Oct 31, 2019 | ACEF/ACTF, Announcements
(Temecula, California) October 30, 2019 — The Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation (www.ACEF online.org) has been granted membership into CrimeDex, the world’s largest criminal investigation network composed of more than 4,000 law enforcement agencies, financial institutions and criminal investigators across the United States and around the globe.
“The CrimeDex platform allows members to send out alerts, develop leads, and track criminal trends and patterns,” explained Doug Davis, ACEF Director of Anti-Counterfeiting. “CrimeDex members are from all levels of law enforcement including the Secret Service, FBI, U.S. Postal Inspectors and Homeland Security.”
ACEF assists federal, state, local law enforcement and prosecutors to fight counterfeiting and the sales of counterfeit coins and banknotes, allowing law enforcement agencies to move quickly in the investigation and prosecution of cases.
“Criminals operate without regard for state or international borders and commit crimes in multiple jurisdictions. Partnering with CrimeDex provides ACEF with a major resource to share information and educate law enforcement about the increase of counterfeit coinage within the United States,” said Davis.
“As crimes related to counterfeits grow, rapid and effective information sharing holds the key to combating criminals,” he emphasized.
ACEF and its Anti-Counterfeiting Task Force have worked with more than 20 local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to provide expert assistance on more than 80 cases involving counterfeit coins. Davis, a former Texas Police Chief, has conducted several educational seminars for law enforcement personnel in recent months. ACEF also provided expert services to help identify, capture or convict more than 20 suspected sellers of fake coins or bogus precious metal bullion items.
“The important work of the foundation and the task force are supported entirely by donations,” explained the foundation’s Executive Director Robert Brueggeman whose background is in law enforcement and security. “The ACEF is a 501(c)(3) corporation and all donations to ACEF are tax-deductible.”
For additional information or to make a donation, contact the Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation at 28441 Rancho California Road, Suite 106, Temecula, CA 92590. The phone number is 951-587-8300. Or visit the web site at www.acefonline.org.
Oct 29, 2019 | Announcements, U.S. Mint
WASHINGTON – The United States Mint (Mint) will begin accepting orders for the 2019 Youth Coin and Currency Set™ (product code 19RX) on October 31 at noon EDT. This is the third of three new youth-oriented products the Mint is offering this year. There is a product limit of 25,000 for the 2019 Youth Coin and Currency Set.
This product marks the first time the Mint has offered a coin and currency set specifically for youth and features the Mighty Minters™ characters Timothy, Lina, Alex, Eli, and Layla. The set consists of a tri-fold presentation folder that holds the five 2019 American the Beautiful Program® quarters in a proof finish and a $2 Series 2009 note from the Federal Reserve Bank in either Cleveland, Atlanta, or Chicago. An attractive outer sleeve houses the folder. The Certificate of Authenticity is printed on the package.
The quarters in the set honor Lowell National Historical Park (Massachusetts), American Memorial Park (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands), War in the Pacific National Historical Park (Guam), San Antonio Missions National Historical Park (Texas), and Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness (Idaho). Each coin has a common obverse (heads) that features the restored 1932 portrait of George Washington by John Flanagan. Inscriptions are “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,” “LIBERTY,” “IN GOD WE TRUST,” and “QUARTER DOLLAR.”
The obverse of the $2 note depicts a portrait of Thomas Jefferson, while the reverse depicts the vignette “The Declaration of Independence” based on the painting by John Trumbull.
The 2019 Youth Coin and Currency Set is priced at $29.95. The Mint will accept orders at catalog.usmint.gov/ and 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468). Hearing- and speech-impaired customers with TTY equipment may order at 1-888-321-MINT. Information about shipping options is available at catalog.usmint.gov/customer-service/shipping.html.
Note: To ensure that all members of the public have fair and equal access to United States Mint products, the United States Mint will not accept and will not honor orders placed prior to the official on-sale date of Oct. 31, 2019, at noon EDT.
Oct 29, 2019 | Announcements, U.S. Mint
WHAT:
The United States Mint will hold the launch ceremony for the America the Beautiful Quarters® Program coin honoring Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho on Wednesday, November 6, 2019, at 10 a.m. MT.
