Can investing and collecting go hand-in-hand? Yes -- especially if you are collecting coins, stock certificates, bank notes, or other rare items of value. Larry Schutts, an expert in investment-related collectibles, will periodically review items of interest from his collection and answer your questions here.

Every December, I send each of my brothers a package of Christmas gifts for the family. The boxes contain the usual assortment of presents one sends to sisters-in-law, nephews and nieces, but my brothers always get the new American Eagle Silver Proof dollar. The U.S. Mint has issued the coins every year since 1986 and I have been sending them just that long. It has been some time since the boys have been able to express any surprise about their gifts, but I have always told them to be of good cheer. Those silver dollars, I have said with emotional certainty, are bound to be worth rather more one day. Well, I got to thinking about that promise recently and I thought I would look at the prices folks are getting for the coins nowadays to see whether I was right.

A wonderful 19th century writer offered observations in print from time to time. He remains one of our nation's best role models and minds, so accordingly the following economic insights and observations are offered, With Malice Toward None.

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First, why does it look like in this market all of good long plays have been bid-up to $47, and all short plays are trading near $8?

Can investing and collecting go hand-in-hand? Yes -- especially if you are collecting coins, stock certificates, bank notes, or other rare items of value. Larry Schutts, an expert in investment-related collectibles, will periodically review items of interest from his collection and answer your questions here.

The development of the mining industry was critical to the economic expansion of twentieth century America. Coal and uranium furnished much of the energy necessary for industrialization. Iron, copper and cement components provided essential building materials. Gold and silver served as monetary bases. Most work in the 1800s involved the removal of near-surface materials, but growing mineral demands sent twentieth century miners deeper. Increasingly complex technologies required higher levels of capital investment and that led to a wide variety of corporate stock offerings. Many of the old mining certificates are reasonably priced and that makes them popular with the "scripophily" (collector) crowd. Decent levels of appreciation are also attracting the investment community. Compare seven-year price gains of the specimens discussed below with advances in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+16%) and the S&P 500 Index (+16%) since the market lows of 2002.

Can investing and collecting go hand-in-hand? Yes -- especially if you are collecting coins, stock certificates, bank notes, or other rare items of value. Larry Schutts, an expert in investment-related collectibles, will periodically review items of interest from his collection and answer your questions here.

By 1862, rising Civil War costs prompted the U.S. Congress to levy taxes on use of a broad range of public and private documents. Most of the charges were rescinded ten years later, but a two cent tax on bank checks persisted until 1883. Citizens met the banking requirement by purchasing adhesive revenue stamps and applying them to blank areas on the faces of their checks. The law initially excluded transactions valued at less than $20, but Congress soon extended the tax to all sums and that led many businesses and individuals to order checks with government-approved tax stamp designs already printed on them. Fifteen general designs and more than one-hundred individual varieties were ultimately used. An active collector community now keeps high quality revenue stamped checks in demand and many have become solid long-term investments. Compare 30-year price gains of the specimens discussed below with three decade improvements in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (+833%) and the S&P 500 Index (+743%).

Welcome to the 103rd installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has nosed into the health care game before. Just a recently as a year ago, the world's largest retailer wanted to open in-store health clinics as a possible entry point to providing health care inside its retail locations.

The retailer now wants to see if it can become a low-cost provider of health care for small businesses and employers. That's very interesting -- the notion that employers could shop at Wal-Mart for employee health care like consumers do for laundry detergent. Of course, the prices Wal-Mart would offer would be the lowest possible.

Welcome to the 102nd installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has had one big, black eye in recent time that it just can't get away from: its relationship with labor. Wal-Mart's fiercest critics have pointed out many examples of the low pay, pricey health insurance, and low-end working conditions.

Are Wal-Mart workers really in that big of a bind, or does the largest retailer in the world have pay and benefit parity with all its competitors? When you're the biggest, you have the target painted on your back -- and Wal-Mart has been there for some time. However, the company has just announced a rather large bonus plan for its employees with a sizable target indeed: $2 billion dollars.

Here's the tip: It might be time to pull investments from Chinese manufacturing and export interests.

According to an Associated Press report, which features some mind numbing quotes from Li Gao, China's chief climate negotiator, it may soon become far more economically practical to manufacture products here, at home, in the good old USA.

It seems that the obviously arrogant Mr. Gao, and the communist nation that he represents, have decided that we, consumers, should bear the brunt of the expense for that nation's carbon emission load. The logic used to back this assertion, while certainly passing as logic, serves as nothing more than a spotlight on the fundamentally flawed "cap and trade" carbon emissions boondoggle that is slowly unfolding.

