Insofar as Yuletide 2021, today is pretty much “zero hour.” That means, if you needed to buy something for someone for Christmas the deadline is officially here. I base this on what I call the Christmas Tree Paradigm. We just got ours and, for me, the smell is an annual trip back in time.
When I was in public grade school, each December we would walk into the school building and be slammed with the overpowering smell of balsam. It was magic! It let us know Christmas was officially here. That meant: a) our pre-holiday workload and homework would be markedly less and, b) we had better know what present we were going to give our parents....
Too many things have changed since that time too many decades ago. Happily, I’m a big believer in swinging pendulums eventually swinging back. For instance, just a few years ago, we were all told electronic readers were the new norm. Bookstores were a thing of the past. Some closed. But, wait. Now, a visit to those that remain, especially at this time of year, proves just the opposite. Aisles are packed with book shoppers and checkout lines stridently long.
We’ve been told the same about newspapers. Some vocal cynics contend they are relics of a bygone era. Yet again, in many cases, the pendulum is positive, particularly for local papers. People have grown weary of the one-sided divisiveness of digital and broadcast “reporting.” Whether delivered online or actually on paper, people are realizing newspapers are far-and-away the best way to know what we don’t know.
To that end, for stamps and coins, still the top areas of collecting, the two publications that best deliver news for those hobbies are Linn’s Stamp News and Coin World.
Linn’s was first published in 1928. Coin World in 1960. Since they first hit the stands and/or mailboxes, each has become the veritable bible for hobbyists and investors. In recent years, while their girth may have diminished a bit, the content has not only maintained its relevance, it has become even more essential.
A great example was a recent notice in Coin World about a coin many people have given or gotten at Christmastime, the Kennedy half dollar. First issued in 1964, the 90 percent silver coin was embraced by everyone after Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. During the 1960s, children often found one of the coins in their stocking. Most people still own one or more to this day.
The 1964 Kennedy half dollar highlighted in Coin World was in “Mint State-66.” That’s particularly nice condition. Price guides put its value at $120. The selling price featured in Coin World…$1,698. Another 1964 Kennedy half dollar graded even higher, Mint State 68, sold a few years ago for an unbelievable $22,325. Again, these are the same type of half dollars slipped into kid’s stockings not that many years ago.
More amazing was a half dollar issued 18 years earlier in 1946. Again, the type and date of the silver coin is common. Yet again, condition is key. In Mint State-68 grade, price guides say its value is $1,000 to $5,000. The selling price for the 1946 half dollar was an insane $149,000.
Yes, these are huge exceptions to the norm but they are real and there are surely more similar examples out there.
This is exactly the type of information found in Coin World. On the other front, Linn’s regularly features articles about new issue stamps and rarities uncovered by collectors. Other stories underscore how it’s not uncommon for newly printed stamps to contain valuable misprints just waiting to be found at local post offices.
Perhaps the best aspect might be considered a complete disconnect – the ads. While ads on TV or radio may seem intrusive or annoying, those in the coin and stamp publications can be the best indicators of what items are in demand and where to get top dollar for any to be sold.
Both Coin World and Linn’s Stamp News have an affordable subscription model for 2022. For $39.99, subscribers receive 12 monthly printed paper issues plus an additional 40 digital weekly editions delivered online. For a bit more, subscribers can opt to receive all 52 issues by print.
For more information log onto www.Linns.com/subscribe or www.CoinWorld.com/subscribe. To make it by Christmas, just print out the order page and stuff that in a stocking. Jingle Bells!
For more collecting advice, visit www.peterexford.blogspot.com