Smithsonian owns two 1822 gold $5s

Can you locate the three known specimens of the 1822 half eagle?
Easily, for two-thirds of the group, as two are in the Smithsonian. The third was sold in 1982 for $687,500 to David Akers (buying for a private collector) and again in 1993 for $1 million. It is the only one of the three in private hands.

Is there a variety of the 1950 Canadian half dollar with “lines in the O?”
The variety does have lines showing in the center of the zero in the date, from the ground around the shield. However, the coins without the lines are the scarcer.
n Am I wrong, or did I get conned into buying two extra dollars – the 1983-P and 1984-P – when I bought the three complete sets of the 1983-1984 Olympic coins offered?
The complete set of 13 Olympic coins consists of the 1983-S and 1984-S proof dollars, 1983-P and 1984-P uncirculated $1, 1983-D and 1984-D uncirculated $1, 1983-S and 1984-S uncirculated $1, 1983-W uncirculated $10 gold and the 1984-W proof $10 gold. There were also PDS proof gold $10s. To get them, you had to buy the “Six-Coin Set,” (with one each 1983-P and 1984-P uncirculated $1), the 1983 “Limited Edition Collector’s Set” (to get the D and S uncirculated $1, plus the first extra P $1), and the 1984 “Limited Edition Collector’s Set,” which brought you the second extra. The PDS gold was sold late in the program to boost profits. You bought two extra coins, but so did everybody else who wanted the full set.

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Do the 15 stars on the 1817 large cent variety indicate the number of states in the Union at that time?
At that time, the country used what was known as the “Flag of 1795,” which contained 15 stars and was the flag that flew over Fort McHenry in 1814 during the War of 1812 (The Star-Spangled Banner). There were 18 states at that time.”

I’m running out of zeroes trying to figure out how many cents the Mint strikes a day. Can you help?
A figure of something over 50 million cents per working day.

Mintmarks get moved from front to back and back to front, but how about designer’s initials?
The obvious one is Victor D. Brenner’s “VDB,” which started on the reverse of the cent, was removed and then moved to the obverse. The VDB initials also hold the distinction of being the only instance where some of the coins bear the initials in relief (1909) and the rest are incuse (1918 to date).

The 1796 “LIKERTY” half dime has me bothered. How can they explain using a “K” punch in a case like that?
The variety is commonly listed this way, but in reality, it was punched with a B punch, which was apparently broken. The punch letter had a small gap in the top loop and a larger one in the bottom loop, looking like a K.

My 1971-D half dollar has much wider rims than the 1970-D. Is this a minting variety?
In 1971, the Mint modified the half dollar dies to make the rims wider, so all coins for the year have this feature. Minor die modifications of this kind occur every few years in most U.S. series. Note that this does not hold true for all dates. For example, both wide and narrow rims are found for both the near-date and far-date varieties of the 1979 SBA dollar.