Usually, the addition of a coin or coins to a standard price guide like our Coin Values or the “Red Book” is a simple decision. New circulating coins are added to the regular section. Same thing with bullion and commemorative coinage. But the United States Mint is now making price guide editors’ jobs tougher with coins that do not fall into a clear category.

Take the 2021 Morgan and Peace dollars as examples. Where should we list them?

Grading service staffers and the editors are asking themselves that very question, as Paul Gilkes writes this week in his news coverage.

Numismatic Guaranty Corp., for example, will list the various 2021 Morgan dollars and the 2021 Peace dollar with the two series’ original listings. For those collectors with NGC registry sets previously considered complete, they are now considered incomplete and will remain so until the 2021 coins are added.

Officials at Professional Coin Grading Service are still debating the subject. They are seeking feedback from their users before making a decision on how to classify the 2021 coins.

The editors at Whitman Publishing, at work on the next editions of A Guide Book of United States Coins, will list them in a special section initially, before deciding on a permanent solution.

At Coin World, we are a little undecided about how we will list them in our print and online Coin Values price guides.

One problem in classifying the coins has been the lack of information from the U.S. Mint. Mint officials stress that the coins are not commemorative coins, which is accurate. However, they do not really seem to fall into the category of “special” gold coins issued by the under existing authority — pieces like the 2016 centennial editions of the Winged Liberty Head dime, Standing Liberty quarter dollar and Walking Liberty half dollar, the various American Liberty coins, and the coin celebrating the Mayflower anniversary. Our price guide lists these separately, near the listings for bullion coins.

It should be noted that the 2021 Morgan and Peace dollars required and received legislative approval from Congress.

What do you think? Where should we list these 2021 coins? Please let us know.

Connect with Coin World:  
Sign up for our free eNewsletter
Access our Dealer Directory  
Like us on Facebook  
Follow us on Twitter