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A new path for me

At a recent coin show, not long ago, I purchased 6 ancient Greek coins, 1 fairly old Japanese and 1 Spanish treasure coin.  I don't usually dive into a stack of unknowns unless I know a little bit about what I am doing as my stash got out of control, lapping up coins like a hungry cat on a dish of cream.  So, with not the irrational exuberance I used to be under, I have been shedding more common coins and looking to be the only one holding a certain item.  So, after asking a coupla dealers what
CaptBrian

CaptBrian

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IS THERE A PROBLEM SENDING COINS FROM OUTSIDE THE USA?

Canadian border guards stop coin returns. A friend of ours in Canada needs our help. Every time he sends a coin for grading from Canada to Sarasota, the border guards give him so much grief in proving the coin he is receiving back is the one he sent. It is creating so much trouble, he no longer sends coins for verification. I think this should be clarified and there must be a method so that this friend of ours can send coins to NGC without problem. Does anyone know what do to? Capt. B
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COIN COLLEGE

Go for the gold (and silver) COIN COLLEGE. TANGIBLE, DIVERSIFIED, PROTECTION GO FOR THE GOLD (& SILVER*) With all the contrasting investments available, how does one settle on a particular component of available choices? Some of the choices may be physical bullion, being that coins, bars or even a paper investment. There are also many paper investments such as ETF's, stock in mining companies, futures (like a farmer or speculator) and so on. Rare coins, both raw and more. There are
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Oh NO, Irrational exuberance stikes again.

Counterfeit hides in many guises As most of you know, I do a lot of trading and running around the country and world looking for that elusive billion dollar coin. Usually I buy something and am lucky to get my money back not to mention expenses. Unfortunately or fortunately, whatever your bent is, I was long ago bitten by the gold bug. Starting about 1988 I began collecting silver and gold when I could get them and on the path strewn with potholes and landmines I am, I believe ahead of the
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HOW TO GET MONEY FOR YOUR COLLECTION

Free money for coins. IRS happy too Coin collectors gather round. Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye!. I know, the biggest issue facing us today is how to get money for our collections without stripping our household budget to the bone, leave the Christmas fund alone, the college fund where it can grow and so on and so forth. I retired three years or so ago, and have found that two things loom in my mind that I want to do. One: To travel and two: to grow my coin collection to the highest attain
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Roman Numeral Gold Eagles are HOT

The Hunt For Gold October Today, the adult ice cream truck arrived. Very late too. Tomorrow I am heading to Chicago for a wedding, and was waiting with a dripping mouth for my 1990 $25 MS70. The truck was supposed to be here before 4:30 and by almost 6:40 it was still not here. So, on the way out of my neighborhood, there came the brown van, with a harried looking driver. I blinked my lights and waved frantically, as I knew the coin was on the truck. Well, he was in a big hurry and th
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Trade ins make great upgrades

Presto Change-O Traded away my 1990 $50 GAE for a 1989 G$25 and I got $1900 to boot. I feel I got the better end of the stick as I had no place for my 1990 $50, and the 1989 was looking good in the auctions and price guide. I need some trading material so I actually just traded up again. I have been trading up now for over a year, and with very careful trading I have built to my current collection. My number of coins owned have dropped precipitously from over 600 coins to now only about
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Golden oldies, arrived today.

Well, maybe not so old, but certainly gold. Today two boxes of stuff arrived and I am just now opening it. I can only put one picture in here (because I do not know how to add in several) and I'm like a kid at Christmas. Here is the Low Down: 44 coins in, 24 coins out, and a bunch of bank wires. Had to stash all the stuff at banks in the Carolinas and Texas until I got home. A 4 coin set of Edmund C Moy 38th Director of the U.S. Mint 2002 W PR70DCAM Gold Eagles, (4 coins), PCGS. Two
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While Wife in Hospital, I got triplets

