Change For A Reagan?
NEW COIN DESIGNS ARE COMING
There is an exciting future for the coin hobby, and that future is not too distant. The United States Mint is releasing this year in 2021 new “tail’s side” designs on American Eagle silver and gold bullion coins. These are the first major changes in the reverse designs since these precious metal coin programs began in 1986. The mid-year design changes have prompted a big surge in related promotions by numismatic marketers and a big surge, at least temporarily, in retail prices for 2021dated American Eagles.
A little farther down the road next year, we’ll start to see results from the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020. Quarter-dollars will be struck for circulation with a reverse design commemorating ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote. Up to five different reverse designs featuring prominent American women can be issued annually from 2022 to 2025.
This is excellent for coin collectors, but there is a question if it will attract the kind of attention and participation by the general public that the wildly successful 50 State Quarters Program did from 1999 through 2008. According to a December 2013 story by Matthew Healy in The New York Times, that series was the most successful numismatic program in history with about half of the U.S. population collecting the state quarters, either from pocket change or purchasing them from dealers.
The state quarters program was so overwhelmingly successful because the subject matter meant something to people. You could collect coins from states where you’ve lived or visited or where your favorite aunt lives. Some governors encouraged their residents to participate by submitting proposed designs for their state’s quarter.
But year after year, Congress mandates that the United States Mint create coins for too many ho-hum topics. Instead, give the public something they want to see on the coins in their pockets and purses: depictions of individuals and subject matter that are not only famous, they’re also popular. For example, Canada issued coins depicting dinosaurs.
In 1995, 2000 and again in 2003, the Littleton Coin Co. in Littleton, New Hampshire conducted informal opinion polls asking collectors across the country who they want featured on U.S. coins. Former President Ronald Reagan was a top choice each time. (An illustration of a Littleton artist’s conception of a Reagan coin accompanies this column.)
Among other suggested names were Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., former Presidents Harry S. Truman, George H.W. Bush, Ulysses S. Grant, and Richard Nixon. There were also votes for Jesus Christ, Mother Teresa, Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, and of course, Elvis Presley who appeared on U.S. postage stamps in 1993 and 2015.
The 19th Amendment certainly is a worthy, historic topic to salute on coins, but I don’t envision Marilyn Monroe will be depicted on any quarters honoring prominent American women. Movie stars on our circulating coins would be interesting.
Maybe one day we will hear people ask, “Got change for a Reagan?” or “How many Marilyns to the dollar?”
Donn Pearlman is a former member of the American Numismatic Association Board of Governors.
Editor’s Note: Your questions answered by Scott A. Travers, COINage Executive Editor and author of One-Minute Coin Expert®
Q. I have a 1965 Roosevelt dime and was wondering how I can tell if it’s silver and, if it is, what its value is.
A.
In 1964, the U.S. Mint officially stopped manufacturing Roosevelt dimes made from silver. However, a tiny number of 1965 of silver dimes were manufactured by mistake. Consequently, 1965-dated Roosevelt dimes that you find will likely not be composed of silver, but, rather, copper and nickel clad. A rare 1965 dime Mint error would be made of 90% silver (0.723 ounces of silver) and 10% copper. The silver dime weighs 2.5 grams. You can tell the silver from the clad by examining the edge: 1965 silver Roosevelt dimes have silver edges; the common clad coins have strips of brown around their edges.
These coins can be worth from at least a few thousand dollars to $10,000 or more, depending on their condition. 1965 silver Roosevelt dimes should be submitted to a third-party certification service for authentication.
Q. I think I have a 1943 copper penny worth a lot of money. How can I be sure? A.
Take a magnet and hold it next to your Lincoln cent. If the Lincoln cent sticks to the magnet, your magnet is likely worth more than your coin. If the coin is not attracted to the magnet, the coin could possibly be composed of bronze, and its authenticity should be confirmed by an expert, as some 1945, 1948 and 1949 bronze Lincoln cents have had their dates altered to resemble 1943.
The 1943 “copper” Lincoln cent is actually made from bronze, which is an alloy of copper, tin and zinc. By 1943, copper was urgently needed for munitions in World War II. To help preserve the supply of this essential metal, the U.S. Mint suspended production of “copper” cents and made over a billion cents from steel that were coated with zinc. These so-called white cents rusted rapidly and today command little premium value.
The rare Mint error of a 1943 Lincoln cent made from bronze apparently occurred because at the end of production of the bronze cents in 1942, a small number of bronze coin blanks (“planchets”) were in the hopper and somehow got minted (“struck”) along with the new steel cents in 1943. The rarest examples carry the “D” (coin manufactured in Denver) or “S” (coin manufactured in San Francisco) mintmarks underneath the date. The 1943 bonze (brown in color and not attracted to a magnet) Lincoln cents are valued from a few thousand to a couple million dollars, depending on condition and mintmark.
