Henri Charriere

🐓: What do you make of all this, Q? Q.A.: I don't know... Would an official government mint facility produce a token or fantasy piece to honor British royalty? Would such pieces be holdered in a deluxe commemorative presentation case? Would such a set hew to authentic specifications in terms of weight and fineness of gold? Would such pieces be limited to a run of only 30 pieces? (That sounds "truly rare" to me.) Lastly, what does Author Clancy have to say about this in his book, "A History of the Sovereign?"

Yes. It says, "REDEEMABLE IN GOLD ON DEMAND." With silver certificates, 1967 was the last year in which such currency could be redeemed. I would guess the last year for "redeemable in gold" FR notes was in the 1930's following issuance of the Executive Order. [If this note is yours, have you thought of having it encapsulated? It looks to be of Exceptional Paper Quality.]

To be on the safe side -- 120 years of numismatic experience, notwithstanding -- I am referring your inquiry to the resident pathologist specializing in the identification and treatment of "errors," our very own @Errorists .

On the Instagram post, I am guessing the "2 & 6" refers to areas which would correlate to the hands of a clock, but it is unclear, at least to me, what if anything may be found there beyond the normal wear and tear that is expected to be seen on a coin that has been in circulation for 36 years.

Put another way, you've got a helluva better chance, 1 in 300 million, of winning the Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot...

If you see a violation of the board guidelines you should report it. There is an app for that... the three horizontal dots at the upper right-hand corner of every post.

FWIW: The ones produced by the Intaglio Mint rendered in pure silver, on double-thick 2-ounce planchets were superior "tributes." (I gifted my example; I no longer have photos of it.)

Man, I love this place but sure do miss my guest moderator gig!

Their slabs come with embedded chips [NFT] and, of course, they have certification numbers. It was the entry of the NGC certification number which triggered the alert. I would assume the same would occur with a PCGS slab as you cannot add a coin to their Set Registry until ownership is verified.

Do you have a reply to this Topic???

🐓: The OP says, Ever hear of common decency? after having dismissively referred to members weighing in, as schmucks. Interesting thread. What's the deal with "die pooling?" Q.A.: I guess it's on a par with "continental drift." One thing I don't believe I have ever done here is resort to using personal insults. I loved the High Horse!

Obviously, I do not have all the facts regarding the case, but I can offer a raft of possible explanations for what you term was "a slight rap on [the] wrist." It takes a great deal of time and resources to investigate and prosecute a Federal criminal matter. There are many factors which enter into Federal criminal sentencing. As 95% of all prosecutions end in a negotiated plea deal, it is safe to assume the defendant, having assessed the damning evidence mounted against her, wisely chose to avoid a trial and was convicted on entering a "knowing" and "voluntary" plea of guilty. She presumably pled guilty rather than being found guilty and convicted after trial. Big difference. Another factor which appears to have militated greatly in her favor was cooperation. Acceptance of a plea deal is conditional on cooperation. (Tommy Thompson of shipwreck fame found that out the hard way.) The final consideration is recovery of the stolen goods and, I would imagine, forfeiture of assets. The defendant played her hand well. (Ironically, there is a Federal penitentiary complex in Beaumont, Texas.) There are far more egregious examples of the exercise of discretion in Federal sentencing matters. Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, John Gotti's right-hand man in a crew affiliated with the Genovese faction of organized crime, pleaded guilty to 19 murders and never served a day in prison beyond the nearly five years he spent in pre-trial detention. His testimony, which resulted in the imprisonment of some 37 associates, including Gotti, who died in prison, was deemed to be an acceptable tradeoff. Although I do not know for fact, I would imagine the defendant faced a multi-count indictment (and a superseding indictment) enumerating each of her crimes carrying their own terms of imprisonment which she likely was advised by her attorney, could be imposed consecutively. She played her hand well such is the nature of sentencing on the Federal level. [Posted at the discretion of Moderation.]

