coinsbygary

You have discovered something more valuable than all the 70's in the world. You have excellent sets that you enjoy, and in the end, this is all that matters. The rabbit hole to 70's is one fraught with outrageous costs and lots of frustration. This only ends in burnout. Keep doing the best you can and enjoy the journey. In doing so you will find  satisfaction in this wonderful hobby. Yes, it is all about the art! Finally can you tell the difference between most 69's and 70's? I can't, and I'm willing to bet you can't either. Such competition benefits NGC the most as people are sending them countless submissions in search of the ever elusive 70. Instead search for that next wonderful piece of art! Gary

It's probably a defaced Jefferson Nickel. It looks like someone took a file to it. Gary

On 5/6/2021 at 11:51 PM, ChrisInJesup said:

I don't care.... I'd like a modern Morgan and Peace dollar for my collection. Even if it's a little pricey.

I'm with you, lots of complaints, but in the end I'll pony up for the "CC" privy and the Peace Dollar. They are, after all, nice bookends for my complete Morgan "CC" collection and my currently owned MS-65 1921 Morgan and MS-62 1921 Peace Dollar.  

I just prepared and mailed off a 13 coin submission yesterday. It would have been 14 had I not decided to pull one of the coins out of the submission. The rim of that coin has a couple of shiny spots. Those spots led me to believe that at one time this coin may have been mounted in jewelry. Thinking to myself that this coin was not necessary to my collection I reasoned, why waste my prize money on the chance it will not receive a full grade? Now I'll probably sell the coin raw on e-bay. Like you I have been burned in the past with disappointing results. My choice then is to learn from my previous failures or continue to spend money unnecessarily. Being burned comes with the territory. Learning from our mistakes is the only way to mitigate future disappointments. May your future submissions only make you smile! Gary     

I'm sorry for your loss and it sounds as if Bill is a lot like an elder numismatic-statesman friend that has helped me in the hobby. In my case my friend has helped me with my Laura Gardin Fraser coin and medal collection. People like Bill and my friend are perhaps the biggest reason I love this hobby. They are selfless and freely pass on their knowledge to another generation of budding numismatists to carry on. Last year my friend sent me all his research on LGF. I am still scanning that information and I hope to upload it to a shared drive for any collector that can use it. He has freely passed information on to me and my hope is to expand on it and freely pass it on to the next generation of collectors coming after me. Gary 

You my friend have the heart of a collector! In fact we are almost kindred spirits. The engraving struck onto minted coins is my favorite aspect of collecting coins, no matter who struck them. Thus, I collect US coins, world coins, medals, and tokens both modern and classic, simply because I like the designs. Next I like to group my coins into types and themes. Custom sets allow me to do just that! Next, like you, I'm a Trekie. Since you mentioned Voyager after Deep Space 9, you must watch Star Trek on Heroes & Icons. Six nights a week, every variation of Star Trek (less the cartoon, Discovery, and Picard) back to back! Now I can't say I watch Star Trek every night, but I do like to catch my favorite episodes from time to time. Those include all the episodes featuring "Q". I'm thrilled that "Q" will be coming back for season 2 of "Picard." I'm not happy that I will have to wait until 2022 to see it.  As for Star Trek memorabilia, I don't have much, except for an Enterprise pizza cutter! Incase you're wondering the saucer cuts the pizza! If I can find a photo, I'll post it later. Gary

4 hours ago, Revenant said:

The camera is an Argus C3. I'm a photo nerd so in addition to coins and other things I collect vintage and antique cameras- sorry if those words wound you 🤣.

Get on eBay and search Argus C3. If you want one you can have it probably for $40-50.

Trivia here but Collin Creevy (sp?) Uses an Argus C3 with the flash in the Harry Potter film series.

That's right, now I remember, mine was also an Argus! However, it had a brown body as opposed to your black body. I can't tell you how much fun I had with that camera and the darkroom that I used at my high school to process the pictures. All I did then was shoot black & white but I didn't care, I had a blast! When I was a youth I asked my parents for a 35mm camera, and that Argus was my first. Today I have a Nikon Z-5 mirrorless, full frame camera, and now I'm finally back to shooting 35mm pictures. Yes I know that I need the right lenses to take full advantage of the larger CMOS sensor. They're coming. Until then I'm adapting my new camera to the macro lens I currently own. This camera is a huge improvement over my last one, it's like night and day. I will be posting a blog about this soon with macro shots of my NGC award coin. (Hint: My coin has a few VAM diagnostics). With the nice spring weather around here, I tried my hand at macro shooting in the yard. The following are just a few of those pictures. Gary

P.S. Don't let the spider scare you, compare him to the shot with the twin daffodils to get a perspective of his true size!

