On January 7, 2011, I wrote an inaugural column for Coin Update about a new column that would cover developments in U.S. coins and in the American numismatic hobby and market.

It has been an honor and a pleasure over the past decade to write on these topics and not just discuss developments in coins and why they were important but to learn a great deal from other collectors. Thanks to some interesting discussions with my readers here, especially when my pieces also appeared on Mint News Blog and World Mint News Blog, I now count some of those readers as valued friends.

About a year after starting this column, in early 2012 to early 2016. I took a hiatus while I increased the frequency of a column I have written for another publication also for the past decade. After Coin Update was acquired by Whitman Publishing, I returned and expanded my column to include coverage of world coins, especially the Mexican Libertad series - a personal favorite - and some economics-related topics like alternative currencies, the role of gold in the monetary system, and the Federal Reserve, which reflected my own interest in those areas and my belief that it is important for numismatists to understand them.

I have had the pleasure of interviewing officials from the U.S. Mint and other world mints, coin experts like Eric Jordan, dealers such as Ian Russell, hobby leaders like my friend Thomas J. Uram, who just completed a term as chairman of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee*, some amazingly talented coin designers and medallic sculptors such as Joel Iskowitz and Donald Everhart, and many others.

In some cases, such as my coverage of certain legislative coin measures like the various bills for an Apollo 11 50th anniversary coin program or the recently-enacted bill to create 2021 Morgan and Peace dollars, I have been able to have a small impact on helping to bring those efforts to fruition by trying to get more collectors interested in them, which led some to convey that interest to their congressional representatives.

The U.S. Mint and its major coin series - especially American Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Palladium Eagles, the America the Beautiful quarters, and commemorative coin programs - have, of course, loomed especially large in my columns and will continue to do so, except that the ATB series ends soon. As we all learned very recently, 2022 to 2030 will see the issuance of a large number of new quarters on prominent American women, then on youth sports, the semi-quincentennial of the nation, and paralympic sports, including some new half dollars as well as medals.

To read the complete article, see:
My column: 10 years covering modern numismatics(https://mintnewsblog.com/my-column-10-years-covering-modern-numismatics/)