Henri Charriere

ALL-POINTS BULLETIN! BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR: A 1793 NORTH WALES HALFPENNY TOKEN: UPDATE... IN CUSTODY PRESENTLY; UNCOOPERATIVE. UNCERTAIN AS TO WHETHER IT EXHIBITS "DH1b" OR "DH4a" Variety Characteristic Kindly direct any information to the OP, after reading his first post on this thread. Much obliged. 🐓

...respectfully this conversation is not over until the memberships most vociferous proponent on this subject has chimed in...

Great God Almighty! A member anticipated my call, and responded! Man, I love this place! WELCOME, er, BACK TO THE FORUM!

[Two of the most annoying expressions ever devised by man: 1. We use cookies to enhance your viewer experience, and 2. Your experience may differ...]

Remember Joan Rivers? "Can we talk?" There is no "self-awareness" here. There is, however, "self-preservation." I've got 99 members standing up and pointing their collective fingers at me: "J'accuse!" Everything went along swimmingly until I casually, rather off-handedly, made the observation, "I do not believe you found these coins where you say you did." I staged a laughably inept session of moot Court. The moderators saw fit to allow it. And not minutes after press time, I became a Bully: I literally ran someone off the chat board! Over what? Chump change? What did I do? I believe the truth lies in something more sinister. There's much more to this elopement than meets the eye. Only time will tell...

A suggestion has been made to try the on-line resource: "Ask NGC/NCS." I have reached out to member @Yarm and hopefully, we will be hearing from him soon.

Actually, truth be told, the cryptic hieroglyphics accompanying the text meant nothing to me. It was the picture [photo] of the coin residing comfortably within an official encapsulation with an epitaph comprised of a few glowing decriptors that told a thousand words: when is the last time you picked up such a slab saw the words EXCESSIVE CORROSION and reached for your wallet? Has any hobo nickel enjoyed a similar return on investment? This creation has been deemed a resounding success by the numismatic marketplace and the proof is in its apparent demand.

There are members here who, for no other reason than objecting to my presence here, migrated and/or defected there. I have spare time. Maybe I ought to investigate the matter personally. I may even set up an On-Site Reporting feature there much like a member here has done. Scam is a pretty strong pejorative term. Maybe it's time I check it out. After all, whose credibility and reputation here exceeds mine? P.S. Man I love this place!

[It shames me to say I am so happy to find the occasional Wheatie, or for that matter, Buffalo Head with a partial date, or Wartime nickel, that any further investigation stops there. Now that you've suggested collectors not submit them to graders, you've saved me and a whole lot of collectors a ton of money. Thanks for the tip!]

[Not a word about the denticles? Certainly, I am not the only viewer who sees, for lack of a better term, "ghosts" between each denticle on the southeast side, and denticles with their own individual personalities on the southwest. One is smiling, another appears to be shouting. I am sure you have consulted the Numista web site, which cites recognized varieties, but nothing like yours. Your reverse is stunning, but am I to believe the composition of this coin is cupro-nickel, 75%/25%? Yours looks positively golden. Sorry I couldn't be of greater help.]

[I am a member of a TPGS which laid out the red carpet for a counterfeit coin they couldn't wait to authenticate, certify, and encapsulate which weeks ago realized a hefty $3,600 at auction... and top billing at Coin Week. Comes now, member EagleRJO, bearing photos, as Rod Serling would say, "submitted for our approval," and getting opinions as varied as, "VF30-35," "VF Damaged," "certainly wouldn't numerically grade," and a consolation prize to boot, suggesting qualification as an "album hole filler." What is a newbie to make of all this? The "counterfeit," deemed "rare" and produced here in America's infancy (1777) was of a British halfpenny! The slab, a photo of which accompanied the submission, clearly read: "Fine Details Excessive Corrosion." A prominent member here (whose name I am forbidden to mention) gave it his Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. So what gives? Here we are talking about mere dings; there the coin is clearly misshapen (my word). See it for yourself: Topic: "Tantalizing Tidbit," by [yours truly].

I let Ricky the 🐓 do all my talking. Not very many people talk to animals on a national forum. None will argue with one. The downside is I will be assessed the warning points whether I am acting in concert or not. It ain't easy being me.

