Recent Articles by this Author
Robbery in Front of the Denver Mint
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... On the morning of December 18, 1922, a shipment of $200,000 in new five dollar bills was...
The Metal Is Not Properly Mixed: Gold Half Eagles at the New Orleans Mint
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... In a recent CoinWeek column, I mentioned the unusual transfer of gold from the New York Assay...
How Erratic Coin Distribution Affected Mint Workers
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... Coming into the 20th century, mint facilities in the United States were putting coins into circulation on...
The National Gold Bullion Depository at Fort Knox
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... Several months before passage of the Gold Reserve Act of January 30, 1934, the United States Treasury...
Some Practical Coin Grading Concepts for the Average Collector
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... Several days ago, a collector (DeplorableDan) posted photos and comments about an 1836 Quarter Eagle, Block 8...
Converting Gold Coins Into Bullion Bars After 1933
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... Much has been made of President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 6102 forbidding the hoarding of gold coin, gold...
The Big Impact of Small Coin Collectors
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... The Philadelphia Mint began selling sets of special coins to collectors in 1858. The new policy was...
Coin Production at the US Mint: Questions and Answers
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... In the “old days” we’d call this a “mail bag column”. But now that everything’s electronic mail,...
1873 : The Year That Changed the United States Mint
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... 1873 was an interesting year for the United States Mint. The most important event was the passage...
Counterfeit Gold Coins Filled With Platinum: Hollow Gold
The production of counterfeit gold and silver coins is almost as old as coinage itself. The usual method involves making something that looks like an...
Edge Collars – Coining’s Third Dimension
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... All United States coins have three sides. Collectors pay most of their attention to the obverse (the...
Why Coin Mintages Are Often Even Numbers
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... Recently, a hobby message board member asked an interesting question: Does anyone know why quarter and half dollar...
Assay Commission Medals – Insights Into the 1874 Issue
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... The Mint Act of 1792 established the United States Assay Commission to test and verify weight and...
What Is a First Strike Coin?
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... Over several years, coin marketing and sales types have promoted catchy phrases for traditional first strike or...
Roger Burdette: “Silk Purse” Coins
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear,” is an expression that has been...
How Coins Were Made – 1869 Edition
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... Nineteenth-century America was a nation of technological advancement, increasing mechanization, and pervasive fraud on the general public...
The United States Mint Employee Allegiance Medal
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... On September 2, 1861, officers and workmen/women of the various facilities of the United States Mint took...
United States Coinage Figures Not Always Correct
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... We like to assume that all coins with the current year’s date were delivered to the Treasurer...
How Thick Was a Trade Dollar?
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... Today, the thickness of a coin is seldom a topic of discussion among coin collectors. It mostly...
How Coin Mintages Sometimes Get Messed Up
By Roger W. Burdette, special to CoinWeek ..... We’re all familiar with coin guides of one sort or another. The most frequently used are price...