Olympic Memories and Medals

Tonight, I watched the last medal event of the 2010 Winter Olympics. I love hockey and being a crass American, I was rooting for Ryan Miller (Buffalo Sabres), Zach Parise (New Jersey Devils), and Patrick Kane (Chicago Blackhawks) to lead the USA team to the gold. There was also Ryan Suter (Nashville Predators) of the Suter family that seemed to dominate the NHL in the 1980s and into the 1990s whose dad, Bob, played for the 1980 Miracle on Ice team in Lake Placid. But Team Canada played well and won the gold when the Pittsburgh Penguin’s Sidney Crosby shot it past Ryan Miller for the game winning goal in overtime. It was a thrilling game and fitting for the Olympic Hockey finals.

Hockey is to Canada as basketball is to the United States. Hockey was invented in Canada and they consider it their birthright to win. In the United States we had that same feeling about basketball. Those of us who were around for the 1972 Munich clock controversy remembers how it felt when the Soviet Union was given the break to win the game. The US Basketball Federation protested the game to FIBA, international basketball’s governing body. The protest was denied when the representatives from the communist nations out voted the non-communist nations 3-2.

As much as the Olympic committee wants to keep politics out of the games it will play a role as long as the athletes wear country designations. The 1972 Munich summer games included the killing 17 members of the Israeli Olympic team by Palestinian terrorists. Israel withdrew its remaining members while the Soviet Union, most of the eastern bloc under the control of the Soviet Union, North Korea, and ten Arab nations refused to allow their flags to fly at half-staff for the rest of the games. With the Cold War becoming its chilliest, the loss in basketball was not only a national tragedy but fueled a nationwide hatred against the Soviets.

This is not to say hockey does not have its place in the United States. We celebrate the 1980 Miracle on Ice when the United States sent true amateurs against the world, especially those countries from the eastern bloc whose players were technically in the army but played hockey all of the time. The Soviet Union were the prohibitive favorites but hated by Americans for being professionals and for being Soviets. There was a lot of Cold War hatred between the countries. But nobody gave the U.S. team a chance except for Coach Herb Brooks. That 4-3 win against the Soviet team continues to raise emotion not only because how the team won, but for the political attitudes at the time. Democracy and fair play prevailed over the communists and cheaters. Even USA Basketball took great pride in watching the hockey team stick it to the Soviets.

What people forget is that the game against the Soviets was not the gold medal game. The US team had to play one more game against Finland in order to win the gold. It was a tight game which the US won 4-2 allowing the US to stand atop of the hockey medal stand. One of my memories was that after the game Ken Morrow joined the roster of the New York Islanders (my favorite team) and won a Stanley Cup making him the first player to win a gold medal and the Stanley Cup in the same year.

We should not forget about what is being called the Forgotten Miracle of the 1960 US Hockey team. The winter games that were held in Squaw Valley, California featured the powerhouse Soviet team and the Canadians who were also considered favorites for a gold or a silver medal. But the US team of “nobodys” beat Sweden, Germany, Canada, Soviet Union, and Czechoslovakia in the round-robin series to be the only undefeated team in the final round. The team celebrated while the news made front page news but the celebration did not rise to the levels of the 1980 team. While the Cold War was ongoing, it was ongoing (remember Duck and Cover?) it was not considered at the same level as in 1980. The level of rhetoric had not started to climb. Tensions would begin to increase in October 1960 when Soviet Union Prime Minister Nikita Khruschev banged his shoe on a table in protest during a meeting at the United Nations while denouncing “American Imperialism.” This was two years before the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The actual medals that the Olympians receive are the physical reward for winning. In years past medals used to made of the metal they represented (e.g., the gold medal was made of gold), nowadays the price to create solid gold, silver, and bronze medals are prohibitive. Medals are made of less expensive alloys with plating of the precious metal. Although Royal Canadian Mint does not publish the makeup of the metals on their website, the fact that they are the largest and heaviest medals ever produced allows us to make a logical assumption that the medals are made of base metals plated with the precious metals. Regardless, the medals created by the RCM are the most uniqued in the history of the Olympic games. The wavy medals feature a unique design where no two are alike that are based on four designs that are imprinted randomly on each medal. While the medals received by the 1960 and 1980 hockey teams can be considered traditional in their design, the 2010 medals have a unique artistic quality that will make them memorable for years to come.

In the future, the 2010 US Hockey team will be prouder of their silver medal accomplishment than they feel tonight. But tonight belongs to the Canadians. They played a good game and deserve their gold medals.

Congratulations also goes to Vancouver, the province of British Columbia, and the people of Canada for helping make these two weeks one of the most memorable in Olympic history.

