DaveG

For the history of the US mints, I recommend "History of the United States Mint and its Coinage" by David W. Lange.

Get it from Wizard Coin Supply here

As for the history of our early monetary policies, well, you could read a whole bookcase of books on the subject. However, Dave Lange's book will give you an overview and help you identify any areas about which you want to learn more.

You might also be interested in Chapter Two (beginning on page 25) of Doug Winter's "Gold Coins of the New Orleans Mint", which you can find here

edited to add: You might also find this article to be of interest: Link

jamesf,

I found the grading guides very helpful when I was first starting out - if nothing else, they gave me an idea of what to look for and cured me of the idea that I could grade as well as an experienced grader.

If you're primarily interested in very high grade MS moderns, then I'd recommend the PCGS grading guide. I recommend the first edition (which came out about 10 or 15 years ago or so) because it's larger (8 1/2' x 11") than the second edition, so the pictures are bigger.

The first edition appears on eBay from time to time; you might also try one of the numismatic booksellers or the numismatic book auctions.

Someone else may be able to comment on which of the more recent grading guides address high grade MS moderns well.

Ultimately, if you're not able to improve your in-person grading skills, you might want to consider buying coins that are already in the plastic you want at the grade you want - that might be cheaper in the long run than submitting coins yourself and being disappointed time after time.

jamesf,

As has been mentioned on this thread, bulk submissions get a discounted price. Big dealers really do send in a ton of coins to be graded - the MS-70s sell for enough to make it worth their while. I understand that the MS-69s are often sold on eBay - for less than their "retail" cost of grading.

The way any veteran or beginning collector learns to become an expert grader is by taking a grading class and learning from experts.

If you're trying to grate high-grade MS coins by looking at pictures on the Internet, you're results will be suboptimal. If you haven't read the grading books to learn what the TPGs look for in high-grade MS coins, your results will be suboptimal.

Actually, I think one of the major "problems" with the Hobby is that people think doing all "this" is easy - it's not, it takes time and effort and study.

A friend of mine was a grader for one of the TPGs a few decades ago. He told me about one time when he was given a 1,000-count bag of Ike dollars (back when Ikes were "ultra moderns") and told to pick out the highest-grading coins. He said he "nearly went blind."

I would say that 99% of collectors who think they can grade high-grade MS coins have never gone through this sort of exercise.

I agree with you MJO. I recently had a 1999P SBA coin graded. It was straight from the mint, never opened stored in a safe. I looked it over with various magnification and could not see any flaws.

So I felt confident I could get my first MS70 Proof coin....No it came back as PR69DCAM.

I kind of think the bigger dealers get the benefit of the doubt when grading coins.

It's got to be nearly impossible to tell the difference between a proof 69 and 70 yet the difference in price is substantial.

OK group What do you think about that statement?

jamesf,

If you really want to improve your grading skills, I highly recommend you take an ANA grading class, either at the Summer Seminar or at one of the larger shows (when they're offered).

I think that if you do, you'll begin to appreciate how highly skilled the TPG graders are and how many thousands and thousands of coins they've seen and graded.

Grading is just like anything else: if you've done it several thousand times and some other guy has done it a hundred times, there's just no comparison in skill levels.

This month's issue of The Numismatist features a two-page article on the alleged 1841-O half eagle by RW Julian.

Walter Breen believed that 50 coins were struck in August 1841 and that only two examples existed, resulting in a great rarity.

Mr. Julian's article demonstrates that while the coins were delivered in August, they were most likely struck earlier in the year and dated 1840, as were 8,300 coins that had been struck in January and February.

However, he only makes brief reference to the two supposed examples, mentioning that no one has seen these coins in around 50 years.

One of the coins may have been altered from an 1840-C half eagle, while the other had been purchased at the 1954 Farouk sales by John Jay Pittman.

Doug Winter, in the 2nd edition of his Gold Coins of the New Orleans Mint, relates the story told by Mr. Pittman that was published in David Akers' Pittman I catalog, that Mr. Pittman knew the coin wasn't an 1841-O, but he so enjoyed Walter Breen's identification of the coin (from only a photograph) that he didn't have the heart to correct him!

