Insider

On 11/1/2020 at 9:47 AM, GoldFinger1969 said:

You work on a Sunday ? 

Often.  When you are #3 and get no respect, the ONLY thing we have to offer is fast turnaround, cheap cost, and great customer service.  

On 11/1/2020 at 10:38 AM, MarkFeld said:

In addition to forgetting to change his clock, he might have been thinking it was Monday.😈

Actually, one Friday I drove into the parking lot and only the bosses car was there.  I figured that I drove to work on a Saturday by mistake.  In reality, it was a Friday and everyone was told to park in the back of the building!  We call this a "Senior Moment."

2 hours ago, brg5658 said:

There shouldn't be any reason why replying to a thread that YOU started would be blocked.  My only thought is user error or some content that the machinations were not happy about - maybe try again?

A person blocking you does not forbid you from posting in threads - trust me, I'd know.  I have you on ignore, and I still have to see your threads - and often put myself through the self-inflicted-pain of expanding your replies in threads that I own.

Shucks.  He will miss the blue image I just posted.  

This is a little harder.  Please fill in the blanks:

This is an image of a  _________ nickel with a ___________ date.   The date has a _______   _______  running through it.  

41 minutes ago, Moxie15 said:

The bubble pattern and the abrupt color changes

How the heck did you get the correct answer?  The colors are terrible.  Only one is close but the white balance is off and only 1/2 of the reverse is shown!  I wonder if your answer would change if the other side of the coin was a gem, white, frosty Unc.  I didn't think so.  

NEW Quiz:

What is the clue that this is an example of Artificial Toning?  

9 hours ago, MarkFeld said:

Perhaps the distaste among those of whom you’re speaking, should be considered by someone who really wants to teach.

Hey Mark, 

Don't give up, your posts and comments are very important to all of us.  Additionally, no need to explain any of your comments to me.  I expressed that in a post that was "blocked" and would not post in another thread.   

I forgot to set the clock back last night.  I got to work today ONE HOUR BEFORE I should have.  No wonder traffic was so light! 

8 hours ago, kbbpll said:

Too often it comes off as trying to prove how smart you are. If all the evidence is presented and somebody knowledgeable guesses right away, that's OK. Somebody else still learns something. It's like a forensic science class where all you get is a close up of part of a head wound and everybody is guessing various murder instruments, and then you finally get to see the body at the bottom of a 300 foot cliff. Yes, that's a teaching moment, it teaches you to ask the right questions. But if, all along, the instructor is acting like you're an insufficiently_thoughtful_person, the lesson gets lost.

That my fried is a problem with the "snowflake" student!   The definition of a "student" is someone here to learn.  There are a lot of folks who fall into the category of "instructor" dealing with something.  I've never been smarter than my instructor and I've had to deal with all kinds - even those who could smack me around physically.  Perhaps that is why "words" or the attitude of my instructor never bothered me.  I like to think it PREPARED ME FOR REAL LIFE.   

BTW, In case you have not looked at many of my other quizzes posted elsewhere, I got really tired of someone answering the question in the first post after all the time/trouble I went through to make it interesting.  I asked advanced collectors not to post right away so beginners had a chance to think and reply.  It worked very well over there. 

On this site, the knowledgeable folks like to post about "white balance."       

16 hours ago, Revenant said:

That's a little sad to me. Learning that you're wrong means you learned something. Learning new things is good. Failure is good insofar as it teaches us / we learn from it. If you're never wrong and you never fail you can't be learning and you can't be growing. My art teacher told us, "If you're comfortable you aren't growing."

Do you know what is much more than a little sad?  In fact it is extremely sad to me!  

Folks who either cannot understand English, misquote my posts, or leave things out to make me look stupid.  Did you read this in my post? 

"When I'm wrong, it is both embarrassing and like death.  Fortunately, I'm still alive and have learned something."  

That's OK, I forget that people in other countries post here too. 

Look, I've heard it all before.  This is not a personality contest.  I can be a very abrasive person and at the same time quite a softie. I tend to grow on people who hate me at first.  As far as being put on "ignore" - its their loss.  I enjoy being sarcastic when called for and I like a good discussion.  I can dish it and take it.  I can already see the effect a few of us are having trying to reactivate this old forum.  

Everyone that posts here has something to contribute.  We also have different levels of knowledge in different fields.  That includes numismatics.  To even think that someone here is a "know-it-all" smacks of either ignorance, incompetence, or some form of jealousy!  

I was not "spoon-fed."  I post the way I do because there are several ways to learn things and I learn/remember more when I'm challenged.  You don't know a subject unless you can respond correctly to questions.  When I'm wrong, it is both embarrassing and like death.  Fortunately, I'm still alive and have learned something.  

I think I just figured out the answer.  It means that a particular member is no longer interested in my opinion and has "left the field."  Checkmate!

It can also mean that something in my reply was blocked by the software.

I tried to reply to a thread I STARTED and Was "Blocked."   Does that a member has blocked you or the NGC forum has?

BUMP.   Has Roger ever posted his opinion to his question?

I'd like to read it although it may be one of those questions that cannot be answered to everyone's satisfaction.

As a teen, I sealed an attractive XF 1770 8R with a dark patina that my grandfather gave me in Lucite.  Many, many years later I wanted the coin out and used a hammer.  Unfortunately, much of the patina came off and the coin did not look as nice.  

4 minutes ago, RWB said:

Hoskins bought a Russian "Kiev" 6x6cm camera (imitation of a Hasselblad) to take photos with. I did a couple of training seminars for him. The film was processed and contact printed onto the certificates by District Photo in Beltsville, Md.

