Quizzing Numismatic Knowledge
Past Times with Coins looks at the June 1965 issue of Coins magazine. The column COINS IQ tested their readers’ coin knowledge.
Over several issues of Coins magazine, beginning with the June 1965 issue, the “COINS IQ” column tested readers’ knowledge. Ten questions were planned for each issue. However, there were some shortcomings. The first installment had only seven, and the second, while posing ten questions, skipped the letter I, jumping past it to J.
Also, at least one reader questioned the answer to E of the July issue’s questions, as “O” to a numismatist is more often related to the New Orleans Mint than the obverse of a coin.
At any rate, the June 1965 issue said that if you got 8 of 10 correct, you earned the grade XF (an impossibility as there are only seven questions); 7 correct, VF; 6, G; and with “5 or less … better read Coins Magazine more carefully.”
From June 1965 Coins magazine:
A. A star was added to the Grant Memorial half dollar because:
1. It was decided to give the design a better balance.
2. To indicate that Gen. Grant’s greatest victories were won when he was a one-star general.
3. To stimulate coin sales, the collector would buy two, one with and one without stars.
4. Because the coin was designed in Texas, the Lone Star state.
B. What connection exists between the valuable Isabella quarter and woman’s suffragette?
1. Isabella Wainwright, the designer, was a prominent suffragette.
2. It honors Queen Isabella, a champion of women’s rights.
3. During the World Columbian Exposition, Congress gave the board of lady managers $10,000 to promote the fair and gave it to them in Isabella quarters.
4. Isabella, in Spanish, means ‘free woman.’
C. What was done with the proceeds of the money raised by the 1900 commemorative La Fayette dollar?
1. It paid in part for a monument to General La Fayetteville erected at the Paris Exposition of 1900.
2. It went into a fund, which subsequently was used to equip the La Fayette Escadrille in World War I.
3. The money went to build La Fayette Square in Philadelphia.
4. The money is still held in escrow, as no definite purpose was ever assigned to it by Congress.
D. What is a ‘jackass’ note?
1. It refers to counterfeit notes put out by counterfeiters so inept that they were referred to as jackasses.
2. The notes of 1864, 1865, and 1867 were signed by John Bray, and from the word bray people gave the name jackasses to the notes.
3. Millions of these notes were used to buy mules for the Spanish-American War, so they were called jackass notes.
4. Certain post-Civil War notes have an eagle on the obverse, which, when viewed upside down, resembles the head of a jackass.
E. No silver dollars have been coined since 1935 because:
1. Since 1935, the price of silver has made coinage of dollars uneconomical.
2. 1935, the height of the depression, brought on a low, which made it mandatory to return all silver dollars to the treasury.
3. In 1935, there was a change in obligation; the bearer of a note could demand only an equivalent amount in silver, not a silver dollar, as before.
4. Las Vegas cornered the market on silver dollars, and the treasury decided not to mint anymore.
F. What is a commemorative coin?
1. These are coins issued exclusively to honor American presidents posthumously.
2. Commemorative coins are issued on the anniversaries of great American dates, according to a definite pattern, every ten years.
3. They are issued to honor some event and are usually sold at a premium over face value to raise funds.
4. They are special mint issues designed to be sold at a profit to benefit the mint employees’ retirement fund.
G. The Columbian half dollar was issued for the following reason:
1. In 1892, the United States, on the verge of signing a treaty with Columbia (which later fell through) for the building of the Columbian Canal, issued this coin.
2. It was issued in 1892 and 1893 to help finance the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
3. It was issued to raise funds for a Columbus monument in Columbus, Ohio.
4. A descendant of Columbus donated the design and financed the issue to commemorate 1892, the 400th anniversary of his ancestor’s discovery of America.”
The answers were as follows:
A. No. 3. The Grant memorial half dollar commemorates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ulysses S. Grant. The commission issued the second variety (with the star added) to stimulate sales; collectors had to buy two different coins.
B. No. 3. The Isabella quarter was the first and only 25-cent commemorative coin. As an episode in women’s fight for suffrage, the ladies formed a board of lady managers for the Columbian Exposition of 1892. With pressure, they got $10,000 to promote the fair … all in Isabella quarters. (One of these quarters today would bring around $100.)
C. No. 1. The U.S. participation in the Paris Exposition of 1900 called for a monument to General La Fayette. Part of the cost was raised by selling the La Fayette dollar for $2; American schoolchildren raised the rest of the money with dimes, nickels, and pennies.
