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coinsbygary

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Journal Entries posted by coinsbygary

  1. coinsbygary
    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 family I used the buy out money to pay off the main mortgage on our house. This in and of itself will make living much easier. Furthermore, all the other outstanding consumer credit I had is paid off. After all these years of not budgeting because I earned more than I needed to live on I finally sat down and made a budget on a spreadsheet. Remarkably, I found that retirement life for at least this year should not prove to be too difficult. That will change however in 2020 when we will have to buy healthcare.

    That said, I have very little wiggle room left in my budget to buy coins. So, the question I ask myself is how do coins and collecting fit into retirement? Fortunately, I am discovering that the hobby is bigger than just buying coins.

    Fortuitously, I saw this life change coming years ago and I worked furiously to complete as many of my type sets as possible before retirement. With gold hanging around at $1200-$1300 an ounce, most of my recent purchases have been of classic gold type coins. Now my 1834-1933 gold type set is complete with the exception of the 1907 high-relief St. Gaudens Double-Eagle. At the price I can expect to pay for that bad girl I’m going to have to leave it as an open slot.

    Having completed my Dansco 7070 type set (19th through 21st century type) I identified certain coins in my set for upgrading to more eye-appealing coins. I started this upgrade project about 2-3 years ago but have not been able to finish this part of my collection. To complete it I plan on selling the doubles in my collection to buy new coins. My goal has been to have the most eye-appealing coins in this set that I can afford. Thus, instead of using new money to purchase these coins I will sell off existing coins that no longer fit into any of my sets.

    As a collector who has been collecting coins since I was a boy I currently own hundreds of certified coins. Many of these will make a nice pool of coins for bartering and selling to have the collection I want through retirement. I have five sets that have won major NGC awards and those sets plus the balance of my type sets will make up the core of my collection.

    In May of 2018 after years of knowing of its existence I finally joined my local coin club. (I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner). This will keep me busy with the local collectors where I live. On occasion one of our club meetings is a buy-sell-trade meeting. This is a popular event for many of the members and especially the dealer members of the club.

    At the last meeting I offered to image two coins for free to every club member present at the buy-sell-trade. This has allowed me to demonstrate my macro photography set-up and help me to determine if this is something I want to do in retirement for fun and a little extra income. Now that I know this will be a thing I want to do, I will rent a table at local coin shows around the state to offer my services. For the time being this will only be an on-site thing. I don’t want the responsibility for people’s coins off site.

    Other than that, I’ll have time to do research and write-ups for the sets I currently own. For the most part, this part of collecting will cost me little or nothing! Other than that, I may do more blog posts like I used to do in the past. I may also dabble in doing a display at a major show like the annual Central States show in Schaumburg, Ill. After all, if I can win awards with virtual displays on NGC’s registry, why not real displays at a show?

    As a sidebar to an earlier post, I got the provenance on the certification labels I was hoping for with two medals I purchased directly from the curators of the Fraser Studio Finds. (The Numismatist, June 2018). With a custom set dedicated to the Coins and Medals of Laura Gardin Fraser, I am thrilled to own these medals that once belonged to the Frasers! I want to thank Laurynn at NGC for working with me on this one to note the Fraser provenance on the labels.

    Interestingly, the 1912 John Cardinal Farley caste medal at 131mm is too big for a holder. In Its place NGC graded the medal as is and sent a card with photographs of the medal and its label. NGC also stipulates that the grade is as is when the medal was graded and that the NGC guarantee for grade does not apply.

    It seems that in the end just because I’m retired and not buying as many coins as I used to does not mean that I will have to give up on the hobby! Pictured is the card sent back to me with the Farley medal and a macro shot of a 1942-D 2/1 Mercury Dime I took for one of my local coin club members.

    Gary


  2. coinsbygary
    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 with type collecting. I was fascinated by the variety of coinage designs throughout our nation’s history. At the time I was also interested in odd denomination coinage.

    I soon bought a Red Book and wore out the bindings. I literally spent hours paging through that book dreaming of the coins I wanted to buy. It didn't take too long for me to become fascinated with the coins in the back of the book. No, they weren't the classic commemoratives but the gold coins and especially coins minted at obsolete mints like Charlotte, Dahlonega, New Orleans, and Carson City. Here again, I was interested in another type of type set, that of mintmarks. Still as a youth growing up in Wisconsin, I was glad to see a Wisconsin coin in the back of the Red Book! Today I proudly own a Wisconsin commemorative half dollar.

    Enter my time in the US Navy and my collecting took a different direction. From every foreign port I had visited I collected that country's circulating coinage. The same happened after I got married and lived in Europe for a year. Today, I still own many of these coins mounted in albums. Following this my prodigal journey into the numismatic far country began in earnest. This began several years of hit and miss but mostly miss in my collecting. At that time, I was collecting things like Silver American Eagles and modern commemoratives. In fact, I had so many interests I couldn't keep up with them all. It's kind of like the jack-of-all-trades but master of none.

    At the peak of my numismatic prodigal journey I started a collection of Morgan Dollars beginning with the New Orleans minted Morgan’s and toners. After this I thought, “why not collect them all.” For two years I was buying Morgan Dollars at a phenomenal rate. I even bought the granddaddy 1893-S in VG-10 condition. Following this I hit burn-out before completing the Morgan collection. This led to a momentary hiatus from buying Morgan Dollars. I thought that the Morgan Dollar hiatus would help to renew my interest in them but to no avail. I ended up selling most of my Morgan's including the 93-S.

    I did end up keeping the Morgan's grading MS-65 to 66 and all my CC mint marked coins including several GSA CC's. Keeping the CC's was the first indication that I was heading home, to my childhood fascination with obsolete mint facilities. Interestingly, this did not extend to New Orleans. Keeping the 65 and 66's grew from a love of numismatic beauty. This did not include the heavily abraded ugliness of lower graded MS Morgan's. Ultimately this may have been the main reason for my loss of interest.

    Concurrently with the Morgan's, I thought to collect Eisenhower Dollars. With those I completed the set in short order. Then I sat back and thought what now and sold most of those. Still I found what I had learned by assembling the Ike's to be a worthwhile experience.

    Serious numismatic soul searching brought me back home to my roots and type collecting. I just love the variety of our nation’s coinage, always have, always will. Now my focus is upgrading the coins in my type sets with coins that have higher eye-appeal. With these coins I am engaging my love of numismatic beauty.

    Notwithstanding, while I was in the numismatic far country, I discovered that I liked thematic and topical sets. I started sets entitled, "Inspirational Ladies, The Use of Seated Imagery in Numismatics, and The Coins and Medals of Laura Gardin Fraser". In all these sets I continue to add coins as I discover good candidates.

    When you boil it down what I really like is variety! Consider this, with the exception of commemoratives all the other far country sets were series-based sets. Thematic sets are based on a theme with DIFFERENT coins that match the theme! In these sets I can mix and match coins, medals, and tokens from all over the planet.

    I wish I knew how much money I wasted in the far country. Sometimes, I refer to the money I lose as the cost of learning and participating in MY chosen hobby. Think of it this way. Say a person likes to golf and spends hundreds of dollars if not thousands on green fees in a year. Is there any means for the golfer to recover his or her losses? No and even more significant you never here them complain about the money spent enjoying what they love to do. Still, I am not in this to lose money and I don’t like throwing good money after bad. Just like the prodigal son came to his senses after he wasted his inheritance so have I in terms of what I like to collect. Just like the prodigal son learned some important life lessons in the far country, so have I.

    In the end though, you still have to try different avenues of collecting if for nothing else to see if you like it. My problem was not that I started the Morgan set but that I put very little thought into it and went into a full throttle buying binge. When I came to my senses, I had already spent thousands of dollars!

    Now that I know what I like, I won't be taking any unnecessary journeys away from home and what got me interested in collecting coins as a young lad living under my parents’ roof. I have come full circle back to my numismatic roots.

    Please enjoy my picture collage of the many different types of coins, medals, and tokens from my collection.

    Gary 

     

  3. coinsbygary
    With the advent of the NGC and PCGS registries came new and improved ways to catalog, preserve, and display the coins in your collection. This after years of collectors plugging raw coins into albums. Yet, I feel that there was something nostalgic about plugging coins in an album that may have been lost.
    PCGS has tried to recapture that nostalgia in their registry with their coin album software. I must say that for a while I was impressed and jealous. Don’t get me wrong, I prefer NGC’s registry and I do not currently maintain a registry with PCGS. However, there was something in me that longed to present my collection in that format, especially my NGC 7070 Basic US Type Set. After all, isn’t this set based on a Dansco coin album anyway!
    Still, there has got to be a way to get the best of both worlds and I think that I have found it! A week or two ago I got an email from a coin supply vendor announcing that Dansco would for a limited time make their 7070 album available for purchase. Jumping on the opportunity, I ordered the album with no intention of ever putting a coin in it!
    When the album arrived, I photographed the front and backside of all the pages. Next, I loaded them up to Photoshop Elements and started to plug photographs of my coins into the slots. I was in essence creating my very own virtual coin album with the advantage of enlarging the page to more closely inspect the coins. Eventually, I’ll put all the pages together in a power point file or something like that. Yes, the page files are a bit large to post. But for me, I am looking for many hours of enjoyment both plugging coins and enjoying them all together in one frame well into the future!
    So far I have page 1 of 5 finished (I’ll order the gold page 6 separately) and I’m posting a scaled down picture of that page with this post. Happy Collecting!
    Gary

  4. coinsbygary

    I Am Honored

    By coinsbygary,

    Sorry folks no image this time! It just doesn't seem quite appropriate for this post. You see, today I have accidently discovered that one of my writings was linked on the website of a national humanitarian organization!
     
