Letters to the Editor (Jan. 2, 2018)
Pricing for Jefferson commem listed incorrectly
Could you forward the below to correct person department?
The Jefferson (commemorative) coin set is priced at $816 on Page 69 in the Nov. 7 issue.
I thought I hit the lottery!
Alfred Holz
Address withheld
Editor’s note: That is indeed a blooper of a typo. The correct figure is supposed to be $58.
Disruption of Mint Statistics column draws concern
I just received my Nov. 7 issue of Numismatic News and my favorite feature, the Mint Statistics page, was missing making this the second issue in a row without it. What gives? Are you dumping it without giving your readers the opportunity to express their opinion on the matter?
Please resume publication of the Mint Statistics page and keep it in every issue going forward.
Thanks for your consideration of this request.
Henry Robinette
Douglasville, Ga.
Individual Marshall Service coins not in Coin Market
Unless my eyes deceived me, I could not find any Coin Market listing for the 2015 Marshall Service individual coins. I do find it as a set, but not the half dollar, dollar or $5 individual coins.
I’m writing in reference to the Dec. 5 issue of Numismatic News. Am I right or?
Thank you.
Kenneth S. Rothschild
Address withheld
Editor’s note: You are right. Thanks. We’ll get the listings in February.
Nickel should be priced per pound, not ounce, in letter
I always enjoy Bill Tuttle’s letters, but I must point out an error in his correspondence in your Dec. 5 issue. In it, Tuttle mentions that the metal nickel is worth about $5 per ounce. Actually, it is worth $5 per pound, a considerable difference! I began buying silver in the 1970s when it was $3 per ounce. You can bet if nickel ever hits $5 per ounce, you’ll see it selling in the form of bars and rounds in your local coin shop. Keep the letters coming, Bill. You just had an off day!
Bob Klippstein
Greensboro, N.C.
Roosevelt never mandated return of all gold coins
There was never any presidential F.D.R. “...order to turn in all gold coins” as stated in the Tuttle letter of Dec. 5.
If a collector had 50 double eagles with different dates and mintmarks in a Whitman “bookshelf” album (and I purchased a few such albums from customers 40 years ago), he would be a coin “collector,” not a “hoarder” of gold bullion.
Interestingly, those 50 circulated $20 gold pieces would buy two new mid-range, American made cars, then and now.
Richard Rosenbaum
Birmingham, Mich.
Reader appreciates take on convention accommodations
Re: “Where you stay during convention matters.”
Terrific article and spot on! As a former veteran of 12 years with the Atlanta CVB and 21 years with Marriott Corp., convention organizers are required to prove their history to show hotels and convention centers they are low risk to the facilities.
This is exactly why I got into the convention housing business, to help organizers prove their value by sharing their business case and speaking the language of the destination’s hotels and centers. It comes down to effective marketing to make sure convention attendees and exhibitors book through the proper channels. We help negotiate on behalf of our customers to make sure they’re getting the best deal for their organization as well as their members. Our buying power with national brands gives us the credibility to represent with little to no liability to our customers.
I’d welcome the opportunity to further discuss and would love an introduction to those that organize the ANA, CSNS and FUN Conventions to help with their housing needs. By the way, we use Passkey as our housing platform so the transition to the attendees would be seamless.
Thanks so much for your perspectives and look forward to taking this to the next level and working with the major numismatic conventions!
Mark Sussman
Vice President, Business Development
Connections Housing
Suwanee, Ga.
Machine’s rejection yields silver find for collector
I just wanted to share with you what I thought was a humorous little find. Over the past five years, I have been dropping my spare change in a water bottle. This week I decided to deposit my spare change in a bank account. I took the coins to a bank change-counting machine and dropped all of the coins in. The machine took all coins except for five. Four of those coins were foreign. The fifth, however, was a 1943-P silver nickel. The coin grades at about Extra Fine-40.
While it is not an expensive find, I was still really happy that the machine chose to give it back to me because of the silver content and the coin’s unique place in our history as a WWII issue. My guess is that the machine spit out the coin due to the weight of the silver being different to that of a regular nickel, but I’m not sure.
With this knowledge, should we believe it is still possible to build a complete set of Jefferson nickels from pocket change? I guess it is, even if it may take a lifetime. Anyway, I thought you might find this interesting.
Ken Parsons
Address withheld
Mind your manners when receiving free autograph
I am sending this, my response, to the letter of Nov. 14. You may publish it if you wish. I will not be offended if you do not.
I call it “A final comment on celebrity autographs.”
The recent letter you printed (from Mr. J. Vogel of New York City) responding to Pat McBride’s story about a former teacher who chastised John Mercanti about his illegible autograph, I believe, misses the point of Mr. McBride’s letter. The point is that when a celebrity provides his or her autograph to an individual as a courtesy and free of charge, it is bad manners in the extreme for that person to then upbraid the celebrity regarding the way in which that person signs his or her free autograph. That is the point. The responding letter-writer apparently believed that it was perfectly acceptable to dictate to someone how they should sign their name. As a rule, that is not how we treat our guest celebrities here in Pittsburgh. What happened to Mr. Mercanti was the exception to that rule.
I do agree with Mr. Vogel, however, regarding his comment about paying Derek Jeter $350 “for a bunch of illegible loops.” If I was paying someone $350 for an autograph, I think I have earned the right to tell that person how to sign their name. I would not do that, but I think $350 gives me an edge. As an aside, an autograph is the signature of a person written in a distinctive way as a means of identification. Why would someone want an “autograph” that is not representative of the distinctive way in which the writer signs? Just a thought.
Ben Costello
Venetia, Pa.
Reader happy to see Fugio cent receive bill as first coin
One of the Numismatic News issues of last August featured a cover story entitled “1783 Plain Nova Constellatio quint identified as first official U.S. coin ever struck,” saying that this pattern coin had been identified, to quote the article, as “the first coin officially struck by authority of the United States government.”
At the time, just as now, I disagreed with that opinion for a number of reasons. My opinion was, and still is, the one which I believe is the most common one among researchers in the area, namely that the Fugio coppers are, as stated in the Red Book, “the first coins issued by authority of the United States.”
For this reason I was glad to see the cover article in the current (Nov. 28) Numismatic News, entitled “1787 Fugio cent the first U.S. coin,” which, as the title implies, asserts that the Fugio coppers have this place of honor, rather than the Nova Constellatio pattern. I gather that this repudiates the position taken last August.
Thanks for setting the record straight on this issue, and as always thanks for the outstanding publication that is Numismatic News.
Name withheld
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More Collecting Resources
• The Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000 is your guide to images, prices and information on coinage of the 1900s.
• Order the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, General Issues to learn about circulating paper money from 14th century China to the mid 20th century.