jtryka

I think I ordered some today, but I guess I'll find out for sure in October...

17 hours ago, Numismatic, A.A.S. said:

Nice one, looks to me like an O-101, this date has some interesting varieties on the 2.

8 hours ago, brg5658 said:

The last of my 2020 pieces.  I'm still at ZERO new numismatic items for 2021 so far.

 

What is that Edward VIII piece?

I think the more realistic view is that they make far more money from one customer than all the collectors and dealers combined.  Think of it this way, let's assume there are maybe 2 million "collector" coins sold by the mint per year (not mint or proof sets, but things like the Morgan dollars and commems, the stuff that is a pain to produce).  If they make $100 each from those coins, you're talking total "profit" of $200 million.  That's a big assumption as it would assume sellouts of every coin, but let's be generous.

In 2020, they minted a total of 498 million American Samoa quarters, 280 million Weir Park quarters, 1.095 billion Salt River quarters, 650 million Marsh Quarters and 243 million Tallgrass quarters, just at Philly and Denver, for a total of 2.766 billion quarters.  Last I read it costs the mint about 6 cents to make a quarter, but being conservative let's assume inflation has caused that to rise to 10 cents.  So, 15 cents in profit x 2.766 billion = $415 million in profit from one customer, the Federal Reserve which buys all the coins for distribution through the regional banks.  So, which would you care more about?

Well this is classic, apparently the Mint overlooked the memo from the COMEX that there is plenty of silver, in fact they will soon be using it for pavement there is so much just lying around, so there is no silver shortage!

What a joke...

Too bad I wasted my time on the other thread!

On 5/26/2021 at 5:49 PM, Lem E said:

Just picked this one up today. My first Bust half. Now the fun begins in trying to figure out which die marriage this one is. I picked a heck of a one to start with. 49 or so different die pairs for this year from what I have read. I have a lot of research to do. Should be fun. 

 

This is always a date I'm happy to pay the $15 variety plus fee!  I believe this is reverse U (right side of T and left side of I in line, center line of stripe 5 extending through 4 crossbars along with several other lines extending to crossbars 2 and 3).  So with reverse U that narrows it to O-126 or O-127.  I can't tell from the images whether or not the requisite die cracks are there below the lower curl and across the base of 182.  I am leaning toward this being obverse 4, which would make this an O-127, an R-5.  Of course this is just an opinion based on images and my eyesight isn't what it used to be!

Well here's an interesting development, received this e-mail from the mint overnight:

Dear Valued Customer,

The United States Mint is committed to providing the best possible online experience to its customers. The global silver shortage has driven demand for many of our bullion and numismatic products to record heights. This level of demand is felt most acutely by the Mint during the initial product release of numismatic items. Most recently in the pre-order window for 2021 Morgan Dollar with Carson City privy mark (21XC) and New Orleans privy mark (21XD), the extraordinary volume of web traffic caused significant numbers of Mint customers to experience website anomalies that resulted in their inability to complete transactions.

In the interest of properly rectifying the situation, the Mint is postponing the pre-order windows for the remaining 2021 Morgan and Peace silver dollars that were originally scheduled for June 1 (Morgan Dollars struck at Denver (21XG) and San Francisco (21XF)) and June 7 (Morgan Dollar struck at Philadelphia (21XE) and the Peace Dollar (21XH)). While inconvenient to many, this deliberate delay will give the Mint the time necessary to obtain web traffic management tools to enhance the user experience. As the demand for silver remains greater than the supply, the reality is such that not everyone will be able to purchase a coin. However, we are confident that during the postponement, we will be able to greatly improve on our ability to deliver the utmost positive U.S. Mint experience that our customers deserve. We will announce revised pre-order launch dates as soon as possible.

Thank you for a being a United States Mint customer.

I sorry that you didn't get one.  I had the same experience, I guess it's just the luck of the draw, had to check out and enter my credit card a dozen times before it finally worked.  I guess we get to try it all over again next week too...

So, did anyone else place an order for the O and CC privy mark Morgan dollars that went on sale today?  The process was annoying for me, but not nearly as frustrating as some of the recent high-demand coins.  I ordered them in about 17 minutes, and got enough for two of my friends to each have one, which was fortunate because one was completely shut out and the other was only able to get the O-privy and not the CC.

On another note, are they planning on making a proof version?  That might be really nice to have in cameo relief.

I have dealt with them before and not had any problems.  As for selling, I usually just try to do it locally to avoid the hassle of mailing stuff around.

1 hour ago, UrbanDecay4 said:

It could also be an SMS (Special Mint Strike) Set...

SMS sets were only made from 1965-67, and only 1965 was packaged in cellophane.  The proof sets had a foil paper insert from the mint, while the late 50s-early 60s mint sets had a plastic token to note which mint the coins were from (philly or denver).

4 hours ago, DWLange said:

O-107 is the prime for that die marriage, and NGC doesn't describe individual die states beyond what Overton listed. While his breakdowns are very simplistic and could be expanded into numerous die states, Overton remains the hobby standard until someone improves upon it.

That pretty much matches what I understand, however, based on my Overton third edition, the O-107, reverse G states there is a "Small defect lump in the N of United" so if there is no defect lump which is diagnostic for the marriage what do you call it?  How can it be an O-107 without that defect lump, unless it is an earlier die state which to bust half collectors is known as the O-107 Prime, which represents an earlier die state than what Overton references.

20 hours ago, Dark Chameleon said:

Weren't all those plugged?

Not that I am aware of, there may be adjustment marks or plugs on individual coins based on weight, but that's a different issue.

@DWLange I recently submitted an 1814 half dollar that I believe to be an O-107 Prime (i.e., the early die state without the die defect/chip in the N on the reverse) but the variety plus just classified it as a regular O-107.  I called to ask about this and they responded that the O-107 is the "prime" which is normally true but not in this case.  Is this just not recognized by NGC?  My understanding is that the O-107 Prime is a relatively rare die marriage (R-7).  Thanks for your thoughts!

I believe that's a proof set Ed, not a mint set.  Not sure if FS is different on proofs vs. business strikes.

Here are two that are what @GoldFinger1969 referred to.  The first has a mintage of only 22,000 with a few hundred survivors.  The second is the flip side, mintage of 3,049,500 but probably fewer than a thousand survived (Akers 2nd edition estimates 700-750 in mint state).

Lowest mintage is different than lowest survival, but this one straddles the fence...

I've really appreciated the Kennedy halves since they returned to the original relief back in 2015.

This brings up a recent experience I had as a buyer, which was similar (I suppose in your eyes I might have been the "fraudster" but this actually happened).  I ordered something off e-bay, it was relatively small value, perhaps $40 and the seller shipped it and I received an e-mail from USPS saying it was delivered and at my mailbox.  I thought this odd since it was 8 pm and I had already brought the mail in, so I checked again and there was nothing there.  So now what do I do?  If I complain to the seller that I never received it, they would say we have proof the package was delivered!  It looks like I'm just out of luck.  I filed a report with my post office that although it said it was delivered I didn't receive it, and I also noted that the mail I got earlier in the day actually belonged to my neighbor which I put in his mailbox 2 doors down.  They said they would investigate and I never heard anything, but a week or so later, my neighbor came by with the package!  So I got lucky, but it raises some serious concerns about fraud, but also on the unreliability of the post office today!

Au-58

I thought everyone just used the submission tracking for this...now if only the post office would do as well with tracking registered shipments going to Sarasota!