WCT News

John Albanese Is Signing 20,000 CACG Labels and Says He’ll Never Do It Again

A new CAC Grading initiative will turn 20,000 hand-signed certification labels into funding for coin clubs, numismatic organizations, charities, and food pantries.

CAC Grading Founder and CEO John Albanese has signed 20,000 specially created encapsulation inserts for what the company calls the CACG Charity Label project. CACG offered the labels through a private auction to its authorized modern bulk submission clients.

CACG Founder and CEO John Albanese

According to CAC Grading, the auction produced a six-figure winning bid. The company plans to donate all proceeds from the project.

However, there is another element that could make these labels especially notable to collectors. Albanese says he does not intend to sign CACG insert labels again.

“This is a ‘one-and-done’ signature signing,” Albanese said. “This is the last time my autograph will be on CACG insert labels.” Read more about John Albanese Signs 20,000 CACG Labels to Raise Six Figures for Numismatic Charities

1961 Franklin Half Dollar Doubled Die Reverse: FS-801 Guide

Millions of Proof Franklin half dollars left the Philadelphia Mint in 1961. Most remain affordable today.

However, one reverse die created something entirely different.

The 1961 Proof Franklin Half Dollar Doubled Die Reverse FS-801 ranks among the most dramatic varieties in the entire Franklin series. Its doubling jumps from the coin without a microscope. Better yet, collectors know exactly where to look.

Then rarity changes the equation.

1961 Franklin Half Dollar. FS-801. Doubled Die Reverse. Proof-68 (PCGS). CAC.

PCGS estimates that only about 1,000 examples survive across all grades. It places roughly 370 survivors at PR65 or better. Meanwhile, Cameo pieces enter an entirely different level of rarity. PCGS estimates only about 20 Cameo survivors, including perhaps 10 at PR65 or better.

At the extreme end, GreatCollections sold an NGC Proof-67 Ultra Cameo CAC example for an extra…

China’s 1911 Pattern Dollar Could Bring $600,000

In 1911, China’s Qing Dynasty stood on the edge of history. Its government still tried to modernize the nation’s money. Its mints still experimented with designs for a unified silver currency. Yet revolution would soon bring more than two centuries of Qing rule to an end.

One remarkable silver dollar pattern captures that moment better than almost any other coin.

CHINA. Silver “Reversed Dragon” Dollar Pattern, Year 3 (1911). Tientsin Mint. Hsuan-t’ung (Xuantong [Puyi]). NGC MS-66.Stack’s Bowers Galleries will offer a 1911 Year 3 “Reversed Dragon” Silver Dollar Pattern at its October 2026 Hong Kong Rarities Night on October 19. NGC graded the coin MS-66. The auction house estimates it at $400,000 to $600,000.

However, the estimate tells only part of the story.

This dragon literally coils in the opposite direction from the design China eventually selected for circulation. In effect, …

Gold From a 45-Minute Disaster: The 1836 Half Eagle of the S.B. Pulaski

An 1836 Classic Head Half Eagle recovered from the S.B. Pulaski carries two remarkable histories. One began at the Philadelphia Mint. The other ended beneath the Atlantic only two years later.

A gold coin can survive generations of commerce and still tell a story. However, an 1836 $5 Classic Head Half Eagle from the S.B. Pulaski tells something far more dramatic.

1836 CACG MS63 Half Eagle Gold

The United States Mint struck the coin in Philadelphia during a major transformation of the nation’s gold coinage. Then, only about two years later, someone carried it aboard one of America’s most luxurious early steam packets.

That journey ended catastrophically.

On the night of June 14, 1838, the S.B. Pulaski suffered a boiler explosion off the North Carolina coast. The blast ripped through the vessel. The ship broke apart and disappeared beneath the Atlantic in roughly 45 …

Before Hollywood, The Odyssey Was Struck on Ancient Coins

By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek

Tell me about a complicated man Muse, tell me how he wandered and was lost when he had wrecked the holy town of Troy, and where he went and who he met, the pain he suffered on the sea, and how he worked to save his life and bring his men back home. — Odyssey, Book I [1]

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has brought Homer’s ancient world back into popular culture. Yet for coin collectors, Odysseus, Homer, Scylla, the Sirens, and even the hero’s faithful dog have never completely disappeared.

They Survive in Metal

The legendary events surrounding the Trojan War belong to the Late Bronze Age. Ancient tradition usually placed the war in the 12th or 13th century BCE. Coinage, however, did not emerge in western Asia Minor until the seventh century BCE. Therefore, centuries separate the supposed age of Odysseus from the first coins.

