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
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
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 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
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
I recently acquired this magnificent 1910 E German Empire 1 Mark.The coin is currently in a PCGS slab but was originally graded by NGC as PR67UCAM. I have sent it back to NGC for CrossOver service and proud to say back to its originating grading service. This coin I believe to have been the NGC Price Guide Plate Coin.
I’m narrowing in on getting to call several on-going projects complete. My 10G set is about 80% complete if you don’t count the 1879/7 variety. My Queen’s Beast sets are getting into about that same 80% range and several of the parts / sub-series of my Zimbabwe hyperinflation set are getting to be about 85-92% complete by pick number. Most of these sets are missing only 1-3 issues before they’re 100% complete registry sets.
One thing I’ve been noticing lately is that, as I narrow in on the
There are some things I don’t particularly care to do. When it comes to those things, I usually procrastinate getting them done. Preparing submission forms to send coins and medals to NGC for grading is something I always procrastinate. I just don’t like itemizing the submission form, looking up the market value, separating my medals from my coins, modern vs. classic, etc. Then packing them up and running to the post office is such a pain in the neck. Well, today I finally said, “This is the day
She loves to travel and she desperately wants to get out and take a trip somewhere and is brainstorming all of these ideas about where to go and what to do when this is over.
She's looking at taking a vacation for a long weekend to Colorado. In the middle of her research she figured out that the ANA Money Museum is in Colorado and she's trying to use a day there to tempt me into getting excited and agreeing to the idea.
Does she know me too well or think I sell too cheap? That is the q
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07/07/2020