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COIN MARKET INSIDER's REPORT takes the pulse of the numismatic marketplace and talks about the buys, the sells, and the trades that all collectors and investors are interested in.
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COIN MARKET INSIDER'S REPORT is the award-winning column that has run in COINage Magazine monthly since 1974. Its author is David L. Ganz, a New York City lawyer, who for more than 35 years has covered the numismatic marketplace. Besides practicing law, he is a past present of The American Numismatic Association, and served for a dozen years as general counsel to the Professional Numismatists Guild. Appointed by President Nixon to the 1974 Annual Assay Commission, he served (1993-1996) as a Clinton appointee on the Citizens Commemorative Coin Advisory Committee. His latest book, "The Official Guide to America's State Quarters" is a Random House mass market paperback, due out this fall.
The column began with a premise that it could report, telegraph style, about what was going on in the numismatic marketplace and talk about the buys, the sells, and the trades that investors and collectors are interested in. It now includes the internet, and http:// addresses you can hyperlink to, easily. This is an expanded version of the column as it appears in COINage Magazine. The author can be reached at: davidlganz@ganzhollinger.com.
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Insider's Report
September
by David L. Ganz
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Washington action: Hearing held Sept. 7 before the House coinage subcommittee on a six coin "territorial" quarters bill (for calendar year 2009)... Called by Chairman Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., the quarters would honor Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and American Samoa.... Chairman's introductory remarks, testimony from territorial reps in Congress, all suggest prompt passage in the House, then action shifts to the Senate... Approval there is deemed most likely... http://thomas.loc.gov.
Senate Banking hearings called for Sept.13 by Chairman Philip Gramm, R-Tx., to first view historic and classical coinage as a thing of beauty...then talk about why American coinage today is so disappointing... Invited to the symposium, and to testify, are Jay Johnson, director of the Mint (www.usmint.gov), Robert Campbell, president of the American Numismatic Association (www.money.org), Ute Wartenberg, executive director of the American Numismatic Society (www.amnumisorg.org) and a representative of the Smithsonian... PNG prez Fred Weinberg's prepared statement says "The commemorative quarter program demonstrates how incredibly enthusiastic the American public can become when positive new designs are released...." www.fredweinberg.com....
A new system for capturing digital images of coins, PixCelerate(TM), has been developed by AbaCoin (www.AbaCoin.com)... The portable system can even be used in the field at collectibles shows to produce up to 300 superb quality, color images per hour that can be immediately posted on the Web....
NumisMedia (www.numismedia.com) announced that they have reached an agreement to supply Fair Market Value prices to Wall Street Rarities (www.wallstrarities.com).... In an exclusive arrangement, Wall Street Rarities will use FMV to evaluate the portfolios for their customers.... Wall Street Rarities is launching their Intellicollect Portfolio Management program... This allows collectors to inventory, manage, and evaluate their collections...
Dennis Baker's view on what's hot right now: What's Hot? Bust Dollars - Very, very Hot... Deep Mirror Proof Like Morgan Dollars ... Indian Cents - Red coins are very hot... Proof and Mint Sets ... modern Issue Coinage... State Quarters - Modern Issues ... Original Morgan Dollar Rolls....
George Frederick Kolbe/Fine Numismatic Books has just released their first Fixed Price List of Rare and Important Numismatic Literature since 1997... 96-page catalogue... Copies of the printed catalogue may be obtained by sending $5.00 ... it may be viewed at their web site: http://www.numislit.com/ ....
Released: "A Standard Reference Guide to INDIAN PAPER MONEY"... a comprehensive catalog on the issue of currency in India, since 1770 AD ...464 pages, classifying Indian notes into 1500 categories, with 763 full color illustrations http://www.numisindia.com/ ....
Other books not to miss: Chet Krause & Bob Lemke, Standard Catalog of US Paper Money (18th Ed., 216 pp., $24.95) www.krause.com ... Puttingmagic.com by Brett Leifer (the well-known Massachusetts coin dealer)... The title and the website are the same... An extraordinary book: Benjamin Cohen, The Geography of Money (Cornell U. Press, $25, 229 pp) dispositively covering monetary sovereignty...