    I still have to pinch myself to see if this is really happening! This all started with my coin club asking for club members to give a presentation at some of our upcoming meetings. I thought it would be nice for me to do a presentation based on my Laura Gardin Fraser coin and medal collection and I went right to work on my power point presentation to be given at the next club meeting on May 8. I really enjoy my club and the opportunity I had to offer other members free imaging of their coins at a recent buy-sell-trade event. This upcoming presentation will give me the opportunity to share other aspects of my numismatic interests in research, writing, and collecting. If that goes well, I plan to apply for a "Money Talks" presentation of the same material at the Chicago "Worlds Fair of Money" later this summer.
     
    One of the medals in my presentation is the "National Institute of Social Sciences medal". The mission of the National Institute of Social Sciences is to "promote the study of the social sciences, to support social science research and discussion, and to honor individuals who have rendered distinguished service to humanity." The bronze medal in my collection was presented to Clara D Noyes to honor her for distinguished service to humanity. Though the bronze medal is no longer awarded, the gold medal is still awarded on an annual basis since 1913. Because the medal design has not changed and it appears prominently on the upper left hand corner of every page on the institute's website I thought to comment on the artistic numismatic legacy left to them by Laura Gardin Fraser. This led me to a page that described the medal. As I went down the page I noticed a few additional reading links, One of which curiously seemed familiar to me entitled, "A Beautiful Medal for a Worthy Recipient." I thought, no it can't be? Yes it can! The link directs you to an article I posted at NGC's collector's society on 4/14/17! How awesome is that! 
     
    In fact, I've been a collector for a very long time and no other set that I have ever put together has brought me more accolades than "The Coins and Medals of Laura Gardin Fraser." My contact network of medal collectors is phenomenal, especially considering that I am not a medal collector and that my network has sent me referrals, watched e-bay listings on my behalf, and gladly have shared information without which my LGF set would not have been possible. I've had three LGF articles published in the PAN publication, "The Clarion." In fact the post from the link that I am referring is in the October, 2017 issue of the Clarion! I've had cold contacts from authors wanting to publish my images, other people wanting to sell me their medals, and the family of Clara D Noyes that wants to buy my social sciences medal back! Incidentally, I have every intention of selling it back when I find another example for my collection. In return the family representative has sent me a signed copy of a biography he wrote about Clara! All these things do me great honor along with all of you who follow my blog posts. This has all been a surreal ride for me that brings new and amazing things my way. As I always say, "Who would have thunk it?" It has just been a wonderful ride that I would have never in a thousand years anticipated. I am indeed blessed!
     
    Here are two links to the National Institute of Social Sciences website. The first will take you to the main page and the second to the page with mu link.
    http://www.socialsciencesinstitute.org/
    http://www.socialsciencesinstitute.org/the-gold-medal
    Gary
  5. coinsbygary

    Contrasts in Lighting

    By coinsbygary,


    Coin Photography
    A few days ago, I was contacted by a friend concerning a medal that he had photographed by someone other than me! 😊. To be exact, he didn’t like what he got and wanted to know my thoughts on the photography. Now, if a person asks me questions about photography, they will always get more from me than they asked! The pictures my friend sent lacked details. The devices were hazy and had a strange blue hue. The fields on the medal were basically flat. Because the medal had a reverse proof finish, I photographed a 2013-W reverse proof SAE from my collection to make a few lighting comparisons.
     
    First, I photographed my SAE using a 45-degree axial reflector. This transparent reflector directly underneath the lens reflects about half the light from a perpendicular lighting source to the lens. The remaining light passes through the glass and is absorbed by the black surface inside its holder. From my picture, notice that I fashioned my reflector from a CD case lid.
     
    An obstacle that I always have to deal with using this method is too little or too much light. If a coin is in a plastic holder, it compounds the obstacle. Getting just the right light is difficult because the light is often hazy, and the focus is not consistent over the entire surface of the coin. Usually, I have to use a diffuser on the lighting source, adding yet another variable into the mix. The picture I am posting of my SAE under this form of lighting is my third take. Despite the difficulty experienced, this is my favorite image of the SAE.
     
    Next, I photographed the SAE using my lens aperture LED ring light. Because this light is precisely perpendicular to the coin, the picture is much like the one using axial lighting. However, axial lighting is reflected, and this light is direct. You will notice the mirrored surface of the coin is much more reflective than the picture using axial lighting. This type of lighting is advantageous when photographing darkly-toned copper coins. In fact, I used this light to photograph the Conder Token pictured in my last ANA post.
     
    Standard lighting will always be at an angle other than 0-degrees because the camera is in the way. This method of lighting is perfect for capturing the luster of your coin. You will notice the luster present on the obverse field of my SAE in front of Lady Liberty. Because the lighting is at an angle, the highly reflective surfaces on the coin appear black. If this were a standard-proof coin, the fields would be black, and the devices would be silver because of the non or less reflective surface of the devices. Most often, I use two lamps to better light the surface of the coin and reduce the effect of shadows.
     
    Recently, I imaged a chocolate-brown, lightly toned Conder Token that I had difficulty capturing the fine details. In the end, I used one standard light in front of the token to finally get the results I was looking for. Basically, I use whatever form of light that will give me the result I want, and it often takes a lot of shots to get it right.
     
    I hope you have enjoyed my post and my pictures. I am also posting a non-silver Ronald Reagan reverse proof dollar using axial photography. Which is your favorite SAE picture? If I ever photograph your coins, I might ask you this question. You can be sure that my friend didn’t have a choice. Love it, or hate it, he had to take what he got ☹






  6. coinsbygary
    There are some things I don’t particularly care to do. When it comes to those things, I usually procrastinate getting them done. Preparing submission forms to send coins and medals to NGC for grading is something I always procrastinate. I just don’t like itemizing the submission form, looking up the market value, separating my medals from my coins, modern vs. classic, etc. Then packing them up and running to the post office is such a pain in the neck. Well, today I finally said, “This is the day” and I grabbed the first item to be submitted.
    The first item in my submission is a 55mm 1876 William Barber classic, Centennial Medal struck in white metal. Since I just recently finished experimenting with my lighting, I thought, “Why not try a few of those new techniques on this medal.” Well, that’s all it took to successfully kick the submission can down the road a little farther!
    The first set of pictures was so-so in that they did not significantly improve on the pictures I already had. Then I had the hair-brained idea to try something that I typically have a hard time getting just right to see if I might get lucky. Why not? After all, the alternative was to get back to work on that submission. Besides, the best time to take pictures of coins is in their raw state and this would be my last crack at it. This medal though not classified as a proof has mirrored fields. Why not try to see if I could get the full effect of those mirrors in my picture?
    The best possible placement for lighting is perpendicular to the object you are photographing. As you can see with my set-up, that is kind of hard to do given that the camera is in the way. There are two workarounds that are quite effective in redirecting the light to simulate a perpendicular lighting source. The first is axial lighting as described in Mark Goodman’s excellent book on coin photography entitled, “Numismatic Photography.” The second is to tilt the coin towards the lighting source. I chose the second as the easiest thing to do.
    The tricky part in this is to minimize the reflections and there WILL be reflections. Now I used a soft cloth to tilt this medal toward the lighting source about four degrees. Then I tried my best to position the reflections to a place on the medal where they are not distracting. On the obverse, the reflection was under the date 1876. On the reverse, it was in the middle of the 13 radiating stars! Perfect, I thought, because the reflection made the center of the stars look like the sun!
    Now when you tilt a coin relative to the camera you will run into issues with focusing the camera and distorting the shape of the medal. Because of the tilt, the camera will see the round medal as slightly oval. To improve the focus, I moved the camera farther away from the subject effectively making the image smaller relative to the frame. Then I corrected the oval camera distortion using Photoshop Elements 2019. Please notice the picture on the back cover of Mark Goodman’s book showing the coin tilted towards the light to see that his set-up is similar to mine. Now I use lights on both sides of the medal but since the medal is tilted towards the one, it is tilted away from the other. Thus, the lamp tilted away has little or no effect on the picture.
    I am posting two pictures of my medal. The one that has darker fields is a picture showing the medal perpendicular to the camera. The other one with the lit-up fields is a picture showing the medal perpendicular to the lighting source.
    I just had to post this! Now back to my submission? Nah, but I will get to it soon unless I run into more distractions! Gary




  7. coinsbygary

    An Improbable Medal Purchase

    By coinsbygary,


    So-Called Dollars
    How did a medal I never knew existed become something I had to have in less than two months? Several improbable events, that’s how.
     
