Ceremonial Colorado quarters were stamped this morning, formally making the Centennial State the 38th to have its own quarter.

Gov. Bill Owens started the pressing machine at the Mint in Denver to create the coin that depicts a mountain range over a banner that reads “Colorful Colorado.”

The design does not represent a real mountain, but represents what people think about Colorado, said First Lady Frances Owens.

“We would need about 10 quarters,” Frances Owens said about showing all the good things about Colorado.

About 1,500 people sent in design submissions for two years. The other four final designs considered for the coin were cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park, a soldier/skier if the 10th Mountain Division, the Rocky Mountains and Pikes Peak.

The Denver and Philadelphia Mints will produce between 575 million to 650 million Colorado quarters, said Timothy Riley, plant manager for the Denver Mint. About 100 million of the quarters have been produced since May 8.

The coins will be released to the public on June 14.

Colorado’s quarter is part of the Fifty States Commemorative Coin Program Act passed by Congress in 1997. Each year, five state coins are produced in the order of statehood. Colorado became a state on Aug. 1, 1876.

(via Rocky Mountain News)

Holding a 1794 Liberty dollar in your hand is seductive.

The weight of the silver feels substantial - so unlike today’s coins, much less a debit or credit card. The Liberty dollar transports you to the era of George Washington’s presidency, the founding of the first U.S. bank and the Whiskey Rebellion.

And then there’s the price tag: $7,000 at Main Street Coin’s gallery in Fairfield.

“You buy coins because you love them,” says Mike Dickmann, gallery co-owner. “For 40 bucks, you can buy history.”

In fact, the market for investing in rare coins has been building since 1999, when the U.S. Mint sparked new interest in coin collectibles by issuing the first state commemorative quarters.

That’s when Paul Burns of Hamilton began amassing his $40,000 collection of Benjamin Franklin half-dollars, Peace dollars, proof Indian Head cents and paper currency.

“I collected coins as a child,” says Burns, who is 43. “State quarters helped bring that back.”

Other factors sparking the boom, experts say, are the Internet’s impact on sales and knowledge; recent low interest rates; and a loosening of once-strict grading values for coins.

This month, a rare 1913 Liberty Head nickel sold for $4.15 million in New Hampshire. In April, the world gold coin collection of the late Louis Eliasberg, a Baltimore financier, set several records when it was auctioned in New York for more than $10 million.

Read the full article.

(Fallbrook, CA) – Officials of the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG), a non-profit organization composed of the nation’s top rare coin dealers, are advising consumers that recently-minted coins privately plated with a microscopically-thin layer of gold or platinum should only be viewed as mementos or souvenirs, and not as investments in precious metals.

The PNG is praising a nationally-televised investigative report about sales of plated coins for raising public awareness about the difference between the booming market for rare coins and advertisements for common, modern coins privately altered after they were minted. A segment on the May 12, 2006 broadcast of “Inside Edition,” stated: “Some TV shopping shows are using slick sale pitches to sell coins to unsuspecting consumers at inflated prices.”

PNG President Jeff Garrett of Mid-America Rare Coin Galleries of Lexington, Kentucky, says with the recent boom in precious metals prices many people have a basic misconception that adding a tiny amount of gold or platinum to an otherwise common coin significantly raises its value. It doesn’t.

“There is very little precious metal value to a plated coin. As a dealer, I frequently have to break the bad news to people who come to my store to sell the plated coins they’ve purchased elsewhere. They usually are astounded, then saddened, to learn their plated, commemorative state quarter-dollars are worth little more than 25 cents each,” said Garrett.

On the “Inside Edition” broadcast, PNG member-dealer, Scott Travers of New York City, author of The Coin Collector’s Survival Manual, warned: “The only kind of investments these are, are bad investments. Serious collectors normally steer clear of plated coins because these are viewed as having their surfaces altered after leaving the Mint.”

PNG Legal Counsel, Armen Vartian of Manhattan Beach, California, cautions: “When buying coins sight-unseen from private retailers, it’s particularly important to ask whether the coins have been authenticated independently, namely by someone other than the retailer.”

In the PNG’s consumer protection pamphlet, “What You Should Know Before You Buy Rare Coins,” the section on modern coins advises: “If you like the subject theme represented by these coins, admire the beauty of the design or would like to own them as a souvenir or to show support for their particular cause, by all means buy them. But if your goal is capital appreciation or making a profit, you’re better off avoiding this type of material.”

Professional Numismatist Guild members must adhere to a strict Code of Ethics and demonstrate knowledge, responsibility and integrity in their business dealings. They also must agree to binding arbitration to settle unresolved disagreements over numismatic property.

For a copy of the informative pamphlet, “What You Should Know Before You Buy Rare Coins,” send $1 to cover postage costs to: Robert Brueggeman, PNG Executive Director, 3950 Concordia Lane, Fallbrook, CA 92028. Phone: 760-728-1300. E-mail: info-at-pngdealers.com or visit the web site at www.PNGdealers.com.

WASHINGTON — The next time someone offers you a penny for your thoughts, you might want to take them up on it.

For the first time in U.S. history, the cost of manufacturing both a penny and a nickel is more than the 1-cent and 5-cent values of the coins themselves. Skyrocketing metals prices are behind the increase, the U.S. Mint said in a letter to members of Congress last week.

The Mint estimates it will cost 1.23 cents per penny and 5.73 cents per nickel this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The cost of producing a penny has risen 27% in the last year, while nickel manufacturing costs have risen 19%.

BACKGROUND: A brief history of the penny

The estimates take into account rising metals prices as well as processing, labor and transportation costs. Based on current metals prices, the value of the metal in a nickel alone is a little more than 5 cents. The metal in a penny, however, is still worth less than a penny.

“Higher zinc, copper and nickel prices are raising the production costs of the nation’s coinage,” the Mint said in the letter, which it provided to USA TODAY Tuesday.

Metals prices have been soaring this year as a strong economy worldwide has led to an increase in demand. The prices of metals used in coins are all rising: Zinc is up 76% this year, copper is up 68%, and nickel is up 42%, according to the London Metal Exchange.

But consumers should not hoard coins or melt down the change in their kids’ piggy banks, says Michael Helmar, an economist and metals analyst at Moody’s Economy.com. He says the process of melting the coins, separating out the metals, then selling would be costly and time-consuming.

“If they were made out of gold, sure,” he says. But “there are just too many other costs.”

Read the full article.

A 1792 half dime, believed to be one of the first coins minted by the United States, was sold at auction for more than $1.3 million Thursday night at the Central States Numismatic Society convention, officials said.

The winning bidder was a private collector who wants to remain anonymous, said James Halperin, co-chairman of Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, which was selling the coin.

The bidding began at $750,000 and advanced to $1.15 million. With a 15 percent buyer’s premium added on, the coin sold for $1,322,500.

The coin, mottled blue, gray and gold with time but still considered to be in excellent condition, was thought to have been struck on silver provided by George Washington, officials said.

It depicts a female Liberty figure with flowing hair on the front and an eagle on the back.

The Professional Coin Grading Service designated it a “specimen strike,” meaning it likely was made as a presentation piece. The auction catalog description speculates the coin was “perhaps a special gift to a friend of the U.S. or even to George Washington himself.”

Two worn 1792 half dimes, or “disme” as it was originally spelled, also were sold at the convention for $14,950 and $69,000, respectively.

(via cnn.com)