Henri Charriere

🐓: Deja vu.

🐓 : Have you seen the avatar? Q.A.: First thing I noticed. You know what that means? 🐓 : Please don't tell me two of the finest members on the Forum have been waiting nearly a month for a canine to respond! Q.A. That's the least of it. The OP was here one day (Sept. 3) and gone the next (Sept. 4) and only you and I checked his profile to ascertain that fact before making our presence here known. Man I love this place!

Beavis: Isn't this but another example of officially sanctioned [and apparently endorsed] post-mint damaged goods via accentuated-accelerated features? Butthead: Yeah but, huh-huh-huh it's got its own huh-huh-huh Gra-ding Scale: E-U-69! Whoa-huh-huh-huh-o-o-o!

Nice denticles, all things considered... This die crack phenomenon, I believe, is unheard of in Europe. Minor defects in the minting process are not spoken of in polite company. Who would dare say the Royal Mint made a mistake? Somewhere overseas a bunch of coin enthusiasts, speaking soto voce, are wildly gesticulating toward America: They (coin error aficionados) are all meshuganas! 🤔

Certainly. Buried deep within the convolutions of my brain was a faint recollection of the Chat Board Guidelines which specify, "references to significantly emotional topics such as Nazis, slavery, etc." are prohibited. So, I played "moderator-for-the-day," and having just come off a lively exchange in which a member elsewhere explicitly warned that "some viewers may be offended," regarding an aspect of the same topic, stood up defiantly (in my mind) and gave a thumbs down to poor old Booker T. Unbeknownst to me, Dena (again, in my mind) strode in behind me and in a loud clear voice, overruled me: "I'll allow it." I have since taken the liberty of viewing your profile, and realized I made two mistakes: I had unknowingly addressed a senior-most member of the Forum, and the subject you broached had been the subject of previous presentations. My sincerest aplogies for the rude intrusion. P.S. I have no idea what "tab" toning is, but I do like the coin and read his autobiography (the title of which, "UFS" Chat Board Guidelines prohibit me from explicitly referring to). 🤔 [Sorry for the delay in responding. The mods, understandably, had to go over this with a fine-toothed comb. Man I love this place!]

No sense letting a beautiful, how you say, Rouge, leather presentation case go to waste. Why not fill it will Haitian gourdes? It'd be a lot cheaper.

🐓: .... something about rpm on a coin.... Q.A.: ...revolutions per minute? you mean die rotation? I don't know anything about it. check and see if a quality control expert is willing to talk about it, off the record.... 🐓: .... I wonder if they ever caught the guy who stole all the steps? just sayin.'

[Slightly off-tangent: I was disappointed with the one five-ounce coin I got with the Washington quarter obverse. Why? Let me put it this way: a [precious metal] coin without reeds is like a coin without denticles. And when you've got something that weighs 5 ozs., it looks dull and shabby.]

[I am ashamed to say I checked, and they do. They are obviously smaller in diameter but are readily accepted as per width.]

I had to go fact-check this, but one parallel I can think of--and I am by no means a folk music fanatic--is Alan Lomax, affiliated with the Library of Congress, who literally walked around and recorded the music of such greats as McKinley Morganfield of Stovall, MS., better known as "Muddy Waters," in their natural habitat at the turn of the last century. The original account you've presented here captures the flavor and true essence of the times.

Next up, optical illusion bank notes. Tip it one way, it's a Fiver; tip it another, and it's a sawbuck.

This is what Fred Bass, the late owner of the Strand Book Store, claimed he did. Does it work in practice? Well, it never has for me. And your point is well-taken. It would defy common sense to do so. Now, maybe the young students I see walking about, used to and evidently comfortable with the virtual world can do so, but it would never work for me. Right now, in New York City, there are only a handful of book stores left. BE, Before Eviction, I had the good sense to sell my books, all my books--and even rarely encountered out-of-print paperbacks by authors no longer with us, for a good price. There is no way I could see my way clear to substitute one for the other, particularly ones that are rare and seldom seem, or generally unavailable. I have never seen a Red Book from the 1950's, or earlier, but you're absolutely right, one reference cannot substitute for another. They are all working tools. *** True story... a visitor from overseas arrived at the Strand one day and the owner instructed his daughter to escort the gentleman upstairs to see Marvin Mondlin in the Rare Book Room. A giant brouhaha erupted, none of us who were seated close by were privy too. I was on good terms with Marvin who all concede had a mercurial, unpredictable temperament, and it all boiled down to his abject refusal to part with his collection of indispensable reference books accumulated over a lifetime. I recall the comment, "I need these the same way a plumber needs his wrench." He could put his foot down with the boss's daughter because #1, he was the Rare Book Dep't. and #2, you cannot prevail against common sense.

