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:
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—David Lodge (b. 1935)
“Though collecting quotations could be considered as merely an ironic mimetism—victimless collecting, as it were ... in a world that is well on its way to becoming one vast quarry, the collector becomes someone engaged in a pious work of salvage. The course of modern history having already sapped the traditions and shattered the living wholes in which precious objects once found their place, the collector may now in good conscience go about excavating the choicer, more emblematic fragments.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)