USAuPzlBxBob

On 4/19/2023 at 11:41 PM, USAuPzlBxBob said:

Two days before "4 + 20" another coin of my (mere) 14 coin US Gold coin collection (Puzzle Box Gold) has risen 30% on NGC's Price Guide.
1932 $10 Indian… up $575.
Will the happiness never cease?

And just this morning another coin of my (mere) 14 coin US Gold coin collection (Puzzle Box Gold) has risen 29% on NGC's Price Guide.
1891 CC $5 Liberty… up $725.
Ceaseless Happiness.

Without having to join the site to reveal the winning bid, the winning bid was $100,000 since there was no further activity since last Tuesday.

Hasn't budged an inch in price since yesterday when I last posted, close to a day and a half ago… $100,000.

Around two hours left to go.

Should be fun to check in on the link this evening.

The person who wins this has tons of money.

My guess is the winning bid will be $350,000.

You have to come up with a theme for your objectives and an expectation of how much you can afford to spend.

Serendipity helped me, in that my first coin just happened to whet my appetite to go for a small gold typeset.  Then, extraneous factors limited my objectives — the puzzle box could only house 14 NGC holdered coins — and I knew I wanted a rare US gold typeset, but I didn't want to go broke in the pursuit.

I discovered early on how to take photos that were pleasing to me with just a company supplied iPhone.  That set the bar for what I was looking for from dealers.  The old "you know it when you see it" adage,  when browsing online.

Glad I collected ten years ago… the coins just seemed to come my way.  Today, the pickings available are slim to none… even dealers have difficulty acquiring inventory.

Why?  What for?

There's more to life than pursuing similar coin websites than we currently avail.

No?

And so on, and so on…

Interesting to chronicle "the hand" still occurring for matina at Joined: 20 hours ago, 2 posts.

(a data point of reference)

In the lab I used to work in, an associate played a trick on me, maybe a bet for a beer at the Go Go bar around the corner, after work, saying that he could make a penny float.

I took him up on it… and he won the bet.

He carefully reached in his pocket and pulled out a penny, filled a little lab beaker with water, and dropped the penny in… but it didn't sink at all.  It floated right on top.

Earlier he had taken the brand new penny, had put it in the vise edge facing up, then he used a sharp knife and made a small slit in the edge.  He put the penny in a beaker of one of the dilute acids we were always using in the lab, and it began to bubble from the small slit he had made.

The acid attacked the zinc core much more aggressively than the copper cladding, and it had hollowed out the coin, making it lighter than water.

This is the best I can manage on this letter.
Exceedingly difficult, like doing a crossword puzzle…
 

                                           Mint of the United States

                                            Philadelphia, August 25th, 1856

Sir,

                  In   the  “Act.   making   appropriations   for    certain    civil
  expenses of the government" public No. 55 — approved August 18. 1856,
     I   notice      one     appropriation     of   $ 2,200.   is  made  to  meet
      the  expense  incurred    under    the   Contract    of  the Secretary of
       the   Navy   for the  “Ingraham Medal”.      As     this     is       intended,
        I   presume,   to     meet     the     difficulty   arising   out   of   the
         payments     of     a     like   amount     to     Mr.    J.  B.  Longacre
          whose  salary,  by  your    letter  of  the  25th  of  June  last,
            was    directed    to    be   withheld,      I      have   now   to   ask
            whether   the   Treasurer   of the   Mint   may   be  authorized
            to      pay     Mr.      Longacre     the     arrearage       and     future
           installments     of     salary,      or       whether        the       prohibition
           as    stated   in    the    letter   refund   to     mint     continue    to
           be    enforced.
                                                                       I have the honor to be
                                                                                with great respect
                                                                                Your faithful servant,
Hono.  James  Guthrie                                      James   Ross   Snowden
  Secretary of the Treasury                                       Director of the Mint
                      Washington    City

So, since the above letter is difficult to decipher, is it indeed the beginning of the asking for the $2,200 back, which was rescinded later?

Looks like this has something to do with…

In the mid-1850s, Longacre was engaged by the Navy Department to design a medal to be presented to Captain Duncan Ingraham. Longacre produced the imagery used for the reverse; the obverse was by Assistant Engraver Cross. Although Bowers describes Longacre as having been "strictly ethical in the duties of his office", when the Treasury Department learned that Longacre accepted a $2,200 payment from the Navy for his work, they required that he repay the money under a federal law barring compensation of this kind.

On 6/30/2023 at 7:53 PM, J P M said:

Wow I thought my penmanship was bad .This is real hard to read.

