Select coins from the Ted Williams Collection have been graded by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation in preparation for a charity auction at Boston’s Fenway Park.

The 91 coins were a part of the personal items of Baseball Hall of Fame member Ted Williams. Each coin is encapsulated with the pedigree, “Ted Williams Collection.”

Consisting of 78 U.S. and 13 world coins, the collection includes an 1873-S “Open 3” $20 graded XF-45, a 1926 Indian Head $10 graded MS-63, a 1978 South Africa 1 Krugerrand graded MS-67 and a 1909 France gold 20 franc graded MS-66.

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The coins are a part of a large quantity of Ted Williams’ personal items that will be offered to the public by Hunt Auctions at a live event on April 28 at Fenway Park. A portion of the proceeds from the sale will be donated to The Jimmy Fund, a Boston charity affiliated with Ted Williams, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Boston Red Sox.

For more information about the coin collection or the auction, visit www.huntauctions.com.

Williams, regarded as the greatest batsman in Major League history, spent his 22-year career with the Boston Red Sox. His many records and accomplishments include six batting championships, a .344 career batting average and a .406 batting average in 1941.

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Last month I listed the annual gold closing prices for the previous decade. Several readers asked about silver. Here are the December closing prices for silver:

2001 – $4.58 no change
2002 – $4.80 + 4.8 percent
2003 – $5.95 +24 percent
2004 – $6.81 +14.3 percent
2005 – $8.82 +29.6 percent
2006 – $12.82 +45.3 percent
2007 – $14.80 +15.4 percent
2008 – $11.27 -26.8 percent
2009 – $16.82 +49.3 percent
2010 – $30.91 +83.7 percent
2011 – $27.88 -9.8 percent

As I write this on the second day of February silver is up about 20 percent over year end.

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Gold and silver American Eagles have done well over the last month. Strong bullion has had a major effect, but the premiums on proof issues have advanced slightly and there continues to be increased understanding and demand from the general public for silver Eagles. It seems that silver Eagles have become the item of preference for small silver investors even though the premiums are higher than alternative forms of silver.

Another factor stimulating the silver Eagle market is the current trading activity in the 25th anniversary sets. Many have complained over the Mint’s lack of accommodation in regard to the release and one-day sellout. But from a marketing standpoint it certainly increased awareness that has carried over to the other issues. We have noted an increase of dealer buy lists for specific dates in the series as well.

Set-up day for the Long Beach Coin, Stamp and Collectibles Expo saw some participants saying dealer attendance was light, but it seemed pretty normal to me. Business was being transacted with many scouting the floor for bargains and to fill customer want lists. In fact, I had more sales than normal for set-up day. Several respected dealers were discussing the market while standing at my booth and the consensus was another good year is under way for the numismatic arena. The common complaint was a lack of fresh new material.

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The premium on MS-64 gold Saint-Gaudens $20s fell to 15 percent in 2012 from 67 percent in 2009 on the first trading day of each of those years. Other gold coins show declines as well.

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My collector friend and I are arguing about the ban in the 1960s on melting U.S. silver coins. Did it also cover the silver war nickels?

From 1965 to 1967 it was illegal to melt any of the 90 percent silver coins but the lawmakers ignored the war nickels, apparently assuming that their 35 percent silver wasn’t worth bothering with. The smelters took advantage of this loophole and melted millions of them, right along with a lot of 90 percent silver that was claimed to be from Canadian coins. Because of conflicting laws, it was common practice to ship coins across the Canadian and Mexican borders to melt them wherever the opportunity arose.

How does the melting during the high-priced silver era (1980) compare with the available stock of silver coins?

One apt comparison noted that around 16 million ounces of silver was recovered from melted coins in the first three quarters of 1980. In 1965, the last year of silver usage in 90 percent silver coins, the Mint converted 320 million ounces into coins. The 1980 melt then was roughly 5 percent of a single year’s production. (The year 1965 is correct, as the Mint was still striking 1964-dated silver coins.)

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Were there other important melts besides the big one when the Trade dollars were recalled?

Millions were melted in Asia for their silver content. Among the specific recorded melts, the Indian Mint at Calcutta melted 200,000 in 1874 and the Osaka Mint in Japan melted 530,000 in 1876. The U.S. Mint redeemed 7.7 million and melted them down to strike Morgan dollars and small change.

Is the mintage figure for the 1852-0 quarter accurate?

