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jgenn

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Journal Entries posted by jgenn

  1. jgenn
    Floor bidders have the advantage at Sedwick's Treasure Auction 14
    I had an unfortunate experience on Wednesday night during Daniel Frank Sedwick's live auction of world coins. My maximum absentee bid was the starting price for a scarce 8 reales overdate, and I watched it go live through my internet connection from home (I had turned off the live audio/video feed). Although I was prepared to counter-bid, no additional bids came in and the item closed at my high bid. Great! Another slot filled in my Charles III pillar dollar set. I saw the next item come up, and since it was not of interest to me, I went back to doing something else on my computer.
    About 15 minutes later, I checked my list of items won and was shocked to see that the coin, that I saw close at my high bid, was sold to another bidder at the next higher increment. I fired off an indignant comment via the "ask auctioneer a question" form and was surprised to get a fairly prompt response. In the ensuing email exchange I received an apology for the confusion and the explanation. Apparently, the auctioneer missed a bid from the floor and so the item reopened again, later in the order, for bidding. I don't know what was announced on the live feed but I can't imagine that anyone but the floor bidder was prepared for a rebid -- I certainly wasn't.
    According to the posted terms, bids can be reopened at the discretion of the auction house, so all I can do is complain. Oh well, lesson learned. From now on, I will remember to keep an eye on the next several bids, just in case any I think I have won come up for rebid.
    There was a bright side to my night, however. I won a rare 1733 Mo F 8 reales, NGC XF details, at the starting bid of $1000. In problem-free condition, they list at $9K -- well outside my collecting budget. For a probable, sea-salvage coin, it has little to no visible corrosion. The main drawback is dark staining from encrustation that otherwise protected the surfaces.
    ~jack

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  2. jgenn
    Provides the acquisition opportunity of a lifetime
    I guess I don't pay much attention to general numismatic news because the events surrounding the deaccession (elimination of items by a museum) of the Huntington Collection of coins and medals from the Hispanic world passed by without my notice. I only started to check out what this Huntington Collection was after I won an interesting 8 reales from an auction house that specializes in ancient coins.
    Archer M. Huntington (1870-1955), philanthropist and patron of the arts, is known for founding the Hispanic Society of America (HSA) as well as his scholarly works in the field of Hispanic Studies. He was also a member and benefactor of the American Numismatic Society (ANS, not to be confused with the ANA). His interest in all things Spanish included a 38,000 coin collection spanning ancient to near modern times that was mostly completed by 1908. This collection was bequeathed to HSA and placed on long term loan for study with the ANS.
    In 2008 the HSA, facing financial troubles, decided to deaccession the coin collection, but not without a legal challenge from the ANS on the grounds that it violated Huntington's intention for the preservation of the collection for future study. With the legal issue resolved in their favor, the HSA sought but failed to find a buyer that would keep the collection intact. Sotheby's auctioned off the collection in 2012, estimated between $25 -$35 million USD, to a consortium of European coin dealers. Several of these houses (Jesús Vico, Morton & Eden, Numismatica Genevensis, Jean Elsen & ses Fils) have subsequently auctioned off parts of the collection to the public. A few anonymous benefactors have arranged the purchase of large and important parts of the collection and placed them, on long term loan, back with the ANS.
    I stumbled upon this story recently, when I scanned through an email auction notice from the Classical Numismatic Group (CNG) and saw a 1614 Spanish 8 reales hidden among the typical ancient fare in the listing. My main date range for 8 reales is 1760-1789, covering the reign of Charles III, but I also collect a few examples of other series. Seeing a fine specimen from the reign of Philip III (1598--1621) come up for auction is a rare occurrence. Even more special, when I found out that this coin had been in such an important collection for over 100 years. Whoever bought it from the Jesús Vico auction, in June of 2012, decided to put it back on the market and I bought it from CNG this year in September.
    The 1614 8 reales, minted in Segovia, Spain, is fairly pedestrian compared to some of the stellar rarities from the Huntington collection (just search for the Sotheby's catalog for examples). The obverse shows the crowned coat of arms of Spain at the time, with Portugal included, as the Spanish monarch held the Portuguese crown from 1581-1640. To the left of the arms is a two story aqueduct of five arches, the mint mark of Segovia, and the assayers initials, AR. To the right is the denomination in Roman numerals, VIII. On the reverse is the quartered arms of Castille and León, with date above. The impressions are strong and what appears to be rim damage looks more like nicks and cuts that were present on the planchette prior to minting.
    ~jack