P.S., I love visiting the west coast of Canada. If you can go to Vancouver and even Vancouver Island (take the ferry, it’s a great trip), it will be a very enjoyable vacation. I look forward to my next visit!

CCAC Has A Position Open

The US Mint announced on Friday that they are accepting applications for the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee to represent the interests of the general public. Application deadline is March 31, 2010.

Looking over the list of CCAC members it appears that the term of Dr. Mitchell Sanders is expiring in 2010. Dr. Sanders has been the Chairman of the CCAC from 2005 through 2009.

According to the US Mint:

The CCAC was created to advise the Secretary of the Treasury on the selection of themes and design proposals for circulating coinage, commemorative coins, bullion coinage, Congressional Gold Medals and other medals. The CCAC also advises the Secretary with regard to the events, persons, or places to be commemorated by the issuance of commemorative coins, as well as the mintage levels and proposed designs of commemorative coins.

Sometimes, it does not seem that the CCAC is maintaining this advisory role or they are not communicating it properly. Recently, I have been critical of the CCAC and even had a public “discussion” with a member of the CCAC that highlighted the problems with communications.

What would happen if the CCAC had a different point of view? What would happen if the CCAC had a citizen member who was interested in bringing the voice of the general public into the committee who would also be interested in ensuring that the working of the CCAC would be published in full to the general public? Could it be possible that the CCAC be seen as more of a representative of the general public?

I would like to see the CCAC take the next step and make the CCAC’s proceedings more open to the citizens. I would also like to see that whatever comes in front of the CCAC is available to the general public to read, analyze, and comment on either through the media or on their own. I would like to see the CCAC general public representative be more of a representative to the input of the general public being represented.

That being said, what if your intrepid were to apply for this opening?

The problem is that in this town, politics is the rule and not the exception. I am sure that my criticism on this blog and other venues will work against me even though I had called for the expansion of the CCAC’s role in how it relates to the US Mint. Another issue is that I work for the same company as a current member of the CCAC. Although my company does not do business with the US Mint, there is no telling how this situation would be viewed by those making the decision.

However, I have demonstrated significant and thoughtful of opinions on the US Mint and CCAC that includes suggestion for improvement. It would be great if I could work with the CCAC to try to improve what they do for the US Mint and make suggestions that would benefit the Mint’s coinage programs. I know I would be in the forefront to expand their communications capabilities to get the public more involved and better support the collecting community.

So what do you think? Should I apply? Leave a comment here and I will consider your suggestions.

Adventure Nets A Loonie and Toonie

After a busy few weeks, it was that time. It was time to put the plan into motion.

I check the flight schedules to find the plane was on time. This was good with all of the bad weather in the northeast.

I checked the flight path. The plane was to fly around the bad weather. Again, this is good because it was going to be on time.

I checked the traffic. I wanted to get to the airport on time without having to fight Washington’s infamous traffic.

Everything in place, it was time to go. I handed a treat to the dogs and off I went.

Driving to the airport went smooth except for one construction zone that was not on the list I checked on line. A quick detour allowed me to bypass the backup and coast into National Airport.

Parking was easy and close to the walkway over the road and passed the entrance for the Metro Blue and Yellow lines. Down the elevator and I found a seat near baggage claim.

After a few moments the reason I went to the airport arrived. Standing by the entrance to the baggage claim area was my mother-in-law, who flew from the frozen northeast to surprise her daughter (my wife) for her up coming birthday. We drove back and after a minor glitch in the plan—my wife was home walking the dogs and not in her office—we managed to complete the surprise!

Although my mother-in-law lives in Maine, the rest of their family is from Canada. I have not met them and have only had short conversations on the phone since I do not speak French and their English is limited, they do know I collect coins. One relative sent two different coins that my mother-in-law gave me tonight.

The first is a 2009 Canadian one-dollar coin. Instead of a Loony—the reverse with an image of a common loon—the reverse features a commemorative to the one hundred anniversary of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team. The standard Loonie is an eleven-sided smooth edged coin that is 26.5mm in diameter and made from bronze plated nickel. The 2009 Loonies with the Canadiens Centennial reverse was only circulated in Quebec making it a unique collectible.

The other coin is a 2008 Canadian two-dollar coin commonly called the Toonie. The Toonie is a 28mm bimetallic coin with an outer ring made from nickel and a brass inner core. Normally, the reverse of the Toonie is a polar bear during the early summer ice flow. This Toonie commemorates the 400th Anniversary of the founding of Quebec City and the first French settlement in North America.