$10 rolls of newly minted Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness quarters will be available for exchange following the ceremony. The Salmon High School Legacy Choir will provide entertainment.
A live stream of the event will be available on the Forest Service’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/salmonchallisnf/
WHEN:
Wednesday, November 6, 2019, 10 a.m. MT
WHERE:
Salmon Junior/Senior High School
401 South Warpath
Salmon, ID 83467
WHO:
- David Ryder, Director, United States Mint
- Mike Simpson, U.S. Representative, 2nd Congressional District
- Larry LaRocco, former U.S. Representative, 1st Congressional District
- Kathryn Hitch, Regional Director for U.S. Senator Mike Crapo
- Amy Taylor, Regional Director for U.S. Senator James Risch
- Charles Mark, Supervisor, Salmon-Challis National Forest
- John Burns, former Forest Supervisor, Salmon National Forest
COIN FORUM
The United States Mint will host a coin forum Tuesday, November 5, 2019 5 p.m. MT, at the Sacajawea Center, 2700 Main Street, Salmon, Idaho 83467. The coin forum is an opportunity for the public to learn about upcoming United States Mint coin programs and initiatives, and express their views about future coinage.
The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness quarter is the 50th release in the United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Program, a 12-year initiative that honors 56 national parks and other national sites authorized by Public Law 110-456. Each year until 2020, the public will see five new national sites depicted on the reverses (tails sides) of the America the Beautiful Quarters. A final coin will be released in 2021. The United States Mint is issuing these quarters in the order in which the national sites were officially established.
Oct 25, 2019 | Announcements
Research materials at the May 2019 Cherrypickers’ Guide editorial summit in Chattanooga.
To “cherrypick” is to examine coins that appear normal at first glance, seeking ones with unusual characteristics—overdates, repunched mintmarks, doubled and tripled dies, and similar features—that reveal them to be rare and valuable. The Cherrypickers’ Guide uses close-up photographs and text descriptions to guide collectors in what to look for. It includes rarity ratings and retail values.
Cherrypickers’ Guide coauthor Bill Fivaz and professional numismatist Larry Briggs are coordinating edits and updates for the new volume. Along with Whitman staff, they held an editorial summit in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in May 2019. They meet regularly to plan the book’s contents.
“We’re expecting the new volume to include more than 800 die varieties, including many new additions,” said Fivaz. It will cover Capped Bust coinage from half dimes through half dollars; Liberty Seated coinage; Barber silver coins; and every modern series from the early 1900s to date, plus gold dollars through $20 gold coins, classic commemoratives, and modern bullion pieces.
“Many coin series are being expanded, and we’ll have a few entirely new sections,” said Whitman publisher Dennis Tucker. “This volume includes some of the most popular U.S. coin types, including Mercury and Roosevelt dimes, Washington quarters, Liberty Walking half dollars, Franklin and Kennedy half dollars, Morgan and Peace silver dollars, and modern dollar coins.”
The book’s editors have reached out to the hobby community for advice, recommendations, and research. Collectors and dealers who have photographs to share may contact the Cherrypickers’ Guide team by email at cherrypickers@whitman.com.
Bill Fivaz reviewing Cherrypickers’ Guide entries at an October 24, 2019, editorial meeting.
Professional numismatist Larry Briggs in a May 2019 Cherrypickers’ Guide editorial meeting.
# # #
Cherrypickers’ Guide to Rare Die Varieties of United States Coins, sixth edition, volume II.
By Bill Fivaz and J.T. Stanton; forewords by Kenneth Bressett and Q. David Bowers; edited by Larry Briggs.
Publication date: 2020. Retail price, page count, and other details to be announced.
Oct 25, 2019 | Announcements
Whitman Publishing has released the third edition of Q. David Bowers’s award-winning Guide Book of United States Type Coins. The 320-page volume is available online and in bookstores and hobby shops nationwide. Here, Whitman publisher Dennis Tucker recalls the book’s creation and explores how it developed over the years.