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  3. jgenn
    1762 Eight Reales from the Old World and New World
    I have a batch of 8 reales in for grading so while I wait on the results, I thought I would journal about the one that I find the most interesting, a 1762 Spanish 8 reales from Madrid.
    In the mid 1700's, the Spanish mints did not turn out many of the larger silver coins. Production of the 8 reales ended in 1736 and did not appear regularly until 1772, with the exception of the 1762 mintage. Charles III ascended to the throne near the end of 1759 and in 1761 made the first change to the Spanish coat of arms since 1700. Most notable is the addition of arms of the Italian houses of Farnese and Medici -- Charles had ruled the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily since 1734. The 8 reales and 8 escudos coins of 1762 feature the new coat of arms on their obverse. This design would not appear again on reales coins and only on the reverse of the escudos starting in 1771.
    The coat of arms that Charles III introduced in 1761 is a testament to the great breadth of Spanish influence in Europe at the time. You can refer to the upper left image in my attached photo as I describe the design. Starting in the upper left and working clockwise we have the arms of Aragon, a former confederation of kingdoms in Eastern Spain and Italy; Aragon-Sicily, a blend of the Hohenstaufen eagle and the ruling Aragonese arms; Austria; Burgundy modern (framed fleurs-de-lis of the House of Valois-Burgundy); the balls of the House of Medici at 3 O'clock; the lion of the Duchy of Brabant (Netherlands); the eagle of Tyrol (Austria/Italy); the lion of Flanders (Belgium); Burgundy ancient (House of Burgundy); and at 9 O'clock, the six fleur-de-lis of the House of Farnese (Italy). In the center are the quartered arms of Castile (castle) and León (lion) with the pomegranate of Granada at the bottom and the three fleur-de-lis of Anjou (France) in the center. The reverse design presents just the arms of Castile and León.
    In my photo composite, I've included my 1762 8 reales from Mexico as a point of reference for the appearance of Spanish coinage minted in the new world. The obverse maintains the abbreviated arms that had been the standard for the milled coinage of the Spanish colonies since 1732. The reverse features a powerful image of global domination, the crowned Pillars of Hercules wrapped with the national motto of Spain "PLUS ULTRA" (further beyond) framing a representation of the old and new worlds floating on the waters between them surmounted by the Spanish crown. The legend "VTRAQUE VNUM" is for the Latin "Ultra Que Unum", "both are one", again asserting the Spanish union of both worlds into one empire. The colonial coins were minted in vaster quantities and traveled much farther than the coins minted in Spain -- it makes sense that they would carry the stronger message.
    The 1762 from Madrid is well struck, nicely toned and seems free of surface abrasions. I'm hoping it grades at least as well as its companion from Mexico.
    ~jack

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  4. jgenn

    Pandamonium strikes!

    By jgenn,

    Update on my recent diversion while I wait for my latest 8 reales submission to be graded.
    I read Gary's (ghermann44) latest post about his time at the ANA show with Dave (Yankeejose) and noted that he finally bought his wife a silver panda coin. I've been meaning to journal about pandas for awhile so here goes.
    I got sidetracked from my 8 reales passion earlier this year when I bought an MS 70 2011 1 oz Silver Panda coin for my fiancee to commemorate the year that we met. Since pandas are her favorite animal, it was well received and, hopefully, an acknowledgement that coin collecting has a fun side, too.
    Naturally, the coin hunting instinct in me kicked in and I started looking at the competitive sets of silver panda coins. This was my introduction to the modern commemorative bullion collecting that so many of you write about (the SAEs, for instance). It took some investigating into mintages, populations and prices (NGC's Chinese Modern Coin Price Guide was one source) to convince me that these might have a worthwhile payback in addition to their charm. Starting with 2002, a reasonable number of MS 70s are available and each year from then to present has a different, well executed, panda design (the earlier ones look a bit cartoonish to my eye).
    So I've built a short set of silver 1 oz pandas from 2002 to present and my intention is to highlight each design with a nice photo, perhaps in a custom set. Until then, I'll leave you with a nice composite of the 2002 coin.
    ~jack

