Mohawk

He is indeed. He may be the Imperator of cheap, uncleaned ancients.

If that's old, Hog, then I was old in my teens and twenties. I'm not really a fan of parties and I never have been.....I'm your classic introvert in a lot of ways, depending on the community. A coin show? Now that's a large social event I'd be all about!! But a party? Just filled with random people and giving them alcohol on top of it? No thanks. I'll pass. I made it to midnight, though. But I usually do. I'm a total night owl and being up at midnight isn't unusual for me. And when my job starts, my shift is going to be 12:30pm to 9:30pm EST every work day, so that'll further entrench me as a night owl.....like I need it!!

There's absolutely no problem with paying for education, R-Rash. I agree and my student loan balances would bear me out on this fact!! Best of luck on your submission.

I have to agree R_Rash....that coin definitely doesn't warrant a trip to NGC. It would cost more to slab it than the coin is worth.

You are very welcome, Xi. Best of luck in your search!!

This is true, Hog. Definitely true. I think that once I set my Canada and Germany goals, I'll complete them. As for Faustina, it really is impossible. There are literally thousands of different coin types known for her and some of them are exceptionally rare and haven't been offered for sale or auction in presentable grades in decades. If I thought that Lenny (my turtle) would continue on with the collection in my stead once I die (because I will before it's completed), I'd continue with it. But I doubt that he'd do so and he's the closest thing to a descendant I'm going to ever have as my fiancée and I decided long ago that we're never having children. My sister also made the same decision long ago, so no nieces or nephews either. But this is all okay!! I've come to terms with it and I'm looking forward to some new numismatic adventures in 2022!! One thing can say is that I don't view this as a failure by any stretch. I learned a lot from trying the project on and I certainly bought some beautiful coins which I'll always love and treasure. It's a win, even if the project itself didn't turn out to be a success in the way I thought it would. I wish I'd known about OCRE before I started, but I didn't. But that's just one of the really cool things I learned about from attempting this.

Tell me about it. I've decided that I want to chase some Canadian and German coins as these coins have the most significance for my family story, now that my impossible to complete Faustina the Younger project is kaput for at least the time being and likely for good.....trying to do something which you have about as much chance of completing in your lifetime as you do of emptying the Atlantic Ocean with a bucket is absolutely no fun. It's like you've already failed as soon as you started. It's not a great feeling. For Canada, I've decided on going back to chasing Proof-Like/Uncirculated Set coins from maybe 1964-1975 in cameo, with a main focus on the nickel 1968-1975 sets as they're a pretty good challenge. As for Germany though......that's tough. My direct maternal ancestors emigrated to the United States from East Germany in 1948, so East Germany seems like a natural choice. But I'm also finding West German proof sets quite appealing as well. Maybe I'll do a little of both.....I'm unsure right now. I did used to have a pretty nice set of the early East German aluminum coins in mint state a while ago, but I had to sell them to get an expensive repair on the Beetle done when I was still working on completing my doctorate and unemployed due to that. So, maybe I'll try to rebuild that. I don't know......it's all crazy with possibilities in my head right now regarding Germany!

A 1954 Canadian $1000 is likely in my future. I've never owned one, but a $1000 bill would just be cool to have.

Okay....I did some completed listings research on 1965 SMS coins in Cameo on eBay. Here's what I found. For the half, it looks like you could get it for between $200-$300 for a cameo coin in MS 67 Cameo For the quarter, there is one MS 66 Cameo that sold for $65.99, so that one seems attainable. In 67 Cameo, one sold for $239.99 For the dime, I only saw one completed listing in Cameo, which ended at a price of $28.09. That one was a great bargain, so it looks like there may be bargains to be had. For the nickel, it looks like they're selling for about $80-$90 in MS 67 Cameo, so that's not bad. However, I did not see a completed listing for a cent in Cameo and that's the toughest coin. But I think that if you weren't stuck on Cameo for the cent or were able to score a bargain, you could reasonably do a 1965 SMS Cameo set within the budget you proposed, Hog. It's actually not as bad as I thought it'd be.

Man, I'm not sure of the actual price for the 65 cameo set.....you might be able to for $900, depending on the numeric grades of the coins. I'm really not sure. You may be able to score some bargains, too, which would lower the cost. It's not impossible, I don't think. I should do some research.....I usually like to have better answers than this.

Thanks for posting that!! He's a great dealer.....great material and good prices. That's a great suggestion!

Canada has done some circulating commemorative Loonies, but most of the Loonies with different designs are sold in collectors' sets and rolls. There have been 21 circulating commemorative Loonies, but nothing like the insanity of the State Quarters, ATB Quarters and the Presidential Dollars, though, to be fair, Canada has unleashed some quarter related craziness into circulation in 1992, 1999 and 2000, but still not on the scale of what the U.S. has done. You typically have to pay the RCM to obtain that kind of craziness. And you're correct about many nations eliminating the lowest denomination banknote and replacing it with a coin.....Great Britain, as you said, has. But Australia, New Zealand and Japan have done so as well. The United States should eliminate the $1 FRN, but I'm not holding my breath. The U.S. can't even get rid of the damned cent!

