Your thoughts on the American Innovation Series??

For what it's worth? Not much.

 

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Enjoy! Were you able to get a reverse proof issue? They seemed to sell out quickly. Though not a buyer, I'm curious where the mintage numbers end up on this series (if I live long enough to see it end).

I'm just fatigued by the U.S. Mint's endless offerings and don't have a lot of interest any more, beyond the annual silver proof sets.

 

I was born and raised in Delaware, and I had no idea who Annie Jump Cannon was. The only famous, or more aptly put, infamous Delaware Cannon I know is Patty Cannon who murdered people and buried them on her farmland. She got caught when the rain washed away the soil and revealed the bones. I believed that this was in late 1820s in the Seaford, Delaware area.

 

Good grief, what an evil woman. Maybe she'll be featured on the inevitable "American Infamy Half Dollar" series

Thanks for posting, it's always fun learning something new.

 

Actually, I gave you sanitized version the whole story is even worse.

Patty Cannon (Her real name may have been Lucretia Patricia Hanley.) was the co-leader of the Johnson – Cannon Gang that operated in Delaware and Maryland. The gang engaged on the capture and sale of free African Americans, runaway slaves and slaves that the gang took from legal slave traders. The slave traded were killed and buried on Cannon’s farm.

Cannon kept the slaves and freeman chained in secret rooms of her house, attic and basement, until the gang was ready to ship them south. The victims were taken in covered wagons to Cannon’s Ferry, now Woodland Ferry. They were on ships that took them down to Nanticoke River to the Chesapeake Bay. From there they were taken on different ships to Georgia where they were sold into slavery. Some were taken overland to Alabama and Mississippi.

This activity continued for many years in the early 19th century. Many people knew of the operation, but nothing was done. Part of problem stemmed from the fact that slavery was legal widely accepted in southern Delaware. People were also concerned about the violent reputation the gang had and what they might do people who reported them.

It was said the Cannon moved from one state to another. When she heard that the Delaware authorities were on the way, she slipped over into Maryland and vice versa.

Joe Johnson, who ran the Maryland end of the gang out of his tavern was indicted in 1822 and convicted. He was sentenced to time in a pillory and given 39 lashes, but Cannon was not tried.

The story finally broke in 1829 when a tenet farmer plowed up the remains four young slaves on the Cannon property. Cannon was arrested for four murders. She confessed to two dozen more. Before she could be tried, she died in the Georgetown, Delaware jail. She was estimated to be between 60 and 70 years old.

This story circulated in Sussex County, Delaware where I grew up. There are pictures of the Patty Cannon House, which was torn down in the late 1940s. Believe it or not there is a housing development, located on the Delaware side of Nanticoke River, that is named Patty Cannon Estates.

Sometimes you just have to shake your head. I don’t think that the Mint will making a Patty Cannon coin any time soon.

 

Thanks, with the help of google I got the gist of it. Imagine living in that development. All the makings of Poltergeist II, lol.

 

The USPS is making wallpaper and the US Mint is making ballast. Every year they end up with billions of left over dollar coins in the vaults because nobody wants them. I quit with the 'gold dollars' when the mint decided that they would be sold in bulk to dealers. I only collect coins that are intended for and released for circulation.

 

The innovative series is another waste of metal.

 

The mint is not even making these coins for general circulation are they? If they are not, they are a waste of metal. I have yet to see collectors flocking to collect this stuff. When I was dealer, you could hardly get face value for the presidential dollar Proof sets. In my local club I had a hard time getting face value for those coins despite the fact that we had MS-69 quality dollars to trade at face value.

 

As I understand it the innovative one dollar coin is only made for collectors and it's not for general circulation purposes. Still a waste of metal. It's estimated that $1.4 billion in one dollar coins currently sits in Government vaults. That's a supply for the next 40 years but we keep making dollar coins.

The innovative dollar will be released at the rate of four per year in the order of the states joining the union. At the end of 14 years the US territories and DC would be included as they were with the quarter program.

The government would like to do away with one dollar bills as they claim they can save $150 million a year if there was no one dollar paper money and coins were used instead. In countries where this is been tried it took several years but the public finally stopped complaining about it and started using dollar coins.

