As 2015 comes to a close and 2016 begins, Coin World managing editor William T. Gibbs looks briefly at the past year’s Top Stories as selected by the Coin World editorial staff and the upcoming conventions and auctions in Tampa, Florida, and New York City during the first week in January.

Full video transcript:

Good morning. This is William T. Gibbs with Coin World’s Monday Morning Brief.

Well, 2015 has ended and it’s now 2016, so this is a good time to reflect briefly on the past year and to look at the first week of the new year.

As always the Coin World editorial staff selected the top 10 stories they covered during the past year. I’m not going to mention all of them here—you’ll find all of our coverage at our website—but two bear mention. One was the United States Mint’s sale of Coin and Chronicles sets in its Presidential dollar program. The first two sets for Harry Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower each sold out within minutes, angering a lot of collectors who were not able to successfully place their orders. The Mint learned, and increased their mintages for the sets for John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, but some damage had been done. There were a lot of unhappy Mint customers.

The other story that deserves mention caught us bit off guard and it showed the power of the Women on 20s movement. This movement, which arose early in 2015, sought to replace the portrait of Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with that of a prominent American woman, and it was successful in part. The Treasury Department agreed that it is time that a woman appear on a U.S. note. The last time that happened was in the early 20th century, and it was Martha Washington. However, instead of the $20 bill it will be the $10 bill to be released sometime in the 2020s. That’s because that denomination is the next one in line to be redesigned.

As always, the first week of January will be a very busy one for the new year. That’s because there will be major conventions and auctions in Tampa, Fla., sponsored by the Florida United Numismatists, and in New York City, where there will be the International Numismatic Convention. Expect millions of dollars of transactions to occur at the auctions and at the shows.

One coin in particular stands out: the finest known 1894-S Barber dime will be a part of Heritage’s Platinum Night auction in a few days in Tampa. Expect that coin to bring several million dollars at minimum. 

What else will 2016 bring? We don’t know yet, but Coin World will be there. Thank you and keep coming back.