Ben Franklin would love this!  Continue...

The Spring Baltimore show was held this past week in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore and, as always, was run superbly.  The Spring and Fall Baltimore shows are two of my favorite shows of the year while the other two shows that would rank with or ahead of them include Winter FUN (when it is in Orlando) and the Summer ANA (when it is in Chicago).  This year's show was held shortly before Opening Day for the Baltimore Orioles and I imagine that created some problems for those who waited to book rooms near the convention center.

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A bout of pneumonia and a missed FUN show left me in a foul mood.  Until....  Click to continue...

What is an image of a fountain pen doing on the top of this page?  Well, Friday, November 4 was International Fountain Pen Day; yes, it really exists.  Continue...

What follows is a pictorial diary, complete with notes from conversations with Park Rangers, over the course of three days centered around the June 26, 2016 unveiling as well as a return trip on October 23, 2016.

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Most anyone who follows my site or reads my articles will realize that I place a rather large emphasis on education.  This goes beyond simply knowing what one is doing and crosses over into sharing that information and educating others who are willing and eager to learn.  Over the years I have given away my knowledge to thousands of folks in person, in online discussions, in print and on my website.

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Numismatics allows each of us to study history, appreciate art and ponder the decisions of citizenry, politicians and government. Of course, the inner workings of coinage design and selection are not always made public, and this fact can lead to speculation or even fabrication. 

A numismatic event that I believe is fabricated is associated with a series that I have had a longstanding interest in and this is with Washington quarters. Similar to most numismatists, I have several collecting niches that overlap a certain amount and that, as a conglomerate, make my collection a whole. Two of my interests merge in the Washington quarter series and these are the series itself, one of only two series that I have ever actively sought to collect by date, and superbly toned coinage. Fortunately for me, I have over the years been able to obtain some astonishingly toned Washington quarters as shared previously.

The impetus for this post is neither superbly toned coinage nor the issued Washington quarter series. Rather, the impetus for this post is a famously rejected design for the Washington quarter series that was later used as a modern commemorative in one of the US Mint's more prescient moments.  Read more here...

As promised, the Journal of the Barber Coin Collectors' Society has published its Summer 2016 edition and a long-awaited update on my circulated Barber half dollar article appears in the issue.  The article follows this link and is very similar to that published in the Journal.

The summer (June) issue of the Barber Coin Collectors' Society Journal will have a new article that I have written specifically for the society.  It is an update from the article that appeared in Coin Values magazine 11-years ago.

Information about the article and about the Barber Coin Collectors' Society may be found by following the link...

In 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth undertook an extended springtime tour of Canada that included a four-day visit to the United States.  The trip was important for all three countries involved for various and interrelated reasons.

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The spring Baltimore show was held this past week and, while I did not have high hopes for a good show prior to the start, I was pleasantly surprised by what might have been the best show in the last two years.  Continue...

A sobering thought to help you along on Leap Day.  Continue...

There are myriad places on the internet to find coin blogs, coin show reports and coin commentary.  Some of these are quite well written and at times very informative; others are sloppy, scattered and/or repetitive while a few are essentially no more than commercials for their authors.

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Take a look at a trio of 1904-H Newfoundland twenty-cent pieces to obtain an extra appreciation of die polish.  Some people dislike die polish while others are fascinated by it.  The majority, however, either are not certain what die polish is or view it as slightly negative to just a bit cool.

Read on to see a bit of extreme die polish on this quirky Newfoundland issue...

So...how was the recent Baltimore show?  Err...


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I've written before about the Canadian Gold Reserve Coinage of 1912-1914 and, in fact, have another article/blog post about it from March 31, 2015 on my site.  If you are interested in these coins, you should go read it, too.

The history of these pieces is fascinating, their design is fantastic and the opportunity for numismatists to purchase un-messed with, original skin, mint state gold coinage that has a traceable provenance for a century is simply amazing.  Indeed, I believe most modern numismatists who pass on this opportunity are missing out on something special.  Please keep in mind that this does not mean they are missing out on something that will be guaranteed to earn them money in a quick flip; rather, they are missing out on the history of coinage and the ability to obtain an FDC (fleur de coin) example of gold coinage.

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PCGS board members may recall that on September 17, 2008 a Chinook helicopter carrying Cpl. Michael E. Thompson went down in western Iraq.  Lost with Cpl. Thompson were the remainder of his Red River 44 flying unit, part of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 149th Aviation Regiment, including fellow sons of Oklahoma Chief Warrant Officer Brady. J. Rudolf and Sgt. Daniel Eshbaugh as well as Sgt. Anthony Luke Mason, 1st Sgt. Julio Ordonez, Chief Warrant Officer Corry A. Edwards and 1st Lt. Robert Vallejo II all of Texas.  The connection that Cpl. Michael E. Thompson had to many of us on the PCGS boards is that our fellow board member, BRdude, was his father.  Continue...

I live close enough to the Saint Gaudens National Historic Site (SGNHS) such that my wife and I have visited several dozen times over the years and we have brought our daughters there numerous times, too.  In general, we drive out to the SGHNS at least twice and up to four times during the year.

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The recently concluded Chicago (Rosemont) ANA show continued some longstanding trends, but was surprising in other aspects.

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