    The improbable events started at the end of November as my wife, and I prepared to go on a cruise. Our 16-day cruise began in Los Angeles and ended almost 4,700 miles away in Miami through the Panama Canal. At the time, I was excited about transiting the Panama Canal. But I was especially thrilled to spend 16 days with my daughter, her husband, and my 17-month-old grandson.
     
    I was all in on the canal when we finally reached Panama City. I gobbled up as much information about the canal as possible. I took dozens of pictures of one of the seven engineering wonders of the world. To this day, I’m soaking up all things Panama Canal. I even have a wallpaper image of the canal on my laptop!
     
    When I got home, the most improbable event of all occurred. A few years ago, I decided to let my membership in the Central States Numismatic Society lapse in favor of PAN. When I went to the post office to pick up the mail, I noticed a large envelope with a return address to CSNS. Inside the envelope was their newly reformatted winter 2023 copy of “The Centinel” and a note asking me to come back. As an aside, I like “The Centinel’s” new format. At any rate, The Centinel had an article entitled “Commemorating the Big Ditch” by Juan L. Riera. The article described the opening of the Panama Canal on August 15, 1914, and the so-called dollar struck to commemorate it.
     
    Do any of you have that “gotta have” coin for your collection on your want list? After reading the article, this so-called dollar (HK-398) immediately went from never heard of to first on my want list of “gotta have” pieces for my collection. I immediately went surfing on the internet to find my new must-have. I finally settled on a nice medal from a dealer I had previously dealt with. Having a medal available in the marketplace for me to purchase is the last improbable event in a long series of incredible events.
     
    Fortunately, this medal was reasonably priced and now stands as the perfect addendum to a most memorable cruise! Add to the fact that this medal (1 of 50,000 serialized medals) was carried aboard the SS Cristobal. The Cristobal was the first ship to transit the Panama Canal on August 3, 1914. At the official opening of the canal on August 15, 1914, this medal was given to 200 dignitaries aboard the SS Ancon. The Ancon is the first official ship to transit the Panama Canal. Though this medal is 1 of 50,000, the dealer who sold me this medal estimates that only a couple hundred examples of it survive today. Perhaps the low survival rate can be attributed to the high international appeal of this medal scattered around the world.
     
    This I do know that my medal graded MS-62 by NGC is among the nicer surviving examples. The design of the Panama Canal completion medal was recommended to the John F. Newman Co. of New York (manufacturer of the Panama Canal Completion medal) by Miss Elizabeth Rodman, cousin of Capt. Hugh Rodman, U.S.N., Supt. of Transportation, Canal Zone. Though the Panama Canal completion medal was copyrighted in 1913, the official issuing date of the medal is recognized as 1914.
     
    This medal measures 38mm in diameter and is struck in bronze. The serial number marked on the reverse is 11138. The obverse of the medal features a woman standing on the prow of a ship transiting the Panama Canal. Her arms are outstretched, holding a ribbon. Under her hands are two globes, the eastern hemisphere on her right and the Western hemisphere on her left. The inscription on the ribbon, translated from Latin, is “Columbia unites the oceans.” The woman has rays of light emanating from her head. There is a banner over her head with the motto boldly proclaiming, “Prosperity to all Nations.” Though I can not find any documentation of the fact, I believe the woman is a personification of Columbia.
     
    The reverse features an inscription under the seal of the Panama Canal Zone. It reads: Commemorating the opening of The Panama Canal to the Commerce of the World Copyrighted and Bearing A Serial number is one of 50000 Carried on the Vessel making the First Passage Through the Panama Canal as Authenticated in Certificate Signed by (signed) Geo. W. Goethals Chief Engineer and Chairman lsthmian Canal Commission.
     
    A significant expansion to the Panama Canal opened on June 26, 2016. This new expansion allows much larger ships like my cruise ship, carrying 5000+ crew and passengers, to transit the canal. I am posting a picture I took of the Agua Clara locks as my ship exited the Panama Canal on the Atlantic side.
     
    References:
    Winter 2023 edition of The Centinel, “Commemorating the Big Ditch” by Juan L. Riera
    https://www.so-calleddollars.com/Events/Panama_Canal_Completion.html


  8. coinsbygary
    This year’s annual ANA World’s Fair of Money is perhaps one of the most memorable coin shows I have ever attended. Every show is special in its own way but this one was the first one in which I was a Money Talks presenter.
     
    The annual ANA World’s Fair of Money is a wonderful opportunity for advanced and novice collectors alike to locate those hard to find coins for their collections. For some it is a rare opportunity to roam a large bourse floor filled with dealers from across the country selling every type and category of coins. Literally, there is something there for everyone and more importantly every budget. I ended up buying a PCGS MS-62 1859 Indian Head Cent for my type collection. I also bought a new 10x loupe and a Kennedy half-dollar Christmas tree ornament from the United States Mint. (I kindly ask the collecting purists out there to not throw their shoes at me for that one, lol).
     
    The annual ANA World’s Fair of Money is a wonderful opportunity to view million-dollar coins you would not otherwise see. Among the many coins I saw was an 1804 silver dollar, an 1854-S half-eagle, and two 1913 Liberty Head nickels. The thrill of viewing these coins never gets old. What kind of made me sad about the 1854-S half eagle is that the new owner cracked it out of its original NGC holder to a PCGS holder. The kicker in all this was that the grade remained the same. I don't know why but I was disappointed to hear this, at any rate on with the blog.
     
    I usually take my wife with me to these shows. When I point out the million-dollar coins she has a hard time believing they are worth that much. This is when I impress her with my vast numismatic knowledge (YEAH RIGHT). For instance, I had the pleasure of telling her the 1854-S half-eagle is only one of four known. More often than not she responds with the single word, “WOW.” (Wife impressed; hubby points earned, ya gotta love it)!
     
    The annual ANA World’s Fair of Money is a wonderful opportunity to learn new things. My wife and I always enjoy viewing the competitive displays. This year as a bonus for submitting a people’s choice ballot each submitter received a 2019 copper-nickel proof set! I enthusiastically told the guy who gave me my ballot that this was a pretty good deal! He agreed! At every show I ever attended I have gladly cast my ballot for the people’s choice display. However, never before have I gotten something for doing what I am always glad to do.
     
    Now I must sadly confess that my first Money Talks presentation is the one in which I was the presenter. What a wonderful experience it is to share what I have learned in numismatics with others. Now I see that this is something I want to do again …and something I will have to attend as a member of the audience. For being a presenter, I was given a certificate by the ANA and a medal from the Chicago Coin Club with my name engraved on it. There is much more I want to say about this experience but it will have to wait for a future post. Stay tuned, its coming.
     
    The annual ANA World’s Fair of Money is a wonderful opportunity to get reacquainted with old friends …and to meet new ones. To me this is one of the best aspects of being involved with this hobby. There is nothing like hanging with like-minded enthusiasts to talk nothing but coins for hours on end. No one in my close circle of family and friends collects coins and to tell the truth it gets kind of lonely. This is why a local coin club is so important to connect with others of like mind.
     
    When we arrived at the show, we met up with a dealer friend of mine and another collector who is a common friend to us both. (Actually, these two guys were friends before I met them). BTW this is the dealer who found me the 1859 Indian Head Cent I bought at the show. Since our common friend is a local resident, he took us out for an original Chicago deep dish pizza. None of those fake wannabe deep dish pizza places, but the real deal. You know, there is nothing like talking coins over a genuine deep dish pizza!
     
    Our second day at the show was the day of my Money Talks presentation. At the presentation I met with a collector friend I know from Houston. It is always refreshing and enjoyable to see people you don’t often see and very good to have him in my audience. Also, in my audience cheering me on was a couple from my local coin club. Because of my proximity to Chicago my club chartered a bus to the show, many of which I also saw roaming the bourse floor.
     
    Many of my numismatic friends are sight unseen and people I only know because I regularly blog at the ANA and NGC. Thus, you can imagine the thrill I felt when preparing for my presentation that a blogger from the ANA boards walked up to me and introduced himself! How nice it was to have him in the audience also! Now no longer sight unseen, I feel like we connected and have forged a beginning to a new friendship.
     
