Articles by Jeff Garrett

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 [...]

Whenever someone sits down with a financial consultant to make determinations for investing, one of the first questions that might be asked is: “What is your tolerance for risk?” This question is crucial for several reasons and can be applied [...]

After a nearly three-year hiatus, the ANA Summer Seminar returns to Colorado Springs this year. Strict COVID-19 restrictions at Colorado College forced the cancellation of the iconic numismatic education event for 2020 and 2021. Summer Seminar is one of the best programs the American Numismatic Association conducts. Each [...]

As nearly everyone who buys rare coins these days knows, a large percentage of the buying and selling happens at auctions. This market has exploded in recent years. Twenty-five years ago, the total dollar amount of rare coins sold at [...]

Collecting a complete set of any series of United States gold coins is a formidable task. Very few accept the challenge, as most series contain several “stoppers” that make completion almost impossible. Consider Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles as an example. The series starts with the 1907 [...]

When I wrote an article recently about collecting coins by die variety, Capped Bust Half Dollars were one of the series mentioned. The series, which was produced from 1807 to 1836, is rich with interesting die varieties for specialists. Since United Stated silver [...]

I began my career in numismatics in the mid-1970s. At the time, precious metal prices played a relatively small role in the market for rare coins. Gold sold for around $150 to $200 per ounce, and silver hovered in the [...]

In the past couple of years, there have been numerous amazingly great collections sold at auction. According to the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG), over $550 million in rare coins crossed the auction block in 2021. An amazing 22 US coins sold [...]

About two weeks ago, Heritage Auctions sold an unopened example of a John Madden Football Electronic Arts video game for $480,000 – a stunning price for a video game that was produced by the millions. I’m pretty sure my son had a copy at [...]

For the past few weeks, I have been diligently working on the pricing for next year’s Guide Book of United States Coins (the Red Book). The task was enormous this year, as nearly every price in the book needed to be increased, some [...]