Silver Bullet - .999 fine silver, 1 Troy oz, .45 ACPThe 1700s were not a good time to be roaming the woods of Europe alone. Thousands of people were attacked by wolves, and many died. Often, especially when a lone person survived an attack, they embellished the story, describing a huge creature of t...

Cursed Aztec Gold Toy Metal Pirate Coin Candy may be dandy, but how much more memorable would it be to hand out pirate treasure to your trick-or-treaters? New World Coins Fall into Pirate Hands Many Spanish and Portuguese coins were minted in the New World, where sources of gold and silver were ab...

As used as we are to paper bank notes today, the United States didn’t issue paper bills until 1861 when the need to finance the Civil War made it impossible to do so with the gold and silver coins that had been used for commerce up to that time. Greenback “Demand Notes” The first notes were origina...

1928 $1 Puerto Rico Issue Funny Back FRNPeople take money seriously, and so do most countries. This has certainly been historically true for the United States. Over the course of issuing paper money, U.S. currency has been printed for several specific purposes. For example, gold and silver certifica...

10,000 Afghani Banknote Uncirculated (AFN), printed 1993War has many casualties and when sitting governments are toppled, one of the victims is often a nation’s currency. It can disappear along with the country (the Confederate States of America, for example), or it can undergo wild fluctuations and...

Everyone fantasizes about finding a Picasso in the attic or a letter signed by George Washington in an old steamer trunk, but what about finding a $4,000 Civil War-era Seated Liberty in a roll of Kennedy half dollars? It happened in 2013. And it points out the lure for a special breed of coin collec...

Collecting coins is a fascinating hobby with many rewards, both intellectual and financial. It can also be expensive, especially if your collecting tastes favor gold coins. That’s why it’s important to have a collecting strategy in place before you start buying. Here are some suggestions on how to b...

Collecting paper money (or recently, plastic) is a great way to learn about places, cultures and history around the world. While paper currency has been used for centuries, it’s only in the last century or so that its use became nearly universal. And as its use has become widespread, countries are u...