We are pleased to offer for sale this CollecTons Keepers Set #6 through #10.
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 American Revolutionary Bicentennial Commission (ARBC) was established in 1966 to organize the U.S. Mint's celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the United States' independence. The ARBC committee recommended that the mint redesign all of the circulating U.S. Coins in honor of the Bicentennial. Mary Brooks, the U.S. Mint director at the time, strongly opposed this redesign. The committee and Brooks worked to reach a compromise, the quarter, half dollar and dollar coins would have a special Bicentennial reverse and bare the dates 1776-1976. All coins of the three denominations were to be minted for delivery after the 4th of July, 1975 and prior to the end of the Bicentennial year. Fearing that a low mintage of the coins bearing the date 1975 would create a hoarding situation, the Mint obtained legislation allowing them to continue to mint the three denominations with the date 1974 until it began producing the Bicentennial pieces.
The redesign of the reverse was determined via a public contest. There were nearly 1000 designs submitted for consideration. A design from Dennis R. Williams, a 22 year old student at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio, was chosen for the Eisenhower Dollar. Dennis said that he had been given the project as an assignment from one of his instructors. At the time, Williams was the youngest person in U.S. History to have had a design featured on a U.S. coin. The design depicted the Liberty Bell super imposed over the moon, which worked well with the previous reverse design of the Eisenhower Dollar featuring the Apollo 11 insignia of an eagle landing on the moon. The design was well received by the public but was criticized by many in the numismatic community because the Liberty Bell had already been featured on the Franklin Half Dollar.
The minting of the Proof Silver Clad Bicentennial Dollars began at the San Francisco Mint on April 23, 1975. These were minted for distribution to the public in a set, each containing a Proof Silver Clad dollar, half dollar and quarter. The only way to get a Proof Silver Clad Bicentennial Dollar at the time was by purchasing one of these sets at a premium from the U.S. Mint.
Today, the 1976-S Eisenhower Bicentennial Proof Silver Dollar is still a highly sought after modern rarity due its historical significance and high demands. It is an essential piece to any Eisenhower Dollar set.
The Statue of Liberty Commemorative program proved to be one of the most successful in the history of U.S. commemorative coinage. To this day, the Statue of Liberty Commemorative Half Dollar holds the record as the best selling U.S. commemorative coin. It was the third modern commemorative coin program and with sales of over 7.8 million coins, it set a standard which has yet to be eclipsed.
The "Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation" was formed in 1982 to raise funds for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. President Ronald Reagan asked Lee Iacocca, then Chairman of Chrysler Corporation, to head the organization. A bill was put into law in 1985 authorizing the production of commemorative coins to be sold at a premium in order to raise funds for the organization as well as celebrate the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty. The program generated a total of $82.9 million to be put towards the restoration project.
The design was well received by the public and proved to be very telling. Designed by Edgar Steever, the obverse shows the Statue of Liberty greeting an arriving steamship of immigrants in the foreground and a view of the New York skyline in the background. According to a Treasury Department news release, the obverse "focuses on the growing New York skyline of about 1913, with the Statue's uplifting gesture welcoming an in-bound liner. The scene is set against the sun rising in the east to convey the start of a different life in the New World." The reverse was designed by Sherl Joseph Winter, and shows an immigrant family of four with their belongings on the threshold of America, waiting to be transported from Ellis Island to New York. The caption at the top of the coin reads "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS. The design is often considered the most attractive of all the modern commemoratives.
The Statue of Liberty Commemorative program proved to be one of the most successful in the history of U.S. commemorative coinage. To this day, the Statue of Liberty Commemorative Half Dollar holds the record as the best selling U.S. commemorative coin. It was the third modern commemorative coin program and with sales of over 7.8 million coins, it set a standard which has yet to be eclipsed.
The "Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation" was formed in 1982 to raise funds for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. President Ronald Reagan asked Lee Iacocca, then Chairman of Chrysler Corporation, to head the organization. A bill was put into law in 1985 authorizing the production of commemorative coins to be sold at a premium in order to raise funds for the organization as well as celebrate the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty. The program generated a total of $82.9 million to be put towards the restoration project.
