BillJones

Part of it is my photography. I bought the Mercury dime because the obverse is, at the least, a light CAM. I could have cited many more examples from my head, but I didn't buy the coins and therefore could not photograph them. Getting CAM on a Proof from the 1936 - 42 era is almost impossible, even if the coin shows it. But, yes, I have no idea why the 1883 Proof dollar did not get a CAM.

I have found the grading companies to be very inconsistent when it comes to giving Proof coins the "Cam" designation. For example, these two Proof coins don't have it. But this one was given a CAM. The obverse might be CAM, but not the reverse.

You have an 1851 gold dollar with a mint mark I'm having trouble reading. After I download, I see that it is a "C" for the Charlotte Mint. Unfortunately someone polished the obverse of your piece. This is the most common Charlotte mint coin, but it's still a good coin because anything from Charlotte is scarce. The Charlotte Mint operated from 1838 to 1861 when the Civil War closed it. After the war it became an assay office until circa 1912. The building was used as a post office until it was scheduled to be torn down. The citizens of Charlotte saved it and moved the building to another location where it became an art museum. Here is a Mint State 1851-C gold dollar.

I paid a small fraction of that amount for a Satin Finish Proof in PR-67. I am very happy with my coin at that price. I also have one with the Brilliant Finish, which I don't like as well, also in PR-67. I think that the design looks better with the satin finish, but the brilliant one sells for about 35% more.

That is a pretty nice example. I would say that it grades EF (Extremely Fine). According to "The Coin Dealer Newsletter" it's worth $85 to $100. Here is a Mint State example which will give you an idea as to how much detail your coin has lost because of wear.

You really need to post pictures in order for us to estimate a value. A cleaned coin is not necessarily worthless. It depends upon the sharpness grade and the degree of cleaning damage. I bought this 1861 silver dollar many years ago. It is a Proof that was totally stripped. The Proof surface was pretty well gone. I never had it certified because when I was dealer, it would have come back to me ungraded in what was called a "body bag" in those days. In other words I would have gotten nothing for my money. I sold this coin to another dealer for $1,100. If the coin had been left alone, it would have been worth several thousand. I know a dealer I who saw this piece before it was cleaned and told me about it. The pictures look a little odd because all I took was slides back 20 years ago.

BU for a silver means that it is bright, not tarnished or toned. It does not necessarily mean the coin has not been dipped. If fact for older silver coins, which are not Morgan or Peace Silver Dollars, they may well have been dipped. Those dollars were saved in bags, stored in government vaults, away from air and light. That is why many of them are not toned. Most older, Mint State silver coins are toned. This 1800 half dime is graded Mint State-64, and it is toned. This is considered to be normal. Very few Mint State coins from this era are bright, and if they are chances are they have been dipped.

My latest a three shilling, 1814 British Bank Token. Our hosts graded it MS-61.

If you go to my registry sets, you will see many of the my U.S. coins. The British and Roman coins are mostly raw.

I had a Proof set the mint sent to me, back in the 2000s, that had a fingerprint on the dime from the get-go. This was like 15 to 17 years ago.

Unless machines have fingerprints, I dare say humans are involved.

Here's another one. Who knew that the American Silver Eagle was issued in 1906?

The denarius was the basis for the shorthand "d" that appears when one is giving the price of something in pounds, shillings and pence. The medieval British penny was a silver coin that was similar to a denarius. For example 1p 2s 5d would be interpreted as "1 Pound, 2 Shillings and 5 Pence." The Bible called it a "tribute penny" for that reason. Here is an example. And yes, I think that the OP is a counterfeit coin.

No, they don't bag them, but I imagine that they have them in some sort of a container with something like "popcorn" Styrofoam between them (I've seen films of that on the news). If they were caught in gloves and never came in contact with other coins, they would all be mark free. They aren't. They are also supposed to be inspected but somehow this made its way to me one year.

It's not exactly funny, but I was at a big New York City coin convention in the 1970s that was in the basement of the Sheraton Park Central Hotel. A guy who looked like "His elevator didn't make it to the top" tried to steal a coin and run up the stairs with it. There was a big commotion, and he was tackled right away. And what was he trying to steal? A Proof silver Ike Dollar that might have been worth $25 at the time. Not exactly something that is worth going to jail for.

