Mark Twain Gold and Silver Coins

By CoinNews.net

Rep. John Larson and five other House members proposed on Friday gold and silver coins emblematic of the life and legacy of Mark Twain.

Mark Twain was the pen name for Samuel Clemens, whose many works are still mostly in print after nearly a century past his death in 1910. Clemens is one of the best known Americans in the world with over 6,500 editions of his books translated into 75 languages.

The commemorative uncirculated and proof coins for collectors would be issued in 2010, which is the year marking both the 175th anniversary of Mark Twain’s birth and the 125th anniversary of the publication of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

The legislation, named the Mark Twain Commemorative Coin Act, H.R. 7152, calls on the Commission of Fine Arts and the Board of the Mark Twain House and Museum to collaborate in the design for the coins. Those designs would then be reviewed by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee with the final selection made by the Treasury Secretary.

H.R. 7152 would issue a maximum of 100,000 $5 gold coins with the following specifications:
weighing 9.359 grams, with a diameter of 0.850 inches, and composed of 90 percent gold and 10 percent alloy

It would also issue a maximum of 500,000 $1 silver coins,
weighing 26.73 grams, with a diameter of 1.500 inches, and made from 90 percent silver and 10 percent alloy.

The Mark Twain Commemorative Coin Act includes surcharges of $35 per gold coin and $10 per silver coin that would be distributed as follows (taken directly from the bill’s language):

(1) 1/2 of the surcharges, to the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut, to support the continued restoration of the Mark Twain house and grounds, and ensure continuing growth and innovation in museum programming to research, promote and educate on the legacy of Mark Twain.

(2) 1/6 of the surcharges, to the Mark Twain Project at the Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley, California, to support programs to study and promote Mark Twain’s legacy.

(3) 1/6 of the surcharges, to the Center for Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College, New York, to support programs to study and promote Mark Twain’s legacy.

(4) 1/6 of the surcharges, to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal, Missouri, to preserve historical sites related to Mark Twain and help support programs to study and promote his legacy.

Slow Death of Circulating Coins

By Mike Unser

It’s no secret. The currency of choice is not change, and it’s no longer paper money. For many Americans, both forms have become annoyances — especially in high value purchases. Coin usage is declining, and trending toward extinction. These days, it’s about plastic with the convenience of credit and debit cards.

While the U.S. Mint is spending money on mandated marketing and a doomed promotion of Presidential $1 coins, or announcing the exciting four new 2009 Lincoln penny design images, the reality is Americans dislike to receive or use these coins more than any other pocket change. And how a coin looks or feels is mostly inconsequential to anyone but collectors. But it goes beyond the penny and dollar $1 coin, as the outlook for every circulating coin further declines.
It’s all about convenience Convenience is the fundamental driving factor that has decided the success or failure of coin usage today. Of any coin, the quarter is the most used with the least amount of disdain. For smaller transactions, its king. For larger purchases, it’s still, however, lost in the mix. Where does that leave coins as the years go by and smaller and smaller transactions are turning toward plastic?

In its 2006 Annual Report, the U.S. Mint cited the downward demand for circulating coins as its second key challenge.

Over the past five years, the public’s use of credit and debit cards, ePurses, stored value cards (like phone cards), contactless transaction cards (like EZPass and SpeedPass), and other forms of electronic transactions has increased substantially. This transformation of the economy toward more cash-free transactions might have significant implications for the nation’s demand for circulating coins in the future.

The latest Mint circulating coin production figures highlight their challenge. If the trend continues, 2008 will score a new record for the fewest coins produced in at least the last ten years. 2000 was a momentous year with more than 28 billion coins issued. 2008 will be lucky to see just more than 10 billion coins. And of that amount, more than half will be pennies whose value is certainly felt by charities, but not by most of the spending public.

In a Numismatic News article titled, Dollars Aren’t Only Coins Not Circulating, Dan Knauth writes about the failure of Presidential $1 coins, and how others fail to circulate.

First, the bank sells coins to a merchant. Next, the merchant passes the coins to the consumer. The consumer takes the coins home and puts them in a jar (except maybe quarters). Every year or so, the consumer returns the coins to the bank and the process starts over.

Most transactions today are handled with credit and debit cards. Go to the grocery store, the gas station, the drugstore - people pay with plastic. When people do pay cash, they use bills, not change.

How long will it be before coins become obsolete for everyone but the collector and rare coin investor? Can the trend away from using circulating coins possibly reverse? It wouldn’t seem so.
Parking meters now taking plastic Even the smallest of transactions are trending toward plastic, instead of coin. 9NEWS.com reports in the video excerpt below about how Denver’s Public Works Department is proposing an experiment with new downtown parking meters that would accept debit and credit card transactions.

