We are pleased to offer for sale this CollecTons Keepers Set #41 through #45.
What makes the Collectons Keepers program special?
Here at CollecTons, we work hard researching coins that should be part of every collection. Our goal is to utilize our knowledge in the numismatic industry to select coins worthy of being in everyone's collection! Therefore, the CollecTons Keepers program will only feature those Coins Worth Keeping.
Each coin is hand selected and given to ANACS (America's Oldest Grading Service) for grading and authentication. The coins are then sealed in an ANACS certified proprietary slab holder for long-term storage, with our limited edition label marking it a CollecTons Keeper.
The five CollecTons Keepers included in this starter set are:
The Peace Dollar was first struck on December 28, 1921. Just over one million coins dated 1921 feature the original high relief design. These coins weren't placed into circulation until January 3, 1922.
The designers had been instructed to make the head of Liberty "as beautiful and full of character as possible". The result was a coin with an extremely high relief. This caused production problems at the Mint from the very beginning. The immense pressure required to bring out all the details of the design caused the dies to break quickly. Several attempts were made to fix the problem without reducing the relief but all of them failed. The Mint had struck a limited number of high relief coins bearing the 1922 date, but most of them were later melted and the design was modified to a low relief for circulation in 1922. Because of this, the 1921 Peace Dollar is the only year that bears the exquisite detail of the original design. It is a highly sought after piece of American history.
The obverse design features the bust of Lady Liberty and is emblematic of the peace following the end of World War I. It is based on the features of Teresa de Francisi, wife of the designer Anthony de Francisi. She bears a radiate crown intended to recall the Statue of Liberty. The original reverse featured an eagle atop a mountain, carrying an olive branch and a broken sword. Controversy erupted over the broken sword, suggesting that it represented surrender rather than peace and the sword was removed from the design.
The Mercury dime replaced the "Barber" dime in 1916. As of 1915, the Barber dime had been in production for 25 years. According to the law at the time, a coin's design must remain in production for at least 25 years. Mint officials incorrectly read the law and determined in 1915 that the Barber dime had to be replaced in 1916 because it had been in production for 25 years. The Mint held a design competition with three sculptors. The winner of the competition, Adolph Weinman, designed a dime featuring a young liberty on the obverse. The young liberty resembled the Roman god Mercury and the name "Mercury dime" was "coined". The dime quickly gained popularity even though it had to be modified several times to work properly with vending machines.
The obverse of the dime depicts Liberty with a wreath of tight curls. She is wearing a traditional Liberty cap, also known as a pileus. The reverse features a fasces, an object that accompanied Roman magistrates. The fasces represents war and justice. In contrast, the reverse also features a large olive branch which symbolizes peace and the fasces is bound both horizontally and diagonally by a leather strap.
President Franklin Roosevelt died in April of 1945. It was decided that a coin should be issued with his image. FDR had been closely associated with the "March of Dimes" charity so, despite the popularity of the Mercury dime, it was replaced with the Roosevelt dime in 1946.
In celebration of the centennial of the popular Mercury dime, the Mint reproduced the design. The 2016-W Mercury dime is minted in 24 karat gold with a special satin finish. A limited number of the coins were minted and released on the U.S. Mint website on April 21, 2016. Demand for the coin was so high that the U.S. Mint stopped taking orders within 45 minutes of the coin going on sale.
Mint sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens was hired to create new designs for the cent and four gold coins in 1905. Two of his designs for the cent were adapted for the gold coins but he died in August of 1907 prior to creating additional designs for the cent. The U.S. Mint hired Victor David Brenner in January of 1909 to create the new cent design. It was meant to celebrate the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth year. His design was eventually approved and premiered in August of 1909. The coin garnered much public interest. Prior to the Lincoln cent, no circulating coin had ever depicted an actual person. President Roosevelt personally selected Brenner as the coin designer, though the particulars on how this happened are unknown.
Brenner's design is similar to a profile of Lincoln he had used in previous work. He submitted several models to the Mint in January of 1909. The models were rejected and Brenner worked quickly on new designs. These designs were submitted in February of 1909 and are similar to what the Lincoln Wheat Cent would become, though with a larger bust of Lincoln and the words "In God We Trust" omitted. Eventually Brenner dropped the bust of Lincoln lower on the coin to make room for the motto. Both versions of the coin were presented to President Taft and Taft selected the coin with the motto. This version was formally approved by the Secretary of the Treasury on July 14, 1909.
