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United States Coinage Overhaul Is Needed Now!!!The United States Coinage needs change (no pun intended) and here's three reasons why: Our current circulating coinage is staid, impractical, and change makes good budgetary sense. Have you ever wondered why our coinage looks like it does? Why each coin is a specific size, shape and composition? Do you know that the latest coinage act was over 45 years ago?When the US Mint first started coining money in 1792 the composition and weight of a coin closely approximated it's value. Coins were made of gold, silver, and copper, and ranged in denomination from Half Cent to Eagle ($10 gold piece). Over time, adjustments were made in order to keep the intrinsic value of the coins near but still below their ...

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I drove down to San Diego on Friday afternoon so I wouldn't have that far to drive to the show on Saturday morning - plus of course, I was staying at Barona Casino and wanted to make sure I had some extra time to play poker! Barona is a very nice Indian casino, however, they do not serve alcohol on the casino floor, only at the restaurants - which can be a good thing since I ended up winning quite a bit by the end of the night!

I got to the show about 7:30 am on Saturday morning for set up, which went smoothly, though I was by myself so it took me longer. There was quite a few people waiting in line so the show started out with a strong buzz and was quite busy all day on Saturday. I took a few photos during the show but it ...

This report will be short and (hopefully) sweet! In my opinion, the Ontario show is an up and coming show, with great potential, but is not quite there yet. Possibly, it's due to it being held in the middle of summer and folks seem to not be as into coin shows as they are in the spring and fall. As I mentioned before, it's a really great location! Everyone who comes to the show says how easy it is to get to the show, how open and roomy the tables and aisles are. A couple comments include, of course, the $9 parking fee and that the tables don't show actual table numbers. Other than that, it is a very comfortable and easy show to attend.

Thursday was set up from 9-noon, then the show opened to the public at noon (earlier than ...

The Young Numismatist auction is a fundraiser held at the ANA Summer Seminar to help fund YN Summer Seminar scholarships. All of the auction items are donated and no one is looking to get a "good deal" on anything they purchase. However, being new to the Summer Seminar and YN auctions, I didn't know that various bidding antics were quite typical and that there were actually "no rules" during the auctions!

So when I saw this medal come up for bid, I raised my bidder number, but then someone else began bidding on it. What I didn't know was that my good buddy Todd Pollock was the other bidder and that he was using a "counterfeit" bidder number he had created of MY OWN bidder number - which meant in ...

I attended our local annual coin show yesterday and today. All in all I enjoyed the show except for an unpleasant experience I had today.

I was looking for something in particular and a buddy sent me to a dealer's table. It turned out the item was not to my liking. I am always on the lookout for nice counterfeits and I asked the dealer if he had any counterfeits. He said that he had two - a counterfeit $2 1/2 gold piece (not an Indian) and a very nice altered coin. (I don't want to go into any more detail about the coins because I don't want to even hint as to who the dealer is.) So I looked at the $2 1/2 and it is OK but not great. (By that I mean it would probably fool a lot of people but it was not good enough to fool someone ...