NGC Journals

When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

We’ll call that an effective ad / offer

About a week ago I got an email from NGC with a coupon code and offer for $10 off any tier of paid membership, which would have made the lowest ($25) level just $15 for a year. I’ve been debating becoming a paid member again for a while as some may be aware from past entries, but this lowered the threshold for doing so enough to get me to go ahead and do it. Honestly, as much time as I spend on here lately, I think it makes sense to support the site / company a little directly, even thoug
Revenant

Revenant

2
The Roman Empire

Rome's Greatest General

Newly Edited and Re-Posted Owners Comments posted on an ancient bronze sestertius featuring Nero Claudius Drusus, part of the Roman Empire Custom NGC Ancients Set...   Even before he was born, Nero Claudius Drusus (38 – 9 BC) had already become somewhat of a celebrity. Also known as Drusus I or Drusus the Elder, he was born a mere three months after his mother, Livia Drusilla, married Octavian, who later emerged as Rome’s Augustus.  Presumably, the elder Drusus’ sire was Livia’s previo
Kohaku

Kohaku

2
Michael Byrne

Franklin's Press Token

.  Hi my fellow collectors . A while ago I won an auction of a token I thought I would never own. It's called Franklin's Press. The press is in the Smithsonian Institute.. When he was eighteen years old he went to Great Britain in search of work. Well he found it printing. Now there is discrepancy about this token. It's in the Red Book book and"The Provincial Tokens -Coinage of The 18th Century. By R Dalton and D.S.Hamer" those are the D& H number you see on every token but this one doe
MIKE BYRNE

MIKE BYRNE

17
The Roman Empire

Italy's First King and the Bloody Banquet

New Owners Comments posted on an ancient bronze featuring Odovacar, part of the Roman Empire Custom NGC Ancients Set...   In 475 AD, the last official Western Roman Emperor, Julius Nepos, was forced to flee his throne amidst a rebellion led by his own magister militum, Orestes.  While the latter tried to promote his son, Romulus Augustulus, as the unofficial new Western Emperor, the Germanic mercenaries taking part in the rebellion had a different idea.  In 476 AD, those foederati, dis
Kohaku

Kohaku

2
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Well, doesn’t that just look… odd?

I’ve been really focusing on my Zimbabwe note set recently but I’ve been having a nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me that I should try to set a part of my budget aside soon and pick up the Falcons I need for my Queen’s beast set. I think the biggest problem I’m having with listening to that little voice right now is that the Zimbabwe notes / set / collection has me feeling pumped and excited and interested right now and that Falcon just... doesn’t. If it weren’t for the fact th
Revenant

Revenant

8
CoinsbyGary

Tincture in Heraldry

Have you ever looked at the shield on many of our 19th and 20th century coins and wondered what the lines across the top horizontal bar of our national shield represent? How about the lines on the vertical bars? Beyond the vertical bars representing the 13 original states holding up the single bar representing the federal government you may be surprised to find that the lines or the lack thereof on the bars are defined by certain colors in heraldry called tinctures. Tincture is a relative
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

5
The Roman Empire

Thrasamund and the Vandal Renaissance

New Owners Comments posted regarding my 50 denarii coin featuring Vandal King Thrasamund...   Careful scholarship reveals that the ancient people known as the Vandals turned out to be quite civilized. As the Western Roman Empire dissolved, the Vandals were one of several successor tribes rising to prominence. During the reign of King Thrasamund (450-523 AD), the level of cultural sophistication achieved has even been described as a Vandal Renaissance. When his brother, King Gunthamu
Kohaku

Kohaku

0
John Cava

NIKOLA TESLA-HUMAN GENIUS OR ALIEN?

This new blog is on, probably, my greatest hero outside of my immediate family, Nikola Tesla. The coin is one ounce .999 fine silver minted in the Serbian Mint for 2018. It has a 39.0 mm diameter. It has a value of 100 Serbian dinara. The total mintage is only 50,000.    Featured on the obverse is a portrait of the inventor at the approximate age of 40.His name is above him. It is inscribed in both English and Serbian Cyrillic. Under his portrait is the legend "ELECTRICAL VISIONARY", then a
longstrider

longstrider

9
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

So that was a privy mark…

There’s only 10 dates / years of issue for the Netherlands 10G coin during the 41-year reign of Willem III. All of these years occurred in a 15-year period from 1875 to 1889. Because of this, he only had one official portrait during this time and all the coins have the same obverse. Because even the date is on the reverse there is absolutely no way to discriminate one issue in the series from any of the others by just looking at the design of the obverse. By contrast, his daughter, ruled for 58
Revenant

Revenant

9
Michael Byrne

British Tokens of The 18th Century.

Hi fellow collectors. Well some.of you are saying there he goes again with these tokens. There is a reason for this. Like myself I know.many of you have never heard of these. Now.They made thousands of these. Some with large mintages some.with very low. By the way they were measured by ton. Not as individual tokens. There is a token I just read about only sixteen were made. The current bid is over a thousand but will go hover before the auction.. Now I just put up a set of twelve. Remember the d
MIKE BYRNE

MIKE BYRNE

24
moondoggy's Journal

Which Auction Houses???