The figure of 96,000 does not reflect the reported melting of a quantity of this date that was slightly overweight. Tolerance for the silver quarter was 4.0 grains plus or minus, so the “heavy” ones would have to have weighed 107 grains or more.

Has it ever been illegal to melt or export U.S. cents?

From April 18, 1974, to June 9, 1978, it was illegal to export more than 100 cents or to melt any cents. Up to 500 could be exported for numismatic purposes. The reason was that copper prices were high. Technically it was a regulation, put into effect by Treasury Secretary George Schultz on May 1, 1974. It was rescinded on June 8, 1978. The current ban on melting or exporting cents and nickels went into effect in 2006.

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Is there some kind of story that some 1871 silver dollars were minted from metal recovered from a fire?

I can only find sketchy details, but reputedly the coins were struck from metal from “melted horns from the Diligent Fire Engine Co. #10 of Philadelphia.” The story traces to the Chapmans, who were old-time coin dealers.

Has the U.S. Mint ever employed women to any great extent?

The Mint is currently an Equal Opportunity Employer and has had many women working for it over the years. Back in 1850, Franklin Peale employed 50 women to weigh gold coin planchets and adjust them with files. The records show that there were more than 600 applications for what was then considered “easy” work since it was for “only” a 10-hour day. Other jobs required 12 hours of work per day.

Where does the Mint print our money?

The U.S. Mint makes only coins and medals. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing prints bank notes in Washington, D.C., and at the branch plant in Forth Worth, Texas. The Bureau is a separate division of Treasury with no connection to the Mint.

Email inquiries only. Send to AnswerMan2@aol.com. Because of space limitations, we are unable to publish all questions.

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The German finance minister called Greece “a bottomless pit.” I think that quote can apply to over half of the Western World. Fiat currency has allowed many governments to create a huge international bottomless pit. Although precious metals are weaker at the moment because of the weakening euro versus the dollar, they are the only insurance for the individual.

This week gold is down about 1.5 percent with silver at 2 percent and platinum tagging the mat at 3 percent. With oil hanging above the $100 mark, it is a wonder that platinum does not show a little strength. Supplies are minimal.

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Gold type coins are lackluster with the only bright area being in the tiny $1 issues and quarter eagle issues. These are very often used in programs that are run in the mass media here and in Europe. Saint-Gaudens $20s are perhaps at the lowest premium to melt ever in MS-65 at just over $2,000.

Non-gold type coins have shown a few downward adjustments in selected issues such as the Rays Shield nickel in MS-65 and stars obverse Seated dimes in the same grade. Flying Eagle cents are flying a little higher. While there are no price changes early copper remains strong.

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The Long Beach show was well attended. Collectors looked for mid-to- high grade circulated type coins and they were buying. There was also a good deal of interest in Capped Bust half dollars, especially by the Overton variety hunters.

Email: harrymkrause@optonline.net

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Did you see the news about Italian authorities seizing roughly $6 trillion in fake Treasury bonds in Switzerland?

Even in this day and age of large numbers, such as our $3.8 trillion federal budgets and a $15 trillion national debt, you have to wonder what the forgers of these securities were thinking.

We were not told how good these fake bonds are, only that they were stored in three large trunks at a Swiss trust company.

But does anybody believe that such a sum can be obtained even if the bonds were so good that the famous bankers of Switzerland are fooled?

One iron rule of counterfeiting is that to successfully pass something, you just can’t afford to call attention to yourself.

I think $6 trillion would put anyone in the spotlight even if they wore dark glasses and turned up the collar on their overcoat.

Someone might even place a call to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner about such a sum. It is six times the total of all of the U.S. paper currency in circulation.

Imagine trying to walk out of a bank lobby with that much cash stuffed in your pockets.

Our poor old chairman of the Federal Reserve System, Ben Bernanke, can’t even spend 10 percent of that sum over the course of eight or nine months without being noticed.

They are still talking about his $600 billion of QE2, or the second round of quantitative easing that ended last June.

What chance do the poor counterfeiters have trying to pass 10 times that amount?

We can’t have them making Bernanke look like a piker, now can we?

As the American Eagle moves into its second quarter century and as a number of collectors are wondering why they can’t put rare coins into their Individual Retirement Accounts, the suggestion has been floated (by me) that collectors ought to consider, and dealers who supply the coins should be encouraged to look at the mintage figures of uncirculated Eagle coins.

