*Warning, the following may contain fiction. Fiction is an addictive product*
The 1804 dollar is reverently regarded within the hobby as the "King of American Coins" or, by the more patriotic, as the "President of Coins". Generally, it is assumed by numismatists that this title refers to the rarity of the coin, and it's extremely high desirability (this is what is known as "supply and I want it" theory in action). However, this is a grievous error, and not one that can be attributed
I've pretty much made up my mind that, before the year is out, I want to get my 10G set reholdered in scratch-resistant holders to harmonize the look of the set. I'm considering having them review the ones in old fatty holders to see if they might be able to pick up a point - this would be especially nice with the MS64 1887. I'm not sure how the best way to do this would be because, even if the grade doesn't change, I'd still want it cracked out and reholdered - There's just little point to me i
I know quite a few of us that frequent this place are also fathers. Shandy let me sleep in this morning and, when I got up, she had the boys in Star Wars shirts saying "I am your Son" and one for me that says "I am your Father."
I mentioned elsewhere that I had an ebay auction ending late last night. I followed my practice of putting in my best number and going to bed. It so happened that, when I put in my best bid, i was winning it but my bid was maxed out and if anyone else had bid
Whilst trawling a dealers inventory, looking for something else, I was very pleased to come across a 1809W 10 centimes (PCGS AU55 – main image), and I immediately bought this coin for my Napoleon collection as I was lacking an example from the Lille mint for this denomination.
Why the instant decision? Having, decided to assemble a graded set of 10 centimes in 2012 I later reviewed the population reports (2017, included in the introductory text to my Registry Set) which not only highlighte
Unfortunately, things have not changed since my Journal Entry last month - How difficult can placing a bid be?
In that never-ending challenge of trying to fill gaps in my collection several more very nice examples of coins, ungraded and possibly the finest available for the issue, have appeared and passed me by yet again. Typically, there were multiple bidders and they achieved 4x the top estimate and as the prices kept rising, I just couldn’t bring myself to bid again.
As a result I
In February of 1797, ongoing war and the threat of invasion from the French Republic triggered a run on the Bank of England. To meet the demand for silver coinage, in March, the Bank was authorized to release foreign currency from its silver reserves, almost entirely Spanish 8 reales. These emergency issues were countermarked at the Royal Mint with a small oval stamp with the bust of King George III -- a stamp that had been in use for hallmarking silver plate. One of my earliest journal posts
Around the time I ordered that Lunar Monkey coin for Ben's birthyear I saw that a seller had listed 5 2019 Lunar 2 Pig coins that had the Early Release label. That was pretty much exactly what I wanted for Sam's year as an equivalent piece. One of the five sold almost immediately but there were four left and I felt pretty safe with that and I decided to wait and see if I could hold out for a 5% eBay bucks deal - always nice if you can pick up some cashback on things, right?
About a week lat
The latest update on my Roman Empire NGC Ancients Custom Set is that I finished and posted my Owner's Comments for my ancient bronze follis featuring Roman Empress Galeria Valeria.
For this essay, I spent some time researching what appears to be the most widely cited primary source of information on Valeria, a book called De Mortibus Persecutorum written in 4th century AD by the imperial advisor Lactantius. Lactiantius' account is necessarily biased, yet even so provides some very i
*warning, the following information is mostly made up; it is only fact in the innermost circles of strange imagination*
Flips, 2X2 cardboard, capsules, slabs, boards. All of these and many more serve the supreme and sole purpose of containing our prized coins. But, for some indecipherable reason, no history book I've ever come across explains their origination. Resolving to enlighten my fellow humans of this grievous error, I immediately began research (well... technically I went to
DISCOVERING VARIETIES USING PHOTOSHOP TO COMPARE COIN IMAGES
Using Adobe PhotoShop (PS) we can compare images of the same date to view any possible differences and thus establish the variants.
I will be using the Venezuela 5B (1879 to 1936), my favorite coin collection, for these comparisons.
1936 was the last date the Venezuela 5B (FUERTE) was issued.
To compare two coins we must first align them and make them the same size. For alignment I use the top of of the shi
In a recent blog post, I mused over having to fill out one of those dreaded NGC submission forms. As with most things I procrastinate over, I eventually got around to it. I have also written about The American Bar Association medallion I bought from a seller on E-Bay who thought it was a fake. Well, today is the moment of truth. That medallion finally made it to NGC, and the grade was released today.
