Blog
Practical notes, not a magazine. The first piece is for people who have a box of coins and need a dealer, not a pep talk.
- How to sell a coin collectionA plain walk-through for selling coins you inherited or stopped collecting. What to leave alone, who to talk to, and how to ask a local shop to call you. No invented shops.
- That silver dollar with Liberty and the eagle is a MorganHow to tell a Morgan dollar from a Peace dollar, including the year both designs exist. Specs are cited. The mintage chart stays on the Morgan page.
- Wheat cents are the Lincoln pennies with two stalks on the backSort a penny jar by the reverse. Wheat ears mean 1909 through 1958. The Memorial building is a later series. 1943 is the steel year.
- Indian Head cents are the pennies before the Wheat reverseIndian Head cents are Liberty in a headdress, 1859 through 1909. Copper-nickel at first, bronze after the 1864 change. 1909 overlaps Lincoln.
- A Buffalo nickel is the one with the bison, and the date wears offBuffalo nickels are Fraser's 1913 through 1938 five-cent coins. The date sits on a mound and rubs away. They are cupronickel, not wartime silver.
- V nickels are Liberty Head nickels with a Roman five on the reverseLiberty Head nickels, 1883 through 1912, show a Roman V. The first 1883 reverse left off the word CENTS. A gold-colored one is plated, not a gold coin.
- War nickels are the silver Jeffersons from the 1940sWartime Jefferson nickels, 1942 through 1945, are 35 percent silver with a large mint mark over Monticello. A regular Jefferson, including 1942-D, is a different page.
- Barber dimes are the Liberty Head dimes before MercuryBarber dimes, 1892 through 1916, are Charles Barber's Liberty Head dime. Check the headband. Do not lump them with Barber quarters, halves, or the 1916 Mercury.
- Mercury dimes are silver Winged Liberty dimes, 1916 to 1945Mercury dimes are Weinman's Winged Liberty Head, 1916 through 1945. The wings belong to a cap, not the Roman god. Full Bands is a strike call on the fasces.
- Pre-65 Roosevelt dimes are the silver onesRoosevelt dimes dated 1946 through 1964 are the 90 percent silver ones. Check the edge and the date. 1965 is clad and lives on another page.
- A Roosevelt dime from 1965 on is clad, not silverCirculating Roosevelt dimes from 1965 on are copper-nickel clad under the Coinage Act of 1965. Same portrait as the silver years. The clad chart is its own page.
- The penny is discontinued: what happens to your pennies, and are any worth keeping?Circulating cent production has stopped, and pennies remain legal tender. Treasury, the Mint, and the Federal Reserve on rounding, bank deposits, and which cents deserve a second look.
- Semiquincentennial 2026 coins: the new quarters, dime, half, and dollar, and are any worth more than face?What the 2026 semiquincentennial quarters, dime, half dollar, and dollar actually show, which pieces carry a privy mark, and why a coin from change is still face value.