    Exhausted from just two days at the show we drove home after having had a very good time at the ANA’s World’s Fair of Money! Gary



  9. coinsbygary

    My Most Recent NGC Submission

    By coinsbygary,


    NGC Submission
    Lately, there has been much criticism and suspicion about the length of time it takes to get your coins graded. And my recent submission is no different. Like me, at the end of the day, when all your coins have been returned, you will probably ask yourself if it has been worth it? In the end, I weighed my worth against the grades I got, the price I paid, and the wait I had to endure.
    On April 22, 2021, I mailed a 13-coin submission to NGC. On August 10, I received the last of my coins back in the mail. In that one mailing, I had four separate submissions graded in the following order. The first two were Christa McAuliffe commemorative coins graded under the US-modern tier. The next was a silver 5-ounce Tuskegee Airmen Quarter in an oversize holder. The largest was an 8-coin submission under the world-economy tier. Finally, the last two coins I received back were two coins under the world-modern tier.
    In the end, the cost was never going to be an issue because of last year’s award as one of three awarded journalists. This only left me with two considerations which were in a manner of speaking linked together. The wait was worth it if I liked the grades, and if I didn’t like them, it wasn’t.
    Most of the coins were related to my 1868-70 Spanish Provisional Government set and my 1933-38 Second Spanish Republic set. The others were new purchases and a few that had been lying around in flips.
    Having all those grading credits tempted me to send in coins that I otherwise might not of. However, I had a duplicate raw coin that I considered sending in with the submission to sell. In the end, I determined not to send it because I thought it might get a details grade. Why waste the credit if I didn’t need to? Instead, I’ll save it for my 2021 Morgan and Peace Dollar.
    This turned out to be a good decision because, in 13 coins, I had no detailed grades and three top-pops, of which two were 70’s. Most of the other grades were reasonably expected, with only a few exceptions. The following is a chart detailing my hope, my expectation, and the final grade:
    Coin
    Hope
    Expected
    Final Grade
    2021 UNC Christa McAuliffe
    70
    69
    69
    2021 PRF Christa McAuliffe
    70
    69
    69
    2021 SP Oversize Tuskegee Airmen
    70
    69
    70
    1947-S Philippine MacArthur Peso
    65
    64
    63
    1870(70) SNM Spanish Provisional 50C
    20
    15
    12
    1870(70) SNM Spanish Provisional Peseta
    VF
    VF
    25
    1870(73) DEM Spanish
    Provisional Peseta
    58
    AU
    55 (Top-Pop)
    1934 2nd Spanish Republic 25C
    65
    64
    64
    1937 2nd Spanish Republic 5c
    65
    64
    63
    1937 Menorca 25C (Spanish Civil War)
    64
    63
    63
    1938 2nd Spanish Republic 25C
    67
    66
    63
    2019PM B.V. Islands Silver $1 Una and the Lion
    69
    69
    68 (rev proof)
    2020 France 2E Proof Medical Research
    70
    69
    70
     
    Overall, my expectations were met with a minimum of disappointments and three top-pops! Was this worth the wait? Determine for yourselves, but as for me, I think this was worth the wait. Gary.


     

  10. coinsbygary
    ...And now I have it! A search encompassing a fair number of years has culminated with the purchase of an MS-61 1882-H Newfoundland $2 gold coin. This is like a dream come true from the first time I knew that this coin existed until now. FYI, I bought the book, "The Gold Coins of Newfoundland 1865-1888" shortly after it was published in 2017.

    In 1865 the Royal Mint began striking new coins exclusively for Newfoundland including a $2 gold coin for a then population of 122,631 people. You will notice the conversion values for this coin on the reverse of 200 cents/100 pence. This is related to Newfoundland's coinage being based on the British Pound well before Great Britain adopted the decimal  system for its currency. Thus there was 240 pence to the pound which converted to $4.80 in Newfoundland currency.

    The Newfoundland $2 gold coins were struck for circulation irregularly between 1865 and 1888 from a low mintage of 2,500 to a high mintage of 25,000. Incidentally my coin has a mintage of 25,000. The 1882 coin also has an H mintmark denoting that it was struck at the Heaton Mint in Birmingham. This coin was designed to be nearly equivalent to the American Gold Eagle which also circulated in Newfoundland. A US gold eagle contained 0.48375 ounces of gold while the 0.91666 fine Newfoundland $2 coin  had 0.0981 ounces of pure gold. Thus the Newfoundland $2 gold coin was worth $2.0277 US dollars. The diameter of the Newfoundland $2 coin is 17.983mm and the weight is 3.328 grams.

    I have been looking for a suitable yet affordable example of this coin for many years. My problem is that this coin is scarce and was popular as a circulating coin. Thus there are very few nice looking coins to be had. I had decided that if I was going to pay good money for this coin, I wanted it to look nice. With only a handful of MS-65 coins and steep prices for an MS-64 coin, I was looking for something in the AU-58 to MS-62 range. Without really looking too hard this coin popped up on e-bay with a best-offer option. I put forth my best offer and it was a sale. The gold toning on this coin gives it contrast. As such it is a very nice looking coin with lots of eye appeal. Gary

  11. coinsbygary

    Tincture in Heraldry

    By coinsbygary,

    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 relatively small palette of colors used in heraldry dating back to 12th and 13th century Europe. These have been adapted to numismatic uses by certain patterns which represent the colors in heraldry. For instance, on the 1883 shield nickel I picture the horizontal lines across the top bar represent the color blue. The vertical bars with stripes represent the color red and the plain bars represent the color silver or white.

    In my NGC seated imagery custom set, I have an MS-64 NY 1863 NEW YORK F-630AM-1a CHRISTOPH KARL token featuring a seated image of Germania. The image on the obverse of this token has been incorrectly identified by some as “Liberty”. However, by applying tincture in both the flag and the shield the seated image is clearly not Miss Liberty but in fact Germania. Apart from the tincture, Germania is wearing a mural crown. In the 19th century mural crowns were used primarily in Europe to represent republics or in the case of this token the German Confederation.

    Following the pattern of heraldry, the flag has the black, red, and yellow bars of the German Confederation. The only problem I have found in this flag are that the bars are vertical instead of horizontal as is the German Confederation flag. I googled this discrepancy for an explanation and found that the vertical bars were easier to see by the belligerents, both friend and foe on the field of battle. Another give-away that this token features Germania is the double-headed eagle of the German Confederation coat of arms in a field of yellow as defined by the pattern of the gold tincture.

    For more information on Tincture click the following Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tincture_(heraldry)

    For more information on Mural Crowns click the following Wikipedia Link:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mural_crown

    For a detailed write-up about my token click the following link:

    https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/CoinView.aspx?sc=257286             

    Below is the credit for the use of the tincture graphic:

    By Original:MontrealaisVector:Wereonderivative work Hagman adding DE language, 3 October 2011 (SVG switch and optimization by Perhelion)Hebrew by Ori~ - Own work based on: Tinctures.gif, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1025379

    Gary




  12. coinsbygary
    Since I am starting a new NGC Collectors Society custom set based on the Spanish Provisional Government coins of 1870, I thought to re-image all the coins in the set. It’s funny how when you give your coins another look that you notice new things about them. Or, is it that you haven’t looked in a long time and simply forgot. Either way its part of what makes this hobby fun for me.


     
    One of the coins I re-imaged is an NGC 1870 MS-65 Red 1 Centimo coin. This coin represents the lowest denominated copper coin of the series. It only weighs 1 gram and measures 15.5 mm in diameter. I was already fully aware of a couple of major die cracks and a few other smaller ones on the reverse of this coin. However, it only recently dawned on me that several of the marks in the field of the reverse were in fact die clash marks.


     
    Die clashes occur when the hammer die strikes an anvil die without a planchet in the collar and the dies leave their impressions on the opposite dies. The fields of the coin are typically incuse meaning that the fields on the die are relief. This is why the impression occurs in the fields because the devices on the die are incuse. Subsequently, that impression is transferred to every coin struck thereafter with that die pair. This can happen with any size dies but I have found it most prevalent on very small coins. Still, many of the Morgan Dollar VAMs are indeed die clashes. I have also found that the heaviest clash marks occur on the anvil die which is typically the coins reverse. That said I have a few coins with clash marks clearly visible on both sides of the coin.


     
    Having just noticed the clashing on my Spanish coin, I thought to do an overlay of the obverse on the reverse. There is a slight die rotation that you can see in my overlay picture. A side by comparison of my overlay and without overlay pictures clearly show how the clash marks line up with an outline of the main obverse device.


     
    In my pictures I have also pointed out a few of the major die cracks as if they needed pointing out. The other arrows point to the reverse clash marks. Maybe some of those cracks occurred as a result of the clashing. Interesting stuff to ponder. Gary   





  13. coinsbygary
    As a result of my Money Talks presentation at the Words Fair of Money I came into contact with Coin World writer Chris Bulfinch. Chris wanted to talk with me about an article he was working on concerning Laura Gardin Fraser. At the end of that conversation he asked me if I would be willing to do a podcast interview with him of which I was only too happy to do.
     
    Last week that interview was posted on Coin World's website as episode 027. After listening to the interview I think it went pretty well. The first 19 minutes of the podcast was dedicated to a conversation between the hosts of the podcast Chris Bulfinch and Jeff Starck. My interview then occupied the rest of the podcast which was almost 43 minutes in length.
     
