The very first response to my annual forecast column of last week has arrived. The writer disagrees with my forecast that gold will be down for the year. I expect that he isn’t alone in that opinion. I hope to receive other reactions. Continue reading →

Is it possible simply to be a collector anymore, or do you have to be a collector/investor, or worse, an investor these days to be a success in numismatics? Read this week’s Viewpoint. I can understand collectors sometimes feeling like tourists in their own land. Continue reading →

The decision to suspend production of dollar coins for circulation indirectly is kicking the props out from under the cent and the nickel because it is seigniorage from the dollar coins that is masking the large losses the U.S. Mint takes each year to strike cents and nickels. Continue reading →

Coin collecting is about as close to an eternal hobby as we are likely to see on this earth. We can count on it carrying on through the remainder of our lives. But what else would we expect of a field that has its roots in the actions of Italian princes during the Renaissance 700 years ago? Continue reading →

When you sit at my desk week to week, it is easy to see the ongoing drama of numismatics unfold. But what about collectors who might skip reading a week or two of the paper, or the online version of the same stories? What about collectors who buy only the annual guide book? Continue reading →

The Mint achieved a sellout of its 25th anniversary American Eagle set in a few hours Oct. 27. Collectors ponied up over $30 million to snap up 100,000 sets. They jammed the Mint’s phone lines and spiked traffic to the Mint’s website. Continue reading →