If you remember, I wrote in my blog post on April 4, 2020, that I purchased an American Ba
I just got finished buying three more Icelandic coins from a Ebay seller and now I'm convinced that I have a problem with these darn coins. I have never been obsessed about anything in my life other then my work....But when it comes to coins especially my Icelandic coins I'm a total Loony-Tune. As I was scrolling down the ebay listing to see if anything good was posted ...My heart began to race and I intensely clicked on all three listings and bought all three of the four coins the seller put up
I got a little time today where Shandy had both the kids occupied and I decided to get that ring light out and go for it to get some proof of concept shots. I decided to snap some quick shots of something I’ve taken pictures of recently so I can compare the shots I get this way to some recently taken shots done the way I’ve been doing them lately (camera on the floor with an LED on a speedlight). So, I grabbed my 1880 10G.
Old photos taken the old way:
New Photos taken with the R
For about the last week or so Ben keeps saying that he needs things for his “collection.” He has a robot “collection.” His Legos are a “collection” now. His toys are a “collection.” He needs all my old dice for his “collection.”
I’m not sure where this came from, but I really don’t think it was from me. I don’t think I use the word “collection” around him very often.
I’m thinking he must have gotten this from one of his little shows he watches on Netflix – maybe even power rangers sinc
My wife somewhat randomly brought up about a week ago that she and I are both "Tigers" - We were both born in the year of the Tiger for the Chinese Zodiac - 1986 specifically.
She teaches English to Chinese kids and what brought this up was some parents had been asking other teachers if their young child was a "pig," meaning born in 2019, which was the year of the pig, which Samuel is, as it happens. So this got her curious and she looked up what we were and what Ben and Sam were and what t
Well For the past few months I have been pondering on sending in the Icelandic coins I have been collecting for the past 15 years from the Republic era from 1946 to 1970's and being that modern tier from 1955 to date is $5 dollars cheaper I decided to mail in 21 coins for grading....Mostly 5 Aurar's and 1 Krona's with two 2 Kronurs and as well as four proof coins....Well off to the post office.
A few months ago, my wife got this ring light to use when she’s doing her web-based English lessons with Chinese students (13 time zones away). Up to this point she’d been using the modeling lights on some old cheap strobes I had to do her lighting. I went head and got this ring light for her because 1) using the strobes just for the modeling lights is inefficient (they’re power hogs) and 2) the strobes generate a lot of waste heat, which heats up the room and can make her uncomfortable when tea
With an ongoing interest in far too many coin series there is usually something suitable at most auctions for filling a gap in my sets with a quality coin however I have bought almost nothing for months. Even with some outstanding top-grade minors appearing I just do not seem to be able to press the ‘bid’ button one more time to try and secure these elusive examples for my collection and in some cases I am already regretting it.
I think some possibilities for this, subconsciously or not, a
This is the second in a series of posts which highlight various standout pieces from my personal collection.
Today we're taking a look at my 1795 Middlesex-Forster's token, one of the first pieces purchased for my Symphony Set. You can view hi-res pictures here (or just enjoy them in the video!).
Obverse: Crown and date surrounded by musical notation for "God Save The King", which is also the melody used for "America (My Country, Tis of Thee)".
Reverse: "WM Forster. Violin, Tenor
There are days when I really wish this was still the summer of 2006 and I could spend an entire week searching rolls of pennies looking for things to put in my Whitman folders or looking through rolls of dimes and quarters looking to see if there might be any old silver ones in there like I see other people talking about on Facebook and Reddit. There are times lately when I wish I had the chance to try to beat the personal record I set for myself when I made a 19.5 inch tall column of pennies th
It is Day 13 of our Coronavirus Self-solation. Frequent walks help make it not so bad with the stir craziness now. We’re taking the cars for short drives and driving out to the woods to walk around so that the cars don’t sit idle for too long.
I thought it was a good day to have a bit of fun.
A few years ago I ended up with two graded 1883-O Morgans in my collection. One is an NGC MS63 that I bought. One is a PCGS graded AU58 that another member here gave me when I bought a coin
Last Reply:
07/31/2020