I decided to send one set of the Kennedy's off for certification

After hemming and hawing for several days, I finally decided to send off one set of Kennedy Silver 50th for grading at PCGS.  I spend an hour comparing coins from the three sets I had bought and finally picked the four (one of each type from the sets) I feel have the best shot at 70 grade.

That bright spot near his lips on the reverse proof worried me. At first it looked like a scratch, but it was in the same place on all three coins.  I put it under the scope and saw nothing, though.

The others gave me no trouble, though the enhanced Uncirculated's were hard to decide just because they all looked good.

I decided NOT to pay extra for a Kennedy Label or for First Strike even though I am well under the cut off date now.  I did pay $10 to have TrueView for one of the Enhanced - I just think those are so nice I'd like to have a good picture.

Even so, it all came to $101.95 for just those for coins.  I hope I really did pick out the best and didn't miss something obvious and dumb.  We'll know in a month or so!

Note: all my coins are in a safe deposit box.

50th Anniversary Silver Kennedy Set

I bought three of these for long term put away.  I'm still on the fence as to certifying them, though. For one thing, I do think they look nice as a set, although they do take up a lot of room that way. More to the point is that I'm not sure that there is a set of 70's to be found in the bunch - these all seem to have scratches and nicks.  I'll take a closer look when I'm in a better mood, but my intitial impression is "yuck" as usual.

I was amused by the protective foam:

By all means we need foam to protect the plastic cases after the coins themselves have already been nicked and been sealed away with whatever fibers were flying around at the time.  Yes, that foam makes me almost feel like somebody cares.

Oh, well, let's pry out the coins.  And I do mean pry: apparently the Mint was tired of hearing about loose coins bouncing around in boxes, so these suckers are TIGHT.  I used a plastic tent peg to release the capsules from their bounds.

So, let's look at the coins.  First, I detest Reverse Proofs:

I know some oooh and aah over these, bit I think they are plug ugly.  The regular proof is very nice, or would be if the capsule were not contaminated as usual:

Then there is the regular silver uncirculated strike. Nothing special there, of course.

Ahh, but the "enhanced uncirculated" really is a thing of beauty. 

My picture doesn't do it justice. I really think that's the best looking coin in the set.  Were I to pick out one coin to represent the 2014 Kennedy half, that would be the one for me.  If I were going to show someone a 2014 Silver Kennedy, that's the one I'd show.

So, certify?  If I can find one of each that isn't nicked up, maybe.  I'm not sure yet.

Update:  Mintage reduced to 225,000 due lack of interest.

Note: All my coins are in a safe deposit box. I keep nothing in my home.

Contests and giveaways: http://coins.aplawrence.com/2014/05/contests-and-giveaways.html

Phone Apps for Coin Collectors

Phone and Tablet apps for coin collecting are extremely handy when you are away from your books and your computer. Here are a few of the ones I have looked at.

Photograde (iPhone, Android) and Photograde HD (iPad)

No, I don't usually need Photograde to tell a VF from an XF, although for series I don't see all that often it never hurts to refresh my memory. What I do like about Photograde is that it's a pretty good database of genuine coins. For example, I was recently able to dismiss a gold dollar as a definite fake because Photograde happens to use the same date for several of their examples and the fake coin date had a markedly different style. It's not always that easy, of course.
http://pcgs.com/apps




Grey Sheet On-Line

If you subscribe to the Coin Dealer Newsletter, you certainly know its value. You can also get it as a separate subscription as an on-line version. If you attend coin shows infrequently, you'll appreciate that you can get immediate access to the current issue for just $4.99.

PCGS Coin Facts

Although the app is free, you need a $99 per year subscription to actually get any use from this. Still, this is arguably one of the best general purpose coin apps available, combining pictures, prices and more of U.S. coins by date and variety.

http://pcgs.com/apps




NGC Coin Details

Lets you type in or scan NGC certification numbers and shows you images (sometimes), descriptions (sometimes) and prices/auctions (again, sometimes). Not very useful, in my opinion.
http://www.ngccoin.com/coindetails.aspx

PCGS Price Guide

Free, no subscription required. Same information is available on-line at PCGS, but it is much easier to read in the app. The prices do tend to be a little jumpy though when you scroll left or right to select grades.



http://pcgs.com/apps

Numis HD
Again, subscription required. This is access to the ANA's Numismatist Magazine. Pretty nice on an iPad; I haven't used it on my phone.


http://www.money.org/communications/apps-and-social-media/the-numismatist-app.aspx

Qollector

Although not specifically for coins, this app lets you organize and share collections. It does have coin related layouts, which you can modify to your own likes, so you could have everything you'd want to know about your collection or want lists, including photos, links to other resources, barcodes and more. I haven't yet found the patience or the time to input my collection, but I can see how this could be very useful.
https://qollector.com/

PCGS Coinflation

Spot prices and melt calculators. I use it just because it is a quick way to check spot prices.

Note: All my coins are in a safe deposit box. I keep nothing in my home.

Contests and giveaways: http://coins.aplawrence.com/2014/05/contests-and-giveaways.html

"Liberty" Medals for 2015?

