PCGS

The 1776-1976 Bicentennial Half Dollar was a big collector item upon its release in the mid-1970s and remains popular today thanks to interest in the 2026 Semiquincentennial coinage and other patriotic commemoratives. Click image to enlarge. The 1776-1976 Bicentennial Half Dollar remains one of the most widely collected of all modern half dollars, and they’re even among the most common of all Kennedy Half Dollars still found in circulation (mostly by way of bank rolls) today.

When the author found a lightly worn 1776-1976 Bicentennial Quarter in pocket change back in the early 1990s, it opened his eyes to a chapter of American history – and numismatics – just as the coin continues doing today for a new generation of Americans. Click image to enlarge. When I began collecting coins as an 11-year-old kid in 1992, there weren’t many “unusual” modern coins I could find in U.S. circulation. The 11-sided and relatively novel Susan B.

Washington Crossing the Delaware, a famous 1851 painting by Emanuel Leutze, quintessential reimagines one of the most crucial moments of the American Revolution. Public domain image sourced from Wikimedia Commons. Click image to enlarge. As George Washington’s rebel army fought for liberty against the British war machine some 250 years ago, the powdered-wig set in Philadelphia faced a monumental cash-flow problem.

The 2012 Hawai’i Volcanoes America the Beautiful Quarter. Click image to enlarge. When the United Nations established International Day of the Tropics in 2016, the goal was to honor the incredible diversity of the world’s regions that flank the equator and land in between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. The date of June 29 was chosen for the holiday because it marks the anniversary of when the United Nations’ inaugural State of the Tropics Report was published in 2014.

The 2026 American Innovation Dollar featuring California computer pioneer Steve Jobs is a terrific coin for honoring National Barcode Day. Courtesy of the United States Mint. Click image to enlarge. If there’s something many folks take for granted, it’s barcodes – those little boxes containing a series of (usually) black-and-white lines, shapes, or dots on the packaging of virtually everything from snack bars to televisions.

This coin features NFC anti-counterfeiting technology. Tap a NFC enabled device to the front of the label to further verify authenticity.

1953-S Roosevelt Dime grading PCGS MS68FB. Click image to enlarge. The Roosevelt Dime was rolling right along in 1953, when America was booming with young families building lives in the suburbs during the years after World War II but under the shadow of the ongoing Cold War.

The 1928 Peace Dollar is a key date in any grade. Click image to enlarge. The Peace Dollar isn’t necessarily known for boasting expensive key dates or major rarities, but that doesn’t mean the series lacks either. In fact, there are a handful of issues in the Peace Dollar series that are genuinely challenging, and the 1928 Peace Dollar is certainly among these.

The 1913 Barber Half Dollar is a highly scarce coin that serves as a semi key for its series. Click image to enlarge. The Barber Half Dollar has long been recognized by collectors as a deceivingly difficult series to complete, even in a setting where every coin must grade “only” G4. Unless you’re familiar with the nuances and history of the Barber Half Dollar, it may seem strange that completing a set of these coins in, say, G4 or VG8 is so tough.

Altered 1862 New Brunswick 20 Cents. Click image to enlarge. Not all counterfeit coins are made to deceive collectors. Some are contemporary alterations made in an effort to pass the coin off in circulation as a piece with a higher-value denomination. This was the curious case for a mid-19th-century Canadian provincial coin recently submitted to PCGS for authentication and grading.