Coin Collecting
The coin is often referred to affectionately by collectors as the "Susan B." or "Susie". It is relatively easy to collect as all issues of this short series were minted in large quantities, and so numismatic demand can be easily met. For example, in 1999 the Philadelphia mint produced 750,000 proof coins. Each of these was sold as a separately boxed item. It took five years for them to sell out.
Collectors have noticed that there exist a few varieties of the coin that differ slightly in their arrangement and pressing qualities. Shortly after production of circulating coinage began there was a die change narrowing the distance from the date to the rim. The earlier 1979-P 'near date' or 'wide rim' coins are somewhat scarcer than the later 'far date' or 'narrow rim' issue. In the proof sets, the main varieties are the 1979-S Type I and Type II mintmarks, and the 1981-S Type I and Type II mintmarks. In each case a blurry "S" mintmark was replaced with a clearer one, with the later coins much less common. Also popular to collect are the 'full talon' variety, which are generally recognized as having a superior strike as the talons of the eagle on the reverse are fully separated and rounded, and may even show the folds of skin on the toes. 'Full talon' is not a function of die state, as 'full talon' coins are known on both early and late state dies.
A current proposed senate bill would take the Susan B out of circulation making it more of a collectible over time.
Read more about this topic: Susan B. Anthony Dollar
Famous quotes containing the words coin and/or collecting:
“The oft-repeated Roman story is written in still legible characters in every quarter of the Old World, and but today, perchance, a new coin is dug up whose inscription repeats and confirms their fame. Some “Judæa Capta,” with a woman mourning under a palm tree, with silent argument and demonstration confirms the pages of history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In the very midst of the crowd about this wreck, there were men with carts busily collecting the seaweed which the storm had cast up, and conveying it beyond the reach of the tide, though they were often obliged to separate fragments of clothing from it, and they might at any moment have found a human body under it. Drown who might, they did not forget that this weed was a valuable manure. This shipwreck had not produced a visible vibration in the fabric of society.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)