When I joined the company we used a 6X6 Rolliflex mounted on a box. 

3 hours ago, Zebo said:

Good idea - I'd like to read it.

3 hours ago, RWB said:

Comments above and in other message threads over time, suggest that maybe Skip and some others should write a definitive origin and early operation book about TPGs. Not one of the puffed up tomes, but the truth. Hoskins is dead. How many other originators are still around to tell the story first-hand?

Seneca Mill Press LLC will consider publishing it.

If I were to write the entire story, I should need to stay off the interned for over a month - O' Darn.   Anyway, I've been publishing/posting little snips over the decades.  I can only speak for ANA from '72 - when they left DC and then INSAB that Hoskins and a group of dealers started as the Authentication Service (later the first TPGS) for the International Numismatic Association.  We were a big thorn in the ANA's butt.  ANA leaders even tried to ruin my reputation.  They believed I broke into the authentication services' offices right before they left town.  It ended OK.  After a decade or so, I was allowed to come back and teach at the Summer Seminar for a few years.         

If he had a say so, he may have put a gold coin in the slab.

1 hour ago, VKurtB said:

True enough, but his impact on the fashion sense of the hobby is also undeniable.  FWIW, not a fan of PCGS, not even a little bit.

Care to tell us why?  Please try to be short, sweet, and very specific. 

Examples:  Poor customer service, too expensive, slow turnaround, the previous owner wears ugly Hawaiian shirts, etc.  Then someone may disagree.  

6 minutes ago, VKurtB said:

I'm now about 5 weeks from retirement from state government service, and I will probably NOT throw away my business suits. When I pack for a 5-day ANA show, like this August in Rosemont, my suitcase will include 7 ANA golf/polo shirts, 5 blue for the actual show days and 2 red for the day before and day after, when I'm still working, but it will also include two business suits, an Armani and a custom made one from a small Italian tailor. I own one Hawaiian shirt. I haven't worn it since I left Hawaii in 1994.

Hey, you should be on the list of best dressed former ANA Board Members!  

In the "old days" you would have gotten a gold pocket watch to wear with your suit..

23 minutes ago, VKurtB said:

Which list is Hall on? The incredibly ugly Hawaiian shirt wearing list? Hands down winner.

When you've done what he has, he can wear any shirt he wants.  I've heard some Hawaiian shirts are very expensive.  IMO, some are very attractive.   Best of all, it must be very nice to reach a point in life where the   of the chat room mavens don't even register in his universe.  

On 10/27/2020 at 9:23 AM, brg5658 said:

It doesn't say anywhere that it is a list of living persons.  I think it is a disservice to not include people like Eric P. Newman if the years the list covers is really supposed to be 1960-2020.

 

On 10/26/2020 at 9:01 PM, physics-fan3.14 said:

Influential people are people who've reshaped what we know or understand, how we think about a significant portion of the hobby, how we approach our knowledge. 

Many of us could argue John Albanese to be one of the most influential people alive in our hobby (started PCGS... started NGC... started CAC....) Do his successors (David Hall, Mark Salzburg, etc) deserve to be on this list? I'd argue no. 

 

 

Thanks for verifying that.  I suspect that a list w/o all the deserving dead numismatists left off should be a clue but I agree with you that it should have been stated that only living people were on the list.

Betting that Hall, Salzburg, etc. do not deserve to be on this list would lose you every bet.   If I were ranking the contributions of the three you mentioned, I would place Hall's contribution above JA's.  However, when someone reaches the top of their chosen field as these numismatic businessmen, we are splitting hairs trying to rank their contributions (some that are unknown to most of us). 

10 hours ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

Congrats on buying the book, Insider....let us know as you progress through it your thoughts on the various sections that stand out.

I thought I made it clear that this was clearly The Bible -- or Red Book  -- for Saints.  Not only do you have a chapter on every year and mint mark, but Roger has interspersed chapters on The Gold Standard, Commerce involving Gold, the Assay Process, World Trade, and other interesting topics.  It breaks the monotony of reading year-by-year if that gets tiring to anybody (it didn't to me, but I liked the other chapters just the same).

"Congrats on buying the book, Insider....let us know as you progress through it your thoughts on the various sections that stand out."

I am presently reading/in the middle of five books each night in the half hour+ before I fall asleep.  Only one deals with coins.  The fun here on coin forums has taken away lots of reading time.  

1 minute ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

My readings and discussions with veterans of that time (I wasn't active back then) was that during the bubble years of 1989-91 and again in the early-2000's.....grading got lax, volume surges overwhelmed the TPGs....lots of misgraded coins.

I thought that's the way it has always been.  It would be interesting to know the exact year "moderns" began to be graded by the big two.  

2 hours ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

I'll defer to your expertise Mark...but it just seems rush-rush to me.  

But if you focus on surface quality and luster...and don't look at my mini-checklist....isn't that how you can then get a coin which is MS66 and upon further looks has key dings in the Liberty Mouth, not-formed toes/fingers, etc. ?

I'm not asking for 2-3 minutes per coin...but what about 30 seconds...maybe 45 if it's a 5-figure coin ?

What you are doing when you grade a coin is called "micro-grading."  It is frowned upon by those who are in charge of a grading room.  I am also a micro-grader.  I've trained my eye to see "cabinet friction" ,defects, chemical or mechanical alterations, and repairs.  What I find gets passed on in the computer notes.