DANIEL WEBSTER | Coins Maple leaf carries promise of luck

The Royal Canadian Mint has struck a good-luck charm to launch the new year.
The 2003 maple leaf silver bullion dollar carries a hologram that contains both an imaginative maple leaf and a Chinese privy mark that means "the maple leaf will bring you good fortune." The obverse is Dora de Pedery-Hunt's portrait of Queen Elizabeth.
The 99.9 fine silver coin is available only from the mint at $26.45.
The good-luck coin is one of three holographic coins struck by the mint. The others are a 15th-anniversary coin showing the loon, the bird on the dollar coin, and the platinum five-coin set. Both are dated 2002.
Information is at (800) 268-6468 or www.mint.ca on the Web.
The state of the states
The state quarter program will reach its halfway point this year. The 21st coin in the series, Illinois, is already in the Federal Reserve banks for distribution. Official release date was Jan. 2. The sales of bags and rolls of the new quarters started Jan. 2 as well.
Prices remain the same as last year's: $32 for a two-roll set; $35.50 for the 100-coin bag; $300 for the 1,000-coin bag. Information is at (800) 872-6468 or at www.usmint.gov on the Web.
The 50 U.S. states are being augmented by some island possessions, so the program will go beyond the 10 years first envisioned.
Season's meetings
The coin year traditionally begins with a bang at the Florida United Numismatists convention in Orlando's Orange County Convention Center.
Bowers and Merena will hold its rarities sale Jan. 7 at Rosen Plaza Hotel, selling an array of colonial coins, territorial gold and 84 lots of pattern coins. The patterns offer views of nickels that might have been or were to be accepted for general production.
Among those might-have-beens is the 1882 nickel, designed with five ridges on the edge to help the blind identify it. Other patterns to be sold include Washington portrait nickels, an 1866 Lincoln nickel, a two-headed coin with Washington on one side and Liberty on the other, and an 1867 Indian-head nickel.
XWebster writes for The Philadelphia Inquirer.