That could get expensive, Hog. Especially when you start talking about the cents. I think those are the toughest to get in cameo. But if you want to do a cameo SMS set, I'd recommend the 1967 set. It'd be the least expensive set in cameo and the 1967 SMS is the nicest looking one anyway. A 1965 cameo SMS set is going to get quite expensive quite quickly.

Very nice. That has to be very attractive.

Thanks for the kind words, JP. I will eventually, I'm sure. I'll stumble on the correct path. I know I want to keep going with Canada, of course, I just have to find the perfect thing there. Germany, well, I guess we'll see if I can figure out something to do there with some more time and research. And I still have my banknotes.....those are a much more international collection than anything I do with coins.

Absolutely. That's what Canada did with the Loonie. After a 21-month period where both the Loonie and the Canadian $1 note circulated side by side, Canada withdrew the $1 note and, as a result, the Loonie was a resounding success. It was so successful that the Toonie followed in 1996. Now, the Loonie has actually become a beloved national symbol of Canada. If the United States is ever going to get a dollar coin to actually work, the $1 FRN has to go. And the U.S. has to quit making dollar coins that are destined to fail right out of the gate, such as the Eisenhower Dollar and the Susan B. Anthony Dollar. A successful American dollar coin should look to the Loonie as a model.....the yellow color of the aureate-brass clad steel Loonie holds up much better than that of the manganese brass clad copper American dollar coins and the Loonie has a different edge than any other coins that currently circulate in Canada. There's no mistaking a Loonie for a quarter or half dollar. The Loonie also has a aesthetically pleasing design, which cannot be said of any base metal dollar coin ever put out by the United States aside from the Sacagawea. The Eisenhower Dollar and the Presidential Dollars are all criminally hideous and the Anthony Dollar is only very slightly better, IMHO. With some retooling of vending machines, a Sacagawea Dollar with a different edge and composed of aureate-brass plated copper or steel could be successful, provided that the $1 FRN is finally put down.

Welp, I think the whole proof 5 Mark thing is out the window....those 1950's and early 1960's dates are very rare and quite expensive in any presentable grade and there are just too many dates like that to make the project feasible, especially in a raw form in an album. I'm so good at thinking of coin goals that are next to impossible or which are actually impossible for me. It's the same old tired Mohawk c*ap again!! Back to the drawing board.......

Hello, While I do not have any of these coins myself to offer you, I may be able to point you to a couple websites that could possibly help you out. The first is for Stephen Album Rare Coins. They specialize in Islamic coinage: https://db.stevealbum.com/php/home.php The second is MA-Shops. They're kind of like a European coin and currency mall. They often have some harder to find European and Islamic coinage being offered by various sellers: https://www.ma-shops.com/ Best of luck in your search!!

Update-the 1979-S Roosevelt Dime and the 1981-S Type 1 Anthony Dollar have both sold and the links have been removed. Thanks So Much!!!

Well said, my friend, well said indeed!! If they write anything like that, they are instantly placed on my ignore list. A recent new arrival just landed there a couple of days ago.

I think for me, the disgust with text abbreviations comes from being in the field of education. I have an appreciation for fully written out words and I loathe text jargon.....I don't even use it when I'm texting!! At the community college I used to be an adjunct at (glad I'm not doing THAT anymore!!), some of the kids would actually turn in papers with that damned text garbage in them!!! If they did that with me, it was an instant fail. I informed them of this on day one of class and it STILL happened! That wasn't popular with them, let me tell you, but I feel it will serve them well later on in life. How do these kids expect to find a job if they make resumes and write cover letters with text abbreviations in them? They won't, and I figured that an F from me at the junior college level would help make sure that they didn't include text abbreviations when it really counted. I was trying to teach them something even more important than the Modern World History stuff I was teaching in the class. But I digress.....I just cannot stand the text abbreviations. I think there is value in writing words out fully. It's better communication in general and I think it shows respect for the person who has to read what you are writing. It's just good form, it's polite and it's proper writing.

I'm boring. There really are no big million dollar rarities that interest me. Probably because most of those are U.S. coins, an area in which I have no collecting interest. But here's my list: 1. 1969 Canada silver off-metal quarter and dollar errors 2. Full set of East German and West German proof sets (some of these are actually quite rare) 3. Faustina II aureus. 4. 1969 Canada Large Date dime 5. Full set of Canada 1954 Devil's Face notes 6. Weimar Republic 1933-J Oak Tree 5 Mark in proof.

This is a very good idea, Anthony. While there are some people here that know VAMs, you would probably have better luck on the specialized forum than you will here.

I'm with the others...definite lamination. The coin likely does have some value, but the condition is pretty poor.....the stains and the environmental damage are going to limit the price to, likely, a few dollars. I'd say it's one of those coins that's worth what someone will pay for it. Coinbuf's suggestion to throw it on eBay with a $15 BIN is a good one but I'd suggest one thing: make sure to add that you'll accept offers on the coin. You'll be much more likely to sell it if you do so.

So true, Bob. So, so true. I should have been more specific. I'll make sure I am next year