GoldFinger1969

On 11/19/2023 at 11:36 AM, zadok said:

...if u just long in n type the word "bologna" once or twice everyday or even "salami" u too can get there by 2025....

It says I joined in 2014 but I think that is when they did the big makeover ?  I thought I posted here BEFORE that but don't quote me.

Anyway, I go for quality over quantity though I have a bit of both in the RWB SG Double Eagle Book thread. 

I'm confused (I know, I know, I have to re-read FMTM )....isn't a planchet the blank of metal BEFORE it's struck ?  So how could it have a crack as it is malleable and is yet to be hit with the dies ?

On 11/18/2023 at 5:17 PM, Henri Charriere said:

Congratulations on your 20,000th post!  Tempus fugit!

Wow, 20K posts...that's about 1,000 posts a year or 3 a day !

On 11/14/2023 at 4:35 AM, kreedteo said:

I'm curious - what was the main reason for the gold standard to be abandoned around the time of the Stock Market Crash?

A gold standard is like a brake on monetary policy and if you want to cut interest rates, inflate the money supply, or devalue your currency...a gold -linked currency is a hindrance.  As the economic slump deepened in 1930-32, that is when countries left the gold standard, most notably the U.K. in 1931.

You can see how many countries were on a gold standard by this chart.

On 11/16/2023 at 1:59 AM, EagleRJO said:

I haven't been to a Mets game in a while and was curious about the peanut and hot dog vendors who roam the stands.  Did they get rid of those people, or do they now carry card readers?

You know, that's a damn good question.  Team was so bad this year that I was too depressed to notice !! 

I'll ask my ticket partner but I know they were active in the premium seats (we're in the low-400's).  I'm gonna guess they had card readers but let me confirm.

Let's hit a game in 2024, Eagle !  

RWB, do you have a copy of the 1945 memo from Coiner Bartholomew to Helen Moore ?  If you do, please post it.  

I have the reference to it but have never seen the memo, unlike the one regarding striking of the 1933's on March 2nd.

A horse-and-wagon could probably transport 20-30 of those boxes per load.  So you are talking about ~2,000 trips for 1 or 2 men.

Get a multi-horse transport....8-10 men....you can probably move 100 boxes at a time.  Need 650 trips.  Travel + loading/unloading each takes maybe 1 hour.  So need 65 days to do 10 trips per day per hour.   So figure $6,500 is 2 months work which works out to nice pay split by 8-10 men, each getting $300-$400 per month when the average monthly salary was probably $100 a month. 

Probably use more men/carriages for a shorter time period.  Secret Service or military or Pinkerton or something like that.

On 11/15/2023 at 12:29 PM, BillJones said:

It is already happening. There are store that won't take cash now. Most people are paying with credit cards. I rarely use cash or coins. 

I'm not thrilled about it because I question that having all of my economic transactions recorded is a good thing. 

Ditto....CitiFIELD, home of the Mets, went to CC only in 2021 following the pandemic.  But it's now standard (not sure about Yankee Stadium, haven't gone lately since I'm a Mets fan ) and although i think you can get a Mets Debit card for cash at some kiosks or the Help areas, it's a PITA if you forget your CCs.

On 11/14/2023 at 8:46 AM, RWB said:

Economic expansion and innovation required increasingly large investments (and similar returns). A fixed-value asset/standard could no longer be used, Such a fixed system required constant revaluation of the standard, which made the "standard" obsolete. A little like "gradeflation" on steroids. By 1896 there was considerable speculation that a fixed price for gold could not be maintained.

The "panics" continued and without a central bank until the FRB/1913, any adjustment of wages and prices required an INTERNAL devaluation which mandated loss of output (GDP) and falling prices (bad for farmers, 1/2 the population).  EXTERNAL devaluations (falling currency, inflation, tariffs or subsidies) are easier to live under.

Just look at the recent UAW and Teamster strikes. 

Hey, does anybody have the ORIGINAL thread on the Omega Man from the CU forums ? 

On 11/13/2023 at 4:31 PM, RaritiesValue.com said:

I think what you are talking about with pricing is certainly feasible! I would love to explore this more as our resources and user base grows! Thank you very much, and I hope you have gotten the change to test out our inventory tracking beta!

I will once I get a chance....do you know anything about grabbing data from a well-known site like Ebay, is that feasible ?  I think I see some sales for coins there show up in the PCGS or NGC recent sales pages when you punch up various coins.

You might want to check out HA and GC, since they are probably the most accurate recent sales providers.

On 11/12/2023 at 11:52 PM, VKurtB said:

Add in Central States, in Schaumburg, IL. The Big 4.

I take it ANA moves all over the country ?  And I recall someone saying that CS was declining pre-Covid....still the case, or an upturn since ?

I think I may have confused Central States and ANA since the ANA shows I tracked were mostly in the Midwest.  

On 11/12/2023 at 9:26 AM, zadok said:

...no face value is face value not melt value...just as yesterday i attended a local estate sale there was a small collection/accumulation of coins n currency...the auctioneer stated that all items needed to meet/exceed face value, e.g. there was a bunch of common circulated $2 bills that no one wanted n no bids at face value n the lot was passed ditto rolls of state quarters...

Would you say these estate auctioners are pretty knowledgeable on the ballpark values for classic coins ?  Or do they consult experts? 

What about a "Suggested Voluntary Donation" so if someone from the public is really hard for $$$ they can still get in with no payment or a token $1 or something ?

For a larger show, I can't believe any serious numismatist being put off by a $10 or other nominal fee.  Again, if I goto FUN it costs me $1,000 or so before I spend a dollar there so is $10 or even $20 a day going to be a dealbreaker ?  Not really.

