Recently, I was looking through some of the older commemoratives, came across this coin and fell in love with it. So I bought an example of it in MS, just in the original mint box with paperwork. This is a really great coin. Just another forgotten commemorative from the past that thankfully makes them affordable, despite a mintage of only 45,866 in MS. 437,114 proofs were produced. If I don't have a preference between the PF and MS version, I usually buy the lower mintage.

The obverse depicts a soldier assisting a wounded foe. While the reverse depicts little round top with a very interesting, deep, quote by a little known hero of the civil war.




The name Joshua Chamberlain, ...

I recently bought this MS68 Mercury Dime and I am really surprised how different it looks depending on the lighting conditions and angles.

The three images below are all of the same coin.

IMAGE #1
This first image was made with seller supplied photos as it appeared on the auction web site. I think this is the view as it was captured by NGC when they graded the coin as part of their certification look-up process. I imagine they used a pricey SLR camera.


IMAGE #2
This second image was made by me (iPhone) where I had angled some glare from bright indirect sunlight off the coin. This lighting condition appears to have maximized the color and color variation. It's interesting how the green ...

In attending a local coin show this past weekend, I was thinking about something. When I go to look at the wares of a dealer with whom I have never dealt, I always politely ask whether he/she is a full-time coin dealer. If a dealer tells me he is a part-timer/weekend dealer, I don't rule out doing business with him/her. But I must admit, learning this does subconsciously (and perhaps consciously to some degree) color my thoughts about the level of numismatic expertise and overall competency of said dealers. Personally, the three dealers with whom I have built the closest and longest relationships are full-time dealers. I know them to be supremely knowledgeable about numismatics and they always seem to have the answers to my questions. Some ...

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things



...

I was talking with a guy the other day and we were making rough guesses at what the actual population of a given Morgan date and MM, (standard business strikes), would still be in existence today. Basically rough guesses at the percentages left anywhere in existence. What's left that hasn't been buried, melted or lost forever.

I remembered reading something in the Red Book about some act that made them melt down a bunch of Morgans at some point in time. So I read it and it says the Pittman Act of 1918 caused 270,232,722 Morgans to be melted down.

I added up all the mintage figures and came up with a little over 570 million total minted, up to 1904. Which is key because the 1921s wouldn't have been in existence ...

As some of you know I am presently at the ANA Summer Seminar at Colorado Springs, CO. I have been here for close to two weeks now, classes end in a few days.

Last year Hobo gave a detailed and very informative account of the event. I cannot do equal justice to everything I have experienced here, but will at least give a basic sketch.

The first week here I took a basic grading course to US coins. The instructors were former and present graders at PCGS and ANACS. Since I have never had 'instruction' at grading coins, I went ahead and did the first course of the series. I was not disappointed, as the classes were rapid and engaging, and involved grading plenty of US series that I do not collect and therefore do ...