There is almost no term in the rare coin market which is more misused than “fresh.” I am certainly guilty of overusing this word, and if you look at the coin descriptions I write on my website, I use the word “fresh” more often than I probably should.
I’d like to do a Numismatic List with a Twist. Here are 10 very rare United States gold coins. I have handled all but one (and many of them I’ve handled multiples of). Which is the coin I haven’t handled?
For reasons still unknown, no business strike half eagles were made in 1887 and a total of just 87 coins were made; all as Proofs. This gives the 1887 the honor as the single lowest produced date in the entire half eagle denomination.
There are numerous San Francisco which are well known for their typically ratty appearance. This blog is not about these issues; it is about some of the seemingly more available issues which—in my experience—are surprisingly difficult to locate with good eye appeal.
A total of 23,900 eagles were made at the New Orleans mint in 1849-O. There are an estimated 13-17 known in About Uncirculated, and I doubt if more than two or three of these are what I would define as “choice, original” coins.
At the recent 2017 FUN show, Douglas Winter Numismatics purchased the 1850-O Eliasberg eagle for a price which is likely a record for any business strike ten dollar gold piece from the New Orleans mint...
From a numismatic point of view, 2016 wasn’t an especially good year. In most series, prices were down; in some cases by as much as 20-30%. Perhaps the only bright spot in the 2016 coin market was rare date gold...
One of our ongoing efforts will be hosting a small selection of videos on our website eventually, as part of our ongoing educational efforts in numismatics. Our first video...
In my recent article on branding your collection, I discussed how a serious collection of coins deserved a serious name. But not everyone got my point. In the spirit of numismatic humor, here is a list of bad coin collection names:
