GoldFinger1969

On 8/8/2022 at 4:12 PM, Oldhoopster said:

You should write a book on the Longobard Trial 

No, he shouldn't. 

On 8/8/2022 at 4:04 AM, tamariecho3 said:

It’s the most controversial topic I may have ever witnessed. Anyway, that’s the reason I love it.

Crypto and BitCoin ?  LOTS more controversial items in finance over the decades, IMO ! 

On 8/6/2022 at 6:07 PM, VKurtB said:

Well, he’s dead now. 

That's no excuse.  He should make an effort to post. 

On 8/6/2022 at 12:49 PM, EagleRJO said:

It looks like to me that prices have significantly spiked starting the end of last year to the beginning of this year, which I am hoping is just an anomaly with too many bored people having extra pandemic cash to spend. 

Yes, and that exogenous demand factor has abated...but prices are sticky to the downside.  The premiums could last for years -- or longer -- so if you see something you like, you may just have to pay up.

On 8/5/2022 at 5:23 PM, VKurtB said:

It’s “double secret probation” he has faced and survived. 

Is Dean Wormer a moderator here ?  

On 8/6/2022 at 10:51 AM, tigerbait said:

My neck of the woods is Pensacola, FL.  There is not a great deal that is close by.  NO, ATL, JAX, TMPA are all over 4.5 hr. drive.  I rely on the internet, books and libraries and WHOEVER I happen into, perusing coins at Antique Malls and such. :-)  

5 hours isn't bad to go to see FUN.  I am in the NY area and it's an 18-hour drive or flight. 

On 8/5/2022 at 9:41 PM, VKurtB said:

You can’t do real-time two-way interaction with a website, like you can with presenters at a major show. And believe me, I do! In 2010 at Boston, Richard Nachbar refused to take ANY questions. I have given SIX Money Talks presentations, and not ONLY do I encourage questions, I ENCOURAGE INTERRUPTING QUESTIONS FROM THE CROWD. I treat my talks as if I were giving professorial lectures. Interaction in real time is the whole bloody point! I don’t do 50 minute advertisements like Nachbar did in Boston. 

And what if Nachbar took quesions on some forum somewhere or responded in posts ?  You wouldn't get that information from his book....or an appearance...but from the internet.

On 8/5/2022 at 6:00 PM, VKurtB said:

I can’t stress enough how poor a substitute doing numismatics by the Internet is. I find it completely ridiculous. Books, not websites. Shows with educational talks, not websites. Dinner with fellow collectors, not cheese curls while on the Internet. 

How about both ?  Do you know how much knowledge there is on forums like these, especially for niche investors in certain coins ?

How many book authors comment dozens of times in response to readers questions, comments, etc.....as Roger himseld did in the RWB Saints Book thread ?

On 8/5/2022 at 4:34 PM, EagleRJO said:

Yea, I had heard that by the time the RB comes out the prices are already outdated, but they try to make that one of the last clean up items.  Decent guide, although somewhat low in general sometimes.  I was just curious why they don't name the edition the year it comes out ... e.g. earlier this year I bought the RD titled 2023 Edition, not 2022.

At best, The Red Book has prices that are in the ballpark.  Under no circumstances should anybody use them over recent auction prices going back a few months or so. 

On 8/4/2022 at 12:49 PM, VKurtB said:

The Numismatist is absolutely wonderful. With it, and its digital archives, one can study numismatic history without getting all dusty reading letters in a NARA. 

I wonder if it is possible -- or will be, in the future -- to just get printouts or articles from The Numismatist on certain coins or events.  That way you can trace history for a narrowly defined interest. 

On 8/4/2022 at 12:13 PM, World Colonial said:

Absent a meteor strike, I don't think there are any legitimate "black swans".  It's that 99%+ aren't paying attention.  The GFC wasn't one.  When the Enron scandal broke and the company filed for bankruptcy (late 2001 I recall), the stock had already crashed to $14 from $90.  That's when the rating agencies downgraded it, once again closing the barn door after the horses bolted.  There may be exceptions, but I don't remember any and this pattern is absolutely the norm.

The GFC was definitely one, nobody saw The Reserve Fund breaking the buck because of a Lehman bankruptcy.  You had savvy bond guys at PIMCO telling their wives to get as much cash as they could from the ATM.  The global financial system almost had a heart attack.

I'd call Covid-19 another Black Swan.  Down 35% in 6 weeks is alot.

On 8/4/2022 at 4:49 AM, Quintus Arrius said:

My rent is $220., in Manhattan. 

Are you that guy I passed a few weeks ago sleeping in that big refrigerator box ?   

Jeez....$220....for anything larger than a closet, you have a steal.  Obviously, a post-WW II rent controlled/stabilized unit that is either owned by the city or a landlord is losing a ton of money on. 

On 8/4/2022 at 9:30 AM, Zebo said:

I have more books than I know what to do with, I’ll never be able to read all of them nor the majority of them. I keep finding new and interesting books to add to my stacks. Always learning 

now if I could only remember half of what I learn, I’d be doing good.

It's good to have them as reference sources, since unlike financial data and information, pricing data and little tidbits about certain coins can get lost over time.

For me, there aren't tons of books on Saints or Double Eagles so I have all of the recent ones including Roger's.  But I find even the dated Bowers and Akers/Ambio books very useful with good information, even if alot of the information has been superceded.

