Readers also enjoyed posts about a rare coin board establishing a new price record during an eBay auction, and a new Reverse Proof Ronald Reagan dollar.

The edge inscription on the Proof 2016-W American Eagle silver dollar denoting the 30th anniversary of the bullion coin is getting mixed reviews.

Coins, paper money and medals that have flown aboard American spacecraft are among the lots to be offered in an October sale by RR Auction.

The 1850 book is considered a key reference documenting the start of gold mining in California and the Gold Rush.

It is up to a buyer building a great collection to study the coins or needle-sharp images. A quality grading service can verify and guarantee authenticity.

Many of the author's 1964 predictions for 1971 were laughably lousy, like his belief that a 1942-S Lincoln cent roll would be worth $2,315. (Real answer: $125.)

Lincoln cents with the Union Shield reverse are definitely pop­ular with our readers, who shared their most recent finds in our Varieties Notebook column.

Collectors will long debate the commemorative credentials of the 1848 Coronet gold quarter eagles with CAL. stamped on the reverse.

This NGC Very Good 10 1877-CC Coronet gold $5 half eagle provided a convenient entry point for a collector to purchase the otherwise pricey issue.

The Moffat firm struck coins for only a few years, but, Heritage notes, it “was the most important and longest-lasting of the California private minters."

A good editor makes any writer better and Barbara Gregory is one of the best editors our numismatic hobby has ever seen.

Lifting the ordering restrictions for the 2016-W Standing Liberty Centennial gold quarter dollar has significantly boosted the U.S. Mint's sales of the coin.

Q. David Bowers believes that third-party certification has been a great boon to coin prices and to the market in general. It has other advantages as well.

“So-called dollars” was the term in the 1950s to describe medals of the approximate size of a silver dollar. They were at one time a distinct collecting area.

The nation’s two coin review panels have taken sharply different stands on how some the nation’s most expensive coins should be designed.

The fake 1873 Coronet, Closed 3 gold $2.50 quarter eagle is most likely from counterfeits produced in the 1960s and 1970s to get around gold restrictions.

Some estimate that more than 100,000 thinner-than-intended 1970-D Washington quarters were struck and released into circulation.

Circulated rarities from the Philadelphia Mint's first years are among highlights in Heritage’s U.S. coin auction Oct. 3 to 5 in Dallas.

A new record price for any coin collecting board was established with the Sept. 20 ebay sale of an Earl & Koehler board for Lincoln cents.

Through Sept. 18, the Mint recorded sales of 54,876 coins. The maximum mintage is 100,000, so plenty of coins are still available.

Previous Coin and Chronicles sets have been very popular with U.S. Mint customers, and have also been responsible for some serious U.S. Mint website problems.

The United States Mint reported first-day sales Sept. 16 for the Proof 2016-W American Eagle 30th Anniversary silver dollar.

The 2017 American Liberty High Relief .9999 fine 1-ounce gold $100 coin will be promoted by the U.S. Mint as part of its 225th anniversary celebration.

The medal was passed down through six generations of the Clay family and had last been on display at Clay’s Lexington, Ky., estate before being consigned.

Legislation authorizing a 56-coin commemorative small dollar program honoring American innovation was introduced Sept. 14 in the House by Rep. Jim Himes.

New California fractional gold varieties are seldom identified, with a new discovery made only once every four or five years.

What did I learn in 90 minutes of slab surgery? Plastic encapsulations are strong, power tools are stronger, and watch your fingers!

A number of President Obama's nominations, including that of Matthew Rhett Jeppson as U.S. Mint director, continue to await a full Senate vote.

Identifying when in the minting process damage is inflicted is important for diagnosis and valuing. Damage that occurs after the strike generally has no value.

Joe Hosteen Kellwood served in the First Marine Division in the Pacific Theater of World War II, experiencing combat in Cape Gloucester, Peleleiu and Okinawa.

The summer doldrums for the rare coin market broke in a big way with the auctions of the final Long Beach Expo of 2016.

From 2018 to 2020, the obverse designs will change each year, instead of the reverse, which has been the side traditionally bearing the changing themes.

Trade dollars remain an outlier among U.S. coins, in that the large silver coins were never intended to circulate in the United States.

Part of the grading milieu is the mutually profitable system of resubmitting a coin to a certification service and having it returned with a higher grade.

