More than three years and $85,000.

That’s how long and how strong an effort to put $100,000 worth of dollar and half dollar coins into U.S. circulation has been.

I stumbled across a thread on the Coin Community Family forum earlier this week titled, “Project $100K. Circulating Dollar and Half Dollar Coins."

Project $100K? Quite catchy.

The thread’s originator, a user who goes by cc99999, explains the contest in the very first post:

"I propose a Coin Community Forum project called Project 100K where we in the course of regular commerce spend $100,000 worth of golden dollar coins or half dollars. Post here with how many you spent, where, and what if any curious anecdotes you have regarding your transaction."

That was posted on April 6, 2012. cc99999 announced in the post he had put the first $17 worth of Sacagawea and Presidential dollars (all AU or below, mind you) into the system: $4 at tolls, $3 on candy for his son, $10 at a movie theater concession stand.

Since that first post, there have 4,137 replies, the most recent coming around 8:53 p.m. CT yesterday. User jack jackel spent $4 in dollar coins on lottery tickets, and $15.50 in halves and dollar coins at "the beer store."

That $19.50 worth of dollars and half dollars put into circulation brought Project $100K down to Project $14,756.50. 

That’s right, the thread’s loyalists have put $85,243.50 worth of dollar and half dollar coins into circulation since April 2012. And all of them are accounted for. (It’s like Bitcoin’s block chain, only instead of virtual new-age currency, it’s keeping track of the total opposite.)

It’d take me weeks to go through to find all the interesting things that people have exchanged high-denomination coinage for, but here are a few that I’ve come across:

• CelticKnot: "2 Prez for peaches at a fruit stand in Fredericksburg, TX" (June 3, 2015)
• Garoyn: "$2 Sacagawea--cafeteria; cashier laughed, but took ‘em" (June 2, 2015)
• jack jeckel: "Dropped 350 in dollar coins on Sears, Roebuck, & Co paying my credit card bill." (Dec. 14, 2014)
• Zoran: "Went to Denny's with my wife for breakfast; coffee is usually decent there but this time it was terrible. Left a $4 tip in halves." (May 18, 2014)
• argentum: "$3 for a couple of bottles of beer from the grocery store after a graduation celebration shindig." (May 25, 2013)
• AllezRoubaix: "2 G$ for a 5 layer burrito at Taco Bell, a glorious mess of nacho cheese, beef, sour cream, and refried beans, so unhealthy though." (March 11, 2013)
• 1967Canadapenny: "$22.00 On an e string for my violin" (Nov. 8, 2012)

Let the countdown continue!

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Nothing makes a numismatist cringe like someone letting a rarity pass through their hands unwittingly (unless it is passed into the hands of that numismatist).

Along those lines, Coin World Facebook follower Jack Kennedy posted this on our wall:

"I wanna hear a story if you've ever had someone you know, (spouse, sibling, etc.) unknowingly spend one of your coin pieces from your collection, as face value!"

Here’s what we’ve heard so far:

Ken Lemke: "The wife spent one of my $20 gem star notes on dog food. The identification of a star note was the dinner topic that evening."

Elijah Homuth: "I didn't myself but a kid I know showed me like 8 Morgan dollars and bought stuff with them. Or that's what I heard. I wasn't there when he actually bought the stuff....But I heard he bought McDonalds."

Louis Fiorella: "The kids cashing in pennies at machine when I looked down to see 2 Indian Heads moving on belt. I was able to grab but where did they come from, and what got by?"

David Martin: "I have a nephew who works for the PSA, and someone came in last year and paid part of their water bill with a roll of pre-1964 quarters. At face value.."

Jon Herrick: "Got a proof Statehood quarter in my change from a vending machine at work one day. I figure some kid cracked a set open and spent it."

Paul Gunsallus: "Went to the local grocery store to pick up a few items. Thought I would stop to get a scratch-off at the lottery vending machine. Some old dude was having a difficult time getting his $1 to get accepted into the machine, when I noticed he had what I seen as an original $100 pack of consecutive serial numbered silver certificates. He was not getting any of them to get accepted and I offered to buy them so he could get some different $1's and he said, 'Mind your own business,' and walked out of the store."

