Desert Gold

It sounds like a great idea to buy a 1924 $20 double eagle in memory of your grandma. I have a 1925 $2.5 gold piece that my grandparents received as a gift for their wedding in 1925. It graded AU58, so the person who gave them the coin must have got it from a bank. It must have been sentimental to them because they kept it their whole lives. After my grandparents both passed away, my dad purchased the coin from their estate. Likewise, when my father passed away, I purchased the coin. I plan to pass it on to my son after I am gone. I think it's a great way to remember someone you love. Gold is wonderful, and old gold coins are even better!

Five additional RLM pedigreed coins that I purchased after the original Heritage RLM auctions are shown in the pictures above. The data for these coins are shown below, including the dates when I purchased the coins as well as the change in the price that I paid for the coin compared to what the coin sold for in the original RLM auction. Other interesting information is also included. Brazil, 1832-R 6400 Reis, gold, NGC 55, NGC census (33 total, 8 in, 24 better) I purchased it in January 2018 for 14% less than the original price. Brazil, 1847-R 10,000 Reis, gold, NGC 53, NGC census (10 total, 1 in, 5 better) I purchased it in January 2018 for 37% less than the original price. Brazil, 1790-B 6400 Reis, Plain Headdress, gold, NGC 55, NGC census (3 total, 3 in, 0 better) I purchased it in August 2021 for 55% less than the original price. Brazil, 1729-B 1600 Reis, gold, NGC 12, First Variety Arms, NGC census (2 total, 1 in, 1 better) I purchased it in August 2022 for 74% less than the original price. This RLM coin is now in a NGC holder with a Petropolis Collection pedigree Brazil, 1731-B 800 Reis, gold, NGC Clipped, the only other coin in NGC census is a MS 62 I purchased it in August 2021 for 52% less than the original price. This RLM coin is now in a NGC holder with a Petropolis Collection pedigree Here are my observations about the three Heritage RLM auctions and the subsequent sales of the RLM pedigree coins. My observations are based on the 11 RLM coins I purchased following the completion of the three Heritage RLM auctions. There was a total of 474 items sold in these three RLM Heritage coin auctions. The 11 RLM coins correspond to a 2.3% sampling, which is low. I focused on buying rare coins, so my observations may not hold for the more common coins that were sold in the RLM auctions. There were many very rare coins in the RLM collection. It looks like many of these coins may have been cracked out and resubmitted to NGC. These resubmitted coins probably no longer have the RLM pedigree on the slab. The NGC census is probably inflated for these rare coins because of these resubmissions. If many RLM coins have been cracked out, then I probably have other RLM coins in my collection and don’t even know it. Many of the really rare Brazilian coins have problems and reside in “details” holders. It seems like the realized prices for the rare Brazilian coins in the three RLM auctions were pretty high and the prices have been falling since that time. Considering that I had just recently started collecting Brazilian coins and the only Brazilian coin that I had was purchased four months before the first RLM auction, I didn’t have a very good understanding about the Brazilian coin market at the time of the RLM auctions. The eleventh RLM coin that I own, which I didn’t have the space to show, was a Brazil 1733-M 800 Reis gold coin that I purchased in June 2016 for a 20% discount from the original purchase price. The only RLM coin that I purchased for a premium (25%) was purchased from a coin dealer shortly after the last RLM coin auction. The other ten RLM coins were purchased at discounted prices from future Heritage auctions. The discounts that I received on my RLM coins tended to increase (i.e., coin prices have fallen) as the amount of time increased from the time when they were originally sold in one of the three RLM auctions. It looks like the three Heritage RLM auctions may have marked a temporary peak in the Brazilian rare coin market. I’m not sure how strong the Brazilian coin market was before these auctions, so it’s possible that these auctions produced prices that were outliers to the upside. If anyone knows about this, I would be curious to know what you think. The prices may be falling because additional rare coins have appeared on the market. Or prices may be falling because people were overly excited about the original RLM auctions and they just bid too high on the coins. There are a number of reasons for the high prices that were realized in the RLM auctions. The most important reason probably is that the RLM collection contained many coins that are very rare and seldom seen, so if you missed the opportunity to get some of these coins then you may have to wait a long time to get another chance to buy them. At the time of the RLM auctions I was very frustrated because I didn’t win any RLM coins. However, in hindsight, things worked out very well for me. This experience reminds me of a song by Garth Brooks called “Unanswered Prayers.” I would love to hear about other people’s experiences with the RLM auctions or prices of Brazilian coins following the three Heritage RLM coin auctions. Also, does anyone think that it’s pretty cool to know that a pedigreed coin was once owned by a great collector?

I also agree that NGC should allow ANACS coins in the registry. However, US collectors are lucky since they can at least still use PCGS coins. World collectors can't even include PCGS coins in their registries.

