A Los Gatos, California coin collector collects United States Mint coin sets. Like many grandfathers, he purchases coins for his grandchildren. Because they are gifts, he also pays particular attention to not only the coins but the packaging around them.
According to abc7, KGO San Francisco, this particular grandfather was worried that the value of one of his sets was greatly depreciated because it lacked the proper Certificate of Authenticity from the U.S. Mint. The Mint inadvertently sent a certificate from different set.
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Two-headed coins don’t command but a few dollars for price.
And, instead of finding one in your pocket change and selling it for profit, you’re more likely to pay those few dollars to purchase one in a novelty, prank or magician’s shop.
That’s not to say people don’t find them… One of the most frequently asked questions is, "How much is my two-headed coin worth?"
Most people who ask are hoping they discovered an error coin that’s worth thousands of dollars. That’ll never be the case with modern U.S. coins.
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There’s nothing better than some variety between coins to peak a person’s interest and excitement. The 50 State Quarters® and new Presidential $1 Coins highlight how changing a coin’s design every few months can kindle passion with at least collectors.
What’s your excitement level when a batch of coins gets minted but a percentage of them have slight variations compared to others in that coin’s series?
Hold your thoughts… In this case, we’re not talking about coins with errors due to mint manufacturing mistakes or unintended die varieties. (Although these are very intriguing for many collectors too.) Let’s dig in a bit more…
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Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee - who are they and what do they do?
Since the government is responsible for minting coins, you could suspect it’s more than one or two people who are responsible for designing them.
But wait, we’re talking about the government… Obviously, we need to be thinking about committees when it comes to decision making!
There are, in fact, many layers in getting a new coin design out the door. And although there’s some jest when it comes to talking about the government, the design of coinage - whether it’s good or bad - is no simple thing.
An interesting party in one phase of a coin’s design is the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, or CCAC for short.
Unless you read Public Law or have been in the numismatic world and have followed the development path of a new coin, the CCAC is likely foreign to you.
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Coins of proof quality have no equal in sharpness or brilliance. These specialty made coins are so finely sculptured that extreme details are noticeable.
A proof coin’s exceptional detail combined with its aesthetic appeal make them extremely popular with collectors.
In terms of output, a proof is the absolute highest quality coin a mint can produce.
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You see coin specials everywhere - online, magazines, TV, mail outs and even 40,000 feet in the air through airline catalogs.
More recent coin commercialization has changed the landscape for coin dealers and collectors, making buying decisions more complex. Where should you spend your money?
Making everything more complex, especially for new collectors, are the broadening products containing coins that have undergone "post-mintage" changes.
More coins than ever are being changed after they’re minted by the government
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Coin toning can intrinsically increase or decrease the value of coins. Natural coin toning can be quite beautiful. It can also be outrageously ugly.
And because beauty is often times in the eye of the beholder, placing a value on a coin due to its toning can present problems.
Should you pay extra or less for toned coins? After all, a coin that’s toned is going through a form of corrosion, right?
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Since many coins contain a precious metal, we expanded our website to include charts and spot prices of silver, gold and platinum (found here). In doing so, I was reminded of a common misconception many people have regarding the system of weight for precious metals. Many think an ounce of gold is the same “weight” as an ounce of beef. It’s not!
When you step on the scale, you don’t think of it but what’s being measured uses the system of weight known as avoirdupois. If we’ve lost a few pounds, we’d say something like, “I lost 2 pounds!” We wouldn’t say, “I lost 2 avoirdupois pounds!” Read the rest of this entry »
Click here to read Part One of Defining Coin Surfaces - Obverse, Reverse, Rim and Edge
In turning the corner to part two of this short series, we bump into two more confusing coin collector/numismatist terms. I’m talking 
about a coin’s “Rim” and “Edge”. They’re not unfamiliar words to our daily thinking but when used in describing coins they sure can be.
Yet, to be fair, even in some coin references or conversations, it’s not too uncommon to see or hear them unintentionally interchanged. Or, even one used to describe the other. In the coin collecting community, they’re completely independent of each other, describing different parts of a coin. Let’s get down to details…
The Edge is sometimes called the “third side of the coin”. We’ve already talked about the two sides of a coin, its obverse (heads) and reverse (tails). The only possible side left is the space between them, known as the edge!
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Casually hearing some coin collecting terms and then later trying to recall them often brings a cloudy haze through a new collector’s mind.
No one is going to chide you by incorrectly identifying parts of a coin using non collector lingo. But, hey, someone may try to correct you nicely and who wants to be even slightly embarrassed? It’s just better using coin collector (numismatist) talk whenever possible to keep conversations between coin hobbyists flowing smoothly.
If you’ve ever watched the Super Bowl, there’s always the beginning dramatics and excitement of the referee talking about the coin toss. In football terms, he’ll tell the selected captain to call “heads” or “tails” when he flips the coin in the air. We all understand heads and tails because it’s something we’ve all heard and tried multiple times since very early childhood. It’s natural.
Less natural is the coin collecting terms for heads and tails and, so, harder to remember. In coin collecting, the head side of the coin is defined as obverse. Likewise, the tails side of the coin is called the reverse. Head equals obverse and tails equals reverse. Hmm…
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