Thane1's Journal

A journal by Thane1

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Presidential Elections as Collecting Mile Markers

The more things stay the same, the more things change. Presidential elections always felt huge to me. Four years. That's a long time. A lot can happen in four years. This last election felt like 2008 was yesterday. So this journal is as much about pinching myself as about collecting. INTERNATIONAL: Mubarak and Qadaffi fell. Bin Laben's dead. Japan, for a year or so, got 0% of its energy from nuclear. The Euro is dead, the players are just buying time on how to kill it. 25% unemploy
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Learning selling the hard way

Live auction of a good chunk of my collection tonight (Friday) Collecting coins is easy. Collecting coins on a budget is hard. Selling coins is easy. Selling coins for what they're worth is hard! This Friday night (the 20th) is the night much of my collection goes up for live auction. You can watch it here: http://www.proxibid.com/asp/Catalog.asp?aid=54963 or you can also find it through RJ's Auction Service in Scranton, KS. Much of my slab collection will get sold cheaply, if my past
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sell Sell SELL !!!

Great buying AND selling opportunities as lots of collectors are out, but others want in. January provided a good tail wind for selling numismatics. The markets continued their recovery, holiday spirits blew into the new year, metals hovered near highs, US economic statistics continued to improve while global uncertainties persisted ... a perfect win/win for metals and willing US buyers ... Well, I am out. I have gone more than half cash (or short ETF) in my combined retirement accounts.
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Positioning my collection for 2012 markets

Where bullion value and collector value might head in the next 12 months - and how that affects my collection What scares us all, TODAY, about our jobs, our savings, and who might buy our collections when we need to sell? (1) Europe, 2011. (2) Japan, 1989. (3) USA, 2008. (4) China, 2011. HYPERINFLATION? Market participation is quite weak while everyone sits on their fears of what the future brings. The gold bugs and Ron Paul voters out there remind us that many believe in imminent
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Arab Spring

In this European Winter, let's not forget the green shoots of democracy on Africa's North Coast. Maybe some Arab world dictatorships had reached tipping points. Maybe regime change was imminent. Or maybe it really takes one act of courage by one person. We Westerners are scared of sovereign debt defaults, unemployment, double-dip recessions ... When we're out of work, we skip a gas payment, run up credit cards, and get fat on cheap, low-nutrition, high-calorie food. But the people of Nor
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new registry point system

A proposal for recognizing rarity, cost, demand, etc., across wildly different collecting spectrums - (This is in reply to Captain Clipon's post, but I thought a new registry proposal merited its own journal entry. Please read his message board thread, found at the end of this journal.) We modern MS collectors, we know we're niche collectors, in a minority at that. It's comparably cheap to buy a top-pop for us (say, $2000 on the open market, $1000 in live auction, or $400 on EBay $.01 star
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Collectible Bear Market

Maybe it's not obvious, since the markets are up about double since the March 2009 bottom, but for most collectibles markets, we're in a SERIOUS bear market. Amidst all the hoopla and euphoria of rising gold and especially silver prices ... amidst the record sale prices for super-rare coins ... The REST of the collectible market is in a SERIOUS FUNK. Ask anyone trying to unload an MS67 or MS68 modern penny ... or a PF70UC any denomination ... there is NO DEMAND. The price floor is not bein
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Hi Ho Silver ... ATB!

I was on the waiting list for the April 28 Hot Springs hockey puck public sale - but I just got my notice of shipment today! In the words of W.K.F., "Greetings Collectors!" Before I get to the puck, I'm on business in Denver. I had no idea the U.S. Mint tours are like getting into the White House - the guard turned me away at the wrought iron fence, since I didn't have a reservation. Whenever I travel, I try to pick up a box of coins to cherrypick. So I got a box of dimes today. Four si
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Bulk TPG Submissions

Sink or swim, my ultramodern collection is moving from rolls and bags of raw to boxes and boxes of slabs. A while back, I posted a comparison of NGC and PCGS grading, and I noted that PCGS offers bulk grading (then $10/coin, now $12, but with no charge for below minimum grade). Well, I submitted to somebody other than NGC four date/mint mark combinations of Westward Journey business strike nickels, and the results are in. The best quality came from original bank wrapped rolls (2005-P Bison
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time to change the grading scale ...

