Expert: Coins worth more than meets the eye
Expert discusses value of coins during recent Kiwanis Club luncheon
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – BOCES Career & Technical Education culinary students hosted a recent Kiwanis Club luncheon where prominent numismatist Anthony Swiatek discussed old coins and currency, which might be worth a great deal more than their owners realize.
Swiatek and his wife, Gloria, own Minerva Coins and Jewelry, located on the first floor of their Italian villa-style building at 63 Spring St., overlooking Congress Park.
A leading authority in his field, Swiatek is past president of the 32,000-member American Numismatic Association and was on its board for 10 years. He also authored the 712-page “Encyclopedia of the Commemorative Coins of the United States,” and has been an expert witness for the U.S. Attorney’s Office on coin fraud and coin grading.
During the Clinton administration, Swiatek was invited to Washington, D.C., for White House ceremonies to mark the striking of the Sacagawea dollar.
Swiatek told Kiwanians about the 5,500 Sacagawea dollars that General Mills included in boxes of Cheerios, prior to the coin’s release for general circulation. Five years later, it was discovered that there is more detail in the tail feathers of Cheerios Sacagawea dollars, compared to those produced for circulation.
Because there are so few Cheerios versions of the coin, those in mint condition are quite valuable. Ten years ago, one sold for $34,500.
So Swiatek encouraged listeners to go through old coin collections and try to determine their worth.
“You never know,” he said. In October, Swiatek attended the Whitman Baltimore Coin & Collectibles Expo at the Baltimore Convention Center, in the city’s Inner Harbor.
During his program, he also showed Kiwanians examples of unusual currency from around the world such as a $100 trillion bill, made by the government of Zimbabwe. In 2008, it was worth eight U.S. dollars.
But its value has increased tenfold to $80 (U.S.).
Swiatek’s collection includes a fake copy of a $10,000 U. S. bill, featuring a picture of Salmon P. Chase.
The website marshu.com says the $10,000 bill is the largest denomination of U. S. currency to publicly circulate. “There are less than 350 $10,000 dollar bills out there, which makes them very rare. The collector value is three times the amount printed on the $10,000 bill,” it says.
Chase was an Ohio governor and briefly a U. S. Senator until President Lincoln named him U. S. Secretary of the Treasury in March 1861. He held the position until June 1864. Six months later, Lincoln nominated him to become the sixth Chief Justice of the United States, a position he held until May 1873.
Chase National Bank, a prede- cessor of Chase Manhattan Bank, which is now JP Morgan Chase, was named in his honor, though he had no affiliation with it.
Chase’s birthplace in Cornish, N.H., is a national historic landmark.
So Swiatek’s presentation demonstrated how old coins and currency are valuable from a historical perspective as well.