Editor’s Note: For nearly 70 years, the feature-rich pages of Coins magazine tracked the history, fun and the growth of this great hobby, while also attracting new collectors to pursue what was once deemed the “hobby of kings.” Dusting off these time-aged issues, from the early 1960s and beyond, each installment of “Past Times with Coins,” written by its former longtime editor, explores what nuggets of interest they contain.
wo paper money-related items graced the July 1964 issue of magazine. One of these was of great importance to all U.S. paper money collectors; the other told of the Republic of Texas and its scarce, collectible notes. “It’s been a long time a’comin’, but it finally arrived! It is now legal to hold gold certificates again,” recorded magazine’s editor. By that point, more than 30 years had elapsed since a 1933 order that made gold ownership illegal in the United States including under its swath the nation’s highly collectible series of Gold Certificates. “Many collectors have been acting illegally since 1933,” wrote, “when
