Despite a mintage of more than 1.6 million coins, few 1899 twenties survive in high grades. In fact, the combined NGC and PCGS population for MS65 grade examples is fewer than 200 coins and the two companies together have graded only 9 pieces higher. Listed at $8,120 in the CDN CPG, $7,500 in the PCGS price guide, $10,750 in the NGC price guide and $8,500 in Trends. Those numbers speak for themselves…
We have three coins available…
Offered at $5,990 each delivered
We do business the old fashioned way, we speak with you.
As February is Black History Month, we thought it would be appropriate to take a look at some of the recent Commemorative Issues that honor people and events highlighting the contributions of African-Americans to American History. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, tribute was paid to both Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver as the “Vintage Commemorative” era drew to a close. After a roughly 30 year hiatus, the “Modern Commemorative” era began and since 1982, four issues have been struck to recognize various individuals and milestones on this topic.
The first Modern Commemorative in this series honored the great Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball at the beginning of the 1947 season when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him at first base. His talent and character served as an inspiration to the hundreds of African-American players who followed him in the ensuing years. Robinson was honored both with a dollar coin struck in silver as well as a five-dollar coin struck in gold on the 50th anniversary of his achievement.
The two coins struck in 1997 to honor Jackie Robinson
The next issue came the following year, in 1998, when Crispus Attucks was featured on a coin commemorating the contributions of black Revolutionary War patriots. Attucks was a stevedore and was the first person killed in the Boston Massacre, and thus was the first American killed in the Revolution.
The 1998 issue honoring Black American patriots portrayed Crispus Attucks, the first casualty of the American Revolution.
The desegregation of Little Rock High School, in September 1957, was marked by the issuance of a commemorative marking the 50th anniversary of the event. Nine African-American students were blocked from entering the segregated school by the Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus. After intervention from President Eisenhower, who deployed the 101st Airborne Division of the Army, the students were admitted.
The desegregation of the Little Rock’s Central High School was marked in 2007 with this dollar coin
Finally, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was again recognized on its 50th anniversary by the issuance of this commemorative dollar coin in 2014. Signed into law in early July 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson, the act banned employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin and is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement.
The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was recognized on this 2014 commemorative dollar
The prevailing mood has shifted from extreme pessimism to extreme optimism
By MARK HULBERT
COLUMNIST
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (MarketWatch) — Sentiment conditions on Wall Street are flashing short-term danger signs.
That’s because the mood has shifted from the extreme pessimism that prevailed in late December to nearly as extreme optimism today. Some call current conditions a “slope of hope.”
Consider the average recommended equity exposure among the Nasdaq-oriented market timers I monitor (as measured by the Hulbert Nasdaq Newsletter Sentiment Index, or HNNSI). In late December, this average was lower — at minus 72.2% — than at almost any other time since I began collecting data in 2000.
That’s why contrarians, in late December, were forecasting a powerful rally.
Read: Should stock-market investors freak out over an ‘earnings recession’? These charts say no
Today, in contrast, in the wake of a 17%-plus gain in the S&P 500 SPX, +1.09% and a 20%-plus rally in the Nasdaq COMP, +0.61% the HNNSI has risen to plus 73%. That’s higher than 90% of all comparable readings since 2000.
In other words, as you can see from the accompanying chart, in six weeks’ time this group of short-term stock-market timers has increased their average equity exposure by more than 140 percentage points: Away from being aggressively bearish (recommending that clients allocate three-fourths of their trading portfolios to short-selling) to being almost as aggressively bullish (now recommending that three-fourths of clients’ portfolios be long).
To be sure, this does not mean that a decline back to the December lows is imminent. Nevertheless, contrarian analysts are convinced that the sentiment winds are no longer blowing in the direction of higher prices.
The usual qualifications apply, of course. Contrarian analysis doesn’t always work. And, even when it does, the market doesn’t always immediately respond to the contrarian signals. This past summer, for example, as you can see from the chart, the HNNSI hit its high about six weeks prior to the market’s. That’s a longer lead time than usual, but not unprecedented. But when the market finally did succumb to the extreme optimism, the Nasdaq fell by more than 20%.
Another qualification about the HNNSI as a contrarian indicator: It works only as a very short-term timing indicator, providing insight about the market’s trend over perhaps the next few months at most. So it’s not inconsistent with the contrarian analysis of current market sentiment that the stock market could be headed to major new all-time market highs later this year.
What contrarians are saying, however, is that even if the market does hit new highs later this year, there may be lower prices first.
Plan accordingly.
Mark Hulbert has been tracking the advice of more than 160 financial newsletters since 1980.
By Jeffry Bartash, a reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.
Uncle Sam, aka the United States, is racking up a lot of debt. The national debt just topped $22 trillion for the first time.
U.S. financial picture getting worse in wake of Trump tax cuts
The U.S. national debt topped a record $22 trillion this week, less than a year after it crossed the $21 trillion mark, indicating a further deterioration in the nation’s finances.
The Peterson Foundation said the U.S. national debt has risen by $1 trillion in the past 11 months, calling it “the latest sign that our fiscal situation is not only unsustainable, but accelerating.”
The foundation drew its estimate from the Treasury Department’s daily statement on the government financial assets and liabilities. The group has long called for reducing the national debt to ensure the nation’s long-term financial health.
“We already pay an average of $1 billion every day in interest on the debt, and will spend a staggering $7 trillion in interest costs over the next decade,” asserted Michael Peterson, CEO of the foundation. “In order to build the strong and stable future that we want for America, we must put our fiscal house in order and begin to manage our national debt.”
Economists agree the U.S. will suffer in the long run if the government fails to rein in the debt, but that day may still be a long way off.
The standard method of judging a nation’s fiscal health is to look at the level of debt relative to GDP — or the size of the economy. The ratio of publicly held debt-to-GDP is seen rising from about 78% in 2019 to 106% by 2029 and to as high as 193% by 2049 under current tax and spending policies, the Brookings Institution calculates in a new report.
While the interest payments on such a large debt would siphon off a lots of money the government could use for other things, it’s by no means clear how much the economy would suffer.
Japan has run huge debt-to-GDP ratios for years and it still has one of the strongest economies in the world. The country’s debt is around 236% of GDP.
The U.S. national debt soared in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 recession, accelerated again after the Trump tax cuts in 2017 and an increase in federal spending.
United States Mint bullion sales were unchanged. Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of coins sold during varying periods.