The RLM Collection, which was assembled by Dr. Roberto Monteiro, contained an impressive selection of gold coins, gold ingots, and medals from Brazil. This collection contained examples of most of the rarest gold coins from Brazil and was one of finest collections of Brazilian gold coins ever assembled. This made the RLM pedigree very desirable. The RLM gold coins were auctioned during the first three of six auctions by Heritage as shown below. The last three auctions included medals from Brazil. • 2013 April 18-19 & 22-23 CICF World & Ancient Coins Signature Auction, The RLM Collection (122 items sold), https://coins.ha.com/c/search.zx?saleNo=3024&collection=16 • 2013 September 25 - 27, 30 & October 1 World and Ancient Coins Signature Auction, The RLM Collection of Brazilian Gold, Part II (242 items sold), https://coins.ha.com/c/search.zx?saleNo=3026&collection=109 • 2014 January 5 - 6 World & Ancient Coin Signature Auction, The RLM Collection of Brazilian Coins, Part III (110 items sold), https://coins.ha.com/c/search.zx?saleNo=3030&collection=21 • 2014 August 8 ANA World and Ancient Coins Platinum Night Auction, The RLM Collection Part IV - Medals of Brazil (10 items sold), https://coins.ha.com/c/search.zx?saleNo=3033&collection=62 • 2014 September 3 - 10 Long Beach Expo World Coins Signature Auction, The RLM Collection Part V - Medals of Brazil (33 items sold), https://coins.ha.com/c/search.zx?saleNo=3035&collection=195 • 2015 April 9 - 14 CICF World Coins & Ancient Coins Signature Auction, The RLM Collection of Brazilian Medals - Part VI (41 items sold), https://coins.ha.com/c/search.zx?saleNo=3040&collection=68 I still remember the first RLM auction, which occurred in April 2013. I had recently started collecting Brazilian coins (I had only purchased one Brazilian coin before this auction took place), and I couldn’t believe all the amazing coins that were being offered. Since I was just starting to learn about the coins from Brazil, I didn’t realize how rare many of these coins are. I remember that Heritage had given price estimates for the coins in this auction, and I naively used these estimates to decide my maximum bids. I had selected a few coins to bid on that had amazing eye appeal and I was looking forward to adding a number of these beauties to my new collection. As the auction got under way I watched in amazement as I was outbid on every coin that I had selected by a factor of two or more, and the Heritage estimates were also blown out of the water. The realized prices seemed really high to me. I guess there were several other collectors that were just as excited, or even more excited about this amazing collection than I was. I went away from this first RLM auction empty handed, but I thought I had learned a great deal. For the second RLM auction in September 2013 I once again selected several coins that I wanted and this time I chose higher prices for my maximum bids. However, I guess I hadn’t learned as much from the previous auction as I thought I had because once again I ended up losing all the lots to much higher bids. At this point I was really frustrated. I was starting to second guess my decision to start collecting coins from Brazil. For the third RLM auction in January 2014 I was determined to buy something, but I was once again outbid on all the RLM coins I had selected. So, I was three for three and struck out on getting any RLM coins from the initial Heritage auctions. However, I was able to pick up a very nice 1723-R 4000 Reis in NGC 65, which was being auctioned along with the RLM coins. It amazes me that you can find a 300-year-old coin in such an excellent state of preservation. At the time of the RLM auctions I was very frustrated that I had struck out and was out-bid on all the coins I bid on. However, since the last RLM auction ended in January 2014 I have been able to purchase 10 really nice coins with the RLM pedigree in other auctions when the original buyers decided to resell these coins. The first five RLM pedigreed coins that I purchased after the original Heritage RLM auctions are shown in the pictures above. The data for these coins are shown below, including the dates when I purchased the coins as well as the change in the price that I paid for the coin compared to what the coin sold for in the original RLM auction. Other interesting information is also included. • Brazil, 1699-R 4000 Reis, gold, NGC 55, NGC census (21 total, 6 in, 6 better) o I purchased it in March 2014 from a dealer for 25% more than the original price. o All the other RLM pedigree coins that I show were purchased from future Heritage auctions. • Brazil, 1728-R 1600 Reis, gold, NGC VF details, NGC details census (3 total, 2 in, 1 better), plus 2 graded VF o I purchased it in January 2015 for 27% less than the original price. o It was in a new holder without the RLM pedigree listed on the holder. So, it must have been “cracked out” and resubmitted to NGC, where it received the same grade as before. o The current NGC census shows 2 coins in VF details, but It’s likely that this number double-counts the RLM coin. • Brazil, 1778(L) 1000 Reis, gold, NGC 64, NGC census (5 total, 2 in, 0 better), purchased in September 2015. o I can’t find this coin in the original RLM auctions, but the slab does list the RLM pedigree. • Brazil, 1733-M 1600 Reis, gold, NGC VF details, NGC details census (2 total, 2 in, 0 better), plus 1 graded VF and 1 graded MS 64 o I purchased it in January 2016 for 15% less than the original price. • Brazil, 1725-M 400 Reis, gold, NGC AU details, NGC details census (5 total, 2 in, 0 better), plus 1 graded VF and 1 graded AU 50 o I purchased it in August 2016 for 53% less than the original price. In the next post I will provide pictures and data for 5 more RLM coins I purchased and give some observations about the Brazilian rare coin market.