The first edition of the Guide Book of United States Type Coins, by Q. David Bowers, was published in early 2005. Although the book was in many ways revolutionary, this wasn’t the first time the broad panoply of American coinage had been gathered into a single volume. A few predecessors include the following:
- Walter Breen’s Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, popularly known in the hobby simply as “Breen,” was published in 1988.
- Before that, The History of United States Coinage as Illustrated by the Garrett Collection, also by Bowers, had debuted in 1979.
- And of course, the granddaddies of all hobby-oriented single-volume U.S. coin books had been published, more or less annually, since 1946 (the Guide Book of United States Coins, a retail price guide known as the “Red Book”) and, before that, since 1942 (the Handbook of United States Coins, a wholesale guide called the “Blue Book”).
So, this was not the first publication of every American coinage type in a single reference. But it was the first book to approach, specifically and with the hobbyist in mind, the subject of building a collection ofU.S. “type coins”—that is, a grouping of specimens, each one carefully chosen to represent an entire design type. This is distinct from building a collection of every date and mintmark within those types.
The Popularity of Collecting Coins by Type
Collecting U.S. coins by type has been popular for generations. “Such a pursuit is hardly new,” Bowers would write years later in the foreword to Robert W. Shippee’s Pleasure and Profit: 100 Lessons for Building and Selling a Collection of Rare Coins. “In fact, it is one of the most popular ways to collect.”
Since the boom in U.S. coin folders and albums started in the 1930s, most major manufacturers have included “type set” holders in their product lines.
Collecting in this way gives a hobbyist well-defined goals. It is affordable. It also offers many ways to customize a personally meaningful collection. “Such a display would be a virtual panorama of American coinage from the earliest days to the present,” as Bowers says. “Along the way, you would have specimens from each of the major engravers, examples of each denomination, and all of the different design variations. You could flip through the pages of any reference book and, upon seeing a picture of a type, say, ‘I have one of those!”’
A date-and-mintmark collection of Liberty Head gold eagles would consist of nearly 200 coins and would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. In a type collection a single beautiful example represents the entire series, much more affordably. (Photos courtesy of Stack’s Bowers Galleries)
Creating the Guide Book
We billed the Guide Book of United States Type Coins as “A Complete History and Price Guide for the Collector and Investor.” In true Bowers style, it was just that, with historical overviews of some 20 coin denominations, from copper half cents through gold double eagles; and advice on collecting the 100-plus coin types within those denominations. Bowers offered a lifetime career’s worth of ideas, inspiration, and guidance on how to build a significant coin collection while learning a heck of a lot about American history and having fun along the way.
The process of organizing, writing, and editing the first edition of the Guide Book of United States Type Coins was an immersion in numismatic master-planning. This was one of the earliest books released in the modem renaissance of numismatic publishing that started around 2003, the year Dave Bowers took the role of numismatic director at Whitman Publishing. I joined the company as its publisher in 2004, and, together with Red Book editor Kenneth Bressett, valuations editor Jeff Garrett, Whitman senior editor Diana Plattner, and others, we carefully studied our flagship book (the Red Book) and its terminology, organization, and information architecture.
I remember well the many conversations we had on what constitutes a “type” versus a “subtype” or “variety.” Nomenclature wasn’t completely standardized within the hobby community. (It still isn’t, today.) Was the Braided Hair large cent properly divided into the Young Head and Matron Head types? Was the half cent of 1840 to 1857 the Coronet type, or the Braided Hair type? Did Christian Gobrecht’s nineteenth-century silver coins show “Seated Liberty” or “Liberty Seated”? Some writers referred to Franklin half dollars as the “Franklin Head” type. Should trade dollar be capitalized or not? Much of this terminology had long been standardized within the Red Book and the Blue Book, but Dave Bowers’s study and classification of coin types for his new book revealed opportunities for clarification and, in some cases, change.
