Featured Visit to the Gallery of Numismatics in Washington DC

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Is this exhibit the same one that happens to have a 1913 liberty nickel? Because I went to the Smithsonian about 5 years ago and the coin exhibit I saw was literally in a small, half-lit room. They could have been doing some renovation work around it but I don't remember. I definitely remember the ancient/medieval gold (especially the Justinian II with the reverse depicting the first portrait of Christ on a coin ).

 

thanks for the view , im sure it would be great to go personally

 

Nice photos and write up. I haven't been to the Smithsonian since before they opened this display. There is family near there so hopefully we can find a reason to check it out.

 

This is awesome. Later this summer I am planning a trip about an hour from DC. Might have to take a day and check this out!

 

Well, it's not huge, and the room is poorly lit, but there are enough coins and paper money there at present to keep you entertained for a good half hour or more, and when you are done I would recommend the third floor exhibit on US Presidents. Lots of cool personal items and items of clothing belonging to our former Presidents going all the way back to Washington.

 

thank you for sharing that was a great recap.

 

I am on;y collecting 3 years and I have had so much fun I can see why an expert like yourself has some of what was on display but if you don't mind me asking you must have made some very sound finical decisions at a very young age as you seem young to have such an eye opening collection of the exact same "coins as the museum" I just thought to myself is he just kidding around until I read the entire account of your visit. you must be a very talented person to be able to write and understand a lot of what I saw on this thread,So it brings me to this Do u work Professionally in the appraisal Industry,with Coins? as you seem to have such a cool approach to such a mind blowing exhibit!!! it truly impresses me immensely.& I am not one easily impressed.

 

Amazing collection D.C. Museum has....BTW you have great photo taking capabilities; your pics came out perfect with clear and definitive clarity. Thumbs up to you. Man I really wish I had gone to this museum; instead of the D.C. Zoo. Not taking anything away from the zoo; but man I wish I had a chance to go when I was in D.C. back in 2002. Great job on sharing this wonderful experience with the rest of the forum members.

 

Those vault doors look like where that commercial is shot with the guy saying would rather have $50k in cash or $50k in gold

 

I haven't seen the Smithsonian coin collection but on a trip there once I specifically wanted to see the philatelic collection, particularly the 24 cent Inverted jenny airmail. Of course when I was there the stamp was out on loan somewhere.

Back on subject, the greatest coin collection display I ever saw was at the Carson City Mint museum where there was a display housing one each of every (except two) coin ever minted at the CC mint. I did take pictures but have lost them somewhere over the past 15 some years.

This is an excellent video of the CC mint's history and showing the collection https://www.c-span.org/video/?314020-1/carson-city-mint

 

Great write up. I see a road trip in my future.

 

That entrance doesn't just mimic a bank vault either, it was actually taken from a real bank down in Florida and hauled to DC. A lot changed to the Smithsonian collection when Jeff Garrett helped to do an over-haul on it recently enough....the old exhibit apparently was pretty pathetic. Bill Gross, the past Pimco CEO is the one who revamped the philatelic display and I guess it was pretty nice to start with. Sad that the Stamp collectors had it so good and us coin folk were left out in the cold.
Cheers to Jeff & his wife for always being such good promoters of our hobby!

 

FYI - There are drawers in the display area. Pull each open to see additional items.

 

Ancients dont do much for me but the banknotes and especially numbers 00000001 are outstanding....

 

The 1804 dollar exhibit doesn't bother to explain the differences between the three types.

 

Sallent, Thank you very much for sharing this, Next time I am in Washington I will definitely be going to check this out. Very cool.

 

You stated collecting..... Is it collecting or investing as they are 2 entirely different things