A NICE SET OF LINCOLNS While my lovely wife Helen was suffering in the ICU for 7 days, I had to commute from my sons home in Lake Royal to Tarboro. N.C. one of the days I spotted an ad for a coin show along route 64. Having a few minutes before expected closing of the show I zipped off the next exit and hit the windows phone looking for COIN SHOWS NEAR ME. Well, Lo, I got one. I made a call suggested by the phone and got a local dealer who was at a show in Washington DC. which was not f
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SECOND TRIP AROUND THE SOUTH YIELDS TROUBLE

WHERE oh where can the Bechtler mint golds be? I set out two Fridays ago, on a hunt for Bechtler mint gold coins and the first week went okay, found a beautiful silver eagle. 2003 W PR70 DCAM. Nothing else when, on the way to Mount Airy, (Mayberry RFD) at my sons home two Fridays ago, my lovely wife Helen began complaining pretty heavy of a stomach ache. Saying it was not the usual pains, we stopped at a clinic and the doctor sent her away with pain and antibiotic prescriptions. I did
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Worlds most valueable coin. (well, close cousin)

220 years old. Quite an addition I recently traded 12 of my last lesser coins for one that will crown my collection as the oldest one. USA type. It is a 1795 FLOWING HAIR S$1. In XF40 Two years ago, at a Stacks and Bower auction my coins cousin sold for $10,016,875. The mouth watering desiree the 1794 Flowing Hair Silver Dollar, a suberb Gem Specimen, finest known to exist. So, while the purchasing power of our US$ has gone down over the years, the value of our coins increases in value
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UPDATE TO GREEN BEANS ETC

This confirms -at least to me- A few days ago, we had a discussion on one of my journals about the 2nd party grading of the CAC, PQ, MAC. Perhaps others to come, which seem to want a piece of the coin grading pie ($s)and not have to go through the processes of the NGCs and PCGSs. I said before and I reiterate; We do not need high fives from anyone but the good guys! NGC and PCGS. Certainly not two or three or more of them. I just went through a session with CAC and finally gave up. The
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LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT

Will the real price please stand up! Ok ok, dickering is fun. I love a good horse trading afternoon. I like to do it about 2 - 4 PM when my wits are the sharpest. I often find myself in the auction circle selling and buying but I can NEVER figure out how NGC or PCGS prices these things in their sites for Price Guides. Now take fer instance, the 2000 $10 Platinum MS70 Eagle. Some call it a liberty head (which I reserve for the Libs of the 1907 or earlier where it actually says, Liberty on
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USING I-PHONE FOR COIN PHOTO

Hope you get an Oscar I left all directions on my comment on the last journal by gherrmann44 OKAY: Here is the body, so you do not have to run to gherrmann44 if you do not want to. I left an eloquent note on how I have learned to do my photos for NGC notes, journals and the registry if not ETC. Unfortunately, my note was lost when I attempted to add it to this reply section, I had written what follows, so I hope this re-do is as wonderful . I had worked with a production company as
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A GRADE BY ANY OTHER NAME

Question everything? This is a journal to continue a thread after the previous journal by hightidetech posted 3/19/15 titled, Digital Imaging for a new generation of numismatists.... I replyed: A grade by any other name: I use that old saying regarding a rose as a reality check for our graded coins. One can alway hire a lawyer and plead a case and convince a jury of peers that a rose is a peach blossom or some other flower, but in reality it is still a rose. If the accepted graders sa
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TO STICKER OR NOT TO STICKER

Do we need CAC, MAC and now PQ? Scrape off those stickers! I know evolution is a reality for many things. I'm sure coin grading is well involved (or should I say, ensnared) in a manufactured market regarding our wonderful coins. I started collecting before all this static came into the picture. I first saw the pretty glitter of physical silver and gold and as you know, if you have been following me, was enticed into numismatics as physicals became boring and not a lot different from tradin
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Understanding Toned Coins