Lest anyone forget the nature of the mischief that caused the problem, in August 1981, Congress added section 314-b of the Economic Recovery Act (now section 408(m) of the Internal Revenue Code). The practical effect was to ban gold and silver coinage in self-directed individual retirement accounts.

(Before that, collectors could put collector coins in their IRA accounts; those who do it for income find themselves in the situation where the purchase of a coin (disapproved) causes the entire account to be labeled one that is in the process of “distribution,” which imposes a number of restrictions on them, including taxes and a prohibition against further contributions.

American Eagles (gold and silver) are permitted to be included in the account because Congress made clear that American Eagles could be put into the retirement plan contrary to the general rule.

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Here’s where that becomes interesting. Silver Eagles (containing an ounce of silver) have been around for 25 years. To the person who is looking for growth potential in these rare coins, certain mintages could most powerfully ally with your investment desires to invest in rare coins.

Let’s look at the 1-ounce silver (dollar) coin which has handed all if the statutory coins are included. Maximum mintage is more than 39 million pieces for the 2011 silver Eagle) while the 2010 date comes in at 34 million. Obviously, neither is rare by any definition.

Let’s look at them first simply in chronolocal order since the series began in 1986:

1986 5,393,005
1987 11,442,334
1988 5,004,646
1989 5,203,327
1990 5,840,210
1991 7,191,066
1992 5,540,068
1993 6,763,762
1994 4,227,319
1995 4,672,051
1996 3,603,386
1997 4,295,004
1998 4,847,549
1999 7,408,640
2000 9,239,132
2001 9,001,711
2002 10,539,026
2003 8,495,008
2004 8,882,754
2005 8,891,025
2006 10,676,522
2007 9,029,036
2008 20,583,000
2009 30,459,000
2010 34,764,500
2011 39,868,000

Now let’s sort these dates by mintage in ascending order from lowest to highest. You can see that the 1990s saw many low-mintage years:

1996 3,603,386
1994 4,227,319
1997 4,295,004
1995 4,672,051
1998 4,847,549
1988 5,004,646
1989 5,203,327
1986 5,393,005
1992 5,540,068
1990 5,840,210
1993 6,763,762
1991 7,191,066
1999 7,408,640
2003 8,495,008
2004 8,882,754
2005 8,891,025
2001 9,001,711
2007 9,029,036
2000 9,239,132
2002 10,539,026
2006 10,676,522
1987 11,442,334
2008 20,583,000
2009 30,459,000
2010 34,764,500
2011 39,868,000

Overall, 281,861,081 1-ounce silver coins have been struck.

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Look at mintages of Morgan dollars (1878 to 1921) and then the silver eagles with mintages of under six million (10 of the 25 struck). Those are likely the ones with the best opportunity to have collectible value in the future beyond bullion content. There are no guarantees, of course, but if there is a hobby in 25 or 30 years, you can be sure that collectors will be bidding up the values of rarer coins as compared to the more common ones.

Will the 2011 silver Eagle jump to collector minds in the future as common just as 1921 Morgans do to the minds of present-day collectors?

There are many other Eagles, gold and platinum, that also fall into this low mintage area. Check out my new book The Essential Guide to Investing in Precious Metals,” which Krause Publications published on Dec. 28.

I hope you will find it a guide to the future.

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Bank notes issued worldwide since 1961 are featured in the 2013 Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Modern Issues 1961-Present, now available in the 18th edition from Krause Publications.

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• 19,750 variety listings of world bank notes

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A network of more than 80 international paper money collectors and dealers work with editor George S. Cuhaj, who has been on the Standard Catalog editorial staff since 1994, to ensure that the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Modern Issues is the most comprehensive resource available for the proper identification, description and valuation of modern world bank notes.

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By David Allen Hines

On Jan. 3 Numismatic News featured an article by David L. Ganz discussing several commemorative coin proposals pending before Congress. But for these, or any other new commemorative coins to be successful, changes are needed, because the modern commemorative coin program has badly stagnated.

Recent issues have received little publicity, and sales have been mere fractions of the authorized mintages.

Collectors may be happy at the low sales figures for last year’s commemoratives, because this may portend a future increase in value due to perceived scarcity. But if the goal of a commemorative coin is to draw nation-wide attention to the topic being commemorated and generate surcharge revenue for the causes, recent issues haven’t done well.

