Welcome to the latest edition of my market report. Buying and selling continues to be excellent on all fronts, although gold bullion is a bit quiet. It is remarkable that when the price is going up, and news channels are running stories about gold, buyers swarm into our gallery at 123 West 57th Street in New York City. When the price is going down, sellers are aplenty. This is just the opposite of Bernard Baruch’s advice on how to make a fortune: sell when others are buying, buy when others are selling.

The U.S. Mint is launching bullion-type or at least very heavy versions of the quarter dollar designs. Although these are denominated, they are not coins at all, in the sense that they can be spent for face value. Of course, they can—but who would want to. The American Eagle one-ounce silver coin is legal tender for $1, but the Mint charges many multiples of this. The one-ounce American Eagle gold coin is denominated at $50, but sells for a premium over the gold bullion price, which at the moment is well over $1,300.

We are all used to these weird coins, or whatever they are. Back in 1965 such pieces were very controversial. Various countries were issuing legal tender coins especially for collectors, selling them for over face value. The September 1965 issue of The Numismatist gave an example:

“From an Arab state, Sharjah, in Trucial Oman on the Persian Gulf coast of Arabia, comes a 5-rupee silver piece. Obverse: Two crossed flags in center 720 (fine silver) below each. On the lower part in English and Arabic: 5 rupees of Sharjah. Legend on top in Arabic: ‘Hakumat Sharjah’ (Government of Sharjah). Reverse; Head to left, designers monogram R C below at right. English legend at left: MEMORIAL OF JOHN F. KENNEDY 1964. Same legend in Arabic at right. Plain edge. Struck at the Paris Mint.”

All of this started in 1960 when Hans M.F. Schulman sponsored the Andorra silver crown, a legal tender coin bearing inscriptions relating to this tiny country in the mountains between France and Spain. These were marketed worldwide to collectors, causing quite a ruckus, especially as Schulman (a fine friend of your editor) was very important in the International Association of Professional Numismatists, an organization that championed ethics. These new crowns were viewed as hocus-pocus.

The idea caught on, and before long there were all sorts of legal tender coins popping up. The Franklin Mint was front row center in turning them out, and many others were involved.

Were they promotional junk, or did they have status as coins? The matter was debated. The issue was resolved, apparently to everyone’s satisfaction, when Chet Krause and Cliff Mishler, authors of The Standard Catalog of World Coins, came up with the term “Non-Circulating Legal Tender.” Abbreviated NCLT, such coins are widely collected today, and scarcely anyone gives a thought to or cares that they are not coins in the regular sense.

Today, if thousands of people wanted to collect early half dimes, or trade dollars, or twenty-cent pieces there would not be enough to go around. However, there are so many modern NCLT coins around that there never will be a lack of supply. Further, nearly all modern issues are MS or Proof 69 or 70, nicely satisfying anyone who would not want, for example, a worn 1802 half dime (there are no Mint State examples of this issue).

Sincerely,

Dave Bowers

PS: I would love to buy for Stack’s inventory a well-worn 1802 half dime. How about one in VG-8!

Comments? E-mail me at my private address: qdbarchive@metrocast.net