On 8/3/2022 at 3:11 PM, VKurtB said:

My uncle made most of his fortune writing covered call options on stocks he owned. He worked them HARD and they worked like “extra dividends”. He died at 101 and I’m a beneficiary. I guess I’ll write options too. 

WRITING covered calls is one thing....puts is another thing.  You always have to know your downside even if it's a 1 in 1,000 event.

Because they tend to happen more frequently than that.

Would a chapter or picture-by-picture on gold arriving at the mint to how it is finally struck and then comes off the conveyor belt be something adding value ?

I know I feel like started watching in the middle of the movie by having to pick up terms like collars....planchet....metal press.....edge lettering....reeding....fields vs. devices....tonnage striking pressure vs. relief/details....etc.

Maybe some of this is basic beginner Coins 101, but I've basically had to learn it all on the fly.  Would be helpful to have a picture-by-picture with a short explanation.

Probably alone in that sentiment but thought I'd post it.

On 8/3/2022 at 9:10 AM, USAuPzlBxBob said:

I just see it as the doldrums of summer, coupled with hackneyed threads.

I'm not sure how active we are in total compared to PCGS and CT....but we have some unique threads like the RWB Saints Book Thread which for anyone interested in Saints or a collector should be a "must" visit thread.  But even at the other locations, you don't see that much activity on Saints or Double Eagles.

Every now and then, a thread is "hot" -- like when Roy Langbord was over ATS posting on the legal rangling with the 1933 DEs.  Or following a sale of the legal 1933 purchased by our friend EC.

With all the various coin collectors for Saints -- and for other coins -- you would think the viewing and posting traffic would be alot higher.  But maybe coin collectors are not used to or inclined to view/post ?

Reading some of the letters on that CNBC Celsius bankruptcy....I feel for the people, but they allowed themselves to be lied to.

The same people who research a new HDTV or microwave oven or automobile for weeks or months, decided to invest tens of thousands of dollars or even more based on 10 minutes of slick promotional marketing materials.

It was RIGHT THERE in front of them, like a "bank" which says "HEY, WE DON'T HAVE FDIC INSURANCE SO CAVEAT EMPTOR."

DELETED

On 8/2/2022 at 3:26 PM, World Colonial said:

You mean like that CNBC article on Celsius today?  If so, these people didn't ask the most important question which is, how can these firms pay these "guaranteed" rates when no other actually legitimate business can do it?

The people who fit the profile of those in the article are asking (including writing judges) for exceptions to established creditor priority.  They should not receive it, no matter how gut wrenching their story.  Otherwise, establishing a pattern with this precedent will bring into question the entire reliability of the US financial system.

If you have another scenario in mind, depends upon what it is. Lastly, the "money" isn't actually gone.  It's always transferred to whoever these people bought their "coins" from.

General creditors are screwed.  I never understand going for broke.

Just spoke with a friend/associate I know from my investing circles.  Apparently he lost a ton of money when Covid tanked the market and he got a huge margin call.  I didn't know he was on margin; I knew he traded options but figured he was playing them conservatively.  This guy is pretty savvy financially but he must not have seen a 6-sigma event and must have lost most of what I believe at one time was a $1 MM portfolio.

Guy now works for UPS part-time, downsized his apartment by 50%, and hopes to make some money back via a restaurant chain.

On 7/24/2022 at 6:43 PM, VKurtB said:

“It’s not a lie, if you believe it.”

Thanks, George !!  

We should all be a bit thick-skinned here.  You just can't let it bother you.  I'm here to gather and accumulate knowledge and ask questions, if my butt gets tanned every now and then rhetorically, so be it. 

I see more people in the NEWBIE section the last year or so, but with gold sucking eggs the last few months, I think that is why our section US COINS is a bit off.

On 7/31/2022 at 12:57 PM, RWB said:

The very best detail for proofs was striking the coin on a medal press from new dies, then doing nothing else -- that was a satin proof.

Got it.....and the Satin Proofs were the closest thing to today's Mirror Proofs, right ?

I think you said mirror proof technology came in the late-1930's or 1940's, right ?

What causes the mirror-like finish and reflectivity in today's proofs vs. those 70-100 years ago....is it polish, better dies, improved metallurgy ?

I do realize that you had a mirror-like finish on the 1907 EHR Saint-Gaudens but that was a result of the annealing process which left gold on the surface and removed copper.

On 8/1/2022 at 6:16 PM, Quintus Arrius said:

The latest... "DEATH OF A CRYPTO COMPANY"  "The downfall of Celsius Network tells the story of an industry that became the thing it was trying to reject."  (July 25, 2022)  This was a podcast one could access (for me by simply pushing a button) but having encountered people who were similarly defrauded, I chose to pass. I believe the losses involved $20 billion. There have been other spectacular crypto failures but they were always announced in muted fashion. I don't revel in other people's misfortunes.  My condolences to those whose stories, for obvious reasons, will never be known.

These crypto losses are tens of billions...even hundreds of billions when you throw in the price declines in addition to the bankrupticies.....wonder who's been getting hit ?

Not sure if it's alot of Little Guys....or a few more big ones, like Three Arrows Capital ?

You happy with the coins ?  You like looking at them ?

The price was OK and within your budget ?

That's ALL that matters, Eagle.  Congrats on the coins !  

On 7/31/2022 at 7:49 PM, Oldhoopster said:

You said  QA is an acquired taste, So are anchovies, liver, and broccoli

I like anchovies, especially on a pizza !!   Broccoli isn't bad, if you have some lemon on it.