Welcome to Something About Coins! Here are a few short summaries of coin articles circulating the web:
This month's American Silver Eagle sales is already the "best ever January," claimed CoinNews.net. Authorized purchasers bought over 3 million Silver Eagles from the U.S. Mint so far, and there's still one week left. The graph in the article showed the previous January record was in the 2 million range. This month's numbers included: 367,500 of the 2009 eagles that sold before Jan. 12th, plus 2,480,000 of the new 2010 eagles that sold within 48 hours of its Jan. 19th release, and another 243,000 sold by last Friday.
Treasure coins enjoy popularity beyond the numismatic community, CoinValuesOnline.com reported. Steve Roach illustrated using the 1857-S Coronet $20 double eagle gold coins. Prior to the discovery of the SS Central America shipwreck, few mint states of that date were on the market, he said. Now, however, PCGS has graded over a thousand MS-65 or better. Despite the saturation, one graded MS-63 was auctioned for $7,475 this month.
Speaking of shipwreck coins, gold British and silver Japanese coins were recovered from a Turkish warship, according to The Japan Times Online. The warship, Ertugrul, allegedly sank 120 years ago, near Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture. So far, about 5,800 items have been discovered among the wreck.
CoinLink.com featured Stack's 1860-D Half Eagle Gold Coin that will be auctioned Tuesday, Jan. 26 during their New York Americana Sale. The gold coin was graded MS-63 by PCGS and is perhaps the third finest of the 1860-D's certified in a third-party grading service holder. The article explained this mint state coin has stayed in the consignor's family for 150 years. It had been given to the family as part of an exchange for their small load of gold ore and scraps.
NumismaticNews.net reported 500 lots from the Stack family library got $1 million after buyers' fees at the George Frederick Kolbe/Fine Numismatic Books auction. The auction took place in New York at the beginning of this month. Every lot found a buyer, the article disclosed, and a few of the highlights were listed.
Dave Harper explained how expensive cents and nickels have become for the U.S. Mint. He reported that it now costs 1.61 cents to make a penny, and in 2009 it took 6.05 cents to make a nickel. The cost was broken down into metallic value and overhead. Overhead, he said, was adding about one cent to the coins and the metallic value was the rest.
Ginger Rapsus continued the clad series with a thorough article on collecting circulated quarters. The article described which quarters were easy and which ones were hard to find in pocket change, including tough grades and varieties. Many of the commemorative "State" quarters were mentioned, plus error coins like the New Hampshire quarter struck off-center. The article talked about the recent "Territorial" quarters and wrapped up with the upcoming "America the Beautiful" series. These types exemplify the Washington quarter is a large series and there are lots of ways to collect.
SilverCoinsToday.com featured the new Royal Canadian Mint Silver Proof Set for 2010 in an article late last week. Of the eight coins in the set, there are two that are not made of sterling silver. The set includes a Canadian Navy Centennial Silver Dollar with a water feature plated in gold, a silver Polar Bear 2 Dollar, a nickel and bronze Common Loon Dollar, a silver Canadian Coat of Arms 50 cent, a silver Caribou 25 cent, a silver Bluenose schooner 10 cent, a silver Beaver 5 cent, and a copper Maple Leaf 1 cent. The price is $99.95 CAD.
Finally, Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) announced its on-site grading and encapsulation services at the Long Beach Expo. The services will be available on Feb. 4 & 5. The announcement listed various prices and said NGC's booth numbers are 458-557.
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