Coin (Friday and) Monday: World Cup Commemoration

May 28,2010

Written by John Dale

(With Memorial Day on Monday, next week's Coin Monday is appearing here early. -- The Heritage Blog)

It’s just about World Cup time, when the greatest footballers from around the globe put on the national uniforms to seek out glory. Like just about every other World Cup tournament, this go-round has had its controversies. The host country! The Thierry Henry handball incident! The anthem! (Though you’d never hear me complaining about the opportunity to see...I mean, listen to Shakira.)

All of these seem pretty trivial, though, compared to the controversy when the United States was chosen to host the World Cup in 1994. At the end of the 1980s, when the selection was made, there was no prominent professional “football” league (as the rest of the world understood it) in the United States, and the country hadn’t qualified for the World Cup since 1950.

The U.S. national team qualified for the 1990 World Cup, however, starting a streak of World Cup appearances that will continue in South Africa. Major League Soccer, which had its roots in the 1994 World Cup bid, is going strong and expanding. And the 1994 World Cup left a numismatic legacy for U.S. collectors as well: a trio of commemoratives.

The middle coin of the set is a silver dollar, a proof example of which appears in the June Long Beach U.S. Coin Auction. On the obverse, two players are pursuing a ball; no word on whether the player wearing number 7 is going to flop and get the player wearing number 10 stuck with a spurious red card. The reverse is a shared reverse among all three coins, with the official logo of the 1994 World Cup squarely in the middle.

The silver dollar proved extremely popular, with more than half a million proofs sold. The less expensive clad half dollar did even better, with a slightly greater number of proofs and more than twice as many uncirculated-finish coins in the final tally. Even the gold half eagle, notable for showing the World Cup trophy almost alone on its obverse, sold better in proof format than any commemorative half eagle issue had in the previous four years.

While the Dallas experience has evolved from World Cup action in the Cotton Bowl to Major League Soccer in Pizza Hut Park, the 1994 World Cup commemorative coins offer reminders of how “the beautiful game” was reborn in the United States. If the World Cup ever returns to the United States (2018? 2022?), perhaps commemorative coins will come again; if so, I hope the designs are worthy of celebration.

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Coin Monday: A nickel is a cent is a very rare nickel, and it will be offered in Baltimore

March 16, 2009
Posted by John

One of the most intriguing items in our upcoming Baltimore U.S. Coins auction is actually a mistake: a five-cent piece struck on a planchet (or blank piece of metal) intended for a one-cent coin. As far as minting mistakes go, the wrong-planchet error is uncommon, though by no means unheard-of; stray cent planchets get stuck at the bottom of a tote bin, for example, and jar loose when the bin is filled again, this time with nickel blanks. What makes this error so special is when it was struck, a time that is inextricably linked to a host of temporary changes to U.S. coinage; this error could not have happened in any other year.

It was struck in 1943, at the height of America’s involvement in World War II, a time when the nation’s need for metals such as copper and nickel had never been greater. Many people, even among non-coin collectors, have heard of “steel cents” and “war nickels,” though they may not know exactly what they are or how they differ from regular pieces.

In 1943 only, one-cent coins were minted out of zinc-coated steel instead of the bronze alloy that had been used from 1864 until 1942. The various mints faced enormous technical challenges with the steel planchets (steel being much harder to strike than bronze, among others), and the odd coloration of the steel cents led to confusion with dimes. In 1944, the metal used for cents changed back to a majority-copper alloy, which was called “shellcase brass” after one of its main sources, salvaged ammunition casings. Cent coinage in bronze resumed in 1947.

The “war nickel” alloy was more successful. While the five-cent pieces called “nickels” were only 25% nickel (the element), the rest of the alloy being copper, the element nickel was essential to making stainless steel, and thus crucial to the nation’s military manufacturing. Starting in October 1942, the alloy used to strike five-cent pieces changed to 56% copper, 35% silver, and 9% manganese, cutting down on copper usage and completely eliminating nickel. This alloy was more successful than the steel-cent experiment and continued through the end of 1945. The “war nickels” also had their designs changed, with prominent mintmarks placed above the dome of Monticello on the reverse, the better to identify them; as silver prices rose, more and more were taken out of circulation for their silver content, with the “war nickels” virtually vanishing from pocket change by the mid-1960s.

