First, I am writing a book about collecting. I am taking some of the stories that have been posted on the blog, rewriting them to fit in the context of a book, and adding new content. Some of that content has appeared as posts over the last few weeks. Buyers of the book will have content not published on the blog and a ready reference for their collecting need. The current working title is Collecting Numismatics: A Guide To Enjoying Your Collection.

A feature that will set this book apart from others is that it will be available in e-book format only! It will be available to purchase from the major e-book retailers. The price has not yet been determined, but it will be affordable.

Another project has been to set up an account on Pinterest. Pinterest is the newest entry on the social media scene that is based on sharing images. Think of it as Twitter but with pictures. Users create boards and pin pictures to their boards, whether the pins are from other websites or uploaded. The images of the 350 New Israeli Sheqalim I posted on Sunday May 13 were uploaded and pinned to a virtual bulletin board on Pinterest.

There are not a lot of coin people on Pinterest, yet. The ANA Pinterest account was used during the National Money Show in Denver to pin photos from the show. I will use it in June for the Whitman Baltimore Expo. Hopefully, we can interest more coin people to join and share their pictures.

For the big news, the Coin Collectors Blog will be moving! If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen a tweet about the “SNEAK PEEK” of the new blog. You can see the new blog at coinsblog.ws. I thought that after 5½ years and over 850 posts, it was time to try something

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In press releases and stories that have popped up online since yesterday, Four Seasons Auction Gallery of Alpharetta, Ga., says what could be the second example of the coin will be up for bids on June 2 and it could sell for those figures.

Nowhere in the press information does the auction gallery mention that the coin has been submitted to any experts for authentication and grading.

No PCGS. No NGC. No ANACS. No ICG. There is not even mention of an off-brand XYZ holder.

Instead we are told by the auction house that an unidentified European tourist found it in 1997 in a San Franscisco bookstore glued to an inside page of a souvenir book on which appears a story about the San Francisco Mint.

Also, the coin is not currently available for examination. The firm says the coin is insured by Lloyd’s of London and will be brought by armed guards from a bank vault to Four Seasons Auction Gallery on June 2 where the coin can be “previewed” only on auction day from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. under armed guard.

After that 90-minute period I guess buyers will be expected to bid for the coin.

I can’t help but ask myself that if some unknown discoverer of a supposedly incredibly rare coin or his agent can find Lloyd’s of London, he or she could also find Heritage, Stack’s Bowers or another prominent American numismatic firm that would submit the coin to all the rigorous examination and testing that these auction houses would insist on before challenging the unique status of the Harry W. Bass Jr. Foundation’s 1870-S $3 gold piece housed at the American Numismatic Association’s museum in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Even now there is time for the firm to arrange side-by-side examination of the two pieces by experts.

Unless that happens, I would hold onto my funds.

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Three 400-ounce gold bars were put on display May 10 at the Denver Mint.

It is the first time since before 9/11 that the government has exhibited part of its national gold supply, noted U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios, who pulled the cord opening black curtains to reveal the bars stacked in a triangle in a closet-sized vault.

At current prices, the three bars are worth just over $1.9 million.

Denver Mint plant manager David Croft pointed out that the three bars were shipped in from the U.S. Mint’s working gold supply at West Point and did not come from the gold that is in deep storage in Denver.

Tables of weight and fineness in each country and market valuations in two states of preservation.

What’s the difference?

Working gold is the supply that the Mint acquires to strike gold American Eagles and other gold coins. Deep storage gold is part of the country’s reserves that most people simply call Fort Knox, after the most prominent of the nation’s gold storage sites.

The unveiling occurred before a small group of reporters during the first day of the American Numismatic Association’s National Money Show.

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A $170,000 deal conducted on the floor of the American Numismatic Association’s National Money Show May 10-12 in Denver helped make the show a big winner for former ANA President Bob Campbell and his firm, All About Coins, Inc., of Salt Lake City.

Campbell sold a 218-piece collection of hobo nickels to Candace DeMarco Kagin of Tiburon, Calif.

This collection of Buffalo nickels turned into artwork by the deft talents of Depression-era artists often known simply by their first names, such as Bert and Bo, had been assembled by Larry Frost of Park City, Utah.

Kagin said she was adding the coins to her own collection.

“I am a collector,” she declared. “I’m going to play with it. … I’m thrilled to be the custodian of this collection for as long as I can,” she said May 12.

Other dealer results were not quite as stellar.

Quick access to values and tips for identifying coins and currency!

“I’ll give it a ‘C,’” said Charmy Harker, the Penny Lady of Irvine, Calif.

“Not having an auction and not having on-site grading and having a show here the week before hurt this show. Attendance was a little low and they weren’t spending as much,” she said.