-
-
Large cents of 1816 to 1857 used to be classified as the Coronet type, further described as Matron Head (1816–1835) and Young Head (1835–1857). Today they’re categorized as the Liberty Head design, of the Matron Head (1816–1835), Matron Head Modified (1835–1839, the old “Young Head”), and Braided Hair (1839–1857) types. (Photos courtesy of Stack’s Bowers Galleries)
All of this discussion was very useful because we were also organizing a comprehensive new “Whitman Style Guide” to apply across the width and breadth of all the company’s books, folders, albums, and other hobby products.
Launches, Updates, and Companions
We published the first edition of the Guide Book of United States Type Coins in January 2005, debuting it at the Florida United Numismatists convention held in Fort Lauderdale. It was a popular and critical success, selling briskly and earning the Numismatic Literary Guild’s award for “Best Specialized Book on United States Coins.”
The second edition followed in 2008, with updated market values, auction records, and certified-population data; improved photographs; cleaner typesetting; the addition of new coin types (Presidential dollars. Westward Journey nickels, and State quarters); a new section on “Great Collectors and Collections of the Past” (by Ron Guth and Jeff Garrett); new historical illustrations; a bibliography; and a bullion-value chart for determining the precious-metal values of common-date gold and silver coins.
In the meantime, Whitman published another book that addresses hobbyists’ interest in the typeset approach to collecting. Ron Guth and Jeff Garrett wrote the beautifully illustrated coffee-table book United States Coinage: A Study by Type, which was also published in 2005. “One need not own a single cent to possess a wealth of knowledge about it,” retired Louisiana congressman Jimmy Hayes observed in that book’s foreword.
Robert W. Shippee’s Pleasure and Profit debuted in 2014. Shippee, over the course of several years, had assembled a remarkable collection of about 150 U.S. coins by type, from half cents to double eagles. In his book he shared the lessons he learned along the way—lessons that came from costly mistakes as well as from profitable purchases. His collection sold for more than $1.5 million; his total gain after commissions, holding the coins for about 10 years, was nearly 40 percent. As you read Pleasure and Profit, though, you come to realize that his “profits” were far greater than just financial.
Type-Coin Collecting Today
Type-coin collecting is as popular as ever today. In an informal survey of 100 coin collectors in early 2019,1 found that 15 percent had formed a “one of everything” type-coin collection, and almost as many had assembled the same collection except, more affordably, without gold coins. One out of every four had formed a nineteenth- or twentieth-century type set. Nearly 20 percent had built more than one kind of type set.
Silver pesos struck for the Philippines under U.S. sovereignty can be collected by date and mint (they were struck in Philadelphia and San Francisco), or by type, just as Morgan dollars can be. (Photos courtesy of Stack’s Bowers Galleries)
Respondents talked enthusiastically about their rainbow-toned dollar-type sets, their slabbed type sets, Proof Barber types by denomination, and other personally significant collections.
Some mentioned the competitive registry sets maintained by PCGS and NGC, which have thousands of active participants in their “Type Set” categories. (In April 2019 PCGS had 10,427 type sets registered, and NGC had 5,713. Categories include complete sets of U.S. circulation-strike coins; nineteenth- and twentieth-century Proof types; first-year-of-issue type sets; and many others—more than 100 different ways to form a type collection by design, era, denomination, mint, and other classifications.)
85 percent of the collectors I polled had completed or at least started a collection of U.S. coins by type.
For these enthusiasts and thousands of others actively collecting in 2019 and beyond, we’ve updated the entirety of the Guide Book of United States Type Coins in a substantially revised third edition.
- The book has been expanded from 288 pages to 320 pages.
- The entire volume has been reformatted to make it easier to read and navigate.
- Market values have been updated to provide a snapshot of the financial side of forming a type-coin collection.
- The historical price charts, too, have been updated, showing the paths, up and down, of each coin type over the past 70-plus years.
- We’ve incorporated the latest numismatic research, modified some of the older editions’ categories and chapters, and included the most recent new coin designs.
- We’ve also added a new appendix on Philippine coins struck under U.S. sovereignty, which can easily be collected by type and which form an attractive and historically important section of American coinage.
