In the 1700s and 1800s, the dies used to strike coins were made partly by machine and partly by hand. Every step in the coin-manufacturing process creates the chance for another error, and misplaced dates (sometimes abbreviated MPDs) can be spectacular – if you know where to look.
The Coin Geek: A Kindness Repaid
Like any other professional numismatist, I have had many mentors who have given me assistance and insight throughout my career. Most of their gifts I could never pay back, so I pay them forward instead. Every once in a while, though, I get the chance to return a favor. In Spring 1998 I was 12 years […]
The Susan B. Anthony Dollar and History Lived
When the Susan B. Anthony dollars were released to commerce they were considered an absolute failure. The quarter-sized dollars got confused with the existing coins, even West German businesses didn’t want Susan B. Anthony dollars.
The Coin Geek 4: Of Forty-Eighters and Forty-Niners
(There is little more enthralling or evocative than a huge gold ingot of assayers gold, and little assayers gold more intriguing that that of Justh & Hunter, two names numismatists will recognize instantly from its intimate connection to the most famous lost treasure shipwreck of all, the S.S. Central America. Read on for John Dale’s entertaining history […]
Charlie Brown, Peanuts, Charles Schulz and The Meaning of Life
“I love mankind – it’s people I can’t understand!” – Charlie Brown I’ve long maintained that everything I know about writing I learned from MAD Magazine and everything I learned about philosophy – from Agnosticism to Zen – I learned from Peanuts and Good Ol’ Charlie Brown. The latter has been on my mind much […]
The Coin Geek #3: Nickels and Vending Machines
The vending machine was restocked at work today, giving me a bit of inspiration for this post. This year marks the centennial of the Buffalo nickel, struck between 1913 and 1938. The Buffalo nickel’s design, by noted sculptor James Earle Fraser, made 21st-century comebacks to appear on both a 2001 silver commemorative coin and […]
You Paid $13,000 for WHAT!? – A Look at Collecting VHS Tapes, Part One
On May 31 of this year, someone paid $13,220 for an original MEDA VHS video tape of John Carpenter’s Halloween. No, that’s not a joke. Well, it might be a hoax, but more on that later. For now, we have to assume, since the eBay item page is still up, that it really happened. I […]
I Love Calvin & Hobbes
(The following blog entry is written by 10-year-old Emily Shipman, daughter of our CIO Brian Shipman. It is presented here, unedited and unaided. Perhaps we have a new contributor!) My dad (who works for Heritage) and I used to read Calvin and Hobbes every night. We would laugh at them and have a great time. I always […]