    Finally I want to thank the ANA for putting me in touch with Chris who was unable to attend my Money Talks presentation but followed up to contact me through the ANA. This was a lot of fun for me and I am amazed by the people I have worked with and come into contact with over the years through my Laura Gardin Fraser collection. It is truly a privilege and a blessing to be involved with so many of the fine people associated with this hobby! Gary
     
    The following is a link to my podcast: https://www.coinworld.com/coinworld-podcast
  14. coinsbygary
    A few months ago, I purchased a Spanish Provisional Government 1868 5-peseta copper pattern from an E-Bay seller in Argentina. The listing picture wasn't too good and it seemed like the pattern was a little suspect. Still, this piece is scarce and I have wanted one for quite some time. If I could get it on the cheap, all the better. With what I thought was a fair bid, I won the piece for about half what I could expect to pay for a certified piece.
    When the pattern arrived, I was very happy with it except that there were areas of the piece with a tarlike sticky residue. The residue was trapped in some of the crevices, lettering, and knife edges of the piece. I knew that I wanted it certified and I decided to submit it to NCS for review, conservation, and grading. 
    I got my 5-peseta pattern back last week, conserved and graded MS-63. According to the population report, there was one MS-62, one MS-63, and two MS-64's. Add mine to it and its two MS-63's! Looking at my pattern in the hand, the overall look didn't show significant change except that it looked a lot sharper. The tar was successfully removed from the legend making the letters look much sharper. The knife-edges of the rim were clean and sharp only leaving a lightly stained surface with no pitting or metal corrosion. The real change was in the mountain area of Hispania's left elbow. Some of the other offensive toning was subdued but not removed. NCS states that they cannot reverse or remove copper toning. 
    I offer this pictorial evidence of before and after conservation. The before photo of the mountains is slightly out of focus but it shows the most significant changes. The mountains and in particular Hispania's fingers are clean and much more detailed. The crevices are all clean and sharp. In the hand it makes a tremendous difference. What detail, like it just came off the dies! 
    There is one more thing that I found quite interesting. Sometimes when digital cameras have either lighting or surface anomalies issues they can't focus correctly on the subject. In this case, if you look closely in the center of the before mountain picture, there is horizontal detail where there should be vertical detail like the mountains of the after picture. 
    I have used NCS on several occasions and in some instances, I have not liked the results. Over time I have become better in selecting candidates for conservation. This piece was a no-brainer for me and I am delighted with the results. Gary





  15. coinsbygary
    Over the last few weeks, I haven’t had much time to write blogs. This is because I’ve been working on my photography skills and, in particular, axial photography. I have learned a lot, and now I have several excellent examples of coins photographed using axial photography.
    The first thing I did was to craft a holder for my glass reflector. Then I reinforced the edges of the glass with electrical tape to prevent the glass from accidentally shattering. For the holder, I used a cardboard box top sliced at 45 degrees towards the light source to hold the glass pane. The holder cost me nothing to make. However, it did cost my wife a glass pane from one of her pictures.
    Next, I made a diffuser for my light source cut from the side of a plastic milk jug. To prevent side light from illuminating the coin, I used a single-use pair of sunglasses from my eye doctor when she opened my iris. Conveniently, the sunglasses roll up like a tube. Finally, I used a lens hood I already owned to prevent side lighting from interfering with the camera lens. Folks, this is an excellent example of professional photography on the cheap!
    My set-up picture shows a portion of the light shine through the glass onto the back of the holder. The images of the camera’s viewfinder show the reflected light from the glass illuminating the surface of the coins. Since there is less light to work with, the film speed is ISO 400. The aperture is f4, and the shutter speed is 1/125. If this is done correctly, the area of the picture around the coin will be mostly dark. All you want to see in the viewfinder is the coin!
    Since plastic holders have reflective properties of their own, they can be challenging to work with. Therefore, axial photography works best on raw coins. Notice the haze and a hot spot in the viewfinder picture showing a 2011 French proof coin mounted in an NGC holder. This is light reflected from the surface of the holder interfering with light reflected from the coin. The 2004 and 2017 raw quarters only show light reflected from the quarters. Incidentally, the quarters are from my change dish.
    I have spent a lot of time learning to edit the photographs of certified coins to remove the interference from unwanted light. To reduce the effect of unwanted light, I have found the milk jug diffuser to be helpful. However, the quarters needed very few edits because of limited or no interference from unwanted light. I am also posting a raw 1856 Belgian 5 centime coin commemorating the 25th-anniversary reign of Leopold I, King of the Belgians. The coin is struck in bronze to illustrate the use of axial photography on heavily toned bronze coins.
    I hope this blog sheds a little light on axial photography. I always say that the proof is in the pudding. For your viewing pleasure, I am posting several pictures using axial photography.
    The 2011 French 10 euro proof coin commemorates the author of Les Miserables, Victor Hugo. The reverse inscription is roughly translated, “Cossette looked up, she saw the man coming to her with this doll as she saw the sun coming.”
    The reverse of this coin was incredibly hard to photograph because of its surface characteristics. The obverse, however, makes for a pleasing picture. Notice the mirror fields on axial photographs resemble the in-the-hand look of proof coins. Photos of proof mirrors typically show black when taken by direct light. The reverse of this coin has a frosty flat field showing black contrasted by the mirror of Victor Hugo’s image etched into the design.
    Other pieces for your viewing pleasure are a 1937 Spanish peseta and a 2019 Great Britain five-pound coin featuring Una and the Lion. Enjoy, Gary.










  16. coinsbygary

    The Three Graces on the Cheap

    By coinsbygary,


    World Coins
    In December of 2019, the United Kingdom launched a series of commemorative coins based on the classic works of “The Great Engravers.” The inaugural issue features the classic “Una and the Lion” engraved by William Wyon. When this coin was first issued, you could find the 2-ounce silver version on e-bay for less than $500. From then on, the resale price has sky-rocketed. Recently, I saw an NGC PFUC-68 Una and the Lion on e-bay sell for $4000.00! Fortunately, I bought mine long before the numismatic community realized what it had in this coin. Subsequently, I had mine graded by NGC at PFUC-69. Obviously, I’m pretty happy that for a change, I hit the numismatic lottery! By the way, mine is not for sale! 
    The second coin in the Great Engravers series was issued a few weeks ago. It features “The Three Graces,” also engraved by William Wyon. This coin is taking no one by surprise. It is picking up where Una left off. The least expensive 2-ounce, 5-pound Three Graces coin I tracked was recently sold on e-bay for $2750.00. It’s quite a mark-up for a coin with a mint issue price of 250 pounds ($348)! Even the wannabe Alderney version of the Three Graces is selling for over $1000.00! 
    Now for a lover of classic numismatic art such as myself, this is quite a dilemma. Do I cough up the money for the new UK or Alderney coin? Or, is there another option? Thankfully, there is another option for me. There is a saying that goes like this, “The least expensive car you could buy is the one you already own.” For me, the cheapest coin or, in my case, the medal I could buy is the one I already own. Several years ago, I purchased a bronze fantasy coin featuring the Three Graces for less than $100. True, my fantasy coin is a wannabe of a wannabe, but this medal has everything I could want because, after all, it’s the art that I love! 
    For their 2001 auction, Spink & Sons commissioned INA ltd of Birmingham to strike various fantasy coins. Many of these fantasy coins featured designs that were never officially issued by any governmental entity. My medal is designed by Donald Golder and features an image of Queen Victoria on the obverse and the Three Graces on the reverse. This crown-sized (38mm) 1879 dated medal was struck in silver and bronze. The bronze version has a Krause catalog number of X#81a and a mintage of 790. 
    No crowns were officially issued by the UK in 1879. Furthermore, the likeness of Queen Victoria on my medal has never been used on a coin. It has, however, been used on a postage stamp. The 1840 one penny stamp, nicknamed “Penny Black,” is the world’s first adhesive postage stamp. It features a left-facing profile bust of Queen Victoria. The medal’s obverse legend combined with the reverse translated from Latin reads, “Victoria by God’s grace makes them become one.” The Three Graces on the reverse reinterpreted from Greek mythology by the original engraver, William Wyon, represent Ireland, England, and Scotland. 
    The 1801 “Act of the Union” united Great Britain (England and Scotland) and Ireland under the United Kingdom. William Wyon’s Three Graces was designed to appeal to a sense of national pride after the hard times relating to the UK’s defeat of Napoleon. His pattern coin dating 1817 was never issued. With only 50 known patterns, this coin is occasionally offered at auction in the six figures. Check out this beauty offered by Heritage. https://coins.ha.com/itm/great-britain/great-britain-george-iii-silver-proof-pattern-three-graces-crown-1817-pr65-ngc-/a/3096-30318.s? 
    Though my fantasy coin isn’t an exact replica of the original pattern, the imagery is the same. Instead of a rudder and palm frond, my medal displays a ship on the waters to allegorize English dominance over the seas. Instead of using a lyre to represent Ireland, this fantasy coin uses a shamrock. 
    In Greek mythology, the Three Charites or Graces were generally known for fertility. They are believed to be the daughters of Zeus and Hera. One is named Aglaia for Brightness, another is named Euphrosyne for Joyfulness, and the third Thalia for Bloom. 
    So there you have it. I might add the silver version of this medal to my collection should it become available, but the others? While I rather have the real McCoy, I just can’t pony up the money needed to purchase the others. CoinWeek has a great article on the modern coin rarity phenomenon that makes a lot of sense. Ultimately, the author makes a great point about the demand for classic designs. He maintains that if the market supports a fair price for these collector coins, then the worldwide mints should meet the anticipated public demand. US Mint, are you listening?  https://coinweek.com/world-coins/the-coin-analyst-from-una-and-the-lion-to-the-three-graces-classic-royal-mint-motifs/ 
    I am also posting the obverse of a 2010 San Marino two-euro coin featuring one of the Graces from a 1482 Sandro Botticelli painting entitled Primavera or “Allegory of Spring.” As for spring, I was ready for it weeks ago. Bring it on! Gary




  17. coinsbygary

    Older and Wiser

    By coinsbygary,

    I always thought it to be a shame if a person only grows older without growing any wiser. People often classify such a person as a fool. Concerning my relationship to coin collecting, wiser after so many years has finally come!
     
