Welcome back to Something About Coins! Today we're catching up on the commemorative Boy Scout coin launch and the cost of collecting or finishing coin sets. The last few articles cover coin shortages in Latin America.
US Mint Launches 2010 Boy Scouts Silver Dollars, Mania Ensues Early, CoinNews
The United States Mint today at noon Eastern Time launched the 2010 Boy Scouts of America Centennial Silver Dollars to a tidal wave of expecting buyers. Early ordering proved to be challenging, fraught with multiple disconnections on the U.S. Mint’s Web site as well as through its toll free phone lines. The pattern was nearly identical for the many collectors who experienced frustrations when ordering last year’s Lincoln Coin and Chronicles Set. Then, the Mint was quick to issue a ... Click to read coin article
Finish the set and earn the reward, Buzz with Dave Harper
I was working on new price charts for the 2011 edition of North American Coins and Prices. They were created 20 years ago for the first edition and now with almost 40 years of data reflected by the movement of the graphs, they tell an interesting story. Coin collecting by no means is the royal road to riches. Average collectors can expect that overall values keep up with inflation or stay just ahead of it. The coins that make the headlines for record prices do not reflect what average collectors would ... Click to read coin article
Collecting Short Sets Avoids Pricey Rarities, NumisMaster
Once upon a time, there was a new collector who discovered Morgan silver dollars. She loved the Liberty head on the obverse and the proud eagle on the reverse. She liked the fact that these coins were made of 90 percent silver, were used as real money, and had a heft and a weight that impressed her. This lovely old coin was so different from the modern coins she saw in change every day. But then, the new collector learned more about this series. She found that this coin was made from ... Click to read coin article
Ancients: Famous Romans You Can Collect, Part III, NGCcoin.com
David Vagi continues his discussion of some of the most important issuers of Roman coins in the third of a five-part series. 1. Sulla, d. 78 B.C. After having already had an interesting career, Sulla came to prominence while in his 50s, during Italy’s Social War (91-89 B.C.) and the First Mithridatic War (88-84 B.C.). On one occasion Sulla invaded the capital itself to oust members of the opposing party, and soon after, in 82, he defended that same city from an assault by neighboring Samnites. His ... Click to read coin article
Coin Monday: Heritage Auctions and The Riddle of the ‘Double Eagle’, Heritage Blog
One of my favorite pop tunes is Nik Kershaw’s “The Riddle.” The lyrics are pure British nonsense (the artist has stated as much) that originally served as placeholders for the incredibly catchy music. Recently I fielded a riddle of my own from another department. Actually, it wasn’t a riddle, but a genuine question: why do numismatists call the big gold coins “double eagles” when there’s only one eagle on the back? I giggled a little. I hadn’t thought about the term “double eagle” that way. Then I put on ... Click to read coin article
The Language of Coins – What is an Eagle?, CoinLink
What is an Eagle? According to my 1975 Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, it is a diurnal bird of prey noted for its strength, size, gracefulness, keenness of vision and powers of flight; the silver insignia of rank for an Army colonel or a Navy captain; or a member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. In golf, it is the completion of a hole in two strokes less than par. In gold, it is a coin! Specifically, my Webster’s says it is a ten-dollar gold coin of the U.S. bearing an eagle on the reverse. My ... Click to read coin article
BSP 2 urges public to re-circulate coins, PIA.gov
Tuguegarao City (March 23) -- The Regional Office of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has echoed the call of the BSP officer-in-charge Diwa Guinigundo to use coins to address the artificial coin shortage in the region stressing that keeping coins at home is the foremost cause of the shortage. BSP Acting Deputy Director Ricardo M. Cogay in an interview with Bombo Radyo Tuguegarao said that the central bank has issued billions of coins with different denominations ranging from P10 to ... Click to read coin article
Change needed as Argentina coin shortage grows, CSMonitor.com
The Argentina coin shortage is growing as inflation makes a coin's metal worth more than its face value. Despite Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s promise more than a year ago to introduce electronic bus tickets in Buenos Aires, the vast majority of the capital’s bus lines still only accepts coins. This would not be such a big deal if not for the fact that Argentina has had a coin shortage for more than three years. The crisis has turned normally mundane tasks – like buying a ... Click to read coin article
Queuing for coins in Latin America, EarthTimes.org
In many Latin American cities it's not unusual for long lines to form in front of banks before business hours. The people standing in the lines tend to be restaurant owners or street vendors who need small-denomination bills or coins to make change for customers of their businesses. They sometimes wait hours just to get a little bit of the precious currency. There aren't a lot of these bills given over to the banks. When the vendors can't get them, they have to ask their customers to pay in small bills or in ... Click to read coin article
Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow!
