No?

Well, it was a little matter of leading the country in a war with Mexico 1846-1848 that resulted in the United States annexing over half a million square miles of territory in the Southwest and West, including California.

Abraham Lincoln, that star of the wildly popular cent, opposed the war and was chucked out of Congress for his trouble in 1848

Conveniently for the United States, gold was discovered in such large quantity in California in 1848 that it catapulted the place to statehood in 1850.

Oregon and Washington territories were also added to the United States.

Polk was the man in the White House at the time, but little of this history is likely to find its way to the public, nor will the coins likely find their way to their neighborhood banks.

Perhaps we should ask the Mint to stamp “CAL” on some of those dollars as was done on the 1848 $2.50 gold pieces just to create an historical parallel and perhaps a little bit more interest.

Thursday, August 20, 2009 2:06:47 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Slower start for cent roll set
Posted by Dave

The two-roll Professional Life Lincoln cent set went on the boards this week with an initial sales total reported by the Mint of 152,146. This compares to 200,055 for the first report on the Formative Years two-roll set.

Both numbers cover sales during the initial three days. In this case, from Aug. 13 when sales began to Aug. 16.

Does this mean that interest in Lincoln cents, or at least in this form of Lincoln cents, has peaked and is coming down?

Possibly.

Perhaps in aiding the process of drawing a conclusion one way or another is the news that the Formative Years two-roll set was taken off the market with sales totaling an even 300,000.

Since last week’s Mint Stats page reported sales of 300,246, the Mint is rounding down. Does that mean this number of orders has fallen through, or that there will be a few disappointed late would-be buyers? That I cannot answer, but with the usual credit card expiration snafus it is easy enough to imagine 246 sales disappearing.

Also, does this mean that the Mint has penciled in 300,000 as the ceiling for the final two offerings? Nothing seems to goose sales to collectors more than a ceiling. Still, that number is more than three times the 96,000 sales achieved by the Birthplace two-roll set in March.

Last week’s cent debut ceremony at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., came off without a hitch. There were collectors lined up to get the rolls offered for face value.

The line went by the area where the ceremony was held, so persons could watch without losing their place. That’s progress.

Now we watch for a while to see how sales results unfold and begin thinking about the fourth issue in three months’ time.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009 1:53:38 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Spend time, not money if necessary
Posted by Dave

During this recession there are probably many collectors who wonder about their hobby futures. It takes money to expand a coin collection. Money is in short supply either because of a lost job, or the insistence of a spouse that now is not the time to spend money on what might be considered nonessentials.

I would never make a case that a spouse’s wishes should not be respected. That wouldn’t be a smart thing to do.

While there might be a few bargain coins to be had at the moment if you are willing to spend the money to acquire them, the long-term health of the family is far more important than scoring a good deal.

If you find yourself thinking in these either/or terms. Stop. Think of this recession as the time to invest more time rather than more money in your hobby.

Teach yourself something new through books and periodicals. For example, if you collect modern half dollars, throw yourself into learning about large cents. Describe it as cheap entertainment to your spouse.

It does not matter what new area you pick as long as you pick something that will spur you to learn more about numismatics. It might be commemoratives or silver dollars that appeal to you, or even paper money or world coins. The possibilities are numerous.

No matter what you tell your spouse, learning is the opposite of cheap. It is very valuable. It prevents a hobbyist from being in an endless loop of mistakes. It forms the basis of a collection that retains and gains value better than random accumulations.

We all make mistakes. We all buy coins that are overgraded at one time or another because we missed something about them when we were considering the purchase. We all splurge on an impulse buy. That’s normal.

Education, though, channels this energy and interest in the most constructive way possible over the long haul.

If you are facing personal budgetary doubts, by all means rein in your expenditures of cash, but do not rein in your expenditures of time. Time spent studying now will pay off big time in your numismatic future.

The late Art Kagin often said to me that collectors cannot buy a coin every day, but they can read about them every day.

Take his advice and when good times return you will be ready.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 2:09:46 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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