In 2018 CoinWeek published an article by Doug Winter titled “Eight Great U.S. Coin Collections,” i.e., https://coinweek.com/doug-winter-eight-great-u-s-coin-collections/ You may recall that in one of my previous posts I mentioned that Doug Winter is a renowned dealer of U.S. gold coins. He has written numerous informative articles that you can find on his website. In this linked article he lists the following great U.S. coin collections: 1. The Ed Milas Collection of No Motto Half Eagles 2. The ELIASBERG Collection 3. The NORWEB Collection 4. The GARRETT Collection 5. The ELROD Collection 6. The REED Collection 7. The PITTMAN Collection 8. The BASS Collection While most of the coins in these collections were U.S. coins, they also contained some world coins. In the above pictures I show the obverses and reverses of 5 coins that I now own, which were previously part of one of the collections listed above. The coin information in the list below corresponds to the pictures going from the left to the right. Note that the indicated pedigrees are listed on the coin slabs. • Eliasberg pedigree, U.S., 1866-S with motto $5 gold, PCGS 53, NGC census (53 total, 2 in, 8 better) • Eliasberg pedigree, Brazil, 1774-B 6400 Reis gold, NGC 62, NGC census (9 total, 1 in, 0 better) • Norweb pedigree, Brazil, 1730-R 400 Reis gold, NGC XF details, NGC census 1 in XF details, 1 in MS 62 • Norweb pedigree, Brazil, 1734-R 400 Reis gold, NGC 62, NGC census (11 total, 3 in, 0 better) • Garrett pedigree, Brazil, 1855 5000 Reis gold, NGC 63, NGC census (49 total, 12 in, 8 better) When I find a coin, which I like, that has a pedigree listed on the slab, I will pay a premium for the coin only if the pedigree is for a well-known collector, like one of the collectors shown above. I think that such information makes the coin more interesting, and therefore more valuable. Doug Winter provides more information about “Pedigrees and Numismatics” in the following article, https://raregoldcoins.com/blog/articles/pedigrees-and-numismatics. One of the things that he mentions is that “At this point in time, the Eliasberg pedigree is considered the most valuable among collectors. A coin with an Eliasberg pedigree typically commands a 10-15% premium due to its high level of demand. In terms of desirability, the next tier of "name sales" includes Pittman and Norweb.” I would personally add a 25% premium to what I’m willing to bid for coins with these pedigrees. What do you think about pedigrees on coin slabs? Please leave a comment below.

I think that a great set for US gold collectors is US $1 Gold coins that were minted in San Francisco, see https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/119601/ US $1 gold coins were minted at the main Philadelphia, Pennsylvania mint (no mint mark) and the branch mints, i.e., the Charlotte, North Carolina mint (C), the Dahlonega, Georgia mint (D), the New Orleans, Louisiana mint (O), and the San Francisco, California mint (S). Below I list the number of dates for each mint for each of the different types of $1 gold coins. I also list the individual dates for the San Francisco mint since this is the set that I am focusing on in this post. • Liberty Head (1849-1854) o P – 6 dates o S – 1 date, 1854S o C – 5 dates o D – 6 dates o O – 5 dates • Indian Princess Head, Small Head (1854-1856) o P – 2 dates o S – 1 date, 1856S o C – 1 date o D – 1 date o O – 1 date • Indian Princess Head, Large Head (1856-1889) o P – 24 dates o S – 5 dates, 1857S, 1858S, 1859S, 1860S, 1870S o C – 2 dates o D – 6 dates o O – 0 dates There are several attributes that make the S-mint $1 coins a great set to collect: • There are only seven S-mint coins in the set. • There are three different coin types represented in the set. • Back when I was collecting these coins between 2008 and 2012, the S-mint coins were much cheaper than the other branch-mint coins. The Philadelphia coins were the least expensive. • All the S-mint coins are scarce, but they can still be found in uncirculated grades. • It’s possible to complete this S-mint set because of the attributes listed above. • There is a lot of interesting history associated with the S-mint coins because of the California gold rush (1848–1855) and the opening of the San Francisco mint in 1854: o California gold rush https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_gold_rush o San Francisco mint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Mint#:~:text=Opened in 1854 to serve,current one%2C completed that year. I never completed the S-mint $1 gold set (I own 4 of the 7 dates in this set) because I changed my collecting goals in 2012 (see my previous posts). I show the obverses of five US $1 gold coins in the header of this post. Below the header I show the corresponding reverses of these coins. Since I don’t own a 1854S, I show an 1851D (Dahlonega Mint) in the far-left slot to show an example of the Liberty Head type. The second coin is a 1856S, which is an example of the Small Head, Indian Princess type. The remaining three coins are examples of the Large Head, Indian Princess type. • 1851-D, Type 1, $1, MS-63 (NGC), (152 total, 5 in, 7 better) • 1856-S, Type 2, $1, MS-61 (NGC), (250 total, 15 in, 13 better) • 1857-S, Type 3, $1, MS-62 (NGC), (121 total, 4 in, 2 better) • 1858-S, Type 3, $1, MS-61 (PCGS), NGC Census (113 total, 8 in, 4 better) • 1859-S, Type 3, $1, MS-60 (NGC), 163 total, 6 in, 11 better)

Hi Tim. At first I wasn't sure what you were asking, but I may have figured it out. Back when these coins were graded by PCGS (around 15 years ago) "problem" coins were just labeled as being genuine. Fortunately, these days, "problem" coins are labeled as having details and the reason is specified, e.g., cleaned, scratched, environmental damage, etc. Is this what you were asking about?

