Art by Linda Parker
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July 2003 Book Review Part Five Continued
 Special *July 2003* Early Addition Of Our Book Review:Indepth Book Review On 2000 North American Coins & Prices:
A Guide To U.S., Canadian and Mexican Coins....
 Collectible Treasures Antique and CollectiblesBook Review July 2003
Interesting Information On Coin Collecting as noted in the 2000
North American Coins & Prices: A Guide To U.S., Canadian and
Mexican Coins.
CHAPTER 5:
GET A MAP
HOW TO ORGANIZE A COLLECTION by David C. Harper
The key date for Jefferson is the 1950-D when using mintages as a
guide. In that year, production was just 2.6. million pieces. Because
collectors of the time were aware of the coin's low mintage, many
examples were saved. As a result, prices are reasonable.
The Depression-era 1939-D comes in as the most valuable regular
-issure Jefferson nickel despite a mintage of 3.5 million--almost
1 million more than the 1950-D. The reason: Fewer were saved
for later generations of coin collectors.
Date and mintmark collecting teaches hobbyists to use mintage
figures as a guide but to take them with a grain of salt. Rarity,
after all, is determined by the number of surviving coins, not
the number initially created.
The Jefferson series is a good one to collect by date and
mintmark, because the mintmarks have moved around, grown
in size, and expanded in number.
When the series was first introduced, the Jefferson nickel was
produced at the three mints previously mentioned. In 1942,
because of a diversion of certain metals to wartime use, the
coin's alloy of 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel was
changed. The new alloy was 35 percent silver, 56 percent
copper, and 9 percent manganese.
To denote the change, the mintmarks were moved and
greatly enlarged. The pre- 1942 mintmarks were small
and located to the right of Monticello;
the
wartime mintmarks were enlarged and placed over the
dome. What's more, for the first time in American
history, the Philadelphia Mint used a mintmark ("P).
The war's end restored the alloy and mintmarks to their
previous status. The "P" disappeared. This lasted until
the 1960s, when a national coin shortage saw all
mintmarks removed for three years (1965-1967) and
then returned, but in a different location. Mintmarks
were placed on the obverse, to the right of Jefferson's
portrait near the date in 1968. In 1980 the "P" came
back in a smaller form and is still used.
Another consideration arises with date and mintmark
collecting: Should the hobbyist include proof coins in
the set? This can be argued both ways. Suffice to say
that anyone who has the desire to add proof coins to
the set will have a larger one. It is not necessary nor
is it discouraged.
Some of the first proof coins to carry mintmarks were
Jefferson nickels. When proof coins were made in 1968
after lapsing from 1965 to 1967, production occured at
San Francisco instead of Philadelphia.
The "S" mintmark was placed on the proof coins of that
year, including the Jefferson nickel, to denote the change.
Since that time, mintmarks used on proof examples of
various denominations have included the "P", "D", "S",
and "W".
For all of the mintmark history that is embodied in the
Jefferson series, prices are reasonable. For a first attempt
at collecting coins by date and mintmark, it provides
excellent background for going on to the more expensive
and difficult types. After all, if you are ever going to get
used to the proper handling of a coin, it is far better to
experiment on a low-cost coin that a high-value rarity.
As one progresses in date and mintmark collecting and
type collecting, it is important to remember that all of
the coins should be of similar states of preservation.
Sets look slapdash if one coin is VG and another is
MS-65 and still another is VF. Take a look at the prices
of all the coins in the series before you get too far,
figure out what you can afford, and then stick to that
grade or range of grades.
Sure, there is a time-honored practice of filling a spot
with any old example until a better one comes along.
That is how we got the term "filler." But if you get a
few placeholders, don't stop there. By assembling a
set of uniform quality, you end up with a more
aesthetically pleasing collection.
The date and mintmark method used to be the
overwhelmingly dominant form of collecting. It
still has many adherents. Give it a try if you think
it sounds right for you.
Before we leave the discussion of collecting U.S.
coins, it should be pointed out that the two major
methods of organizing a collection are simply
guidelines. They are no hard-and-fast rules that
must be followed without question. Collecting
should be satisfying to the hobbyist. It should
never be just one more item in the daily grind.
Take the elements of these collecting approaches
that you like or invent your own.
There are coins and tokens from the American
Colonial period (1607-1776) that are just as
fascinating and collectible as regular U.S. Mint
issues. There are federal issues struck before the
Mint was actually established. See the Colonial
price-guide section of in this book.
There are special coins called commemoratives,
which have been struck by the U.S. Mint since
1892 to celebrate some aspect of American history
or a contemporary event. They are not intended
for circulation. There was a long interruption
between 1954 and 1982, but currently numerous
commemoratives are being offered for sale
directly to collectors by the Mint.
Collecting commemoratives has always been
considered something separate from collecting
regular U.S. coinage. It is, however, organized
the same way. Commemoratives can be collected
by date and mintmark or by type.
Current commemoratives can be purchased from
the U.S. Mint. To get on its mailing list, write
U.S. Mint, Customer Service Center, 10001 Aerospace Drive,
Lanham MD 20706. Once on the list, hobbyists will get the
various solicitations for not only commemoratives, but regular
proof sets and mint sets from the American Eagle bullion coinage.
Buying coins from the Mint can be considered a hobby pursuit in
its own right. Some collectors let the Mint organize their holdings
for them. They buy complete sets and put them away. They
never buy anything from anywhere else.
Admittedly, this is a passive form of collecting, but there are
individuals around the world who enjoy collecting at this level
without ever really going any deeper. They like acquiring
every new issue as it comes off the Mint's presses.
Once done, there is a certain knowledge that one has all the
examples of the current year. Obviously, too, collectors by
date and mintmark of the current types would have to buy
the new coins each year, but, of course, they do not stop there.
Varieties and errors make up another area. Under this heading
come the coins the Mint did not intend to make. There are
all kinds of errors. Many of them are inexpensive. Check
out the U.S. Minting Varieties and Errors section in the price
guide. If you want to pursue it further, there are specialty
books that deal with the topic in more detail.
CANADA
Starting point for the national coinage of Canada is popularly
fixed at 1858. In that year a large cent was first produced for
use in Upper and Lower Canada (Ontario and Quebec). These
prices were intended to supplant local copper coinage, which
in turn had been attempts to give various regions a medium
of exchange.
What was circulating in Canada at the time was a hodgepodge
of world issues. The large cent predates a unified national
government by nine years, but it is considered the beginning
of national issues nevertheless.
There are many similarities between the United States and
Canada and their respective monetary systems. Both
continent-sized nations thought in terms of taming the
frontier, new settlements, and growth. Both came to use the
dollar as the unit of account because of the pervasiveness of
the Spanish milled dollar in trade. For each, the dollar divides
into 100 cents.
However, Canada had a far longer colonial history. Many of its
residents resisted the tide that carried the United States to
indenpence and worked to preserve their loyalties to the
British crown. As a result, Canada was firmly a part of the British
Empire. So even today with its constitution
(the British North America Act transferred from Westminster to
Ottawa in 1982), parliamentary democracy, and a national
consciousness perhaps best symbolized by the maple leaf, Canada
retains a loyalty to the crown in the person of Queen Elizabeth II
of the United Kingdom. Canada is a member of the British
Commonwealth of Nations.
The effect of this on coins is obvious. Current issues carry the
queen's effigy. How Canada got its coins in the past was also
influenced. The fledgling U.S. government seet about creating
its own mint as one of its earliest goals, despite that better-
quality pieces could be purchased abroad at lower cost. Canada
found that ties to mints located in England were logical and
comfortable.
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