    After going trailblazers buying Morgan Dollars several years ago, I had lost interest in the series and finally sold off much of my collection in 2017. Now my interest in Morgan Dollars only includes the following: MS-65 and higher Morgan’s, GSAs, and Carson City Morgan’s. The rest, more than 40 coins in all, were sold, most at a loss to acquire the coins that today represent my real passion.
     
    At that time several years ago, I was adding Morgan’s to my collection at a rate of two or three coins a month. E-Bay was an addicting and all too easy venue for me to buy coins. It became as if, “I see, I like, I buy.” Never mind if I saw a coin, bought it, and only a few days later saw one I liked better and bought that one. I often rationalized that purchasing the new coin was subsidized by the old coin. To tell the truth, I was compulsively and indiscriminately buying coins. This no-win situation only robbed me of my numismatic passion and subsequently turned me into a numismatic fool.
     
    My Laura Gardin Fraser collection has taught me the patience needed to not only enjoy coin collecting but to do it at a pace that is both reasonable and results in buying quality coins that will never need to be upgraded. You see, when the coins and medals you need in your collection rarely make an appearance on the open market, you have to learn patience. Patience  then is a good indicator of passion. If I have no patience, I have no passion resulting in burnout. So far, I haven’t lost patience with my LGF set and now don’t expect that I will. In fact, I just picked up two scarce pieces at bargain basement prices, one with a mintage of only 30! I will post more about those later.
     
    That said, I will not be branching out into other numismatic ventures other than the following:
    •       Allegorical and inspirational women featured on worldwide coinage. Since my wife’s mother died of breast cancer, I will be buying the “pink” gold half-eagle going on sale by the US Mint in March.
    •       Seated imagery featured on worldwide coinage.
    •       A US gold typeset featuring all the major varieties from 1834-1933, less the 1907 high relief St. Gaudens double-eagle. (Only the prohibitive price tag keeps me from acquiring that one.)
    •       High-grade Morgan dollars, Carson City dollars, and GSA’s.
    •       Final upgrades to my 7070 US type set purchased on my behalf by a dealer friend of mine.
    •       …And of course my Laura Gardin Fraser coin and medal set!
     
    My dealer friend buys attractive coins for my 7070 type set from my want list in the grades that I can afford. My want list is a five year plan to acquire the coins that I will never have to upgrade and so finally complete a set that I will be proud to own going into retirement. This dealer friend also attends all the coin shows that I cannot. Thus, I am learning to patiently acquire coins via one of the oldest of collector venues, “The Coin Show.”
     
    Coins shows also give my dealer friend a chance to sell or trade my old coins at the best price possible. Therein is yet another opportunity for me to learn patience especially for my VG-10 1893-S Morgan. My friend held that coin for close to a year before finding a suitable buyer at the January FUN show.
     
    In 2017 I spent most of the proceeds of my Morgan sale to purchase coins to fill my gold type collection. Now only the no-motto half-eagle and no-motto Indian Head Eagle remain. Additionally, I am waiting until the spot price of gold goes much higher to sell the gold coins I purchased long ago and recently upgraded. This again is another opportunity for me to learn patience since many of those coins I purchased when gold was close to $2000/oz.
     
    In 2018, I expect my new purchases to be far fewer as I move more towards quality over quantity. So far this year with the proceeds from the 93-S Morgan I bought a beautiful E-bay purchased MS-64 1908 no-motto St Gaudens Double-Eagle and a FUN show pick-up, MS-66 1913 ty 1 Buffalo Nickel for my 7070 type set. I purchased both these coins with a couple hundred dollars to spare.
     
    Needless to say these two coins are not subject to upgrades as they are absolutely gorgeous for their grades. Through the patience of selectively purchasing only those coins that fit my narrowly defined passion, have I finally become wise. 




  18. coinsbygary
    Recently I bought a new macro lens for my camera. The lens is a Laowa V-DX 60MM F2.8 Macro 2:1. Now I know I already have a macro lens but if I am ever going to take my coin photography on the road, I will need a much more versatile lens.
    For versatility this lens is it. I can focus in as close as 18.5cm and as far as infinity. At 18.5cm I have 2-1 magnification. The only drawbacks are that I have to focus manually and set the aperture manually. No big deal on those since I already do that. The big plus is that one lens will do a 15mm gold dollar and a 131mm medal from my camera stand.
    As with any new toy of this nature there is a learning curve to get the pictures just right. This gave me an opportunity to upgrade many of my poorer quality pictures. Looking through my collection I decided to re-image the first coin I ever bought, an 1881-S proof-like Morgan Dollar. I bought this coin as a teen and still own it today as a 60-something retiree.
    Oh the memories! I bought the Morgan for only $12 along with a gold-plated Ike dollar, A 1953c star crisp-uncirculated $2 bill, and a number of replica fractional California gold pieces. Of these I still own the $2 and probably the others but I can’t find them.
    What was really cool about this coin purchase was that I didn’t buy the coins from a dealer but from a camera store! I have always loved photography and in high school we had a fully equipped dark room that I could use. For me to be in one place that had both photography supplies and coins was tantamount to a kid in a candy store!
    That this Morgan Dollar only cost me 6 hours of “busting suds” for a restaurant at $2/hour was incredible. I just couldn’t believe it cost so little for a proof-like coin that was silver and nearly 100 years old. Oh the naivety of youth. Little did I know then that 81-S Morgan’s are quite common and inexpensive to obtain. However, at the time I thought I pulled off the coin purchasing coup of the century!
    I have never regretted buying that coin and I’ll probably die owning it. Some time back I sent it to PCGS for grading and they sent it back as cleaned without putting it in a holder. Back then they didn’t do details-grading. On the obverse of my coin you will notice cleaning hairlines under the “us” of Pluribus. Oddly, I didn’t notice the cleaning until PCGS pointed it out. This was only the beginning of my education identifying coin cleaning BEFORE sending them in for grading.
    Later I sent my 81-S Morgan to a company call NTC (Numistrust Corp.) for grading. They didn’t document the cleaning and sent it back as MS-63 DMPL. I agree with this grade and have never cracked it out and probably never will. Over the years my 1881-S has lightly toned. Incidentally, since then I only send coins to NGC for grading and will buy only PCGS and NGC certified coins.
    At any rate thanks for taking a walk with me down memory lane! For your viewing pleasure please enjoy a picture of the first coin I ever bought taken with my new toy! Also, for your viewing pleasure is a close-up of an 1880/79-CC VAM-7 Morgan dollar. As you can see my new toy will do nicely. Gary



  19. coinsbygary

    Summertime Fun

    By coinsbygary,

    Every year in August my local coin club sponsors a picnic for the members of the club. Out of a total of just over 100 members, 20-30 people typically come out to the picnic along with their spouses. The club supplies the meat and drink and the members bring a dish to pass. If you have good people and good food you usually have a good time. 
    If that was all there was to the club picnic, I’d be totally happy. What really sets this outing apart is the bingo games for spectacular numismatic prizes! There are typically six lots of prizes donated by a local coin dealer associated with the club. Sure, there are some items that the dealer is offloading from his inventory but there are other things that are nothing to balk at. For instance, the last prize is a 1/10 oz gold eagle! To win that one you have to cover every square on your bingo card.
     
