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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

OUT WITH THE NEW

Huge coin exchange happening today. Well, today I am completing another big trade. Out go about 40 of my modern coins. My collection is being reduced by quite a bit selling off the newer ones, adding some oldies, and getting an amount of cash for the coin show coming up in January in Orlando. Just in case some folks there have some goodies I can't live without, I am going to be prepared to adopt them. I may attempt to expand my Indians or find a new shining star to follow. I also am lookin

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

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

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

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

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

This new addition is out of this world,

THIS COIN FELL FROM THE SKY Something I have been wanting to do for a long time; drive around looking for fun coins to add to my collection. Well, when I saw this one I just had to have it. A silver coin with a piece of meteor. A 2013 Fiji Silver $10, with an actual piece of meteor embedded in it. I guess the meteor fell in France in 1815. The coin is in an NGC holder thicker than usual. I guess this is what collecting is all about; the rare and unusual. There were onl

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

Bubble, Bubble Toil and Trouble

How to go insane without going crazy. I have been apparently inactive for a long time, but that was only on line and with making changes in my registry. Since August of last year, as some of you know, I have been boiling away a lot of the slag in my collection. I was having trouble deciding which direction to go, and sets were totally driving me crazy so I worked hard to find and put together four sets of Indians, the 15 coin set. Two were MS61 and two were MS62. Well, after all the shenan

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

NOW MY COLLECTION HAS A PRINCESS

Last adoptee : Adoption Central now closed down for cleaning. Today, UPS brought to my door the last of my trade INS. I have been doing a lot of trading and buying recently, attempting to change my collection from mostly modern to mostly pre-1933 gold, Morgans, and silver US coins. I have tried to keep them in the under 50 population, and highest grade or next to that. I am going now, to sit back after adding this one, look hard at what I am doing, meaning, am I right in exiting the mor

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

Last Year of the Roman Numeral Gold Eagles

Last year of issue, and all PF70 Ultra Cameo Adoption Central was open again last week, (actually the trading room was open) and I traded away two sets of Indians MS61, 1908 - 1929 for this set of four coins which are the last of the Roman Numeral Gold coins. (and some cash) (I still have two sets of the MS62 Indians,same dates) I guess folks who could not read the Roman Numerals got mixed up in what year they were trying to fill in, and away they went, (Roman Numerals on coins that is) Wh

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

Did you know.

I love trivia. FYI: Five-cent coins minted from 1942 to 1945 did not contain any nickel. A special wartime alloy was used consisting of 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% maganese. And I thought only the penny was different due to the war. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

ADOPTION CENTRAL WAS OPEN TODAY.

This Morgan has only one better, the MS67 and there is only one. The Beautiful Morgan Silver Dollar Minted from 1878 - 1921. I opened my door here at my home (and my wallet in this case) and in came a fantastic addition to my family. A 1921 S MS66 Morgan Silver Dollar. Lady Liberty on the obverse, and the Eagle holding arrows and an olive branch on the reverse. 90% Silver, 10% copper. Total weight 26.73 grams. The beautiful coin is named after its designer, George T. Morgan, who de

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

IN WITH THE OLD: PART III

Adoption central has been busy. I have set my sights on rarity not just numbers of graded coins as I have been accumulating anything I could afford and acquire with little focus. Now, for the past months I have been trading up. I have gleaned out of my collection coins which I included as I sought after PF70s for my 10 Collections of the IMPRESSIONS OF LIBERTY. I have been able to put together 10 complete sets of the 5000 minted and all in PF70. In so doing, I also had many 69s returned fro

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

IN WITH THE OLD (part 2)

15 More Little Indians... I have just completed my third set of the $2.50 Indians of the 1908 - 1929 series. Now I have three complete sets, of the 15 coin set broken by the years the mints did not turn them out. The rarity and desire for these coins are pushing Indian 2.5 dollar gold coin values higher. At the high end of the scale is the 1911-D, the rarest date, this old US gold coins value is Over $15000, when you can find one. With one rare date, and one near rare in the series, t

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

IN WITH THE OLD (Part 1)

Adoption Central was open over the weekend, and all came in. I have now completed and added into my registry the 2nd Panama Pacific coin, the 1915 S MS67, and the third set of Quarter Eagle Indians. The PanPac is the highest grade but the population is somewhat high at 149, but seems to fit very nicely in the collection. Teddy Roosevelt got the Panama Canal dug, finished in August of 1914. I think the Panama Canal ranks with the greatest achievments of mankind. The formidable obstacles i

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

Adoption Center Was Open Last Week

Three new babies. Boy are they cute! In 1999, as the story goes, there were some folks at the mint who got some orders one morning to make some gold eagles. The orders were coming in faster than the mint had provided for so the boss harried the workers and they scurried around trying to fill the orders in the alloted time. In the rush, one of them reached up on the shelf containing the $5 dies and grabbed the wrong one from the 1999 pile. Seems it had a W on it. It was supposed to be used

