Monthly Archives: September 2015

Start Your First Coin Collection Without Being Overwhelmed

Do you have a passion for history, art, politics and people? Then you might want to explore coin collecting. Numismatics has all this and more, but the first steps are sometimes intimidating to novice collectors. So here are some tips to jump-start your passion for coin collecting. Begin by choosing a series of modern coins… Read more »

World’s Record-Breaking Coins

Coins come in all shapes and sizes, but only a few break world records. Which coin is the biggest? Which is the most valuable? From the United States to Nepal, and from Australia to Uzbekistan, here is our list of world-record-breaking coins.     Smallest Coin Some numismatists in India claim that the half vellichakram… Read more »

The Fool Who Spent 1925 Fort Vancouver Half-Dollars at Face Value

In 1926, Governor Charles Sale of the Hudson’s Bay Company purchased 1,000 recently issued Fort Vancouver half-dollar commemorative coins. The coins were later moved for safekeeping to the Provincial Archives Building in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In 1982, a janitor working there came down with a case of sticky fingers. But he had no idea how… Read more »

How Silver Dollars Won the West

There was a time in the Western U.S. when silver dollars were everywhere. And it still seems like anyone with even a modest coin collection has a couple of Morgan silver dollars. But why are silver dollars so abundant? It comes down to the perfect combination of fear, skullduggery and mountains of silver. In 1859, Patrick… Read more »