The Coin Collecting Den

If you had your heart set on picking up the 2009 Ultra High Relief Gold Double Eagle for your collection but just keep putting it off, your time is running out. The US Mint has announced that sales of the 2009 UHR will end at 3:00 pm Eastern Standard Time on December 31. This is, of course, not really a surprise, as 2009 ends just hours later. Over 108,961 coins have been sold so far. Final mintage figures will be published in January.

As any serious (or would-be serious) coin collector knows, coins are graded on a 70 point scale meant to standardize descriptions of coin condition. All else being equal, a higher grade coin should be more valuable than a lower grade, and at the high end of the grading scale the difference can be substantial. For example, a 1924 Standing Liberty quarter from the Philadelphia mint is worth about $600 in MS-65 condition. Not bad, but the same type of coin in MS-67 condition is worth $2,400!

Obviously it is in every collectors interest to be able to grade coins, at least to a degree, in order to avoid over paying for coins and identify attractive bargains. Learning to grade is definitely not easy to do, however, particularly since the best way to become familiar with the differences between coins of various grades is to examine coins that have already been graded by an agency such as PCGS or NGC. Accumulating such a reference set is usually beyond the means of a novice collector, so what is an aspiring grader (like me) to do?

For the thousands of collectors in similar circumstances, PCGS has released their Photograde online photo reference sets. These photo sets show high quality images of coins graded XF45, AU50, AU55, MS63 and MS65. Images are included for nearly all series of circulating coins produced in the 20th century, including Indian Head cents, Liberty nickels, Barber dime, quarter and half dollars, Morgan dollars, and Liberty and Indian head $2.50 and $5 coins.

The good: The pictures are large and detailed, and definitely show the difference between the lower and higher grades.

The “bad”: Even with pictures, differentiating between MS-63 and MS-65 is tough-to-impossible, and no explanatory text is included to tell why the coins were graded as they were.

The verdict: Photograde isn’t sufficient to be a stand-alone grading tool. However, in conjunction with a reference such as the Red Book, the Photograde pictures can be an invaluable resource.

The Mint has released production figures for circulating coins through November 2009. Total production for the month was only 76.06 million coins, a decrease of nearly 80% from October and the lowest production in years.

These figures include the final mintages for the Zachary Taylor Presidential Dollar and the Northern Mariana Islands quarter. Only Lincoln cents, Presidential Dollars, and NMI quarters were produced during November. Cents and dollars were produced at the Philadelphia Mint, while the Denver Mint produced cents and quarters.

The table below shows coin production for both November and year to date.

November 2009 US Mint Coin Production Figures

Three denominations (Lincoln cents, Presidential dollars, quarters) featured multiple reverse designs that rotated over the course of the year. The table below breaks down the total production figures for the year by reverse design. Of note: It has not yet been confirmed if production of the Lincoln cent Presidency design has ended, so the table only lists totals for the first three Lincoln cent designs. By subtracting the totals for these first three designs from the totals through November given above, possible mintages for the Presidency Cent come in at 198.00 million Denver Mint coins and 129.60 million Philadelphia Mint coins, assuming no further production in December. These totals are substantially less than the first three designs.

The Zachary Taylor Presidential Dollar, the last of the four presidential dollars released for 2009, will go on sale at the Mint at noon Eastern time on Thursday, November 19. Rolls of 25 coins will be available from both the Philadelphia and Denver Mints. Rolls will be priced at $35.95 each, with no quantity restrictions.

The 2009 American Buffalo Gold Proof coin went on sale yesterday, October 29. Based on the average price of gold for the period being $1,050.28, the coins were priced at $1,360 each, with no order limits or announced mintage limit. The current spot price of gold is $1,037.50, which could mean a price drop of $50 is in the future for this coin. No sales figures will be out for at least a few days, but since the Mint’s site didn’t crash the way it did with the launch of the Lincoln Chronicles set, it’s safe to say the demand has been more moderate. This may be due to the previously mentioned possibility of a price drop if the price of gold stays below $1,050 per ounce. It may also be due to the lack of a mintage limit, which could mean enough coins will be produced to fill the market demand and reduce the value of the coin in the secondary market. Time will tell!

So I checked the mail Friday, and to my surprise there was a box from the Mint! I was not expecting anything so soon, as my order still showed as “processing” as late as Wednesday and was listed as shipping 10/31/09 when I ordered on the 14th. It was a great surprise! I took some pictures of the unboxing, check them out after the jump!

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