The owner (now deceased) of one of America's largest used book stores, the Strand, with 18 shelf miles of books, had a simple rule he adhered to at home with his personal collection which he estimated to be 2,000 books. If he brought home a book--he was the principal buyer in the store so he had first dibs--another had to go and that's how he kept his personal library manageable.

Gentlemen, see my post dated September 16, 2022, upstairs, for a reference to a Coin World article which is arguably the last word on steptology: "UNITED STATES 1943-S JEFFERSON NICKEL, September 14, 2022."

Voila! Perhaps I misspoke and meant "flat box." (Pre-zip code: today that would be Bronx, N. Y. 10467. Do parcels from the Mint state they are coming from the Mint, or are they more discreet?) That is my birth year. I never was able to locate a 1951 U.S. Proof Set and am too old to care now.

[For fans of trivia, the Guinness Book of Records [or Ripley's Believe it or Not!] records history's shortest exchange of correspondence ever undertaken successfully. The author, Victor Hugo, inquiring as to the whether his manuscript (Les Miserables) had been published, wrote a letter to his editor comprised of one symbol: "?" The publisher obliged, by responding in kind with a a formal letter, consisting of the single symbol: "!" I am willing to concede members z and rr, come in a close second.]

@Frank: Come to think of it, my two sets were unopened, taped shut with that yellow tape shippers use with nylon threads running through it. I do not recall if the proprietor of the coin shop opened them for me for inspection or whether I took delivery of them, as is.

I know discussion of this Topic is expressly forbidden by Law, and worse, punishment by those who hold the Guidelines sacrosanct by drawing-and-quartering at the very least and permanent exile at worst, but I feel the concept of recording oral histories to be exceedingly important. One wants to hear the story told, not second- or third-hand, but by the people who who were there who experienced it first-hand.. I would have liked to have heard the story of what drove Henry "Box" Brown to secrete himself in a crate and "mail" himself 350 miles, a 27-hr. journey to Philadelphia, in a free state, from Baltimore, MD., which wasn't, in 1849. [He was 6' tall and weighed 200 lbs; the "box" was 3'-1" L x 2'-6" D and only 2' wide.] Some of the more interesting first-person accounts have come from people's with strong oral traditions. The indigenous indigent native Americans, the descendants of slaves, actual German Nazis, the North Vietnamese who excavated a maze of tunnels, the Japanese who bombed Pearl Harbor (as reconstructed from letters of soldiers sent to home and official dispatches, and liberated concentration camp survivors. The account provided here by member RWB, as close to an eyewitness account that could be given, is valuable in that it provides not only a detailed recitation of events, but does so using the vernacular of the times giving it authentic period flavor. The silver coins are indispensable to the story.

FWIW... For those who may have a passing interest in [what member RWB more properly terms a "fine metal bar" as opposed to an "ingot,"] the current bid on this 1946 silver item has moved up a few notches to $31,000, as of post time. The spread in estimates given remains in the 26K - 44K range. The auction is scheduled for this Friday, September 30, 2022 in Long Beach, CA. at 17:00 hours PT.

This suggests a transition. I remember what I saw. I remember what I paid for them. Hard to believe I am the only member who either had an early 1950's set or remembers what they looked like.

@EagleRJO: Me thinketh there is vast, unexploreth substance to your vent. You clearly articulate thoughts other members are only content with entertaining. I don't know precisely when my disenchantment boileth over, but suffice it to say, dispensing with the engraver's art in favor of adopting computer-generated fonts did not win the USM any friends.

I am missing something here... anyone care to explain why steps at Monticello count, but those at the Lincoln Memorial don't? Don't everyone answer all at once now! I'm still new at this. Fifty years, and counting...

Funny you should mention that. [Hey, everybody! Disregard what I've written!] So happens, just this morning I received the very latest word chosen by Merriam-Webster for discussion: "cherry-picker." I've gotten my mind out of the sewer long enough to learn 🍒 cherry picking is choosing the best of the best--and that a cherry-picking machine is so named because its arm extends high enough to get the cherries, not necessarily the best, clear out of reach. My sincerest apologies! 🐓

Not to worry. The toning complements the coin very nicely. Some of us are partial to the iridescent blue highlighting.

You're a good sport! You realize, of course, this absolves, a better word would be immunizes, our gallivanting globetrotter of all criticism in his eternal pursuit of that one and only Special Coin. All of your coins are magnificent! Thanks for taking the time to share them with the membership!