Also this week, a judge announced who has rights to the SS Central America treasure, and a truck carrying millions of copper planchets spilled its cargo.

A 1942 Walking Liberty half dollar struck on a planchet intended for a quarter and sold during the 2016 ANA convention is one of perhaps five known.

The Proof American Eagle platinum $100 coin is getting a makeover, and the obverse and reverse designs that are being considered have been made public.

John Mercanti's Statue of Liberty-themed design for the obverse of the platinum Proof and bullion American Eagles since 1997 will disappear in 2018.

Production of the final 1916 centennial coin of 2016 is underway and Coin World has exclusive images of one of the early strikes.

The manganese-bronze clad Sacagawea dollar replaced the copper-nickel clad Anthony dollar in 2000. This planchet error bridges the two issues.

A truck hauling millions of copper-plated zinc planchets bound for the Philadelphia Mint struck a concrete median barrier on I-95 Sept. 8.

To successfully negotiate among grading inconsistencies, do what the specialists do: look at a lot of coins and cherrypick the best in the level you can afford.

I recently decided to go through $200 face value of “junk” 1964 Kennedy half dollars to separate anything worthwhile.

U.S. Mint Sculptor-Engraver Jim Licaretz's scheduled retirement at the end of calendar year 2016 will leave the bureau's engraving staff down two personnel.

A possible solution (or not) to the Mint’s fast sellouts of limited products

In 1982 the Mint changed the cent from a 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc composition to zinc with copper plating. An old planchet stuck around awhile.

Mike Diamond has recently discovered that a pair of his longstanding assumptions about a certain kind of error coin have been falsified.

The attraction that brings tourists to New England in the fall also appears on the longest-running series of coins struck in colonial New England: trees.

The price that was paid in a recent online sale was extraordinary for a Peace dollar coin that has few visual equals.

Five original, preliminary flying eagle sketches by the designer of the Standing Liberty quarter, Hermon Atkins MacNeil, were sold at auction recently.

A Virginia judge ruled Aug. 31 on who gets the much-publicized SS Central America treasure that was salvaged in 2014.

Dollar production in 1878, when the first Morgan silver dollars rolled off the presses, was a rushed and, in some cases, haphazard affair.

Customers began placing orders for the 100,000 available 2016-W Standing Liberty Centennial gold quarter dollars at noon ET on Sept. 8.

While 1921 Peace dollars are notorious for unattractive toning, this Larsen Collection example, though not "monster toned," is a welcome surprise.

The coin has a special edge inscription recognizing the 30th anniversary of the 1986 debut of the 1-ounce silver bullion piece.

The ceremonies are to be held at Fort Moultrie (Fort Sumter National Monument), 1214 Middle St., in Sullivan’s Island, S.C.

The U.S. Mint announced pricing for the the 2016-W Standing Liberty Centennial gold quarter dollars will be $485 per coin.

The United States Mint is holding a one-day Numismatic Forum on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016, in Philadelphia.

The museum’s new gold medal series recognizes lifetime contributions that embody American ideals and ideas.

While Morgan silver dollars often exhibit gorgeous toning, rainbow colors are less likely seen on the Peace dollar.

Decades ago, there were no grading standards. Now there are. Still, it seems even an expert’s grading for the same coin can vary by the day.

The discovery appears to be what some 19th century numismatists labeled as a “Confederate half dime,” although its use in circulation is not confirmed.

Approved designs for the reverses of the five America the Beautiful quarter dollars for 2017 were announced Sept. 1 by the U.S. Mint. Did the turtle make it?

The book is stuffed with fascinating data about the numismatic scene at the outset of President Eisenhower’s second term.

The fifth edition of A Guide Book of Morgan Silver Dollars reveals a numismatic bombshell — evidence that the U.S. Mint considered striking 1964 Morgan dollars.

Two NASA astronauts, Jeffrey Hoffman and Judith Resnik, are the subjects of the 2016 Jewish-American Hall of Fame medal.

Reader Sheila Ruley submitted a 1971 Lincoln cent with an obverse doubled die that is near and dear to my heart.

Readers also read about the quick-reacting secondary market for the American Liberty silver medal, and report about the future of traditional currency.

At first glance this looks like a common and kind of dirty 1880s Coronet half eagle. But the Mint mark on it actually boosted it to $36,435 at an ANA auction.