CoinsbyGary

A journal by coinsbygary

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About this journal

When I was a young boy, my cousin introduced me to the hobby of coin collecting. Because I was also interested in photography, I used to frequent a local camera store. Along with camera supplies, this store had a rotating display case full of coins that I enjoyed scrolling through. My very first coin purchase was an 1881-S Morgan Dollar in BU PL condition; this coin was old, shiny, and inexpensive at just $12! Now 35 years later, I still own that 1881-S Morgan Dollar, even though it is still worth less than $100. I loved looking through the Red Book dreaming of the coins I would buy if I had the money, especially the coins in the back of the book where the gold listings are. As a teenager, I was beginning to show signs of gold fever.

Working through high school, I spent the bulk of the money I did not save on coin purchases. My first gold purchase as a teenager was an 1881 BU Half Eagle for $105 from a mail order ad in "Coins" magazine. Since then I have had this coin graded, and it resides in my Gold Liberty type collection graded at PCGS MS-62.

My next gold purchase as a youth stretched my resources. I purchased an 1858-C VF Half Eagle for $350, and my attraction to this coin was that it had a low mintage from an obscure branch mint. I also enjoy the comradely among fellow coin enthusiasts, and once I invited a kid to attend a coin show with me who was much younger than I was. As fate would have it, this kid happened to be the son of my mother’s boss. This boss always said to my mother how impressed he was with me taking his son to that show. As for me, I enjoy the company of fellow coin collectors, whoever they may be.

Two other purchases I made as a teen were an 1876 20-cent piece and an 1885-CC Morgan Dollar from the Lavere Redfield hoard. Since then my collecting has been sporadic, depending on my life situation. However, the passion has always been there. Gold has still not lost its luster with me, and today I am a very active collector. The cousin that introduced me to coin collecting years ago no longer collects. For a different twist on my collection, visit my website at: coinsbygary.com

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Entries in this journal

The Agony and Delight of Axial Photography

Over the last few weeks, I haven’t had much time to write blogs. This is because I’ve been working on my photography skills and, in particular, axial photography. I have learned a lot, and now I have several excellent examples of coins photographed using axial photography. The first thing I did was to craft a holder for my glass reflector. Then I reinforced the edges of the glass with electrical tape to prevent the glass from accidentally shattering. For the holder, I used a cardboard box t
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

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A Virtual Christmas Card for NGC and my Fellow Society Members

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year! Shortly before I graduated from high school in 1976, I bought an 1858-C Half Eagle through a mail order ad in Coins Magazine. Up until that time, this coin was the most expensive coin I had bought at $350.00. Today I still own this coin even though it is details graded VF-30 in an ANACS holder. That following Christmas the dealer with whom I purchased the coin from, sent me a Christmas card that I would like to share with you, my collecting communit
coinsbygary

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The Mighty Peseta

Here I go again, just as I got started on a new collection with a narrow scope, things began to get out of hand and now I am now faced with a giant. Is there a cure for my collecting obsession? Do I want to be cured? Probably not and hence my dilemma as the scope and of necessity, the expense expands. Oh, how I love it! As I previously wrote I intended to start a new set based on the 1869-70 coins of the Spanish Provisional Government. I thought this would be easy because I already owned mo
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

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...Of Cracks and Clashes

Since I am starting a new NGC Collectors Society custom set based on the Spanish Provisional Government coins of 1870, I thought to re-image all the coins in the set. It’s funny how when you give your coins another look that you notice new things about them. Or, is it that you haven’t looked in a long time and simply forgot. Either way its part of what makes this hobby fun for me.   One of the coins I re-imaged is an NGC 1870 MS-65 Red 1 Centimo coin. This coin represents the lowes
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

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In the Mean Time...