Lisa Nierenberg who often parks in Denver’s downtown was quoted as saying, “I would love it because I never have any money on me.”

Again, it’s all about convenience. And circulating coins are gradually losing their appeal in use.

VIP Visitors at Long Beach

By Expos Unlimited

A virtually non-stop flow of bourse floor traffic, nearly $35 million of coin and bank note auctions and visits by California’s Attorney General and former Governor, Jerry Brown, and Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, highlighted the busy September 18 -20, 2008 Long Beach Coin, Stamps & Collectibles Expo.

“Gold jumped about $40 an ounce on opening day, and we saw many ‘new faces’ among the thousands of attendees. Thursday is usually a busy day, and attendance this time was about 20 percent higher than recent, previous opening days,” said Ronald J. Gillio, Expo General Chairman.

“I’ve had a table at every Long Beach show since 1995, and this was my best opening day Thursday,” said Peter Walters of Columbia Collectibles in Irvine, California who specializes in Civil War to World War I era items.

The multiple auction sessions of U.S. and world coins, paper money and tokens and medals conducted by Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, Texas, official auctioneer of the Long Beach Expo, generated nearly $35 million in prices realized bidding.

Several hundred children took part in a Saturday “treasure hunt” at the show. Among the free numismatic gifts given to the participants were more than 100 modern proof and mint sets donated by collector Dennis Riley of Maryland, according to Walter A. Ostromecki Jr., coordinator of the show’s youth activities.

The Long Beach Stamp Club provided free stamps to help youngsters start collections.
A coin collector, Attorney General Brown walked the bourse floor for about an hour on Friday, September 19, accompanied by American Numismatic Association President Barry Stuppler and ANA Executive Director Larry Shepherd. He then met with collectors and dealers in an informal question and answer session organized by Stuppler in his role as President of the California Coin and Bullion Merchants Association.

Long Beach Mayor Foster was among the many visitors to the show on Saturday, September 20. An enthusiastic “fan” of the S.S. Central America sunken treasure history, he posed for a photo with Gillio as they jointly held a 149.35-ounce Harris, Marchand & Co. gold ingot recovered from the 1857 shipwreck. It was sold to an unidentified buyer for $375,000 and displayed at the show by Monaco Rare Coins. Mayor Foster also briefly met with numismatic conservationist, Bob Evans of Ohio, who served as chief scientist on the 1980’s mission that located the shipwreck and retrieved the California Gold Rush cargo.

A half dozen club meetings and public educational seminars were conducted during the show including another in the continuing “Share the Knowledge” series by the Professional Numismatists Guild. PNG member Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auction Galleries, discussed “Everything You Wanted to Know About Rare Coin Auctions.”

Four exhibit awards were presented on behalf of the Long Beach Coin Club: First Place ($100 award) and Second Place ($75 award) in the U.S. exhibit category went to Andrew Woodruff for “Two Signatures of C.W. Landis, San Diego Bank Note Signator” and “Ships on Five Denominations of United States Currency” respectively. First Place ($100) in the world/foreign category was given to Mike Ontko for “The Spring of Hope and the Winter of Despair: Selected Coins of the French Revolution, 1789 – 1799,” and Second Place ($75) went to Robert Wu for his exhibit, “Central Bank Notes of the Republic of China (Taiwan).”

The next Long Beach Coin, Stamp & Collectibles Expo will be held February 5 – 7, 2009. For additional information, contact Expos Unlimited at (805) 962-9939. Online: www.LongBeachExpo.com.

Expos Unlimited is a division of Collectors Universe, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLCT).

1903 Louisiana Purchase Cardboard Die Trial

By CoinLink

Editors Note: Every now and then we come across a numismatic items that we might have heard about but never seen, or in some instances had no knowledge of at all. This of course may be more of a function of our limited expertise than the fact that the item(s) is truly unique. So at the risk of being called a “dumb ass” (not the first time), we are going to create a new News category called “Unusual Items“. This will be an eclectic collection of the not-so-common items we stumble across during our daily search for worthwhile news and articles, and we hope that you will find this as informative and entertaining as we do.

These impressions in yellow cardboard measure 40 x 32 mm and show the obverse imprints of both the Jefferson and McKinley gold dollars with a slightly different pattern reverse.

Andrew Pollock assigned two numbers for this piece, apparently believing the obverses were on one card and the reverses on another. They should have received only one number.

There are two examples known, but the second is very different from this piece. The other contains both obverses and six different reverses. That piece is permanently impounded in the Smithsonian.