Say, I just noticed the camera you have on your bookshelf is much like the first camera I owned as a youth interested in photography. My parents gave it to me for Christmas one year. The yellow focus adjust window connected to a gear that manually focuses the lens is exactly the same as on my camera. The only thing I wish is that I still owned that camera. I don't remember when I lost or sold it but I sure regret it. Gary 

Congratulations coinsandmedals and all the 2020 registry award winners! My journal award and coin also came in the mail yesterday. Naturally, I was very curious about the special-label coin that NGC was going send with my plaque, and I knew they weren't going to send a valuable coin. That said, what could they send that was both inexpensive and nice? Let me just say that I was pleasantly surprised by the MS-64 1881-S Morgan Dollar that I got! Though the 1881-S Morgan is a very common and inexpensive coin in MS-64, consider the following:

1. NGC sent the 2020 registry winners a choice-uncirculated coin.
2. NGC sent the 2020 registry winners a 140 year old coin.
3. At 38.1 mm in diameter, NGC sent the 2020 registry award winners a large coin.
4. Finally, NGC sent the 2020 registry winners a silver coin!

I am posting a picture of my coin that I think could have easily graded MS-65. Believe me, for someone who has collected Morgan's, I've seen some 64's a whole lot more dinged-up than this coin! My blast-white Morgan literally has no distracting marks in either the devices or fields. The fields also have deep luster lines that give it a distinctive and full cartwheel effect. The technical grade may be correct but it sure does look nice for a 64. Gary

There is a wealth of information in those old auction catalogs. I am not surprised that someone payed $550.00 for the one you have pictured! I own several medals designed by Laura Gardin Fraser. Much of the information I have found pertaining to them is from an auction catalog. Thankfully, I accessed these catalogs through the Newman Numismatic Portal. This database contains a wealth of numismatic information free of charge! Although the portal doesn't and can't contain everything there is to know about every coin and medal there is, it is, nevertheless, a wonderful legacy to Mr. Newman. The NNP is updated with new and formerly lost, but found information on a regular basis.   

17 hours ago, Revenant said:

That would make sense and explain why they all have the same agw. Clearly I need to look into this more. 😅 But, yeah, Italy, France, Switzerland and I think the Netherlands too are all the same and the British Sovereign, the US $5 coin and the Prussian 20 Mark all seem to be roughly equivalent.

Now that I have more than 3 coins I think I want to build out a custom set for these because that set would take all of my 1-coin registry sets and present them in the way that I think of them.

Edit: I take that back. The 10 Golden is about 5%ish more than the 20 Franc/Lire.

Don't forget about the Spanish 20 peseta gold coin which went into circulation in 1890 through 1904 with restrikes of the original dies dating 1961 and 1962. The number engraved into the obverse stars denotes the year of striking. (For example, 19 in the left star and 61 in the right star stands for 1961 and 18 in the left star and 90 in the right star for 1890). The date on the coin denotes the year of its authorization. When Spain adopted the peseta, they did so with the intention of joining the Latin Monetary Union. This never came to pass but their coins were all aligned with the other "20" gold coins nonetheless. The weight of the 20 peseta is exactly that of your 20 lire coin at 6.4516 grams. The Danish 20 kroner and Netherlands 10 Golden are in a class all by themselves. The Danes were aligned to the Scandinavian Monetary Union with Sweden and Norway. Their 20 Kroner gold coin has an AGW of .2593oz pure gold. 

On 3/14/2021 at 1:23 PM, Revenant said:

I think the mintage caps on some these things and the artificial rarity is a bit silly. Most of these things come way down in price just a few years later. I don't think I'd pay hype-prices either. If I were you I'd be sorely tempted to sell the one if I could get $4K for it. It doesn't feel like that's going to stick long term - they usually don't.  

Believe me, the thought has crossed my mind to sell the Una and the Lion coin. What holds me back is that I am a collector, not a dealer or an investor. Collectors have a mindset to hang on to their coins like they are precious treasures. Yes, at some point in my life my entire collection will be sold. But for now, I really like that coin. Therefore, a profit is not realized unless you cash in and I won't be taking out a coin equity loan on it anytime soon. In other words the coin will remain what it was worth to me when I bought it until I sell it. It just feels good to have my coin go up in value like that. Gary

22 minutes ago, Revenant said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't you still curb-stomping the competition in the Wilhelmina 10G category? Seriously love that set. Makes me jealous but I'm not touching Wilhelmina until I get finished with Papa's set and get a few more type coins I want.

