Anxious for numbers

It’s Monday. It’s June 1. I’m looking for news.

Am I preoccupied with gold knocking on the door of $1,000 a troy ounce for the third time since March of 2008?

No.

What I find myself anxiously awaiting are the May production figures from the U.S. Mint.

How many cents will have been struck?

How many Guam quarters came off the presses? Will I even be able to figure out the where the Puerto Rico quarters left off and Guam began?

It is all kind of fun.

Then there are the 2009 nickels and the dimes. I just had my first telephone report of the find of a 2009 dime in circulation. I assume it is a “P” because it was found in Massachusetts by Richard Hand. He promised to mail it. Will it arrive in the morning mail?

And, of course, there are other things going on in numismatics.

The Long Beach show was held this past weekend and has concluded. For years it was the informal demarcation line between the active collector spring season and the beginning of the sleepy summertime pace.

What will happen after this year's spring show?

With a Baltimore show following it by two weeks, will that become the demarcation line instead? We will have to wait for events to take place to find out.

One bit of news that I wish I didn’t have in hand already saddens me this week. It is the departure on Thursday of Sara Wait of the art department. Her husband has taken a job in Peoria, Ill., and with the end of the school year the family will now follow. It was always a pleasure working with her to make Numismatic News and other products look good. She will be missed, and I wish her all the best.