Lucky collectors find “First Discovery” & “Early Circulation” 2019-W Idaho quarters

Nov 8, 2019 | News

November 7, 2019 – Four lucky collectors in Arkansas, Louisiana, Maryland, and Mississippi were the first to submit to Professional Coin Grading Service (www.PCGS.com) examples of the new 2019 America the Beautiful® Program Idaho quarters with the elusive West Point mintmark.

The fortunate finder in Arkansas discovered more than 300 2019-W Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness quarters on October 29, a week before the United States Mint officially began sales of the coins on November 4.

Lucky collectors from Arkansas and Louisiana discovered 2019-W Idaho America the Beautiful quarters before their scheduled circulation date and submitted them to PCGS. (Photo credit: Professional Coin Grading Service www.PCGS.com.)

As part of the year-long PCGS Quarter Quest program, the four submitters will split a $2,000 bounty and each receives $500. Their coins will carry the encapsulation insert pedigree of “First Discovery.” The submitted coins discovered in Arkansas and Louisiana before the official release will also be labeled “Early Circulation.”

Any submitted 2019-W Frank Church Wilderness quarters received within the first seven days after the PCGS First Discovery has been confirmed will automatically receive the First Week of Discovery pedigree. Qualifying coins submitted after those seven days and within 45 days of the PCGS First Discovery will automatically receive an “Early Find” pedigree.

“The Quarter Quest has been an exciting program for the last eight months, and while we are sad to see it come to a close for 2019, we are thrilled to have been able to bring the hunt back to the hobby and inspire so many new collectors,” said PCGS President Brett Charville. “We look forward to creating more prize and special pedigree opportunities like this in conjunction with the Mint’s future releases.”

Teacher and author Brenda T. of Arkansas told PCGS she was seeking 2019-W San Antonio quarters when she visited a local bank to purchase coins on October 29. She was told by a teller that only the Idaho coins were available, and she purchased five boxes of those quarters.

“I found a W in the third roll I opened, and I was shaking. After calming down, I started going through the next four boxes and found over 300 W quarters,” said “Early Circulation” and “First Discovery” winner Brenda T.

She has been an avid collector of the 2019-W quarters since the launch of the Quarter Quest earlier this year. Adding her latest winning quarter to her set will make her the first to achieve the coveted 100% completion in the PCGS Quarter Quest category (www.PCGS.com/setregistry/composite/7203). There are currently 90 collectors competing to be the first with a 100% complete set in that category.

The other “Early Circulation” and “First Discovery” winner of 2019-W Idaho Quarter Quest is business owner David M., a long-time collector from Louisiana who told PCGS he drives into Arkansas and Mississippi to buy boxes of coins from banks in those states.

David M. said he started excitedly thinking, “Jackpot! Jackpot!,” when he located several 2019-W Idaho quarters in the five boxes of coins he purchased.

The two other “First Discovery” 2019-W Idaho submitters are chemical distribution company sales representative Karl P. of Maryland and telecom company sales representative Chris C. of Mississippi.

Karl P., a newcomer to coin collecting this year who recently joined the PCGS Collectors Club, has been searching for West Point quarters since June and was both delighted and astounded when he discovered an Idaho coin.

“I was surprised because the Idaho [coin] came out of a box with W quarters of San Antonio and (Guam) American Memorial Park,” he told PCGS.

“I saw the W side first and when I flipped it over, I didn’t recognize the park because the Idaho coins were supposed to come out later. At first, I thought it was a mis-strike because I was not familiar with the Idaho design. Then I felt like I hit the lottery! I did some research and saw the upcoming Idaho design, and a buddy of mine said I should send it to PCGS,” explained Karl P.

Chris C. was also seeking 2019-W San Antonio coins when he purchased six rolls of quarters at a regional bank. A veteran of roll hunting during his 14 years of collecting, he learned about the PCGS Quarter Quest from a local coin club in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

After finding a 2019-W quarter in one of the rolls and submitting the coin for certification, he told PCGS: “I couldn’t believe it was there [in the roll]! I didn’t find any San Antonio W quarters, but I was surprised to find an Idaho one.”

In addition to the cash bounty, these four First Discovery winners will also receive a hand-signed label from award-winning artist Emily Damstra who created the reverse design of the 2019-W Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Idaho quarter.