Paul Gunsallus: "I used to crack open Proof sets to submit Proof coins to PCGS. If I had a coin that didn't make my grade, I would just spend it. I must have dumped dozens of Proof coins that were already scratched up or whatever. On occasion, I would come across one in change.”

Have a story? Share it in the comment section below!

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You may be wondering what’s behind that staggering opening bid, and what would be behind anyone bidding beyond that. 

Here’s a quick explainer:

First things first: What does Ultra High Relief mean?

Ultra High Relief means the coin’s obverse and reverse designs have a three-dimensional physical depth and feel —a level of relief — not seen on the High Relief versions that were eventually approved for circulation production in 1907, and much higher than the lower relief coins that became standard later in the same year.

Editor-at-Large Steve Roach, citing research published by various experts on the coin, wrote about the Ultra High Relief 1907 double eagles in the Oct. 7, 2013, issue of Coin World:

"To achieve the desired effect, they were struck as many as nine times and were annealed between strikings (the annealing process heated the coin to a cherry-red color, and then the coin was cooled in a weak solution of nitric acid). The process gave the coins an otherworldly appearance with a surface of nearly pure gold, but this involved process was not suited to mass-production."

So these Ultra High Relief coins must be rare, right?

Right. Records indicate that only two dozen were produced, about 20 of which have known whereabouts today. 

But why did Stack’s Bowers make the opening bid $2.7 million?

That opening bid is based on past performance. In 2012, the exact same double eagle, which is rated Proof 69 by Professional Coin Grading Service, was sold at a Stack’s Bowers auction for $2.76 million. 

A Proof 68 example sold in January 2015 by Heritage Auctions for $2.115 million.

PCGS CoinFacts lists a value of $2.2 million for Proof 67 examples, $2.5 million for Proof 68 examples, and $2.7 million (the same as the opening bid) for the Proof 69 example being sold. 

Can I get one without spending millions?

Well, you can get a modern reinterpretation. But it’ll still cost you a nice chunk of change. 

Steve explains in the same article:

"In 2009 the U.S. Mint revisited a classic and produced a new Ultra High Relief $20 coin for collectors. It was made in a reduced diameter and was struck of pure .999 fine gold, rather than the 90 percent gold and 10 percent copper composition of normal double eagles. The design differed from the 1907 High Relief version in that the motto IN GOD WE TRUST was added to the reverse above the sun, consistent with $20 double eagles of 1908 to 1933. The 2009 issues contain an ounce of gold. Today examples sell at the $2,600 level in original Mint packaging."

Facebook is great for hashing out great coin debates. 

Earlier this week, Coin World Facebook fan Jack Kennedy posed the following question: 

"What's the bigger holy grail: 1933 Saint-Gaudens or 1913 Liberty nickel?"

Kennedy is referring to the 1933 gold Saint-Gaudens double eagle—a coin that has been in the limelight recently with the recent news in the Langbord case—and the 1913 Liberty 5-cent coin with the "V" reverse, of which there are five known. 

We put Kennedy's question to the entirety of our Facebook fandom, and here are a few of the responses we have received:

Sharon Campbell: "Saint-Gaudens"

Tony Turner: "1913 Liberty Nickel"

Jess Sutton: "1913 Liberty Nickel"

John Adams: "Of the choices, 1913 Liberty Nickel. We don't know how many 1933 Saint-Gaudens are out there, but we know there are only five 1913 Liberty Nickels. My actual answer would be 1964D Peace Dollar."

Lawrence St John: "1933 Saint-Gaudens."

Wiliam Kendig: "I would say they are the same. There are not many of these coins."

Jeremy Russell: "There are only 5 nickels and something like 12 Saint-Gaudens, so probably nickels."

Kathy Leaphart: "I would love to have either one technically the 1913 nickel isn't supposed to exist on the other hand the 1933 Saint was to be destroyed so neither should be in existence and anytime the government wants to they can step in and claim the coins!"

