Coin Chat Radio: Old SF Mint Coin Show, Gold Coin Collecting Hints

Coin Chat Radio starts off this week with a couple of recent news events on Bob Van Ryzin’s ‘What’s In The News.’

First story is about the US Mint again raising its household order limit for 2009 UHR $20 Gold pieces, this time to a maximum of 25 per household. The prior increase was set to 10.

Next Ryzin talks about two gold ingots that will be on display at the Long Beach Coin, Stamp and Collectibles Expo which were retrieved from the sunken SS Central America ship.

California coin dealer Scott Griffin is interviewed by Numismatic News editor Dave Harper about his plans to hold a coin show in the Old San Francisco Mint building on November 6th and 7th.

"Well, I tell you Dave, it’s interesting," responded Griffin when asked by Harper on how the idea came about. "The genesis of this particular project really began a couple years ago when I became an amateur historian as a function of serving on the history and archives committee of a club in San Francisco.

I’ve always sort of been an amateur historian, if you will, of San Francisco and its history. And then I realized that the building was open and that is was able to be rented for special events. I thought ‘Wow, what a great opportunity’."

The old mint building was completed in 1874 and served until 1937. It was one of the few buildings to survive the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and came to be known as the ‘Granite Lady.

"They’re going to enjoy themselves in a very special building," Griffin explains to Harper what the experience for visitors will be like. "As they walk the halls of this building, they’ll have the opportunity to go downstairs and see the brick-lined vaults as well as the large underground safes that at one point housed 1/3 of this country’s gold reserves. For all those that are into a little bit of nostalgia about this country and this hobby, its going to be a wonderful opportunity."

Lisa Bellavin, online editor, is on next with a short segment on collecting gold coins. Multiple examples are given on how collectors can go about starting and maintaining a collection without the hassles and expense of collecting every coin struck.

Finally, closing out this week’s episode of Coin Chat Radio is publisher Scott Tappa with ‘Freshly Minted.’ Tappa discusses new coins from the National Bank of Hungary as well as from Korea. Also mentioned was the sell-out of some of the British Royal Mint’s London 2012 Olympic coins.

Listen to this or prior weeks episodes by going to the Coin Chat Radio website. Current and prior week episodes are also available directly from sites hosting the free Coin Chat Radio player, like the one found in the upper right at Coin Collecting News.