PCGS Collectors Club members and Authorized Dealers have an opportunity to get encapsulation inserts hand-signed by artist Emily Damstra for coins she designed. (Photo credit: Professional Coin Grading Service www.PCGS.com.)

For a limited time, PCGS is offering Emily Damstra hand-signed labels to all PCGS Collectors Club and Authorized Dealer submitters of 2019-W Idaho quarters and other United States coins featuring her designs. Guidelines for ordering those signature labels are online at www.PCGS.com/labels/EmilyDamstra.

PCGS has created an information page for the PCGS Quarter Quest at www.PCGS.com/2019quarterquest where coin hunters can check on updated bounties, see if a PCGS First Discovery has been graded and authenticated, and review the terms and conditions for the promotion.

For information about PCGS products and services, including how to submit your coins for authentication and grading, visit www.PCGS.com or call the PCGS customer service department at (800) 447-8848.

Residential Burglary: Colorado Springs

Nov 6, 2019 | News

Colorado Springs, CO police department is investigating the residential burglary of Professional Numismatist Ken Bressett. The offense occurred on 11/2/2019.

The following is a partial listing of stolen items:

• Nice foreign from China, Japan, India and Spanish America
• Approximately 20 Sycee silver pieces
• Several very rare Chinese dollars
• Beautiful Auto Dollar
• Awards with the victims’ name inscribed
• Items with the name R.S. Yoeman
• Large amount of gold rings, chains, and earrings

Anyone with information contact:

Why I Wrote In God We Trust

Nov 6, 2019 | News

(Pelham, Alabama) — In November 2019 Whitman Publishing will release In God We Trust: The American Civil War, Money, Banking, and Religion. The 352-page hardcover volume will be available from booksellers and hobby shops nationwide, and online (including at www.Whitman.com). Here, author William Bierly discusses his motivation in writing the book.

My book In God We Trust is an effort to address different issues of the American Civil War than most histories do. Most deal with its military aspects, covering the battles and the generals. Others explore the politics of the war. In God We Trust endeavors to illuminate two other angles.

One is the conflict’s religious, spiritual side, in which the Confederacy and the Union contested in an ideological struggle for what they viewed as “God’s favor.” Which side was the more Christian, the more righteous, the holier one, and how could they demonstrate their greater holiness? Indeed, Abraham Lincoln discussed this in his second inaugural address. This struggle took various forms but included the Confederacy placing a religious reference in its new constitution, thus creating a contrast to the federal constitution, which was viewed as being “Godless.” The reactions to this in the North had various manifestations, one of which was the ultimate adoption of the motto “In God We Trust” on federal coinage.

The second aspect is the financial and monetary side of the war. This includes the larger picture of how the war was financed through taxes, tariffs, and the issuance of bonds and “greenbacks,” but also the issues of how ordinary people coped with everyday purchases during the coin shortages that developed during the war.

As the story unfolds, the spiritual and monetary issues come together with the motto “In God We Trust” on the coinage.

I recall a quote from the prolific numismatic writer Q. David Bowers, stating that “mainstream” history and coin collecting seldom intersect. From the collecting side the focus is on the coins themselves, often neglecting the historical context from which they emerged or which they in turn influenced. From the history side, coins are largely ignored, regarded as insignificant parts of the bigger story.

Bowers has cited his conversation with a noted history professor, an expert on the Civil War, who was completely unaware of Civil War tokens, issued during the war as a means to alleviate coin shortages and now a popular collectible among numismatists. By the professor being unaware of these tokens, Bowers realized he was missing a significant element of what everyday life was like during the war, of which the tokens were evidence. In a similar way, the pattern coins highlighted in my book are artifacts that illustrate and help tell the story of how “In God We Trust” came about.

The financial issues of the war led to significant changes in the monetary system of the United States. These include the introduction of a standardized national currency issued under federal authority, and the development of a national banking system. These greatly facilitated the United States in emerging as a modem industrial and financial power in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

“In God We Trust” on U.S. coinage has grown into an iconic element of American culture. It has become in the years since the Civil War the official national motto of the United States. It has over the years excited both strong approval and strong opposition. Controversy surrounds it to the present day.

It is my hope that the discussion of these issues in my new book will provide the reader with a fuller understanding and deeper perspective on the Civil War. I also hope to impart a better understanding of how our money and banking systems came to be what they are.

Coin Hoards, Treasures, and Troves: Separating Truth From Taradiddles!

