RWB

Water and a little dissolved baking soda will neutralize acetic acid (vinegar). Rinse in plain water, then 95% alcohol. Air dry - do not rub, pat, tap, squeeze, smoosh, fold, finger, spindle, weld, solder, braze, grill, saute...or broil.

Did anyone check the Rolodex?

Is this still done at Fort Bragg, or maybe 'gator steaks in Florida? Would this help fund future ANA shows, (or are they officially called "No Shows?")

Good. Damaged.

Just a short-term "flip-n-run" money play. There is no purpose to a so-called "privy mark" on a US coin. (Anyway, in some rural parts a "Privy Mark" is a sign pointing to the nearest privy or outhouse. BYO TP.)

Your anecdote is more "disaster recovery" than intentional cleaning. (Presumably, eating a salad next to an exposed coin collection is not a standard practice -- unless one wants a bit of sulfide toning on the silver pieces.) The surface of most coins is reactive because of the copper used in alloy. Silver is also reactive but less than copper. As you are aware once a chemical species of copper or silver is altered, its appearance changes and it cannot be restored. Each chemical change is accompanied by a physical change in molecular size and reactivity; these cannot be reversed on a coin.

As Just Bob noted, "Don't try to clean a coin" unless you plan to ruin it. As to technology, coin collectors seem to be slow to embrace objective specimen measurement and categorization. They will argue and complain about problems, but then rail against obvious solutions along the lines of your suggestion. The hobby is diffuse which makes getting new solutions into the use of collectors difficult.

INSAB in Washington, DC

I think he bought the Russain camera because it was an SLR. The Rolliflex is a TLR and thus very difficult to correctly align and focus on very close objects.

Blank cutters were (and are) "all or nothing" machines - there is no "in between." Full-stroke and half-stroke (cutter blade above and below the strip) produced similar results. Full stroke was by far the most used and it cut to the strike bed under the strip. The upsetting mill makes the blank a uniform diameter with a proto-rim, thus creating a planchet. A defective blank will be ejected or broken by the machine's lateral pressure. When a coin is struck, metal flow will obliterate most rim irregularities; likewise for the relief. The arcs might have been made by other mint equipment or outside the mint as a consequence of handling. Just a casual thought or two.

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.

Fractional coin ownership. Anybody got a nice band saw?

Ali Baba and his Forty Thieves can make full set to order, including certificates and authentication.

Nice. Thanks for that. Can't begin to guess the selection of the title photo.....Can see why the guy has his hand on his heart...

OK. Happens in many joyless commodities. But -- who gets the runs, hits and errors -- What about guy's ERA? Does that get divided equally into 0.8221684 for each of three owners? If it's a coin, how is it decided who gets the date, or portrait, or eagle? You can split a "CC" mintmark between any even number of owners, but what about "S" and "D" -- or especially "C" ?

Damage, just as on the cent.

Maybe it's really "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White?" Does it also say "Trumpet solo with piano accompaniment" on the coin? And the critical test of the coin -- After the opening key of E-flat major 6|4 arpeggio, does JFK on the coin have the chops to complete the lip-valve glissando smoothly...?

"Tolerance" is called "remedy" in British use.

Trout have really good scales, too. Minor coins are (and were) weighed in bulk. Individual planchet/coin weights were expected to vary, sometimes a little out of tolerance. Indian cent planchets were purchased in lots of 15,000 to 20,000 lbs, and weighed by boxes of 250 lbs. tale weight. PS: "Tare" is the container weight; "tale" is the content weight.

Hundreds of clerks plus officers. Frank Leach's goal was to have at least one bag (250 coins) for each sub-Treasury (nine large city locations in the Independent Treasury system), plus more for main Treasury in Washington. He ended up with about 49 bags and some were sent to the largest banks in New York, Chicago, St Louis, San Francisco, etc. and to banks in cities that did not have a sub-Treasury. Individual orders were also filled from Philadelphia. [Renaissance of American Coinage 1909-1915 has information about remainders held by the Treasurer of the U.S. under the heading "The Treasurer's Treasure." This section is about a hoard of gold coins that was given to the Mint Cabinet of coins.]

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.

Regarding Goldfinger1969's comment, "I always wondered if the bulk of the holders for the 1907 High Relief Saints is people who inherited the coins, since it seems somewhat unlikely (IMO) that 10,000 active coin collectors decided to buy one of the most expensive coins in fairly high grade condition. It's unlikely that non-coin collectors of today would want said coin, so why should folks from years or decades ago have wanted one, right, unless they were active coin collectors....OR...had inherited the coin." There are no definitive numbers, but anecdotes in archive letters claim that almost all high relief MCMVII double eagles were bought by sub-Treasury clerks for face value and immediately sold to friends and interested parties for $30 to $35 each. Once the novelty fell off, the values sank to about $22.50, sometimes less. Most of the coins never saw a retail bank counter.

Like bread and milk at the grocery, cents and nickels are "loss leaders" for the Mint.

Why is "competition" necessary -- or even beneficial? Enjoyment does not require competition - at least not the rancorous stuff promoted by American TV/cable. Judging coin club presentations seems repugnant. Go watch "The Great British Bake-Off." Then watch the American TV version "Great American Baking Show." Compare approach to competition. The first works, the second fails.

This is an example of extreme master die deterioration....mentioned to illustrate the concept, not the 1981 question.