USAuPzlBxBob

My first impression, before looking at what others thought, was AU58.

I think its color will pull it through… over the line between grades… its innate likability.

Here's one… entire movie hinges on this coin.

"That's good enough for me."

April Fools

Here is the latest installment, Views vs. Time, six months to the day since October 1, 2023.
 

What this really highlighted for me is that — and this is just my humble opinion — no one views Custom Sets.  The old format of the Custom Set Registry just doesn't have the glamour — the sexiness, if you will — of the Competitive Sets format, and, hence, no one visits there, in general.

How did the Competitive Sets fair relative to Puzzle Box Gold?  They all lost ground to it this time around!  (Big reversal to the prior six months before.)
 

               Competitive Set                     Views (relative to PBG)            
                San Francisco                                    -24
                    Charlotte                                        -20
                      Denver                                         -19
                 New Orleans                                     -18
                   Dahlonega                                      -15
                  Philadelphia                                     -13
                  Carson City                                       -8

The main type set, Puzzle Box Gold, has taken command again, as well it should.  Carson City gets honorable mention. (single digit loss)

For the Puzzle Box Gold (Custom Set), you'll notice that it bumped up a few views in November 2023.  This occurred during views requested by me of other NGC members, in an attempt to see if the View Counter for Custom Sets was working or not.  What was learned was the only way for a Custom Set you may own to reflect a view is if a Member — other than yourself — is logged on to NGC and views your Custom Set.  Quite a bit of sleuthing was needed to discover this, and I thank the other NGC members who helped with this.  We all learned a lot.

I may have come across a thread somewhere discussing Rebuses on coins.

What I find even more interesting is that the photo I have of the coin (I have never owned the coin) shows it in an NGC slab.

So, apparently, there isn't just one out there.

For all I know, I may have looked into it, perhaps wanting one for myself, and either it was too hard to come by (rare) or maybe it was too expensive to  acquire if one could be found for sale.

Was going through photos on my computer and came across a really cool coin pic that I had saved from somewhere.

Couldn't remember where I saw it, or copied it from (just the one pic was saved), but the "info" for the pic I saved revealed June 14, 2016   9:18:26 AM.

I tried typing in Exonumia in the NGC search window here but so much stuff came up — too much to pursue… a lost cause.

Then, today, I took another look at the pic and typed out the following into Google's search engine.

Awl Tea Hat G Litters II Knot Gold

Was researching NGC’s Price Guide for this coin, AU 58, and nothing seemed unusual.  But then I clicked on All, and “all” credibility went out the window.

The coin currently is priced at $18,000 for AU 58 but look at how NGC priced it between September 8, 2008 and January 25, 2010:

Grade          Price
AU 58        $73,130
MS 61        $89,050
MS 62        $95,550

This then led me to investigate Auction Prices Realized in the NGC Coin Explorer.  There was no auction information available for this time period in AU 58, but there was a Heritage Auction for a PCGS MS 62 on January 6, 2010, showing the coin hammering at $25,000.

$95,550 (NGC Price Guide) vs. $25,000 (Heritage Auctions)  Hmmm.

Then, during a two week period — October 22, 2012 to November 5, 2012 — the price of the coin "falls off a cliff" for each grade, in two equal weekly drops:

Grade       October 22      October 29      Delta      November 5       Delta
AU 58          $69,380            $43,755       $25,625        $18,130        $25,625
MS 61          $82,550            $53,775       $28,775        $25,000        $28,775
MS 62          $87,750            $60,125       $27,625        $32,500        $27,625

Can anyone explain NGC’s Price Guide prices revealed here for this $5 Classic Head Crosslet 4?  The way they’re so exorbitant.

And what is the "falling off a cliff” in equal weekly amounts, on exactly the same days, all about?

On 3/19/2024 at 1:03 AM, GoldFinger1969 said:

One of those phrases I never forgot in investing:  you only have to get rich ONCE. 

Think about it.  It's so true.

I would suspect that this guy SHOULD have had 1st-dibs on the best/easiest gold....probably made some $$$...but then either squandered it or invested in assets/businesses poorly.  