People have accused me of not have much focus because I have collected many items over the years. Here's a partial list of what I have done after graduating from undergraduate school many years ago. U.S. Type Coins from the half cent to the "old commemorative coins including gold." Indian $2.50 gold set Classic Head $2.50 gold set Classic Head $5.00 gold set Type I and Type II gold dollars set Proof sets from 1936 to date (still in progress for the 1936 to '42) Half Cents by die variety, mostly all sold. New England Civil War tokens (not a big set but tough to do, mostly sold) U.S. Presidential campaign medalets and medals from 1824 to 1896. Included political Hard Times Tokens At least one coin for each British king from Alfred the Great (871) to Elizabeth II At least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to Constantine the Great. I might go further. The Libertas Americana medal series. (American Revolutionary War heroes) Plus a lot of other stuff grabbed my fancy because it a good story around like, like medals in copper awards to U.S. Grant and Zachary Tyler. You might call this "unfocused" but most of these collections are complete.

The 1922 Plain Cent is a coin that I would buy in a certification holder only unless you are dealing with an honest, expert dealer that you really know. I knew one such dealer, but he died many years ago. He used to hold local auctions, and he once had all three of the 1922 Plain varieties on one sale. It would have been fun to go back in a time machine and buy them all because this guy knew what he was doing. There are the so-called "broken D" variations on this die state. Those are to be avoided at the going price because the experts don't value them as highly. The varieties with the weak reverse used to be like your "red headed cousin" too because PCGS didn't recognize them. I am not sure if they do now or not. If I don't know the dealer, I would never buy this coin raw off the Internet. There are some coins that you need more than just the dealer's photos. One problem is that a lot of collectors like to have these coins raw so that they can put them in their album to make the book complete. I bought a nice 1922 Plain in a collection when I was dealer. I was going to keep it and put it in "my boyhood collection of Lincoln Cents" album to make it complete after 25+ years, but a dealer friend made me "an offer I couldn't refuse" for the coin.

The answer is they are banging out these coins in rapid fire order. They probably have a schedule for checking the dies perhaps based on the number of impressions made. If they note that the does are damaged, they get pulled, but they not going to go through bags of coins to find the pieces struck with the broken die. They are shipped and sold, which would include the Proofs. The classic example of this was the 1955 Doubled Die Cent. Mint personnel noted the problem after perhaps 20 to 40 thousand coins had been struck. Those coins had been packed up in bags. They were not going to take the time to search the bags for the doubled die coins, so they were shipped.

There are collectors who chart die cracks and for collections of a given die variety by what they call die states. Some die states can be very valuable if you know which markets to tap. Some die cracks can a neutral effect or price or lower it. As I type collector, I look for coins that have the sharpest impression for the design. Sometimes you lose sharpness because of die cracks because the die sinks does not give a full impression on the coin when it is struck. This 1839-C Quarter Eagle was made with badly cracked dies. My guess is that it probably lowers the value, but I bought the coin because it was graded properly, AU-50, and had not been dipped or cleaned, which can be a problem with these coins.

More like an MS-64. It has a few minor marks.

As a collector who has been part of this hobby for over 60 years, I prefer older copper coins that are Brown to the red colored pieces for two reasons. First, they are less, often much less expensive. Second, they are stable if they are properly stored. A red copper coin could stay nice for over century and then suddenly turn on you. When it turns, you could stand to lose a lot of money. Here is an old large cent that is "brown" and also a Choice Mint State piece.

I had been looking for a nice, but reasonably affordable example of the 1795 Bust Dollar with the bust of Liberty set too far to the left. It is believed that this was the first Draped Bust coin die that was prepared. I found this one on the Internet and purchased it from the dealer who was offering it. It's graded VF-35.

I imagine that these two are still on your want list: Gordian I and Gordian II These two emperors were in office for about two weeks. Their elevation was approved by the Roman Senate when the Senate was looking to oust Maximinus Thrax. Gordian I, the father was about 80 years old. He wanted his son Gordian II to rule with him. Although they were governors of their Roman territories, they did not have a professional army to support them. Maximinus had a supporter in the area who did. Gordian II pulled together a rag-tag force of palace guards and volunteers to oppose him. The results were predictable. Gordian II and his men were slaughtered. When Gordian I heard that his son was dead, he committed suicide.

Here is a picture of the NGC sample slab for the canceled event.

The 1900 dollar has been worked on so much that it looks like a counterfeit. I would rather buy silver rounds, if I wanted to invest in silver, than buy these pieces.