Commemorative coins are celebratory pieces that are legal tender, but are normally not intended to be used in commerce. Over the years they've been struck to honor people and events, and are sold for premiums over their face values to raise money for a cause associated with the theme or subject of each coin.

However, in recent years we've seen circulating quarter dollar designs that recognize each of the 50 states, as well as new 5-cent coin reverse designs that honor the exploration of the American West. Despite being "circulating commems," these coins are not part of the commemorative coin program.

"Official" commemorative coins began with the 1892 Columbian Exposition half dollars, followed by the 1893 dated Columbian halves. They were sold for premiums at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, but so many were struck and unsold, they were used for circulation after the expo closed.

Many commemoratives followed. These all are known as the "early commemoratives," minted from 1892 through 1954.

In 1982 the commemorative coin program was revived with the minting of a half dollar honoring the 250th anniversary of George Washington's birth. Ninety-one different commemorative coins - produced in Uncirculated and Proof versions struck at various minting facilities – have been issued between 1982 and the present year. These are known as "modern commemoratives."

I point out this distinction because a trend of rising values has been driving the early commemorative coin market, while modern commemorative coin values have been softening. Besides collectors moving back in time, beginning to collect early commems, after beginning with the modern commems, several dealers also have been quietly buying up and holding early commemoratives, mostly in grades from Mint State 64 and lower.

Due to the very low mintages of most early commemoratives, this market has been influenced over the years by speculative dealer purchasing followed by higher buying bids posted on the dealer trading networks forcing values higher. Many early commemorative half dollars have been minted in quantities of just 10,000 coins or fewer. But some have mintages of several hundred thousand coins, on up to 1 million or 2 million pieces for a few of the issues.

Although early commems have low mintages, most were saved in their original Mint State condition. However, they weren't packaged in the kinds of protective holders that the Mint uses these days. Some were sold in small paper envelopes, cardboard holders and small boxes. Therefore their prevalence in the high grades of MS-69 and MS-70 are very rare, in contrast to the modern commems, which frequently grade this high.

Early commemorative coin values have crept up by 10 to 20 percent, and even more, in recent months, while modern commemoratives have fallen around $5 to $10 each, due to an increasing supply of high-grade coins. Prices for some MS-65 and higher early commems have also increased slightly, but these have been much more infrequent than values for grades lower than MS-65.

On another note, a completely different market of collectors is buying very-high-grade, toned early commemorative half dollars, like MS-67 and MS-68. Specialist collectors who understand this market have been willing to stretch well beyond prices that seem reasonable for these coins. In fact, dealer Larry Sheperd of SIMCO Numismatics, which specializes in these ultra-high grade toned commemoratives, recently said some of his customers have been willing to pay at auction much higher prices than he's recommended to them. Even he has been astounded at the price levels these collectors are willing to pay for these "wonder coins."

However, the graded populations of ultra-high-grade modern commemorative wonder coins have grown so dramatica