My Financial Consultant, when I went in for a "checkup" over ten years ago, made a similar comment, when he saw how poorly I was diversified.

"You've already won the lottery, but you need help with your portfolio."  So, I went with a Financial Advisor to get sorted out.  Fired him a few years later.  Tried another Financial Advisor after him, and got just the kind of diversification I really wanted.  Fired him later that year, and pay attention to my portfolio myself, now.  Mostly a passive investor, but it is a passion for me.

Although my comprehension of country sizes and shapes comes mostly from playing RISK as a kid, the San Jose, I believe, may be off Columbia in the Caribbean… so north of Columbia, not west.

The search for it, from something that I came across in my other meanderings on the SS Central America, is supposed to occur in April or May 2024.

Right around the corner.  Looking forward to it.

And just received the book this afternoon.

The book itself is fine — no issues — but the dust jacket is a little loose and suffered some crumpling in shipment.

No worries.  The heavy, large pages are beautiful to encounter as I read the book from start to finish without peeking ahead.

Just turned to the immense overleaf page showing Victor Prevost's 1847 painting of Yerba Buena, which would be renamed San Francisco later that year.

The page just before shows James Wilson Marshall at Sutter's Mill in 1853.  He was the one who reached down into the American River had plucked the first pieces of gold.

And to think that he died in poverty 32 years later at age 74:  one failed venture after another left him penniless, living in a small cabin in Kelsey, California.

Just put in my order for America's Lost Treasure, which the Reviewers highly recommend as a must companion book to Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea.

Last one left in Very Good Condition.  ($7.99 + S&H)

Should look good on my living room coffee table.

HC, thank you for recommending it.

Bob

My next step will be to relook at one of the YouTubes I posted above and then compare the scene to a very descriptive chapter in Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea.

My suspicion is that Gary Kinder had the clip to view (pre-YouTube) to describe the scene in the book so precisely.  Also it will enable me to place a face with each person's name.

Other than that, I'd like to read again about the search sonar track lines that they did.  Get a better feel for the search area grid.

The reason for this is originally they were searching at 200 miles out, but they found the ship 40 miles closer to shore on the very first sonar track the following year, after reviewing their data over the winter.

Even they couldn't believe their luck.

Wikipedia:  Tommy Thompson was born April 15, 1952, so currently he is 71 years old.

From an article from The Guardian December 15, 2020:
 

In late October of this year [2020], Thompson appeared by video for his latest hearing.

“Mr. Thompson, are you ready to answer the seminal question in this case as to the whereabouts of the gold?” Marbley said.

“Your honor, I don’t know if we’ve gone over this road before or not, but I don’t know the whereabouts of the gold,” Thompson responded. “I feel like I don’t have the keys to my freedom.”

And with that, Thompson settled back into his current situation: housed in a federal prison in Milan, Michigan, where he’s now spent more than 1,700 days in jail and owes nearly $1.8m in fines – and counting. Thompson’s attorney declined to comment.

Thompson, 68, has said he suffers from a rare form of chronic fatigue syndrome that has created problems with short-term memory. He’s previously said, without providing details, that the coins were turned over to a trust in Belize.

The 68 years of age (October 2020) and 71 years of age (today, March 9, 2024) align correctly.
(Just making sure because there is displayed immediately following the link on Wikipedia:  Retrieved June 6, 2023.)

Tommy Thompson is still in Federal lockup.

From the Ocean and Coastal Law Journal (January 2016), an article written by Chris Ryan (lawyer) begins by citing a translation of the opening of Richard Wagner's famous opera, Das Rheingold:

No joy shall please
Him who it holds;
Upon no favourite of fortune shall shine
Its brilliant light;
Who it doth own
Let care devour,
And who has it not,
Let envy gnaw!
All shall strive

For what it brings,
Yet none joy shall reap
Though it is used.