Seriously, Gary, I know you don't do this to "compete" per se but I think you just fine in some areas. 👍 

 

Wilhelmina has a lot going for her. First, the set is small at only 11 coins. The set has one key, the 1898 that is not all that difficult to obtain in lower MS condition. It is however difficult to obtain in high MS condition. My 66 is the top pop and the most expensive coin I purchased for the set. Next, it is not all that well known in the collecting community which means that demand for her coins is lower. Finally, high grade coins can be had for less money than other foreign gold coins like, for instance, sovereigns. Many of the coins I bought were not much more than spot gold priced. With all that going for me why can't a little guy go for the best and obtain it! If you remember I ran against a guy we used to call "money bags". Huh! when he couldn't beat me he dropped out! That makes a little guy like me feel kind of good! Every little guy should have an area of interest in numismatics where he or she can claim to be close to, if not the best, in their area of numismatic interest! Gary

@coinsandmedalsIf you can learn to work in layers you will know a lot of the power of this software. 2019 is the version I have. I don't upgrade it every year but use it for as long as Adobe supports it. I am doing an editing demo by ZOOM for my coin club on March 10. After that, if you want, I can do a ZOOM demo for you. Send me a message through NGC if you are interested. The most important tip is this, Elements can't make a poorly taken picture look good, it can only make a good picture look spectacular! Gary 

I am sorry for your losses, but I am thankful that its all stuff that can be replaced. We had a cold snap of below zero nights for 11 straight days. However, this is Wisconsin and this kind of stuff happens every year. I have a number of other friends and relatives living in Texas that have managed the kind of week you had. I felt so sorry for everyone living in Texas that week. 

That is a really good picture! Good job! I think that silver is much easier to photograph than a lot of copper coins, especially when they have dark brown toning. I think red-brown coins make for the best copper coin pictures. Good job on nailing down how to edit coins that are not round. It took me a lone time to figure that out also. I find raw coins much easier to photograph than certified coins because of the plastic. Gary 

Nice looking type set! I enjoy photography as a second hobby akin to collecting coins. If there is anything I can help you with, feel free to message me and I'll be more than happy to help! Lighting is a key aspect of photography, but the good news is that it is one of the least expensive tools used in photography. The hard part is getting it right! Gary 

I always use the registry and point system to compete with myself. I can't compete with expensive registry sets, but I can always strive to make my sets the best they can be. The registry and the points assigned to the coins in the registry help me to improve the quality of my collection. In the end, I may not have all the top pops, but I do own several snazzy looking sets like my 7070 type set.  https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/73886/

@coinsandmedals I live in a town where there are several dealers within a short drive. In an imperfect world we are largely influenced by our local experiences. We adapt as we must to enjoy the hobby we love. Older people are less likely to embrace new technology because they don't understand it and therefore don't trust it. Now retired, I worked in technology my entire life. I have embraced the electronic marketplace. I have embraced the registry here at NGC and have won 5 major NGC awards for my registry sets and 7 for my journal posts. I have also bought and sold coins on E-Bay. E-bay has done more in my estimation to make the world a marketplace for collectors than any other forum. This has been good for the hobby and me in particular, because my collection literally exploded. Heritage Auctions has also done a lot to open things up to dealer and collector alike. Often I have bought coins from dealers, only to find they bought them through Heritage. I also enjoy the dealer from Old Pueblo Coin in Tucson, Arizona that does You Tube videos. I have been watching his videos every day. To date I've managed to adapt very well. 

Because I was burned, I have a huge mistrust of social media. In fact as I get older, I am cherish my privacy all the more. I don't need social media and I don't want it. I tried Instagram not long ago but had trouble trying to figure it out and quickly lost interest. Fortunately, I am largely able to access the technology I currently use and remain somewhat anonymous. Another reason for my feeling comfortable is the high level of character I see displayed by most coin collectors.

Over the last year in the era of COVID, I have worked very hard in my church to modernize how we do church. Working with a congregation that has mostly older congregants, I've had a very challenging time trying to get them used to using ZOOM to conduct our services. Others have very old computers or none at all. Thankfully, one of our older congregants doesn't mind connecting to ZOOM over their phone. All this to say that my coin club is comprised of a significant number of retirees. They are more likely to get in their cars and drive to regional coin shows. We even charter a bus to the Central States show in Schaumberg, Illinois!

We have a 100+ person membership in our club and currently have our club meetings via ZOOM. Sadly, only about half the people that attended our in-person meetings before COVID now attend our ZOOM meetings. I wish more people would avail themselves to ZOOM as it has opened the door to a lot of things we would have never done before. For instance, we watched an ANA video on grading coins over ZOOM at our last meeting via screen sharing. In fact, I may ask if I can do a presentation on photography at a future meeting.