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  5. jgenn

    First Gold

    By jgenn,

    I've only collected silver, mostly 8 reales, until this one.
    Now, you might expect an 8 reales collector to acquire a Spanish escudo as their first gold coin, but I've been wary of buying into the current gold bubble. I hope to acquire a few nice 8 escudos when, and if, the price of gold drops back to lower levels.
    As a fun distraction from my 8 reales focus, I've been building a theme set of coins that depict the sport of fencing, my other main hobby. Since the beginning of the year I've already acquired over a dozen nice silver specimens and today I received my first gold coin, a tiny 14mm, 1.24g speck, commemorating the Athens Olympics with a fencing design.
    I've found that many countries, besides the host, produce Olympic commemorative coins. In this case we have a Bulgarian 5 Leva, dated 2002 with the national emblem, date and denomination on the obverse. The reverse has the dates of the first and contemporary modern Olympic competition and the host city and features a dramatic image of two fencers competing with epees, one of the three type of fencing weapons.
    At some point, I'll get the best of these slabbed and build a custom set devoted to fencing coins. So, you can expect a few more journals with information about this unusual sport and its commemorative coins.
    ~jack

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  6. jgenn

    Amazing 8s

    By jgenn,

    My custom set has more than 500 views!
    Thanks to all of you that have viewed my custom set "Amazing 8s -- Charles III Portrait 8 Reales 1772-1791".
    The special thing about a custom set is that it's uniquely your own. For my set I selected 20 coins from my collection of 8 reales, one for each year of issue that featured the bust of Charles III (some posthumously) and made sure to choose examples from a variety of mints.
    I did some research and tried to include a few interesting facts about this monarch's reign among my comments. History shows that Charles III was the last great King of Spain -- his economic policies fostered an expansion of trade that encouraged the Spanish colonies to vastly increase the minting of these coins. His successor, Charles IV, neglected the administration of the Empire and was eventually forced to abdicate his throne, first to his son Ferdinand VII and then again to Napoleon Bonaparte.
    Curating this set was a fun learning experience. Please take a look if you haven't seen it yet.
    http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/CoinCustomSetView.aspx?s=3785
    I'll leave you with a composite photograph of the first coin in my set and its comment text.
    "First year of the portrait design on Spanish silver coins. This example is from the Mexico City mint. Both the mint mark and assayer initials are inverted and this coin is the rare variety where the initials have been transposed from "FM" to "MF" From the April/May 2012 Heritage auction, Chicago, lot #25106. KM-106.1."

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  7. jgenn
    'Two kings heads and not worth a crown'
    Yes, this is another post about 8 reales. My last post did not get very many views but maybe that's because it was submerged in a flood of new journals that should have been posted as replies. If this one doesn't get many views, I promise to post on a different subject next time
    Anyway, several 8 reales, stamped with the head of George III by the Bank of England, have shown up on Ebay recently and reminded me that I needed to take some better photos of mine to update my coin in my 'Amazing 8s' custom set.
    At the time they were first circulated, 1797, they were set at a value of four shillings and nine pence, just shy of a crown, thus the phrase 'two kings heads and not worth a crown'.
    One of 8 reales experts at www.coincommunity.com, swamperbob, has described these as '... one of three attempts by the Bank of England to get silver back into circulation during the monetary emergency of the very early 1800s. England was at war and needed money to fight but they also were trying to hold the line on the value of the pound sterling. World silver prices were high so any "full weigh" coins issued would immediately be melted for the silver - so NONE were made. Old worn coins (down to 50% or so) remained in circulation. So the Bank took 8R coins and stamped them to raise their face value above the silver content. These would not be melted.'
    The majority of these coins featured the bust of Charles IV, known more for his interest in hunting than in managing the Spanish Empire, and George III suffered from a form of mental illness later in his reign, so the other common phrase for these coins was 'the head of a fool on the neck of an '.
    My example is from 1783, with the bust of Charles III. I was keen to acquire this one, when I saw it offered on Ebay in early 2011, because it was the best example of a coin from this year that I had seen and I wanted to redeem myself for purchasing one of those overpriced, 'America's first dollar', sea-salvaged 1783s.

