Crawtomatic

So the site @Sandonlinked to provides a boast that less than half of coins submitted for stickering receive the sticker. And the goal is to apply the same stringent standards to the holdering itself. Does this mean they're only going to holder coins with a certain level of eye appeal? Or just that the grading will be more on par with the standards from years ago when Albanese worked on the grading floor. Maybe something before "market standards" started influencing numerical grade? p.s. Sorry to hijack a thread. But to the original poster, what I always noticed was that oldest ANACS holders have more respect than any other generation and are generally seen as good crossover candidates. Not sure the consensus on older NGC holders as there's been so many. And a really good thread detailing that @Conder101 put together that I still reference. I think it may depend on the generation, but I've seen some referred to as undergraded in comparison to today's standards.

I'm pretty sure the 'why' is simply because they could. The late 60s and 70s was a growth period in marketed collectibles.

I must admit I've been away for a bit, trying to catch up now and somehow missed an announcement of CAC grading. If you come across a link please let me know. Thanks.

Getting max value is the job of the fence. For the thief they're in for $0 so any return is positive.

Pretty jealous you have a Rydale. I considered one a few years back but decided against it. Have you seen the pics of the copper cent stackers that have 50 gallon drums full of them? So excessive and definitely not a good store of value. But separating out the copper at least makes hunting varieties a little easier by narrowing the focus.

Let's derail into base metals and lowest acquisition costs. Scrapping! Or, as I like to call it, aggressive recycling. I'm by no means one of those truck driving guys loading up every cut of fence and busted washing machine. But, if I happen to see some janky electronics on the curb for bulk pickup there's a 70/30 chance I'll throw it in the back of the swagger wagon. Which then ends up in a pile in the garage. Which makes for a relaxing experience tearing down later screw by screw. To be further separated into plastics, steel, aluminum, copper/brass, etc... There's so much metal (mostly steel & aluminum) in things people just throw into a landfill. Especially when you consider how intensive it is to mine & refine aluminum. Far less often, I setup the propane furnace on the side patio and melt and pour the items. One of these days I'll actually try some sand or lost-foam casting. That's a "pure" hobby though. The kind that you do for the pleasure and have no perceptions that you'll make profit off of it.

Not exactly a proper paraphrase but this scene did come to mind: Director of Mint - You run the joint. Maybe I'll try to help you, all right. Phila. Superintendent - God bless you, Paulie Robert. I appreciate it. You've always been fair with me. - Now the guy's got Paulie Robert as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie Robert. Trouble with a bill, he can go to Paulie Robert. - Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy - he can call Paulie Robert. - Now the guy's gotta come up with Paulie's Robert's money every week no matter what. - Business is bad? F you, pay me. Had a fire? F you, pay me. The place got hit by lightning? F you, pay me. - Also, Paulie Robert could do anything. Especially run up bills on the joint's credit. - And why not? Nobody's gonna pay for it anyway. - When deliveries are made at the front door you move the stuff out the back and sell it at a discount. - You take a two hundred dollar case of booze Morgan Dollars and sell it for a hundred.

And nary a response from the original poster as of yet! If this were a ploy by a savvy social media expert, slash, search engine optimizer, to generate activity on the forums and agitate the dues paid trolls - nay, members - into a flurry of supposition, postulation, accusation, and tangential discussion, then by all means, it was a successful endeavor. A shot across the bow that sent the rats a scurry and the sailors to their posts to return volley. I think I must stop reading every QA reply or else I'll find myself adopting the prose of a maniac.

As a self-described collector of dead & dying media (coins included) I routinely feel like stamp collecting fell to the side because stamps lost their utility. Most collectors initially start collecting with an item they formed an emotional attachment to at a younger age. Even 40 years ago the act of mailing letters as a means of correspondence was on the decline. Then along comes the internet, email, chat boards, etc... I'd bet 51%+ of households today don't even have a stamp in their possession.

I should have said "potential collector" rather than "casual collector". I feel like the 10 point scale approach is to draw in new eyes and collectors. I know when I've shown holdered coins to friends & family that are not in the numismatic community the secondary question is generally, "what does 63 mean?" Or whatever number it is. 0-70 isn't intuitive to a non-collector. But 0-100 or 0-10 is self-explanatory.

Further proof that the N. American Sasquatch's territory extends into the vast forests & mountains of the New England countryside.

Honestly, I didn't do anything extra or special. I just included it with a normal submission of foreign coinage and marked off the variety attribution and listed it out.

Very interesting. It looks like I could be just comparing the 1915 and 1916 fonts separately. I didn't do an overlay though. These foreign overdates can be tough to track down images. I took a chance on a 1916/1 Chilean 5 centavo a few years back and NGC agreed with me on that one. Good eye!