All Canadian coins feature the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada.

Surprising my wife and getting two coins for my collections made this a good day.

Launch of the 2010 Lincoln Cent

While the Washington, DC area continued to dig out of Snowmageddon II, US Mint held a ceremony on Friday, February 11, 2010 at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum to introduce the 2010 Lincoln Cent. The new coin features the new shield reverse as being emblematic of the “Preservation of the Union.” The shield is featured in many of the frescos painted by Constantino Brumidi throughout the US capitol. Brumidi was the Artist of the capitol during Abraham Lincoln’s presidency.

The obverse is a slightly modified bust of Lincoln designed by Victor David Brenner that has been used since the first Lincoln cent was released in 1909.

Although the launch of the 2010 Lincoln Cent went on as schedule, the sales and distribution in the Washington, DC area was postponed because of the weather conditions. No announcement was made as to if or when the sale will be rescheduled.

The following video has scenes from the launch in Springfield, Illinois and some B-Roll footage:

Here is the video from the State Journal-Register from Springfield, Illinois:

Colonial Currency and Colonial Maryland

I am writing an article for the Maryland State Numismatic Association about Maryland colonial currency. After writing the introduction, I thought it would be of interest to my readers. I made a slight modification to neatly end this as a single article. The rest will appear in a future MSNA Journal.

Prior to the Great Depression, paper currency was backed with specie, gold or silver mined in the United States. During the founding of the country currency had been limited to coins with an intrinsic value based on their gold, silver or copper content. As the King of England tried to tax the colonies to pay for the wars in Europe, the colonies looked for ways of financing their own governments to provide services.

Since the colonies did not have the ability to coin money, they issued paper notes. These notes functioned as currency but actually were bills of credit, short-term public loans to the government. For the first time, the money had no intrinsic value but was valued at the rate issued by the government of the colony in payment of debt. Every time the colonial government would need money, they would authorize the printing of a specified quantity and denomination of notes that it would use to pay creditors. The emission laws also included a tax that would used to repay the bill of credit and the promised interest.

As taxes were paid using the paper currency, the paper was retired. As the notes were removed from circulation, that was less payments the government had to make. On the maturity date, people brought their notes to authorized agents who paid off the loan. Agents then turned the notes over to the colonial government to be reimbursed and collect a commission for acting as an agent.

Sometimes, colonies could not pay back the loan. In those cases, the colonies passed another emission law to cover the debt owed from the previous emission plus further operating expenses. In this case, mature notes were traded for new notes. The colonists accepted this system since there were shortages of coins as well as there being an inability to convert the value of foreign coins into colonial shillings by farmers and other unskilled in such matters.

Maryland was one of the more successful colonies. Maryland benefited from its ownership of the Chesapeake Bay and ran a robust economy as a trading post for Maryland and Virginia goods. Maryland merchants were able to make a sizable living trading tobacco and other crops to Europe for Virginia farmers.

Starting in 1733, there were eight emissions from the Maryland colony with four during the Revolutionary War. The last emission was in 1780 with a successful payment of obligations in 1782, prior to its 1784 maturity date. In 1784, Maryland was able to pay its debts in specie, mostly Spanish Milled Dollars, and outlawed any future release of currency.

US Mint Math: Costs More to Produce Less

After reading a few stories on how the president’s 2011 federal budget was proposing changes to coin composition. Many of these articles point out how the budget projects that changes could save the US Mint about $150 million per year after making over $777 million in circulating coins (business strikes) in fiscal year 2009. The US Mint’s Fiscal Year 2009 Annual Report says that the US Mint earned over $904 million in seigniorage from all sources.

While everyone is concentrating on the costs of changing coinage metals, there is a missing point: even if the US Mint was able obtain the copper covered zinc planchets for the cent at no cost, the US Mint will lose 0.62-cents per cent struck just for the labor and administrative costs.

In 2009, the US Mint shipped $777 million in circulating coins after shipping over $1.2 billion in 2008. The 40-percent reduction in production also was matched by a 40-percent reduction in the amount the US Mint spent on the metals. In other words, the increase in the costs of metals between 2008 and 2009 was minimal. However, the cost to produce the 40-percent fewer coins cost the US Mint 1.1-percent more in 2009! With presses sitting idle for long periods of time for the first time in many years, the US Mint paid $98.1 million in 2009 for striking few coins and costing $97 million in 2008.

The US Mint documents the costs in the Annual Report as Sales, General & Administrative (SGA). In the Annual Report the reported SGA from 2006 through 2009 has remained stable. Increases have roughly followed the rate of inflation. When looking at the SGA for individual coins, the US Mint spent $65.3 million to sell $459 million one-dollar coins to the Federal Reserve in 2009. In 2008, it cost $52.2 million to sell $475 million one-dollar coins.

