Collection Highlights -
I am back again with another vintage round. Luckily I was able to go down to a LCS that I like in Iowa over the MEA weekend. Since the boys were off of school I was able to get down to the coin shop while they were open. They typically have some great antique rounds pop up in their generic bin and I really enjoy shopping there. The guy who runs the shop has some of the highest quality raw coins I have seen and a great mix of older stuff like bust, capped, Barber and the likes. I would buy more except for I tend to stack the silver and only buy a couple of numismatics here and there.
Today's round is featured from the North Star mint. It appears from all information I could find to have been minted in 1982 out of the North Star mint. Northstar mint was headquartered in Los Angeles California and appeared to operate between 1982 through 1986. It was known to produce two styles of one ounce rounds, and several different sizes of bars that ranged from 5 to 50 Oz.
This one is the Morgan style round where the obverse is styled after the Morgan dollar for the reverse is an international trade unit featuring the North Star mint. There appears to be a Liberty Bell version out there as well, and one I might have to try to find.
Northstar Mint Infor agroundworld.com
Northstart link 2
Obverse
The obverse here is a pretty solid design in my opinion. Featuring the words of Liberty and Justice and a great resemblance to the Morgan Dollar Round design. Liberty is clearly visible in her headband and she has an overall pretty pleasant face and strike. Top it all off with some Stars, 13 of them to be exact along the bottom and I think it speaks a lot to our history and what the principles the country was founded on.
Reverse
The reverse of this coin is struck with the international trade unit design that so many coins of its time had. There was clearly a movement towards going back to sound money that was equal across all borders. Having 31.1 g of silver is the same value no matter where you are in the world, and no matter what your local government has managed to print in Fiat.
I also really enjoyed the fact that they list their mint and put a year on the back. So many rounds otherwise are lacking in this area it's refreshing to see this. It makes identification and research much easier even for these mints that were not open for very long.
I hope to find the other Liberty Bell version in the future and add it alongside this one. This is a great strike and I picked up two of them just to be sure that I had one for trade if need be. It looks like 