But smaller 1-day shows or local shows, yeah, $10 might deter the public.

On 11/12/2023 at 9:54 AM, zadok said:

...im thinking that along those same lines that lead mite see a price jump as well....

Unless supply increases from somewhere.  But even just 1 country like India, look at how much more they buy now than decades ago.  Now take into account what their per capita GDP will look like in 10-15 years (like China 2020 vs. 2020) and do this to an extent for a few dozen other countries (albeit without the gold history, population size, or GDP growth that we have in India).

The chart is dated but today India consumes about 700 tons annually...double the 1990's, 5x the rate of decades earlier.

On 11/6/2023 at 4:52 PM, VKurtB said:

But I do.

You don't think gold will do anything by the end of this decade ? 

That's a ballsy prediction, because you have MILLIONS of new middle-class consumers being created EACH MONTH from 3rd World continents (Asia, South America, Europe, Africa) who put small amounts into gold and it adds up.  

I can see future threads here complaining that the price of a Saint-Gaudens gold coin or a Morgan Silver Dollar is not set by American supply/demand but by GLOBAL demand. 

On 11/10/2023 at 6:53 PM, J P M said:

If you can see the numbers on the slab you can look up the coin and get a price. It is normally a bit high but it will give you something to go by. I think my 1898 is $235 

If someone has a ballpark figure right off the top of their head, that's good enough for me.  That's all I am looking for.

I don't expect or want the posters to spend any time researching current prices -- quite frankly, I don't want to do it, either...unless it's for a coin that I am seriously curious about or interested in purchasing. 

If it's at your fingertips, great, if not, no problemo ! 

On 11/6/2023 at 7:26 PM, zadok said:

...pretty much so cept for the ones i bought for face value....

Did you mean spot gold value..... ?

On 8/7/2023 at 1:19 AM, GoldFinger1969 said:

1930-S Double Eagle: Here's something you don't see too often.....an AG-03 CAC for a 1930-S that looks REALLY circulated. 

https://www.greatcollections.com/Coin/1298989/1930-S-Saint-Gaudens-Gold-Double-Eagle-PCGS-AG-03-CAC-Green

I wonder whatever happened to that coin.....  

On 11/11/2023 at 7:58 PM, zadok said:

...the real question will be...does the whitman baltimore make money or lose money?...its been sliding past few years, less attendance, less dealers...past couple shows several no shows n more early departures, plus the downtown becoming much less desirable to be in, not good signs n corporate bean counters track these things....

Interesting....I know the regional shows can be squeezed by the nationals and post-Covid shows might be more of a luxury than a necessity for some dealers, attendees, etc.

The Bay State Show was an up-and-comer pre-Covid...I wonder if it is still getting traction ?

The Big 3 -- ANA, Long Beach, and FUN -- seem secure in their comfort zones.

On 11/11/2023 at 10:32 AM, Coinbuf said:

Old news and your title is misleading.   CMQ got started several months ago, I know a local collector that has used the CMQ service already several times.   He has sent both CAC approved coins and some that were rejected by CAC, the results were as expected a bit scattered, but CMQ is "looser" than CAC as several of his coins that were rejected by CAC passed at CMQ with one or two getting the extra special CMQ-X.   CMQ is more of a marketing gimmick and is not really that much like the service that CAC provides, imo. Yes CAC stickering will end at some time, but it is rather misleading to state that "CAC stickering will end" which to me implies that is happening tomorrow.   If you read the replies in the post you linked JA himself states that the decision on terminating the stickering business will happen at the end of his ten year contract; although there has been speculation spread through the social media sites that stickering could end sooner than the 10 year horizon if the demand for stickers falls to a very low level.

CB, I never meant to imply that CMQ just started and CAC beans are ending next week....just that the phase-out and phase-in are happening.

I'm more surprised that CMQ started than CAC stickering ending. 

https://forum.cacgrading.com/discussion/1039/brand-new-cac-competitor-from-stacks-and-david-hall

Since CAC is going to be CACG with grading to compete with PCGS and NGC.....CAC stickering will end....so the new CMQ "square hologram" is coming to a slab near you. 

On 11/8/2023 at 11:17 PM, powermad5000 said:

Too bad they withdrew it. I think that is pretty cool! I'm not into the modern re-hash stuff but that is one that I think I would end up leaning to purchase.

If the original wasn't in high relief, not sure the recreation should be.  JMHO.

I purchased the 2009 Ultra High Relief Saint....but it's 27 MM not 34 MM (Saint diameter), which was one of the original intended sizes when Saint-Gaudens was creating mock models.  But because this coin was 99.99% gold and not 90% gold, the total size at all diameters was SMALLER so if they made it 34 mm it would have been really thin.

I wonder if they should have done a 90/10 alloy to allow for a larger size than what was sold and to match the original dimensions matching an MCMVII UHR.

I enjoy all the pictures...but it wouldn't hurt if some of you were to give an approximate purchase price and/or current FMV for the coins....and also what it might cost in 1 or 2 grades higher/lower or whever the "inflection" point is.

It adds some information to know if some of these MSDs are $50, $250, or 4-figures.  Or more !!  

On 11/8/2023 at 10:00 AM, fms00 said:

CDN was acquired by Salzberg/Eichenbaum of CCG/NGC in 2015. Which was sold to Blackstone in 2021.

So this is really just a quiet proxy purchase by Blackstone.

Great.....Blackstone now owns the Red Book, Whitman Coin Shows etc. Can't wait for them to squeeze out more money!

They're not needle-movers for Blackstone, which has about $240 billion under management as I recall.  These purchases are tiny.