olympicsos

The mint doesn't have to rely on Congress to discontinue the penny. Pennies can still be collectors items and they can even have the one cent coin be a large cent just like how we have silver dollars sold as collectibles. They can keep the cent as NCLT.

Which mints are far worse? Which mints are the best from a collector perspective? After the Barber/Morgan era ended, the US Mint appeared to be not the same anymore. Seemed like in the 1930s and under Sinnock the Mint changed in how it operated and that change accelerated in the 1960s. And Ed Moy was one of the "friendly" directors.

But I will say that a Lincoln Cent obverse in 1968 appears to have a higher relief than a 1916 Lincoln Cent obverse despite it being from the same master hub.

It looks good for a coin that circulated. There's silver coins that circulated that don't even look that good.

Even so, there's a lot of counterfeit gold, especially with Indian Heads and I'd be uncomfortable touching one raw.

It's a great book about the background of 20th century American monetary policy. I didn't finish it yet, but I also saw the sketches for the Roosevelt Dime and Franklin Half. I have to say after seeing them, now I know why the eagle was small for the Franklin Half. Almost looks like the Franklin Half design was going to be used for the WWII half dime, not exactly, but the sketches give off that vibe.

I bought the book because it seemed more intriguing than just about Saudi gold discs.

Worth more than face value too.

At the same time Fraser had the most control over the execution of the Buffalo Nickel.

It’s already established that merchants do not have to accept ALL forms of cash as legal tender. They can refuse to accept cents like they do $100 bills. Half dollars are listed in law as circulating media, but the times I’ve spent them, I’ve even had merchants yell at me.

Unless you collect them or take them out of circulation yourself like how silver was taken out in the 1960s. They could also end the ban on melting cents and nickels combined with the federal reserve not ordering any more cents and nickels without going to congress. I know of coin dealers who’ve been telling lower end collectors to put away pre 1982 cents for years now and has been predicting a numismatic premium eventually.

They may not even need congressional approval to phase out cents and nickels from circulation. My understanding is the federal reserve can simply elect not to order cents and nickels for circulation just like they’ve done with half dollars and dollar coins in the past. The US Mint has a past practice of not minting certain denominations for circulation. If there’s a shortage of cents and nickels, maybe merchants can implement rounding for cash transactions on their own and then maybe we will have harder data based on US spending habits on the effects of cent and nickel elimination from circulation. And the US Mint can still include cents and nickels in numismatic products for a premium.

That wouldn’t surprise me one bit being from NYC myself. Immigrants who experience horrible things elsewhere have less trust and NYC has a lot of immigrants with the old country mindset.

At best gold dollars for jewelry or quarter/half eagles for gifts I would assume.

That wouldn’t be far fetched. FDR was into stamps and a lot of conservatives are into gold.

This gold confiscation is also used to hype products and induce fear to sell gold coins to this day.

I knew about saints as the national collectors mint advertised a 1933 tribute coin on TV and there was publicity about how the 1933 DE was then the most valuable coin existing. Right then along with the artistry of Saint Gaudens, it’s easy to understand why this series is captivating.

The AGB is .9999 fine.

This is a reason I don’t blame people for preferring slabbed .9999 gold. If a coin has to be removed from its mint capsule, let the experts do it.

That’s interesting. I wonder how many American Gold Buffaloes are technically AU, especially since now they’re put into rolls and do slide when being ejected out of the coining press.

I think 1976 followed by 1981 had the most clad proof sets made and 2004 had the most silver proof sets made.

How many of them would rather collect MS66 CAC Saints if they could afford it instead of moderns?

That is the real problem, I agree. At the same time with gold, there’s things tolerated at the MS level that wouldn’t be tolerated in other series, especially moderns.

A big problem with gold especially. How many Saints and Indian head gold coins graded MS or even as high as MS 65 are truly MS?

Really the late 50s.