Mint catalog looks great

When I was a little kid, I used to daydream over the toys in the Sears catalog to see what I might want Santa to bring me.

It has been a long time since I was a kid and catalogs are no longer in fashion.

However, I could still feel that familiar adrenaline rush when I spotted the Mint’s color catalog in my mailbox yesterday.

The cover had a beautiful 2015 Saint-Gaudens gold American Eagle on it.

I opened it up and spotted the 2015 American $1 Coin and Currency Set.

The Mohawk ironworkers design looks even better when it is enlarged for catalog use. The Mint really came up with a winner with this design.

The price of the set is $14.95 and the maximum number of sets is 90,000.

The High Relief gold $100 is set opposite the proof gold Buffalo.

Perhaps the Buffalo lends the other design its importance, because the High Relief design is growing on me more and more.

The catalog features 28 pages, not many compared to the old Sears catalog, but it does justice to the Mint’s currently available products.

The wonderful style of presentation might make more coin collectors decide to become medal collectors, too.

The aircraft carrier design of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders bronze medal is awe-inspiring.

It is amazing what artists can do when they have the freedom to develop designs unhindered by all the required design elements and mottoes of coinage.

And since the medal says, “First Strike,” it is almost a motto for today’s generation of collectors who order products and immediately ship them off to third-party grading firms to get that coveted designation.

Well done, Mint, for a great catalog.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper has twice won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."

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