Visit to National Numismatic Collection

Last week, went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History which houses the National Numismatic Collection. Definitely worth seeing. Saw the famous rarities like the 1804 dollar, 1913 liberty head nickel, 1933 double eagle, and more. If you go there, be aware that there are numismatic displays in various parts of the museum, not just in the vault room. For example, saw very nice 1838-C and -D half eagles that weren't in the vault room. The most astounding thing was the original gold nugget found at Sutter's Mill in 1848 that started the California gold rush. See the pic.

Cal

 

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Would love to go there someday. I visited the Royal Coin Cabinet in Stockholm last year, saw the worlds heaviest coin.

 

Glad to hear you had a good time cal. So that's the Sutter's Mill nugget huh. I didn't realise it was so small or assumed it would have been a litter bigger I guess. Very cool

 

I was surprised both that it still existed and that it is so small. James Marshall, the man who found it, must have had good eyesight.

Cal

 

Are you magnifying the magnifying glass?

 

Hard to say. Took the picture with a Nikon point-and-shoot. Nugget is 7 mm long.
Cal

 

Great visit, I think I might be headed there some point in the near future.

 

That is pretty cool.