Chris Ryan then paraphrases the meaning of the opening:

Legend is, were someone to claim the gold for himself and forge a ring of it, it would grant him immeasurable power over the world.  Such a power, though, would come at a price — he must forever forswear love, and be cursed to a life devoid of fulfillment.

And Ryan then goes on to compare Tommy Thompson's demise to Wagner's opening sentiment.

Where do I stand on gold right now?

For the past week I've been thinking about it night and day, even awakening at 3:00 am to ponder it further a couple of nights ago.

Just finished Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, received last Friday, 507 pages, and it is perhaps the best adventure book I've ever read in my entire life.

Gary Kinder's book is a masterpiece!  Highly recommend it!!

Yes, the SS Central America did hoist its American flag upside-down as a signal of distress.

It was done on Saturday morning, September 12, 1857.  In fact two American flags were simultaneously hoisted upside-down at one point.

A two-masted brig, the Marine (Captain Hiram Burt) spied the upside-down distress flags of the SS Central America after Captain Herndon had signal guns fired to get the attention of the Marine, and the flash of the muzzles caught Captain Burt's eye as the other side of the hurricane had darkened the skies again.

On 3/1/2024 at 1:38 PM, zadok said:

...AU55....

There were 3 stickers on the jacket, the front one shown, and two on the back.  With a portable room-radiator, was able to get all the stickers off without any residue remaining, and the book is very respectable for condition.  No writing on the pages, not one single dog-eared page.

I couldn't think of anything to include with my order, so paid for shipping.  The $3.00 sticker had nothing to do with the price.  There was a small removable sticker on the back showing $19.99, and a larger sticker covering the ISBN.

Book (new) lists for $27.50 on the inside of the jacket.  (manufacturer suggested retail price)

$8.60 book, $6.99 S&H, $1.03 sales tax = $16.62 delivered to my door, and with emails telling me it had been delivered.

Will read it tomorrow.

Spent 20 minutes to copy, delete advertisements, and reformat to zero margins.

Now it's presentable.  Looks like a good read.

(A good lesson on how to deal with all CoinWeek articles.)

My 2013 Red Book is the only copy I've ever seen, so I don't know what other year versions state regarding the SS Central America.

I'd be curious to know what other members find in their Red Books for years other than 2013, relating to this upside-down flag assertion.

Coming across the assertion was serendipity for me, to say the least.  I had no idea it was stated in the Red Book.

The other ships that leant help may have written in their logs mention of the upside-down flag.

Ordered Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea today; hard cover, used, very good condition. (Amazon)

The Red Book, my 2013 copy, received free of charge from Austin Rare Coins while accompanying my first-ever rare gold purchase, a $10 1881-CC Eagle…

WELCOME TO NUMISMATICS (page 34)

(midway down the page citing the SS Central America wreck)

"The ship was swamped, and the captain ordered the American flag be flown upside-down, a signal of distress."

As I have an 1857 US gold quarter eagle minted in San Francisco — an important piece of my Puzzle Box Gold type set — my Owner Comments for the coin includes the mention that it pays homage to the SS Central America and that the ship had "its Stars and Stripes flag flown upside-down to signal the steamer’s dire distress."

That info was garnered from Wikipedia, but there is no reference cited there.  Literary License?  Could be.

One of my current research projects is determining the truthfulness of the flying of the flag upside-down.  The famous painting depicting the ship's sinking does not help.

Gary Kinder's Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea may be a future purchase of mine.

There's a funny story in this video that begins once you click the central red/white YouTube icon.

Enjoy.

On 3/9/2023 at 10:21 AM, VKurtB said:

And yet one of THE MOST attended talks at the ANA show was EXACTLY ON THAT  - what and how to collect. And I’m NEVER going to stop. This kum bay yah, do your own thing stuff is idiotic. There are standards. If you CHOOSE to ignore basic standards, it is YOU who leave behind befuddled heirs who will be struggling to not get taken. 

Began to wonder if the ANA had released a video on this subject, so typed into YouTube:

ANA What and how to collect coins?

The ANA descriptor below the lesson contains your words almost verbatim:

This informal class will help you decide what to collect and how to store your collection.