Hi Tim. Yes, all three of the NNC coins came back as PCGS Genuine.

Thanks for your feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed the post.

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you enjoy the eye candy. It’s calorie free. Introduction My main goal for this post is to explain why I chose to collect coins from Brazil and Portugal together. I will use gold 400 Reis coins that were minted in Portugal and Brazil during the reign of Joao V for illustrative purposes. I have created a custom registry set that is titled “Joao V 400 Reis Gold Coins from Brazil and Portugal” to provide additional information about these coins, i.e., https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/CoinCustomSetView.aspx?s=34101 The first two pictures in the banner are of the obverse and reverse of a 1736 400 Reis gold coin (Pinto) that was minted in Lisbon, Portugal without a mint mark. The third and fourth pictures in the banner are of the obverse and reverse of a 1730 400 Reis coin that was minted in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil with a RRRR mint mark. Finally, the fifth picture is of the reverse of a 400 Reis coin that was minted in Minas Gerias, Brazil with a MMMM mint mark. Why I collect Coins from Both Brazil and Portugal D. Joao (John) V was the ruler of Portugal from 1706 to 1750. Since Brazil was one of Portugal's colonies during this time, Joao was also the de facto king of Brazil during this time. As I discussed in one of my previous journal posts, the Lisbon mint in Portugal served as the main mint and the other mints in Portugal and Brazil were effectively branch mints. Here I show that similar designs for 400 Reis gold coins were minted by both Portugal and Brazil during Joao's reign. The pictures in the banner are all of 400 Reis gold coins that are referred to as Cruzado Novos or Pintos. The Pintos are 14mm in diameter and weight 1.1g. The Pinto obverses (see the first and third pictures) exhibit the denomination (400 Reis), a crown with a cross, the name of the ruler written below the crown, and ornaments like sprigs or branches with leaves. There wasn’t room to show the obverse of the coin from Minas Gerias, but it looks very similar the third picture. The Pinto reverses include the year they were minted, a flanked (Jerusalem) cross with a single dot in the center, and either quatrefoils in the four quadrants of the cross on the coins from the Lisbon, Portugal mint (picture 2), or the mint marks for the coins minted in Brazil (pictures 4 and 5). They also include the Latin phrase “IN HOC SIGNO VINCES”, which translates to either "In this sign thou shalt conquer" or "By this sign, conquer". Since the three coins that are shown in the header look very similar, it shows that the Lisbon mint, which typically produced coins without mint marks, acted much like the Philadelphia mint in the US. Furthermore, the Rio De Janeiro and Minas Gerais (Vila Rica) mints acted like branch mints and included their mint marks on their coins. So why do I collect coins from Portugal in addition to those from Brazil? Well it’s sort of like US collectors that collect both coins from the main mint (Philadelphia) as well as the branch mint coins. In general, the coins from the Philadelphia mint are more available, can be found in better states of preservation, and are cheaper than those of the branch mints. The same situation holds for the coins from the main mint in Lisbon and the branch mints in Brazil. Most of the time the coins from Brazil are rarer and lower quality than those from the Lisbon mint. This is definitely true for the 400 Reis gold coins that we are discussing. Since the Portuguese Pintos were minted for many years, while they are scarce, they can be found in high grades, like the one shown in the banner which is a MS66 coin. They can also be purchased for relatively low cost. On the other hand, the 1730R coin (1 date) that was minted by the Rio De Janeiro mint, is very rare and expensive. There are currently only two of these coins in the NGC census, i.e, my XF details (scratched) coin and an amazing MS62 coin that recently sold at Heritage for a lot of money. The Minas Gerais minted type has two dates, and is more available, but still rare since there are currently only two straight-graded coins and 7 details coins in the NGC census. I believe that the numbers are inflated since I know some of the coins were cracked out and resubmitted. This type also sells for much more money than the Portugal Pintos. My coin is graded AU details. The Minas Gerias and Rio mints also produced a second type of 400 Reis gold coin called the Cruzadinho. Portugal didn't produce this type of coin. The Cruzadinhos are the same diameter (14mm) as the previously discussed Pintos, but they are lighter (0.9g). Examples of this type are shown in the custom registry set that I set up. The 1734R coin is a scarce type since there is only one date. The Minas Gerias mint produced coins for 4 years, so this type is more available. Both types of these coins can be obtained in uncirculated grades. For further information about all of the 400 Reis gold coins that were minted during the reign of king Joao V, see https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/CoinCustomSetView.aspx?s=34101 Although these are the last 400 Reis gold coins produced by the Brazil mints, the Lisbon mint continued producing Pintos until 1821. You can see all of the various types of Pintos produced by the Lisbon mint at https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/364386/

