Archive for the ‘Hobbies’ Category

While many coins are desired by coin collectors there is a group of people who concentrate on collecting silver dollars. As these silver dollars are not that plentiful the choices that are made should be ones where the coin is known to increase in value with the passage of time. Unlike other coins silver dollar values can be found on the internet as well as from coin dealers.

Since there are not many of these silver dollars to be found you may want to research the ones that are known to give good value for money. You can choose the ones like the Morgan silver dollars or the Peace silver dollar as being silver dollars that you should think about adding to your collection. The silver dollar values for these are currently known and documented on the internet.

For example the Morgan silver dollar values are shown to increase for all of the versions. These types of silver dollars are considered by coin collectors to be investments for the future. Therefore the wise coin collector will look to see the silver dollar values for each of these to see which ones they want to buy.

As was stated earlier the other silver dollar that many coin collectors are interested in is that of the Peace silver dollar. This silver dollar came into production after 1918. This time was right after the World War I ended. As not many of these Peace silver dollars were minted they are considered as being rare. Therefore you can expect the silver dollar values for these coins to be expensive.

Out of the Peace silver dollars the ones that were minted at the Philadelphia mint are considered to be even more valuable than the other Peace dollars. The Peace silver dollar values for the 1928 coin are significantly higher in price. To gain a clear idea of the various values that are given for silver dollars you should look for information that deals with this issue. The information will help you when you take your silver coins to be appraised at coin dealers.

These silver dollar values can rise and fall without much warning, therefore if you are thinking of selling your silver dollars you should first choose a period of time when the values are known to be steadily climbing. With the few silver dollars out in the market you will need to choose the ones that will give you a good investment if you are looking to have your coin collection increase in value.



By: Muna wa Wanjiru

About the Author:

The Morgan Dollar is a silver United States dollar coin. The dollars were minted from 1878 to 1904 and again for one more year in 1921. The Morgan Dollar is named after its designer, George T. Morgan, who designed the obverse and reverse of the coin. Morgan's monogram appears near Lady Liberty's neck on the obverse. The Morgan Dollar was authorized by the Bland-Allison Act of 1878. It has a fineness of .900, giving a total silver content of 0.77344 troy ounces (24.057 grams) per coin.

History

The Comstock Lode, the greatest silver strike in history, was discovered in Nevada in the late 1850s. The strike put downward pressure on silver prices worldwide. The greatest silver strike in history was followed by the greatest coinage boondoggle in history. In 1878, to protect the interest of the western states, Congress passed the Bland-Allison Act which required the Treasury Department to purchase large amounts of silver, and to strike it as coins. For reasons of economy, the Treasury chose to strike the silver as dollars. The mintage was far more than was needed in circulation. These excess silver dollars quickly began piling up. Some original mint bags of Morgan Dollar remained in treasury vaults until the 1960s. This strange past has led to one of the greatest collectible series in American coins providing collectors with many dates and mint marks readily obtainable in mint state condition along with challenging rarities.

When the dollar was minted in 1878, it was the first dollar issued for American commercial use since the last Seated Liberty Dollar of 1873. The Trade Dollar was minted during this time period but was for trade in the orient. The dollar was continuously minted until 1904 when the supply of dollars in circulation was high and there was an absence of silver bullion. Then in 1918, the Pittman Act called for over 270 million coins to be melted for silver content. In 1921, the coinage of the Morgan Dollar resumed for that year and was replaced by the Peace Dollar commemorative that would become standard issue. Since 1921, many Morgan Dollar have been melted, mostly when silver prices escalate and they yield silver bullion.

Caches of Morgan Dollar produced at the Carson City Mint were discovered and were sold to coin collectors by the federal government in the early 1970s. These dollars were uncirculated and are called GSAs (named after the General Services Administration) and come in holds that mimic the holds used for proof silver Eisenhower dollars.

Rare Coin Site



By: lee williams

About the Author:

The peace dollar is a silver United States dollar coin minted from 1921 to 1928, then again in 1934 and 1935. Early proposals for the coin called for a commemorative issue to coincide with the end of World War I, but the Peace Dollar was issued as a circulating coin.

Designed by Anthony de Francisci, the Peace Dollar was so named because the word PEACE appears on the bottom of the coin's reverse. It contains 0.77344 troy ounces of silver, and was the successor to the Morgan Dollar, which had not been regularly minted since 1904. With the passage of the Pittman Act in 1918, the mintage of dollar coins was enabled to start again. Prior to the design and acceptance of the Peace Dollar, the Morgan Dollar was minted again in 1921.

After a six-year pause in minting, the Peace Dollar was again minted in 1934 and 1935. It was minted briefly in 1965 (dated 1964), but all examples of this issue were never released to the public and were melted. The Peace Dollar is the last silver dollar minted for circulation in the United States.

hISTORY

The original inspiration for the Peace Dollar was a paper published in the November 1918 issue of The Numismatist. In it, editor Frank G. Duffield called for a commemorative coin to mark the impending end of World War I. The paper was to be presented at the summer 1918 convention of the American Numismatic Association (ANA), but the convention was cancelled due to the Spanish flu pandemic.Duffield's paper stated that:

"An event of international interest, and one worthy to be commemorated by a United States coin issue, is scheduled to take place in the near future. The date has not yet been determined, but it will be when the twentieth century vandals have been beaten to their knees and been compelled to accept the terms of the Allies... It should be issued in such quantities that it will never become rare, and it should circulate at face value."