This wrong-planchet error could only have come from 1943, the year when the cents were steel and the nickels were silver. The surfaces are slightly worn, suggesting that it either circulated for a short time or was kept as a pocket-piece curiosity. The surface area of the steel cent blank, smaller than that of a nickel, has cut off parts of the design, including much of the date, though the bottoms of the digits are visible, including the distinctive curve of the 3.

Wrong-planchet errors involving steel cent blanks are some of the most prized mint mistakes, since they were made within a one-year window, and most errors made in any given year are caught before they can leave the mint and melted down. If you’re visiting us in Baltimore, our lot viewing is a great chance to look at this fascinating error, as well as a whole host of other treasures.

Coin Monday: A cataloger’s cliffhanger concluded or The charm of an 1876-CC 20 cent piece

March 9, 2009
Posted by John

Previously: I marveled at the 1870-CC double eagle that a fellow cataloger, George, had shown me. After I enjoyed looking at that coin, he indicated that he had another. What could top an 1870-CC double eagle?

He laid it onto my desk. I looked closely.

“Yeah,” I managed after a few seconds. “That’s a better date.”

It was another 20 – not dollars, but cents: an 1876-CC twenty cent piece, graded MS64, easily the rarest issue for its short-lived denomination and one of the most famous Carson City coins of all time. It is the centerpiece for our upcoming Baltimore, MD U.S. Coin Auction at the end of this month.

Officially, 10,000 examples were struck, certainly a figure that commands respect, but there are lower mintages to be found elsewhere, and it is now known that there are a handful of coins struck at Carson City that are distinctly more rare than the 1876-CC 20 cent piece is today. Yet it is not merely a rarity; it is a venerable rarity, having been recognized as such since 1893, when collector Augustus Heaton, now known as “the father of mintmark collecting,” for his pamphlet Mint Marks, A Treatise, wrote in said pamphlet that the issue was “excessively rare.” More than a century’s worth of collectors have pursued just a handful of survivors. Identifying how many there are is a speculative exercise at best, though estimates of 15 to 18 pieces have gained wide, if not universal acceptance.

Then again, in theory, there shouldn’t be any 1876-CC 20 cent coins to speak of. Carson City Mint Superintendent James Crawford received an order from Mint Director Henry Linderman in Philadelphia, ordering the melting of all 1876-CC 20 cent pieces that were on-hand, which amounted to nearly the entire mintage. A handful of examples slipped through the cracks, however, accounting for the few specimens available. (It’s worth noting that a majority of known examples are Mint State, indicating that they never entered circulation.)

It is likely that a few of today’s survivors were to serve as assay pieces, coins sent from Carson City to Philadelphia to check for weight and fineness of the silver used, but not actually tested (and thus destroyed). It is also probable that Carson City Mint personnel saved a few coins as keepsakes. While numismatists are unlikely ever to learn exactly where, when, and how the few survivors were saved from the melting pot, speculation makes up much of the fun in collecting!

When I picked up the coin, my eyes first went to the word LIBERTY, on a ribbon draped across the shield on the obverse. On the coin, the letters are doubled, the result of a mistake in the die-making process. The doubling is dramatic enough to see without magnification, though I soon added a loupe to check the area more closely.

George gave me almost a minute with the 1876-CC twenty cent piece.

“All right, John,” he said. “I need it back.”

I handed the coin back to George with more than a hint of jealousy. “Enjoy cataloging it.”

“Oh, I will.”

George gathered up the two coins and headed to the next office. I returned to cataloging the Seated half dollar, pausing only once while typing to delete a reference to Carson City. Perhaps I still had Nevada on my mind…

Coin Monday: A cataloger’s cliffhanger

March 2, 2009
Posted by John

“I have a couple of coins to show you.”

I turned around in my chair. George was hovering behind me, a Cheshire-cat grin on his face. I set aside the Seated half dollar I was cataloging. If George had a pass-around coin, it was bound to be spectacular.

“All right, show me.”

“Is this a better date?”

He passed me the coin. “Hello!”

It was an 1870-CC twenty dollar gold piece, or double eagle, graded XF45, from the Baltimore Signature Coin Auction at the end of this month. After the initial rush of excitement, my cataloger’s sense took over. I remembered the last 1870-CC double eagle Heritage had offered, the VF30 Baltimore Collection example in our October 2008 Dallas auction, but to find the one before it, I had to go back more than two years, to the Wyoming Collection specimen we offered in Denver in August 2006. An example landing on my desk was far from an everyday occurrence!

My thoughts turned to its rarity and history. All of the 1870-CC coins, from quarters to double eagles, are famous as being the first of their kind, and coins from Carson City have a powerful ability to evoke thoughts of the Old West. The coin in my hand brought to mind struggles and triumphs, both the slog involved in setting up a mint with the limited resources available in Nevada, which had achieved statehood just six years earlier, and the sense of achievement that must have come when the first coins, silver dollars, were struck.

Those first double eagles were not made to be held in bank vaults or otherwise sit idle; they were made for commerce, and they served that purpose, perhaps too well. The vast majority of them have been lost to time, and none of the 1870-CC double eagles known today – estimated at 40 to 50 survivors out of a production run of 3,789 coins – came through the ages without becoming worn and marked. The coin I held had its share of abrasions, but it was not so worn as most, and the fields still had much of their original shine. I grabbed my loupe and studied the coin more closely.

George gave me half a minute of uninterrupted viewing. “You like that?”

“I sure do,” I said over my shoulder, not wanting to look away.

“Well, how about this one?”

There was a click of plastic on wood as George laid another coin in a holder on my desk.

I lifted my head with a chuckle. What could top the 1870-CC double eagle I already had in-hand? Then I saw it.

“Yeah,” I managed after a few seconds. “That’s a better date.”

To be continued!

Inside the mind of a Heritage coin cataloger

Feb. 23, 2009
Posted by John

(I never imagined a title to a post like this one would actually sound interesting to me, but as I’ve been starting the long path of coin erudition, I have found myself entranced by several interesting coins, reading coin catalogs, and meeting the people whose job it is to do the day in and day out work of creating Heritage’s award-winning coin catalogs. One of these is John Beety, a young numismatist of note, a former junior state chess champion, and a gamer of many stripes. As you’ll see here, he’s also a talented writer. It will be my pleasure to turn this blog page over to John from time to time as he explains what makes a coin cataloger tick. – Noah Fleisher)

The Noah Fleisher monopoly on the Heritage blog has ended!

John Dale Beety here, U.S. coin cataloger. One of the best on-the-job benefits of being a cataloger is looking at thousands of coins a year from hundreds of consignors. Some of the finest collections pass through the cataloging department, and after years of looking at the best of the best in American coinage, one can become a trifle spoiled. A couple of weeks back, I was cataloging an 1893-S Morgan dollar in VF25, a mid-range coin that thousands of collectors – myself included – would be proud to own. I finished the description on that coin and put it aside, picked up the next one and saw another 1893-S dollar, this one in VF30.

I thought to myself, “Oh, there’s another one,” immediately followed by, “Did I just think that?”

As rare as the 1893-S dollar is, with hundreds of collectors consigning to Heritage with every auction, inevitably a number of 1893-S dollars will pass through the cataloging department. I’ve personally cataloged dozens of them over the course of two-and-a-half years. Prized as they are, as a rule, cataloging an 1893-S dollar is no longer an event.

There are exceptions, though; in the January 2009 FUN Auction, Heritage offered two Mint State examples, an MS64 and an MS65, and when each of those 1893-S Morgan dollars came up for description, the cataloger made a point of showing it to the rest of us so we could all appreciate it.

My fellow catalogers and I call such items “pass-arounds,” coins so special that we can’t help but share them with one another. Sometimes they are exotic rarities; when Heritage offered a Class I 1804 dollar in the April 2008 Central States Auction, all of us shared in the thrill. Others are unusually attractive coins; cataloging a piece of Seated Liberty silver with rich, original “target” toning is one of my greatest joys, and I’ve been known to show off particularly beautiful examples.

