DWLange

The FG is definitely that of Frank Gasparro. It was almost certainly one of his many commercial commissions after he retired from the U. S. Mint in 1981. He was busy throughout that decade with medals ordered by Bowers & Merena Galleries, as well as other customers.

Various private coining firms produced assorted series of commemorative medals back in the 1960s-70s, when silver was relatively cheap. They were quite a fad after silver coins disappeared from circulation. Sunshine Mining Company was likely such an operation, though I've never heard of it. Most such pieces sell for around their silver value. That represented a major loss for the original buyers until the price of silver started to shoot up in 2009.

That looks like a regular proof half dollar, and I've seen several of the coins that PCGS grades as SMS and NGC grades as SP. There's very little similarity.

A much recommended book if you want to get the flavor of real-world coin collecting. Thanks for the endorsement, Roger. It was a very fun book to research and write. I still have all of my circulated coins in Whitman Bookshelf albums from the 1960s. They were and are class with a capital K.

NGC does add varieties that are sufficiently distinctive and interesting enough to warrant inclusion. When such coins are submitted they are then added to the VarietyPlus website. We don't like to list varieties for which we do not yet have photos. If you inquiry includes the date and Snow Number we can determine whether it is worth adding.

The early Whitman folders for the 1892 silver coins were titled "Morgan" type. When the company did finally acknowledge Barber as the designer his first name was given as James instead of Charles. It wasn't until Ken Bressett joined Whitman that the many inaccuracies were corrected in the early 1960s. The whole story is told in detail in my book on Whitman albums and folders.

All of the listings were likely state convictions, which tend to be more punitive than federal ones. I suspect that all or most were for counterfeiting state notes, which were way too easy to fake or alter.

The 1960 half dollar images are posted now. We've just been quite busy since the first of the year.

It doesn't look fake to me. It seems to be just worn from heavy use, but 1878-CC is common enough that you can do better.

Most nations specified the death penalty for counterfeiting or stealing from the mint, but I don't know of any instance in recent centuries when this ultimate punishment was actually undertaken, at least not in the western world. It's pretty much a hollow threat.

Ever seen or handled the 1849 DE ? Yes, and I don't remember it being quite as bad as Roger described. The Smithsonian's gold coins were mostly spared the repeated harsh cleanings that befell the silver pieces. The National Numismatic Collection's silver proofs from the 19th Century are nearly ruined as far as market value is concerned, but they won't be for sale in any case. This photo was taken when I visited with Curator Richard Doty specifically to evaluate the NNC's proofs. I was on assignment from NGC along with then-NGC grader Jeff Isaac. In the photo I'm holding one of the two gold impressions of the 1877 half union patterns. These coins had been sold to prominent collector William Woodin around 1909, which caused a scandal that saw the U. S. Mint demanding their return. A deal was struck to trade several boxes of other patterns held by the Mint for the return of the unique half union pieces. The coin closest to me on the round pad is the 1849 double eagle, which I'd examined moments before.

That was partner number two, Harry Morgan. Number one was Ben Alexander, and I don't know whose decision it was to replace him when the show resumed production in 1965 after a ten-year hiatus.

The San Francisco Mint did have difficulty with the Paquet reverse dies and found that they'd fit in the press only after being turned down slightly in a lathe. This diminished the border enough that the coins looked strange and didn't stack well. New Orleans didn't get around to using its dies before word had been received from Philadelphia to not do so. There was as yet no telegraph service between Philly and SF (that went into service the following year), so more than 19,000 1861-S Paquet coins had been released already before production was halted. The two Philadelphia coins are from a reverse that doesn't exactly match the design of the S-Mint coins. I recall an article stating that they evidently were coined three years after the fact, about the time that Paquet left mint employment. I believe this article was one of the entries in the ANA Anthology in 1991.

Check your arithmetic---it's 18 years, not 8!

I imagine the Paquet Reverse double eagles of 1861 would qualify for inclusion. I've had the pleasure of handling both of the Philadelphia Mint pieces.

Good attitude, but wrong show...

Since the most popular subject on these boards is, of course, grading, it seems a good idea to point out a useful resource that may be a little difficult to locate at NGC's website. I wrote a long-running column for The Numismatist that treated the grading of each United States coin series. Bear in mind that these columns were written 1996-2002, so some bits may be out of date, but the basic information remains relevant. The stories you are about to read are true. Only the grades have been changed to protect the innocent: https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-grading-guide/

That is one we would do, though the condition of that coin may not justify the expense. If you do submit it please make certain that you identify the variety sought, as missing FG is not something we typically look for in variety attribution.

I'm afraid your 1946 is not a mint error. It's a coin that was diminished from some corrosive action after leaving the mint.

It appears to be a genuine 1922-D that has had the mintmark area worked over. Notice how the bottoms of numerals 922 are diminished in a manner unlike any of the 1922 cent varieties.

There's an entire JNR issue devoted to "The Women Who Ran the Mint." But like other JNR issues, it rarely gets mentioned or referred to as a resource. So much work; so little reward. Little reward, perhaps, but I have a complete set of the JNR and treasure it.

There has been so much good information presented on this and other numismatic message boards that does not appear in any print format. I wonder how much of this will survive. I'm a little old fashioned in that I still print out or cut out articles that I believe will be useful to me in my own research and writing. This material is not, however, searchable beyond what I can remember saving. Finding it in several volumes of scrapbooks can be time consuming, though it often leads to other paths of interest in the process.

You never die alone, if you still have your coins...

The less mainstream varieties are added to NGC's VarietyPlus only as they are submitted. This prevents a lot of entries that lack photos, which are disappointing to users.

President Carter called for a reduction in government waste, and Ms. Hackel-Sims (she married while in office) made her own interpretation of that mandate by tossing a lot of documents no longer current. Of course, calling for a reduction in government waste is like asking for worldwide peace; it's a nice sentiment but somewhat unrealistic.