Page 5 - Bower Encyclopedia News Today

There is no getting around the fact that doctored gold coins are a problem in the market. Doctoring is not new. I’ve heard stories of American collectors and dealers “messing” with coins as far back as a century ago.

By Doug Winter - RareGoldCoins.com ......   CoinWeek Content Partner   The first time I can recall interacting with Dale Friend was around 15

By Doug Winter - RareGoldCoins.com ......   CoinWeek Content Partner   It’s pretty obvious to specialists that the two rarest No Motto New

Content Partner A day rarely passes without a non-collector calling me or emailing me with a question (or questions) about a coin or a collection of coins that they own. Some of these interactions are disasters from the get-go. Here are some of my suggestions on how to ask me about your coin(s) in a way that works for both of us. Tell me your name. Don’t begin the conversation by immediately asking your question; that’s just rude. I’d suggest you start as follows: “Good Morning, my name...

Five Brief Takes: Carson City Half Eagles here). My plan is to do these on a fairly regular basis; perhaps two or three times per month. I am always looking for topics, so if you have any suggestions, send me an email at dwn@ont.com. * * * Carson City half eagles continue to be very popular with collectors. Unlike their 10 dollar and 20 dollar counterparts, this series is completable with no six-figure rarities, and there are enough affordable collector grade coins to satisfy the whole gamut of...

A New Batch of Fairmont Collection Half Eagles Sells at Auction Liberty Head half eagles sourced from the Fairmont Collection in their recent March 2021 Las Vegas auction. There were numerous nice collector-grade coins but no rarities, and virtually no coins that would sell for over $10,000. All the coins were graded by PCGS and a sizable percentage were approved by CAC. How did these coins do? Let’s break down some of the coins by mint and try to make sense of the prices. The Fairmont co...

1838-C is among the most sought-after Classic Head half eagles. It is both a one-year type and a first-year-of-issue. It is not an especially scarce date but it is extremely difficult to find Choice, as evidenced by its low populations at both PCGS and CAC. The current population of 1838-C half eagles graded AU55 or AU58 by PCGS stands at nine, while two have been graded in Uncirculated by this service. CAC has approved just three coins in AU55 to AU58, and a single piece in Uncirculated (an...

Coin Collecting Strategies: 7 Ways to Improve Your Coin Collection   Someone recently asked me a question that I thought was interesting and that merited a detailed response. To paraphrase this question, they basically asked me this: can you tell me some ways that I can improve my coin collection while spending little or no money? Are there any actual ways that you can make your coin collection better without dropping a lot of coin (bad pun intended)? I believe that there are and here are a fe...

The Curious Case of the 1855-C Gold Dollar   I can’t think of a single branch mint gold coin that has performed as poorly from a price perspective as the 1855-C gold dollar. Back around 2005 through 2008, these routinely traded in AU55 for $10,000-12,000 USD. Today, certain pieces in AU55 holders now bring only $5,000-5,500. 1855-C $1.00 PCGS AU55 CAC. Images courtesy Douglas Winter Numismatics (DWN) unless otherwise noted Why did this important one-year type coin drop so much in value? Th...

Simpson III: A Quick US Gold Coin Auction Analysis Part Three of the Bob Simpson Collection. As with the first two sales, the majority of the coins were non-gold but what few gold coins that were available tended to be spectacular. By analyzing the prices realized, we can get a better grasp of what is going on with the high-end segment of the US gold coin market. 1850, 1853-D, and 1856 Slanting 5 Gold Dollars Bob Simpson had a terrific collection of gold dollars and, little by little, these ha...