gmarguli

Makes perfect sense. It'd be like today saying that you found a 1992 proof set in the original mint box.

You didn't mention what series you're looking at or what kind of budget you have. Are you building a type set or looking to complete a single series? Will it be a date run or include all mints? What condition are you looking at, circ, generic MS/PR, gems? I personally like business strikes better. Proofs were made for collectors and preserved and saved. Business strikes were made for commerce. I like something about the fact that the coin survived and wasn't spent and 100 or more years later the coin is still in exceptional condition.

TPGs are gaining popularity in other countries for the same reason they gained popularity in the US. 1) They remove the need for knowledge. I don't need to know the strikes and luster or grade of any series. I just need to be able to read the insert. If I'm truly scared and pathetic, I can double down and require a CAC sticker. I don't need to learn about cleaning and how to detect alterations. I can be completely dumb and enjoy the hobby. 2) It lowers the transaction costs. We have an outside arbiter of condition. I know what an NGC MS63 should look like and you should too. This reduces haggling, transaction time, and disagreement about condition. The idea that TPG are moving coin collecting from a hobby to an investment vehicle is ridiculous. There has always been a wide range in numismatics. Does anyone honestly think that 50 or 150 years ago the people who purchased expensive coins didn't think about the financial benefits of their investment? I collect coins because I enjoy it. I like the history, the designs, the challenge of finding that one piece that is both rare and nice condition. However, I'd be a liar if I said that the investment portion of it didn't weigh heavily on purchase decisions. My one strong disagreement with Mark Salzberg's letter is that he appears to believe the strong run up in bullion is signs of a vibrant market. Bullion is the purchase of the scared. It is a hedge against inflation. It is not a collectible, even if the mint stamps a pretty eagle on it and sells it for a premium.

As much as I like the security of Registered Mail, the 7-10 days it can take to get to me is really annoying. I wish that NGC would use First class mail with private insurance for the lower value shipments. Given the volume that NGC ships and the extremely low rate of lost packages, they could significantly reduce shipping costs to the customers (and probably make more money for themselves) as well as get the coins back faster to the submitters. It's a win-win for everyone involved. I'm in the middle of week 4 for one of my invoices. Scary thing is it was Regular Tier. I'm in week 2 for several other invoices and they were Economy Tier. I'm fearful those will take another month or more.

Interesting point of view. See, I thought that posting that he was an untrustworthy, lying, two-faced backstabber who relentlessly attacked people in the forums for the same things he did would have been talking. That's why I didn't post that.

I knew Truth. They say not to talk ill of the dead. I guess I'll end my post here.

Welcome back. Will Jom, JamminJ, and TJ be just around the corner? I wish I could help you with Finland resources, but it is a very under-collected country. Probably due to fairly unimaginative designs for most of the coinage. However, their modern commemoratives are usually visually appealing and they sell cheap. What time period are you focusing on? Here is my one Finnish coin. It is a specimen (proof) striking of a 1921-H Markka.

What kind of monster would do this? The Registry is sacred and the reason so many collect... Personally I'm not going to give much thought to it. If someone wants to collect internet points so badly that they will cheat, I've got more important things to worry about. Years ago I knew of a somewhat high ranking Registry Set that was only inserts. Assembled by crackouts. There were outright angry people because I wouldn't report it to. Hateful emails and PMs to me.

That's a bold statement. I wish we had a commemorative series with politicians and their dumbest statements. I'd collect that. Hey, I'll trade you my MS67 Marion Berry, If you take out the killings, Washington actually has a very very low crime rate for your MS66 AOC, Buffalo could fly if we'd just stop eating their wings.

There is no reason to believe that these type coins will be sold to collectors. There are a lot of investors looking for places to invest. Look at the rich Chinese. They'll spend a few million on a house in the US that they haven't seen and won't live in, just to get their money out of China. Why not spend a few million on small items that can be safely stored in a bank box out of China's reach?

You can take TruthTeller (Dave Baptista) off your ignore list. He won't be coming back. He died around 12/2017.

Actually, what you failed to see was me making any comment about what you or anyone looks at first. I stated that I would suspect that a vast majority of experienced numismatists can determine if a coin is authentic before looking at the edge and I stand by that comment. Prove me wrong. As for what games you play with yourself, I don't give a damn if you close your eyes and smell a coin trying to see if it has the correct metal mixture to determine authenticity. It's not the standard way of doing things. And thank you, I will start my own quiz. Quiz: Why is Insider so angry at the world and have a holier-than-thou attitude? A) Because he is fresh out of silver spoons? B) He used to be respected in the industry, but now he is relegated to working at a TPG that most people thought was out of business? C) Because he should have been retired many years ago, but needs to keep working for the money? D) You'd be angry too if you spent all day grading Silver Eagles and Chuck E. Cheese Tokens. E) All of the above.

