About The Coin Register

The Coin Register is a new, independent publication about coins and collecting. We explain how coins are graded, how they are struck, what the letters and numbers on them mean, and how to look after a collection. We write for the person who has inherited a jar of wheat pennies as readily as for the collector filling an album.

Where our facts come from

Every factual claim on this site traces to a primary source we read directly. For how coins are made and marked, that means the United States Mint. For grading, it means the Sheldon scale and the Official American Numismatic Association Grading Standards that are built on it. For the history of individual coin types, it means the published numismatic literature: Bowers, Breen, Burdette, Lange and Taxay, as collected and cited in the standard reference articles we link.

When a question turns on judgment rather than fact, we say so plainly. Grading is the clearest case. It is interpretive rather than exact, and the same coin submitted twice can come back a point apart.

Why we publish no prices

Coin values move with the metals market, the auction calendar, and collector demand. A price printed here today would be wrong within weeks, and a wrong price is worse than no price at all: it invites someone to sell a coin for less than it is worth, or to pay too much for one. So we explain what drives value and we send you to a current price guide and a reputable dealer for the number itself.

For the same reason we do not appraise coins, and we do not buy or sell them.

On this domain

This site is published on a domain that previously hosted a different publication about coins. The Coin Register is not that publication, is not a revival of it, and claims no continuity with it. We have no video archive, no broadcast history, and no hosts. We chose to keep writing about coins here because the subject is worth writing about, not because the address confers any lineage.

We are also unaffiliated with the United States Mint, the American Numismatic Association, any grading service, and any coin dealer. Nothing here is sponsored.

Corrections

If you find an error, tell us and we will fix it and note the change. Numismatics is a field where careful people disagree, and we would rather be corrected than confident. Write to us at the contact page.