I read at Lou Golino's "The Coin Analyst" column that the U.S. Mint plans to issue an American Liberty ultra high relief gold coin and silver medal in 2015.   

I'm not generally interested in medals, but I might make an exception in this case as the gold coin will be too expensive for my budget.  The silver medal would be more affordable and, although these will not actually be so, I see them as patterns for what should be on our coins.

In my view, it's a shame that we started using portraits of people on our coinage in 1909. That "cult of personality" is something that our founding fathers were opposed to. It's true that their opposition was because of the royalty depicted on other countries coins and our presidents are not that,  but even George Washington himself shot down the idea of using his portrait on our first coins.

Certainly Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Kennedy deserve recognition. In the view of the founders, that's what medals were for. They felt that our money should use the symbols of the ideals that define our nation: Liberty and Union.  The Eagle as a symbol of strength was added later, but for more than 100 years no person appeared on our coins.

Oh, well. Trying to remove Lincoln or Washington now would undoubtedly cause great outrage, especially among the nations conservatives. If they know anything about history, they should be as opposed as I am, but that's not going to happen.

I'm looking forward to this. We don't know what it will look like, but the idea of“to create modern images of American liberty and freedom that will leave a legacy of coin designs that reflect our era” is on the right track, I think.

Reference: The Coin AnalystJuly 24, 2014

Note: All my coins are in a safe deposit box. I keep nothing in my home.

Contests and giveaways: http://coins.aplawrence.com/2014/05/contests-and-giveaways.html

Book Review: The Collectors Handbook

The Collector's Handbook: Tax Planning, Strategy, and Estate Advice for Collectors and their Heirs 

This book is not focused on numismatic collections, although that subject is mentioned frequently. Nor is it strongly focused on the acquisition phase of your collection. Instead, it is advice for selling or giving way any sort of collection, be it art, stamps, paintings, coins or whatever.

This is mostly aimed at collections of higher value - say at least a few hundred thousand dollars - and much of the advice wouldn't really apply until much higher values. Still, there can be surprises and this book is interspersed with tales of collections not thought to be worth much (even by the appraisers) that ultimately sold for astonishing sums. The opposite is also true, of course.

It's that admixture of stories that turns what might otherwise be a dull (though useful) book into something actually interesting to read even if you don't need to worry about your heirs squabbling over your multi million dollar collection when you are gone.

Buy this book at Amazon and help support this site.

Note:  All my coins are in a safe deposit box.  I keep nothing in my home.

Contests and giveaways: http://coins.aplawrence.com/2014/05/contests-and-giveaways.html

Book Review of Numismatic Art in America: Aesthetics of the United States Coinage

I really don't understand why I hadn't heard of this. Published in 2007, this 289 page book with over 400 color illustrations is one of the best numismatic books I have ever read!

One of the few Amazon reviewers said "Not a coin book filled with history info".  In fact, it is chock full of history and trivia! 

Perhaps that reviewer skimmed and noticed only the commentary on the artistic antecedents and merits. There is a lot of that and I found it very interesting.   Or perhaps they expected mintage figures, die states and prices? That's not the point here - this is the history of the designs and the designers!

In addition to the coins from 1792 to 2007, this covers the medals created by the designers.

History, criticism, praise: it's all here. Cornelius Vermeule pulls no punches when a coin is ugly, but is lavish in his praise when not. Interestingly, he likes the Barber coins, which I do not. I admit that they are attractive when not circulated, but he insists that even worn Barbers retain their beauty.

On most other things, I agree. By the way, he includes other people's opinions and quotes liberally from newspaper and magazine reviews. As I have little knowledge of art history, this book also taught me quite a bit about that and how prior art has influenced the design of our coinage.

I ordered the print version after reading the digital because I assumed it would be a truly beautiful book and was not at all disappointed - the photos are excellent and very impressive.

This is not a book you will just sit down and read once. I expect to be going back to it again and again.

Buy this book at Amazon and help me support this site!

Note:  All my coins are in a safe deposit box.  I keep nothing in my home. 

The Smithsonian's National Numismatic Collection On-line

The National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian is one of the largest collections in the world. I have seen parts of it, but have never had the opportunity to see as much as I would like. It includes the original collection of the U.S. Mint as well as the Josiah K. Lilly gold collection and more - over 1.6 million objects.  It is also the only place in the world where you could see two 1933 Double Eagles.

However, you may never get the chance to visit the Smithsonian and even if you do, you may not have the luxury of seeing everything you'd like to see.  You can see some of it on-line, but unfortunately only a few hundred pieces are shown.  It does include some of the more interesting objects like a 1933 Pismo Beach Clamshell Dollar, 1804 Dollars and interesting patterns like this 1792 pattern quarter, but the selection is disappointing.

National Numismatic Collection

It's not just the paucity of on-line items.  Surely there is more to say about 1933 Double Eagles than this?

They do say:

We are working to expand and improve online access to additional objects in the near future, so stay tuned.

I certainly hope so.

National Numismatic Collection On-Line

  

Note:  All my coins are in a safe deposit box.  I keep nothing in my home. 

Contests and giveaways: http://coins.aplawrence.com/2014/05/contests-and-giveaways.html