Welcome Christine Monk

It is with great pleasure that we announce the addition of Christine Monk to the team of Numismatic Americana Incorporated. Bringing with her nearly 20 years of experience, Christine will continue to assist numismatists with the building of their collections that they have come to expect from her.

In addition to directing our retail sales, Christine will also attend all the major shows, both buying and selling, as well as providing the following services;

1) Working collector’s want list

2) Auction representation

3) Evaluating collections

4) Assisting collectors in the selling of their holdings

Christine will also be handling all technical aspects of the company; from cataloging and imaging the coins on our website, to expanding our marketing, and everything in between, Christine brings a level of experience unparalleled in the industry with her.

Providing an enjoyable, hassle free experience is Christine’s trademark, one which she will continue with Numismatic Americana. So give her a call, or email her, and see just how fun the “world’s greatest hobby” can be.

A Tale of Two Cities (or what a difference three thousand miles makes)

Taking the “Red Eye” back to New Jersey from Long Beach is never an easy task. Getting off the plane and going directly to the Parsippany, New Jersey show makes it even harder. But this is what I do.

I left for the first of three Long Beach shows this year on Wednesday. Not the usual Tuesday as I had done in the past decade. The wholesale business just hasn’t warranted it. And I didn’t think that many fresh coins would be there in other dealer’s boxes just waiting for the picking. I was right. Quality coins are definately in short supply. This Long Beach show wasn’t a “barn burner”, nor was it “dead”. Let’s call it lack-luster…plus.

Why? I’m not sure. But I have a few thoughts about it:

First, I don’t think the economy in California helps matters much. I didn’t see many of the usual collectors I normally would have. I even got emails from clients telling me that they had to work and couldn’t make it to the show. I guess job security is paramount and they couldn’t risk taking vacation to get to the show.

Second, and maybe the most important factor, is that I think the Long Beach show may have run it’s course. This show has been around a long time, and while the promoters have tried to evolve with the times, this venue is tired.

So how was the show from a sales stand point of view? Good. Actually good and then some. I thought throughout the show that it would be sub-par. I was wrong. The numbers actually added up. Not just the dollar amount, but the number of invoices written. It is always a good sign when you can sell coins to MANY willing buyers and not just a few. As of lately, ;most sales were to collectors who knew what they wanted. We didn’t sell any coins “on a whim”. Just like at the FUN show, we noticed a lot of interest in U.S. commemoratives. The classic ones, not the modern pieces. And again, the coins had to have something, some sort of character, to sell. And sell they did. We also experienced an urgency of sort among the retailers to acquire coins for their customers. Most of the wholesale we did was to other retailers, not the crack-out artists or bottom fishers.

The price of gold taking it on the chin didn’t help. But that is the Long Beach curse, and those that adjusted their buy/sell prices accordingly did just fine. Those who tried to sell with a higher cost basis, well, they didn’t do so good. But generic gold was selling. Only for lower numbers.

So let’s grade Long Beach a B-. Not bad considering everything going on.

Landing at Newark’s Liberty International Airport at 5:30 after spending the night at 36,000 feet, we proceeded to go straight to the monthly Sunday show at the PAL building in Parsippany. Let me tell you it was COLD. Fifteen degrees to be exact. And windy.

The doors opened to the dealers at 7:00 and to the public at 9:00. By 10:00 the place was packed. I saw a few dealers here who, like me, had just returned from Long Beach. Seems business is good if you want to work for it. Parsippany isn’t like Long Beach. Finding high quality coins here has always been difficult. Harder now more than ever before. But we found a few “GEMS” for your consideration. They, along with Long Beach’s, will be up on our website within the next few days. Check back often.

Most of the people in Parsippany weren’t looking for higher quality pieces. A large percentage were looking for modern coins, both bullion pieces as well as proof strikings. Circ dollars, 90% silver, and circulated U.S. gold coins also appeared in demand. Lower grade, certified Morgan and Peace dollars were selling as well. True “collector” grade coins are King in Parsippany.

We give Parsippany an A-. Even better.

So there you have it. Two cities. Two shows. Two totally different observations. All I can say about this is that I am glad to see coins selling. Both GEM quality as well as lower grade and lower priced ones. It proves that no matter what is happening around the world, collectors are still willing to invest in their hobby. In this day and age it’s great that we have a means to escape into our own little world and relax.

Our next show is this week in St. Louis at the airport Hilton. This show has, in our opinion, always been a bell-weather for the midstream collector market. Hopefully we will find a few items for your consideration there.