The US Mint’s core responsibility is to manufacture the coins required by the Federal Reserve for commerce. In 2009, the seigniorage for business strikes was $427.8 million while making $32.7 million for bullion sales.

The problem is not the cost of the metals. The problem is the inefficiency of operations at the US Mint. “In FY 2009,” the US Mint’s FY2009 Annual Report reads, “the worsening economic environment challenged our ability to maintain efficient manufacturing operations but also presented opportunities for long-term efficiency gains.” Then where are the efficiencies? If the US Mint has an efficient manufacturing process, then why did it cost the US Mint 1.1-percent more in 2009 to producing 40-percent fewer coins than they did in 2008?

If the Obama Administration wants the US Mint to produce more in seigniorage, then the place to start is to immediately replace the political hack that is the current director. A replacement should be someone that has had a manufacturing background working in a regulated environment to lead the US Mint forward.

Re-Review: PCGS Photograde Online or iPhone

On Friday, I connected my iPhone to my computer and opened iTunes to sync everything together. During my sync, iTunes reported that there were application updates. One of the updates was the PCGS Photograde for the iPhone application. Since PCGS upgraded the application and PCGS Photograde website, so quickly after its initial release, I thought an update on the review was in order.

On both the website and the iPhone app, the home page now has entries for “Two & Three Cents” coins and divided the gold into “Small Gold Coins” and “Large Gold Coins.” The full look of the screen looks good and gives the website and iPhone app the impression that it is more complete. Seeing these new images suggests that PCGS added coins from the 19th century coins. But when tapping on the image for the Cents, I saw a full screen of cents starting wit the “Liberty Cap Large Cents” through the Lincoln cent. Not only did PCGS add 19th century coins but they went back to the first coins issued by the US Mint. After looking at the images, I confirmed that my favorite 1794 cent looks like PCGS’s 1796 cent that they grade PO-1.

After seeing how far back the images go, it was time to find out how modern PCGS gets. Because of size limitation, the iPhone app does not include years of issue, but the website does. On the website, says that the Lincoln Cent runs 1909 to Date, yet all of the coins imaged were pre-1959 wheat-back cents. There were no images of the Memorial cents nor images of the lowered relief coins. For those looking to put together high grade modern sets it is a serious omission.

In fact, after checking other coin images, all of the images of coins that are in circulation today do not have images of modern coins. Jefferson Nickels do not include mint state grading images of the current design, quarters and halves do not include the bicentennial images, and the quarters do not show the obverse of the State Quarters design. As for the dollars, the images end with the Peace Dollars. As I said in the first review, given that there were some circulation of the Eisenhower and Susie B’s as well as striking issues with the Eisenhower dollar, it would be nice to have an image reference of these coins.

The new images of the added coins are beautiful in all grades. Users of this applications will have a great tool for determining the grade of coins. However, I have the same complaint I made the last time on the use of toned coins. I understand some collectors like toned coins, but the toning does detract from seeing the subtle differences in between high grade coins.

PCGS has taken a great tool and made it even better. I like the iPhone application for being portable when I attend coins shows. For this upgrade, I give both the website and iPhone app a grade of MS67, a premium grade for their new additions but less than perfect for the omission, especially for not including the Eisenhower and Susan B. Anthony dollars.

Crack Out!

Over on the Collectors Society forums, a member cracked out encapsulated coins and posted videos showing how he did this. While I do not advocate cracking coins out of slabs nor do I condone it, the following videos show one person’s method.

Cracking a coin out of a PCGS holder:

Cracking a coin out of a NGC holder:

Regardless of the method you use, please do not hurt the coin. It would be terrible to see a coin destroyed during a crack-out!

Reform Needed at the CCAC

Last week I had a public discussion with Gary Marks, a member of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee about my comments about the CCAC on CoinNews.net. My initial comments were based on an article that Mr. Marks says misrepresents the work of the CCAC. After following up with asking for more information, Mr. Marks produced a quote buried in a document on the CCAC website that was lacking context. It is evident that Mr. Marks does not fully understand the issue.

The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee is supposed be a conduit for the public to have input to the coin design process. The CCAC is supposed to work with the US Mint to create coin designs that represents the best of the best. It is a committee that is to do what President Theodore Roosevelt did as part of his “pet crime.”

New York Yankees limited partner John McMullen once said, “Nothing is more limited than being a limited partner of [George Steinbrenner].” McMullen has not tried to pry information from the CCAC and the US Mint!