Well it’s been a long time since I last wrote. Retirement has kept me pretty busy at my church having delivered the morning sermon last Sunday and again tomorrow. With all that I am doing, I have a whole new appreciation of pastors. However, I’m not writing about my outside exploits today but my numismatic ones.   You see while I have been busy with church activities, I have been amassing several new purchases along the way including a new book! I also served as kind of a consultan
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

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The Who, What, Where, When, and Whys of Researching Coins

When I first look at a coin, I often ask myself, "What's this coin trying to tell me about itself?" Sometimes that coin's story is in its date, mintage, mintmark, die variety, and metallic composition, to name a few. However, I almost always find my coins' design features far more interesting than its technical characteristics. If they say a picture is worth a thousand words, I want to know what my coins' allegorical images intend to communicate. To help me research and understand the symbo
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

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Perfect Timing and the High Price of Silver

I could not have chosen a better time to start a high-grade Morgan Dollar collection than now. In addition, there is evidence to show that the value of low-grade, common date Morgan Dollars and the value of silver are joined at the hip. There has never been a better time for me to start a high-grade Morgan Dollar collection than now. Since I started collecting MS-65 and 66 Morgan Dollars in January, I have seen a monthly rise in the value of my collection, and more specifically my MS-66 coins.
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

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I Couldn't Be More Pleased!

A few months ago, I purchased a Spanish Provisional Government 1868 5-peseta copper pattern from an E-Bay seller in Argentina. The listing picture wasn't too good and it seemed like the pattern was a little suspect. Still, this piece is scarce and I have wanted one for quite some time. If I could get it on the cheap, all the better. With what I thought was a fair bid, I won the piece for about half what I could expect to pay for a certified piece. When the pattern arrived, I was very happy
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

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There’s Nothing Like a Coin Album for Presenting Your Collection

With the advent of the NGC and PCGS registries came new and improved ways to catalog, preserve, and display the coins in your collection. This after years of collectors plugging raw coins into albums. Yet, I feel that there was something nostalgic about plugging coins in an album that may have been lost. PCGS has tried to recapture that nostalgia in their registry with their coin album software. I must say that for a while I was impressed and jealous. Don’t get me wrong, I prefer NGC’s regi
coinsbygary

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Hockey Stick Valuation

?Hockey Stick Valuation? is a trend where a coin steadily increases in value through its grades before reaching a point at which its cost skyrockets. This abrupt and sharp increase in price resembles a ?Hockey Stick? when it is plotted on a graph. There are numerous numbers of coins that display a hockey stick rise in valuation. Among the common date Morgan Dollars, this typically occurs when a coin moves from MS-65 to 66 or MS-66 to 67. Population reports can be a good indicator as to which s
coinsbygary

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Garys March Coin of the Month

This months featured coin (Volume 2 Number 7) is a silver proof-like 1970 Netherlands 10 Gulden coin commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Netherlands liberation from Nazi Germany in 1945. In more than 100 years, the Netherlands has not had a male monarch on the throne. As a result, this Netherlands 1970 silver 10 gulden coin commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of liberation features the two reigning queens of the middle twentieth century. On the reverse of the coin is a lef
coinsbygary

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Gary?s Coins of the Month

This post is the first of what I hope will be a monthly editorial on various coins from within my collection. When I was a young lad, I spent countless hours combing through the ?Redbook of United States Coins? dreaming of the coins I wanted to collect. Two of many coins I dreamed of owning were the type ?1? and type ?2? $4 gold ?Stella?s? (Stella is the Latin word for star). Endearing me to both of these coins is the fact that they are an oddity, struck in gold, and are rare. The fact that th
coinsbygary

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Old Friends, New Friends, Good Times

This year’s annual ANA World’s Fair of Money is perhaps one of the most memorable coin shows I have ever attended. Every show is special in its own way but this one was the first one in which I was a Money Talks presenter.   The annual ANA World’s Fair of Money is a wonderful opportunity for advanced and novice collectors alike to locate those hard to find coins for their collections. For some it is a rare opportunity to roam a large bourse floor filled with dealers from across the cou
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

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Tincture in Heraldry

Have you ever looked at the shield on many of our 19th and 20th century coins and wondered what the lines across the top horizontal bar of our national shield represent? How about the lines on the vertical bars? Beyond the vertical bars representing the 13 original states holding up the single bar representing the federal government you may be surprised to find that the lines or the lack thereof on the bars are defined by certain colors in heraldry called tinctures. Tincture is a relative
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

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My Alternative to the 2019-S Enhanced Proof ASE

Let me preface my post by stating that I was not interested in purchasing the recently sold out enhanced reverse proof ASE. That said, I think the finish on the ASE is exquisite. As such it is a remarkably beautiful coin that I would be proud to own. Still, ASE’s are not among the coins I regularly collect.  However, there are a few comparisons I’d like to make between the 2019-S enhanced reverse proof ASE and the British 2019 proof 5-pound “Great Engravers” two-ounce silver coin that I now
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