Still other pieces are not fabulous rarities but intriguing curiosities, such as the heavily worn Panama-Pacific quarter eagle commemorative from Central States in 2007 that makes one wonder whose pocket-piece it was.

In future posts, I aim to highlight some of our “pass-around” coins and what makes them so special, the better to share them with a wider audience. On occasion, I’ll also take a look beyond coins, to highlight items of interest in other departments; I’m a firm believer that no collector has only one hobby!

California dreamin’ (of Long Beach) on a rainy Dallas Monday

Feb. 9, 2009
Posted by Noah

I wrote about the Long Beach Coin auction on Friday of last week, as you can see below, and I said that the early news out of Long Beach, California was positive so far, and I wasn’t just talking about the surf and the sand – though I’d certainly dig a few days with my wife and daughter in the sun and fun. It’s hard not to be on tenterhooks about the state of… well, the state of everything these days, but Long Beach did indeed provide the kind of positive news that everyone at Heritage was hoping for, and the kind of news that this nation badly needs right now: The coin market is steady.

According to Jim Halperin, Heritage co-founder and best-selling fiction writer (see The Truth Machine), the total of the auction, $13M and counting with post-auction buys, exceeded what the company was hoping for. This is good news to all of us. Not out-of-control exuberant good news, or new-puppy-peeing-on-the-newspaper-when-it-sees-you enthusiasm, but steady, controlled zest for a continuance of what we saw at FUN in January.

“Prices are still down a little though higher than they were at FUN,” Jim said, “which was already above people’s expectations. We were actually expecting a $10-11M auction, so with $13M I’d say it was well beyond our expectations.”

Well. Beyond. Expectations… What a refreshing phrase to hear after the daily turmoil of the financial pages and the bum reports NPR has greeted me with every day since September of last year. Let’s all say it again, shall we? Well. Beyond. Expectations.

This is not a company given to irrational exuberance; in fact, steady guidance has been a hallmark of its existence, as has steady leadership. Most everyone at this company chooses their words very carefully – or at least those who are in a position where people listen when they talk – so I cannot imagine that Jim spoke lightly.

The future of the market, then? Same prognosis as a few days ago: You’re better off with coins than just about any other investment. It helps when you have a passion for it, and a brilliance – like so many here – but in this day and age the word of an expert like Jim might just be enough to spur investment.

“At the very least,” he said, “coins have gone down less than any other asset. At least any that I know of.”

That might as well be gospel. Here’s the link to the Long Beach catalog and the prices realized.

Ruminating on economy, collectibles and coins in Long Beach

Feb. 6, 2009
Posted by Noah

Unlike so many at this company, I’m a strict neophyte when it comes to coins. When asked what he did before he became a coin dealer, Steve Ivy likes to say that he was in fifth grade. And he’s serious, even if it is a funny line. That, however, is somewhat typical of the best minds in coins: they start early and their knowledge is encyclopedic. Mine, at this point and for the foreseeable future, is more like a pamphlet. Perhaps even just a text message. What I do know, given the latest jobs numbers out this morning – 7.6% unemployment. Wow. – is that there is little safety in the market, few safe places to put your money, and that coins of most stripes are still a solid bet, as are many areas of collectibles.

Being on the inside at Heritage, and having a pretty good grasp on the business of auctions and of antiques and collectibles as a larger market, I can tell you that no sector of the business has been spared hardship since the economy sank last September. Our main two competitors had dismal years last year and recently announced job cuts totaling in the thousands. Even Heritage was forced to lay some people off based solely on the difficult numbers we’re all seeing. It’s a sobering sight to drive to work on roads that seem emptier, to see the parking garage with way more spaces than a month ago and to see “For Lease” signs in front of office buildings lining Turtle Creek where there used to be a waiting list for to get in.

