The National Collector’s Mint is touting their new WTC Dollar as “a legally authorized government issue silver dollar…clad in .999 Pure Silver recovered from Ground Zero.”

An article by Allan Drury discusses how misleading the advertising is, and I agree. The medallion is not legal tender, does not contain .999 pure silver but is silver plated and probably contains less than one cent worth of silver. Lastly, the government they refer to is not the United States government, but the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (in small text at the top, which I hadn’t even noticed until the article pointed it out).

In response to their laughable claims that the “silver dollars may well be among the most historically meaningful coins you will ever own” and “the earliest reservations receive the highly coveted lowest registration numbers” I say, “Fat chance!”

The change in your pocket is more historically meaningful (and worth more) than the medallions and I don’t know a single person who would be foolish enough to covet the lowest registration numbers.

Donn Pearlman of the The Professional Numismatists Guild (and a sponsor of the Long Beach Expo) provided an excellent summary when he said, “Most serious collectors would have no interest in the Freedom Tower pieces because they are not legal currency. There are a lot of things, from Beanie Babies to coins, where the only thing that’s rare is finding somebody five years later who wants to buy it from you.”

Update: I just received an e-mail from Donn Pearlman clarifying PNG’s relationship with the Long Beach Expo. They are a sponsor, just not the sponsor. Sorry for the confusion.

A woman brought a 1793 strawberry leaf cent to Dan Cunliffe’s Maine collector shop and much to both his and the woman’s surprise, it was genuine.

Only three others are known to exist, and this one could sell for six figures.

(via bidtrendz)

The US government will be introducing a new $50 bill with the same security features as the new $20 bill that was released last year. It will be released to the public in 8 days, on September 28, 2004.

Here are large images of the front and back of the bill, and there’s also an interactive interface (Flash plug-in required) to point out the new security features.

I wonder if I could get a demo copy of one of these.

Question: I have about 50 coins that I received from my family and on several of them I can see clear mint marks, but I can’t find one on others. Where are they?

Answer: All coins don’t have mint marks. Philadelphia has not always added a mint mark, so if a coin doesn’t have one, it was most likely minted in Philadelphia.

The new nickel design is making headlines today. You can see pictures of the new design in the USA Today article, although they spelled nickel wrong in the URL. Remember folks, it’s not a pickle, it’s a nickel.

You can read more on the US Mint’s press release as well as at CNN’s Money section.