@J P M: I did--from the initial post. There are things people do in other hobbies that are simply unacceptable in ours. A rubber band, for example, is but one. Scotch tape, glue, chemical baths are another. We have seen unintended psychedelic toning as a result of the close proximity of, or contact with ill-advised materials. Coin supplies routinely used in the hobby generations ago are avoided now. We are taught to hold coins on the edges, for a reason. We learn collectively from experience. *** Maybe the conservationists at NGC ought to consider a running a regular feature for the benefit of the dedicated collector showing before and after pictures of problematic coins/holders as a public educational reference. [Anyone remember how the Smithsonian stuck coins to display boards with glue? I would like to think we have come a long way from that.] First Day of Issue postage stamps printed by the BEP are/were routinely affixed to envelopes and canceled. We do not do that with coins but with quality control clearly lacking at the USM, some errors and varieties due to poor equipment maintenance are now touted as rare and unusual finds. That errant banana sticker on a bank note is a good example. No reputable dealer I know would ever resort to using scotch-brand or any other tape, to a coin holder. One coin dealer routinely affixes a comparatively thicker sticker to protect the portrait of a slabbed coin to proect it in transit much the way a thin protective film is used to protect smartphones.

No wear, and exposure to color-enhancing chemicals. Is it not worth encapsulating? Or is there a reason why you do not wish to, or have tried but were declined?

All this talk, this constant refrain I hear on the Forum... "Don't buy the holder," etc. Sorry, but if someone sold me a coin in a holder like that, I would reject it outright. I don't want to contemplate the negative possibilities: maybe the coin was switched out; maybe the holder is not secure; maybe a superglue of some kind was used to hold it together; maybe the holder is no longer hermetically sealed; maybe it is no longer water-resistant if not waterproof, if it ever was. One member suggests re-holdering as a solution. But before I do that, I need absolute confidence in the product's integrity. That's why coins are encapsulated in the first place: to eliminate any and all guesswork!

Yes, and apparently spoke up in 2021 and 2020. It is a shame I have been around as long as I have and still don't know how to navigate the Forum well. I stand corrected!

I only regret there are newbies among us too young to get the joke!

@Just Bob; Ricky (🐓) and I have taken the liberty of perusing some 15 pages of text in a futile attempt to locate member @Yarm. Neither hair nor hide has been seen of him since the last Ice Age. Are you spelling his name correctly? The search option "attribution" and his User Name, turn up nothing. @Just Bob: Hopefully, a member proficient in classification schemes will be able to assist this gentleman.

Red China has almost become synonymous with the greatest source of counterfeit coins. Surely, in a country that large, with well over one billion people there must be reputable dealers or coin emporiums on a par with Stack's Bowers, or any number of established authorized coin dealers in the United States and MA-SHOPS in Europe. Any vetted recommendations? Have you done business with any such emoriums or their member concerns?

This is hands down, the #1 Forum in all the land! The Moderators are tops in my book! Flexible, fair and accommodating. 🐓: I heard of mathematics, but numis-what? Numismatique, en Francais, Ricky... des pieces de monnaie, capiche? 🐓 : Oui, senor! P.S. Your Booker T. was a winner! Thanks for sharing!

Are you quoting Sir ex cathedra for attribution? Enquiring minds want to know!

This has a 3-D'l look to it. And yes, I'll say it: It looks a whole lot better than anything the U.S. Mint has been producing lately!

If what you have is worth having authenticated and certified, by all means do so. It will save you from having to explain (and justify) what you have to others later on. Bear in mind, economic feasibility does not always figure into the "to encapsulate, or not" decision. Some collectors like their coins so much they would prefer to have them formally identified and protected from any harm that may occur in storage by having them housed in protective holders. Whether it is worth getting graded, aside from how you feel about the coin, will ultimately rest on its value. I have seen a range of figures given for grading costs. My best estimate is, up to USD100, depending on where you live and are submitting from.

Take a quick look, if you will, at the nickels submitted this morning, Oct. 1, by members numisport and Idhair. I Notwithstanding the hub change you cite as having occurred in 1939, I see a striking difference with the full-bodied 8, in numisport's coin as contrasted with the more familiar scrawny 8, in Idhair's. Numisport states FlyingAl's obverse (featuring the scrawny-looking 8) was likely struck by a "new obverse die," but my own lying eyes tell me while that may very well be so, it is Numisport's coin which deviates from the norm. Or is photography the culprit?

I would hate to write off an entire country with over a thousand million people but it appears members on this Forum either know of, or know someone--or have personally experienced, most unfortunate buys from China, so much so that they are unalterably opposed to making any purchases from that country, period. There surely must be, in a country that size, at least several reputable dealers one can consult on the matter of numismatic acquisitions, but thus far, at least on this Forum, no one to my knowledge has suggested one. I feel engaging China is fraught with risk. What recourse would you have if you wired, or otherwise transmitted your funds, and they simply disappeared into a black hole? I have bought things from Afghanistan, North Korea, and Iraq, but never directly, always through an established American intermediary with a presence and proven track record. I would be interested to know the outcome of your One Tael purchase.