Coin News for Collectors

America the Beautiful Quarters kick off in 2010. During the next 11 years and at a rate of 5 per year, the reverse or tails side of each quarter will feature a design emblematic of a national park or site in each state, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

[Read about the US Mint's announcement of the America the Beautiful Quarters Program.]

Nearly twenty art renderings were completed some months back as part of the process to select a final quarter-dollar design per location for next year.

Referred to as "candidate designs," these have also been submitted to the United States Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) and the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) for review.

All of the 2010 candidates are below, with the favorites of both groups highlighted along with their comments.

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With gold prices pounding on new highs, many of the US Mint’s gold coins enjoyed stronger sales last week, although $20 UHRs dropped back and proof Buffalo coins continue to slow.

The newly released Lincoln Presidency cent two-roll sets are visible in this week’s report. The initial numbers are solid. Braille Silver Dollars, which will go off sale in less than a month, also picked up nicely. These and more highlights follow:

• 2009 Buffalo Gold Proof Coin sales continue to soften as compared to their first few days following their Oct. 19 launch. Another 4,316 were added, which is down nearly half from last week’s reported increase of 8,487. On the other hand, the bullion one-ounce versions climbed 13,500 versus the prior 11,000.

• American Silver Eagles topped 25 million this week. Their latest seven-day sales rose by 750,000, which is down from the prior 850,000. American Gold Eagles are moving faster. 41,500 were sold in the last seven days compared to the previous 30,000.

• UHR $20 Double Eagles snapped a two-week winning streak. Numbers came in at 1,098 and lagged behind the last gain of 1,453. The year-to-date tally is at 104,862.

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The fourth and final redesigned 2009 Lincoln cent launched in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Nov. 12. By the following Sunday and according to the latest US Mint sales report, 153,427 of the two-roll sets were scooped up by collectors. Crunching the numbers and moving the decimal point, that is 15.3 million pennies.

During the same initial days following the launch of the previous two pennies, 15.2 million of the third Professional Life cents sold, and 20 million of the second Rail Splitter pennies sold.

In contrast, it took almost two weeks for collectors to purchase 9.6 million of the first 2009 Lincoln Birthplace cents — although these set the demand tone for the next three cents when the Mint unexpectedly stopped selling them. The following table provides the latest sales data for the Lincoln penny rolls.

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Each of US Mint’s four 2009 Lincoln Cent ceremonial launch events were unique, but all have been similar in offering opportunities for the attendees to make money.

Following the Presidency cent launch in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Nov. 12, rolls of the new pennies began to appear on the secondary market from those who were there to experience the launch.

A decent profit has been seen by resellers who waited in line to exchange cash for the new Presidency rolls, and then waited in another line to have them stamped and canceled by the US Postal Service as proof they were issued on the day of the ceremony.

In analyzing 56 completed eBay auctions between Nov. 13 and Nov. 15, the average sold price per 50c roll was just four cents shy of $15.

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