Welcome to the Tarnished Truth, your newsletter. Wow a lot of newsletter this month so I am not going to add to your reading time with my meanderings when there is so much great numismatic material for you to enjoy. Go for it!

During the ANA Summer Seminar, I took a two-evening short course from Bill Fivaz, one of the greatest numismatists of our time. The course focused on grading Buffalo Nickels, Mercury Dimes, Walking Liberty Halves, and Morgan dollars - arguably four of the more collected U.S. series. As part of the course handouts, Bill had put together a series of five articles - an overall introduction to grading followed by four articles on each series. He also gave permission for anyone to copy and distribute the articles as the more collectors get educated, the more fun they will have in the hobby. Below you will find the introductory article. Over the next four months, I will type in the remaining articles for the newsletter. Hopefully you will get as much insight into these series as I did.

The 1966 25 Centavos of the Philippines were produced at 2 foreign mints. The difference shown by the number of rings in the smoke over the volcano. Which mint produced the coins with 6 smoke rings and which produced the coins with the 8 smoke rings.

• Phladelphia Established 1792.......no mint mark....now uses P
• Dahlonega Ga. Established 1838 and closed 1861 mint mark D Gold only
• New Orleans La. Established 1838 and closed 1909 mint mark O
• San Francisco Cal. Established 1854 mint mark S
• Carson City Established 1870 and closed 1893 mint mark CC
• West Point Ny. minted coins for years with no mint mark now does mainly commemoratives, mint mark W

The answer is: Found in earlier editions of the Krause catalogue. Eight smoke rings produced by the Royal Mint in the UK six smoke rings produced at Deutsche Metalwerkes Germany. This months question provided by Rod Sell.

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