Nov 2, 2019 | News

by Q. David Bowers

Buried treasure! Gold! Pirates! This is the stuff of which dreams are made. When in the early 1950s I discovered the world’s greatest hobby and started building a numismatic library, I was off to a good start in reading about the lore and lure of treasures. Back issues of the American Journal of Numismatics and The Numismatist had many stories and news accounts of coins found hidden in the walls of buildings, buried in chests, or recovered from the sea.

But usually such narratives were tantalizingly incomplete.

As time went on, I learned more from other magazines, newspapers, books, and elsewhere. I built a “treasure file.” In the 1990s I organized these, corresponded with dozens of collectors, dealers, and researchers, and endeavored to make my information as accurate as possible. Along the way, I learned of many other hoards.

Since then, many things have happened. In 1999,1 wrote The Treasure Ship S.S. Brother Jonathan, which details the recovery of double eagles and other coins—based upon my personal and my firm’s involvement in marketing the treasure. And soon after, in 2002, the SS Central America was the focus of my 1,055-page book, A History of the California Gold Rush Featuring the Treasure from the S.S. Central America, created with help from Bob Evans and Tommy Thompson (discoverers of the lost ship) and the sponsorship of the California Gold Marketing Group (Dwight Manley and associates). I also wrote The Treasure Ship S.S. New York: Her Story 1837-1846, regarding another find in which I was involved.

Beyond my books, Odyssey Marine Exploration has become a factor in shipwreck treasure recovery, in 2003 and 2004 salvaging more than 51,000 coins from 1,700 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean at the site of the wreck of the SS Republic, lost in a hurricane in October

1865. Then, in 2014, Odyssey was commissioned to revisit the Central America site, with more good results. Meanwhile, other finds large and small, on land and at sea, have added to the narrative.

Now, some notes on treasures.

In numismatics, there are many stories of coin treasures that have come to light, most often under circumstances a bit less exciting than written in buccaneer lore, but often quite intriguing. Typically, notices of such finds have been reported first in newspapers or other popular periodicals, often with incomplete or inaccurate information. Then, if a numismatist were consulted, the facts might have been recorded.

Found coins were usually spent, sold, or otherwise scattered without any inventory being made of them. I have reviewed thousands of news accounts of robberies, finds of buried coins, losses of ships laden with coins, and the like, but only a tiny percentage of such narratives have any interesting or important numismatic information. The exceptions form many of the stories given in my book Lost and Found Coin Hoards and Treasures, now in its second edition.

How do hoards come to be? This is a natural question, and one that has many answers. Some groups of coins were buried in yards or hidden in house partitions by wealthy people in an era when there were no banks or safe deposit boxes to offer secure storage. Many coins, including some fabulous cargoes of gold, went down with ships. Still others were concealed in cornerstones, secret compartments, or basement walls.

Uncle Sam also did his share of putting coins away. Bags of sparkling silver dollars were held in Mint and Treasury vaults for many years, only to come forth to delight a new generation of numismatists. Then there is the marvelous story of crates of pattern coins hidden in the Philadelphia Mint for many years, only to be revealed and to figure in an exchange of hitherto unknown $50 gold pieces in 1909.

Some hoards known today were concealed years ago to avoid capture by Indians, or by robbers, or by Yankee troops about to overrun a Louisiana plantation. Certain gold and silver coins found in the Midwest and West were taken in holdups or by some other illegal method and concealed in order to permit fast escape. The idea was that the site of the hidden loot would be visited later and under more leisurely circumstances, and the coins or paper money would be retrieved to be spent and enjoyed. Meanwhile, the crooks might have been killed by members of posses, or jailed by the local sheriff, or sidelined by some other end. After reading accounts of railroad robbers, ship pirates, bank holdups, and marauding soldiers, one can easily conclude that transporting or even owning a large holding of silver and gold coins in the 1700s and early 1800s was fraught with danger.

And reminiscent of the famous “Purloined Letter” story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, still other caches of coins and currency have been hidden in an obvious place—where else?—in a bank vault or in the Treasury Building in Washington.

As you read Lost and Found Coin Hoards and Treasures, many reasons why coins were

concealed or lost will be revealed. Then again, in numerous instances no one will ever know who secreted these precious coins or why they did, as those involved died years or generations before their treasures were brought to light. For example, we do not know now, and may never know, who hid the thousands of large copper cents of the 1816 to 1820 years in the famous Randall Hoard (named after a later owner of the pieces).

