Better late than never might well be the message of the Elgin, Ill., half dollar as the monument it was supposed to help finance back in 1936 was finally dedicated in 2001.

It is hard to be objective when it comes to the 1844 Seated Liberty dime, otherwise known as “Orphan Annie.” The best place to start with is with its low mintage of 72,500. That, at least, cannot be disputed. Just about everything else can be.

Great rarities sometimes involve great mysteries and that is the case with the 1861 Paquet reverse double eagle.

Mintages can sometimes be deceptive. Of course when the mintage in question is just 2,300 pieces it is hard for that to get too deceptive, but this is the case for the 1873-CC Seated Liberty dollar.

The 20-cent piece was an interesting but rather short-lived denomination. In fact, business strikes of the 20-cent piece were produced only in 1875 and 1876, and if the mintages were large there would still not be a large supply.

The 1908-S Indian Head cent does not get a lot of recognition though it probably should. It’s a historic coin and a very interesting one at that.

With each passing year we seem to be learning more and more about the Franklin half dollar. One of the prime things we are learning is that many of us should have saved more Franklin half dollars when we had the chance.

Jefferson nickels are finally getting some attention. As they do, it could be frustrating for a while to attempt to figure out which of the many long-overlooked dates will turn out to be better.

Anyone who thinks that nothing has happened with Roosevelt dimes in the past decade needs to take a look at the 1946 Roosevelt dime and its price movements in recent years and then try to figure out just what is happening with it.

The 1976 Kennedy half dollar is not a rare coin, but it’s an interesting coin and it may well be that history will judge that it’s even more important than we suspect.