The design was well received by the public and proved to be very telling. Designed by Edgar Steever, the obverse shows the Statue of Liberty greeting an arriving steamship of immigrants in the foreground and a view of the New York skyline in the background. According to a Treasury Department news release, the obverse "focuses on the growing New York skyline of about 1913, with the Statue's uplifting gesture welcoming an in-bound liner. The scene is set against the sun rising in the east to convey the start of a different life in the New World." The reverse was designed by Sherl Joseph Winter, and shows an immigrant family of four with their belongings on the threshold of America, waiting to be transported from Ellis Island to New York. The caption at the top of the coin reads "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS. The design is often considered the most attractive of all the modern commemoratives.
The 1950-D Jefferson Nickel has the lowest mintage figure of any nickel in the Jefferson series. At 2,630,030, that equates to 1 nickel per 120 people in the United States. Compare that to the 20,460,000 1951-D nickels minted.
Collectors quickly realized that the coin was going to be in high demand and began hoarding them. Collectors rushed to their local banks attempting to get their hands on this rare coin. Midwest banks had the largest supplies of undistributed coins and a few entrepreneurial individuals managed to acquire large quantities. These business men drove across the country during the summer of 1951 selling $2 face rolls for $5 - $7 each! One numismatist from Houston, Texas, A. J Mitula, is said to have procured over 1 million coins (over 1/3 of the entire mintage). He made so much money selling the coins that he bought a summer home on the slopes of Pike's Peak in Cascade, Colorado. He named the property "The house that the 1950-D Nickels built".
Hoarding of the 1950-D nickel continued across the country, creating a frenzy of demand, a shortage of supply and sky rocketing prices. The price peaked in 1964 at $25 for a single coin. For perspective, $25 in 1964 is the equivalent of $100 today. Following the 1964 peak the market began to recede as dealers realized that the fad was slowing and the number of collectors began to fall (in 1965 the U.S. mint stopped putting the mint mark on Jefferson Nickels, causing collectors to dwindle). By 1969 the price had dropped to $12.50 a coin and by the mid 1980's the price was hovering around $6. Quite the ride for the 1950-D Nickel! It is often speculated that the coin was the most highly hoarded in the U.S. Mint's history.
The low mintage and unprecedented hoarding has lead to the 1950-D being the Key Date coin of the series. Today, the 1950-D Jefferson Nickel is still a highly sought after modern rarity due its low mintage and high demands. It is an essential piece to any Jefferson Nickel set.
By law, all coins minted by the U.S. mint must have the following inscriptions:
In God We Trust
United States of America
E Pluribus Unum
Liberty
A designation of the value of the coin
The Presidential $1 Coin Program added the following inscriptions:
The name of the President being commemorated
The dates or years of the term of office of such President
A number indicating the order of the period of service in which the President served
The year of mintage
The mint mark
In the case of the Presidential Dollar coins, the treasury department determined that the Statue of Liberty was sufficient in conveying this message and as such the Presidential Dollar coins are the only modern U.S. coins not bearing the inscription "Liberty".
That leaves nine different inscriptions that must appear on the coin while maintaining an obverse and reverse that are aesthetically pleasing. The solution was to place the year of minting, the mintmark, "E Pluribus Unum" and "In God We Trust" on the edge of the coin (note: it was also decided that the value of the coin would be represented by "$1", the first time that a number rather than a written value has been used to state the face value of a U.S. coin).
Since the process of inscribing on the edge of the coin had not been practiced since the 1907 Saint Gaudens Twenty Dollar gold piece, the US mint found itself to be lacking in both experience and equipment. Struggling to find a quick fix to this problem, new equipment was installed at the mints to produce this fascinating new aspect that had not been used for a century.
The first coin of this series was the United States' first president, George Washington. Only days after this coin was released, collectors came across coins with plain edges that had completely missed the edge-lettering process all together. Different names for this error started springing up including the plain or smooth edge Washington Dollar. With this coin missing the phrase "IN GOD WE TRUST," it soon picked up the nickname "Godless Dollar".
Due to the attention of the national media, the mint issued a statement announcing they had struck over 300 million Washington Dollars, and because of the new process, and high volume, the missing edge-lettering had been missed on an unknown number of coins from the Philadelphia mint. Experts estimate that around 200,000 Washington dollars may have been affected by this error.
These coins will be placed into ANAC's slabs, utilizing a gasket that holds the coins in a manner that makes the edge visible.
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