Through all this, however, collectibles have remained – if not strong – steady. As I said above, coins in particular have fared well. Not perfectly, but the loss in value has been relatively little, if any, in many sectors. I can also testify to the fact that comics, movie posters, natural history and sporting, entertainment and music memorabilia all continue to perform well, hold value and allow beginners to find their way into a safe(r) market. Last month we had our FUN Auctions in FL, which were better than expected, and right now, In Long Beach, CA, we’re having the next round of important early year coin auctions. All signs, so far, are positive.

All this goes to say what? I don’t know, really, other than that it’s been on my mind a great deal lately as I’ve upped the speed of my coin education, with an eye toward getting in eventually and a developing obsession with gold dollars. With our faith shaken in traditional methods, we all need another place to put that energy. Seems to me I’m in a pretty good place to make a transition.

Here’s a link to the Long Beach catalog, if you’re curious. Have a good weekend.

Ruminating on gold…

Jan. 27, 2009
Posted by Noah

Am sick today, having picked up whatever bug my wife and daughter shared. The less details I provide, the better, but I have had plenty of time to ponder the new Heritage Weekly Special Gold Auctions that have just gotten started. Why? Who knows… Maybe just because I wish I had something sparkly and/or shiny to distract me from my stomach woes, and maybe because gold is one of the few places that seem to be holding value as the economy has gone nuts. I know for sure I’m not the only one looking at different places to put my meager savings until we all wake up and find mortgage backed securities were actually a big April Fools joke and that the economy is actually in great shape…

These Weekly Special Gold Auctions are going to be an every Wednesday type of thing, and the aspect of it that I find so interesting is that it seems, in many ways, to be the anti-Heritage auction, and I mean this in a good way. Heritage coin auctions are known for the rare and singular coins, those ones that bring millions and stop collectors in their tracks. Yet here we have weekly gold auctions that are simply about giving HA bidder-members another venue to diversify their investments. These are all good coins for auction, and all with a certain numismatic value on top of the precious metal value. As our Gold Director Doug Baliko puts it, however, these are all generics and slab coins. These are not sexy auctions, beyond the inherent sexiness of the gold itself.

Wholesale gold coins to dealers are a longtime staple of this company, but this is the first chance regular old Heritage members have had to get in on the action. It doesn’t take a tremendous amount of money, relatively speaking, and it’s a chance to get some good gold coins at or below market value. Not glamorous, not really sexy, just smart… Wish I was bidding now…

The Fun of FUN: Rohan and Imhoff speak

Jan. 12, 2009
Posted by Noah

I have to admit that, with the recent travails of the market(s), and the fact that the entire world seems to be losing its mind over the recession – at least a little bit – that there was a bit of trepidation in the halls of Heritage going into the Jan. 7-10 FUN (Florida United Numismatists) Auctions in Orlando. It is, decidedly, the biggest event of the year for Heritage, and a definite harbinger of things to come. With so much doom and gloom around the industry, and so many, um… incomplete auctions, let’s just say that it was a long wait through the first week of 2009.

Imagine then, if you can and will, the thrill and the relief when the momentum of the week built to a more than $60 million crescendo for all auctions combined. Make that more like $65 million. While it didn’t approach the Heritage record for FUN, set last year at more than $70 million, it sure did get a good long drive through the neighborhood. Maybe it even bought a house a few streets over. You can view the results here.

So then today, Monday, Jan. 12, I had the chance to sit in on the taping of a video recap of Fun with Greg Rohan and Todd Imhof – that’s one “F” – respectively Heritage’s President and Vice President, as they discussed the surprising results. Our PR department has spread the word of the video around pretty well so far, but you can view it by clicking here.

Both men were in good spirits, as well they should be, and relaxed during the roughly 30 minutes of taping. I kept thinking that they carried the air of sailors who had captained their ship through some rough seas. They were still aware of the dark clouds on the horizon, but they were mighty glad of the 50-foot waves they’d just passed. Check out the commentary. It may be coin specific – a subject I am still learning about, and it’s a steep curve – but the lessons can be applied across many sectors of the collectibles market.

My favorite quote of the session? Greg Rohan: “Coins may not go up 25% in a day, but they also don’t go down 25% in a day.”

Check it out. Lots of good insight.

-Noah Fleisher, Jan. 12, 2009