Openness of the federal government was first codified in the Freedom of Information Act signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 4, 1966. At the time, it was referred to as the “Sunshine Laws.” Before the growth of the computer age, the purpose was to make documents that were not sensitive or classified available to the public. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and now Barack Obama have mandated their administrations to expand the availability of government information as electronic capabilities have improved.

On January 20, 2009, the first day of the Obama Administration, President Obama signed the Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies which said that “agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA, and to usher in a new era of open Government.” By August, the White House issued the Transparency and Open Government memo telling agencies that they have 120 days to report to the Office of Management and Budget how they would make the processes more open.

Rather than making the process more open as the President requested, the CCAC and the US Mint appears to be stuck in the mindset of the electronic world before the invention of the World Wide Web.

Although the meetings are open to the public, knowing when the meetings are being held is almost a state secret. Although announcements are made via a press release by the US Mint—of course everyone follows the US Mint’s press releases—the CCAC website has no information as to when meetings are held. Rather, the front page says to call a Washington, DC telephone number to listen to a recorded message about the meeting. Meeting announcements are not posted on the web site. Neither are the agendas in advance of the meeting. Instead of following the President’s executive order to be more open, the CCAC makes meeting announcements are technically legal but violates the spirit of open government.

Even using the 20th century forms of communications, the CCAC is not updating their website. At this time, minutes have not been posted for the last four meetings. Not that it matters because the information is sparse and really does not explain what the CCAC is doing.

There is also nothing worth reading on their Press Room page.

Anyone attending the CCAC meetings are handed a package of papers with an agenda, support letters, and even images of the proposed designs being discussed. These packages contain a phenomenal amount of information that when combined with the sparse minutes provides a better insight into what the CCAC has discussed. But these packages are not available to the public. If you know someone attending the meeting, you can ask them to obtain an extra copy. When I called the US Mint to ask to receive a package, I was told that it could not be done but I could receive copies of the coin images if I signed a copyright release. More than a year ago, I submitted a request for the release. After my application was rejected because I could not provide a company name, I was told I would have to sign a form for each request.

Most of the meetings are held at the US Mint’s Headquarters in Washington, DC. On occasion, meetings have been held during the American Numismatic Association’s Summer Seminar, Worlds Fair of Money, and recently the Florida United Numismatics show. While I would like to attend these events, I have a full time job, not in numismatics, that keeps me close to home. However, if I had access to the meeting package and a way of listening to the conversation, I would be able to make educated judgements on their work without having to rely on a second hand source like a non-numismatic newspaper.

Even if the CCAC continues to use 20th century communications, the Department of the Treasury does have the capability of creating a teleconference bridge that can be outbound only and recorded. This teleconference bridge will allow people who are not local to the meetings to listen to the meeting. In my “Real Life”™ job, I have used this service. It requires the bureau to request the service in advance.

After the meeting, the audio can be posted on the website so that anyone who could not participate during the time of the meeting could download the audio and listen at another time.

If the CCAC and US Mint wants to step into the 21st century, there are Internet-based audio services that can be used with greater capacity than the Treasury’s teleconferencing service.

Would it be too much to ask for the CCAC to have a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed? RSS feeds allows for better communication by my RSS reader letting me know when the site has created updates by watching the RSS feed. RSS is really simple. There are a number of programs to help create feeds and services that help publish feeds. As the webmaster for my local coin club, I provide an RSS feed when the website changes. I also use it to remind members of upcoming meetings.

Also, it is possible to integrate Google search into the CCAC website to provide search capabilities to visitors. There is no cost for this service.

If the CCAC participated in the Open Government initiative ordered by the President and made its deliberations more open to the citizens, maybe there would be a better understanding between the committee and the citizens they are supposed to represent.

Found DC in VA

I finally found a DC quarter in the DC area. I am working on a new project in Alexandria, Virginia and stopped by a local grocery store after work. Before shopping, I stopped by the in-store coffee stand for a warm beverage where I was handed a DC quarter in change. Although I was able to purchase these quarters at the US Mint headquarters building, this is the first one I found in change.

Almost a year after their issue, I am beginning to see 2009 quarters and the Lincoln Bicentennial Cents in circulation. I have yet to find 2009 nickels and dimes in change. With a production of 84.64 million nickels and 146 million dimes are the lowest mintage totals since the 1950s.

The US Mint’s Annual Report says that production of circulating coinage was down 70-percent and it is not anticipated that their primary customer, the Federal Reserve, would increase their purchasing of new coins. It might be more difficult to find 2009 and 2010 coins in pocket change.