Never in history has there been so much information and help at the fingertips of coin collectors. The question is why do so few take advantage of it? Continue reading →

What does the explosive growth in the issuance and sale of colorized precious metals coins mean for numismatics? That question was on my mind for the entire week I was in Germany to attend the World Money Fair in Berlin. Continue reading →

Am I becoming more clairvoyant? You wouldn’t think so if I simply declare that my forecasts for 2012 resulted in six out of 10 being right, three being wrong and one that I have to call incomplete. Continue reading →

Wonder how my forecasts for 2012 worked out? So do I, but because of the short weeks due to the holidays and my attendance at the Florida United Numismatists Show, my annual confessional will have to wait until next week. Continue reading →

Only crooks and poor people use cash. Did that statement get your attention? It gets mine. I read a story called “The End of Cash?” in the Dec. 31, 2012, issue of Barron’s, a popular financial weekly. While it wasn’t quite put that bluntly, the article pointed out that for people earning $60,000 a year or more, only 2 percent of point-of-sale payments are made by using cash. Continue reading →

News of Larry Shepherd’s lawsuit against the American Numismatic Association certainly has to be disheartening for members who had thought that perhaps a period had been reached when for the first time since 2007 legal and other problems had been put behind the organization. Continue reading →

What’s to be made of a Mint report to Congress that basically asks for more time on the assignment given to it? Nobody wants to ask Congress to make important coinage decisions based on less than the best information available. Continue reading →

Does prestige mean anything anymore? What I mean by that is that when silver was removed from U.S. dimes and quarters in 1965, the half dollar retained some silver in it for prestige reasons. Continue reading →

I once had an acquaintance whose friends said he was a man with three heads. This was said half in amusement and half in mockery.
Why? It was because he always had three opinions about every topic. Continue reading →

When I was a kid there were no third-party grading services, no certificates of authenticity and no feeding frenzy over -69 and -70 grades. All the things that I had to learn as a beginner did not involve brain teasers like an inquiry below that was recently emailed to me. Continue reading →