Jeff

The Gobrecht silver dollar is a complicated yet fascinating series. At first glance, many would think that the Gobrecht silver dollar series would be rather simple to understand. The coins are dated 1836, 1838, and 1839. How hard could that be? It [...]

The recently completed Stack’s Bowers sales featuring the first and last American Silver and Gold Eagles saw record prices for pedigreed modern coins sold at auction, stunning most observers. Touted as the Dusk to Dawn Anniversary issues, the coins were the last 500 Type 1 and first 500 Type [...]

Establishing the value of a rare coin is one of the basic requirements for being a professional coin dealer. Most use the usual price guides, such as the Greysheet or the Red Book, auction records, grading service price guides, population reports, and many [...]

Among the most short-lived series of United States coins are the Twenty Cent pieces struck from 1875 to 1878. Although the coins were made for a very short time, the series contains several interesting and, in some cases, very rare issues. Collectors usually seek [...]

This afternoon, I saw another slip in the prices for gold and silver. At the time of writing, the spot price of gold stands at $1,710, and the price of silver just slipped below $18 for the first time in [...]

Each year about this time (leading up to the ANA World’s Fair of Money), Heritage Auctions and Stack’s Bowers Galleries send their catalogs for their summer auctions. This year’s editions feature over 20 separate catalogs covering ancient and world coins, colonial coinage, early copper coins, [...]

One of the more interesting kinds of coin made by the United States Mint over the last 200-plus years are those that can be called “transitional issues.” These coins straddle both an old design and the new one replacing it, often the [...]

In Part I, I began a date-by-date analysis of the very popular Indian Head Half Eagle series. This week, we conclude the series by examining those coins struck from 1911 to 1929. There are some real “killers” in this series, but it [...]

Recently, I discussed the very popular Indian Quarter Eagle series. The Indian Quarter Eagle set consists of just 15 coins and can be completed with moderate effort and modest funds. This week, I will start with a date-by-date analysis of the Indian Half [...]

During a recent visit to the vaults of the Smithsonian National Numismatic Collection (NNC), I ran across some amazing numismatic paraphernalia. One of the metal cabinets contains several shelves from the estate of Charles Barber, the Chief Engraver of the United States Mint from [...]