GoldFinger1969

Just a quick search found these: https://coinweek.com/dealers-companies/stacks-bowers-dealers/elusive-full-steps-1969-d-jefferson-nickel-featured-2016-ana-worlds-fair-rarities-night-auction/ https://coinweek.com/us-coins/affordable-us-coins-jefferson-nickels/ https://coins.thefuntimesguide.com/full-steps-nickel-value/

There should be some articles if you Google the step issue for nickels. There should also be some threads here at the NGC Forums....if not, goto CT or CU. Googling the step and nickel grading might lead you there anyways.

QA, well-reasoned....but to me, if any member of Gotti's inner circle was a lawyer and he wanted them to represent him, that request should have been honored. You may be right on what Cutler really wanted, I've never seen or heard anything on it. BTW...I walked right past Spark's Steakhouse about 15 minutes before where Paul Castellano got rubbed out. I was working in mid-town Manhattan at the time and worked late that night.

What was ridiculous about the later trials was that Gotti could NOT have his lawyer of choice, Bruce Cutler. I have never heard of the courts deciding who your lawyer can be.

It has nothing to do with the substance of his arguments. They dissed RWB as an "IT guy" --- what the HELL are THEIR qualifications in the field of numismatic research ?

I'm not "maligning" him, I'm going by the actual reviews of him as a judge -- which I will attempt to find and post here. And in the 1933 Saint trial, he let Tripp go on and on without interruption, while subjecting RWB and others for the plaintiffs to numerous annoying disruptions and petty interruptions. He CLEARLY had his mind made up, which explains why the U.S. attorneys went "judge-shopping" in his venue.

Legrome Davis 'aint no Nino Scalia, Kurt. The guy had a LOUSY reputation even from folks who won in his courtroom. He'd fall asleep in court....let personal biases enter into decisisons....etc. Check out those judge-rating websites which I viewed a few years ago. He got roasted on lots of the cases he heard. He wasn't a typical GOP judge, they just appointed him because no regular judges lived in Philly at the time. I believe he got promoted by Obama.

If he was...then why was he an honored VIP at the Philly Mint up through the 1960's ? Serial offender, dirty, entices cashiers to engage in illicit transactions -- I would think they wouldn't want the guy coming in once or twice a day for the next 25 years, right ? Something doesn't add up, Kurt. And it's not the gold balances.

Mark, I think Kurt is sincere in his belief, just wrong. He seems to have alot of hostility to the dealers of the day and their somewhat-borderline method of getting access to difficult coins. Personally, I admire it. Bowers tells of numerous Philly Mint employees going up to NYC and Boston (in addition to Philly) and trading the latest coins. You can't tell me nobody wasn't looking to pick up some easy $$$ in The Depression by getting some of the 1933's in exchange for older coins. Amazing that the same institutional arrogance and obsession exists 80 years later. If they had this dedication on more important matters, they'd have tracked down that $5,000 in stolen 1928 Saints. REALLY stolen.......

That guy Farouk was a real beaut....collected EVERYTHING (Saints, Faberge Eggs) and meanwhile his people were starving. No wonder Nasser was able to depose him so quickly. The whole "we can't disrupt an ally, it'll lead to Hitler's victory" argument against going after the coin doesn't hit home with me. More likely, with a war going on and Americans dying thousands of miles away on multiple fronts, they realized the U.S. government would look RIDICULOUS spending time and manpower going after a coin that wasn't made of plutonium or U-235. General Marshall: "Good news, Mr. President...." FDR: "We'll be soon able to open a 2nd front in Europe ? Stalin's been teed off for months now asking for that 2nd front.....or maybe we've accelerated the Island-hopping in the Pacific ? Doug making more progress in the Philipines ?" General Marshall: "None of that sir...but we did retrieve one of those $20 double eagles that was supposed to be melted down. We now have it. What do you want us to do with it ?" FDR: "I'll tell you what you can do with it...."

Yet, they let Fenton get 50% of the proceeds (and dropped the criminal charges, what sweet guys !! ). Again....if 1933 Saints in the 1940's traded like the 1907 High Reliefs did after World War 1 (5-10% premium)...the Feds don't give a bleep. The Feds saw a bunch of $20 gold pieces...which never got an "official" release....selling for up to $800 a few years later. In normal times, they'd be jealous and pissed. In The Depression, they were probably steaming.

Wow, they made the gist of the story into a novel ? Didn't know that......for a second, I thought it was the horror guy Steven King. Yeah, the 10 coins were found in a mini-safe really, not some tiny SDB. Something in size similar to a mini-fridge as I understand it (maybe a bit smaller).

Come on Kurt....joking references aside, it was poster and guy talk. I see the same stuff in my business field where when a stock acts like c*** you badmouth it and curse it out. Then you're talking it up to a potential client. Doesn't mean you really are selling your client a crappy stock, you're just cursing out a stock much like you would you favorite football team....or friends...or spouse. Besides, there were other posters and witnesses who might have been called to testify who had friends contacted asking for dirt on them. These weren't folks "sliming themselves" and the government still wanted dirt.

The coin-by-coin analysis was something new which I hadn't seen in one place. Your book has the best in-depth analysis of the Switt-Langbord Ten. BTW, the Mint blowhard was Frank Leland Howard who started this whole mess.