Coins keep their secrets well; they tell no tales as to where they have been, what they have seen, and the roles they played.

To qualify for inclusion in my book, a hoard or find had to include American coins, paper money, or other numismatic items relating to the United States or its antecedent colonies. Such hoards were mostly found within the borders of our country, but some were not. (The SS Central America, the SS Republic, and the “Bank of France” treasures are but three examples of exceptions.)

Hoards consisting entirely of foreign coins are not within the scope of his book, but much information on such finds can be found elsewhere.

No listing of hoards can ever be comprehensive, as there are countless thousands of instances in which members of the public have brought long-forgotten rolls, money purses, and other holdings to coin dealers or have otherwise disposed of finds without giving details to the press. Indeed, more than just a few treasure finders have found that publicizing their good luck was about the worst thing they could have done, as the news attracted many who sought to claim part of the coins as their own—based on former ownership of a property, a long-ago insurance settlement, or a modern desire to claim tax liability.

Case in point: while doing research for Lost and Found Coin Hoards and Treasures, I contacted several manufacturers and distributors of electronic treasure-detecting devices, and the typical reply to my inquiries was that “most of the people who find coins with our detectors keep the details secret.”

And in other instances, misinformation has been given out to throw other treasure seekers off the track (e.g., in an 1850s newspaper account of early salvage attempts for the treasure of the SS Yankee Blade).

Adding even more intrigue are accounts of the “hoarders among us,” detailing the activities of numismatists such as Virgil M. Brand, George W. Rice, John A. Beck, Colonel E.H.R. Green, and others who were collectors, but who enjoyed squirreling away quantities of favorite items. For example. Brand cornered six of the ten known 1884 silver trade dollars, and Colonel Green had each and every specimen of the five known 1913 Liberty Head nickels.

Finally, chapter 26—“Hoaxes, Fantasies, and Questioned Finds”—discusses holdings of coins and fantasy pieces that have been questioned and are believed to have been made later than the dates they bear or the eras from which they appear to be. Some such “hoards” are not hoards at all, but represent contrived stories: capers and taradiddles, many of which make fascinating reading today.

All in all, I hope that the accounts in Lost and Found Coin Hoards and Treasures will provide interesting reading, perhaps your own “treasure” of numismatic information and entertainment. Certainly, the book was a lot of fun to research and write.

NCIC: Alert-Suspect Arrested-Bad Checks

Nov 2, 2019 | News

During the past several months NCIC has been coordinating investigations with several law enforcement agencies across the country involving bad checks written by an individual identified as Jason Faraj.

The Lowell, Michigan police department has Mr. Faraj in custody at the Kent County jail in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Detectives with the Lowell PD are looking for additional cases involving the fraudulent activities of Jason Faraj. Bond is currently set at $50,000.

Faraj wrote bad checks to coin and jewelry dealers across the country. If you have been a victim please advise the following information and forward to Doug@numismaticcrimes.org. (Even if you have reported to NCIC Previously).

Name
Address
Phone
email
Amount of Loss
Investigating Agency
Name of Investigator
Phone Number
Report Number

Detectives believe that if he makes bond he will become a FLIGHT RISK.

Capturing the Excitement of Lost and Found Coin Treasures

Oct 16, 2019 | News

by Dennis Tucker

In the summer of 2014 at Whitman Publishing we started planning a new book by Q. David Bowers. I remember talking with our editorial team about the project. Its foundation would be several decades’ worth of Bowers’s research on American coin treasures and hoards. His information-gathering had started in the 1950s when he was a young man just beginning what would become a lifelong career as a numismatist and historian. Over the years and decades, Dave would write about coin hoards and treasures in numerous columns, articles, auction catalogs, books, and elsewhere. His first book devoted entirely to the subject was published in 1997. These 50-plus years of research would form the basis of a new, bigger, updated volume that we planned to publish in 2015.

Lost and Found Coin Hoards and Treasures included some two dozen significant updates to earlier published essays, with new research and sales information, plus recent discoveries from the past ten to fifteen years and, notably, a dramatic update to the story of the sunken SS Central America. The latter was and is one of Dave’s greatest numismatic obsessions. For many years, since I became publisher at Whitman in 2004, I’d heard him extol the genius and hard work required to find the amazing shipwreck and bring its gold and silver to the surface. “No larger gold Rush-era treasure was ever lost,” he would say, “so by definition no greater American treasure can ever be found!” I was delighted that he would be able to update the story with exciting news of the ship’s latest (2014) exploration and additional recoveries from the wreck site.

