The idea of putting Ronald Reagan on the $50 Federal Reserve Note certainly made for an interesting week for our poll question. As you might expect, there were strong feelings on both sides of the issue.

Americans have a long history of arguing about what money is or ought to be. In Colonial times, Americans liked the idea of paper money. All the hard currency disappeared to England as individuals who bought things from there had to pay with specie.

What is better for the numismatic hobby, having clout in Washington, D.C. , or not having any clout?

There is movement online urging Americans to take their money out of big bad banks and put it into nice small(er) local banks. However you might feel about this particular movement, it is an understandable one in the aftermath of the near financial collapse of the country.

Amazing. With my forecasting record of the past two years, readers still want me to continue to do this. OK, then, here goes.

I have just returned from the World Money Fair in Berlin, Germany. One of the advantages of being able to personally view the state of the coin market in Europe is that I come back with impressions.

Perhaps I should have called in sick the day I wrote the forecasts for 2009 that filled my Jan. 27 column last year. Certainly, I couldn’t earn a living as an investment advisor.

The U.S. Mint had a good day of sales when the 2010 gold and silver American Eagles became available to the authorized distributors Jan. 19.

It is a rarer and rarer occurrence when  I get to feel like I am a 12-year-old kid again, but when Heritage sold a specimen of the 1913 Liberty Head nickel Jan. 7, I did.

Hey, it’s January. Where are all of the new coins?