It might be said that a numismatic author starts a book when he writes his manuscript, but his readers finish it when they build their collections. I believe the third edition of the Guide Book of United States Type Coins will inspire many collectors to join with Dave Bowers in creating their own unique chapters—their type-coin collections—in this engaging hobby pursuit.
# # #
Whitman publisher Dennis Tucker is an award-winning researcher who has written and lectured nationwide on coins, medals, and other antiques and collectibles. A collector since the age of seven, he is a Life Member of the American Numismatic Association, a past governor of the Token and Medal Society, and the numismatic specialist on the Treasury Department’s Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee.
# # #
Oct 24, 2019 | Announcements, U.S. Mint
WASHINGTON – The United States Mint (Mint) will begin accepting orders for products containing American Innovation $1 Coins honoring Pennsylvania on October 24 at noon EDT. This is the second of four American Innovation $1 coins the Mint will release this year. The American Innovation $1 Coin Program is a multi-year series featuring distinctive reverse (tails) designs that pay homage to America’s ingenuity and celebrate the pioneering efforts of individuals or groups from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories.
The uncirculated coins are packaged in bags and rolls from the Mint’s facilities at Philadelphia and Denver. Available product options are:
| PRODUCT CODE |
PRODUCT OPTION |
MINT MARK |
PRICE |
| 19GRB |
25-Coin Roll |
P |
$32.95 |
| 19GRF |
25-Coin Roll |
D |
$32.95 |
| 19GBB |
100-Coin Bag |
P |
$111.95 |
| 19GBF |
100-Coin Bag |
D |
$111.95 |
The Pennsylvania American Innovation $1 Coin honors the discovery of the polio vaccine in 1953 by Dr. Jonas Salk and his team at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The coin’s reverse (tails) depicts an artist’s conception of the polio virus at three different levels of magnification along with the silhouette of a period microscope, representing the extensive research that was conducted to develop a cure for polio. The obverse features a dramatic representation of the Statue of Liberty in profile with the inscriptions “IN GOD WE TRUST” and “$1.” The obverse also includes a privy mark of a stylized gear, representing industry and innovation. The edge-incused inscriptions are “2019,” the mint mark, and “E PLURIBUS UNUM.”
The Mint accepts orders at www.catalog.usmint.gov and 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468). Hearing and speech-impaired customers with TTY equipment may order at 1-888-321-MINT. Shipping options are available at www.catalog.usmint.gov/customer-service/shipping.html.
Products containing the American Innovation $1 Coin honoring Pennsylvania will also be available for purchase at the Mint’s sales centers in Washington, Philadelphia, and Denver. Inventory is limited to availability and subject to change.
The American Innovation $1 Coin Program is a multi-year series featuring distinctive reverse (tails) designs that pay homage to America’s ingenuity and celebrate the pioneering efforts of individuals or groups from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories.
Oct 20, 2019 | Announcements
Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) and Harvestor Investments have partnered to create a special NGC Marvel Avengers certification label for the new Avengers Logo 1 oz. Silver Coin. This is the first release in a new Marvel coin series being released by Harvestor Investments.
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963, the Avengers have become one of the most beloved and recognizable teams of superheroes ever assembled. Labeled “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes,” the Avengers originally consisted of Ant-Man, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and the Wasp. Captain America would join the team later, along with a host of other Marvel characters. The popularity of the Avengers franchise, and the fact that the latest installment in the Avengers film series became the highest-grossing film of all time, proves that this band of superheroes is still America’s favorite.
The new Avengers Logo 1 oz. Silver Coin is struck in the shape of the Avengers “A” logo. These custom-minted and unique collectibles are made from 1 oz. of .999 fine silver and have a diameter of 40 mm. Mintage is strictly limited to 1,000 coins, and each coin comes with a specially designed collector tin that holds the NGC-certified coin!
The Marvel Avengers label is only available through Harvestor Investments, but collectors can still submit their coins directly to NGC for standard labels.
To order the exclusive Marvel Avengers NGC label, click here.
Oct 17, 2019 | Announcements, U.S. Mint
WASHINGTON – The 2019 United States Mint (Mint) Limited Edition Silver Proof Set (product code 19RC) will be available for purchase beginning on October 17 at noon EDT. The set is priced at $149.95.
