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Posts Tagged ‘collecting’

The 250th birthday of the late Pres. George Washington in 1982 was celebrated by America by way of modern commemorative coins. The US Mint released the coins in half dollars; and they marked the start of America’s programs for Modern Commemorative Coins. Every year thereafter, coins were minted to honor important and significant individuals of America, as well as places, events and establishments.

The popularity of modern commemorative coins is rising, although it fluctuates with the subject matter. Sales are normally very high when the subject or theme is popular, oftentimes reaching the optimum mintage granted by the authorities. The coins are usually discounted on its first couple of weeks of launch, but will be sold on its standard price in the remaining sales period which lasts just for a certain year or for a number of months. Previously, popular coins such as the 2006 Benjamin Franklin Commemorative and the 2001 American Buffalo Commemorative were sold out in no time.

Five different sizes of these coins were released through the years. The first kinds were silver commemorative coins at half dollars and 90% silver. The next were $1 dollar 90% silver coins. To follow were $10 commemorative coins made up of 90% gold, with a net weight of .4837 ounces. After these were $5 dollar coins, 90% gold, and a net weight of .2418 ounces. Eventually, clad half dollars composing of 8% nickel plus 92% copper, were released.

Commemorative coins have been in use for over four thousand years. In times of Romans they were used to keep track of and recognize critical events. Special coins are frequently released either to remember occasions or to help pay for monuments and festivities that commemorate important individuals, locations, or things. A commemorative coin is offered more often than not by a commission in control of the event to be commemorated and it’s promoted at a price h igher than the face value of the coin.

There are many thousands of collectors who have been trying to get national commemorative coins from many countries of the world. But no nation has overtaken the United states when it comes to commemorative coins. All significant historic events and people have found their place on commemorative coins emitted in the USA. A rich heritage conditioned wide popularity of American commemorative coins. The diversity of themes of American coins has been indeed unmatched ever since World’s Columbian Exposition in 1982.

Face value of a commemorative coin is not what attracts numismats. Rather they desire to see historical events represented in their collection. It is the historical features of the commemoratives that create interest among many people who would otherwise have little interest in coins.

Actually first commemorative coins appeared due to high patriotic feelings among people of different nations. Honoring the ruling monarch was another common cause to issue a gold commemorative coin in Europe.

Gold coins are very beautiful items and collecting them goes back to when coins were first issued in pre-Roman Europe. However, it was only in the Middle Ages that the amassing of gold coins became a leisure pursuit amongst the aristocracy and merchants who could afford to save such valuable items for their beauty and historical value alone.

Coin collecting in general is still a very popular hobby enjoyed by millions of people of all ages. School children all over the world have small collections of overseas coins. Later, that hobby might expand into collecting coins from one’s own country. For example, it is simpler and less expensive to collect a cent or penny from every year in the 20th Century in your own country than a foreign country.

This higher level of collecting coins can later become an expensive hobby once one has started working and has more money to spend. One might choose to concentrate on collecting gold coins from a particular period or of a certain denomination. Dollar and sovereign coins are very popular in this regard.

In the USA, gold coins were in circulation from 1838 to 1933. The first design was the Liberty Head Bust but this was changed in 1907 to the Indian Head and Saint Gaudens motifs, which were used until 1933. The difficulties posed by the Great Depression caused gold coins to be recalled to be melted down. This made them scarcer and therefore more valuable.

The American silver has been the symbol of the United States since it began. They are testament to strength that has lasted over two hundred years. The American silver dollar is the cornerstone of many coin collections and collectors everywhere. Not only are they beautiful, have have a very rich historical value.

From the beginning of the modern age, silver has become one of the major metals for world trade. Gold coins are very precious and brass or copper not valuable enough. Silver has the perfect balance of rareness and worth to make it the coin of trade around the world. The United States has always minted silver dollars since the end of the American revolution. The first old silver dollars were nearly ninety percent silver and were pressed from hand made dies giving them a hand made look that is loved by collectors.

Gold lost it’s value to silver soon after the early 1800s. Old silver dollars were being liquidated to trade for gold and gold coins. There was a stoppage of the minting of American silver dollars until this monetary crisis evened out. The price of silver dropped to more sane levels in 1835. At that time, the mint started to strike silver dollars once again. A new design was called for and the famous Liberty silver dollar made its appearance.