Henri Charriere

The Okefenokee Swamp is

I don't know what the purpose of war is. I don't thing the Inuit and similar tribes even have a word for it. But we left $83 trillion in Iraq, threw perfectly good helicopters into the sea in Southeast Asia and apparently "borrowed" land from the Mexicans and Native Americans. Bear in mind, no one, I repeat, NO ONE can push your buttons unless you allow them to. Now, as GoldFinger1969 is fond of saying... BACK ON TRACK!

All kidding (and head-banging) aside, not one comment submitted to this column was in favor of this cryptic schtick. Now, if @VKurtBsuggests a connection to narco-terrorists and the OP throws Russian OC into the mix, we're onto something. I have a feeling those folks are more into making money than philanthropy. In the meantime, I am going to write the Silk Road guy seeing as how his schedule -- two life terms + 40 cc / no parole -- will allow him to accommodate my request to inquire if he would be kind enough to refer me to a source who can sit me down and explain the whole kit and caboose to this schlemiel. No sense having our long-time members and untold thousands of people risk life and limb playing with radioactive materials for lack of simple information. 🐓

MS -70.

The Alpha generation is almost over (ending in 2025) Generation Beta is on deck. I am "all in" on Beta, that is...until Moot Points rears its head. And with them; THE END.

Lovely addition. Would you happen to know if this holder is embedded with a computer chip enabling Near-Field Technology?

I will assume you are aware that all the so-called "re-strikes" (the French refer to as "re-distributed," covering the years 1907 to 1914, were minted in 1921 and again during the 1950's and 1960's. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. Incidentally, everything you've written above is as true today as it ever was.

That's true, but the option to me is unappealing. If you were born between 1928 and 1945, you are a member of the "Post-War Cohort," otherwise known as the Silent Generation comprised of Radio Babies and Traditionalists. So what'll it be, Great Zadok?

Outstanding!

I would imagine one's account would be credited. The one and only thing that bothers me about them are the wild gyrations. If you are young, you are willing to take calculated risks. If you are old, not so much. (And if you are Robert Durst, not at all.)

The Melt has been cited as immutable fact by every authoritative source I have consulted with many citing even the years in which it is said to have occurred. Between 1914 (last year of issue) and 2021, the French population grew to 65 million from 40 million. Over 117 million 20-franc gold roosters were minted. I don't know what happened to all the copper cents here, or whether melting was a factor, but then again, maybe the explanation is as simple as storage due to their precious metal content whether in the attic or a safety deposit box. Considering billions of cents are minted yearly, maybe I will get a plausible explanation at the convention. Just gotta be patient and wait.

You're right. It totally slipped my mind. Thanks!

Cryptic currency... Now there's a scheme or scam that never caught m y eye. This might appeal to the pi-guy a/k/a @physics-fan3.14 whose password only he has committed to memory however many decimal places are required. A Long-time member votes thumbs down on it, notably without explanation. I am not well-versed in crypto-cuneiform but no one is to assume it's because I know absolutely nothing about it, though that happens to be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but. What I would like to hear from is someone who is intimately familiar with the subject whether lodged in a gaol or presently a ward of the state for life. After all, it wasn't the crypto schtick that got the schmuck in trouble. It was the cooperating source or paid informant who heeded the advice of opposing counsel when he barked: "Better talk now; the train is leaving the station!" I should like nothing better than to hear from a staunch advocate of this form of play money, or a referral to an authoritative source, such as: Crypto for Dummies. 🐓

Lovely piece. Welcome back!

With all due respect, Great One, my indigent status entitles me to free legal insistence. Whether the seller chooses to refuse refunding my money, or not, I am not the type to settle amicably. I am going to let someone somewhere decide once and for all exactly what constitutes a Brilliant Uncirculated coin and why I do not have a right to know exactly what interval my coin lies along the technically 10-part BU continuum. One generation too late? It's never too late to correct an injustice.

I thoroughly enjoyed what you've written... even if, as a writer, you misspelled insight, as incite. 😉

My [French-speaking] wife, then 60 and homeless at the time, refused to allow me to accompany her to a NYC office in cutoff jeans, shirt not fully buttoned and tucked in, with a newspaper tucked in my back pocket. She said I looked like a vagabond. I countered with: "You don't go all dressed up to the welfare office!" She relented and I watched her shopping cart and hand truck outside while she took are of her business inside.

