Hobbies: It’s Not Just Money

When the mint needs money—that’s news. Not news that U.S. Mint Director Eva B. Adams wants to shout from the housetops; she fears that too much publicity about a coin shortage may make matters worse by encouraging hoarding. But in fact, pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollars are all in short supply, though the mints in Denver and Philadelphia are working around the clock to plink them out, and the American Bankers Association has requested its 13,125 member banks to poke around in their vaults for any stockpiled coins that could be put into circulation.

Chief reasons for the coin shortage are the growing population, the increased gross national product, the proliferation of vending machines and parking meters, and the penny-gobbling of local sales taxes. A factor that is harder to measure is the mushroom growth of one of America’s fastest-growing hobbies—numismatics.

Scandalous Speculators. There are some 8,000,000 coin collectors in the U.S. today, and their numbers are growing so fast that the prices of coins—rare and not so rare—are skyrocketing. Items:

> A 19095-VDB Lincoln penny worth $13.50 in 1953, was worth $165 last year and $310 today.

> A 1926D Buffalo nickel, worth $5 in 1953, brought $45 in 1962 and $190 this year.

> Only two years ago, an 1856 “Flying Eagle” penny could be had for $800; today it sells for $2,500.

> Among really valuable items are the 1804 silver dollar, which brought $36,000 at its last sale, and the Brasher Doubloon, which the coin department of Gimbels in Manhattan has insured for $100,000.

Numismatists (from nomisma, Greek for anything sanctioned by usage, the current coin) include such diverse types as the late business wheeler-dealer Samuel Wolfson, ex-King Farouk (who sold his collection for about $3,000,000), Jayne Mansfield and Cardinal Spellman. But most collectors are children; these days they can even begin their numismatic careers at Woolworth’s, which has installed coin departments’ in several of its stores. ,

Scandal of the coin world is the way these beginners are being threatened by speculators. This month, for instance, before and during the Denver convention of the American Numismatic Association, the price for a roll of 40 Jefferson 50D (which signifies 1950 minting in the Denver plant) nickels jumped from $500 to $750, then settled at $700.

Another basic low-priced item in any U.S. coin collection is proof sets—packets of specially polished samples of the half dollar, quarter, dime, nickel and penny sold by the U.S. mint for $2.10. About 200,000 of the proof sets for 1960 had a smaller-than-average zero in the date on the penny, and the price for these has bounced within the past few weeks from $26 to $38.

One of a Kind. Most top coin collectors avoid publicity; even though their collections are usually in safe-deposit boxes, burglars may be tempted to break into their houses on the off chance of picking up a few valuable coins. And with the exception of really rare pieces, it is almost impossible to trace coins; one collection that has vanished is the 444-coin group assembled by former Secretary of the Treasury John W. Snyder, which was stolen last Nov. 12. The only complete collection of U.S. coins belongs to Baltimore Banker Louis Eliasberg, who keeps it in a safe-deposit vault.

Eliasberg began collecting in 1928, when his family returned from Europe with some unspent foreign coins. In 1951 he bought the coin that made the collection complete: an 1873CC dime for which he paid $4,000. His most valuable coin, though, is a 53 gold piece minted in San Francisco in 1870. Its rarity cannot be exceeded, for it is the only one in existence.