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

REAL VALUE OF SILVER CANADIAN DOLLAR

Now everyone knows The other day, a friend of mine needed to sell some Canadian Siver Dollars. It was easy to identify the general run of the coins, but there was a little wrench in the machinery. Dots. Yup, large, small, and medium dots. By the time I got it all figured out, I am seeing dots. Here is the answer. On the 1966 there are a couple of different versions; The bead around the edge of the coins come in three sizes, small, medium, and yup you guessed it, large. Seems the diffe

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

THE FIRST AMERICAN COIN

Is it true, legend, or fancy? Only her hairdresser knows for sure. Have you heard this popular legend? Copper bands surrounding wooden kegs of gunpowder from the American Revolution were used as coin strips to punch the blanks used in the creation of the first American coin, the Flowing Hair, Chain Reverse Large Cent. A second reverse design featuring a wreath was produced in 1793. The first Large Cent, Flowing Hair, Wreath Reverse, was minted by the Philadelphia Mint in 1793. It was the fi

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

SPRING CLEANING IN NOVEMBER

Out with the new, in with the old. I am a relatively new collector and being introduced to the world of coins was quite a daunting experience in the beginning. I did not have much focus nor intent, just found itsomething to do with some extra money while I was working for a living. As time went by, and I got more involved, I was intrigued with the wide scope and variety of coins and paper money. [i am just now beginning to see paper money as a new side of my collecting.] A short while

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

Real value of the Canadian Silver Dollars in great question

Friend of mine has 200 of them, are they worth silver value or billions and billions? A friend of mine asked me to grade and evaluate some coins for him. I went over and found he had some simple Canadian Silver Dollars, and on first look saw them as circulated, and in rather poor condition. Not even in the AU state, beyond that, when I went to the NGC Global price guide, I found some very low graded coins could be worth hundreds if not thousands. Does anyone know about these coins and their

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

Bring back the original Lincoln Cent Reverse

Heritage is important I think there were three different Lincoln Pennies in 2009, correct me if wrong, but they came out with the shield reverse instead of the Lincoln Memorial. I feel after the party, they should revert back to the latter. (Hope my facts are right, but the intent is solid.) To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

Adoption central was very busy today

On the lighter side, I got 15 coins for 10, what a deal! All my problem deals aside, I made quite a deal today. I added to my Indian collection...15 more coins but one grade up, MS 62s including another 1911 D So I have two of those now and filled out runs of those $2.5 Indian heads. I will get them all on my registry, and delete the coins traded away off there ASAP. I will add in pictures as soon as coins arrive. Gone from my registry will be the following: 1909 St. Gaudens-$20 PCGS MS64,

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

Beware of criminal coin dealers (Part II)

I have returned from vacation and here is where it stands. I will still not mention names, as we (the dealer in question) and I had another conversation on the phone regarding the transaction in question and it is not resolved as yet. The fellow on the selling end has left it with, I will get back to you. again. That is fine, I have documented the situation and time is on my side. I simply told him that I want my money back or I will take steps. I outlined some of my abilities to plead my

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

Beware of criminal coin dealers

I have been cheated by a daeler Recently I have been involved with a transaction with a dealer and they are trying to cheat me. I am on vacation and cannot defend myself but will attempt to get my money back upon my return. I will write all facts in coming journals. I can only warn all that there are too many crooked dealers and I intend to do something about it. stay tuned. Captain Brian To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

Two sets complete

Indians Indians call the calvary Two completed sets now reside in my collection. My quest to add only PF or MS70 coins or rare ones has been enhanced this weekend at the shows. I sold a lot of my duplicates, and lesser grade modern coins and completed the two indian sets I have been "hiding under my bed" sort of. So now I have two complete sets, and nowhere to go with these so I need to find another avenue to walk. All MS 61, from 1908 thru 1915, and from 1925 thru 1929 nothing missing. (

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

Two sets complete

Indians Indians call the calvary Two completed sets now reside in my collection. My quest to add only PF or MS70 coins or rare ones has been enhanced this weekend at the shows. I sold a lot of my duplicates, and lesser grade modern coins and completed the two indian sets I have been "hiding under my bed" sort of. So now I have two complete sets, and nowhere to go with these so I need to find another avenue to walk. All MS 61, from 1908 thru 1915, and from 1925 thru 1929 nothing missing. (

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

COIN SHOW RESULTS

THE SHOW WAS VERY BUSY, MY REGISTRY WILL SHOW I went to two coin shows this past weekend, one in New Port Richey, Fl., and one [the nation's largest coin club] in W. Palm Beach. I hope you all had a nice wxend. I went to two coin shows, (had two tables at each) one in New Port Richey, Fl., and one in W.Palm Beach. May I add that the one in Palm Beach is the nations largest coin club. I have been in Florida since 1968 and long ago have learned that September is the quietest month and this was

CaptBrian

CaptBrian

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