It's not about playing the guessing game. If this were approached as "Which edges show common characteristics of being counterfeit and why?" then that would have been better. But to guess if the coin is genuine only by the edge isn't practical. As an extreme example, the edge could look legit for a Morgan dollar, but surprise it was on a Large Cent. I would suspect that a vast majority of experienced numismatists can determine if a coin is authentic before looking at the edge. The edge may seal your opinion, but your opinion was formed before needing to look at the edge.

Without knowing what the coins are, it is an impossible question.

Don't you know that anti-saggy pants laws are institutionalized racism? There is a whole chapter on it in The Wokeness Monster: How I Stopped Thinking for Myself and Just Repeat What Others Tell Me. Sorry, but these are horrific. Just mind-blowingly awful. The designs are bad. The choices of what to commemorate are awful. I'm going to assume that Wikipedia is not trolling me and these are real. First Patent? Annie Cannon who apparently worked on classifying the stars (apologies to the ancient Greeks and Romans). The Edison Light Bulb with no mention of Swan and ignoring the fact that Edison was a total scumbag and stole many of his ideas.Trustee's Garden? Hey, let's plant s*** and see if it grows. Septima Clark? WTF does she have to do with innovators?

The person who suggested this at PCGS is no longer associated with the company and has abandoned the idea. The idea for a 100 point scale makes the same amount of sense as a 137 point scale or a 46 point scale. Just because our brains like nice round numbers doesn't mean it is the right number. If anything, we could easily go down to a 30 point scale and get rid of the unused circulated grade numbers.

The problem with the large shows is that they aren't for collectors. They are for dealers to do business with other dealers. If a dealer sells something to a collector, that is just icing. I've been to shows where dealers I know have set up a table, yet not once will I ever see the dealer. They are in a hotel room doing deals or at the auctions. At a show several years ago a well known dealer was sharing a table with another dealer I knew. These two dealers were good friends. The well known dealer had several coins in his case with prices. I had an interest. However, the dealer I knew said he wasn't sure they were actually for sale. The big time dealer needed something to fill his case or the show organizer would get upset and he just grabbed some stuff before leaving his shop. Not once over the 4 days did I ever see that dealer at his table.

Sounds like the TPG have failed us by not providing enough breakdown on the coin and forcing us to have some knowledge about the coin. I propose the following solution: Split the grades. We can have MS64, MS64+, MS64.5, and MS64.5+. How about a 10 point scale (with split grades and the + designation of course) for strike and luster. Strike: 7.5 / Luster: 8.5+ Now some people will argue that strike and luster is part of the grade, but those people are old fogies that don't understand modern numismatics. We could also have 10 point scales (again, also split with + designation) for CAM/DCAM/PL/DPL/RD. I can just see it now, people arguing that their PR66.5+, 9/10 DCAM, 9/10 Red, 9.5/10 Strike, 8.5+/10 Luster * coin really should have been a 9/10 luster.

It's not just trolls, there are people who provide no value to the topics. Two people who come to mind that you probably won't recognize are Bear and michael. They don't post anymore since God put them on his ignore list. Bear was an old fart that had zero knowledge of the hobby and used to make thousands of stupid comments like "I'd pay a lot of jelly donuts for that coin" and many people excused or perhaps even liked his stupid worthless posts. Zero knowledge, but felt the need to make stupid useless comments on everything and pretend to have the moral high ground. Many of the dealers disliked him, but they encouraged him as they took advantage of him when selling coins. Yep, dealers cheering him on so an old fool felt good about himself so they could sell him overpriced coins. michael I can only assume suffered from some sort of dementia. His posts read like that of a six year old lacking any semblance of grammar and many times lacking enough clarity to even understand what he was trying to say. One of his faces would take a shot at you in the forums and the other face would PM you asking to buy a coin. The mods wouldn't do anything about either of them as they weren't trolls or outright breaking the rules. However, they added zero value and actually made the forums worse for many people. Why not add people like this to the ignore feature? Get rid of the clutter.

I have 9 people on my ignore list. I am close to adding a couple of trolls.

30+ years ago when I started collecting, those were the terms that were associated with the numeric grade. However, I recall Select UNC to be MS62 and not lower than that. MS60/61 was just unc. I also recall nice and strong being used instead of plus. There are two others that you missed: Cleaned UNC = MS61 About Uncirculated UNC = MS62

While becoming rarer, every now and again I see offered large quantities of Cash coins. It is not unusual to find an offering of several hundred thousand and I've heard of offerings in the millions.

While Gadoury says 3.5g, Krause says 3.75g. Which is correct?

Back in the late 1980's, Alan Hager of Accugrade fame, had quite a few Ikes that he slabbed as PL. I recall seeing them in his case at the Long Beach show. Many of them were true prooflikes.

Looking at the mushiness of the details, I would lean toward fake. The unusual pitting and holes only pushes me more in this direction. If real, the coin is super common. This variety is listed as H-21.85 and Hartill lists it as R-15 (R-16 being the most common) and a value of $2 for a "top quality specimen".