Collecting and Appreciating Naturally Toned Coins, Part 1

By Greg Reynolds [ The original article appeared on CoinLink and is re-published with permission ]

In the history of coin collecting in the U.S., most of the greatest all-time collections were characterized by many coins with attractive, natural toning, especially including many coins that had never been cleaned, dipped or otherwise deliberately modified. I have personally and carefully inspected a substantial percentage of the coins in the Eliasberg, Norweb, and Pittman collections. Further, I have seen a significant number of the naturally toned coins that were previously in the Garrett family and James A. Stack collections. Most of the very scarce or moderately rare coins from these collections that brought surprisingly high prices at auction, and generated the most enthusiasm among collectors, are those that have (or then had) natural toning and/or mostly original surfaces. Over a period of more than 125 years, sophisticated collectors in the U.S. have tended to strongly prefer naturally toned coins.

Currently, three of the most sophisticated collectors who are widely recognized are Dr. Steven Duckor, Stewart Blay and Jay Brahin. Considerable information regarding their collecting accomplishments is found in the PCGS registry. While Jay is more of a specialist in early 20th century gold coins, Blay and Dr. Duckor have built phenomenal collections in several areas. Not all of their coins are listed in the PCGS registry. Most sophisticated, advanced collectors have similar sentiments and a preference for natural toning. Many of them, however, wish to remain anonymous and thus will not be mentioned. Duckor, Blay and Brahin are all very much willing to share their knowledge with the coin collecting community.

Mark Hagen is another collector who is willing to share with the collecting community. He has been collecting coins for over forty years. I have seen him at many auctions. Further, he reports that he attended the Norweb, Eliasberg and Pittman auctions and ALL of the FUN and ANA Platinum night sales. Indeed, Mark has “been to over one hundred major auctions over the past twenty-five years” and he has “seen most of the classic rarities and gem type coins that have sold at public auction over that period.”

Hagen observes that “there are a lot of artificially toned coins on the market.” Further, Mark laments that “in addition to those that have been recolored, thousands of rare coins have been dipped; the number of original coins is getting smaller every year.” On this issue, Jay Brahin agrees with Hagen.

“To the eye of a true collector, originality is more important than shiny,” declares Brahin. “Natural toning is a testament to the age and natural process that the coin has gone through. What makes antiques appealing is their antiqueness, a normal aging process of the items. The natural aging of a relic attests to its authenticity. If you saw an 18th century original document that was a bright manila white, you would realize that something is wrong with it. You would expect an old document to show natural signs of aging. If you see an 18th century silver coin that is bright white, it is suspect; or if it has bright purple toning, it means something is wrong.”
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Collecting and Appreciating Naturally Toned Coins, Part 2

By Greg Reynolds [ The original article appeared on CoinLink and is re-published with permission ]

In Part 1, I discussed the fact that almost all sophisticated collectors of U.S. coins have a very strong preference for natural toning, as opposed to coins that have been artificially toned, doctored, or dipped in brightening chemical solutions. As more and more rare coins are becoming subject to such deliberate, artificial modifications, this issue is crucial and needs to be urgently addressed. Although the two leading grading services have, since 2007, been rejecting a larger percentage of submitted ‘doctored’ coins, too many still become graded and encapsulated. Collectors will benefit by learning about such matters. Here in part 2, I focus on the connection between natural toning and the greatest collections, I emphasize the tradition of strongly preferring naturally toning, and I point out that naturally toned, 19th century coins are often not expensive.

In many instances over the years, I have mentioned the importance of naturally toned coins in the all-time greatest collections. I never claimed that my thoughts on this matter were path-breaking. Quite the contrary, I always believed that most sophisticated and knowledgeable collectors, plus advanced dealer-experts, agree that, usually, the naturalness and originality of the coins is a substantial and very important factor in determining the greatness and importance of a collection of U.S. coins.

Of course, there are other factors, such as completeness and the rarity of the coins included. Yes, collections that do not score at the highest levels in the originality category can still be excellent, such as the Harry Bass and Ed Trompeter collections. Undoubtedly, however, these collections would have been even better had more of the rare coins included been characterized by natural toning and/or original surfaces.

Certainly, natural toning and original surfaces are not the only factors to take into consideration when analyzing an individual coin. A coin may have natural toning and still have many problems. Natural toning has, though, been regarded as an extremely important factor throughout the history of coin collecting in the U.S.

Over the last half century, the Eliasberg, Norweb, Pittman, and Garrett collections are the four greatest to be auctioned. Numerous coins in these collections can be definitively traced to specific auctions that were conducted prior to 1915. Records exist of auction purchases by the Norweb and Garrett families. Moreover, most of the gem quality, 19th century silver and gold U.S. coins in the Eliasberg collection were earlier in the Clapp collection, which largely documented by the elder John Clapp. In addition to acquiring coins directly from the U.S. Mints, Clapp purchased coins at auction, possibly through or with the assistance of an agent. These had original (or at least mostly original) surfaces. Clearly, he avoided coins that were brightened with acids or artificially colored.
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Collecting and Appreciating Naturally Toned Coins, Part 3

By Greg Reynolds [ The original article appeared on CoinLink and is re-published with permission ]

In Part 1, I frame the topic and put forth perspectives of very accomplished, active collectors regarding natural toning. As I discuss in Part 2, preferring coins with natural toning is a tradition at the core of the culture of coin collecting in the U.S.

