Sale of the Adams-Carter 1804 silver dollar on May 1 for $2.3 million to John Albanese, as well as the sale at the Central States Numismatic Society by Heritage of a 1794 silver dollar in AU-55 for $345,000 and an MS-61 at $503,125 afford a good opportunity to take a look at the rare coin market in a unique perspective.

Add a 1794 silver dollar that was sold by Heritage as F-12 at the Florida United Numismatists sale in January, and you have a rare opportunity to examine how a true collector coin stands up to the Salomon Brothers index in extended attenuated form.

< For more than 30 years, the gold standard of viewing the coin market in perspective has been the Salomon Brothers survey of tangible assets, begun in 1978 and officially continued into the 1990s when the Federal Trade Commission forced the venerable white shoe investment firm to discontinue its monitoring.

Among the assets compared in the charting of yesteryear were stocks, bonds, foreign exchange, farmland, old master paintings, Chinese porcelain, gold, diamonds, postage stamps, and other tangible items of value. Each June, R.S. Solomon wrote an annual accounting and charted it.

To some, the 19th century may be another line in the history books, but the latter half of the century must have qualified as undoubtedly heady times as they unfolded. The year 1849 saw the discovery of gold in the young American West. By 1860 the "united" in the United States of America had unraveled to the point where the nation went into a four-year war with itself.

In the aftermath of that bloodiest of American conflicts, silver was found in numerous places in the western territories, as well as gold. The fever for precious metals hit people all over the country. It seemed a person could make it rich just by finding the right spot to dig in the sands of the Western deserts.

The government even recognized that with all that newly mine metal came the need for mint facilities in the West, first opening a branch mint in San Francisco, then a branch in Carson City, Nev. The legacy of the latter of these facilities today seems too often to be just a string of silver dollars, Trade dollars, and gold coins, all carrying high price tags because of the CC mintmark. But there is quite a bit more when one does a bit of modern-day digging. It's up to us collectors to look for that.

When silver was discovered in what is now called the Comstock Lode, in 1859, the Lode wasn't even in Nevada technically. A large portion of what became Nevada was the western part of the Utah Territory in 1859, and wouldn't become a part of Nevada for another two years.

Silver coins are a very popular with coin collecting enthusiasts.

There are many different types of silver coins one can collect and which coins you chose will depend on your personal tastes as well as the reasons for collecting. It is a good idea to study the various silver coins available and their specifications before you buy.

Popular silver coins include:

The American Silver Eagle

The Australian Silver Kookaburra

Australian Silver Kangaroos

Australian Chinese Lunar Calendar Series

British Silver Britannia's

Canadian Silver Maple Leaves

Chinese Silver Pandas

Delcam, one of Europe's largest CADCAM software development houses, currently provides Mints worldwide with ArtCAM, an intuitive suite of design and manufacturing software for artisans. ArtCAM Pro, Delcam's top-end artistic CADCAM software solution has allowed engravers to meet the tight deadlines of hundreds of projects each year by reducing the time taken to a quarter of that required by traditional production techniques.

ArtCAM allows the designer to import 3D models, scanned drawings and photographs, scanned plaster of Paris moulds or files from other CAD packages. Alternatively they can design directly within the software. The engraver can then create or manipulate the artwork to make complex and intricate 3D reliefs for the obverse and reverse designs of their coins.

When working on foreign commissioned projects ArtCAM can simply take in import images of different scripts such as Arabic, Chinese or Japanese, thereby reducing the possibility of written inaccuracies and simplifying the overall project.

Archaeologists recently discovered a total of 4,300 medieval coins, dating to the second half of the twelfth century and the beginning of the thirteenth century, at the Tsarevi Kili site near the town of Strumica in eastern Macedonia.

The coins were located in two ceramic vessels and constitute one of the largest and most important medieval finds in the country so far, Zoran Ruyak, head of the ongoing archaeological excavations told the Utrinski vesnik newspaper.

From what is known so far, there are three types of coins forged during the rule of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, who reigned between 1143 and 1180, and subsequent emperors, Ruyak said.

Coin Values are known and shared among many. Since coins are a small round pieces made out of unbreakable material, like metal, coins are the property of the Government, issued and embarked with the official stamp of a country.

Coins have been used for money transactions for centuries now, since the time of our ancestors coins have been a form of transaction.

In today's world we have various forms of money transaction from bank notes to credit cards ,but coins have and will forever hold a valuable position in our lives from day to day transactions to collection.

Coins hold a very valuable contribution to our lives , we use coins usually for lower domination as bank notes are used for higher domination.

Coins made out of regular metal hold higher face value than the making value of themetal used. But there are exceptions too ,for instance today we have Gold coins Silver coins ,these coins are made as well as bought by investors ,those who want to invest certain amount of money .

Collectors must be vigilant when choosing what coins to invest in and add to their collections.

Just as in the tradition of rare art and antiques, the coin-collecting business is well acquainted with fraud.

While the Internet is providing a new breeding ground for numismatic fraud, it has long been common in other venues from mail-order establishments to flea markets.

In addition to fraud, counterfeiting is a huge problem in the world of coin collecting. If you doubt the integrity of a coin, have it valued by a reputable coin grading service.

But even that route can spell trouble. Unless you use a highly respected grading firm, the fraud may be perpetuated. Some less than savory coin graders have been known to authenticate clear forgeries, leaving the owner with an even bigger mess on their hands.

In the coin-collecting world, the value of individual coins is in constant flux.

There are various guides online that are updated regularly to help coin collectors keep up with the ever-changing market.

These coin prices guides generally decide upon the worth of specific coins by consulting dealer advertisements in trade papers, dealer fixed coin prices lists, auctions, and activity at coin shows. Some guides focus on coins from a certain country, while others are more comprehensive.

Coins have a wholesale and Fair Market Value. Generally dealers are the only buyers able to purchase coins at wholesale coin prices. The Fair Market Value is the price a dealer asks for a coin.

On what the coin prices depends

This value depends upon the rarity of the coin. The more coins available within a certain grade that are available, the more competitive and thus lower a dealer’s coin prices will be.

Dr. William Shelby developed the coin grading scale used in the United States. It is based on 70 points, with 70 being the perfect coin. In addition to the numeric grade, there is also a letter designation assigned to each coin.