Week Seven

 

Coin News: New Mint Ideas

The U.S. Mint has created several awesome coins. Now, a TON of ideas have hit the coin collecting press for 2015-2016. Here are some of them:

First off, the American Silver Eagle has been here for 27 years! A long-standing law states that a coin design that has been around for longer than 25 years is able to change without congressional approval, and a new design for the reverse of the Silver Eagle has surfaced.

The standard Silver Eagle obverse will still be the same if the coin is created, with a reverse design change. The reverse is a very nice design, and was a considered reverse design for another coin. Here it is:

As opposed to the standard design:

Another factoid is the 2015 commemorative coins: One for U.S. Marshalls, and one to celebrate the 75th year of the March of the Dimes, an organization started by president Franklin Delano Roosevelt to help children with the disease known as polio. Roosevelt, who had polio himself, was placed on the dime for this specific reason. Here are my personal favorite designs for this coin:

March of the dimes Commemorative Coin designs

To see the different designs for the U.S. Marshalls program, visit this website:

news.coinupdate.com/usmarshallscoindesigns

 

Coin of the Week: 1913 Liberty Nickel

The nickel has been discussed several times in this blog, but this particular nickel is a classic American rarity of extreme value. Here’s the story:

In 1883, the Liberty design by Charles E. Barber took over the nickel. It was produced until 1912, and then it was to be replaced by James Earl Fraser’s “Buffalo Nickel”. But a mint employee decided to try something. 1913 Liberty nickel designs had been prepared by the mint, just in case something went wrong with the Buffalo design. Well, nothing did, but this mint employee went ahead and made 5 1913 Liberty nickels. They were sold(?) to coin dealer Samuel Brown, but many people think that Brown made the coins himself. They were distributed from there, and made their way to fame. These coins were starred in the TV series Hawaii-Five-O, and a well known example is number 8 on the list of most expensive coins, according to Wikipedia. These coins have been replicated, rumors have been swapped of a 6th example (with no evidence of such an example as of this writing), and they remain immensely famous to this day

1913 Liberty Nickel

 

Cool Commemoratives: Panama Exposition Coins

In 1915, construction of the Panama Canal was underway. But finances were required to build it. And so the U.S. Mint began producing coins to raise money for the Canal, as well as the expo that was scheduled to raise money for the same reason. Coins were created in the following denominations:

• $50 (round)

• $50 (octagon)

• $2 1/2, or Quarter Eagle

• Gold Dollar

• Half Dollar

A new idea for a commemorative coin program is the creation of similar coins in 2016 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Panama Expo. Want to see it happen? If you live in the states, try writing to or e-mailing your state’s Congressmen/women. Good Luck!

 

Amazing Artists: John Mercanti

John Mercanti was the 12th Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and he attended art school, even serving in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. He has designed more Coins and Medals than any other Chief Engraver, and has even been enlisted to create coins for Australia! He has cooperated with many other artists to create coins, until he retired in 2010. To see coins designed by him, go to http://www.usacoinbook.com/encyclopedia/coin-designers/john-m-mercanti/. There are to many designs to put them all here! Here are a few of my favorites:

 

American Silver Eagle Reverse

 

2000 Library of Congress $10 front

 

American Gold Eagle Reverse, Flying Eagle

 

Australian Eagle Coins

 

 

 

P.S.   I want to make this blog as enjoyable as possible to everyone, so if you have any suggestions on any topics, type them in the comments box, and I will consider them!