Greetings once again;              Was wondering (since I have no experience) selling coins thru an auction house and it sounds like they charge basically the same for the same service, which Auction house(s) would you recommend in consigning coins to ?  What has been you positive AND negative experiences with them.  Appreciate all the responses. moondoggy (Mike)
moondoggy

moondoggy

10
moondoggy's Journal

Old Green Rattlers

Greetings all;   Hey its been awhile since my last journal so figured it was time to share another coin experience.  Just for the hell of it (call it the winter boredom blues) I decided to crack open a couple of PCGS Green Rattlers (Morgans ) I had lying around and send them in and see if they would grade higher than from back in the day.  These weren't major Morgans so I figured I would give em a shot.  I really do not recommend "breaking" out graded coins in hopes of attaining a "better" grade
moondoggy

moondoggy

6
Michael Byrne

Collecting Coin,Tokens,Medals

Hi fellow collectors . I'm writing this today basic simple collecting. Why? Why do we do it? Why do we spend money to buy money? Some do it for an investment maybe an I.R.A. Some do it simply because we like it. That's me.I like it . Because not only is this hobby enjoyable it's interesting. We have a saying at the ANA. knowledge is power. I be live that four year of college I have learned more about world history and our history researching what I collect. Everything tells a story. I look down
MIKE BYRNE

MIKE BYRNE

4
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

“Samuel Likes Money”

Well, this was drafted and supposed to be queued up before everything went crazy on Tuesday so it may make less sense chronologically than it previously would have but here it is anyway I think it's a sweet and funny story. So, I have this “Heads or Tails” round that I got over 10 years ago as a joke. It has a nude woman on both sides so the “Head” and “Tails” should be self-explanatory from there. It’s the kind of thing that seems hysterical when you’re 22. Of course, my toddler finds
Revenant

Revenant

0
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

And so it begins... Updated 2/22

I was gone all night at a professional function. I finally got home around 9:00, my son was already in bed. My mother-in-law stayed with them all evening while I was gone so Shandy wouldn't be alone, just in case. Maybe 5 minutes after my mother-in-law left, less than half an hour after I got home Shandy started bleeding. We went to the hospital. She was having contractions she couldn't feel and there was no way to stop the bleeding with the contractions and so she's in the OR now and I'm w
Revenant

Revenant

28
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

1886A 20 Franc in MS64 and Resolution on the Anniversary Notes

I got my new 20 Franc coin in the mail just the other day. I’ve been watching a bunch of these late 19th century French 20 Franc coins on eBay through November, December and January. I’ve mostly been looking at examples in MS63 and MS64. The MS63s were more in the price range I was hoping for, but I was really hoping to get an MS64 – I like to stay in the MS64+ range with these purchases. Most of the sellers have been wanting $440-500 for an MS64, depending on the date. After having a rel
Revenant

Revenant

5
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

My Son's Monies

About a year ago, in late 2017, we were going through a move and packing things up. I left the door to the closet open and my son saw the safe. I usually tried to keep the closet closed to hide the safe because he’d developed an odd fascination with it and pressing the buttons to make it beep. He also liked having us open and close it a lot – it’s all great fun apparently. Once he saw it, and remembered that it was there, he wanted to play with it and it’s often not very fun to argue with a todd
Revenant

Revenant

14
Collecting world coins

Thoughts on Provenance and a goal for 2019

I have a number of world coins from renowned collections and it is a privilege to be their current custodian however most of these are raw - so how do I prove it? I do have the original invoice which demonstrates when and where I bought the coin but do people really provide a copy of this should they sell the coin to keep the provenance intact? Apart from 'flagship' coins where each individual is well documented it is only recently that auction catalogues have included pictures of most of the
ColonialCoinsUK

ColonialCoinsUK

7
CoinsbyGary

Lessons From the Far Country

Much of this post is quoted from a response to a recent post by thisistheshow entitled, "Let me try this again, for the first time." I made a lot of points in that response that I thought are worthy of an expanded stand-alone post. In a nutshell this post is an autobiography of my 40+ years of collecting coins.  Thinking back on my 40+ years of coin collecting I liken my numismatic experience to that of the Biblical parable of the prodigal son. I started my numismatic journey as a youth wit
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

10
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

So… Why the Rooster?

Ever since I purchased my 1913 20 Franc French Rooster last year, I’ve been wondering why the French government would have made a coin that so prominently featured this bird. My curiosity was peaked further when I saw the older Winged Freedom design and saw that it also had a rooster on it, although, in that case, the rooster was much smaller and was not a dominant design feature. As it turns out, the answer is pretty easy to find online, but It’s just taken me a year to invest the effort i
Revenant

Revenant

2
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Ben's First Pressed Penny and My Wife Trolling Me

We went to the Houston Zoo as a family yesterday with my son, wife, and her parents. The zoo here is full of those old penny press machines. I'm sure most of us in the US will be familiar with them but I don't know if they're common outside the United States. For those unfamiliar with the concept: You feed the machine $0.51 (2 quarters and 1 penny) and turn a press-wheel. The quarters go to pay the machine / the company that owns it. The penny... gets smashed. The machine presses / rolls th
Revenant

Revenant

13
CoinsbyGary

Now That I Am Retired, What of Collecting?

As of December 28th 2018, I am officially retired and am eager to move on into another chapter of my life. Retirement came a little sooner than I expected but when my employer offered me a generous buy out, I realized that I had to take it now or never see that opportunity again. Realistically, at 60 years old I had no more than 4 years left anyway and probably a little less. Now retired, I find myself having to live on a lot less money than I had before. To make things easier on my famil
coinsbygary

coinsbygary

11
My World Crown Affair

Philip II, King of England

This coin caught my attention, when it came up for auction recently, and I checked on the type in CoinFacts wiki and read that the obverse legend for this daalder included Philip's title as King of England.   With a little more research, I can say that the July 25th, 1554 marriage of Queen Mary of England to King Philip of Spain brought about a short period where Philip gained the title of King of England and Ireland and was deemed co-ruler by an Act of Parliament.  The terms of the marriag
jgenn

jgenn

3