Government and elected officials do not understand why the American public loves and revers the one cent coin but despises the one dollar coin. I'm not sure I understand that either but given the choice between a cent or a dollar coin I'd rather have the sent.

 

As a retired coin dealer who worked at a lot of shows, it was a lot easier to carry 10 one dollar bills than 10 coins. Ditto for the average citizen who might have $5 in his pocket.

As for the cent, you have a coin that could be collected with a coin for every year from 1793 to date, excluding 1815. I have considered collecting that set, but the 1799 and 1804 large cents stop me.

 

I have a large number of UNC Presidential and Native American. They are worth nothing. So, I take a few with me to the golf course twice a week and give them in tips. The young HS age girls get excited about them. They rarely see change in general because everyone used debit cards. Now I have to make sure I mix up the dates a little so they get a variation. I am thinking about using some old Ike's and some Kennedy's. One of them might become a collector.

 

You said they are worth nothing. I know what you mean but the joy you give those girls is worth more than that dollar coin will ever be worth.

 

Same thing in our club a four coin proof set, if it sells, typically brings $5.

 

As a dealer I blew off the Presidential Dollar Proof sets I had for $4.25.

 

I disagree.

I disagree. I bought 100 of the Annie Jump Cannon coins and 100 of the Hubble Space Telescope dollars to give out at astronomy club star parties when we have them again.

Any collector of ancients will tell you that coins are history. There are kings who are unknown except for an inscription on a coin. You have no idea what the future will bring. And you have no inkling about how rare and valuable a coin will be to someone living on Titan or working in the Oort Cloud. Even in our time on this board, we have had someone come by and ask why Harry Truman was put on the dime.

Moreover, I have written for the ANA about the Peace Dollar and the Walking Liberty Half, two coins that were dismissed in their time as unworthy. The Peace Dollar was disliked for the girl's open mouth. Is she a telephone operator? Does she have catarrh? Are those the sun's rays or captured German bayonets? Nothing is as crude as the word PEACE stamped on a rock. And how to you pronounce "trvst"?

We forget the past too easily. The Peace Dollar was ANA initiative from 1918-1921 until it was launched at the last minute. Researching that article, I found a blurb about the Peace Dollar from like 1961 in which the writer (as an aside) could not understand why the 1918 convention was cancelled because "apparently some people had the flu." These coins are fine. They serve a purpose. They will sell. In fact, I wanted the Denver Hubble Telescopes, but they were gone, so I took Philadelphia. The coins sell.

All coins - all automobiles, all potato chips -- sell to different people for different reasons. I mentioned in a related topic (https://www.cointalk.com/threads/american-innovation-dollar-annie-jump-cannon.376569/) that I found out about the coins, while looking for images of Annie Jump Cannon that were not already common. Cannon I knew because I have a new interest in astronomy and have not done much with numismatics for over a year.

Michael E. Marotta, BS, MA.
Editor
Historical Astronomy Division
American Astronomical Society

 

Kinda late to the party but these coins only just recently appeared on my radar and I like collecting stuff like this (like exonumia and other odds and ends) and I think most of the replies from “collectors” that are not actually “collectors”.. they are “investors” masquerading as “collectors”..

A true collector collects stuff they like, regardless of whether it will ever go up in value, that’s not why they collect… it could be bottle caps, or matchbooks or whatever but almost 90% of all replies on Coin Talk are “condition is everything” and “this is junk because it won’t go up in value” and on and on… these replies are conflating “collecting” and “investing” they’re not the same thing.

Just because you have had enough of collecting something, doesn’t make it worthless. Value to you might be monetary, value to others might be the enjoyment they get from admiring and learning the history behind the coin... and no one is forcing you to buy it.

 

I also bought a hundred Hubble Space Telescope dollar commemoratives to give out at star parties. And at a coin show today, I told another friend who is an engineer about the Gerber coin.

Another reason to buy coins (or anything) is to give it as a gift. Most people do not know about these coins, so to put one in a 2x2 and pass it along is way to seal a friendship.

Indeed, money began as ritual gift exchange. Economic calculation came thousands and thousands of years later.

Anyway, I will be watching this series for other gift ideas.

 

Nope not collecting them. The Mint and Congress is getting out of hand when it comes to circulating commemoratives.

 

The Innovation dollars are being issued for states from East to West so what "innovation" is going to be left for California?