The following eight proof quality coins are included in the set:
- One American Eagle One Ounce Silver Proof Coin
- Five America the Beautiful Quarters® Program coins honoring Lowell National Historical Park (Massachusetts), American Memorial Park (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands), War in the Pacific National Historical Park (Guam), San Antonio Missions National Historical Park (Texas), and Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness (Idaho)
- One Kennedy half dollar
- One Roosevelt dime
The American Eagle One Ounce Silver Proof Coin is the collector version of the United States Mint American Eagle Silver Bullion Coin. All coins are struck in 99.9 percent silver. All coins bear the “S” mint mark of the San Francisco Mint.
A Certificate of Authenticity comes with each set. The Mint is limiting this product to 50,000 sets, with orders limited to two sets per household.
The Mint accepts orders at catalog.usmint.gov/ and 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468). Hearing- and speech-impaired customers with TTY equipment may order at 1-888-321-MINT. Information about shipping options is available at catalog.usmint.gov/customer-service/shipping.html.
Note: To ensure that all members of the public have fair and equal access to United States Mint products, the United States Mint will not accept and will not honor orders placed prior to the official on-sale date of Oct. 17, 2019, at noon EDT.
Oct 11, 2019 | Announcements
(Pelham, Alabama) — Whitman Publishing announces the release of In God We Trust: The American Civil War, Money, Banking, and Religion, by numismatic researcher William Bierly. The 352-page hardcover book will debut in November 2019. It will be available from booksellers and hobby shops nationwide, and online (including at www.Whitman.com), for $29.95.
The national motto “In God We Trust” debuted on United States coinage during the chaos and heartache of the American Civil War. It has appeared on our money ever since. Bierly, digging deep into the origins and history of “In God We Trust,” tells its full story for the first time, introducing Reverend Mark Watkinson, the preacher who inspired the Treasury Department to “recognize Almighty God in some form on our coins” . . . Mint Director James Pollock, former governor of Pennsylvania, “a commanding figure” who worked toward the same vision . . . and Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, nephew of an Episcopal bishop, who marshalled the nation’s vast resources and financed the war with bold innovations. President Abraham Lincoln figures in the tale, as does a cast of military generals, wealthy industrialists, poets and artists, powerful bankers, and everyday Americans, North and South.
Bierly shows how the upheaval of the Civil War changed not just the face of our coins and paper currency, but the very foundations of modern American banking and finance.
The story continues into the renaissance of beautiful American coinage started by President Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s . . . the religious revival of the 1950s, and the “Unwritten Constitution” . . . legal challenges by modern-day atheists . . . and controversy surrounding “In God We Trust,” public and school prayer, Ceremonial Deism, the separation of Church and State, and other topics very relevant in today’s social and political conversations.
Historian Q. David Bowers, former president of the American Numismatic Association, calls In God We Trust “One of the most detailed, intricate, and fascinating books in the field of American numismatics—and in American history in general.” On the author’s style, Bowers says, “Bierly approaches the subject respectfully on all sides, with color, personality, dashes of humor, and dogged pursuit of the truth.”
In God We Trust is available for preorder now.
# # #
About the Author
William (Bill) Bierly was raised on a farm near Walkerton, Indiana. As a child he heard stories from his grandparents about two of his great-grandfathers who had served in the Civil War. This led to a lifelong interest in that war and that period of history. At about age eight he began collecting coins from circulating change. Following high school Bierly attended Northwestern University for two years and then completed a degree in sociology and economic development with a minor in Chinese studies at Indiana University. He then worked in India for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in a dairy development project. Back in the United States his interest in coins was rekindled. He soon went abroad again, working for three years in Osaka, Japan. Then in the United States he operated a small business for five years, sold it, and entered graduate school, earning an MBA in finance from Indiana University and embarking on a 25-year career in commercial banking. With his overseas experience Bierly focused on international banking, particularly Japanese corporate business and Asian correspondent banking. He began his career at National Bank of Detroit and he worked with J.P. Morgan Chase for much of his career; at various times at the bank’s Detroit, Chicago, and Columbus, Ohio, offices, as well as traveling often to Asia.
