Comments on: Congress and Numismatics in 2011

By: jim

jim — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:11:39 +0000

Congress remains unwilling to do anything for the benefit of the country, only for themselves and their immediate constituents – the country be damned. And the one bill that did make it benefited the dealers. Any bills that benefit the collectors? I think not – they’re not organized to have any kind of lobby to support them and so they get nothing. Again, congress thinking about itself rather than the country.

As for letting “the experts” decide what’s right just look at Canada’s coin offerings. I’m glad we only have a couple commemoratives .a year to deal with and not the plethora that Canada offers. Canada’s mint has degraded to the level of the Franklin mint: making coins that only a few people want and that have no collector or resale value beyond their metal content.

By: John M

John M — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:47:17 +0000

Looking back over the year, the passage of Public Law 112-009 was a fairly significant accomplishment and the numismatic community deserves much of the credit for publicizing just how burdensome the 1099 reporting requirements would be. But it is a sad state of affairs when the only good legislative accomplishment was repealing previous poor legislation. The first session produced nothing else but a plethora of uninspired commemorative coins intended to curry favor with constituents. Congress and the administration remain unwilling to address any meaningful currency reform that might impose a degree of fiscal responsibility. Thanks to Mr. Barman for a good article.

By: Munze

Munze — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 23:18:20 +0000

How are coinage modifications handled in other countries? It seems to me that most other places don’t let the pols meddle in every teeny-weeny aspect of coin design and composition. Instead they turn it over to people who are experts in the field instead of hacks trying to make more points with their constituents.

Political wrangling has given us decades more $1 bills, no half dollars, the Jefferson nickel fiasco of 2004, rows and rows of dead presidents, along with commemoratives for every imaginable pet cause and then some. I know that nobody in Washington would ever give up their ability to chime in re how large the font for “In God We Trust” should be, but maybe we can at least imagine some alternate universe where coins are both artistic and efficient – ???