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There has been legitimate debate over whether recent commemoratives were for causes or events that have enough widespread appeal for a national program, or how well the Mint has marketed the coins. But the most significant factor in the program’s decline has been a result of the tremendous increase in precious metals prices in recent years. The higher cost of gold and silver has resulted in commemorative silver dollars that now are priced at more than $50, and $5 gold pieces cost several hundred dollars.

Both prices are more than many regular collectors can, or are willing, to spend on modern mint issues that have tended to drop in value in the after-market, and the high prices also make the coins unappealing to the general public. Additionally, the designs on many of the coins have been of questionable artistic merit, further limiting their appeal.

But, with a few tweaks to the status quo, the commemorative program can be revived. Choosing topics of proven nationwide interest and appeal combined with an improved marketing campaign to the public can attract a larger potential sales base; changing the denominations to decrease precious metal content can make the coins more affordably priced yet retain the appeal of owning real gold and silver. Hiring an outside design firm such as was done when Tiffany & Co. designed the elegant Dolly Madison silver dollars in 1999 can ensure a quality design while relieving pressure from Mint staff already tasked with creating many new quarter and dollar coin designs each year. The combination of interesting, commonly recognized topics, precious metal, lower cost, attractive designs, and unusual denominations might well result in a home run program that could reinvigorate the modern commemorative program.

Two of the proposals Ganz talked about in his article in particular attracted my attention for their national interest, and, with a few changes to the introduced legislation, they might be developed into successful programs.

First, there is a proposal to mint a silver dollar to benefit the March of Dimes, certainly a well-known and worthy cause. But why yet another silver dollar? Instead, how about a commemorative silver dime to benefit the March of Dimes? With the price of silver at $33.93 per ounce as I write this mid-day on Feb. 8, the 0.07234 ounce in a standard silver dime produces a net precious metal cost of just $2.45. Even with production and packaging costs, these coins could be sold for just $25, with $15 from the sale of each coin going to the March of Dimes. If just 100,000 commemorative dimes were sold, this would provide the March of Dimes with $1.5 million dollars, plus a great deal of publicity. And with the affordable price, popular topic, and this being the first-ever commemorative silver dime (if you don’t count the 1996-W 50th anniversary Roosevelt dime included in Mint sets that year), sales to collectors and the general public might easily surpass this modest goal.

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The other proposed legislation Ganz discussed that caught my attention was the “USS Cruiser Olympia Commemorative Coin Act” to benefit the conservation and preservation of the sole remaining Spanish-American War U.S. Navy warship that is badly in need of repairs, restoration and funds to assure permanent maintenance and operations. The vessel was launched in 1892 and is the world’s oldest steel warship still in the water. It was the flagship of Commodore George Dewey during his significant victory over the Spanish navy during the war. (For an excellent history of the Spanish-American War, I highly recommend Empire by Default: The Spanish-American War and The Dawn of the American Century by Ivan Musicant.)

But of instead of the now routine status quo for modern commemoratives of using the denominations of a silver dollar and gold half eagle, with a likely end result of high cost coins with low sales, what if instead the denominations employed were the three dollar gold coin and silver twenty cent piece?

The $3 gold coin, last minted in 1889, contains 0.14512 ounce of gold compared to the 0.24187 ounce in a half eagle, meaning the $3 coin could be sold at a significantly lower price than the half eagle. At the $1,733.19 per ounce gold price as I write this, a $3 piece would contain $251.52 worth of gold, compared to $419.21 in a half eagle, quite a difference that could significantly lower the cost of a $3 denomination commemorative. And the diameter of the $3 coin, 20.5 millimeters, is inconsequentially smaller than the 21.6 millimeter size of the $5 coin, so after producing many half eagle designs in recent years, Mint engravers should have no problem with executing designs for a $3 coin.

The 20-cent piece was last minted in 1878. It has a silver content of 0.1447 ounce, which at $33.93 per ounce includes $4.91 of silver, vastly less expensive than the silver dollar, which with 0.7736 ounce of silver, contains $26.25 intrinsic value in silver. The diameter is almost the same as the quarter, and in recent years, we have had many different designs appear on the quarter, so Mint engravers should be familiar with devising designs of this size.

