Guerrilla Currency

Fun Fact: In the Philippines during WWII loyal civilian and military forces made emergency/guerilla currency. If the Japanese, who occupied the islands for a time, found you in possession of these notes, they most likely would torture or kill you. Background OK so...

Branch Mint Gold

Branch Mints Gold coins have been produced at many mints in the US (Carson City, Charlotte, Dahlonega, Denver, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and San Francisco), however, in the world of coin collection, the sites that have minted coins from local ore are just a few. Most...

Coin Expert?

What makes you an expert? I get this question all the time; I also think about it a lot. I think a lot depends on who you are with, and what you are talking about. I can find a famous, well respected, US Coin guy who would not be an expert on ancient Chinese coins....

ANA & Copper Coins (2 of 2)

Early American Coppers (EAC), or copper coins, was another transition. More common than some of the pre-colonial, but ohh how hard they are to identify. With so many from ground finds, and being made of copper = challenge! We covered large cents and 1/2¢. Those half’s...

ANA & National Bank Notes (1 of 2)

National Bank Notes So I am home and rested, or at least I am getting there. My second week out at ANA was a blast. I was going to write one post for my second week but have decided to split it into two. The second part will be about my class on coppers (link here)....

Colorado Springs & CC

Greetings From ANA So I have been remiss in posting, but I have a super good excuse. I am out in Colorado Springs at the ANA Summer Session (summer seminar) (both weeks), so the numismatist out there knows what I am talking about. For those of you that are thinking,...

Circulated vs. Uncirculated Rolls

Come On! For anyone that has ever worked retail, you know that there are two kinds of coin rolls. The ones that you can pry open, and the ones you crack on the corner of the drawer and hope that the drawer does not break off!  For those of you that have not, let me...

Thanks

It was great seeing you all at the auction on Monday. I am also super glad it went off w/o any major technical issues. More fun posts next week. This week was all about getting the auction done and all the paperwork...

Stamp Sheets

SHEETS OF STAMPS? REALLY? Yes, Virginia, for a long time, stamps in the US were only sold in coils and sheets. If you wanted to buy just one stamp, the Post Master would just rip off the number of stamps you wanted from the sheet. The sheets were normally in groups of...