ANA and coins shine on Denver’s top television news programs
Between 1,200 and 1,400 calls flooded telephone lines at Denver, Colorado’s, top-rated news programs on Monday, May 8, as people tried to learn more about the 50 State Quarters and other coins, medals, tokens and paper money.
The American Numismatic Association (ANA) arranged for numismatic experts to field the telephone queries that came as a result of KUSA-TV 9News consumer reporter Mark Koebrick’s report “Collecting the New State Quarters.”
“The Denver Mint says the new state quarters disappear faster than they can mint them, and they’re turning them out at the rate of 10 million coins a day,” Koebrick said in his report that aired on both the 4 and 10 p.m. newscasts, which draw nearly 100,000 and 270,000 viewers, respectively. “The Mint estimates 76 million Americans are now tossing the quarters into jars or throwing them into sock drawers. That kind of hoarding is creating an even bigger secondary market for the coins, a market that can pay collectors some serious cash.”
Koebrick cited the Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey quarters – the first three state issues struck by the Mint last year – have the highest demand and “have any real value at this point in time.”
With the first newscast at 4 p.m., the telephones at a conference table in the Channel 9 newsroom began their incessant ringing. The calls continued for another two and a half hours before the numismatic experts took a dinner break. They returned at 9 p.m. and answered telephone queries for another two hours.
9News producer Ann King says, “We have done many of these call-in programs in the past, but we have never had this great of response. We want to do it again.”
Responding to the questions about the new state quarters and nearly every type of United States coin, token and paper money, as well as world coins, were ANA Governor Thomas Hallenbeck and his father, Past President Kenneth Hallenbeck, both of Ken Hallenbeck Coin Gallery in Colorado Springs; ANA Executive Director Edward C. Rochette; and ANA members Rick Culver and Pat Barquero of Colfax Coin Center in Denver, and Klaus Degler of Rocky Mountain Coin also in Denver.
Originally Release Date: May 11, 2000
ANA Contacts: Phone: 719-482-9872
Email: pr@money.org