It’s been the basic history of the Washington quarter to be overlooked. The two exceptions were the 1932-D and 1932-S, which was natural as they had mintages of 436,800 and 408,000, respectively.

The 1945-S Jefferson nickel seems to have emerged as the most difficult of the wartime silver alloy nickels, at least in MS-65 with full steps. However, wartime alloy Jefferson nickels are a group where we are still learning exactly which dates are more available and which are tougher.

The 1996 Wheelchair Paralympics silver dollars issued to commemorate the Atlanta Olympic Games seem to be coins on a mission.

Sometimes we act like outside events have no influence on coin collecting. Many times they seem to have no impact, but the nation has had some momentous events and it is hard for coin collectors to not feel the impact of those events.

If you happen to believe there’s some truth in the classic saying, “Don’t look back because something might be gaining on you,” when it comes to Jefferson nickels, that something doing the gaining might well be the 1942-D.

When you look at today’s MS-65 price of the 1954-S Roosevelt dime, you find that it is $10, just $4 more than the 1964-D, which had a staggering mintage.

When a lot of commemoratives are released and some start moving to higher prices, it’s easy for another issue to get lost in all the excitement. That may very well be the case with the First Flight silver dollar.

To kids growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, to say the year “1941” out loud didn’t seem complete without saying “Dec. 7” before it.

Sometimes you have to question precisely what lawmakers are thinking when it comes to modern commemorative programs. Actually, we may know what they are thinking and just don’t want to say it.

Consider the 1937 Buffalo nickel’s price of $69 in MS-65. It’s certainly a low price for a nice coin and very few other Buffalo nickels even come close.