Pocket Change

Or, three coins in the fountain.

More coins.

At the auction, we started of the year with a hoard of coins to sell. I posted about some of those coins. We finally got through that hoard, and I was happy to be done with the coins, but now we have some more coming up. Do we have Morgan Silver Dollars? Of course. We have Peace Dollars, and all of the usual U.S. coins, but we also have some interesting coins (such as the one above), so I figured another post on coins might warranted.

This coin is not a coin in the strict sense, as in something that you might use to purchased goods or services, but it would be considered a silver, “round”. In the coin collecting/bullion world simply means, a precious metal in a round shape. Rounds, can be made from any valuable metal, from Platinum to copper; they look like coins, but they are simply round.

This is the reverse of the Longmont Grotto coin. This is a real place, apparently, in Henan Province, China. Tens of thousands of these carvings of Buddha, and his disciples and other important figures, are carved into the rock face. Seems a bit extravagant to me, but I would love to go see the place. This coin is simply an artistic way to keep 62 grams of fine silver in one place.

Here, is another example of a silver round. It has no face value as a coin, but collectors will pay a premium for the artful design.

In creating a coin from a precious metal, and making the design attractive to collectors, the maker of the coin imparts value to therein, above the actual price that it costs to produce the coin. If it costs 10 to make the coin, and you can sell it for 50, the 40 that you made in profit is called, '“Seigniorage”. This process works for governments and private individuals as well.

We had some very old coins come in.

Not entirely certain were this coin comes from, though I would guess somewhere near Germany. Al I know is that the date pf minting appears to be 1788. This is a damned good looking coin for being over 200 years old.

We do have older coins though.

These coins, even in the condition they are in, have been graded and authenticated by the, “International Numismatic Bureau”. That name simply drips with respect and gravitas, so you know these must be the real thing! I suspect that these lumps of metal were probably found at an archeological dig, at a location that was producing other artefacts from a known era, so they are said to be @ 330 AD. These coins are tiny, about half the size of a dime.

They are still very cool.

But these are not the three coins that I am wanting to talk about.

Are these not three very cool coins?

The man who designed this coin was, Charles E. Barber. He was the chief engraver at the U.S. Mint, from 1879, to 1917; a good, long run. I liked the way these three coins looked, so I made this picture my desktop, at work.

Here, is the reverse of those three coins.

The coin features the male version of a “Liberty” head. At the time, the U.S. Silver dollar was the “Morgan”, with a woman’s head, representing, “Liberty”. Typically, U.S. coinage depicted grand themes, as opposed to real individuals. The figures depicted on the face of U.S. coinage were typically themes of, “Peace”, “Liberty”, of “Freedom”. It wasn’t until 1904, when Abraham Lincoln’s profile was put on the penny, that U.S. coinage was created to honor a specific American. There have been specialty coins minted, for specific occasions, that featured a real person on the face, but those were one-off mintings.

Which brings me to these three coins.

These three coins are not pickles, though they are worth 5 cents. They are half-dimes. Don’t ask me, I couldn’t tell you why a. “half-dime” was minted, when a nickel was already around. The only reason that I can think for why the U.S. might need a half-dime, was for the silver content. Most U.S. coinage, in the 19th century, was made from silver; the exceptions being, copper pennies and…nickels, made from nickel.

The design on the left is called a “Seated Liberty”, the two coins on the right sport a, “Liberty Cap” design.

On the reverse, the two Liberty Cap coins have an eagle, and a shield, with a “5 C” marked at the bottom, to indicate the coins value. The Seated Liberty coin removes all doubt about its value and spells out, “Half Dime”.

There are a couple of other coins that I want to talk about, but it’s late, and I don’t care to write anymore, at the moment. Until next time, check your pockets, you might find something fun in there!