Numismatic News

The 40th director of the U.S. Mint, Ventris C. Gibson, announced her retirement on March 20. Gibson will step down, effective March 31, despite the remaining two years on her five-year term. Gibson was asked to step down by the Treasury Department hierarchy to accommodate President Donald Trump’s nomination for Director of the U.S. Mint. Gibson joined the U.S. Mint as deputy director and acting director in October 2021. She was then approved by the full Senate for a five-year term in June 2022. Gibson, a U.S. Navy veteran, served in numerous government roles, including working for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as for the National Labor Relations Board. “I know the past couple of months have been challenging for us in responding to a…

Here are some answers sent from our e-newsletter readers. Read more responses at www.numismaticnews.net. If you could swap an U.S. coin design with a historical figure or symbol not yet featured, what would it be and why? I would replace Roosevelt on the dime with a picture of Uncle Sam. This could act as a colorful reminder that our nation is strongest when we are unified. Larry VannArkansas Marilyn Monroe because she is beautiful. Name and Address withheld Celebrate the annual winner of the Westminster Dog Show by depicting the image of the dog that wins. It’s time to change the dime, so use the dog on the face of the dime. Larry DeanShawnee, Kan. FDR’s time on the dime needs to be over. This is especially so since the…

The 2025 Kennedy Half Dollar 200-coin bag will be released by the U.S. Mint on May 6, 2025. The Kennedy design was first issued in 1964, the year after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. The obverse of the half dollar shows Kennedy’s portrait that had been prepared for his presidential medal. The Presidential Seal appears on the reverse. The Kennedy half dollar replaced the Franklin half-dollar, which was introduced in 1948. For a brief period in the 1970s, the Kennedy design’s reverse was replaced with Independence Hall in Philadelphia to celebrate the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence.…

An honors college graduate who served internship positions at two major coin companies under the Professional Numismatist Guild’s (www.PNGdealers.org) nexGen Mentor ship Program is the recipient of the PNG’s 2025 scholarship to attend a week-long session of the American Numismatic Association (www.money.org) Summer Seminar in Colorado. Timothy Chen of Los Angeles graduated last year Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree from the University of California, Riverside, with a concentration in finance and a minor in psychology. In the summer of 2021, he was a sales and marketing intern at Alhambra (California) Coin Center, and in the summer of 2023 worked as a wholesale trading and business operations intern at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas. Chen, who speaks English, Mandarin, and conversational Spanish, founded Winged…

■ I’m new to coin collecting. Where can I learn more about coins? You have many good sources from which to learn. Consider joining a local coin club. Club members can be helpful, plus clubs offer a social aspect to the hobby. There are coin catalogs as well as this publication from which to learn. There are also correspondence courses and seminars available. The American Numismatic Association and the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association each offer correspondence courses and more. ■ Are there educational programs at coin shows? Some coin shows offer only a bourse, but others may have lectures, social meeting options, and competitive displays. It isn’t a hard and fast rule, but the larger the show, the more likely the event will offer more than simply a bourse. ■…

To collectors, it seems obvious that sales and use taxes should not apply to a medium of exchange. When people go to a bank or credit union to convert larger denomination currency into smaller denominations and coins, there is no sales tax charged on such an exchange. Yes, state governments that imposed sales and use taxes in the past considered the purchase of numismatic coins and precious metals bullion to be subject to those taxes. Today, there are five states that do not impose a statewide sales tax, another forty states that have adopted complete or partial sales and use tax exemptions on bullion, coins, and currency, and the state of Nevada has a partial exemption by regulation. Only Hawaii, Maine, New Mexico, Vermont, and the District of Columbia do…