    Well, I didn’t win the gold eagle but I was glad for the person who did, he’s a pretty good guy and a very active member. However, I did win one of the other lots! I was so thrilled because I never win anything! Included in my lot is a 20th century mini type-set with a Mercury Dime, Buffalo Nickel, Lincoln Steel Cent, and Bi-Centennial quarter. Three incomplete Whitman folders, Lincoln Cent number one and two, and a Jefferson Nickel folder (no silver war nickels). Rounding out the lot is a 1685 silver Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel German 3-taler coin, 500-piece puzzle complete with ANA write-up on “The Lute Player” coin.
    Oddly, I thought the Jefferson nickel was the best item in the lot but not necessarily the most valuable. You see several years ago I started a Dansco Jefferson Nickel album that I wanted to populate with coins from my pocket change. The first thing I did when I got home was to raid the Whitman folder to populate the empty slots in the Dansco album. Now I consider myself a pretty advanced collector but some of the best fun I have with coins is stuffing those albums, no-kidding. I had a blast.
    Although the Lincoln Cent folders were incomplete, both were pretty full. For instance, number one is complete from 1932 to 1940. Number two is complete from 1941 to 1959 except for the 55-S. Again, I was surprised by how many coins my prize encompassed.
    The ANA puzzle is going to be a lot fun. I think I’ll save that one for the cold winter days ahead! I hope you are all having a great summer and one week from today I’ll be giving my presentation at the ANA World’s Fair of Money. Having finished the edits to my presentation and getting it pared down for the allotted time I’m getting stoked! Right now, I’m just practicing the presentation at home twice a day. I’ll be ready and I’m pinching myself to see if this is real, little ole me giving a presentation at a national show! It just doesn’t get much better than this.  Gary



  20. coinsbygary
    Last month I received a notice that the bank I stored my coins at was closing and I had until February 4th to vacate my safe deposit boxes. Fortunately, I was able to rent another box close by and for cheaper than the boxes I had. Having secured a new and bigger box, the next step was to transport the coins to the new location.
    I was very uncomfortable transporting my coins from one location to the other and in particular standing at the teller window with my coins in a shoebox waiting to close out the old safe deposit boxes. You see, my bank had the misfortune of being held up last year and I did not want something like that to happen with thousands of dollars' worth of coins in my hand. Fortunately, both the clearing of the old boxes and the transfer to the new box went off without a hitch.
    That said, moving my collection did present a wonderful opportunity to reimage many of my coins. This meant that coins which haven't seen the light of day in years could now be easily reimaged to reflect the refining of my photography skills.
    Now, instead of driving from one bank to the next I made a detour home for pictures. To tell the truth, it sure felt good to hold these coins in my hands again after not looking at some of them for years. Now I like the security of a safe deposit box but if I want to easily view my coins, I will need to buy a home safe.
    After reimaging and editing my coins I thought to organize all my pictures into power-point presentations mirroring my NGC registry sets. For instance, I started with my 1834-1933 gold type set minus the 1907 high-relief St. Gaudens double-eagle. All the coins in the presentation are organized according to the definition and order of my NGC registry set. Thus, when I decide to sell my set and pull it down from the registry, I will always have my former coins to look at assembled as a set. To tell the truth, this is all I  had with the online registry since all my gold coins are off-site and not all that easily accessed. So, if I have the pictures why do I need a home safe? All these are important questions we need to answer for ourselves as we assess what level of risk we are willing to live with.
    Oftentimes, when I get to thinking one thing leads to another and I began to think about eventually dissolving my entire collection before I pass away so as not to leave my wife and kids with that responsibility. Don't worry, reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated.
    What got me thinking this way is that my wife and kids have no interest in collecting coins. Thus, I think it is unfair to leave the liquidation of my collection to them when I am much more knowledgeable in the buying and selling of coins. Another point to consider is that who is more likely to get the most for the coins? I can't rationalize around that one, it's me.
    None of this is going to happen anytime soon as I am still actively collecting but at a much slower rate. Still, it is good and necessary to have a plan in place to make this happen before I am bedridden or worse. For my wife and kids, I'll offer them any coin from my collection they want for sentimental reasons. The other coins will be offered to certain collectors who might be eying my coins for their own collections. Otherwise, the low-cost coins will be handled through e-bay and the rest to a major auction house.
    In the meantime, I'll eventually have all my coins organized into power-point and word documents to enjoy for the rest of my life! Please enjoy this slide reimaged and made for my personal presentation! Gary.   

  21. coinsbygary

    The Branding of the Medallic Art Company

    By coinsbygary,


    So-Called Dollars
    The branding of the Medallic Art Company really began with the founding of the Art Students League of New York in 1875. In the early 20th century New York City became the arts center of America. It is no wonder with instructors like Augustus Saint-Gaudens, James Earle Fraser, Daniel Chester French, and students like Laura Gardin. (This same Laura Gardin would later marry James Earle Fraser in 1913).
    The Medallic Art Company of New York was founded in 1903 by French brothers Henri and Felix Weil. The proximity of the Medallic Art Company and the Art Students League soon developed into a symbiotic relationship. The Art Students League provided the medallic designs, and the Medallic Art Company struck and distributed the medals. As a collector of Laura Gardin Fraser's coins and medals, I learned that most of her medals were struck by the Medallic Art Company of New York.
    In celebration of the 1917 completion of the Catskill Aqueduct in New York, the American Numismatic Society based in New York issued a three-inch (75.6mm) commemorative medallion. It was modeled by Daniel Chester French. (Daniel Chester French is the sculptor of the seated Lincoln inside the Lincoln Memorial). The medallions were cast, not struck, in bronze and silver by the Medallic Art Company. Mintages were limited by subscriptions to 57 bronze and 12 silver pieces. 38mm bronze replicas of the official medallions were also struck by the Medallic Art Company. The mintage of the so-called dollars (HK-667) is unknown, but they have a rarity of R-5. (Fuld rarity scale for tokens of 75-200 pieces). My recently purchased medal is one of the so-called dollars.
    The obverse features a right-facing bust of a laurel-crowned woman in high relief. As such, this beautiful young woman probably represents Greater New York. The reverse features a male figure with water gushing out of a vase resting on his shoulder against the faint outline of the Catskill Mountains. The reverse represents the 92-mile Catskill Aqueduct that still supplies New York City with 40% of its water. The reverse inscription reads, "To Commemorate the Completion / of the Catskill Aqueduct / An Achievement of Civic Spirit / Scientific Genius and Faithful Labor / 1905 New York 1917."
    Daniel Chester French died on October 7, 1931. In 1932, the Medallic Art Company struck a tribute medal to him using the obverse laureate head of the 1917 medal. The reverse without any devices has the following inscription, "A / token in / remembrance of / Daniel Chester French / National Sculpture Society / February 10, 1932 / Medallic Art Company / New York." The obverse head became known as the "French Head" when in 1932, Clyde Trees, president of Medallic Art Company, chose this obverse device as the company's official trademark. Soon the iconic French Head appeared in the company's advertising, on its stationery, and quite often on medallic work. This continued until Medallic Art & Mint (The combined Medallic Art Company and Northwest Territorial Mint) was bought out by Medalcraft Mint, Inc. in 2018.
    An intriguing golden thread links Laura Gardin Fraser, Daniel Chester French, and the Medallic Art Company. In 1929 Laura Gardin Fraser designed the National Sculpture Society Special Medal of Honor. This medal was struck by the Medallic Art Company and presented to the Society's first recipient, Daniel Chester French, for his seated Lincoln sculpture.

  22. coinsbygary
    Summer 2022 has ended with a couple of numismatic events that I thoroughly enjoyed. The first was the ANA summer show in Chicago. The other, just this week, was my coin club’s annual picnic. Both were significant and, for that matter, the year’s numismatic highlights. 
    First, there is nothing like a major coin show for buying new coins, viewing educational displays, making new friends, and catching up with old friends. The annual ANA Worlds Fair of Money is one of the year’s best shows, and whenever it is in Chicago, I try to attend.
    This year instead of driving to Chicago, I took the bus my coin club chartered. There is nothing like riding 2-plus hours with your club friends talking coins. Furthermore, riding to Chicago on the bus was much cheaper than driving. 
    Once there, I took care of business first. I went to the US Mint area to buy the just-released Liberty silver medal. Desiring the ANA provenance, I took the medal to NGC with several other submissions for grading. Because the medal went on sale Thursday and I went to the show on Friday, I didn’t know if one would be available when I got to the show, so I ordered one online Thursday.
    As an aside, I found the online ordering process with the US Mint much better than in the past. No hang-ups with the website and shipping that same day. It doesn’t get much better than that. Now, if I’m going to whine about how messed up the US Mint is for placing orders, I ought to let them know when things are working as they ought. Later that afternoon, I told the new US Mint director in person how pleased I was with the latest ordering experience. The smile on her face beamed from ear to ear.  
    After window shopping dealer tables and viewing displays, I was tired and had to sit down. I eventually stopped by the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists table. Having introduced myself as a fellow PAN member, I had a pleasant conversation with W. Thomas Corey. We mainly talked about other PAN members and persons I thought he should know. I also attempted to visit ANA member World_Coin_Nut’s table, but he was away at the time. However, I had a brief but pleasant conversation with his wife. Overall, I had a nice afternoon and enjoyed chilling on the bus ride home. 
    Currently, member dues for my coin club are $5 per year. Attending the club’s picnic means I get more from my annual dues than I paid. The club paid for subs, chips, and a cookie for my wife and me. Oh, and I paid for my drinks which amounted to two bottles of bottled water. I often wonder where my club gets the money for all the club activities I take advantage of. Then I remember that my club hosts two regional coin shows a year. 
    One of the highlights of the annual picnic is the BINGO games we play for coin-related prizes donated by a generous local coin dealer. There were 8 games to be played by 30 people in attendance, with one grand prize. The grand prize this year and in past years has been a small gold coin, usually a 1/10 ounce gold eagle. As was pointed out by the member calling the game, there would be only 8 winners and 22 losers. My wife and I always brace for the worst. Last year we won NOTHING ☹. Still, we left with a smile on our faces having had a good time.  
    Each game increases the odds for the losers since the winners are ineligible to play after they win. However, everyone plays the last game for the grand prize. As fate would have it, my wife finally won something this year. She won a 50 State Quarters Coin & Die Set. The set included a Kentucky State Quarter with the die that struck it and a COA with all the pertinent information about the die. The quarter has a considerable amount of residue on the coin’s surface. This all begs to question of how it got there. One clue is found in the COA, which states that the accompanying quarter is “one of the first acceptable production coins struck with this die.” I am guessing that the planchet wasn’t washed or something of that sort. 
    That brings me to the final BINGO game for a 1996, 1/10-ounce, $5 gold coin. The game started very slowly for me. However, since it was a full card game, I had plenty of time to catch up. After about ¾ of the way through, I started hitting all the numbers on the card. Finally, I was down to one number, hoping nobody else would call BINGO. The following number was called, and I yelled BINGO! I had just won the gold coin! My wife and I beat the odds this year and brought two of eight prizes home. It seems as if it’s feast or famine for us! And that’s OK. It’s all about fun and fellowship anyway!
    Ultimately, I realized that it’s more fun to yell BINGO than to take home a prize. To have to fill a full card was very satisfying. It made winning that much sweeter! Finally, if anyone wants to know the name of the generous dealer who donated the prizes, please send me a personal message. Otherwise, the $5 gold coin should cover next year’s dues! Gary