Whenever financial, political or other world events lead to a continued increase in the buying of gold and silver bullion coins for diversification or as a form of financial insurance, we often see a bull market in rare coins follow in about six to 18 months. That’s because many of those new precious metals buyers become exposed by leading rare coin dealers to classic rare coins. Experience shows that about 10% to 20% of these new bullion coin buyers start collecting and investing in rare coins, and that provides a significant new demand for the limited universe of rare coins, thereby causing their prices to increase.
Can this be happening again? In 2020, the U.S. Mint noted an increase of 102% in Silver American Eagle purchases over 2019 and 455% in Gold American Eagle ounces purchased in 2019. In the first three months of 2021, there has also been a large increase in U.S. Mint sales of gold and silver bullion coins. Gold American Eagle coin sales by ounces increased by 83.8% during the first three months of 2021 vs. the same three months of 2020, while Silver American eagle sales increased 35.0% in the same time period. American Buffalo gold bullion coin sales rose 25.7% in the first three months of 2021 compared to the first three months of 2020.
As I’ve said recently, my firm is getting calls from big buyers and customers that it hasn’t heard from in years, and my firm is not alone. Dealer friends of mine continue to talk about the recent purchase of high-value (six-figure) coins, including the $4 Stella patterns, only minted in 1879 and 1880. A dealer friend of mine just sold two of those very rare pattern coins. No, we’re not in a raging bull market yet, but we’re seeing a lot more of those coins in high four-figure, five-figure and six-figure levels selling now.
Further examples of more money coming into the market were shown earlier this year in a Heritage Auction sale when an NGC/CAC MS65* Brasher Doubloon, detailed in an earlier column, set an all-time gold coin sales record of $9.36 million and a PCGS 1804 Capped Bust gold $10 graded Proof 65+ Deep Cameo CAC sold for $5,280,000.
Then the finest known 1822 $5 (PCGS AU50) set a record for U.S. Mint-produced gold coinage when it sold for $8,400,000 in the Stack’s Bowers Galleries March 2021 Auction. There are only three known, and two are in the Smithsonian’s collection. Some say that no gold coin collection is complete without this coin. Not to be left out, a 1797 half dollar in PCGS MS66 also just sold for $1,680,000 at the same Stack’s Bowers auction, making it the
most valuable half dollar ever sold. As you can see, big money is increasingly coming into the United States rare coin market.
The world coin market is also strengthening. Recently, the Heritage Auctions Paramount Collection sale of world coins realized $41.94 million which far exceeded Heritage experts’ estimates on the coins ($14 to $18 million). The highlight of the sale was an Edward VIII gold proof pattern 5 pounds NGC 1937 PR67 Ultra Cameo that sold for $2,280,000, a record for a British coin.
It is becoming harder and harder to find special rare coins in the U.S. and abroad.
PRECIOUS METAL IMPORTS ARE UP DRAMATICALLY – USA TODAY
A major U.S. newspaper reported: “Gold, silver and other precious metals poured into the U.S. as purchases of other overseas items dropped.” At a time when imports were down due to COVID-19, purchases of gold and silver coins and other precious metals products increased dramatically.
USA Today stated that the value of precious metals pouring into the country hit a 19-year high in 2020, a $55 billion influx that doubled the volume of 2019. Analysts and traders say the trend reflects rising demand among purchasers that range from Wall Street investment funds to ordinary people buying up bullion.
The writer quoted dealers whose daily call volume had doubled. Back in August of 2020, I was the only dealer interviewed by USA Today for a similar article. I can verify that as many people have called my firm who had not called for years, and many more new customers have also been contacting the firm. The coins of most interest are bullion coins such as American Eagle gold and silver coins from the U.S. Mint which are now bringing higher and higher premiums over spot. With new reverse designs being released this summer and the U.S. Mint limiting old design sales, demand is far out pacing supply for those coins.
In the first three months after the COVID-19 lockdown began, the U.S. imported $23 billion in precious metals, a total that surpassed all of 2019. At the same time, many gold and silver mines were closing, limiting the new supply of bullion. Last May, $8.8 billion of nonmonetary gold shipped to the U.S. from the rest of the world, more than 10 times the monthly average for 2019, according to U.S. census data. In the first five months of 2020, Switzerland alone shipped about 286 tons of gold to the U.S. – more volume of gold than it had shipped in all of the preceding 10 years combined, according to Standard Chartered Bank.
Again, this kind of greatly increased demand for bullion products invariably leads to interest in rare coins by many of those new bullion customers.
Mike Fuljenz, president of Universal Coin & Bullion in Beaumont, Texas, is a leading coin expert and market analyst whose insightful writing and consumer advocacy have earned major honors from the ANA, PNG, NLG, and the Press Club of Southeast Texas. His website is www.universalcoin.com.