In his manuscript, Dave shared his ongoing research and added many modern-day discoveries, showing that treasure isn’t just in children’s tales and pirate stories. The SS North Carolina, lost in July 1840 off the coast of South Carolina with a treasure of silver and gold coins, was found in the year 2000. The SS Republic, shipwrecked in a hurricane in October 1865 off the Georgia coast, was found in 2003 with its load of silver and gold coins. The side-wheel steamship SSNew York, swamped in 1846 in a “perfect gale” off the coast of Texas, was located in 2005. Back on dry land, Dave shared Ron Gillio’s personal recollection of the Wells Fargo Hoard of nearly20,000 (!) 1908 No Motto double eagles. In 2013 the Saddle Ridge Hoard of gold coins wasdiscovered—almost $28,000 in face value alone—buried in eight metal cans in California around1894, and appraised at $10 million. In 2015 the Stack’s West 57th Street Hoard came to light: more than a million coins, weighing some 60,000 pounds and including sacks of tens of thousands of large cents, bag quantities of Barber silver coins, ten thousand 1909 V.D.B cents, and many others. That same year the Massachusetts State House time capsule was exhumed, after being hidden in 1795 with a cache of coins and opened and resealed in 1855 with the addition of more coins.

After describing hundreds of discovered hoards and treasures, and illustrating that such finds are still happening today, Dave offered two more tantalizing chapters, “Undiscovered Treasures onLand” and “Unrecovered Sunken Treasures.” Hundreds of tidbits, clues, and rumors, laid out state by state, offer more possibilities to set a treasure-hunter’s heart and mind racing.

Creating a Book About Coins and People

By the time we started work on Lost and Found Coin Hoards and Treasures in 2014,1 had overseen the publication of nearly 30 books by Dave Bowers. That averaged to about three books per year, not counting his editorship of the Guide Book of United States Coins, putting him firmly in the ranks of the most prolific American historians. Many of these books were updated in multiple editions over the years—a good measure of their popularity.

Dave’s process for building the Lost and Found manuscript was in classic Bowers style: drawing on a lifetime of carefully gathered and organized research; seeking insight and information from experts and specialists; striving always for numismatic accuracy and detail; and telling good stories and telling them well. Add to that approach a near-photographic memory and the wits and knowledge to make a hundred mental connections where most people would make one or two. And fold in Dave’s ability to see American and world history in both a big-picture view and in

homey, local, very personal context. This was the recipe that created his wonderfully unique exploration of a fascinating subject.

Lost and Found Coin Hoards and Treasures is a book about coins, but on a deeper level it’s a book about people. Some of the personalities Dave introduced were quirky, like coin hoarderAlexander Miller, who lived in a tiny town in Vermont, rarely spoke with the outside world, and also collected airplane parts and vintage cars. Some were courageous, like Captain WilliamLewis Herndon, who went down with the hurricane-stricken Central America after evacuating the ship’s women and children.

Perhaps most appealingly, Lost and Found is about the people who find the hidden hoards and treasures, whether they’re farmers digging in the earth, adventurous boys exploring a basement,metal-detectorists sweeping a potato field, or scientists calculating the precise location of a sunken shipwreck. The gold and silver are out there waiting to be found, by accident or by design. The finders could be any of us if we’re lucky or smart, or both. That’s the excitement that Dave taps into and fuels with his storytelling.

“A Treasure Trove of Colorful and Fun Facts”

The “Sage of Wolfeboro” wrapped up nearly all his text manuscripts and gathered its accompanying images by the end of 2014. All that remained to be finished was the updated section on the SS Central America, which was still being reviewed and fine-tuned by various experts. (As I told our editorial staff at the time, “The Central America is an active shipwreck site, so there are teams of people involved,” and it took time to ensure the story was told correctly.) Bob Evans, chief scientist and historian of the recovery of the Central America, wrote a foreword for the new book, as did Kenneth Bressett, longtime editor of the Guide Book of united States Coins.

More than 600 photographs, engravings, drawings, maps, coin images, and other illustrations made the new book visually as colorful as its narrative. (A review in the journal of the American numismatic Society would describe the images as “eye candy.”)