Richard Gross of Hampstead, Md., said of the show, “It’s a midwinter and I felt the amount of public for a pretty big city was light. I came with low expectations and I was pleasantly surprised. My biggest sales were wholesale.”

Business with other dealers helped boost the results of Joe Sande, Nichols, Fla. He said, “For me, the show’s been an excellent buying show.” He added that he was there to fill want lists for customers and to find material for his mail-bid sales.

Indian Head cent specialist Rick Snow of Eagle Eye Rare Coins, Tucson, Ariz., complimented the hard work of the ANA staff and he said he liked the city, but “not enough collectors came out.”

Snow also said of the show: “They really need an auction tied with it.”

World coin dealer

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Surging cent production helped the U.S. Mint reach the 3 billion coin mark by the end of April.

During the first four months of the calendar year, the Mint cranked out 1,957,600,000 cents, up 34.6 percent from the January-April 2011 period.

Nearly two-thirds of the coins produced so far in calendar 2012 have been cents.

Presidential dollars enjoyed a big month in April also. More than half the dollars struck so far this year were produced in that single month.

Presidential dollar output in Philadelphia totaled 9.1 million coins while Denver chipped in 2.52 million dollars, bringing the running total for 2012 to 20.72 million coins.

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During the month Chester Arthur dollar coins went back into production in Philadelphia, which cranked out an additional 1,120,000 pieces honoring the 21st President.

Also in production were dollars honoring Grover Cleveland’s first term and Benjamin Harrison.

Dime production at Denver and Philadelphia combined rose from 109,500,000 in the month of March to 152,500,000 in April.

Nickel production dropped a tad from 115,440,000 to 106,320,000.

No quarters, half dollars or Native American dollars were struck in April.

So far this year, Philadelphia leads Denver with the output of 1,657,100,000 coins compared to 1,365,000,000.

If the present pace of production were to continue, the Mint would strike over 9 billion coins in calendar year 2012.

More Coin Collecting Resources:

• State Quarters Deluxe Folder By Warmans

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• Strike It Rich with Pocket Change, 2nd Edition

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The board of governors of the American Numismatic Association continued the process of finding a new executive director during the National Money Show May 10-12 in Denver.

A total of eight candidates traveled to Denver to be interviewed and the board winnowed the number down to four by the conclusion of the show.

Background checks and psychological testing will occur for these, according to ANA President Tom Hallenbeck.

“We think we are very close to the end of the process,” said Wendell Wolka of the search committee. At the public board meeting May 11 he forecast that the choice would be made “within the next week to 10 days.”

Getting started in coin collecting is as easy as 1, 2, 3 when you get your advice straight from the Answer Man!

The search process has been ongoing since the ANA parted company with former executive director Larry Shepherd in September 2011.

However, deep concern by Hallenbeck and other board members over making the wrong choice for the third time in a row has caused the process to be conducted in a slow and thorough fashion.

The search committee started with 51 resumes, with about half the candidates coming from the numismatic field and half from nonprofit organizations.

The final four candidates were interviewed by the entire ANA board May 11.

More Coin Collecting Resources:

• State Quarters Deluxe Folder By Warmans

• Subscribe to our Coin Price Guide, buy Coin Books   Coin Folders and join the NumisMaster VIP Program

• Strike It Rich with Pocket Change, 2nd Edition

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Silver at $28.32 has recovered $1.15 since Wednesday’s close.

But who will be taking note of this as Facebook goes public?

Speculators today likely will discover that there are places other than precious metals to find excitement. Those old enough to remember the stock market boom of the 1990s might even feel a pang or two of nostalgia when they consider how different the world looks today compared to that time two decades ago.

In much of the 1990s the coin collecting hobby was deeply in the shadows. It took until 1995 for the numismatic market to even find a bottom after six long years following the silver dollar market peak in 1989.

A redesigned paper money in 1996 introducing big head portraits helped refocus attention on numismatics.

The last four or five years of the decade proved to be very interesting for the nation’s coin collectors, topped off as it was by the introduction of the state quarter program in 1999 and then the Sacagawea dollar in 2000.

Through it all, the most successful collectors were the ones who marched to their own drummer and collected what they were interested in and not something that was temporarily a new enthusiasm.

Gold was out of favor. I ran articles in Numismatic News at the beginning of the 21st century almost begging readers to buy gold coins because they were cheap. Nobody seemed to notice.

However, anybody who took the suggestion made out like a bandit in the following 10 years.

Now there is no question that today belongs to Facebook.

However, what are you doing in numismatics that will make the next 10 years yours?