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Summertime Fun

Every year in August my local coin club sponsors a picnic for the members of the club. Out of a total of just over 100 members, 20-30 people typically come out to the picnic along with their spouses. The club supplies the meat and drink and the members bring a dish to pass. If you have good people and good food you usually have a good time.  If that was all there was to the club picnic, I’d be totally happy. What really sets this outing apart is the bingo games for spectacular numismatic pr
coinsbygary

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When One Thought Leads to Another

Last month I received a notice that the bank I stored my coins at was closing and I had until February 4th to vacate my safe deposit boxes. Fortunately, I was able to rent another box close by and for cheaper than the boxes I had. Having secured a new and bigger box, the next step was to transport the coins to the new location. I was very uncomfortable transporting my coins from one location to the other and in particular standing at the teller window with my coins in a shoebox waiting to c
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

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Blindsided by Improperly Cleaned!

Borrowing from a term in W.K.F?s recent post, there is no better way to describe learning that your coins have been ?improperly cleaned? than ?blindsided?. Greetings all, have you ever gotten your hopes up about a submission, only to discover your coin is ?not-gradable, improperly cleaned?? I?m sure that for many of you, myself included, this has happened on multiple occasions. I wish there were some way to take the risk out of submissions, but alas, there is none. To sum it all up in a famili
coinsbygary

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My First Coin of the Month in 2012

January's coin of the month is a PCGS MS-65 1896 Morgan Dollar. Greetings all and Happy New Years, there is nothing unusual about January's "Coin of the Month". However, the date and obverse design of this month's coin is representative of the life and times of the "Silver Dollar Girl", Miss Anna W. Williams, whose story I will attempt to retell in the body of this post. The Morgan Dollar is one of only a few coins to have the distinction of being named after its designer George T. Morgan. M
coinsbygary

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1885 Was A Very Good Year

1885 was a very good year for my Morgan Dollar collection, but not so for the Carson City Mint. A number of significant events occurred in 1885; among them were the births of World War II Admiral Chester Nimitz and General George Patton. In 1885, the magazine ?Good Housekeeping? hit the newsstands and Mark Twain?s ?Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? was on the way to become a best seller. In 1885, we saw significant advances in medicine with the first surgical appendectomy and an effective vaccin
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

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The Libertas Americana Medal and its Influence on our Earliest Coins

How our early coins show our passion to be free! The end of the Revolutionary War came about when the British Commons, weary of the war, voted in April of 1782 to end the war in America. On September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending the Revolutionary War. About that time, Benjamin Franklin with an idea for a medal, commissioned French Engraver Augustin Dupre to prepare the dies for the Paris Mint to strike the ?Libertas Americana? medal in 1783. The reverse design on
coinsbygary

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The Very First Coin I Purchased and a New Toy!

Recently I bought a new macro lens for my camera. The lens is a Laowa V-DX 60MM F2.8 Macro 2:1. Now I know I already have a macro lens but if I am ever going to take my coin photography on the road, I will need a much more versatile lens. For versatility this lens is it. I can focus in as close as 18.5cm and as far as infinity. At 18.5cm I have 2-1 magnification. The only drawbacks are that I have to focus manually and set the aperture manually. No big deal on those since I already do that.
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

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My First Heritage Auction

It may seem strange, but the 7/3/11 internet auction is my first with Heritage Auctions. Most people are creatures of habit, as they lean towards the familiar and shy away from the unfamiliar. However, in order to move ahead in life, one has to take risks and venture outside their comfort zone. This force of habit manifested itself in me by my exclusive use of E-Bay to add coins to my collection. For many years, I thought E-Bay was the greatest thing since Mom?s apple pie. I loved being abl
coinsbygary

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Gary?s November Coin of the Month

This month?s coin of the month comes from Austria and is part of my ?Inspiration Ladies? custom set. The coin I am featuring this month is widely considered as one of the most beautiful coins in the world. The obverse features a bust of Emperor Franz Joseph 1st and commemorates the 60th anniversary of his reign over the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The reverse design often referred to as ?The Lady in the Clouds? is a representation of Klymene, the Titan goddess of ?Fame." This NCS/NGC AU detail
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Preparing an NGC Submission

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
coinsbygary

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