Many of the things I discuss in this post are “no brainers”, but I’m hoping that some people may find this information to be useful. I discuss some of the mistakes I made and hope that it may keep other people from doing the same things. I also briefly discuss some resources that I found useful. My Early Collecting Years When I started collecting coins in the 1970’s as a teenager, I really didn’t have many coin collecting resources available to me. Since I was only collecting US coins at the time, of course I had the standard Red Book. I also used to visit the library occasionally and read coin magazines. I purchased a few coins from the ads in these magazines, but I mainly collected coins from loose change. Finally, my parents used to take me to a local coin shop after I had saved up my allowance so I could purchase some inexpensive coins. My Coin Collecting Reawakening As I mentioned in my previous journal post on Collecting US Coins, I stopped collecting coins once I entered college because of a lack of time and money. However, my previous passion for coin collecting re-emerged and led me to focus on collecting gold coins from the United States of America in 2008. When I started collecting again, I went back to a resource that I was already familiar with. The first thing I did was purchase the latest copy of “The Official Red Book, A Guide Book of United States Coins, 2008 (61st) Edition. Since I wanted to focus on gold coins and had never bought one before, I studied the Red Book and decided to collect $3 gold pieces since they typically had low mintages and the series wasn’t too long. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had some money to reallocate and was anxious to buy something. The first thing that I found were hundreds of coins on Ebay. With all the coins available on eBay I thought that it was going to be really easy to form a set of $3 gold pieces. At the time I didn’t know anything about coin holders or third-party grading services. In short order I proceeded to buy three $3 gold pieces within a week that were in NNC holders: an 1882-P in AU55, 1878-P in MS64, and an 1854-O in AU55. It seemed like I got a great price on these coins when I compared the prices in the Red Book with what I paid for these coins. Luckily, shortly after buying the first three coins from eBay I came across a Stacks auction on the internet. While looking at their coins I noticed that they were all in either NGC or PCGS slabs. This led me to the NGC website. Here I found the chat boards and started learning more about coins. I searched for NNC and found a thread that was like the one in the link below: It was at this point that I realized that I had probably made a mistake with my first three purchases. I also learned that NGC is a valuable resource. A couple of years after I purchased the coins in the NNC slabs I had a coin dealer send them into PCGS to be graded and they all came back as genuine. No wonder I got such “great deals” on these coins. I now look at the cost of these three coins as being “tuition” that I spent on learning about this hobby. The key to collecting is trying to spend your money on great coins instead of “tuition.” When I look back on the situation things could have been a lot worse (more money wasted) had I not found the NGC website. I now know that the reputable third-party grading services include NGC, PCGS, ANACS, and GENI. So, for many years after my first mistakes, I only purchased coins that were in one of these reputable holders. Here are some morals to this story so far: • Don’t rush into things. • Take your time when you are building your collection. • They used to say, “Buy the book before the coin.” • Today it’s more accurate to say, “Do the research before you buy the coin” since there are so many excellent, free resources online today. • If a coin isn’t in one of the previously listed reputable slabs then treat the coin as being un-slabbed when making your purchase decision. Of course, after seeing all of the wonderful coins in the previously mentioned Stacks auction, I purchased a 1870 $3 gold piece in a PCGS MS-62 holder (see the middle coin in the above header). After making this purchase, I spent some more time on the NGC website and found the NGC population reports. This resource led me to change my collecting goals from $3 gold pieces to scare or rare US gold coins that had NGC populations of less than 150 coins. It turned out that the 1870 was the last $3 gold piece that I ever purchased. Although I started my collecting journey with a known destination, the course and destination has changed many times during my journey. Once I decided to collect scarce or rare US gold coins then I tried to find resources to help me in this endeavor. In a local library I had the good fortune to find a six-volume set of books that were published by David W. Akers starting in 1982 titled “United States Gold Coins; An Analysis of Auctions Records.” I checked out these wonderful books and photocopied the pages for the coins that I was interested in. In these books, Akers used previous auction records to comment on the rarity of every US gold coin. I used his valuable comments for the basis of my US coin collection. Fortunately, if you are a collector of US gold coins today you don’t need to find David Akers’ books because all his comments are included as part of PCGS Coinfacts. PCGS Coinfacts contains a tremendous amount of very