The coin was offically released on August 2, 1909. The Mint had not released any images of the new Lincoln Cent and the energy sparked by Lincoln's centennial had yet to die down. Long lines formed outside of treasury and mint facilities across the United States and the Mint soon had to begin rationing the coins.
Brenner had placed his initials at the base of the reverse. This quickly became a controversy. Just hours after the release, the Washington Star released an article claiming that the coins were illegal because the initials constituted advertising. Three days after the initial release, minting of the coins was ceased. The initals were removed from the design and minting was reinitiated on August 12, 1909.
The Morgan Silver Dollar was minted from from 1878 to 1904, and again in 1921. It was designed by the then United States Mint Assistant Engraver George T. Morgan. The obverse features a portrait of Lady Liberty, and the reverse features an eagle with outstretched wings.
The U.S. Treasury was required to purchase between two and four million dollars worth of silver each month by the Bland-Allison Act of 1873. The silver was to be coined into silver dollars. This Act was repealed and replaced by a similar Act which required the purchasing of the silver but only required the coinage to persist for one year. The mint continued to produce Morgan Dollars but soon a surplus of silver had built up. Congress approved a bill in 1898 that required the Mint to produce enough Morgan Silver Dollars to deplete the remaining surplus. The surplus was expended in 1904 and the Mint ceased to produce silver dollars.
During the first World War, Germany began a propaganda campaign in order to discredit the United Kingdom's currency in India. British bank notes redeemable for silver were popular in India. The campaign was a success and soon the citizens of India began cashing in their notes believing that the UK would soon be out of silver. The British began to run low on silver and the U.S. stepped in to help them. The U.S. began collecting and melting Silver Dollars to sell to the United Kingdom. Over 270 million dollar coins were collected and melted, and almost 260 million of that was sold to the British at $1 an ounce. The surplus was used to once again issue the Morgan Silver Dollar pending the design and release of the new Peace Dollar.
The master dies had been destroyed and Morgan had to create new ones. These new dies were almost identical to the old dies but featured a slightly lower relief. Production of the Morgan Silver Dollar proceeded at all of the U.S. Mints until December of 1921, when the Peace Dollar finally went into production.
The Denver Mint was established in 1906, two years after the previous minting of the Morgan Dollar, so this marked the first time the Denver Mint would produce the Morgan Dollar. It's also the first time the Denver Mint had minted a dollar coin. And because the Morgan Dollar was replaced by the Peace Dollar late in 1921, it is also the only year the Denver Mint produced Morgan Dollars. This makes the 1921-D Morgan Silver Dollar a highly sought after coin and one that every coin collector should own.
The Buffalo Nickel, also known as the Indian Head nickel, was struck by the U.S. Mint from 1913 to 1938. It was designed by sculptor James Earle Fraser in 1912. The obverse features a portrait of a Native American and the reverse features an American bison, also known as a buffalo.
There was a push to create more beautiful U.S. coinage and five of the circulating coins were redesigned between 1907 and 1909. The Taft administration decided to continue the trend and in 1911 elected to replace the Liberty Head Nickel. Fraser submitted some designs and the administration was impressed with his depictions of a Native American and a Buffalo. The designs were quickly approved but the production was delayed due to objections from the Hobbs Manufacturing Company. The company produced mechanisms which detected counterfeit nickels (slugs) in vending machines, and they argued that the changes would put an undo burden upon themselves to redesign their hardware. Fraser set out to modify the designs in order to appease them, however they never fully approved of the new nickel. In February of 1913, Treasury Secretary Franklin MacVeagh ceased all discussion of the issue and approved the coins' production despite protests from Hobbs.
The coin was problematic from the very beginning. Charles Barber, who was responsible for supplying all three working mints with dies, found that the new design was wearing out the dies at a rate of up to three times faster than the previous nickel. He and his department were having trouble producing enough new dies to meet the production demands. Additionally, the date and the denominations tended to wear quickly. The 1913 Type I Buffalo nickel was replaced by the 1913 Type II Buffalo nickel. On the type II nickel, the ground that the buffalo stands upon was flattened and the size of the denomination was increased. Over time the thickness of the numerals specifying the date were increased. Despite all of this, Barber found that the life of the dies actually decreased.
U.S. law specified that all coin designs must stay in production for at least 25 years. After the Buffalo nickel had been produced for 25 years, it was replaced with the Jefferson Nickel design with virtually no discussion or protest.
The 1913 Type I Buffalo Nickel is a highly sought after coin and one that every coin collector should have in their collection.
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