How many AU-58's do YOU own? How many great coins do YOU own? Coins so great, they look BU, but have just that trace of wear? AU-58, right? How many crappy coins do you own? Not a trace of wear, but all those NASTY bag marks and gouges and dings and scrapes? MS-60, right? (62 if you're lucky ...) Why should those nasty MS-60 coins be "worth" more than those great AU-58 coins? It's time to allow AU grades up to 64 and MS grades down to 50. No uploaded image necessary ... we've all
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Last minute gift idea

Here's a great way to spend the holiday week with your kid - but hurry! A couple weeks ago, I ordered a box of half dollars (1000 x $.50 = $500) from the bank. I'd had my Whitman folders of half dollars for years, but obviously it wasn't going to get filled from circulation anymore. From that one box of coins, I was able to fill virtually my entire album. Okay, every slot after silver, except 1978-D, 1987-P, 1987-D, 2001-P, and 2003-D. You could buy a couple albums, fill every slot, and
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2011 Signature Set award category

As a way to allow those of us with limited means to compete meaningfully for a trophy next year, I propose the following award categories via our "Signature Sets." (1) BEST TONED MODERN YEAR SET. Minimum grade on all coins - MS 65. Exclude SMS in SMS years, since toning on those coins shouldn't really be competing with bank bags, rolls and other environmental hazards. (2) BEST MODERN TYPE SET ACQUIRED RAW (all slabs self-slabbed). Possible subcategories could include (a) acquired raw only
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Inspirational moment amongst our coinage's celebration of Dead White Men

During my lunch break today, I wandered into the downtown branch of the public library, where a display about John Adams' book collection was housed. Hang with me, this is light on numismatism and heavier on why Dead White Men are on our coins. For our everyday money, mythologies abound. Let's ask our MOTS ("man on the street") who fails the Find-Your-Hometown-on-a-Map Test about the following people: ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1c, $5): Civil War, freed the slaves THOMAS JEFFERSON (5c, $2): ... u
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This overload of quarters is the end of money as we know it

Who else thinks hundreds of circulated quarter designs in a couple decades is just TOO MUCH? Greetings collectors, I just waved the magic loupe over a couple rolls of Grand Canyon quarters (thanks, Kerry!) ... and I've got a few thoughts. 1. Putting a design of a bunch of rocks on a coin made of metal ripped out of the ground is not my idea of great coinage. Next time, the mint (errr, Congress) should choose FACES, BUILDINGS and ANIMALS, please! 2. Grading a design of a bunch of rocks t
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I see ... (a word about NGC's competition)

I just joined PCGS for a better look at populations than can be gotten through auction sites. Now that I'm a member of both NGC and PCGS, I can truly compare the services. I'm not experienced enough in the grades to really compare grading across the services. I'm sure that there are some variances. It's possible that one service grades more easily than another. Certainly auction houses see much better results for modern coins from PCGS than from NGC. But I don't think it's in NGC's best
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speaking of roll searching

I just ordered my first boxes of coins from my bank. W.K.F. and J Lloyd Young are onto something. I ordered 2 boxes of pennies (2 x $25, 5000 coins total) and 2 boxes of nickels (2 x $100, 4000 coins total) from my bank. Whooey. That's exhausting work. I'm used to searching just 4 or 10 rolls at a time, so I can enjoy almost every coin with a loupe and find RPM's and such in sub-MS examples. But looking at coins by the thousands, it's all about dates and gems. I made it through a box
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Multiholder naming contest