In case you don't own a copy of either the Pittman catalog or Doug's book, here's a link so you can enjoy the story: (go to page 88) Link

As long as we're sort-of on the subject, I've heard a number of stories of large groups of gold coins found in the vaults of European and South American banks (especially in the 1950s), but does anyone know any stories of groups of gold coins found in the vaults of American banks?

physics-fan3.14,

You might find the World Gold Council's website useful. Among many other things, they have a chronology that provides details of the the things jtryka told you, plus links to supporting documents.

jtryka,

I dunno, but just from the way that Bowers quotes Gillio:

"Of all the different hoard I have bought in Europe, Asia, America, and elsewhere. . .", I get the distinct impression that this hoard was in Europe (Switzerland?).

Or, perhaps Gillio just wants people to think that.

jtryka has given the bulk of the story - there's only a little bit more in Bowers' Red Book of Double Eagles. Bowers quotes Ron Gillio's description - he doesn't mention where the gold was stored before he bought it or who owned it.

Conder101: according to Tripp's Illegal Tender, the Government was keeping records of large gold withdrawals before the gold confiscation order and put a lot of pressure on private individuals to return the gold they had withdrawn, so I'd think it would have been unlikely that the Wells Fargo hoard could have survived had it been located in the States.

I'll add some of my favorites:

Coin Collector's Survival Manual by Scott Travers. The 5th edition of this outstanding book was recently published. This book tells you how to go about being an intelligent coin collector, including tips on how to buy, how to sell, coin shows, auctions, the grading services, numismatic periodicals, price guides, etc.

Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of US and Colonial Coins. A real masterpiece, it lists and describes many varieties of all US coins. If you want a quick reference to a coin series you're not familiar with, pick up Breen and you'll have the basic facts at your fingertips. Note: This book was published in 1988 and many of Breen's comments are outdated and/or just plain wrong, but it's still an indispensible one-volume guide.

Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States by Q. David Bowers. Published in 1992, this gigantic two-volume set is what a coin book should be! Packed with information, auction statistics, historical comments, etc. Unfortunately, this book is long out of print and commands a premium price now.

The several books on southern mint gold coins by Douglas Winter (Gold Coins of the New Orleans Mint, Charlotte Mint, Dahlonega Mint - and, for a bit of variety, the Carson City Mint). Each of these books has appeared in two editions so far, so make sure you get the newest one. Each book discusses each gold coin produced by the topic Mint and gives survival estimates, striking characteristics, etc. If you're interested in southern gold, you need these books!

Fractional Money by Neil Carothers. This is a history of the subsidiary coins of the US (50 cents and smaller denominations), focusing on how they came to exist and their use in commerce. First published in 1930 as Carothers' doctoral dissertation, this invaluable volume has been reprinted in hard cover by Augustus Kelley (in the mid-70s) and soft cover by Bowers & Merena (in 1988). If you want to know why so few silver coins were minted in the 1880s, this book will tell you!

mlovest:

It looks like melted plastic coming out of the seams because it is melted plastic. I've seen several NGC slabs (mostly a few years ago) that also have too much melted plastic around the seams. I haven't seen any NGC slabs with "sloppy" edges for a few years, so I think they fixed this problem.

(No glue is used - it would probably have a nasty impact on the coins.)

As this history major understands it, the slabs are "sonically sealed", that is, they use sound waves to melt the edges of the slab together. Perhaps someone can explain the process better than I can.

Kingofthejungle:

(Let me preface this by saying that I've never tried to crack a slab, but I've heard from a lot of people who have done it.)

While I understand that there are some years of proof sets that are fairly easy to open and reclose, my understanding is that slabs (especially PCGS, NGC and ANACS) are designed to shatter when an attempt is made to open them.

(I also understand that in the first few years of their existence, some slabs could be opened and resealed, but that the grading services changed their slabs when this was brought to their attention.)

Are you saying that you have first-hand knowledge of a major grading service slab that was successfully opened and resealed (in the past few years)?