Crawtomatic

That's awesome! Finding new pieces for my Buffalo Nickel set slowed down so last year I decided to search through the Registry sets and find smaller ones without much activity that wouldn't be difficult to complete.  I was thinking, if anything I can put together a set for display and in best case scenario I can win a best new set award.  Last year it was the Austria 2 Schilling, 1928-1937, Circulation Issue set.  Thought I'd be done in one year but having difficult tracking down a Mozart that doesn't look circulated.

Anyhow, it's super satisfying to see the Top Pop icon next to a coin so if you get a set with all of them - that's even cooler.

5 hours ago, Coinbuf said:

If someone of the staff were to become sick and test positive then a shutdown of the TPG would be a possibility.  A greater threat to a closure at any of the TPG's is if mail service would become suspended, that would be a huge impact with nothing going out or in.  I have an order ready to send to CAC but I'll wait for a month or so and let all this calm down before I send it off, would hate to have my coins sitting in limbo if mail service were suspended. 

I hear ya on the mailing service disruptions.  I had my eBay store turned off last week for travel and had 3 buyers contact me about not receiving the items timely (from the end of February).  Normally I get 1 contact every other month and chalk it up to the cost of doing business with USPS - then give my brother heck about it since he's a mail carrier.  I left the store off for 4 days following my return from vacation and considered leaving it off for a bit longer but decided to turn it back on this evening just to test the waters again.  It's definitely something I'm keeping my eye on.

Their social media person posted on Instagram earlier today that submissions and grading are not currently affected but all of their scheduled visits to coming shows/events are cancelled.

On 2/3/2020 at 8:19 PM, Just Bob said:

I have a slightly different definition. Years ago, a popular way to store a coin collection was in a cabinet with segmented drawers that were lined with felt. Opening and closing the drawers caused the coins within to slide back and forth, causing ever-so-slight wear on whichever side was on the bottom.

Similar to the definition I heard.  I heard it related to Dansco and those type albums with the 2 sheets of rigid plastic (one obverse, one reverse).  And the process of sliding the plastic out to add/replace entries beside an uncirculated coin causes that ever-so-slight wear.

52 minutes ago, namvette68 said:

IT IS A FAKE!

Sooo.....did you know that when you posted it or did you get additional information offline?

Very nice presentation.  That's the kind of thing you could probably offer to others at a premium above the cost to assemble.

2 hours ago, Just Bob said:

I searched several websites, including Numista, The Mexican Mint website, and Bank of Mexico, with no results. However, I do not read Spanish, so it is possible the the info can be found on one of the Mexican sites by someone who does.

Numista did have the coin listed, just no mintage figures, and I found another site with the mintage figures for scores of Mexican coins, but no mention of this particular piece. It got a bit frustrating, not being able to find what I wanted.

HA!  I did the exact same thing it seems.  Google translated the Banco de Mexico website at least but I still couldn't locate any mintage figures for past commemoratives.  Did see a reference to a pretty neat looking numismatics museum though....

There was a gold forum thread on kitco from 2012 that I was following down but had to move on to other things.  There's quite a few dedicated collectors of Mexican bullion so if the mintage is known it's got to be out there.  Just might need to find the corresponding silver forum.  https://gold-forum.kitco.com/archive/index.php/t-111301.html

I was wondering if it's classified as a commemorative then perhaps it didn't have a set mintage so we'd have to locate some post-production figures.

Completely agree with you on the different designs.  The Yule is a yawn.

Recently upgraded my son's storage collection to include an empty Queens Beast Black Bull monster box.  $15 from Apmex.  He's 9 and really into this British show called "Horrible Histories" that is up on Hulu.  Figured since he's always going on and on about William the Conqueror, the Restoration, and other facts about the UK I figured he'll show interest in their coins at some point.  For now, he's still hooked on American large cents but hey.  New cool box to store them all in, amiright?

Agreed.  A few days ago I read a news release about a new astronaut signing special labels for the slabs.  My mind went to the sports card market and how autographs inserted in packs was the new hotness of the '90s.  Then it exploded in the 2000s and if the card wasn't an auto card it didn't really count.  Then collectors started demanding "on card autos" vs the peel & stick plates that players were signing 100s at a time.  All this to say I was thinking why not just jump the shark and start offering us on coin autos?  I mean, set the dude down with a pantographic engraving setup, place my coin in the die slot, and let him autograph it personally.

Sure there's going to be a ruckus about it's a details coin now and it's been destroyed but whatever.  

My son is 8 now and my daughter 11.  As we know, little boys are inclined to collect anything and everything.  Bottle caps, rocks, comics, broken glass, coins, etc...  I'd say he started with his first album right around 6 years old.  Late last year he stopped fiddling with the album so much and is now onto the "oldest coin he can buy" kick - which happens to be an 18somethunsomethun large cent he got for $20 or so.  The nice part is he can recite dates for series runs and facts about the early copper that I just haven't bothered to learn yet.  It's a really proud dad kinda thing.

My daughter on the other hand, she tolerates the coin shows well, has a binder with some items in it but she's really not into them.  Can't win 'em all.

Not sure your son's age but the ANA's Coins for A's program is a blessing for school age kids to get free coins for doing well in school.  If you're in Texas, the Texas Numismatics Association also has a program as well.  So they get to double-down on free coins in the mail every couple of months (6 grading periods a year).

I've been doing this for a few years with my kids and the neighborhood kids that stop by for the egg hunt as well.  Nothing valuable, of course, but I love to fill them with the coins they don't get to see everyday.  All the dollar coins going back to Ike's work well, partial date buffalo's, half dollars, etc...

My daughter basically rolls her eyes at them now and my son may make a comment about it being "nothing special" but that's understandable with how much they know of coins thus far.  I do it more to see the neighbor kids running around asking "oh wow! what is this?!?" 

It appears the die variety was only on the proof version dies.

2 hours ago, Sheik Sheck said:

Is there real evidence that old holders command a premium? And is there any real documentation that grading standards were stricter? Also, what id a "doily" holder? Thanks.

A couple weeks back I flipped an "ugly" MS63 Morgan (common date) for 40% profit in 10 days simply because it was in the gen 3 pcgs holder.  Well, I say simply, but like @gherrmann44 mentioned the holders themselves are almost the rarity.  If there's 50 copies of a common coin available but only 1 or 2 in an out of print holder then those 2 instantly become the exception to the population.