Slippery slope. Should Cleopatra's Needle, the obelisk erected behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1881, and covered from head to toe with now fading hieroglyphics, be returned to Egypt? How about that giant Willamette Meteorite which was hauled across the country by twenty horse-drawn carts to the American Museum of Natural History in 1906? And what about the then $500,000 worth of gold bullion the U.S. Marines expropriated from Haiti "for safekeeping" during the invasion of 1915. It's been sitting, presumably at the FRB in New York City now for over 100 years.

PART TWO (of a series) PART ONE of this series concerned a coin I acquired from Oklahoma (which was shipped to me, and shipped back in the same first five-sided box I had ever seen in my life). My mentor assured me the FRENCH 20-FRANC GOLD ROOSTERS are sitting out there somewhere, many of them raw or stacked in [dime-sized diameter tubes. Though rarely advertised principally as such, they are bullion coins. No bullion coin I am aware of displays a face value which exceeds its numismatic or what is referred to as its melt value -- a term even @Researchcoins most recently found objectionable. Today, I found a 2020 Lincoln Cent I would instinctually grade as a Brilliant Unciculated coin that would pass the grading definition of not only the USA, but every country which has acknowledged the term. Its fields are pristine clean; all features were struck strongly... devices vices, mottos, grottos and even the sharply incused, perfectly legible V.D.B. (which under 30-power magnification forbidden 🚫 by @VKurtB in coin examination) is a sight to behold. There is only one minor problem; I found it, by the turnstiles permitting access to eight subway lines at 14th St - Union Square, NYC, one of the busiest and heavily trafficked in the nation. If it were a gold rooster it would be given a quick "approved" rinse and a TPGS would not hesitate to satisfy every whim expressed by the collector. If a cache of gold coins were found, as stash bullion coins dating back to the Battle of Hastings, I seriously doubt they would be tubed. My problem is the seller from whom I acquired the coin, a 1904, ignored well over a dozen scratches a gouge, and fields that looked as though they had been harvested. Whether pristine with a cartwheel effect like the 2020 cent or a 20-franc gold rooster, riddled with chaos and commotion, the term Mint-State as used by bullion concerns is dispensed with, along with CHOICE, GEM, etc., entirely in favor of an all-encompassing BRILLIANT UNCIRCULATED, absent defining numbers. And if this must be litigated, so be it. Beats serving jury duty... 🐓 P.S. I should like to take this opportunity to personally thank the members whom I wish to assure wrote comments I found to be humorous and not at all offensive! P.P.S. I should alo like to personally thank my chaperones for arguing in favor of rescinding my recent banishment and allowing me to return to the camaraderie and companionship of the Greatest Generation.

@VKurtB. If I were fit for this pursuit, I no longer am. Not one but two MS -68's suddenly emerged in my life time. I am 70 and the coins I am interested in, as not a single citizen residing in North Korea is unaware of, happens to be 100-year old G20F roosters. The acquisition of two 🐓 🐓 will make my current "Best French Set," better, but nowhere near perfection. What you are proposing, as an "end of problem" cure-all, is nothing more than a pedestrian means to a far greater end: Upgrading.. Don't forget: I am a Virgo, condemned to a life pursuing perfection. Even my wife can't help. She was born on July 17th, the cusp of oscillation between Cancer and Leo. I am on my own.

Great Zadok, I beg to differ. To my knowledge, every coin must be encapsulated to be a part of a set registry. At P---, unless things have changed, you must wait up to three days to have your coin formally "released" to you by the seller then "join" a TPGS (the sliding scale of which @VKurtB generally regards as chump change) -- and I am not going to mention all the costs grading involved in transportation, acquisition (plus tax, where applicable) grading based on FMV, holder size etc. [None of this applies if you are a collector of common circulated coins.] And if you are sanctioned, short of termination on sight, you no longer exist. And if you have a set registry you were using for inventory purposes, your e-mail address, User Name, password and whatever else is/was required, passes on to the Twilight Zone.

On the Set Registry here, if a collector (and there are only those we know of) chooses to assume a set in one straight graded line, say MS-67, what are the chances his great-great grand children will be awarded a prize? If foreign, his sights are set too high. He will have to rely on: 1) encapsulated coins, or 2) disregard the advice of a seasoned traveler and using photos as a guide, plunk down a thousand dollars or more, and discover in due course, he is the proud new owner of an MS-66 or MS-65, which is of little or no use to him. I would urge those considering set registration to view all the pertinent holdings, review the census and pops provided, and make a rational decision as to whether it is something worth pursuing. 🤔

What? Wait! What's the Securities and Exchange Commission got to do with any of this? I haven't had a disagreement with anyone or anything in over a month. 🐓

(I know. I know... I'm hard at work on a suitable sesqicentennial (150th anniversary - 2050) as we speak.)