valuable information for collectors of US coins. For example, it provides auction records, rarity and survival estimates, a condition census, and a list coin varieties. For US gold coins, PCGS Coinfacts also includes comments by Doug Winter, in addition to those that by David Akers. It turns out that I also used Doug Winter’s website extensively when I was collection US gold coins, i.e., https://raregoldcoins.com . On his website he has a link to a market blog and another link to coin articles that he writes. I found his articles to be very interesting and learned a great deal by reading them. He also sells very nice gold coins. I purchased a number of his coins. In fact, the second coin from the left in the above header is a coin that I purchased from Doug. There is also a lot of great information about US coins available in the NGC Coin Explorer. They have a price guide, a nice graphical plot of the grade summary, auction records, and a brief Description and Analysis of each coin, courtesy of Heritage Auctions. One of the best resources out there are the auction records with pictures, which are available at auction houses like Heritage Auctions and Stacks Bowers. I always use this this historical auction information together with NGC’s population records to decide how much I want to bid on a coin. As I have discussed, there is a tremendous amount of valuable information available to collectors of US coins. Unfortunately, there isn’t nearly as much information available to collectors of world coins. Fortunately, there are still auction records and population reports available for world coins, just like for US coins. Right after I decided to start collecting coins from Brazil I ordered bound copies of the first three time periods of the “Standard Catalog of World Coins”, which was published by Krause. They published five different volumes of this catalog for different time periods, i.e., 1601-1700, 1701-1800, 1801-1900, 1901-2000, and 2000-Date. These books are an excellent way to get started collecting world coins. It’s nice to be able to look through coins from most of the countries in the world when you are trying to decide what to collect. Many auction houses use the Krause numbering system for their coins in their auction descriptions and I believe that NGC also based their coin numbering on the information in Krause. After using these reference books for a while I figured out that it would be better to use the digital form (pdf) of these books instead of using three thick books. The pdf versions really worked well because I could just edited the pdf when I purchased a coin and insert the grade of my coin. This was a great way to keep track of which coins I had. However, these books have some shortcomings. The biggest shortcoming involves the fact that they are no longer in print (hard copy or digital) since Krause went out of business a few years ago. But it looks like some people are still selling the pdf versions of these books on Ebay. This is probably the main reason why Krause went out of business. Once someone purchased a pdf they could also send a copy of the pdf to all their friends. Other problems with these books include the inaccurate prices and the books don’t list all the different coin varieties. However, I’m sorry to see Krause disappear. It’s a loss to the coin collecting community. Once I became more familiar with the coins from Brazil and Portugal, I decided to purchase more in-depth reference books for these two countries. The key reference book for Portugal is “Moedas Portuguesas,” by Alberto Gomes. This is a truly incredible book. It shows all the varieties of coins from Portugal that were used from Roman times until the present. It also includes the coins from all of Portugal’s colonies, including Brazil. Even though Alberto Gomes passed away in 1999, a group of Portuguese Numismatists continue to update the book and release new editions every few years. The 7th edition of this book was published in 2021. While Gomes’ book has information on coins from Brazil, I also use the following books: • “Moedas Brasileiras – Livro Oficial,” Rodrigo Maldonado, 8th edition, 2022. • “Livro das Moedas do Brasil,” Claudio Patrick Amato and Irlei Soares das Neves, 15th edition, 2018. I use the Microsoft suite of applications to keep track of my collection. I use Excel to record all the key facts about the coins, e.g., country, date, denomination, grading service, grade, rarity, purchase place, price, date of purchase, pedigree, etc. I have all this information in a sortable table so that I can filter out desired information and list the coins sequentially according to the metric in one of the columns. I have found Excel tables to be very useful for storing the data for my coins. As an example, I could filter the country column to only display coins from Portugal. Then I could filter the denomination column to only display 400 Reis coins (Pintos). Next, I could sort the date column from the earliest to latest date. This would be an easy way to quickly find all the information that I have entered about the Pinto type set that I discussed in my last post. I use PowerPoint to organize all the pictures of the coins I’ve purchased along with screenshots of the coin listings from the auctions. I have also found that the NGC registry is an excellent way to organize and display my coins. I hope that some of this information has been interesting and helpful.