This is the only cardboard impression available to collectors.

Cardboard impressions are obviously rare but they date back to 1849 for the gold dollar. Other impressions include the 1851 three cent silver, and the Isabella quarter (obverse and reverse). The reason for the Isabella strikings is evident from the writing on the back of each card: They are first strikings from the new dies. One might easily assume the gold dollar and three cent silver impressions were for the same purpose.

The purpose here is somewhat more enigmatic. With a pattern reverse included on this card, it is likely this was produced before the first day of issue, as a first day of issue would surely have included the adopted reverse.

The cardboard has a rich, deep gold color, obviously meant to suggest the gold dollars that were soon to be struck. Deeply impressed. Regarding condition, this piece is essentially as struck with no scratches or surface problems worthy of mention.

DGS Authenticates & Grades Rare Lafayette Dollar Variety

By Dominion Grading Service

Duvall 4-E Variety is Just the Second Reported Specimen

Virginia Beach, VA. The graders at Dominion Grading Service are excited to announce that they have certified the second known example of this very rare variety. The Duvall 4-E variety was thought to be unique until the discovery of this coin, which has been graded AU58 Cleaned by DGS.

According to John Feigenbaum, President of DGS, the coin has “the initial appearance of a mint state coin but the luster is almost too nice and lacks the frosty surfaces of a true mint state. The coin has virtually no wear and has been very lightly cleaned to show evidence of wipe lines upon close examination in proper lighting. The only significant mark on either side of the coin is a 3 mm scratch on Washington’s cheek. Without the mishandling, this coin might have otherwise graded MS63.”

Feigenbaum continued to say that “this coin is the perfect example of the kind of collector rarity that we pride ourselves at DGS. Because the coin is lightly cleaned, some of the other grading services wouldn’t even examine the coin for variety. At DGS, we appreciate that many great coins may not be pristine, but still benefit from certification. Our affiliation with David Lawrence Rare Coins and DLRC Auctions also gives clients the opportunity to submit the coins and then bring them directly to market. In the case of the 4-E, the client intends to do just that. No other leading firm can offer that full-service experience in house.”

The Duvall 4-E Variety

The Duvall 4-E variety is distinctive because of the unique positioning of the olive branch on the reverse. The right side of the branch terminates over the numeral 9 of 1900. All other known varieties see this branch end over the right side of the first 0 in 1900. Prior to the appearance of this coin, the existence of Duvall 4-E was thought to be unique.

The only other known Lafayette dollar of this die variety was sold in August 2007 by Heritage Numismatic Auctions as part of their Signature ANA Auction. (Lot 2090). It was graded MS60 by ANACS and realized $18,400 to a phone bidder. According to the Heritage lot description, that coin was “well struck with dusky chestnut, aqua, and plum-mauve patina. Both sides unusually free from marks, particularly on the portraits.” Based on the description of marks, these are clearly not the same coin.

About DGSDGS is a third-party grading service founded in April 2008. DGS offers a number of unique features including AuthentiView ™ and online Visual Population Report of every coin certified with a value over $100. Grading is conservative and accurate and problem coins (cleaned, scratch, etc) are certified with description listed on the holder. A limited number of 2000-D Virginia Statehood quarters are being made for sample purposes. To request a sample DGS slab, please email service@dominiongrading.com, or call 1-800-277-2646.

Will 2008 Platinum Eagles Return?

2008 Proof Platinum Eagles went on sale May 5, 2008. Ordering options included the 1 ounce coin; 1/2 ounce, 1/4 ounce, and 1/10 ounce fractional coins; and a 4 coin set. On May 17, sales of the 4 coin set was suspended. On July 1, the individual ordering options were suspended. For the brief period between July 24 and August 7, all ordering options went back on sale at bafflingly higher prices. In total, coins were available for sale for a combined time period of 70 days.

2008-W Uncirculated Platinum Eagles went on sale July 1, 2008. Ordering options included the 1 ounce coin; 1/2 ounce, 1/4 ounce, and 1/10 ounce fractional coins; and a 4 coin set. All ordering options were suspended on August 7. In total, coins were available for sale for a period of 38 days.

The most recent suspensions came amidst a sharp and continuing decline in the price of platinum. The price of platinum has now declined nearly 50% from its all time high price of $2,290 reached earlier this year. The spot price of platinum as of the writing of this post is $1,191.

Will the 2008 Platinum Eagles ever go back on sale at the Mint?