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According to the filing, the specific issue being lobbied for is “preservation of the dollar bill; S.1624, Currency Efficiency Act of 2011.” The Currency Efficiency Act of 2011 was introduced in the Senate by Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown (R) and co-sponsored by Senator John Kerry (D) on behalf of the Dalton, Massachusetts-based Crane Company. No companion bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives.

The unique provision of S.1624 is that it declares the $1 coins being held in the Federal Reserve be declared as surplus. According to the bill, “Surpluses of $1 coins which can be most efficiently eliminated through destruction shall be deemed to consist of ‘obsolete and worn coins withdrawn from circulation’ under section 5120(a) of title 31, United States Code.”

It is uncertain what the impact of eliminating the $1 Federal Reserve Note will have on Crane and Company. I reached out to Crane and Company for comment and their spokesperson declined to comment.

Crane Company, BEP, and the Federal Reserve continues to try to resolve a creasing issue discovered during the production of the new $100 Federal Reserve Note. The release of this note has been delayed twice before being delayed indefinitely. When contacted for comment, a BEP spokesperson referred the question to the Federal Reserve. A spokesperson for the Federal Reserve provided a standard response that included no additional information.

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Nominations are now being accepted for the 2012 Professional Numismatists Guild awards, according to PNG Executive Director Robert Brueggeman and President Jeffrey Bernberg.

“These annual and eagerly anticipated awards formally recognize achievements in various areas of the hobby and profession,” said Brueggeman.

Guidance on how to get started and enjoy this great hobby!

“The award winners will be announced at the annual PNG Day summer banquet that will be held in Philadelphia on Aug. 6, 2012, the eve of the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money,” explained Bernberg.

Nominations should be made directly to the appropriate award category chair by mid-June. The categories and contacts are:

Abe Kosoff Founders Award
Presented to a PNG member-dealer who has made a significant contribution to the guild or to the numismatic fraternity in general the past year. Committee co-chairs: Dana S. Samuelson and Barry Stuppler. Email: dana@amergold.com and barry@stuppler.com.

Art Kagin Ambassador Award
This award is presented for providing distinguished service as an advocate of numismatic goodwill. Committee chair: Paul Montgomery. Email: paul.montgomery@apmex.com.

Significant Contribution Award
Given to those who have made exceptional, beneficial efforts on behalf of PNG and the profession, and added to the hobby. Committee chair: Fred Weinberg. Email: fred@fredweinberg.com.

Lifetime Achievement Award
Presented to a numismatist for his/her devotion to numismatics and who, over their lifetime, significantly contributed to the hobby or profession. Committee chair: Richard Weaver. Email: rweaver@dvrcc.com.

Sol Kaplan Award
Presented to someone who has given their time in an attempt to rid the profession of fraud and thievery. The award is jointly presented by the PNG and the Lewis M. Reagan Foundation. Committee chair: Robert Brueggeman. Email: info@pngdealers.com.

Robert Friedberg Award
Presented to an author in recognition for an outstanding book or other literature. This award is not automatically given each year. It is presented only when there is deemed to be a worthy recipient or recipients. Committee chair: James A. Simek. Email: nge3@comcast.net. (Note: A copy of each book nominated for this year’s award must be submitted for delivery no later than June 18 to James A. Simek, P.O. Box 7157,

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Most of the time we discuss coins that are more expensive than we would expect based on their mintages. In the case of the 1915 Barber half dollar, we find that the opposite is true.

Normally speaking, you would expect very little from a half dollar produced at Philadelphia in the past century. Because Philadelphia was the main mint of the United States, the assumption was that almost any half dollar produced there would have a relatively high mintage. Moreover, because there would be greater saving around Philadelphia, one would also expect that there would be greater numbers available today in upper grades.

In fact, all those assumptions would turn out to be wrong. We cannot be sure why, but starting in 1910 Philadelphia went though a number of years of low mintages for half dollars. The 1915 saw a total of 138,450.

There probably was some saving with such mintages, but the expectation would be that these Philadelphia dates would be fairly expensive. They were, after all, some of the lowest mintage half dollars of the century. Further, there were enough reasons to suspect that the Barber half dollars such as the 1915 would prove to be even tougher than their mintages suggested.

This 19th and early 20th century “work-horse” series represents a pinnacle of classical American coinage.

The first reason is that very few collectors were attempting to collect half dollars at the time. The denomination’s face value was simply too high for most of the collectors of the day. This means that half dollars were basically allowed to keep circulating.

Even the dealers of the time were not prone to save coins even if they had lower mintages. That was seen the following year when the 52,000 mintage 1916 Standing Liberty quarter appeared. Q. David Bowers could only find evidence that a couple dealers of the time had “working inventories” of the 1916 not because they could not find it but rather because their customers

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