You're welcome. As long as there is interest I can keeping posting stuff.

In the last post I showed the obverses of two incredible Portuguese gold coins that are called Pintos. Pintos are the smallest gold coins from Portugal. They weigh between 1.07 g and 1.1 g, and are between 14 mm and 15 mm in diameter for different rulers. They all have a fineness of 0.9166, which leads to between 0.98 g and 1.0 g of pure gold in every Pinto. In order to provide a better feeling for the size of the Pintos I compare them with US $1 gold pieces. The Portuguese Pintos are smaller than the US $1 gold pieces, which weigh 1.67 g, and are between 13 mm and 15 mm in diameter depending on the type. So they have a similar diameter, but the Pintos are thinner than the US $1 gold pieces. All three types of US gold pieces have a fineness of 0.9, which leads to 1.5 g of pure gold, which is approximately 50% more than is contained in the Portuguese Pintos. Pintos were minted in Lisbon during the reigns of the following rulers: • D. Joao V - The Magnanimous (1706-1750) • D. Jose I - The Reformer (1750-1777) • D. Maria I and D. Pedro III (1777-1786) • D. Maria I - The Pious (1786-1799) • D. Joao - Prince Regent (1799-1816) • D. Joao VI – The Clement (1816-1826) o Brazil’s Independence (September 7, 1822) The last Pinto was minted in 1821, the year prior to Brazil’s independence. In addition, Portugal also discontinued minting three other denominations of small gold coins after 1821. Portugal only continued minting the larger denomination gold coins, i.e., half Pecas and Pecas. This change in their gold coinage was probably made because of the uncertainty surrounding Brazil’s independence in 1822. The Pintos that are shown in the header in the last post were minted for D. Joao V, in 1736, and for D. Jose I in 1771. Here I provide information about the 5 coins shown in this post’s header, i.e., Ruler, date, mint, denomination, grade, NGC population (total, same grade, higher grade) and the side of the coin in the photograph. All these coins were struck by the Lisbon, Portugal mint without a mint mark. • D. Jose I “Jose type”, 1752, Pinto (480 Reis), gold, NGC MS65, (2,1,0) – Reverse • D. Jose I “Jose type”, 1752, Pinto (480 Reis), gold, NGC MS65, (2,1,0) – Obverse • D. Maria I, 1780, Pinto (480 Reis), gold, NGC MS66, (5,1,0) - Obverse • D. Joao Prince Regent, 1807, Pinto (480 Reis), gold, NGC MS66, (5,1,0) - Obverse • D. Joao VI, 1818, Pinto (480 Reis), gold, NGC MS63, (4,1,2) - Obverse The picture on the far left shows the reverse of a Pinto that was minted during D. Jose’s reign. The coin reverses are very similar for the Pintos for all the rulers except for minor variations. The Pinto reverses include the date, a flanked (Jerusalem) cross with a single dot in the center, and quatrefoils in the four quadrants of the cross. Quatrefoils are defined as “an ornamental design of four lobes or leaves as used in architectural tracery, resembling a flower or four-leaf clover.” These quatrefoils are often used by the Lisbon mint in locations on the coin where the branch mints would place their mint marks. I will show an example of this in my next post. The reverses of all the Pintos also include the Latin phrase “IN HOC SIGNO VINCES”, which translates to either "In this sign thou shalt conquer" or "By this sign, conquer". According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_hoc_signo_vinces ), The bishop Eusebius of Caesaria, a historian, states that Constantine was marching with his army when he looked up to the sun and saw a cross of light above it, and with it the Greek words that translate into Latin as “in hoc signo vinces”, which is the legend on many Portuguese coins like the Pinto. The Pinto obverses have some common features, many of which change with the ruler: 1) the denomination (400 Reis); 2) a crown with a cross; 3) the name (sometimes abbreviated) of the ruler/rulers written below the crown; and 4) ornaments like sprigs or branches with leaves. The second coin from the left was minted during the reign of D. Jose I and is labeled the “Jose” type because Jose I is written below the crown. On the other hand, the middle coin in the previous post on Collecting Portuguese Coins, was also minted during the reign of D. Jose I, but it is labeled as an “Iose” type because Iose I is written below the crown on this coin. The middle coin in the banner includes the phrase “Maria.I ET.P.III” with dots between each of the words. The dots allow the words to be placed closer together, thereby allowing larger fonts to be used. This phrase indicates that D. Maria I and D. Pedro III were the rulers at the time this coin was minted. The fourth and fifth coins are labeled as “Joannes P.R.” and “Joan VI”, which stand for D. Joao when he was Prince Regent and king, respectively. In 1688 the price of gold and silver increased by around 20%. Since there was no time to collect and recast the circulating coins, by the Law of August 04, 1688, the value of all silver and gold coins was also increased by 20% in Portugal. During the next 150 years or so, the coinage denominations remained unchanged with the circulating coins having a value approximately 20% above the face value. Therefore, in the case of Pintos, their circulating value was 480 Reis. You can see all of the Portuguese Pinto types in the following denomination type set: Gold 400 Reis, Type Set, 1718-1821, Circulation Issue, https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/364386/ I really like denomination type sets because they allow you to see how the coin designs for a given denomination change as the rulers change. The comments that I made in the above Pinto type set are shown below. The following attributes make the Portugal 400 Reis Gold type set an interesting set to collect: • These coins are beautiful little jewels. • Portugal struck 400 Reis gold coins between 1718 and 1821. • During this period there were four different rulers (five if you include Pedro III). • There are seven different type coins in this set. • Since there are only seven types, this set might be easier to complete than other type sets. • While the reverses for the different types are fairly similar, there are a number of different and interesting obverse designs on these type coins. • All of the 400 Reis gold coin types can be found in high grades. • Although they can be found, some of the 400 Reis gold coin types are very scarce. • It’s amazing that 200- to 300-year-old coins have survived in such very high states of preservation. • Portugal also struck 400 Reis silver coins, which were much larger coins and were struck over a longer period of time than the gold ones.

