Mohawk

That's a perfect example of what I was talking about. I look at my old German Empire notes and I wonder if it's possible that one of my maternal ancestors used it. I look at my Canadian and East German notes and wonder if the distant relatives I still apparently have in eastern Germany and Ontario in Canada possibly used them. And some of my U.S. notes came from family and friends, so I know those were used and found by people I love. It's magical stuff.

There's nothing wrong with a nice, circulated coin. All of my ancients are circulated and so are most of my banknotes. To me, circulated coins and notes can have more of a story.......I wonder who may have used them, where did they use them and for what? What did these pieces of money mean to the people who had them? Circulated coins and notes all have stories that they cannot tell, which adds to their mystique, at least it does for me.

I can imagine....a 1932-D or 1936-D in MS 66 would be a killer pricewise!

That's totally it!! There are so many beautiful coins and notes out there....I just want some of all of it. It's hard for me to stay focused with it, but it's fun. That's the important thing. And you're right...there are very few wrong ways to collect, provided you're not doing things like SlickCoins, Ratzie33 and Researchcoins are famous for here.

It does make it fun. My fiancée is a big Morgan and Peace Dollar fan. We've had a ton of fun collecting together over the years. We're pretty different in our collecting styles....she's much better at staying focused on one thing than I am. I'm just an abject, freaking mess where that's concerned.....I'm all over the damned place. I don't know, maybe I'll settle down permanently someday, but probably not. Candice (my fiancée) says I'm like a Tiger Shark....I have to just swim around and check out everything I see at least once. Which probably isn't a bad thing....Tiger Sharks are cool. Very curious and inquisitive animals. But it does make it kind of tough to set and achieve goals with collecting like most collectors appear to enjoy doing. I don't know....I'm weird, I guess. But to both you and William....I hope the collecting bug does take with your wives. Having a collecting partner is one of the most wonderful things a collector could ask for.

HOLY HELL HOG!! That's just nuts!!!! Once again, so glad you and yours are well, my friend. Very glad.

I'm so glad to hear you're okay Hog!!! I figured you were when I saw you post your new '59 Washington, which was a great relief!!! I send my best wishes, prayers and good energy to everyone impacted by these horrible storms. May the Gods care for everyone impacted and allow them a speedy return to normalcy. Blessed be, all.

Heavily damaged. The coin has no value.

Probably not. The error market in general is very small, and most of it is focused on U.S. errors. European errors are not very popular. Most European collectors want an error free version of a particular coin. As a result, there is next to no demand for European errors. I'd say your coin is likely worth whatever a buyer is willing to pay for it, if you can manage to find a buyer.

I think it is a die clash, Mike. I think what we're seeing is a clash of the reverse eagle's head and the scroll around it. I have no idea on how to make an overlay, so I hope that this little message is enough for everyone to discern what I'm seeing.

That's a very nice 1959, my friend. Your wife has a good eye and good taste. I think if she were to get into the hobby, she would do very well at it. Congrats on your new addition!

If I ever end up with a Pacu problem, I'll certainly be in touch, my friend!!! However, I don't think I can trust you with my Plakat Betta friend

I have to admit, I had to look Byers up....this is the first I've heard of him, but then I'm not interested in errors. I looked over his website and he certainly has a ton of errors for sale and definitely has a lot of knowledge in the field. You could be right about this, Bob. Byers is a good candidate to be a successor to Weinberg.

That's a good point, Kurt...I wonder if anyone will step in to try to fill it. As we've established on here, the error community is quite small and there may not be any one particular error collector who is fully equipped to fill Weinberg's shoes.

That's interesting, Hoopster, and it likely explains some of it. Some people get pretty wound up on provenance. I'm not one of them, but I know that a well known name attached to something carries a lot of weight with some people. That's fine. Different strokes for different folks. But $6,000 for a dead cricket is pretty excessive, no matter who owned it.

Ah, yes.....they are in the Red Book. That probably explains a lot regarding their status with generations of collectors. As far as newer albums, the ones I've seen don't have the 1856 spot any longer. Which makes sense in a couple ways. One: if a collectors doesn't wish to include that pattern issue, they won't have to stare at a permanently empty hole. Two: I'd imagine that most collectors who do have an 1856 FE Cent likely have it in an NGC or PCGS slab, so it wouldn't go in the album anyway.

As far as I know, Kurt, that's correct. 1857 is rightly considered the proper first year of issue on the FE Cent. I also think some restrikes of the 1856 were produced later in the 19th Century, so I don't know if a restrike of a pattern is still pattern......now there's a question!

That was even worse, no doubt about it, Kurt. That went beyond ridiculousness and into the realm of deep insanity, you're absolutely correct. And what does that person have now for their $6,000? The remains of a long deceased invertebrate sealed in PCGS plastic. When my pet scorpion, Terra, was still alive and well, I could have easily provided anyone who wanted them the remains of deceased crickets anytime they wanted, and for much less than $6.000. I could have even bought a cheap coin in a PCGS slab, opened it up, removed the coin and put the cricket remains into the slab and then glued it back together for them. All for much less than $6,000. For my remains of a long dead invertebrate dollar, I'd rather have this nice Sea Scorpion fossil. It's 420 million years old, it was probably found somewhere fairly close to me and it's only $545:

Yeah.....I'm not a rum guy myself. I don't drink anymore because of a medication I'm on, but when I did, I was actually an absinthe cocktail guy.

The fact that Del Monte $20 sold for what it did is absolutely ridiculous, in my opinion. I wouldn't have wanted that note in my collection at face value, let alone at almost $4M!!!! It's one of those things that shows that there's no accounting for personal taste, and people with lots of money can still have bad taste. Once again, just my opinion.

I was thinking 1952 myself, Bob.

This is true. Years ago, I found a 1999-D Delaware Quarter where grease had filled the last "7" on the "1787" date on the reverse. I showed it to someone who I knew back then and he offered me a couple bucks for and I took him up on it. It was actually the very first coin I ever sold as an adult and made a profit on, small as that profit might have been.

I'm with the Hoopster.....definite grease filled die. But it's very cool looking. That's a pretty nice find.

This is all true.....the error community is very small and U.S. based, both in focus and in location. I, for one, don't get the appeal but that's just me. For me, the one I really don't get is paper money errors. I'd never want an error note in my collection at all. I guess if I'm going to add something to my collection, I want it to look right.

Indeed they are not. If I were to go to a money manager who told me to put 25% or more of my money into bullion, I would run right out of there as fast as I could because such a person is either incompetent or insane. Maybe both. Either way, not someone you want handling your money.