  23. coinsbygary
    There are few things in numismatics that I enjoy more than strong allegories on coins and medals. Where the allegory is unknown, I endeavor to decipher it within the historical context of the numismatic piece. Because of this love I created two NGC custom sets, “Inspirational Ladies” and “The Use of Seated Imagery in Numismatics.” Researching the coins and medals contained in these two sets has given me many hours of enjoyment!
    One coin that I recently acquired illustrating a strong allegory is the 2017 Canadian .9999 Fine Silver $100 Coin, “Juventas et Patrius Vigor” (Latin for “Youth and Patriotic Strength”), 1867 Confederation Medal. This coin is 76.25 mm in diameter and weighs 10 oz. The mintage is 1000 and my coin’s serial number is 321/1000. This year Canada is celebrating their 150th anniversary of confederation. Marking the occasion, Canada is releasing a number of commemorative coins.
    The obverse of this massive coin features an 1867 profile bust of Queen Victoria and a current profile of Queen Elizabeth II along with their corresponding crowned monograms. The obverse represents Queen Victoria as the British queen in power at the time of confederation in 1867 and the current queen, Queen Elizabeth II.
    Faithfully reproduced, the reverse of this coin is modeled from the dies of the original 76.5 mm, 1867 Canadian Confederation Medal. Issued with Queen Victoria’s approval, this medal was minted in silver and bronze. It was awarded to persons of merit for their service to Canada. The original mintages are one gold medal presented to Queen Victoria, fifty silver medals, and five hundred bronze medals. The designers of this medal were brothers JS and AB Wyon. These medals seldom appear on the open market and are quite expensive. I found an auction record for a beautiful original silver medal selling at $2750.00 CAD + $550 buyers premium on 7/13/11 ( http://www.icollector.com/1867-Canadian-Confederation-Silver-Medal_i10734270 ). I also found the record of a bronze medal that sold for $800 USD ( https://www.emedals.com/a-rare-confederation-commemorative-table-medal-1867-c0881 ).
    The reverse features Britannia representing the UK, seated and holding a scroll on which is written “Confederation.” The lion resting its head on Britannia’s lap is reminiscent of “Una and the Lion” from Spenser's “The Faerie Queene.” Around Britannia and idealizing the motto “Youth and Patriotic Strength” are four young maidens representing the four original provinces of Canada; Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick . Ontario is holding a sickle and sheaf representing agriculture. Holding a canoe paddle is Quebec representing commerce. In Nova Scotia’s hand is a shovel representing mining. Finally, New Brunswick is holding an ax to represent forestry. I gleaned much of the information for this post from the following website,  http://www.forces.gc.ca/en/honours-history-awards/conf-medal.page . Here you will also find a lot of interesting facts about the original medal that I had not mentioned in this post. Until next time, happy collecting! Gary.

  24. coinsbygary
    Bide-A-Wee is Scottish for "Stay A While" and is the name of an animal rescue and adoption center in Manhattan founded by Mrs. Flora D'Auby Jenkins Kibbe in 1903. Bide-A-Wee still exists today and has a policy of not euthanizing the animals in their care except for pain and suffering. As a result in 115 years of operation they have been able to place over a million dogs and cats into loving homes. 
    A collector favorite, the Bide-A-Wee medal was awarded to persons in grateful recognition of their "service in the cause of friendless animals." The pictured medal is a bronze un-awarded uniface example designed by then sculptor Laura Gardin around 1913 just before her marriage to James Earle Fraser. It is interesting to note that although the Medallic Art Company catalogs the die pair as MAco 1918-002 that the design pre-dates 1918 because it is signed Laura Gardin rather than Laura Gardin Fraser. The obverse of the medal features three of Laura Gardin's favorite dogs seated together. Surrounding the dogs is the inscription, "LOYALTY, DEVOTION, FORGIVENESS, HUMOR." The edge inscription reads "L.G. Fraser (copyright symbol) 1919. 
    The picture attached to this post is of Arctic explorer Rear-Admiral Richard E. Byrd being presented the Bide-A-Wee medal in 1930 for devotion to his terrier ironically named, "Igloo". Interestingly, Laura Gardin Fraser is also credited with designing the National Geographic Special Medal of Honor for Rear-Admiral Richard E. Byrd in 1930. One side of this medallion sized medal prominently features the bust of Admiral Byrd.
    The only fly in the ointment is that this medal is details graded by NGC for cleaning. When I submitted the medal for grading, I hadn't noticed the cleaning. Now that the medal has been graded I can see the cleaning and I agree with NGC's conclusion. For me, the fingerprint on this medal is more distracting than the cleaning which is probably why I didn't catch the cleaning. Still, even with the cleaning and fingerprint I visually find this medal very appealing. Thus, I am thrilled to own this medal because it is scarce and rarely comes up for sale or auction. 


  25. coinsbygary
    One of the things that endears me to coin collecting is allegorical art. I have several sets in my collection based on allegories alone. I have always maintained that coins are a powerful medium to communicate national ideals through allegorical images.
    For me a lot of the fun in collecting coins is deciphering the allegories. In researching the allegories, I am amazed by how much I have learned about world history through the stories told on coins! For instance I had not known that the name "Borealia" had been considered for Canada's name at it's confederation in 1867 before I acquired the latest coin for my allegorical "Inspirational Ladies" set. The following is a description of my coin purchased from Tallisman Coins and comes from their website:
    Building on the classical concept of a female national personification, Canadian artist Rebecca Yanovskaya offers a new allegory for a modern Canada. Framed by waves and maple leaves that unite land and sea, Borealia is the very picture of strength and confidence as she stands against the majestic backdrop of Canada's tallest peak, Mount Logan, which represents the soaring spirit of innovation.
    Like the British figurehead Britannia, Borealia is clad in traditional robes, but with unique armor that hints at Canada's journey since the colonial era. Every engraved element in this intricate design carries deeper symbolic meaning, including those that allude to the weight of history: the fur cape that represents Canada's pre-Confederation past; the feather that pays tribute to Indigenous Peoples; and the poppies of remembrance woven into her hair. In one hand, Borealia holds the shield of the Arms of Canada; in the other, a dove of peace, a nod to Canada's historic role as peacekeepers, but also to Canadians' desire for peace.
    Facing forward towards the future, Borealia is strong, optimistic and steadfast, like the people she represents, whose ideals and spirit continue to shape and redefine the nation's global future. With one foot reverentially set in the past, her name is an ode to one of the proposed names of Canada leading up to Confederation: Borealia.
    Traditional engraving creates a classical portrait of the modern Miss Canada, a highly symbolic and meaningful allegory or personification of the goddess Miss Canada, struck in one full troy ounce of 99.99% pure silver, and layered in precious 24-karat gold!
     She is youthful yet wise, peaceful yet  powerful. She is Borealia, (from "borealis," the Latin word for "northern") the goddess Miss Canada, who radiates strength and confidence on this fully gold-plated, 99.99% pure silver proof. This symbolic personification is a superb rendering of a classic allegorical figure who represents the collective spirit of Canadians in today's world: hopeful and steady in resolve and perseverance, rising to meet the challenges that lie ahead.