The theme for the proposed coin was elaborated upon at the Chicago ANA convention of August 1920. A paper written by Farran Zerbe called for a coin that would showcase the ideals of democracy, liberty, prosperity, and honor. The proposal called for either a half dollar or dollar, in order to provide as much space as possible for the design.

Return of the silver dollar

The biggest hurdle faced by proponents of the new coin was that no dollar coin had been minted for circulation in the United States since 1904, the last year of the Morgan Dollar. The demand for silver dollars was so low that vast quantities of Morgans were still sitting in bank vaults.That hurdle was overcome with the passage of the Pittman Act on April 23, 1918. Sponsored by Nevada Senator Key Pittman, the Pittman Act allowed the US government to melt as many as 350 million silver dollars, and then either sell the bullion or use it to produce subsidiary silver coinage. Additionally, the law required the government to mint replacement dollars for any that were melted, with domestically purchased silver.

Since the Act required the minting of new silver dollars, and since no new designs had been accepted, on May 9, 1921, the US Mint resumed production of the Morgan Dollar. More than 86 million Morgans were struck during that year, by far the single highest mintage in the coin's history. The same day that mintage of the Morgan resumed, legislation was introduced in the US Congress that called for the issuance a new silver dollar to commemorate the post-World War I peace. The measure did not come to a vote, but one was not needed. Since the Morgan had been in production (during its original run) for more than 25 years, alteration of the design no longer required legislative approval.

The job of designing the new coin would normally have fallen to George T. Morgan, the mint's chief engraver and designer of the Morgan Dollar. But in compliance with an executive order by President Warren G. Harding, an open design competition for the new dollar was held by the Commission of Fine Arts. Nine artists paticipated, including Adolph A. Weinman, Hermon A. MacNeil, and Victor D. Brenner, designers of the Mercury Dime, Standing Liberty Quarter, and Lincoln cent, respectively. The winner of the competition was an Italian immigrant and sculptor, Anthony de Francisci, whose most recent work had been the design of the Maine Centennial half dollar in 1920.

Production of the Peace Dollar commenced on December 21, 1921, and it was placed into circulation on January 3, 1922[5]. That same day, President Harding was presented with the first Peace Dollar Roughly one million examples were struck before it was realized that the relief on the coin was so high that it was difficult to strike, and the dies used were breaking at a high rate. The relief was lowered starting with the 1922 issue. That year more than 84 million Peace Dollars were struck, the highest mintage of the series.

End of production

By 1928, the US Mint had struck enough silver dollars (Morgan and Peace combined) to satisfy the requirements of the Pittman Act. Since public demand for silver dollars did not materialize, the mint halted production of the Peace Dollar that year (with fewer than two million struck). The Peace Dollar returned briefly in 1934 and 1935, as the government needed additional backing for Silver Certificates.

The coin almost made a return in 1964, when Congress approved the mintage of 45 million new silver dollars to fulfill the needs of the booming casino industry in Nevada.The decision was controversial due to a critical silver shortage in 1965, which led to widespread hoarding of silver coinage. In response to the shortage, Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1965, which authorized the removal of silver content from circulating coinage (except for the Kennedy half dollar) minted after December 31, 1964. But under pressure from some members of Congress from the Western states, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued an order on May 15, 1965 to resume production of the Peace Dollar (dated 1964 to allow silver to be included). 316,076 Peace Dollars were struck at the Denver mint that month, before Congress overrode the Presidential order and demanded that production cease. All the coins produced to that point were ordered to be melted. Although rumors persist that some examples still survive, owning them is illegal, making it unlikely that anyone who does own one will ever come forth publicly.

Production of dollar coinage did not resume until the Eisenhower Dollar in 1971. That coin, however, has no silver content, except for some sold directly to collectors by the Mint. Likewise, the Susan B. Anthony, Sacagawea dollars, and Presidential dollars that have been minted since the Eisenhower dollar contain no silver, making the Peace Dollar the last true silver dollar



By: lee williams

About the Author:

For many people finding good coins to add to their coin collection is considered as a smart investment. There are others who are constantly seeking to buy at least one rare coin. For these people the rare coins that can be found have to be worth the amount of money that was paid for them. As with other coins in coin collections, there are ways that you can find the rare coin prices that you need.

For the average coin collector, who spends money looking for rare coins, having a good price return means that they have bought a solid investment for the future. Since it is very hard to find rare coins. Prices must be given by an expert who has the experience in appraising the rare coins and they should also have the knowledge of the rare coin’s history. In addition you should also have some knowledge about the coin grading system that will be used in conjunction with your rare coins.

As you want to buy rare coins which will increase in value as time passes, you might want to conduct some research into the various rare coins prices for ones that are popular. These types of rare coins are known to be good buys because they perform well in the coin value market.

Some of the rare coins that are good buys include silver dollars as there weren’t many of these minted. The best silver dollars that you can buy for your coin collection will be that of the Morgan silver dollars and the Peace dollars. Of the Peace silver dollar you should expect the Philadelphia silver dollars which are rare coin prices, to rise very dramatically.

At the present moment in time these silver dollar rare coin prices are quite good if you are looking to sell them. You should not expect this situation to continue indefinitely though. Other than buying silver coins you can expand your coin collection with other types of rare coins. These rare coin prices will be graded in the same manner as your other coins.

You should expect that some of these rare coins will need to be seen by coin experts to have a proper valuation given. Since the current market prices and the demand for rare coins are not always stable you will not be able to have a fixed set of values or rare coin prices known at all times. This should not discourage you from buying rare coins for your coin collection. On the contrary you will find that having some good choices in rare coins will increase the value of your entire coin collection.



By: Muna wa Wanjiru

About the Author: