Henri Charriere

Briefly, I expressed an interest in buying a coin posted nonchalantly in the Follow the Lead post, by a long-time member who rules it with an iron hand. I made him a riciculously generous offer for a bust half that looked to be in deplorable condition: a negative (-3) three on the Sheldon Scale. Not to be unhinged, by me, a master chiffonier and inarticulate. uneducated collector not worthy of acknowledgment from a professional threadmaster with considerable clout, he deftly brushed me off with a response opening a whole new can of worms: "You wouldn't want it. It's counterfeit." I reported it to management but members who have been around awhile and exercise considerable clout are immune to criticism. He is a task master who runs his thread tightly. You may not address questions to those who post relics on his thread and if your comments tend to annoy him, he will not PM you -- he will order you to get off his thread and presumably get lost, publicly. He minces no words. Asked why this member runs his thread with iron-clad progression and has the audacity to feature a non-genuine coin to which he could have simply said, "the coin is not for sale,.is beyond me. His incivility is more a reflection of him than me. Incidentally, if.Joe Hammond is still referred to in 🏀 as "the Destroyer" I see no reason why @Oldhoopster can't change his moniker to the "Old 🐓 Rooster," Anyway, that's another story.

Wherever the truth may lie, the new guy will have an unprecedented opportunity to introduce and broaden the coin collector base to the fledgling newcomers who will make or break the profession -- or suffer the fate of "philatafatalism." (My sincere apologies to those who collect Pitney-Bowes [PB] postal stickers in multi-generational holders.)

@Oldhoopster - let's see now, "inappropriate humor" and now "false hope," but it was pefectly okay for that Mint Director of yore to tell that young boy years ago, in substance,, A copper 1943 cent? None were authorized. Now git kid, you botha me. By your measure, asking a surgeon for a second (or third) opinion is being irresponsible. I see nothing wrong with seeking additional guidance. Right now, if someone were to ask him what've you got there? The height of folly would be to say, "I don't know. "But I've been told it's not real." And if asked, who told you that? The last thing I would want to admit is some guy on a chat room. I wrote an evidently inattentive seller a note simply wishing to bring to his attention that the sell price he had posted on a common 🐓 was considerably less than its prevailing melt price. He thanked me profusely (for my unsolicited second opinion).

I believe the 1943 steel cent is the only "Wheatie" I can make an exception for as far as non-copper cents go. They're different and unique. I like 'em. Always have and always will.

Alright, okay. Maybe he was made an offer he couldn't refuse. Like a golden parachute festooned with a red-ribboned parchment scroll briefly summarizing his mutually agreed upon negotiated, severance settlement package.

There were plenty of artifacts, coins and bars recovered from shipwrecks. I do not recall anyone having the audacity to dismiss same with a wave of the hand saying they had never heard of such a refiner or mark, heretofore unknown, or examples of other such unknown numismatica. Found eight inches down on a Florida beach. Silver. Aged, battered, with foreign inscriptions. A true collector puts authencity first. There is plenty of time to determine its rarity, and Fair Market Value. I say make multiple images and be sure to send two to David Vagi of NGC in Las Vegas who, to my knowledge, has never been stumped or vacillated over the most obscure, oldest of coins. And other thing... how come all the naysayers here had nothing to say about the badly-worn 1837 bust half (sans counterfeit descriptor) a seasoned member posted recently or was he given a pass because of his exalted status? My best piece of advice is forward copies of your coin to the biggest and best emporiums and get additional opinions including price range before squandering time and money submitting something you know very little about. I wish you the best of luck!

I don't know the gentleman's contemplated departure would have any effect on me. The 🐓 I am waiting on is now in Georgia. I am hoping to get it by July 4th, ideally granted a cross-grade by NGC, which will complete my short set but have a negligible effect on my overall ranking. I will make my decision as to mass dispersal of the entire compilation at that time, extending the courtesies shown me to NGC Set Registrants first. If I manage to bag a 🐓 on my P-Set Registry, for all intents and purposes, I'm done. I will have achieved my purpose. Anyone attempting something irrational like besting me -- which will necessarily entail prohibitive costs -- can freely enter a plea of NGI, or Not Guilty due to Insanity, a legal and not medical term as popularly believed. (I find it difficult to compose my thoughts with Moderators monitoring my every key stroke; I serve at their pleasure. May God bless them all.)

Warning: the following comment(s) may be insensitive and downright offensive to viewers. Act accordingly. Addressing the OP's question indirectly, I have a question of my own: A coin is being auctioned off. There are only three active bidders + one on the phone. The final price is $18.9 million. Simple question: What is its Fair Market Value? To a person like me, zero. I don't buy grotesquely damaged coins, unique or not. To others, they don't buy coins sight unseen or via internet. Does the Red Book include descriptions of coins such as strike quality (weak or strong) state of preservation, original mint luster (if applicable) color (such as, frosty gem with a bright honey golden hue) a brief descriptor like "sharp devices" or "smooth fields" or "prominent high point details" and attractiveness (exceptional, dazzling eye appeal, among others? How about the entire range of defects? Complicating matters apparently are TPGS, which very often assign conflicting grades which is not surprising since there are scores of both opinions and grades. And then there are plus ➕ signs and 🌟 stars with other grading services assessing the grades of others, by affirming, elevating or rejecting them. Bear in mind, there are collectors like me for whom price for a specific coin is no object. Hence, a cacophony of numbers much as you would encounter on a stock exchange floor. I wish you the best of luck!

@VKurtB Total recall -- you can scratch Prevagen off your list.

If I see anything anywhere on it, I will let you know.

@GoldFinger1969 The very fact the facts concerning this discovery were not widely publicized suggests something akin to grave-robbing. Central America is comprised of a number of countries. I sense theft, corruption, smuggling -- and possibly an episode recreating the circumstances of this "discovery" and massive repatriation of stolen assets on American Greed.

Volume, chapter and verse! Is it just me or is there anyone else left feeling you are speaking from personal experience? 🤔

I really like the toning but my opinion doesn't count. What I'd really like to know is if they ever caught the guy that stole all the steps?

@GoldFinger1969 To be clear, if you are not referring to the Steam Ship Central America, to what "Hoard" are you referring, and more importantly, what source did you consult to get the minimal information which you've gotten and posted?

Not mine. As the Great Zadok 🇿🇦 once noted, in a post festooned with an imaginary moot point, this point was well settled elsewhere. Not MS-70 nor my inadvisable WD-40, but I-53. I may have paid 3x what the average collector paid for their 2021-D Morgan, but when I get it (if I get it this summer or fall) it will be destined to sit in a glass tumbler half-filled with I-53 at room temperature for one hundred thirty-seven continuous hours, removed, and my findings reported to both @Just Bob, @VKurtB and whomever else may be interested. I will await explicit instructions as to the final disposition of the 2021-S Morgan I have no intention of molesting/mishandling/manhandling from my cousin Vinny when I get it. @Morpheus1967 was right. I do have the patience of a Saint as noted on another thread. Man, Iove this place!

[A weird mix of metaphors and non sequiturs... planchet cracks vs die cracks. I dub thee, a Frisco quarter, a fault line which resulted from the Loma Prieta earthquake aftershock of 1968. Moving right along...

[Well! That certainly explains the presence of the thumb print left on a 🐓 with ample original mint luster I'd acquired. Sources universally indicate their diameter as 21 mm, but they actually run higher and their embossed edges would prove problematic for a drop-in Dansco, hence the assist with an opposable thumb.] BTW, would you, or anyone else for that matter, indicate the proper procedure for inserting highly graded coins into coin collecting coins as opposed to sarcophagi manufactured by Dansco, Whitman, et al.?

Sorry, San Franciscans were more concerned with earthquake recovery in 1906 than a 1908-S Double Eagle or 1909-S VDB ( which I still find to be unobtrusive and inoffensive). All the hoopla only increased its desirability as super special.

Very lovely; it's too bad the 🕷 specimen dated a year earlier as showcased by a long-time threadmaster elsewhere turned out to be certified counterfeit.

Hmm, I am beginning to think Original Mint Luster is one thing and Mirrored Proofs with full luster is quite another, and the terms should not be used interchangeably.

If you heard or knew a newly-designed cent was being minted for circulation, reportedly in comparatively infinitesimal numbers compared to its predecessors (22,000) wouldn't you be inclined to keep one despite its considerable face value? Anecdotally, I recall reading somewhere that that is exactly what happened to the newly-designed Lincoln Cent, some 484,000 of which were released only a year later, in presumably M.S. condition -- an inordinately large number of which were squirreled away in tin cans near hiking trails. or buried deep within armoires.

Congratulations! First order of business: find out what happened to all those roadside stands you're partial to -- and I distinctly remember from the late 1960's.

I never knew that. I appreciate your reply.

Me too.