Articles by Jeff Garrett

While this article shares a title with the classic Paul Newman and Tom Cruise movie about pool hustlers, it refers to the incredible valuation increases that collectors attribute to the colors assigned to copper coinage. 1853 Braided Hair Cent graded NGC MS 65 RB [...]

Rare coin certification is nearing 35 years of success. One of the foundations of this success is the authentication and grading guarantee. No longer do collectors and investors have to take the word of dealers. Certified rare coins are graded [...]

We have all read the headlines about the astounding sales performance of mega coins in the last few months. Every major auction seems to have more than a few six- and seven-figure coins that sell for a record price. Coins [...]

When I started collecting rare coins about 45 years ago, there was only modest interest in later-date 20th-century coins. Anyone who has collected Jefferson nickels, Mercury dimes, Roosevelt dimes, and Franklin half dollars probably did so by filling out a blue Whitman folder. Collectors of Standing Liberty [...]

In my last article, I discussed strategies to be a successful consignor in rare coin auctions. Auctions have become a much larger share in the rare coin market in recent years, but they are not the only way to sell [...]

During last month’s ANA sales, Heritage and Stack’s Bowers auctioned about $100 million worth of numismatic material. Several NGC-graded coins sold for over a million each, including the 1921 Double Eagle graded NGC PF 64+, which realized a little over $2 million USD. The staggering total included several [...]

By now, anyone who stays connected with the hobby, through social media or online chat rooms, knows that the recently completed ANA World’s Fair of Money (WFM) was a roaring success. The nearly 7,500 attendees were there to do business, and I [...]

Oberth is the creator of RoundTable Trading and Coin Dealers Helping Coin Dealers For those who are not aware, about five years ago, Rob Oberth, a Marietta, Georgia rare coin dealer, had the foresight to understand the amazing potential of social media and numismatics. [...]

There is no doubt that the rare coin and bullion market in the United States has evolved considerably in recent decades. Thirty years ago, when I operated an auction company, my mailing list consisted of about 5,000 names. Of those customers, around [...]

Contrary to popular belief, the first significant discovery of gold in the United States was not in California in 1848 but in the lower Piedmont area of North Carolina in 1799. Conrad Reed, the son of a local farmer, found a 17-pound, yellow-colored rock that later turned [...]