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. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

• Louis Braille Silver Dollars improved across the board. A combined 208,272 have now been sold for all offerings. The Mint will take the Braille products off sale on Dec. 11 at 5:00 PM ET.

Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

By placing 107 rare coins into circulation, Jeff Angello, owner of American Coin & Stamp Co., hopes that this will delight coin collectors as well as stir up interest in the hobby.

For some lucky shoppers, that pocket change could contain super rare coins worth thousands of dollars.

To Jeff Angello, of American Coin & Stamp Company, Inc., rare coins and precious metals are a hobby, a passion and a thriving business. As a token of his gratitude for the many years of collecting, buying and selling rare coins, he is placing 107 coins back into circulation. With a face value of only a few dollars, the rare coins add up to an approximate value of $4000.00.

One of these coins is a penny from 1955, which is the year that his father Joseph Angello founded the business. This particular penny is very valuable due to fact that it was minted with a mistake. The penny, which was minted in Philadelphia, had been stamped twice, causing a doubling of the numbers and letters on the face of the coin. Read the rest of this entry »

Bullion 2009 American Silver Eagle coin sales have been on fire this year. Eight of ten months were "best ever" records. 2009 has already been crowned the top-selling year of all-time, and that was back in early October.

For a series which began in 1986, nothing underscores the demand for the silver eagles better. Their values in the upper grades are nothing to laugh about either.

In our latest installment of analyzing recently sold coins on eBay, we took a 40-day snapshot (Sept. 28 to Nov. 6) of more than 5,500 completed auctions of 2009-dated American Silver Eagles.

What we found, and as coin collectors would naturally expect, is that there are significant rewards in selling graded MS70s. But how values have changed over the 40 day period is illuminating. Especially in regards to the harder to get PCGS "First Strike" designated eagles. Read the rest of this entry »

The US Mint today pulled away the drapes and revealed the new 2010 Lincoln Cent reverse design. The 2010 penny is a continuation of sorts of the themed 2009 designs, which reflect four distinct phases of Lincoln’s life: his birth in Kentucky, his formative years in Indiana, his professional life in Illinois, and his presidency in Washington, D.C. 

The 2010 cent theme is "emblematic of President Lincoln’s preservation of the United States of America as a single and united country," and was outlined in authorizing Public Law 109-145.

While this year’s cents were issued to celebrate the bicentennial birth of Abraham Lincoln and are minted for 2009 only, next year’s penny design has no specific end date. It could be seen by generations yet to come. Congress would have to marshal through new legislation for ANY change to occur. Read the rest of this entry »

Gold coins are again the major talking points coming out of the latest US Mint sales data. Buffalo gold proof numbers are less spectacular than those from last week’s report. But they are far from shabby and a retreat from the earlier blazing sales was to be expected.

Standing out also were Ultra High Reliefs, bullion Eagles, Braille dollars and the Mint’s traditional annual sets. All improved over the prior week. Our bullet point analysis follows:

• In less than two weeks, collector 2009 Buffalo Gold Proof Coins surpassed the 2008 sales figures of 25,896. Another 8,487 were added, raising the total to 27,955. In the same family, the sister bullion versions are now at 132,000 for an increase of 15,500 in the last seven days. They are 40,000 shy of topping the same sized 2008-dated sales.

• American Silver Eagles climbed 850,00 during the same seven-day period, which was 151K better than the last. American Gold Eagles spurred ahead 30,000 — more than double the prior figure. November is historically one of the better months of the year for bullion coins.

Read the rest of this entry »

In ironic fashion, a single penny will push US Mint collector gold coin prices higher.

The UHR Gold Double Eagle will increase by $50 to $1,489, the newly released 2009 Gold Buffalo Proof Coins will jump $50 to $1,410 and First Spouse Gold Coins will rise $25 to $729 for the proofs and to $716 for the uncirculated options.

The US Mint uses a London Fix weekly gold average to determine whether to keep gold coin prices the same, or adjust them up or down. An upward adjustment seemed unlikely as the several day average as of Tuesday was well below the $1100 threshold that would trigger them. However, the Wednesday AM London Fix came in higher by over a dozen dollars to $1114.75 an ounce, which was exactly enough to tip the balance. Read the rest of this entry »

The US Mint on Tuesday released circulating production figures from January through to October. Both the Denver and Philadelphia Mint facilities were busier during the month compared to September figures, but that was mostly due to the preparation for the final 2009 Lincoln cent release on Nov. 12.

US Mint Circulating October Coin Production

Other than the new pennies, only quarters, Presidential $1 coins, and Kennedy Half Dollars were minted. No huge revelations were revealed in terms of final mintages for any of the types of coins.

The first three Lincoln penny mintages were made public back in October. Based on those and the latest figures, 266,000,000 of the 2009 Lincoln Presidency pennies have been struck as of last month. Read the rest of this entry »