RWB

The age at death of each of the named "saints" or other deities. (There are four numbers. Beginning with Elizabeth they are 59, 70, 44, and 54 matching the four chubby female profiles. Presumably the male is King Diniz, who is immortal and still knocking around the Iberian peninsula; hence the "HISP." inscription.)

Ths casual letter to a Canadian banker indicates what happened to many seated Liberty dollars. August 9, 1869 W. Weir, Esq. Banker Montreal, Canada Sir, In reply to you letter of the 5th inst., I can only say that it is certain we are coining but little silver, and do not know what becomes of it after it leaves the Mint. The whole dollars, however, are chiefly melted up by silversmiths. Any person sending silver to the Mint, can have it coined, or it can be made into fine bars, stamped; which is now frequently done. The silver coins of the United States have no gold value fixed by law; unless it may be said that the gold dollars and silver dollars (whole) are equal, as having equally legal tenders. In the market the silver dollars is of greater value. The pieces of half dollars and less are only a legal tender to the amount of five dollars. The enclosed circulars may interest you somewhat. Respectfully yours, James Pollock, Director

Dylalliams Glad to hear you have enjoyed the instructional series and found a lot of interest and value in it!

Common flea market trash. Send enough of the sellers to jail and the things will disappear.

It's very slow. I completed the 3-book series Renaissance of American Coinage almost 20 years ago. I doubt that 5% of dealers and fewer collectors have read any part of it or aware of the immense changes in numismatic knowledge they present. In the 1960s the eminent Don Taxay used about 25 pages to describe the coinage renaissance period and present most of what was believed at the time. I used about 1,000 pages to describe events of the same period - with footnotes, of course. Two of the large auction companies are slowly moving to the "new" (much is actually old that was displaced after WW-II) and more accurate terminology, but most coin sellers simply don't care.

"Be terrific! Be specific!"

Yep. ALL coinage is the Mint's "business." Circulation coinage is distinct from commemorative coins, collectors' proof coins, etc ...don't forget mint spoons !

The English were among the first permanent North American sutlers. But that's why Roanoke Colony failed -- the sutlers got here and found the natives did not want to buy stuff and further had no money, as the English thought of it. The English sutlers stayed over winter hoping there were bigger fools inland, but that wasn't true, so they carved people's names on rocks and swam home .... Or so it is written in the foxxes breaking gnuz.

Doubtful if they know. There far too much guess work and not enough solid factual research. The US Mint's historical usage is ambiguous. Most of the time "specimen" has it's common language meaning as a sample or example of something. But it is also used in a more narrow sense as a coin or coins made and handled individually as specific examples of how the coin should appear. (This is seen when a new denomination was introduced and the branch mints were sent "specimens of the new coin" to guide the coiner in product appearance. These are equivalent to engineering specifications for parts.) In a few instances "specimen" clearly refers to a specially made or preserved example either as a ceremonial product -- 1892 Columbian half #1 for example -- or as a proof-format piece intended for official review -- 1921 & 1922 proof Peace dollars -- Congressional examination, or sale.

Good to know!

Very good post and information. For new collectors, you might want to add a little about what a "sutler" was.

Replace "daughter" with "dog." (Keep the ice cream.)

How would that be an advantage...unless you just want the holder?

Unlikely. Might be a few cent roll owners selling old caches of unc or circ coins, but most everything else is phony. Well....There are probably some who buy bags of circ silver, roll the coins then try to sell at inflated prices as "unsearched rolls." However, those circ bags have already been looked through, so unless you can find a bunch of 1919 dimes and pull a doubled die, you'll just have high priced silver.

Have you asked this on the "Ask NGC Forum?"

Your 0.900 fine 5 pesos are bullion items often found in jewelry. If you have 0.500 fine Morelos "un peso" coins they are also mostly silver value. Original 1921 dos pesos are around $700 in Unc-63 -- but they have to be really nice. The earlier Caballito peso are popular because of the design.

Comments about the coin are fine. But anything about selling it belongs on the Buy-Sell forum.

Best to merely ask-away and wait for members to request clarification. One irritation -- new collectors who assume they know about errors, doubled dies, and such things.

Why? It seems happy right where it is - and you lose $50.

"Icon" not an "avatar." An avatar is an active program element.

It "grades" C - for counterfeit/altered. It's worthless.

The dealers don't care about you or your hobby. They want your money and when that doesn't flow fast enough, they run away - regardless of what a table contract might say.

CaptHenway's comment is correct. However, it is unusual for a different pair of hubs to be used for proofs but not for circulation.

CAC puts green or gold ovals on coins they would like to buy. That's all the stickers mean. This is a great, very cheap way for them to cherry pick collections for the which they will resell at a substantial premium. It is a good play on collector grading ignorance and TPG inconsistency.

1. Sandblast was the standard name for sandblasting a coin or medal. It is specifically descriptive. "Matte" might convey surface appearance but "sandblast" includes more information. 2. Thanks to Breen "matte" was being tossed about as a surface description for several types of coins, leading to needless confusion. A rule of engineering is that the same term should not be applied to different classes of object. 3. "Sandblast" does not work well for the cents and nickels, because the coins were not directly treated - only the dies were treated. Hence the original descriptive term was re-applied to gold and certain silver proofs that were treated to a literal blast of fine sand at the mint. "Matte" works well as a descriptive of the surface effect when proof dies were sandblasted. Another detail to mention --- modern sandblasting of medals or coins will not reproduce the early 20th century appearance. Back then they used real silica (silicon oxide); now sandblasting is done with glass beads which are more uniform in size, and thus allows better control over the final effect. (For Saint-Gaudens sandblast proofs, use of different grit sizes and contaminated grit made each batch unique as well as each coin.)