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About this journal

My rekindled interest in collecting started in 2009 with the impulse purchase of a 1783 shipwreck coin.  I did not imagine that collectible grade 8 reales coins were available until I started browsing Ebay to see whether I got a good deal on my first one.  After I realized what a poor deal I made, I set out to build a collection of quality 8 reales of the 1772-1791 design featuring the bust of Charles III.  I've added a modest collection of columnarios, too.

In 2013, I started a themed collection of coins depicting the sport of fencing, my other hobby/activity.

My current focus is on a collection of world silver crowns of the 16th to 18th centuries.  So far I have examples from the Commonwealth and England, France, Holy Roman Empire states and free cities, Swiss cantons, Dutch provinces, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Ragusa, Italian states, the Ottoman Empire, Malta, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, Transylvania, the United States of America and, of course, Spain and Spanish colonies.

Entries in this journal

When the Colony becomes the Ruler

My vicarious trip to Brazil In 1807, Napoleon forced the Portuguese court into exile. Relocating to Rio de Janeiro, Portugal became the colony -- its kingdom ruled from Brazil. This transfer of power was formalized in 1815 when the Reino Unido de Portugal, Brasil e Algarves was established and Rio de Janeiro became its capital. This is the only example of a European nation ruled from one of its colonies. The Portuguese court returned to Lisbon in 1821 with Brazil gaining its independence t
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A Sky Blue '60

It took a bit of magic to capture this image. When viewing a toned silver coin from a certain, special angle you can really appreciate the color, but it can be nearly impossible to capture in a photograph. Somehow, I positioned an OttLite, just right, to maximize the color on this one. Try as I might, I just can't replicate it and now that the coin is encapsulated, there's little hope of success. Of all the coins of Spain that I've collected, this is my one late empire example, purchased for
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Reflection on a Collection

I was inspired to look at my collection in a different light. When I contemplate my collection, I generally think about dates, types, grades and values; and I visualize linked pairs of obverse and reverse sides. I enjoy learning about the history and personalities associated with the times, places and persons represented by the coins. so they are part of my reflection as well. However, when I saw the photo montage that one of the collectors ATS put together, of the best face of several of hi
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Nephew's First Coin

He's a cute little monkey, alright! I have enjoyed reading your posts about buying coins for your young family members and finally it's my turn. My nephew is only a few weeks old and I've already got his first coin. Of course I fantasize about him becoming a coin collector like his uncle but I'll be happy if he doesn't sell it at the first opportunity. Only time will tell about my nephew's future interests, but it does make me think about how what we post on-line now could very well be ret
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Lights, Camera, Action!

Most of the action is in re-positioning the lights. Today I took one of my best coin photographs. I've been working on improving my photography skills and I've re-imaged much of my collection over the last two years. My setup is fairly modest; an inexpensive copy stand and refurbished Canon SL1 DSLR, with macro capable lens, that I got for a super low price last Black Friday. Frankly, I'm not sure I see much improvement over my previous camera, a Canon G9, since I mainly photograph large
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The Silver Dollars of '60

The challenge -- to build a birth-year set from only silver dollars. The dilemma -- only a few types were minted in 1960. My favorite type is the silver dollar, or more precisely, 36-42mm diameter coins, at least 23g, that are 50% or more silver (my definition). Also known as "crowns", these have been popular with collectors through the centuries, boosting the survivability of most varieties, even those with low mintages. The large surface area allows for more design detail and I like the w
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Second Chances

The two year wait for the coin that I won. In 2013, I told the story about the auction that I participated in where I saw the lot hammer at my pre-bid price. Later, I found out that a floor bidder had the lot reopened, but by then I had stopped watching the on-line feed so I didn't get the opportunity to counter-bid (I would had gone at least one increment higher). Now I can tell the rest of the story. That same coin came up for auction in the Rudman Collection of Mexican Coins, Part II.
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Custom Sets Question