Only 21 states currently require cursive instruction, according to the National Education Association. At St. Edmund, they never stopped teaching it. And surprisingly, some kids are taking to it.   Jan 23, 2023  

(found the above when I queried the subject)

Sandon, I view my sets rarely these days.

I have an ongoing Registry Views Project and it seems that anytime I view my sets, the views on them skew higher overnight.  I asked Ali E., once, about how this could possibly happen, could it be from my viewing them even though logged in, and she said no, and that it was probably just coincidence.

So, just for example, I looked at all of my eight sets yesterday to pull their start dates from each of their Set Histories, and sure enough, four of the sets showed increased views this morning.  Very infrequently do I get that many views on my sets overnight.  Maybe I'm being "tracked?"  (not to be confused with followed)

These days, I look at my Registry coins solely by viewing my Competitive Coins page, which I prefer because I can use the Recently Added display feature which sorts them by their mint years.

I have a 2019 Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Commemorative Coin, sent it to NGC for grading and when it came back there was a fleck of plastic right above Buzz Aldrin's visor.  It really bothered me because it was so noticeable.  Couldn't get it to budge to save my life.  Was thinking of sending it back to NGC for reholdering but never did.

Six months later when I looked at the coin the fleck was no longer there.  It's in the holder somewhere, but now "out of sight, out of mind."

There's many things that can be wrong in a holder, I suppose.

On 6/28/2023 at 8:54 PM, Bald Eagle #7 said:

I am not worried about exchanging.  Melt value is close to actual value without mark.  I did contact the mint and they responded with a canned answer about using gloves when handling coins.

Suspected as much.

On 6/28/2023 at 7:11 PM, Bald Eagle #7 said:

I obviously saw the coin when I removed it from the mint box and when I sent it to NGC however I evidently did not look closely.  I seems I would have spotted something this out of the ordinary.  Coming directly from the Mint I saw no reason to closely inspect.

No one had access to my office safe and the coin stayed in the safe in its mint capsule from within 24 hours of receipt to within 24 hours of shipping to NGC.  A true puzzle.

For me, the coin coming directly from the Mint would have had nothing to do with anything… I would have looked at it solely to marvel at its proof-gorgeous beauty.

Did you own a loupe magnifier?  Both then and now?  (Pardon my interrogation-like indulgence.)

I like mysteries and puzzles.  Here's my latest puzzling on this coin.  All long-shots.

1. It's a very beautiful coin design, especially on the reverse.
2. You got it directly from the Mint and it was never taken out of its Mint capsule before submittal to NGC.
   • Did you look at the coin when you first got it?
     • If you did and the defect was there at the time, do you think you would have noticed it?
   • Could anyone else have had access to your gold coins, maybe played around with them, opened this one's capsule, something went wrong, and they put it back unbeknownst to you?
     • Someone else substituted their identical coin for yours, nefariously?
3. Was the coin ever kept in direct sunlight where it may have received lens-like focused sunlight, possibly over many years, such that this defect occurred gradually on the same, small area?
   • Like a mirrored display case made of glass? Phoenix-like sunlight? A hot car dashboard?

Is there a way to find out your first day of NGC Registry participation and dates of when you began additional Registry Sets?

Also, another thing to try is take a loupe and give the defect a close look.  Look for an indentation or some raised aspect that should not be there.  See if the coloring hues are uninterrupted as they make their way around some sort of center.  See if the slight chatter on the front, above IN GOD WE TRUST, lines up with the defect on the reverse.

RWB's book From Mine to Mint goes into great detail on the way things used to occur in the making of coins.  I've only browsed through my copy, but if I had a mysterious defect like you do, my curiosity would have me pouring over any relevant chapters.  There must be videos on YouTube that show how cameo .9999 Au coins are made.

In some ways you're sort of lucky because you have a coin that is compelling you to learn more.  That's a good thing.

Pursue the topic of Heat Treatment of gold.  Not so much for coins, but just generally.

Find pics and discussions on the Internet of difficulties that artists have faced dealing with it.

On 6/24/2023 at 4:35 PM, Zebo said:

Exacto knives work great.

Exactly!

Anything else and you're wasting your time.

Since you're BAHK…

The hand you refer to is on a post by Nurse Rules.  Hover over the hand and a small banner will appear:  Nurse Rules joined recently.

One of the reasons I've left well enough alone with my small gold coin collection (haven't upgraded a coin once) is because the "sole" coin upgrade I'm tempted by would cost me over $100k.

It's currently available for sale, but the effort and cost would be prohibitive… and at my age it's better to keep things simple.

Simple pleasures are the best.