D. No. 4. The ‘jackass’ item is the note of 1869 and the subsequent series of 1875, 1878 and 1880. It is the eagle on the obverse which gave rise to the name because when the eagle is viewed upside down, it is said to resemble a jackass.
E. No. 3. The principal reason is that after 1936, the silver certificates were no longer redeemable for ‘one silver dollar’ but for ‘one dollar in silver.’ There was a claim that insufficient commercial demand existed, which is now disputed.
F. No. 3. Commemoratives, as the word indicates, commemorate some event; rarely are these coins sold at face value; the premium normally goes to some worthy project.
G. No. 2. In 1893, Chicago hosted the Columbian Exposition; to help finance the exposition, a series of commemorative half dollars was minted in 1892 and 1893. These are not considered very valuable pieces.”
From the July 1965 issue, we have:
A. The expression BTW as a coin description means:
1. Below The Weight: a coin short of its standard legal weight.
2. Booker T. Washington commemorative half dollar.
3. British Ten-Pound Wellington; English note with the duke’s profile.
4. Before the War: the name applied to pre-Revolutionary War mintage.
B. The expression LL means:
1. Long-Lifers: coins that stay in circulation for many years.
2. Liberty Lady: a coin with the effigy of the Liberty head.
3. Low-Lifer: slang for a counterfeit coin.
4. Large Letters.
C. The word micro, applied to coins, means:
1. Unusually soiled coins; in other words, full of microbes.
2. Smaller than usual mint mark.
3. Coins issued by the fictitious principality of Microbia.
4. Coins requiring a microscope to identify the designer’s initials.
D. In numismatic lingo, NM means:
1. Coinage issued in New Mexico under Spanish rule.
2. No Metal: applied to wooden tokens.
3. Not Minted.
4. Numismatic Material: coins that, for some reason, are especially interesting to collectors.
E. The term ‘O’ to a numismatist means:
1. Obsolete: worthless coins.
2. Oxidated: damaged coins.
3. Obverse; also abbreviated obv.
4. Omitted: when the date or designer’s name fails to appear on a coin.
F. The name 3-leg is applied to:
1. A particular stool used by old-time die makers.
2. A 1937-D Buffalo nickel.
3. A silver dollar in which the eagle’s tail looks like a third ‘leg.’
4. A Mexican coin showing President Santa Anna, who, including a wooden leg, has ‘3 legs.’
G. The initials VDB on coins signify:
1. Virginia Defied Britain … an allusion to the Revolutionary War.
2. Victor D. Brenner, a coin designer.
3. Virginia Dare’s Birth, a tribute to the first white child born in the American colonies.
4. There is no such initial on any American coin.
H. ANA stands for:
1. American Numismatic Affiliates.
2. Allied Numismatic Associates.
3. Associated Numismatic Agencies.
4. American Numismatic Association.
J. See if you can unscramble these obverse-reverse confusions. Only one is correct:
1. Heads in a coin is also known as the reverse.
2. The tail of a coin is also known as the obverse.
3. Heads or tails, in that order, could also be called reverse or obverse.
4. The obverse of a coin is on the other side of the tail.
K. Planchet, to a coin collector, means:
1. Coins designed by Jean Planchet.
2. The upper die in a pair that strikes the coin.
3. The metal blank that is made into a coin by striking between a pair of dies.
4. A trial die, either of a pair used in initial runs.”
The answers were given as follows:
A. No. 2. BTW refers to [the] Booker T. Washington commemorative half dollar. Two sets were issued, the Booker T. Washington from 1946 through 1951 and the Booker T. Washington-George Washington Carver from 1951 through 1954.
B. No. 4. LL stands for large letters.
C. No. 2. Micro indicates a smaller than usual mint mark.
D. No. 3. NM in numismatics means not minted.
E. No. 3. O means obverse, also abbreviated as obv.
F. No. 2. It’s a term used to describe certain 1937D five-cent coins. The die used to mint these coins became plugged, obliterating the mid-section of the right foreleg. Be careful of fabrications.
G. No. 2. They are the initials of Victor D. Brenner, designer of the Lincoln cent.
H. No. 4. Of course, you knew this one! ANA stands for the American Numismatic Association.
J. No. 4. Obviously. Obverse is heads; the reverse is tails; therefore, the only one of the four answers that is right is number 4 since the obverse (heads) is on the other side of tails.
K. No. 3. The planchet is the metal blank made into a coin by being struck between a pair of dies.”
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