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  8. jgenn
    It's as close as I can get to the rare 1732 and 1733 8Rs
    Milled silver coinage in the Spanish Colonies started to appear in 1732 as a result of a royal decree of 1728 from the reigning monarch, Philip V, the first of the Bourbon Dynasty to rule Spain. Prior to this, colonial coins were hand stamped on irregularly shaped discs, known as cobs. Mexico City was the first of the colonial mints to use screw presses for their coinage on planchets of standardized diameter and thickness. Prior to the impression of the obverse and reverse designs, the planchets were passed through a device that impressed a repeating floral design on the coin's edge. These methods deterred clipping and made counterfeiting much more difficult. Quantities of milled coins from the first two years were very low and thus very rare to collect today.
    I recently acquired a 1734 eight reales struck using a 1733 die -- it's as close as I can afford to get to one of the early ones. As a point of reference, a 1733 Mo MF 8R, in AU condition, recently sold for 3300 euros (not including auction fees) in the Cayon subastas in Madrid on may 9th 2013. My photo includes an enlargement of the date so that you can see the slanting section of three within the "eye" of the four.
    The photo is of the raw coin that I took indoors in my light box using two light sources with the macro function of my hand-held Canon G9. In post-processing, I cranked up the contrast and dropped the saturation to reduce the purple tint from the Reveal incandescent bulbs.
    Wish me luck in getting this graded -- I'm hoping for XF40.

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  9. jgenn

    This REALLY Bugs Me!

    By jgenn,

    An Ebay seller trying to take advantage of an NGC "clerical error".
    As an 8 reales collector, I frequently browse the Ebay listings for these coins. Several months ago I saw a NGC certified 1783 Mo FM listed. Now, for those in the know, this is the rarest of the series and no graded examples are in NGC's or PCGS's census. The photos clearly show severe seawater damage over the assayers initials. I might admit that the second initial looks more like an "M" than an "F" but it would be easy to fake given the overall damage in the area. It's been relisted several times and is currently listed. Fortunately, nobody has bought it.
    Here are two of the listing's photos. I'm certain it's a clerical error. What do you think?

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  10. jgenn
    When NGC decides to "Detail" your coins
    Well, my last submission of eight reales coins came home today. I had already seen the grading results online but the disappointment seems to have more impact when you have your box in hand. Slightly less than half got full grades -- my worst submission so far. These were mostly coins from Spanish auctions where I must rely on the pictures and catalog descriptions. I've learned to steer clear of "Rayitas" (scratches) and "Algo limpiar" (cleaned) so none of my detailed coins were described as such. Most were "Surface Hairline" but I also got a details comment that I had not seen before, "Spot Removals". Please understand, I am not knocking Spanish auction houses in general because I've used them before and had much better results. I must accept that some of the coins in this batch were borderline in quality.
    On the positive side, I've been trying to fill my 1781 Mexico 8R slot with a full grade coin and on the fourth try (three raw and one crossover), I finally got a raw coin back from this submission with a nice grade. I've taken a stab at presenting it like some of the impressive photos that others have posted.
    ~Jack

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  11. jgenn
    I knew I was close but didn't know which one would put me over the top.
    Hello fellow collectors. My first journal happens to coincide with my recent breakthrough of the 100K registry points milestone. Sure its just a number but it defines a point at which I can look back and reflect on the collection I have built in last three and a half years. For me, this all started with one of those "America's First Silver Dollars" followed by the realization that collectible grade eight reales coins (aka pieces of eight) could be found for what I paid for a damaged example (or less). Needless to say, I caught the collecting bug.
    Last year I became aware that my registry point total was well into five digits and figured out that only coins in competitive sets counted. So, I started putting my eligible coins into sets to see how many points were there.
    The points accumulated until I knew the next coin would break 100K. I had some coins in for grading at NGC, won two coins at Heritage CICF but what arrived in the mailbox first was an Ebay win -- an 8 reales from 1814 minted in Cadiz, Spain.
    My main collecting focus is the 8 reales from the Spanish colonies but I also have examples from the Spanish mints in Madrid and Seville. Cadiz is of historical significance in that it was the home of the Spanish treasure fleet and dominated trade with the colonies in the 18th century.
    At the time this coin was minted, however, the Spanish empire was in decline -- Napoleon had invaded and conquered most of Spain and the remnants of Spanish governance retreated to Cadiz where coins of this type were minted from 1810-1815. The Spanish colonies in America were plunged into a long period of warfare for their independence.
    It has been a fun and fascinating journey so far. Thanks for reading. Here is a picture of the coin that got me past 100K. Its only an XF45 so please pardon the condition.
    ~Jack

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