Romney vows to save In God We Trust on coins

With the presidential campaign in full swing, it is hard to believe that there had been absolutely no discussion about US coin policy.  That changed yesterday when Mitt Romney at a campaign rally in Virginia Beach stated "I will not take God off our coins."  His reference, of course, is to our motto "In God We Trust," which appears on all US coins.

Not to be outdone, the Obama campaign quickly responded by stating that "Romney’s implication that Democrats ever suggested removing religious references from the currency was extreme and untrue."

I have written about the motto In God we Trust on my website and have spoken about In God We Trust on youtube.  Many Christians have objected to the motto including Teddy Roosevelt who stated,  "My own feeling in the matter is due to my very firm conviction that to put such a motto on coins, or to use it in any kindred manner, not only does no good but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence, which comes dangerously close to sacrilege."

As I have said before, I know of no church service where the minister says "Let us pray.  Please take out your Jefferson nickel."  Do Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama really need the motto to practice their religion?  Or are they merely trying to score political points.

We now know the Romney and Obama position on "In God We Trust."  Hopefully in the near future, we will learn their views on other coin features such as "e pluribus unum" or the reeded edge.

What do you think?  Please comment!

1.84 million for the 1873CC dime!

Only one person in the world can have a complete set of United States coins.  And the key coin of all is the 1873 CC "no arrows" dime -- only one of which is known.  In 1873, the Carson City mint struck 12,400 such coins.  But soon after striking, the weight of the dime was altered.  The coins were to be melted and replaced by a slightly different version of the 1873 dime which contained arrows around the date, indicating the change in weight.  Only one specimen seems to have escaped the melting pot.  The unique 1873 CC "No arrows" dime has just been auctioned off in Philadelphia for 1.84 million dollars.  

As for the seated liberty series itself, I, along with most collectors, find the series somewhat dull.  I have always admired those collecting the series by date and mint.  And for all of the collectors except the one who purchased this dime, there will forever be an empty space in the album.

Arnold-Peter Weiss case sends chills down the spines of collectors

By now we have heard the case of Arnold-Peter Weiss, the Brown University medical school professor who was arrested for trying to auction three rare ancient coins.  At issue is that under Italian law, such antiquities could not be removed from italy after 1909.  The three ancient decadrachms, potentially valued at millions of dollars, ended up being declared forgeries.  Weiss, however, was still being prosecuted because he believed he was breaking the antiquities law, even though he was not.

The case contains several disturbing facets:

1. A conversation was recorded in which Weiss stated "I know this is a fresh coin.  This was dug a few years ago."  Is the government monitoring the phone calls of high end coin collectors?
2. The coins were examined by Weiss ( a well known coin expert) and many professional coin auctioneers who all assumed the coins were authentic.  This means that the modern day forger has gotten so good that the experts can be fooled.  Because of the coins values (the cheapest was expected to bring in $350,000), it was subjected to extra scrutiny.  How many other "authentic" ancient coins are in fact, frauds?
3. Can most ancient coins now be confiscated?  There are many ancient coins in the hands of United States collectors.  Most do not have evidence that they were exported from Italy before 1909 (even if they were).