Greetings NCC Members and Guests-
Hope everyone is having a great spring so far. Don't forget that the Greater New Hampshire Coin & Currency Expo is coming up soon. It will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday May 4th through the 6th at the Radisson Hotel Center of New Hampshire in Downtown Manchester. There are tons of dealers from the east coast and several educational presentations. Go to the website for more info (and a coupon for a free admission!)
The "Coin of the Month" in May will be coins of the 70's. This is a great COTM concept and should prove interesting. Some quick thoughts about coins of the 70's...... For the 1970's bicentennial coins come to mind. For those who were collecting then this was a great period. Unfortunately so great that the supply of these coins far overwhelms demand at this point. It was nonetheless a great concept with some decent designs and probably paved the way for the return of commemorative coins a few years later in 1982. I digress. The Eisenhower Dollar collection is strictly from the "70's." Probably one of the best U.S. coins to come out of the 1970's was the 1972 Double Die cent. I can remember looking through rolls of cents looking for one. The 1870's is also famous for a one cent coin, the 1877 Indian Head Cent. What U.S. coin had it's entire run inthe 1870's. Look below for that answer. The 1870's saw the beginning of the Morgan Dollar production. How about the 1770's. This is unfortunately a tough area due to the cost related to these items. This was before the start of Federal coinage in 1793 but the states were minting coins, listed as Colonial coins. Although most Colonial coins minted by the states in the 1780's, a few were made in the 1770's. This includes a New Hampshire pattern of which one is known. Authorized by the State Rep's and some patterns made, they did not circulate. There is one that was auctioned in 1980 and believed to be real. If you could find another authentic piece it would be a major numismatic event. Also from the 1770's, the Continental Currency, which was the first dollar sized coin. Even a "common" well worn piece would bring between 5 and 10 thousand dollars. Earlier centuries also become ripe for many interesting world coins from the decades of the "70's." This is a truly unique idea for our coin of the month!!
Hope to see you in May. It is sure to be another great meeting. Our members always come through to provide an educational, interesting and entertaining evening.
Brian
One website that I highly recommend for the beginning collector is the Numismaster "Collect Coins" articles. There are a series of topics covered including coin storage, how to buy/sell coins, grading coins and articles on different series such as Modern Commemoratives, Lincoln Memorials and American Eagle coins. The link is: http://www.numismaster.com/ta/inside_numis.jsp?page=CollectCoins
(The answer to the question - The 20 cent piece was minted from 1875 through 1878, with circulation strikes in 1875/1876 and a proof only mintage in 1877 and 1878)
A couple of good sites to find coin and paper money related books include:
Krause Publications: http://www.krausebooks.com/category/coins_papermoney
Whitman Publishing: http://whitman.com/Inventory/Browse/Whitman-Books?showLandingPage=True
Also "Barnes and Noble" and "Amazon" provide good numismatic resources.