What's a good name for this die break? Like many journal posters here, "spring cleaning" of the collection is constant. Keep what's really good, focus collecting in just a few areas, eventually get rid of everything else. My family recently moved. Not only moved, but downsized our dwelling, so space is at a premium. Sure, I can hold onto boxes and boxes of 2x2's, tubes of choice or better modern coinage (already searched!), etc. But I can actually put my winter hats in a closet if I shri
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EBay, registry, journal, and roll searching

Some livid rants are bringing up good points. I'm finally realizing at home just how much of a packrat I've been, so I've dabbled in EBay selling to dredge the slough out of the house. So I'm getting a little perspective on where you folks with EBay problems are coming from. It's TIME-CONSUMING to sell things on EBay. Shooting, uploading and editing photos can be a slog. For those running big stores, I can see the temptation to grab "stock" photos. On the next topic, the registry contes
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modern business strikes

Slabbing coins whose base cost is face plus gas to the bank It's unrealistic to judge the recession from collector journals, or even coin collecting as a whole ... BUT I'm not the only one here whose income is worse now than a couple years ago. And that's without even losing a job or having ongoing medical costs. And I'm not the only one who's collecting differently because of that. So, I continue to have lots of fun with modern business strikes. Sure, ten rolls of nickels from the bank
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low-end coin price crash?

Is this a leading indicator for a double-dip recession? Bullion prices are strong. High-end coins are still setting new records. But lesser coins are going for next to nothing. I was watching a few coins on Ebay last weekend. Some NGC-slabbed, modern Lincoln Memorial Cents in MS went for about 15% of their Numismedia value. (I didn't bid, maybe that's why!) Check out this live auction from last week (http://www.proxibid.com/asp/catalog.asp?aid=29454). I don't have a 2011 blue book yet
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2010 OBWs

More than two years after the Great Recession's onset, I've gotten my first unopened OBW from my local bank branch. The Great Recession supposedly didn't hit my nook of the Midwest that hard, but newer change has been hard to come by via my bank. I've enjoyed searching mostly pennies and nickels, but on a lark I asked for ten rolls of dimes on my last withdrawal. I just finished searching my third roll - all 2010D! At least half would rate FT. Some typically scarred fields can be very cl
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not going to the graders

Error coins - what are the odds? My latest bank circulated roll find - (presumably) a fully split Jefferson nickel planchet. I got the reverse with a D mintmark, and the coin weighs 4.3 grams. The obverse is totally naked. Pretty amazing for only missing 0.7 grams. It's clearly circulated. We're all collectors - can any of us imagine holding that coin and not noticing something awry? And yet every other person who touched that coin for at least the past 46 years spent their $.05 instead
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Floored by the Conservation Society

What will collectors think in 100 years? I just read NCS's article on conserving carbon spots. http://www.ncscoin.com/news/enews/2010/April/article1.asp Wow. When is conserving conserving, and when is conserving cleaning? The great thing about some coins that were cleaned 80 years ago is that they've had time and circumstances to tone again. But put a newly conserved coin into a slab, wait 80 years, and in 2090, they won't have changed a lick. What will collectors think then? I sup
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strike doubling

Easy to find, cheap, and often more spectacular than double dies My coin collection has taken a back seat in the past month to other of life's pursuits. But of the last few bank wraps I've examined, one 1994 1c roll had a lot of strike doubling. Enjoy the closeups! It'll be at least a month before this coin's brother makes it into my registry. For the next new slabs, I'm trying to take photos before slabbed. We'll see ... Happy taxes, all -
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Thanks to all the dead

Admit it, without estate coins, our hobby would be a lot tougher My primary focus right now is on my Lincoln Memorial Cent MS collection. Some years are pretty tough to find good examples of. The Denver mint's known for loose quality control in the 1970's, and the Philadelphia mint was even worse in the 1980's. I'm mostly using three methods to fill my set: (1) original bank wraps; (2) circulated bank rolls; and (3) collector rolls, including my own saved spare change. For the OBW's, che
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