Shortly after I started collecting Brazilian coins I learned more about the history of Brazil. This led me to also learn about its mother country, Portugal. Brazil was discovered by a Portuguese expedition that was led by Pedro Álvares Cabral on April 22, 1500. Since Brazil was a Portuguese colony between 1500 and September 7, 1822, when it declared its independence, the rulers of Portugal were also de facto rulers of Brazil during this period. Portugal was a global trading and maritime power during the 15th and 16th centuries. In addition to Brazil, it’s explorers allowed Portugal to develop numerous colonies in Africa, America, India, and Southeast Asia. The Portuguese Colonial Empire was the first truly global empire and the longest-lasting colonial empire in history—from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the handover of Macau to China in 1999. A brief history of the rise and fall of the Portuguese Colonial Empire is outlined by Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Empire: • Conquest of Ceuta, 1415 • Sea route to India, 1498 • Colonial Brazil, 1500 • Iberian Union, 1580–1640 • Dutch-Portuguese War (1588–1654) • Portuguese Restoration War (1640–1668) • End of Moroccan territories (1769) • Independence of Brazil (1822) • Loss of Indian provinces (1961) • Portuguese Colonial War (1961–1974) • Carnation Revolution (1974–1975) • Handover of Macau (1999) Because of its vast empire, which stretched around the globe, and the large quantities of materials that Portugal received from the colonies (especially the gold that came from Brazil), the Portuguese Empire became the holder of what we today call the global reserve currency. A list of the other countries that have held the global reserve currency throughout history are listed below: • Portugal (1450–1530) • Spain (1530–1640) • Netherlands (1640–1720) • France (1720–1815) • Great Britain (1815–1920) • United States (1921 to today) Another thing that that I learned about Portugal and Brazil is that many of the gold coins that circulated in Brazil and Portugal were the same with the exception that they were struck at different mints and they had different mint marks. In the case of the coins that were struck at Lisbon, Portugal, there weren’t any mint marks on these coins. I’ll talk more about this in a later post. There are some reasons why collecting Portuguese coins is easier and cheaper than for those from Brazil. The primary reason is that Portuguese coins can typically be found in better states of preservation than those from Brazil. Since a large part of Brazil (over 2/3) is covered by rain forests, the humidity level is very high, which can cause corrosion of copper and silver coins. Fortunately, gold is the most non-reactive of all metals so humidity doesn’t affect gold coins as much. Note that there is about 8% of copper in gold coins from Portugal and Brazil, which can occasionally cause some issues. Another reason is that since Portugal was a more advanced country than Brazil, there were probably many more coin collectors located in Portugal and the surrounding countries in Europe than there were in Brazil during the period when Brazil was a colony of Portugal. I would guess that many of the well-preserved copper and silver coins from Brazil were probably saved by collectors in Europe. Since there are more well-preserved coins from Portugal than Brazil, the Portuguese coins are also usually cheaper than those from Brazil. Like the United States of America and Brazil, Portugal also had a main mint (in Lisbon, Portugal) and branch mints. As I will discuss later, all of the mints in Brazil can be considered as branch mints of Lisbon during the time that Brazil was a colony. Here is a list of the mints in Portugal along with their mint marks and their time in operation: • Lisbon, L, or none, 13th or 14th century until present • Porto, P, 14th century – 1721 • Evora, E, 14th century – 1667 Here is a list of the rulers of Portugal and Brazil during the period when Brazil was a colony of Portugal: • 2nd Dynasty (1385-1580) o D. Manuel I - The Venturous (1495-1521) • Brazil discovered in 1500 o D. Joao III - The Pious (1521-1557) o D. Sebastiao I - The Desire (1557-1578) o D. Henrique I - The Chaste (1578-1580) • 2nd Interregnum (1580) o D. Antonio I – Prior of Crato (1580-1583) • 3rd Dynasty (1580-1640) o D. Filipe I - The Prudent (1580-1598) o D. Filipe II – The Godly (1598-1621) o D. Filipe III – The Grand (1621-1640) • 4th Dynasty (1640-1910) o D. Joao IV - The Restorer (1640-1656) o D. Afonso VI - The Victorious (1656-1667) o D. Pedro - Prince Regent (1667-1683) • Mechanical Coining (1683) o D. Pedro II - The Pacific (1683-1706) o D. Joao V - The Magnanimous (1706-1750) o D. Jose I - The Reformer (1750-1777) o D. Maria I and D. Pedro III (1777-1786) o D. Maria I - The Pious (1786-1799) o D. Joao - Prince Regent (1799-1816) o D. Joao VI – The Clement (1816-1822) • Brazil’s Independence (September 7, 1822) Here is a list of Portuguese rulers after Brazil’s independence: • D. Joao VI – The Clement (1816-1826) o Brazil’s Independence (September 7, 1822) • D. Pedro IV - Soldier King (1826-1828) • D. Miguel I – Absolute (1828-1834) • D. Maria II - The Educator (1834-1853) • D. Pedro V - The Hopeful (1853-1861) • D. Luis I – The Popular (1861-1889) • D. Carlos I - The Unfortunate (1889-1908) • D. Manuel II – (1908-1910) • Republic (1910-1999) • Euro Adopted (January 1, 1999) Here are some of my favorite sets of coins for Portugal: • Joao, Type Set, 1799-1826, Circulation Issue, https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/221288/ • Miguel, Type Set, 1828-1834, Circulation Issue, https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/221906/ • Maria II, Type Set, 1833-1853, Circulation Issue, https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/221617/ Here I provide information about the 5 coins shown in the header, i.e., Ruler, date, mint, denomination, grade, NGC population (total, same grade, higher grade). All of these coins were struck in the Lisbon, Portugal mint without a mint mark. • D. Pedro II, 1691, 1000 Reis, gold, NGC MS62, (2,1,0) • D. Joao V, 1736, Pinto (480 Reis), gold, NGC MS66, (9,1,0) • D. Jose I, 1771, Pinto (480 Reis), gold, NGC MS66, (6,1,0) • D. Joao Prince Regent, 1802, Peca (6400 Reis), gold, NGC MS62, (11,6,2) • D. Pedro IV, 1828, Peca (6400 Reis), gold, NGC61, (4,1,1) The three coins on the left side of the header are the first three coins that I purchased from Portugal. The two Pintos are incredible coins. It’s amazing that they are this well preserved (i.e., MS66) considering they are more than 250 years old. I will discuss more about Portuguese Pintos in my next post.

Thanks so much. Brazil has a number of very interesting counter-stamped coins. They were a very important part of their coinage. I also really like this coin.