Do not tone it down Coin toning can actually up or lower the value of coins. Natural coin toning can be quite beautiful. It can also be quite ugly. And because beauty is often times in the eye of the beholder, placing a value on a coin due to its toning can present problems. Should you pay extra or less for toned coins? After all, a coin that is toned is going through a form of corrosion, right? We are talking about a discoloration or patina that forms due to reactions to the metal with
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Registry points and values

Will the real value please stand up. I recently wrote about my registry points and collection value falling through the floor. I also, recently. responded to a comment in a recent journal conversation, it follows: Well, I still have some more work to do [on my registry]. Guess I sent off some of the wrong coins and kept some here. So I deleted the three I left here, sent them off today and have not added back in the three I sent by mistake. Not sure what they are. Also, have not totally
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From position 198 to 1300 back to where.

Time to tidey up the registry. I got quite a suprise in the mail yesterday. My first Journal Award. I have no idea how they made this mistake and sent it to me, but I am not going to say anything lest they ask for it back. I am slowly becoming a real collector as my stash has grown by adding almost anything put in front of me like a man starving man at a banquet. I had my collection all over the place since then not having any real focus. Coins came and went like some sort of train statio
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The Trading floor was humming the last 10 days.

Attention Collectors: feast your eyes on this one. My phone has been humming with making trades all over the place. The other day my 1870 $10 MS60 went to Texas. The new owner was elated and the money did not grow any grass here. I found a wonderful coin which I had been secretly searching for and up it popped one day last week and I received it in my hand today. It is a 1907 High Relief $20 Wire Rim PF65. This is a collectors coin. Frank Leach became mint director of the San Fran
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Big Trade Last Week

In with the new out with the old. Well, seems I can't stop trading, buying selling and so on. Last week, as you know I got the WTC coin and am still talking to the new Freedom Tower and the Museum regarding displaying in New York.   But yesterday, a new adoptee arrived at our nursery, an 1883 CC $20 Gold Piece Pop 59 in MS61.   Seems someone sold their entire collection and a friend of mine was on to it just in time before a dealer got it. I'm not sure what else was in it, glad to glean
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A WORLD CLASS COIN

Special coin for a special Nation This addition to my collection has a special place, not only in my collection, but in my heart. I had owned one of these before, not as rare and valuable as this one, but still most important.       The first one was similar, but an MS69 and the significance was not lost because of it not being a perfect 70.       This coin, in my opinion signifies the great loss, sorrow, pain and suffering, which coalesced a fragmented country into one again when t
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A hunting I will go (Part II)

All I want is some Peace... All I want is some Peace Dollars and some Morgans. I have just returned from a 6 week 8000+ mile tour of most of the eastern states, including upper Michigan looking for treasure. I found a few things, but nothing on my list.   Six raw Morgan and two Peace Dollars which will, for sure bring more than I invested and one is a 1921 S.   I am seeing more and more shops buying gold and silver, but not selling it. The metals keep falling and falling and those win
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A hunting I will go...

Came back with two small trophies. One is an 1885 S $5 MS60 and the other is a coin I did not know existed. An Oregon Quarter. 1933 D MS 64 I got these while foraging throughout the Palm Beach County nooks and crannies. Along with these two graded coins, which by the way are up for adoption, I also purchased in the box of scrap metal a 1904 $20 Liberty head, which I feel should grade out about MS 62, but if I get an AU 58, I will be estatic. Along with that I got an Indian. I just traded
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New adoptee came today.. 1877 S MS61 $10

This one will sit in my "Battleship Row" Today, the postman did not have to ring twice. As the clock rolled over and over today, and 4 PM passed, and I had gotten my notice from UPS that it was on its way, I was getting concerned and walked outside looking for the UPS truck. No sooner than I opened the door, the driver was walking up the driveway with my treasure. I have been trading up for some months now, and I came across this coin and with quite a bit of palaver back and forth, I made
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