Homer came later.

Tradition p…

China Is Buying Gold at a Stunning Pace and Now Silver Faces a $60 Test

Gold suffered a sharp selloff Monday. Yet one of the most important stories in the bullion market has little to do with a single trading session.

China keeps pulling enormous quantities of physical gold into the country.

Meanwhile, silver has arrived at a potentially important crossroads. After falling back toward $60 an ounce, the metal now faces a test that could help shape its next major move.

Around midday Monday, spot gold traded near $4,165 an ounce, down roughly 2.8% for the session. Silver traded near $61.29, down about 4.5%. A stronger U.S. dollar, rising Treasury yields, and renewed concerns over interest rates pressured both metals.

China’s Gold Appetite Keeps Growing

Heraeus estimates that China imported 142 tonnes of gold in August. That pushed imports during the first eight months of 2026 to 1,141 tonnes.

More importantly, Heraeus projects t…

$40,000 in Coin Prizes Are Hiding in Four U.S. Cities This October

A five-day scavenger hunt in each city will send collectors searching Miami, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Boston for numismatic prizes worth as much as $3,500 each.

For generations, coin collectors have dreamed about finding treasure in an old house, beneath the ocean, or buried somewhere nobody thought to look.

This October, Stack’s Bowers Galleries plans to make the hunt real.

Stacks Bowers Treasure Hunt October 2026

The numismatic auction firm has announced Treasure Hunt 2026, a four-city scavenger hunt that will put $40,000 in numismatic prizes up for grabs during October. The hunt starts in Miami on October 6 and ends in Boston on October 31. Philadelphia and San Francisco will host the two stops in between.

Moreover, collectors will not simply walk into a gallery and enter a drawing. They will have to solve clues, track down locations, and find the prize certificates firs…

A Major Mint Error Hid in This Sealed U.S. Proof Set for 22 Years

For more than two decades, it sat exactly where the United States Mint put it.

The coin never entered circulation. A collector never cracked it out. A grading service never placed it in a holder.

Instead, a 2004-S Proof Roosevelt dime with a dramatic 25% obverse indent remained locked inside its original U.S. Mint-sealed Proof Set lens.

Now it has surfaced.

DISCOVERY – 2004-S Roosevelt Dime indent error in a sealed US Mint Proof Set

Mint error specialist Mike Byers calls the piece the only major mint error he knows of inside a government-sealed United States Mint Proof Set. During 50 years as a professional numismatist specializing in major errors, Byers says he has never encountered another comparable example. He also checked auction records and consulted other mint error specialists without finding another.

That makes the discovery remarkable for two separate reasons.…

Five Legendary 1907 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles Bring a $7 Million Story to Rosemont

For one year, the United States Mint struggled to turn Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ artistic vision into a coin it could actually mass-produce.

Collectors will soon get a rare chance to see that transformation almost step by step.

GreatCollections will display five extraordinary 1907 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagles from the Elite Collection during the Great American Coin & Collectibles Show (GACC) in Rosemont, Illinois. GreatCollections values the five coins together at approximately $7 million.

An exhibit of The Elite Collection for 1907 Saint Gaudens Double Eagles – By GreatCollections

The public show runs October 1-3, 2026, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. Rosemont’s official events calendar confirms the show dates, while PCGS lists its attendance at the convention.

The exhibit starts with Saint-Gaudens’ spectacular Extremely High Relief concept. T…

America’s Rarest Silver Eagle Was Never Sold by the Mint. Now One Is Going to Auction

A Silver Eagle that collectors could never order from the United States Mint has entered the marketplace.

GreatCollections will auction the first PCGS-graded example of the 2026-P American Silver Eagle with the TEAM USA privy mark. PCGS graded the coin Proof-70 Deep Cameo (DCAM). The lot also includes its PCGS-encapsulated Certificate of Authenticity and original government packaging.

2026-P $1 Silver Eagle Team USA Privy *First Example* PCGS Proof-70 DCAM (with Certificate of Authenticity & Original Government Packaging)

More importantly, GreatCollections reports that the Philadelphia Mint struck just 403 examples.

The Mint created 400 coins for a White House event honoring American Winter Olympians and Paralympians. GreatCollections says the Mint retained another three coins as United States Heritage Assets. Therefore, collectors never received a normal opportunit…