Oops. That must've been in my sabbatical. When I click on "Unread Content" it goes back quite a ways and I haven't quite caught up on my reading.

Another beard-o. 1925-S MS63 that was in an OGH when we parted ways.

1929 Austria 2 Schilling - Theodor Billroth, MS 62

Yes. Most of what you see there still exists and is in use. The State Fair of Texas is there every year. Along with a few smaller museums and such open year round. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Park

The reverse.

To get back to the coins I'll share one I don't have anymore. 1943 Mo 20 Centavos NGC MS65 in a sweet, sweet chocolate brown. Picked it and a 1945 copy up raw at the little show in Grapevine, submitted them for grading/encapsulation and parted with them last year sometime. I know the Mexico coin collectors appreciate the 20 centavos but I so do love the design and the way the bronze turns. Edit: just remembered the max file size. I'll do 2 back to back posts but the cert number is 2846481-006 if you want to check the standard photos.

That's cool to get gifted a bunch of records from the original owner (most likely). I'd say grab yourself a cheap-o record player to see if they're your jam on not. I was curious about that Cher 45. The A side should be "Dark Lady". Never heard it so I just played it on YouTube and it's a pretty decent tune. That's the kind I'd grab if I came across it and it wasn't scratched. I rarely check valuations on records since they're still first & foremost a music delivery system for me and I play them fairly regularly. But if you're interested, the discogs site is pretty much accepted as a good gauge. Mostly because it has a marketplace so you can see actual bid/ask prices rather than a static "price guide". I use the site quite regularly when looking up pressing variations.

I've done my share of thumbing through 1970s mint sets for decent Type 1 Ikes and quality Jeffersons. Mostly before this recent run-up in pricing. Every chance I had to get a 77 or 78 souvenir set I found the quality of the packaging to be far superior to that of the mint sets sent out by mail. For example, practically all Lincoln cents in a mint set from 77-79 are in some state of RB toning (and not attractively) at this point. The other coins would generally be beat to hell. But those in the souvenir sets have held up quite well.

There were the Souvenir sets but you had to purchase direct from a Mint gift shop. Right? I wasn't around for that Mint mishap.

I believe to account for errors & varieties which dip down into the circulated range. Even if modern.

I know this is a coin forum but in the sense of what I collect I'd summarize it as "dead & dying media". Comics got me first. I was reading & collecting those (not preserving) as early as the 1st grade. That continued through high school then I hit a gap. I sporadically returned to the format as I got older but less so for the content and more for the significance of certain issues or the appeal of certain covers. Cards. 2nd in line. Both sports & non-sports. Very few of the sports cards do I have emotional attachment to, though. Oddball, vintage non-sports, and food issues have my heart in that world. Vinyl. Originally started as a means to amass a music library. In the late 80s and early 90s I was just a poor lil kid that routinely shopped at thrift stores (still do!). That was about the time a lot of older folks were dumping vinyl collections and upgrading to CDs as they came to market. I could buy 1 CD for $16 or 16 LPs (or 32 7 inches). So the choice was pretty clear. Besides, a lot of punk bands could only issue releases on 7" vinyl due to the lower production costs so that fit in reasonably well. I still come across decent finds occasionally at the thrift stores but it's rarely more than 1 or 2 items. Nowadays it's more likely I'll find a duplicate but different pressing to add to the collection. Like a South African pressing of Abba "Arrival" I came across last year in a Goodwill here in Texas. How it made it here I don't know but that's part of the fun. I'd guesstimate 300 in the collection currently. Coins. I guess the first coins I collected were back in '84 when my dad made a trip to Scotland and returned with a coin purse full of shrapnel for my brother and I. After that I'd always pluck out any foreign coinage I'd come across and throw it in a jar. It wasn't until 2016 that I started looking at coin collecting seriously. Started with CRH to pass the time. That quickly grew into an appreciation for Jefferson & Buffalo nickels. These days I still have a decent Buffalo set. Mid-century Mexican silver is a love. Ultimately it's more about the knowledge and accomplishment though. I'd prefer to track down raw coins with delightful varieties or exceptional qualities, get them graded, then bring them to market for a true collector. And recently, past 5 years or so, the other dead & dying media. Cassette tapes & VHS. On the VHS side I'll always scoop up any factory sealed blanks. Not that they're worth anything more than a few bucks to people still running ancient home security systems but I appreciate the progression of the package design. That's probably about it. But as I'm sure most of you can relate, if you're a collector it's hard not to appreciate oddities and things that make you go 'oooh'.