coin928's Journal

A journal by coin928

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Entries in this journal

I should wake up sooner.

Thanks for the awards, NGC! My thanks to NGC for the Best Presented Set Award. I really appreciate the recognition. Congratulations to all of the other award recipients as well. I have found NGC to be very responsive to all of my questions and requests. Most have been handled within hours and my request for the creation of the "Culion Island Leper Colony Coinage" set was handled in just a couple of days. I don't agree with every change that NGC has made, but there have been good reason
coin928

coin928

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There's nothing as lovely as a beautiful woman in a little black dress.

Her name is Elsie Stevens, and she looks pretty good considering her age! A picture is at the end of this post. I'll get to Elsie shortly, but first, some personal history. It was 1995 and I had nine years of Silver Eagles in my collection. We had 2 children under the age of 10 and money was tight, but I always managed to budget for the acquisition of one mint state and one proof Silver Eagle every year. 1995 was no different. I got my mint state coin and my 1995P proof, but the mint had
coin928

coin928

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None Finer!

At least for now... My primary collecting interest is the US-Philippine series, but I also actively collect any coin minted by the US Mint (or by private mints in the USA) for circulation in other counties. I created a custom set for these coins several years ago. (http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/CoinCustomSetView.aspx?s=433) While reviewing population reports, I was surprised to find that quite a few are at the top of the chart, and in some cases are THE finest known, so I cre
coin928

coin928

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LACQUERED!

...or how my coin went from "body bag" to MS65RD. I haven't submitted a huge number of coins for grading, but I've submitted enough to have suffered a variety of disappointments. I've had them returned with a details grade because of "excessive hairlines," "improper cleaning," and "altered color." One even came back in a body bag as having been "plated," but "lacquered" was a new one to me. The 1928 Ecuador One Centavo is the only copper coin minted by the Philadelphia Mint for circulation
coin928

coin928

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A Complete Set of US/Philippine Bronze Coinage

Fifty coins, and it only took 8 years. It doesn't seem that long ago that I started aggressively collecting the US/Philippine series. I hadn't initially intended to focus on the Bronze coins, but one good opportunity led to another, and about six months ago, I found myself with a very nearly complete set. I was only lacking one Half Centavo, and two One Centavos. I wasn't seeing the missing coins in the marketplace, so I decided to "grow my own." I combed through my collection of raw coin
coin928

coin928

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Minted in the U.S.A.

Another unexpected acquisition. In April of this year I wrote a journal entry about bidding on a coin, fully expecting to lose, only to be pleasantly surprised at the end to find myself the high bidder. This acquisition is the result of another such auction. Certified El Salvadoran C.A.M. Pesos are almost always available on eBay as a "Buy It Now." These are generally offered well above FMV, so when a true auction comes along, it's time to step up. When this one appeared, I registered a bid
coin928

coin928

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Have you ever bid on a coin, expecting to be outbid ...

... only to discover the next day that you won! This happened to me on March 31st. A number of certified US/Philippine proof coins of all denominations and years were listed for sale on eBay by a very reputable, long time dealer on March 24th. All were listed at what I considered to be a fair market price, and I thoroughly expected for most of them to sell for much more. I would have loved to bid on them all, but my budget would have to stretch a bit just to obtain one, so I set about decid
coin928

coin928

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Very Timely Article

An article just published in the February 13, 2012 issue of Coin World is a very timely follow up to three recent journal entries. The new article is titled "'Wilson Dollar' medal obverse die surfaces" and can be be found at http://www.coinworld.com/articles/wilson-dollar-medal-obverse-die-surfaces I don't know how long it will be available on line for non-subscribers though, so check it out soon. All of the information seems pretty good except for the description of the reverse and what it
coin928

coin928

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The red ink flowed over the World Coin Registry last night.

The word "UPDATED" should be changed to "DECIMATED" I wanted to see if the statement "Most NGC Registry World coin sets are already NGC-exclusive, so this change will affect relatively few users." was accurate, so I checked out a couple of categories that I participate in. "Cuba - First Republic, Complete Set, MS" All 14 sets that had coins in them were hit, some very substantially. Nothing but red in that Score Change column. It looks like two other sets were cleaned out by their owner ea
coin928

coin928

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New Variety

But what to call it? A few years ago, I acquired several 1944S US/Philippines 50 Centavo pieces that have a slightly different reverse (figure side) than normal. I wish I could claim to have discovered this difference myself, but they were actually listed on eBay by a dealer in the Philippines as having the "Reverse of 1921." This reverse is most easily identified by the shape and lines of the Mt. Mayon volcano. The earlier volcano has very prominent lines spreading down the slope from the
coin928

coin928

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New Variety - take 2

Despite my best efforts, I can not get my journal entries to post to the message boards. This is really aggravating! I have used Internet Explorer, and Firefox. I have included my message board login and left it out. Nothing has worked so far, so I am going to try Google Chrome next. In the mean time, here is the link to my previous Journal Entry which I replicated in the message boards. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=5409905#Post5409905
coin928

coin928

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My Latest USA/Philippines Acquisition

... and a little more history. I've been planning to post this journal entry ever since I submitted my Bronze "So-Called" Wilson Dollar in late November of last year. I just got it back last week and I can only guess that it was delayed by massive quantities of Silver 25th Anniversary ASE's making their way through the system.   By sheer coincidence, "JAA USA/Philippines Collection" posted an excellent and highly related journal entry last night titled "The Mint and U.S. Military History"
coin928

coin928

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My Latest USA/Philippines Acquisition - the flip side

I was going to add this addendum as a follow up post in the message boards, but since there is no link, I'll just have to add it as another journal entry. I wanted to post the flip side of both medals so that I could point out one interesting observation. The reverse of all of the Silver medals I've seen seems to be rotated about 20 degrees or so, whereas the Bronze medals appear to have been struck with no die rotation. Not terribly important, but interesting. On another note, I don't kno
coin928

coin928

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Obverse or Reverse?

It's not always obvious. Which side are you on? For most U.S. coins, it's fairly easy to determine which side of the coin is the obverse. For others though, this designation isn't quite so obvious. This is particularly true for the entire U.S./Philippine series minted from 1903 through 1945. Which is the obverse, the date side or the figure side? This has long been a hot topic of discussion in this niche collecting community. A very interesting paper on this topic was presented by Kennet
coin928

coin928

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Obverse or Reverse?

Take 2 I had intended my previous journal entry to be open for discussion on the Chat Boards, but despite my checking the appropriate boxes, the link doesn't seem to appear. I had some cross-site scripting disabled which may be the cause of the problem. That is now enabled, but the only way I know to test it is with another journal post, so here it is. The attached image is of the other side of the AU55 coin shown previously. Responses to my previous journal post are welcome here, assumin
coin928

coin928

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Be careful what you ask for...

You may get more than you expected. A little over a year ago, I acquired a 1908S US/Philippines 50 Centavo piece that appeared to be uncirculated. Last November, I finally found the courage to send it off to NGC to see if I was right. Sadly, NGC saw my "uncirculated" coin as an AU58. It was not what I had hoped for, but there was no ?body bag,? or details grade involved, so I consider myself lucky. That however is another story, and not the point of this journal entry. It simply sets the
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