I have not been able to attain any definite answer, but here are several possibilities (rumors) that have been floating around the internet. I can't vouch for any of these. I've listed the possible answers in descending order of probability:

The Mint is in the process of re-pricing the 2008 Platinum Eagles in line with the current market price of platinum. Since the Mint must go through a process of determining, approving, and publishing prices in a Federal Register, it takes a certain amount of time for coins to go on sale at the newly established prices.

The Mint is waiting for platinum prices to stabilize. Since there is a lag between the time the Mint determines prices and coins go on sale, the continuing steep decline in platinum has made accurate pricing impossible. The Mint needs some period of stability so their prices will reflect the market price of platinum.

The Mint cannot take a loss on the 2008 Platinum Eagles. This may be either legally or by choice. The platinum the Mint used to produce the coins was purchased at a much higher price than the current market price. They are waiting for previously high prices to return before putting the coins back on sale.

The Mint is done with 2008 Platinum Eagles. They are either fed up with the price movements of platinum or phasing out the products. The Mint may or may not sell the remaining inventory from the last production run before the end of the year.

Antarctic Explorers Coins Issued in Ireland
By CoinNews.net

Silver and gold coins were issued Wednesday by Ireland’s Central Bank to commemorate the adventurous feats by Antarctic explorers Earnest Shackleton and Tom Crean, and celebrate the International Polar Year.

The proof collector €5 and €100 coins feature the two historic Irish explorers with their ship ‘The Endurance’ backdropped within the steel grips of Antarctic ice.
Shackleton and Crean ‘The Endurance’ Expedition Background In a remarkable story, in 1915 the pair set off to cross the Antarctica via the South Pole on an expedition that soon became a near hopeless battle for survival.

During the journey, The Endurance became wedged. The vessel could not shake the clutches of the South Pole ice, and eventually sank 10 months later.
Shackleton, Crean and crew were forced onto floating ice where they lived for many months until conditions improved where they could use three small boats to make their way to Elephant Island. The pair and four others then took one of the boats and crossed 800 miles (1,280 km) of treacherous seas in 16 days to reach South Georgia and help for the rest of the crew. No one in the expedition died.

Silver and Gold Antarctic Explorer Coin Information The following coin information was provided in a release statement by Ireland’s Central Bank:
This is the first time the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland has issued a half troy ounce (15.55 grams in weight) gold coin denominated in Euro, with a legal tender denomination of €100.

In keeping with tradition, the national side of the coin depicts the 14 string Irish harp modelled on the ‘Brian Boru’ harp in Trinity College, Dublin. As an addition to the national side of the coin, a laurel wreath, a traditional symbol of excellence and integrity, surrounds the harp. The coins have been designed by renowned Irish artist, designer and medallist Thomas Ryan, RHA.

Coin Specifications and Order Details
Silver Gold Face Value: €5 €100 Condition:
Proof Proof Composition: Sterling Silver (.925 Ag) .999 fine gold (1/2 troy ounce) Weight: 8.52g 15.55 g Diameter: 28.00mm 28.00mm Mintage Limit: 5,000* 2,000* Price: €50.00 €395.00
*There is a special two-coin set with a limited edition of 1,000. Each is priced at €440.
An official order form for the coins is available from the Central Bank by phoning 1890 307 607 or from the website, http://www.centralbank.ie/.

About Coin Designer Thomas RyanTrained at the Limerick School of Art and the National College of Art in Dublin, Thomas Ryan has become a prominent figure in the Irish art world. He first exhibited work at the RHA in 1957, became an associate member in 1968 and was President from 1982-1993. He is well known for his portraits and his sensitive still life paintings. In the world of numismatics his work includes the Irish £1 coin featuring a red deer, which was introduced in 1990 to replace the £1 note and the 1988 Dublin Millennium 50p coin.
About International Polar YearThe International Polar Year (IPY) is a large interdisciplinary scientific research program focused on the polar regions of the Artic and the Antarctic. IPY will involve over 200 projects, with thousands of scientists from over 63 nations examining a wide range of physical, biological and social research topics.

They will explore the icy frontiers, undergo extreme conditions, learn about the earth system and monitor how the poles are changing. IPY offers an unprecedented opportunity to raise public awareness of the Polar Regions and develop a better understanding of global climate change and its potential impacts on the planet.

About the Central Bank of Ireland The Central Bank of Ireland, which came into being in 1943, was re-structured and re-named as the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland (CBFSAI) on 1 May 2003. This body carries out all of the activities formerly carried out by the Central Bank of Ireland and additional regulatory and consumer protection functions for the financial services sector.

The Central Bank became part of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in Europe in 1999. The national central banks of the euro area together with the European Central Bank (ECB) form the Eurosystem.