Billy Dellinger: "'33 for sure."

Bud Ward: "Saint"

Allen Knight: "The gold ones!"

Larry Thomas: "I've always been fascinated by the 1913 nickel"

Cody Iannelli: "Tough question. I've seen 2 of each yes 2. I would have to say the 1933 Saint-Gaudens. It is a coin I've heard about all of my life. But ultimately it's your opinion that's all you need to go by."

Alan Morgan: "The nickel should not have been made and took a coordinated effort within the mint to produce. The 33 Saint was produced in significant numbers with an unknown quantity being removed from the mint. Both examples could have undisclosed numbers hidden away, but in my opinion, the nickel takes the cup."

Jim VanderRoest: "A beautiful coin lawfully struck versus an ugly one surreptitiously struck 'at best'; no contest, the 1933 Saint!"

James Hyman: "1933 gold beauties"

Phil N. Molé: "Saint-Gaudens. It's gold, it's rare, and it's beautiful. The portrait of Liberty on a V nickel looks like that of an aging schoolteacher who had her side profile picture snapped at the very moment she was looking down to adjust her panty hose. Sorry, but you know that it's true."

Larry Edwards: "Saint-Gaudens"

Coin World Managing Editor Bill Gibbs then chimed in:

Coin World: "Lots of great comments on this post. Now I have a question of my own. The 1933 double eagles were struck legally, with authorization, yet the government maintains they are illegal to own, while the five 1913 Liberty Head nickels were struck without authorization and yet can be collected

Bill received even more responses:

Phil N. Molé: "In answer to that question, I cannot fully understand why the '13 Nickel is legal to own if the '33 double eagle is not. I guess the government may make a distinction that the '33 double eagle is legally government property since it was authorized to be struck and authorized for removal from circulation, so there is federal ownership implied in that case that wouldn't necessarily apply to a coin that was just struck on a whim without anyone's official sanction or involvement. But it's hard to shake the feeling that the fed's decision is at least a little capricious."

Alan Morgan: "I think they fall under the same legal ruling applied to pattern coins…"

James Hyman: "It probably has to do with the 1933 pieces being gold. But then the King Farouk piece should have also been deemed illegal."

Jim VanderRoest: "The government seems to have been more tolerant of private possession of "unauthorized" coins before the 1933 gold confiscation. Remember that under FDR, more than $100 face of gold was supposed to surrendered for FRNs. But the the nineteenth century restrikes, for example, never seemed to get the contraband treatment. I have to agree with whoever wrote in a coin book that melting all that US gold coinage was one of the greatest acts of official vandalism in history."

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We reported last week on the remarkable recovery of £34 million in silver rupees from the site of the SSCity of Cairo shipwreck that took place 500 miles off the coast of St. Helena in the south Atlantic in 1942.

With good reason, people and media members like me were excited that $50 million worth of silver coins were pulled up from 17,000 feet under the surface of the ocean, a record depth according to Deep Ocean Search, the firm that carried out the recovery that received online publicity from Daily Mail,Reuters and CNN, among many others.

After all, these are coins with a great story: the 296-passenger SS City of Cairo was bound for England from Bombay with its 100 tons of silver belonging to the UK Treasury when it was sunk by a Nazi U-boat.

One might assume they would make for a great auction items or museum exhibit, right?

Wrong.

Here's an excerpt from The Guardian's coverage:

"The salvage was completed in September 2013, but Deep Ocean Search has only now been given permission by the Department for Transport to announce it. The coins have since been melted down in the UK and sold, with the undisclosed sum divided between the Treasury and the salvagers."

Melted? Undisclosed sum divided up?

Buzzkill.

Bill Gibbs, Coin World's senior news editor, was not surprised.

"Well, the coins were probably mostly common and silver tends to deteriorate when exposed to saltwater," Gibbs wrote in an email to me.

So I guess that's where the story ends. SS City of Cairo silver rupees, we hardly knew ye.

Precious metals analysis entered the mainstream this week.

