When Numismatics Hits the Mainstream

It's a great feeling to be watching the evening news, or reading a newspaper (I still do), or scrolling through news websites and suddenly see - or hear - a story about the latest rare coin auction. It's that samevibe of excitement you probably get if you're from a small town that for whatever reason makes it into the national news... For positive reasons, you hope! Having family ties to Braintree, Massachusetts, it gives me the"feels" when I'm checking out the news from my Florida home and the name of that small Boston suburb gets a shout-out in the story - especially when it's good news.

And that's about how it is for me when a "good" numismatic story pops up in my newsfeed from a major news network such as CNN or the Huffington Post. It happened just the other day when FOX reported on the 1913 Libertynickel. "A $5 Million Nickel?" the headline asks... "Extremely Rare 1913 Coin Up for Auction" continues the story's banner.

Sure, to the numismatist's mind, there is the predictable narrative that follows. We know it's a story about the 1913 Liberty nickel. And we know there will be soooooooo many juicy details (provenance, please!) about thecoin that we collectors want to know but will be glossed over in the story so as not to bore non-numismatic readers. And we're further aware that what might follow is a litany of comments from lay readers who think theythemselves have a 1913 Liberty nickel, of which there are just five known - all accounted for... "I got 2 of these from my grandfather," someone will write. There will also be a bunch of questions about the value of othercoins. "Whats my 1956 nickle worth" will assuredly ask another (misspelling and lack of proper punctuation in the example intended here).

You know what? This is good. It's good for the hobby. For every predictable headline about the sale of a 1787 Brasher Doubloon, 1804 dollar, or 1913 Liberty nickel are at least a few folks who are learning for the firsttime that some coins are worth a lot of money and that, yes, coins really are cool. Many folks will start checking their change - in vain, we know - for these featured rare coins. Maybe they will find a few wheat cents orother interesting coins to help keep the interest of these treasure seekers. How many new coin collectors will each of these stories eventually generate?

To read the complete article, see:
When Coins Break Into Mainstream News Headlines (http://blog.greysheet.com/when-coins-break-into-mainstream-news-headlines/)

1964 Treasury Silver Dollar Bags To Be Sold

A hoard of 16,000 Morgan dollars stored in canvas bags in a New York City bank vault since their purchase in 1964 from the Treasury Department stockpile will be placed on the market after all are graded and slabbedby Numismatic Guaranty Corp.

Jeff Garrett, founder and president of Mid-American Rare Coin Galleries in Lexington, Kentucky, will be offering the coins in the hoard.

Garrett said the son and daughter of the man who originally purchased the coins more than 50 years ago no longer wanted to continue paying the $800 annual rental fee for the roughly 3-foot by 3-foot by 4-foot safe-depositbox that houses the silver dollars.

The coins in the hoard were contained in 16 canvas bags of 1,000 coins each, with each bag comprising coins of a specific date and Mint production facility.

To read the complete article, see:
Hoard of 16,000 Morgan silver dollars to be graded, marketed