New standard reference book: David Jen's "Chinese Cash", Krause, 341 pp, $42.95) covering definitively 3,000 years of money forms of Imperial China with 2,000 illustrations and a great introduction by Fred Worthington... Expanded edition: Russ Rulau's Latin American Tokens 2d edition (480pp., Krause, $37.95) with coverage starting in the year 1700...
Worthy of a read: "The Annual of Chinese Gold and Silver Coinage" (1992), edited by Pi Zhikai and the China Gold Coin Corp... with extraordinary pictures and technical data on Chinese precious metal coins of 1992....
ANA's summer convention saw attendance from nearly 21,000 people... August 9 and 13.... A record-number of new members (353) joined at the show... Public display of California Gold Rush sunken treasure from the 1857 wreck of the S.S. Central America.... valued at $20 million, will be available for public viewing at the ANA's National Money Show in Salt Lake City, March 8-10, 2001.) ....
TV news on numismatics: Mary Halsall from the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) appeared on WPVI-TV, Philadelphia, discussing the BEP's $1 billion exhibit of money... www.bep.treas.gov ... A film crew from the History Channel set up on the bourse during the ANA coin show, gathering material for a four-hour program on gold expected to air sometime next year..... www.historychannel.com
Arthur M. Kagin received the ANA's highest honor, the Farran Zerbe Memorial Award for Distinguished Service... Russell Rulau and Krause Publications received the ANA's Lifetime Achievement Award... Thomas D. Rogers Sr. received the Numismatic Art Award for Excellence in Medallic Sculpture... Q. David Bowers received the Burnett Anderson Award for Excellence in Numismatic Writing....
Inducted into the ANA Hall of Fame: Robert L. Hendershott (age 102, going strong)... Edward C. Rochette, Russell Rulau and the late Oscar H. Dodson ...
Latest catalog (auction) and fixed prices for books available from Fred Lake, http://www.lakebooks.com/current.html ... Check out this web site: The United States
Civil War Center at Louisiana State University, an online exhibit titled "Beyond Face Value: Depictions of Slavery in Confederate Currency" ... http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/BeyondFaceValue/
ANA's new vice president: John Wilson... Wilson has announced his candidacy for President next year... Announced for ANA veep: Alan Herbert.... On record as probably running for ANA prez: Helen Carmody, former vice president...
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature..... For more information please see our web site at http://www.coinbooks.org/
There is a membership application available on the web site.
The U.S. Mint has been recognized as one of the Top 100 organizations around the world that "exemplify the highest level of operational and strategic excellence" by CIO magazine... CIO honors companies that "make the customer central to doing business and set the benchmarks for others to follow." www.cio.com ... The Mint is one of only three Federal government agencies, along with the Social Security Administration and Department of Veteran Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, to receive the 2000 CIO-100 Award.... The Mint shares the award with companies well known for their customer service including Amazon.com, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, FedEx, Home Depot and Starbucks Coffee.... www.usmint.gov
Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (OTCBB:OMEX), announced Aug 22 the mobilization of personnel and equipment to complete the search for the gold-rush era shipwreck, code named "Republic".... The Odyssey team, led by project manager, John Astley, plans to begin side scan and ROV operations in the northern Pacific in early September, and expects to complete the search within 30 days....The Republic's cargo included large quantities of gold, which were shipped as dust, nuggets, and privately minted coins and bars from the gold fields, potentially increasing the value of the cargo at large multiples of the bullion value.... website: www.shipwreck.net
H.E. Harris & Company announced Aug. 31 that it will offer a very limited number of Sacagawea Golden Dollars purchased from the personal collection of coin designer, Glenna Goodacre... The coins were burnished, treated with an antioxidant, and have been encapsulated in slabs... 5,000 coins @ $200 apiece... Details: www.heharris.com
Philadelphia Mint employee has pleaded guilty to theft of error coins... Government's claim: that between December 1998 and last March, press operator David J. D'Angelo was making and then stealing cents, nickels, dimes, and other coins....
Debate mounts over the design for the Vermont 50 state quarter coin... the Vermont Council on the Arts, has been working on the design....Many Vermonters were outraged last winter when the Mint's recommended design didn't contain an outline of Camel's Hump, arguably the state's most distinctive peak.....
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David L. Ganz