Apple’s ballyhooed new Apple Watch is set to be released later this spring, and the highest-end model, the Edition, features an 18-karat-gold-adorned face that leads to a retail price of $10,000. 

Quite a price. And it could create quite a margin for Apple considering the 18-karat gold used is less expensive than typical 18-karat gold. 

A BGR report published on March 9 cites a Leancrew analysis published on March 7 that explained the alloy used by Apple.

According to Leancrew, Apple’s gold is not a standard alloy but a metal matrix composite:

"Instead of mixing the gold with silver, copper, or other metals to make it harder, Apple is mixing it with low-density ceramic particles. The ceramic makes Apple’s gold harder and more scratch-resistant—which Tim Cook touted during the September announcement—and it also makes it less dense overall."

Less dense means less gold, according to Leancrew, and that means lower production costs. Apple filed a patent application for the gold-making method.

So if you were worried that the Apple Watch wasn’t going to make its company a lot of money, worry no more.

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Please sign in or join to share your thoughts on this story.

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There’s nothing quite like the atmosphere of a big coin show like the recent Florida United Numismatist show in Orlando.

The sight of a bustling bourse, the sound of an auctioneer as two bidders go back and forth over a lot, the smell of the fare from the convention center concession stand. (Well, that last one might not be so memorable.)

Nothing compares to the in-person experience of a coin show, it’s true, but the Internet experience isn’t so bad. And it’s a lot cheaper for out-of-towners.

While Coin World Editor-in-Chief Steve Roach and Senior U.S. Coins Editor Paul Gilkes were on the ground in Orlando during the Jan. 7 to Jan. 11 FUN show, snapping pictures, taking video and reporting on the big developments of the weekend, I was back and forth between my office and my living room, taking it all in and making it all available for our online readers with the help of Senior News Editor Bill Gibbs and Editorial Assistant Fern Loomis.

Social media, of course, is a major part of this.

As Steve tweeted, Coin World retweeted. As Steve updated us on the $2.6 million Birch cent of Heritage’s Partrick Collection auction on Jan. 8, the Coin World Twitter account informed our readers about it. 

Then, after Steve wrote up his analysis on the lots the next morning, we got it right out to our readers with an online post.

For anyone that had been away from the site for awhile and might have missed out on all the FUN as it was happening, we compiled Steve’s tweets in one place, and all of our FUN coverage posts in another.

While our Facebook fans and Twitter followers benefited from the personal touch of Steve’s in-person play-by-play, all of our readers benefited from the quick article turnaround that followed:

Steve writes it; Bill and Fern proofread and edit it; I post it on CoinWorld.com and Coin World social media (completing the circle of online news life); and our readers consume it either through a direct visit, a Facebook post or tweet, or one of our free daily eNewsletters.

Meanwhile, our Senior World Coins Editor Jeff Starck was in New York City, tweeting away at the New York International Numismatic Convention. Coin World was literally in two places at once, bringing its audience updates in real time. 

The Internet certainly cannot replicate the in-person experience of covering a coin show. Nothing can. It does, however, provide multiple forms of direct communication, fun and personal angles, and most importantly, a speedy flow of information from the show to our readers—those who are at the show and those who, like me much of the time, are following along from their couch.

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'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds;

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,

Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

—Clement Clarke Moore’s A Visit from St. Nicholas

The modern celebration of Christmas as a holiday, was formed in no small part on Dec. 23, 1823, when A Visit from St. Nicholas, also know as The Night Before Christmas, was published in the Troy Sentinel in Troy, N.Y.

The poem established that Santa Claus rode in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer, magically rose up chimneys and carried a pack of toys for good little girls and boys.

Images inspired by the poem were placed on notes issued by more than 20 banks in eight states before the Civil War, when federal bills replaced privately issued bank notes.

One of the banks that issued Santa Claus notes was—not surprisingly—the Saint Nicholas Bank of New York City. When the bank became a National Bank during the Civil War it’s Santa vignettes dropped from circulation.

The Saint Nicholas vignettes on bills show Santa riding his sleigh, getting ready to go up a chimney, tiptoeing past a sleeping child and smoking his pipe.