Can investing and collecting go hand-in-hand? Yes -- especially if you are collecting coins, stock certificates, bank notes, or other rare items of value. Larry Schutts, an expert in investment-related collectibles, will review items of interest from his collection and answer your questions here each week.

If you are old enough, you may remember that firms once issued stock certificates to investors as proof of ownership. Electronic trading has nearly rendered the practice obsolete. Old certificates are still in demand, though. A growing collector community actively seeks the certificates of firms no longer in business, and that exerts steady upward pressure on the values of desirable pieces. Investors are noticing, and collectible certificates are now being included in diversified portfolios.

Welcome to the 101st installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has been the sole shining light at retail for over a quarter now as the recession deepens and retailers see huge slowdowns in spending. More customers have "traded down" to Wal-Mart to conserve cash while buying the basic necessities and the world's largest retailer has seen consistent growth as a result.

The company, in many ways, is doing what has always worked: marketing on value. The company can try as many upscale experiments as it wants, but it is and always will be the place where the masses shop for everything they can while saving every possible penny. But Wal-Mart is not resting on the value proposition alone from recent changes I've seen. The stores are getting cleaner, less cluttered, and easier to navigate. Yes, this is a big deal.

Welcome to the 100th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has been criticized for what seems like an eternity by those who fear that the arrival of its stores in many communities will hail the destruction of local shops and smaller competitors. However, almost everywhere Wal-Mart opens a store, customers vote with their collective wallets and make it a success.

Indeed, customers are flocking to Wal-Mart in droves during this recession precisely because it offers almost all the daily staples a standard consumer needs under one roof and with the lowest prices. In fact, Wal-Mart is about the only retailer in existence in the U.S. actually growing sales right now.

Can investing and collecting go hand-in-hand? Yes -- especially if you are collecting coins, stock certificates, bank notes, or other rare items of value. Larry Schutts, an expert in investment-related collectibles, will review items of interest from his collection and answer your questions here each week.

By 1862, the U.S. government was issuing a lot of paper to finance the Civil War. It was also refusing to redeem the currency in coin. That forced banks to follow suit and citizens soon began hoarding their small change. Day-to-day commerce suffered, until Congress authorized the printing of currency notes with denominations of less than one dollar. People had begun using postage stamps in lieu of coins and that prompted the issuance of notes that carried the images of contemporary stamps of equivalent value. Counterfeiting problems led to more elaborate designs, but the initial issue of "Postage Currency" and four subsequent issues of "Fractional Currency" served Americans well for the next 14 years.

Welcome to the 99th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has had a pretty good track record in clamping down on labor unionization inside its global contingent of stores. In North America, the retailer actually shut down the automotive department of a Canadian location after it unionized.

Will unions be able to ever crack the Wal-Mart barrier and sign up the retailer's employers to some kind of collective bargaining agreement? Wal-Mart's million-plus labor force would probably welcome union choice if it appeared in U.S. locations. The wages offered to many employees are not really in the realm of livable, and the retailer's critics have been extremely vocal about the company's growing sales and revenue -- even in this economy -- happening at the same time as employee wage stagnation.

Welcome to the 98th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has been somewhat immune to the economic malaise in the U.S. for the past few quarters. While the competition has lowered sales forecasts and missed same-store sales numbers, Wal-Mart is growing its sales and recruiting bargain-seeking customers.

One could say that Wal-Mart is a safe haven for many U.S. customers who need to provide for themselves and their families at the absolute lowest cost. That does not mean the retailer is not watching its own bottom line, but it's nowhere near the world of hurt of a good portion of the retail landscape. But what about its operations outside the U.S.?

Most experts now believe that in order to recover, banks need to find a way to move their "toxic assets" off their balance sheets to stop the bleeding of quarterly writedowns.

The idea of establishing a "bad bank" to buy all that crap is gaining some traction in Washington, but Dennis Kneale proposes an alternative solution in a column on CNBC.com: "Turn all those rotting securities into an ETF, add a boost from government and let investors put a real, truly liquid value on 'em."

Welcome to the 97th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has always been about customer choice. The retailer has risen from the backwoods of Arkansas to the largest company in the world by providing the largest selection of products with the lowest arrangement of prices.

Would Wal-Mart drop incredibly popular items from its shelves -- and ones that sit near every checkout line in almost all its U.S. stores? Sounds crazy, doesn't it? But, that is what has happened to many popular magazine titles, in what will really grate on the nerves of millions of customers in the coming months.