One more thing....I think it is HILLARIOUS that posters ATS (and maybe here and elsewhere) were contacted by the FBI or Treasury to get "dirt" on possible witnesses who might testify for the Langbords. That and the sliming of Roger Burdette ("He's an IT guy") shows you they didn't rely on the facts, but on a moronic judge with a reputation for sloppiness and bias well-known to those in his courtroom over the years. Guy was counting the days to his fat judicial pension, no doubt.

Mark, I think Kurt even considers any exchange past April 6th to be ILLEGAL. And he may consider those exchanges before then to be illegal since none were "recorded" in a ledger. As I understand it, the 1933 Indian Head $10 pieces (about 35-40) are ALL legal because about 5 of them were recorded as sales from the Mint -- and thus, since the government can't tell which of the 35-40 are the 5 recorded sales, they all get legal status (for now ). Isn't there some dispute as to whether a picture in some book is the Farouk coin or some other coin ? I remember reading about it years ago somewhere but wasn't as involved in the 1933 discussion at that time so it went in one ear and out the other. But I believe they ID'd the various coins by marks in the field. Now, some guy voluntarily turned in his 1933 Saint in 2018 (Weinman I think referenced that in his 2018 PA talk). That may be the coin in question in that book. But what irks me is he didn't even fight for his coin....presumably, he's got some $$$ and I wish he would have shopped for a more favorable venue than the one in Philly (the judge was biased against the Langbords). He might have won. Certainly, with private property rights under assault, he would have gotten more exposure and a possible political settlement.

It was a bit "cleaner", yes. Was it $1,500 or so cleaner which I believe was the diference in price ? That's the $64,000 question (or $1,500 question ). Remember, there's a huge jump in price from MS66 to MS67 for the 1923-D. I've seen a bunch of 1924, 1927, and 1928 commons on GC in recent months go off at MS66 and MS67 levels, with MS66 CACs going up another 20-30% of the way to the 67 level. All these coins (including the 1923-D) trade about the same in these conditions, give-or-take a bit.

Roger (RWB) makes a bunch of excellent points, Sharann. Understand that even with an "expert" giving a coin a grade it can be WRONG. So that $50 penny you thought was worth at least that turns out to be from a time period when grading standards were "looser" and then when you goto sell it instead of getting the then-FMV (Fair Market Value) of $60 you find out a dealer will only pay you $35 because he thinks it was overgraded in the first place. OK, so you lost $15 or so plus lost profits. No huge thing. But now try that on a coin costing hundreds of dollars...or thousands. I was reading the other night where a coin was sold by Legends Numismatics (LM, a very high-end dealer and auction house) for $6,500 or so and then got re-sold on Great Collections (GC) a few months later for UNDER $2,000. WTH ???!!!? I forgot the coin but the population went up by 1 in the rare grade it had....and then you just had fewer bidders at a site (GC) that doesn't always attract the Big $$$ buyers that LM or HA bring to the table. Boom !! Someone bought high and sold low. It's supposed to be the other way around.

If there's stuff you don't like with less sentimental value, no problem turning it into something you really like or love. I inherited a bunch of old bills (very worn silver and gold certificates) and lots of silver coins....it was unwieldly and took up alot of space....turned it into a few graded bills including a nice Gold Certificate plus a Saint-Gaudens. Kept a few of the older silver coins as a remembrance.

The lack of sales tax and lower post-hammer charges (lower commission) adds up, esp. on lower-priced items you want to spend a certain amount on and no more.

Heritage Auctions just auctions. The 2 biggies in grading are PCGS and NGC (our sponsor here). ANACs and ICG do a nice job in their specialty fields but are much smaller. I believe "Insider" here and on CT works for ICG. The main auction places are Ebay (derisevely called "Fleabay" for all the junk and counterfeits seen)...Heritage, the largest....Great Collections (pretty new but developing a nice niche)...and Stacks Bowers (a smaller Heritage with a long history but only dealing in high-end coins for the most part). There are other auction houses -- some affiliated with dealers -- but between Ebay, HA, and GC, you are more than covered for low-priced and higher-end coins.

Some nice coins there....just on bullion price alone, some nice value and appreciation. Some of the others will depend on the condition but also very nice. Do you plan to keep them, sell them, what ?

Can you post a link to the original posting of the 22 coins ? EDIT: Never mind, found it !

Here's some pennies going off at Great Collections tonight (their auctions appear to always end on Sunday nights). Scroll down to the Coin Auctions and Buy Now coins section: https://www.greatcollections.com/Series/17/1909-1958-Lincoln-Cents So with just over 9 hours left....I see a bunch of 1909's from $26 to $9,800 (a 67 DD). You can see what happens as you go up in grade and if there's a special condition like a DD or toning. The "Red" designation appears to matter (not familiar with these coins, just pointing it out ). Other non-1909's show up further down the list.

Never trust a seller on Ebay for specific information, always double-check. The Heritage descriptions are usually 99.9% solid. Hell, I even looked up key/expensive Saint-Gaudens listings (many with separate comments from David Akers)...copied them into a Word Document....turned that into a PDF...and now have it on my smartphone to read anytime I want to. Easier than looking them all up in the archive plus as I've said if anything happened to their online database, I am protected.