“Since banks often chose vignettes that would lead customers to have faith in the bank, it is not surprising that Santa Claus vignettes were chosen by some banks to help acquire confidence and goodwill,” former Heritage Auctions cataloger Kathy Lawrence wrote in an introduction to the 2012 sale of Roger H. Durand Santa Claus Collection.

She noted,  “The banks may have also hoped that customers would set a lower denomination note aside as a keepsake due to the Santa vignette as well.”

The notes are wildly popular with paper money collectors, difficult to find and expensive. When the notes appear at auction, they regularly sell for thousands and tens of thousands of dollars.

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Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be over, but I'm sure plenty of spouses, kids, significant others, and friends are still out there looking for a gift or two for the numismatist in their lives. (Along those lines: )

I'm here to help. I asked our Coin World Facebook fans last month which numismatic items they'd like to see under the tree this year, and I received plenty of responses. 

Shoppers, take note!

• ?Todd Abshire: "I would love for my friend, Kenny Keller to buy me a nice 1893-S Morgan Dollar graded XF45 by PCGS."
• Ken Lemke: "Seems like the Holiday season starts soon and sooner. Heck, I just put my grill away. Coins? Heck, I collect coins year round."
• Bob Yamtich: "I hope I can get my wife to buy me the baseball commemorative half, as a good luck token to have in my pocket at games."
• Michael Warner: "'21 Denver Walking Half. I have a soft spot for the series and I still need the key."
• Gary Geiser: "4 MS64+ Morgans. Date unimportant - just need them to finish filling a box of 20."
• John A. Zieman Jr.: "1792 Half Disme. Reason is because of the history and rumors of George and Martha Washington's donation of silverware to make them. Plus, one of the coolest looking coins ever…"
• Alexandrea Zieman: "The Mar. 23, 1836 first steam coinage token. I would absolutely love one because I love this time period of the mint and the new technologies of the time. Plus its a nice looking coin."
• Jack Kennedy: "Any barber quarter"
• Jason Broom: "I'll take a monster box of pandas please..."
• Robert A. Balduf: "I would love to get the 2014 American Silver Eagle Proof!"
• Russell Morgan: "A Barack Obama memorial four cent piece!"
• Mark Boyle: "1933 saint gaudens"
• David Hollister: "Hoping an early commem shows under up under the xmas tree this year !"
• Braydon Ballow: "Just the right amount of cash. To throw down on the best deal iv seen, for a slabbed 1925 D 2.5 dollar Indian Head. Mm baby"
• Gordon G Murray II: "I know this is going to sound really stupid but I turned 50 this year so I'm hoping somebody in my family will get me something Kennedy related. What I really would like to get is the 2014 Silver Proof Set not the one with the presidents in it but that box set that they started in 2012 the net asset in 2013 so I'm assuming sometime in 2015 the release the 2014 set so I guess I would want a gift card to the US Mint so that I could get that set to add to my collection"
• Elijah Homuth: "Any coin because every coin has a piece of history in it."
• Gary Richards: "I would love a gold Kennedy, it's the only Kennedy issued this year that I don't have. I can't afford one."

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On Monday, I posted my first Morning Report post, a short, easy-to-read compilation of several bite-size numismatic items. 

In that first post, I touched on a new find within a well-known coin hoard, where gold and silver prices stood, a few other CoinWorld.com posts readers might be interested in, and embedded a Facebook post from The Royal Mint regarding the anniversary of Charles Darwin publishing On the Origin of Species.

Coin World’s aim is to bring you these posts multiple times per week to give our readers a quick entry point for your consumption of coin and paper money news and insights.

The idea of the Morning Report is to, as much as possible, give you a selection of our stories, to provide you with a sampling of the many areas we cover, all in one place.

With that in mind, we would love for you to comment on this post or tell us via Facebook and Twitter what you would like see in the Morning Report going forward.

Is it a quick news item? Links to popular CoinWorld.com stories? Gold and silver values? Social media finds?

Tell us what you want more of!

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