While thus engaged, Bierly continued to pursue his coin hobby, eventually specializing in Civil War–era coinage, in particular pattern coins. Today he is active in several coin groups and clubs, most notably the Central States Numismatic Society, the American Numismatic Association, the American Numismatic Society, the Chicago Coin Club, the Michigan State Numismatic Society, and the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists, as well as the Civil War Token Society and the Liberty Seated Collectors Club. He sometimes exhibits his collection at major coin shows and frequently volunteers as an exhibit judge.
Bierly resides in LaPorte, Indiana. He has two children, Emma and Ken, as well as a granddaughter, Kiki.
Oct 10, 2019 | Announcements
The finest known 1892-CC, graded PCGS MS67+ CAC/PQ with none graded higher, is one of the highlights of the 117-coin, all-time finest Illinois Set Collection of Morgan dollars now being offered intact for $9.7 million. (Photo courtesy of Mint State Gold by Stuppler and Company.)
The 117-coin set has a record-setting PCGS grade point average of 66.59. It contains 51 coins that are the finest known: 15 that are the single finest and 36 others that are tied for finest known. The set’s grade point average surpasses such famous Hall of Fame and previous top Morgan dollar circulation strike sets as Jack Lee, Coronet Collection, California1 and IPS.
“This amazing set of superb quality coins was quietly and patiently acquired over the past 14 years by an Illinois manufacturing company owner whose now completed goal was to assemble the all-time finest collection of its kind,” said Barry Stuppler of Mint State Gold by Stuppler and Company (www.MintStateGold.com) in Woodland Hills, California who assisted the anonymous collector.
The price for the intact collection is $9.7 million.
“The owner would get more money if The Illinois Set coins were offered individually in a major auction, but he wants to keep this historic collection intact. The eventual new owner will acquire the finest Morgan dollar set ever,” Stuppler stated.
Highlights of the collection include:
- 1880-CC PCGS MS68 PQ, single finest known, ex. Jack Lee.
- 1883-S, PCGS MS67+ PL PQ/CAC, single finest known, ex. Eliasberg.
- 1884-S, PCGS MS67 CAC, ex. Jack Lee.
- 1885-CC PCGS MS68+ CAC, single finest known, ex. Jack Lee.
- 1892-CC PCGS MS67+ PQ/CAC, single finest known.
- 1893-S PCGS MS65 CAC.
- 1901 PCGS MS66, single finest known, ex. Jack Lee.
- 1903-S PCGS MS67+, single finest known, ex. Eliasberg.
These are the five PCGS Set Registry categories with The Illinois Set now listed as all-time finest:
- 97-coin Morgan Dollars Basic Set, Circulation Strikes, 1878-1921, grade point average 67.08
(https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/dollars/morgan-dollars-major-sets/morgan-dollars-basic-set-circulation-strikes-1878-1921/88);
- 117-coin Morgan Dollars with Major Varieties, Circulation 1878-1921, GPA 66.59
(https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/dollars/morgan-dollars-major-sets/morgan-dollars-major-varieties-circulation-strikes-1878-1921/221);
- 26-coin New Orleans Morgan Dollars, Circulation Strike 1879-1904, GPA 66.67
(https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/dollars/branch-mint-dollars/new-orleans-morgan-dollars-circulation-strikes-1879-1904/1318);
- 29-coin Philadelphia Morgan Dollars, Circulation Strike 1878-1921
(https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/dollars/branch-mint-dollars/philadelphia-morgan-dollars-circulation-strikes-1878-1921/6505), GPA 67.29; and
- 28-coin San Francisco Morgan Dollars, Circulation Strike 1878-1921, GPA 67.10
(https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/dollars/branch-mint-dollars/san-francisco-morgan-dollars-circulation-strikes-1878-1921/6506).
For additional information about Illinois Set of Morgan dollars, contact Barry Stuppler at Mint State Gold by Stuppler by phone 818-592-2800 or by email at support@mintstategold.com.