The book debuted in October 2015 and was an immediate success. Numismatist Mike Thome, in Coins Magazine, May 2016, “merely scratched the surface” (his words) in his full-page review of the book, calling it “a magnificent effort” and stating that “this volume belongs in the library of any coin collector who likes to dream about finding a great hoard.” California Bookwatch’s “Antiques/Collectibles Shelf’ called it “a treasure trove of colorful and fun facts … accessible to coin collectors and adventure readers alike.” Midwest Book Review, which makes recommendations to libraries and others, called it “an absolutely fascinating and profusely illustrated read from beginning to end,” “impressively well researched, written, organized, and presented,” and “very highly recommended for personal, community, and academic library collections.”

By 2018, after a good print run, the first edition was sold out of our inventory and we started to plan a second edition—the book now available—for publication in 2019.

The latest edition has more than 50 new photographs and numerous updates to its essays. Ongoing research and consultation with specialists have led to some significant revisions and additions. From Forgotten Colorado Silver: Joseph Lesher ’s Defiant Coins (2017) came Robert D. Leonard Jr.’s and Kenneth Hallenbeck’s discussion of a rumored hoard of Lesher ReferendumDollars. John M. Kleeberg recommended the removal of Missouri’s Wilson Tilley treasure from the chapter on “Hoaxes, Fantasies, and Questioned Finds,” pointing to evidence of its very real existence. Other essays were updated with recent findings. In the meantime, research is ongoing, and newly discovered hoards and treasures—such as that of the steam-packet Pulaski, lost in a maritime disaster in 1838 and brought to light in 2018 and 2019—will undoubtedly be added to future editions.

After all, the coins are out there. They just need to be found and reported … and then they make history.

Beth Deisher Teaches Families How to Win “The Widow Game”

Oct 16, 2019 | News

by Dennis Tucker

Beth Deisher’s groundbreaking Cash In Your Coins was first published in June 2013. Before that, occasional articles and columns and a few books gave guidance to inheritors finding themselves in possession of a rare-coin collection. David L. Ganz and Q. David Bowers (each a past president of the American Numismatic Association) have written on the subject. The 90-page Rare Coin Estate Handbook (Halperin, Ivy, and Rohan, 2000) focused on estate-planning for active collectors. In 2010 professional numismatist Jeff Ambio wrote What to Do With Granddaddy’s Coins.

Then in 2012 Beth Deisher retired as Coin World’s editor. She left that post with decades of real-world experience answering questions asked not only by collectors, but also by the spouses and children who inherited their coin collections. Beth brought the perfect mix of talent and expert knowledge to a new full-length book idea. “The premise is if you don’t know what you have, and you don’t know its value, then you’re at a disadvantage when it comes to selling,” she said. “My book’s purpose is to help readers approach selling with confidence.”

We envisioned a volume of several hundred pages, with explanations of the difference between wholesale and retail, how to use price guides, and how to create different types of inventories; full-color illustrations of every U.S. coin to help non-collectors identify their property; and information about tax laws and their consequences. It would be written not from a dealer’s perspective or from a collector’s perspective, but for people who inherit coins and know virtually nothing about them.

At the June/July 2013 Summer Seminar of the American Numismatic Association, at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, I co-taught a course with Beth, Kenneth Bressett, and Robert Hoge on writing, research, editing, and publishing. During the seminar I spoke with many dealers and collectors, and it was gratifying to hear, over and over, “I’m so glad Beth wrote Cash In Your Coins.” Her book was fresh off the presses, and it was already a topic of vibrant conversation.

Discussing the book that summer with Wayne Homren, editor of The E-Sylum (the online journal of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society), I remarked:

The first edition of Cash In Your Coins was praised in reviews in print and online, and it won awards including “Best Specialized Book, Numismatic Investments” from the Numismatic Literary Guild. It quickly sold out its substantial first print run. In September 2014 we published an expanded second edition, with new case studies and illustrations, a new chapter on taxes, and other updates. Both editions went through multiple printings.

Cash In Your Coins clearly fills a need within the hobby community. Given the popularity of the first two editions and, now in 2019, publication of the third, I’m pleased that the book has taken its place among Whitman Publishing’s list of “evergreen” titles. And I’m thankful that Beth Deisher, who in recent years has spearheaded the national conversation around anti-counterfeiting education, continues to be a leader in our field, looking out for average collectors and their families.