Imagine the interest that might be generated by a March of Dimes silver commemorative dime, and a two-coin set containing a $3 gold piece and a silver 20-cent piece benefitting restoration of the USS Olympia. These coins would all still contain precious metal, but in quantities that would make them much more affordable to the average collector and to the general public. The odd, long unused denominations would certainly engender interest and publicity, which would likely improve sales. Both causes – the March of Dimes and the preservation of the oldest steel warship that scored a major victor in the war that made the U.S. an international power – have national appeal and merit.

The problem now is convincing Congress to change the established status quo of the use of silver dollars, half dollars and half eagles for virtually every non-circulating commemorative issued since 1982. Collectors who often criticize the Mint need to remember that it is Congress and the President, who by law, determine what commemorative coins are issued, in what denominations, and in what quantities. The Mint only handles the production, marketing and sales of the coins.

David Allen Hines is a collector from Kingston, Pa. Viewpoint is a forum for the expression of opinion on a variety of numismatic subjects. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of Numismatic News. To have your opinion considered for Viewpoint, write to David C. Harper, Editor, Numismatic News, 700 E. State St., Iola, WI 54990. Send email to david.harper@fwmedia.com.

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Long before impersonators of the late  astrophysicist Carl Sagan popularized the phrase “billions and billions,” coin collectors of my generation were trained by the Mint post-1965 to think in terms of of billions and billions as it poured out copper-nickel clad coins to replace silver coins and end once and for all a national coin shortage.

Over time we even worked our way up into the tens of billions for annual coin mintages for a single denomination.

No more. Now we are regressing to millions and millions and I have to watch where the decimal place goes as I prepare the chart reporting the Mint’s monthly coin production.

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January’s output of 802.5 million coins if annualized comes out to 9.63 billion coins, comfortably close to the 10 billin capacity that deputy Mint Director Richard A. Peterson says the Mint is staffed for in a Numismatic News interview two weeks ago.

When I saw the monthly figures, I wasn’t surprised, but I did look at them from multiple angles.

Is the Mint still making an overall profit on its monthly output, I wondered? I pulled out the costs of each of the denominations and worked my way through the output numbers.

The losses on the cent and nickel were $11.66 million during January while the profits on the dimes through dollars totaled $18.52 million. Subtracting the loss from the profit yields an overall monthly profit total from circulating coins of $6.8 million.

That’s not a figure that impresses my generation of collectors. In an era of annual federal budgets totaling $3.8 trillion and a national debt of $15 trillion, what’s $6.8 million? It’s not even a rounding error.

Even if I multiply this number by 12 to reach an annual Mint profit figure of $81.6 million it still seems puny.
How can I recalibrate my 1960s numismaticly trained brain to absorb such small numbers? I want the stimulus of all of the extra zeroes that I was fascinated to work with as a kid.

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I am not alone. Others have a hard time grasping the absence of zeroes. Some letters to the editor have opined that the Mint should just go on absorbing the high costs of the cent and nickel, no doubt visualizing gigantic federal budget numbers in which such costs can be hidden.

No doubt Mint management would like to see the return of some extra zeroes as well, but even extreme reductions in the costs of the cent and nickel that could be achieved with steel compositions will not change the profit math by enough to lift us out of dealing with millions.

But perhaps these smaller numbers will do us all a favor. They might be more comprehensible. The might make the urgency of the Mint’s declining profitability more apparent. After all, one good lottery ticket nowadays will earn the holder more than the Mint’s current profits on circulating coins.

That just seems out of whack, doesn’t it?

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Did you remember where you were 50 years ago yesterday when astronaut John Glenn blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in Friendship 7 to become the first American to orbit the earth?

Five decades is a long time to remember an event, but I happen to be someone who can remember it.

Why?

My grade school considered the event so important that we kids were invited to view it on televisions placed in various locations around the school.

The set I watched the blast-off on was in the hallway outside my classroom.

It was the only time while I was in school that an event from the space program caused us to stop what we were doing.

There were many events that characterize the decade of the 1960s, but it seems to me the space program gets short shrift.

Sure, the Apollo 11 moon landing was celebrated on the reverse of first the Eisenhower dollar starting in 1971 and then the Anthony dollar in 1979, but there is nothing else.

I editorialized in the 1980s that the space shuttle should be on a commemorative.

The response from Mint Director Donna Pope was that a space shuttle on a coin would soon look old-fashioned.

Well, yes it will someday. That’s precisely the point. Milestones of history are reminders of what came before us.

The space program is a series of events worthy of commemoration. That we as a nation have done little to mark our progress with silver and gold coins will look to be strange to future generations.