Here in Part 3, I maintain that the case for strongly favoring naturally toned coins goes beyond collector opinions and tradition. There have always been logical reasons for determining that coins with natural toning and/or mostly original surfaces are superior.

(1) Coin collecting has been a popular and serious pastime for around 150 years in the United States, and there has always been a strong tradition of valuing, all other things being equal, coins with mostly original surfaces and/or natural toning over those that have been treated with acids (including dipping), artificially toned, surgically altered or deliberately chemically affected in other ways.

It is fair to conclude that experts in earlier eras were employing reason, not just following a tradition, especially before the tradition evolved. (Please read Part 2.)

(2) The layers of a coin’s surface that are stripped off, and the changes in the texture of the surfaces of coins, through standard dipping or the application of many chemical concoctions implemented via ‘conservation,’ or other deliberate, short-term modifications are, to some extent, irreparable. The original state of the coin can never be restored, and will never fully return on its own. Parts of the coin are destroyed, and, while some coins can largely recover, parts of the nature and history of each coin are lost forever.

Please note that I am referring primarily to rare or at least scarce old coins. Usually, recently minted coins are minimally or not noticeably toned. So, not much toning is destroyed when a recently minted, or modern coin, is dipped in a standard acidic solution. For high quality, rare coins, dipping or ‘conservation’ through liquids, almost always destroys toning. … Click Here to Continue

I love my job. I really do.

I have spent over thirty years in this business on the wholesale level. While I have always had an interest in the history of coins, and always wanted to share it with other collectors, my career went down the wholesale road and that is the path it remained on for three decades. One of the ways that I have tried to “give back” to the hobby is by teaching a class at the American Numismatic Association’s summer seminar. This year, 2009, was my 12th summer at “coin camp” in Colorado Springs.

The first eleven years I remained purely educational. I only taught and never gave out a business card. Before this year, some might say I was standoffish, almost unapproachable. The truth is I was uneasy and didn’t know if the collecting fraternity would accept me or my style. I know coins, and I know the subject matter that I teach, but I never really thought of myself as a “salesman”. But this year something changed. Why, I do not know. Maybe it was because we had all survived the “heart attack” that America’s financial system had had, and just wanted to have fun with our coins again. My students and other collectors started asking me questions. Not just about coin grading, but about other aspects of the business. And it was fun again.

One of my students this summer, I’ll call him Stanley, was a repeat. He had been in my class before, but thought it might help him if he took a refresher course. So where is this leading to? Read on…

I’ve always have enjoyed Stanley, He is a true numismatist and a real gentleman. He collects a series, which I won’t say, where there has always been a little controversy about method of manufacture. That is whether a coin is a business strike or a proof. So this summer, at the ANA’s coin show in Los Angeles, I was excited when he stopped by my booth to chat. We talked for quite some time about a variety of things. Towards the end of our conversation he asked me if I might help him find a couple of coins he was looking for. The pieces he was looking for are scare if not downright rare. I told him I’d keep an eye out for them, and also reminded him to “not hold his breath”.

Two hours later one of them walked up to my table. Huh. What are the odds of the happening? As Stanley had already left the show, a few phone calls, and a couple of emails later, a deal was struck. Stanley wanted the piece.

Fast forward a few months, a few more emails, and a few more phone calls. Stanley had found a piece in his collection which exhibited the exact die characteristics as the coin he had purchased from me. The only difference was the holder it was in. The coin he had bought from me was a mint state specimen, and his other coin was labeled as a proof. What to do?

We met at the fall Long Beach show and examined his coin. I had another colleague look at the coin. We determined that the second coin was wrongly attributed. And so I resubmitted the coin on Stanley’s behalf.

Stanley was correct. He had done his homework, found an incorrectly labeled coin in his own collection, and had the third party grading service correct it. He was elated. It made my show to see another collector so happy.

I love my job. I really do.

Stone Mountain Counterstamped Half Dollars

In early 1925 the Stone Mountain Monumental Association was looking for different ways to market and help sell their newly issued commemorative. With the profits derived from the sale of a proposed 2,000,000+ coins at $1 each, the Association hoped to defray the cost of carving the massive granite sculpture in Stone Mountain, Georgia.

Along with enlisting the help of banks, insurance companies, and others, the group came up with the idea of “special” counterstamped pieces. There are basically three types of counterstamps, and they are as follows:

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