It is the younger people that both like and use social media, and I in no way want to discourage them. I just don't want to be a part of it. I frequent the ANA's member blog where there are a number YN's that are all in. One of them is starting a weekly newsletter that they want me to critique. However, as I get more into helping them get established in the hobby, the risk of losing my privacy increases. Because they are enthusiastic about social media and all in, they tend not be as wise about privacy and identity theft issues. Hopefully, over time, I will be able to be a positive influence on them. In fact, truth be known, we all need each other to grow the hobby!

I totally get that you live in a rural area and that electronic media has opened up the world to you. Though more difficult, I also understand how to develop trust over electronic media. I have met both dealer and collector alike on the internet who I eventually met in person that I trust. My only caution over social media is that some people might get left behind. This is the main reason why I fear my club will eventually shut down the webpage in favor of Facebook. Since I am a member, I will most certainly vote against that. That said, because of my mistrust of Facebook, I am unable to access my club's Facebook page. However, for me, that is a price I am willing to pay to preserve my privacy. In fact there is a person in my church that puts tape over her computer camera because of a huge mistrust of Zuckerberg and the internet! In the end, I am not against change, but I am for people using technology at a level that they both trust and understand. I am however, concerned about sacrificing the older collectors on the alter of change because they either don't understand or want to change.

To put things in perspective, when I graduated high school there was no internet or for that matter, cell phones. (Funny how most of my life I worked for a cell phone company with technology that didn't exist when I graduated high school. No 5G, in fact no "G"). There were however, numismatic magazines. These magazines had dealer advertisements and mail-order coins for sale. Mail-order is how I developed my collection when I was in high school. Now hardly anyone uses mail order through magazines. Fifty years from now, coin collecting will continue to evolve and I won't mind! Gary 

Sounds like a plan! Watch out though, like most plans, yours is easier to make than it is to follow! Especially when coins you don't currently own are tugging at your heart and wallet! 

I'm pretty much a flip guy mainly because of the 2X2 staples. Prying staples from 2X2's to move them into a cleaner holder with new writing area can be very risky. It only takes a slight slip of the hand to damage the coin inside, especially if it is a larger coin like a silver dollar because the margin for error is much less. 

To me this is a troubling trend. To gain the newbe's you risk losing the collecting veterans. Older collectors have been asked to adapt to the changing market place, and for the most part they have. However, my coin club maintains a webpage and a Facebook account. I wonder, in an effort to keep their costs down, when my coin club will ditch the website for Facebook? I used to have a Facebook account until somebody hacked it and used it to extort money from me. Fortunately, it turned out to be a hoax I never paid off on, but still, Facebook is done for me. These new social media platforms have a big red target on their backs for every would be hacker to take their shot at. Identity theft and the like are real for anyone who uses electronic media. I spend money to protect myself from identity theft that I would rather spend on buying coins. Yet it is the world we live in, and the price for doing business. Sadly, it is the brick and mortar shops where you develop a trusting relationship that makes this hobby much more personable and in my estimation, enjoyable. This is the direction we need to steer our newbe's, rather than simply accommodating them

I took time to figure out what it means to short a stock. There is something in my brain that just can't wrap it's arms around betting on a stock going down. It just doesn't make sense. However, if I have learned anything, it is this, where there is greed, there is a way. Now that I'm retired and living off my 401K, I'm ticked about all this. I am the little guy who is figuring out how to preserve and live off my 401k for the next 30 years and still have something left to leave to my kids. My broker tells me that this current environment is not sustainable. We'll see. After all, things rebounded well from the COVID hit.

As far as silver goes, I bought a couple rolls of SAE's several years ago as an investment before I realized that I am a collector first and foremost. So, I decided to hang on to them and wait for silver to make a move before selling them. There are local dealers in my coin club that can't get their hands on enough SAE's to meet the demand. I'm thinking that I'll have to pay them a visit soon.

In the end, I have the bulk of my collection, which is substantial, if I should need it to live on it, and a house that is $5,000 away from being totally paid off. I am blessed to be in a good position to weather a financial crisis should things go south. That said, I would rather not have things go south. Much better to have the resources, should I need them, rather than having to use them in order to weather a storm. Gary

Watch out! There's enough gold coins in your picture to give you gold fever! I got gold fever as a youth and still I have not been cured of it. This in spite of being retired with very little money to spend on it. The good thing is, I saw this coming a number of years ago and went on somewhat of a binge. While this has helped to lesson the severity of the symptoms, it has not cured me! There's just something about precious metals used in circulation that captivates my imagination! Good luck on the second box, I hope you don't have to wait 13 years to fill it! Gary