To go big or stay focused? Congratulations to all the registry participants and winners. Now that the 2015 awards have been decided we can take a peek at the judges' selections, and with 90,000 registry sets out there, I know I will be viewing most of these for the first time. Like many of you, I spent a good portion of 2015 creating, organizing and polishing my sets. I've become a big fan of custom sets and I added four last year. I especially like the control we have over the size of our s
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A Tale of Two Cities

It was the best of thalers, it was the worst of thalers... Several city-view thalers were up for sale this November and I acquired one of Frankfurt am Main and one of Regensburg. Minted just a few years apart, they are from the last few decades of the Holy Roman Empire. Both of these were Free Imperial Cities, subordinate only to the Emperor, and had important roles in the Empire; Frankfurt was the city where kings and emperors were crowned and Regensburg hosted the principle decision making
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England without a monarch!

A relic from the 'Interregnum' King Charles I lost more than the English Civil War. In 1649 he lost his head and England began a period of eleven years without a monarch. Even so, crowns were still minted. 1658 crown of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, a single year issue as he died that September. The crown is noted for its high strike quality due to the mechanized milling and press process introduced by Pierre Blondeau, former engineer o
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A rose by any other name...

would smell as sweet -- but a better photograph can't hurt! My original title for this post was 'Most Subtly Improved', a nod to Gary and Alan's recent posts about their photography, but I could't resist the Shakespearean jest. As my photography skills slowly progress I have greatly improved many of my early coin images but sometimes it's the ones with a subtle improvement that can really catch your attention. That's the case with my Pezza della Rosa or Rose Dollar and I hope you'll agree. Th
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My Three Suns

A glorious light shines on former Spanish colonies. Three of my favorite 8 reales are from the former colonies of the Spanish Empire in the New World. The hopeful aspirations of these newly independent nations are reflected in the beautiful sunface designs of the Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata, Republica del Centro de America and Republica Sud Peruana. The birth of new nations is a politically contentious process -- these republics had to deal with years of internal and external strife
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US Silver Dollar Mint Type Set

I don't collect many US coins but they fit nicely into a mint type set. In a rare case of planning ahead with my coin acquisition strategy, I picked my US silver dollar types so that they each came from a separate mint. The set is now complete and I've created a custom set in the Thematic & Topical Coins section to show them off. coins.www.collectors-society.com/wcm/CoinCustomSetView.aspx?s=19490 Here's a photo teaser. ~jack To see old comments for this Journal entry, click her
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Light and Shadow

Sometimes a strong lighting angle can bring out a coin's best appearance. The lamps that I use for my coin photographs are too bulky to allow placement near the camera lens so I have to experiment with different angles in relation to the plane of the coin's surface. I have a couple of small LEDs lamps on order that will allow me to get close to a perpendicular angle, but until they arrive I have to make due with what I have. I've read advice that for coins with portraits, you should try t
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Old Map -- New Presentation

What do you think of this type of coin presentation? I love the look of old historic maps so I thought I would try to use one as the background with a coin of, roughly, the same period. My coin is a 1629 Scudo of Odoardo Farnese, the Duke of Parma and Piacenza, from 1622 - 1646. The map is from 1699, by Phillip Lea of Cheapside, London. I think the map helps to set the coin in its historic, as well as geographic, context. ~jack edit: I posted a larger image to the chat board. To see
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Two goals in one!

An overdue report on my January world coin activities. I'm not sure if it's the same with US coins but I think the January Heritage, Stack's Bowers, Triton and Goldberg auctions have the best selection of rare and premium quality world coins of the year. Unlike last year, when I was completely shut out of January's world coin auctions, I scored a few goals this time around. One coin was literally two goals in one. I wanted to add a Swiss Thaler to my collection of world crowns and I've also
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The Fix for Coins Misaligned in their Holders

Somehow this coin got rotated almost 180 degrees in its holder. I put in some strong bids but was not able to win any coins in several world coin auctions this Fall. For the 8 reales collector, it was a special time because quite a few ultra rare varieties were on the block. A 1733/2-MXF in VF-35 sold for $18,800 in Baltimore and a 1778 MoMF in XF sold for over 14000 euros in Barcelona. Last month I was able to take Friday off and visit the Baltimore Show. I enjoyed the dealers room and got
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Hey, this guy has a face!

When a details coin looks better The leeuwendaalder aka lion daalder was first minted in the province of Holland in 1575 during the revolt against Spanish rule. By 1581 the seven Northern provinces were able to gain their independence, forming the Dutch Republic, formally recognized by the Spanish Empire in 1648. Freed from the burden of supporting a monarchy, the Dutch became a trading powerhouse, developing a globe-spanning colonial empire and the largest merchant fleet in the 17th century
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The Ugly Truth About 8 Reales

Beware the counterfeits, unofficial restrikes and modern forgeries! It's only natural that the world's most popular coins are the target of fraud. For the 8 reales, this has been a problem for over 200 years. Counterfeits, meaning those struck in the same time frame as the genuine issue, used less silver so that the counterfeiter gained by the difference in precious metal. Unofficial restrikes were produced after the genuine issue, were mostly faithful to design as well as silver content,
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Beautiful Thaler from Baltimore

I bought, sold and traded at my first coin convention and I'm darn sure the dealers got the better bargain, but I came away with my shirt and two new coins for my small but growing early modern world silver dollar set. I didn't attend any auctions and only visited for a few hours on Saturday morning but I got most of my goals accomplished. My main purpose was to get an opinion on a raw 1860 Seated Liberty Silver Dollar that I won on Ebay. After showing it around I felt confident enough to se
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Losing and rebuilding a world class collection

The story of Antonin Prokop highlights one of the important qualities of a serious coin collector -- sheer persistence. The Czech numismatist, Antonin Prokop, lived and worked in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century and assembled an exceptional collection of Russian coins during Tsarist rule. In 1919, however, the Soviets considered it communal property and confiscated the collection. It was subsequently auctioned off to foreign dealers. Prokop was able to leave Russia in 1921, takin
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Surprise Gold Acquisition

I have an example of this coin as a silver proof but I didn't know they were minted in gold. My last journal was about my fencing coin custom set so I wasn't planning on writing about this topic so soon, but I spotted this coin on a German auction site and was very surprised to find out that it even existed. Like nearly all other coins depicting fencing, this is an Olympic commemorative. The historic French mint, Monnaie de Paris, produced silver 1-1/2 euro and gold 10 euro proof coins in 20
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Started My Fencing Coin Custom Set

I have a bunch of nice coins but only two slabbed examples so far. The ongoing Winter Olympics has inspired me to start organizing my collection of modern commemoratives featuring the sport of fencing. Although fencing is not a winter sport, it is one of five sports which has been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games. As I mentioned in one of my journals from last year (http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/JournalDetail.aspx?JournalEntryID=14114), I have been assembling a colle
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My First US Silver Dollar!

Although I bid on many world lots, the first win of the year was an 1846-O Seated Liberty $1 Happy New Year fellow collectors! I started my New Year by participating in several of the big world coin auctions held in January, but failed to win lots, including any of the 8 reales from Guatemala that our esteemed NGC registry colleague, Isaac Rudman, offered in the Heritage World & Ancient Coins Auction in New York. So my first win of the year was a US coin from the Orlando FUN auction.
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The 8 Reales Pinnacle

My Colonial Mexico City 8 Reales Type set captures the top spot -- sort of... Last year, I worked at completing the Colonial Mexico City 8 Reales Type Set with the hope that I might get the top spot. This set is eight coins (how appropriate) from the milled 8 Reales series minted in Mexico City during Spanish rule. The years represented by this set, 1732-1821, comprise a significant section of history in the Americas. After all, these coins were the primary specie circulating throughout the
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