There is a monumental difference! Watch... Hey @Hoghead515 ! Guess what? Here is a gen-u-wine counterfeit Henning (above left)! I don't know if it's been certified, but it's been slabbed! They're out there! At the risk of offending the sensibilities of some of the more temperamental types, rather than elaborate I am going to simply suggest that this subject is not all black and white. Numismatics should never yield to the temptation of issuing a blanket condemnation of any coin which fails to meet the standard of authenticity. To me, there is a place in this hobby for "genuine counterfeits," counterfeit forgeries," and "contemporary counterfeits" as opposed to inartistic dreck. The publicity attendant to recognizing the '33 D.E. as an authorized legal issue was much ado about nothing. Every coin must be adjudged on the merits. There are some wonderful so-called Tribute coins out there that do not require a disclaimer. If a gold coin is rendered in 2 ozs. of pure silver, there is no reason to assume there is an intent to hoodwink or defraud others -- and require it be desecrated with the four-letter word, "COPY." This is America! Here we have freedom of expression and artistic license. All who are inclined to agree, say Aye!

@RWB : So, it is an infectious disease... As long as it's not contagious, we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

(Respectfully, I do not believe "how many survived?" is a knowable, ascertainable fact. I had always thought mintage figures were chiseled in granite until RWB, in a recently posted topic, proved otherwise. That left certifications which anecdotal evidence suggests are not reliable.)

With the OP's indulgence, I should like to offer a scenario by which sellers (dealers and hobbyists, alike) have unintentionally and inadvertently advertised impaired gold coins for sale at below-gold melt prices. I take the side of neither combatant above. Rather, in the spirit of a well-liked member, who has gone to his eternal reward, I do so solely in the interest of "broadening the body of knowledge." Very often, in times of great volatility, the spot price of gold will overtake a seller's advertised price. Having just posted the current melt price of a 20-franc gold rooster on this Forum's dedicated thread, I turned my attention to perusing offerings on eBay and, not surprisingly, spotted a "holed" example whose price had been overtaken by the melt value and contacted the seller to bring the discrepancy to his attention. He thanked me and, then $20 under, he raised his price $40. The sense I get is, to avoid such incidences from occurring, sellers pad their prices to accommodate fluctuations. The practical side is, with a buffer, constant monitoring is not necessary. I speak strictly from personal observation and experience.

In a nutshell... bed rest following hip-replacement surgery... internet... "Say, I wonder how the coins I bought and sold in the 1960's are doing right now?... Oh, what's this? 🐓... The rest, as they say is history...

F Y I: $412.59. That is the gold melt value of a French 20-franc gold rooster as of today and the highest it's been since I started collecting them five years ago.

Q.A.: All this doubled-die talk is: 🐓 : Are you sure about that? Q.A.: ABSOLUTELY! Look up the Topic. It reads: "Steve passmore." 🐓 : Alright then, my first question to the OP is: having been a member now for well over a year, what prompted you to speak up now, and why have you chosen this topic? Just joshin' you Steve. You'll get the hang of it.

Reconsideration... Actually, you may have a dog in this fight. I can think of one plausible explanation for acceptance of an SP term and that is at it relates to World coins. Some countries use SP as an abbreviated form of a word in their language which would correspond to an adjectival grade used by numismatists here. This is the case of three-letter descriptors used by France (SPLendide) and Italy (SPLendido) to embrace a range of grades, commonly rendered as the abbreviated "SP" on encapsulations. I merely suggest a possible explanation.

Apparently, I was looking at a comment on mycollects, not mycollect. By any chance, is the site you cite 🤣 the same one which was the subject of Coinbuf's Topic: "Anyone join the new mycollect site yet?" posted July 13, 2023?

Never heard of it. Googled it. Undated stat: received 1.71 stars on 17 reviews, indicating customer dissatisfaction. Credit card problems were cited as one issue. But don't let that hinder you from checking it out. Perhaps, you can report back with your own review here.

The 1913 Liberty Head nickel? That's well over a hun'red years ago. I thought the entire matter was well-settled. All have their own attributes. ALL ARE DESIGNATED SPECIMENS. What are some of the assumptions and guesses regarding these V-nickels? Surely, they are "truly rare," no?

Q.A.: This just in... some guy named Al (Claude 3 Opus) predicts gold will rise to between $2300 and $2500, by the end of this year. 🐓 : I think your "Al," is "A.I." Artificial Intelligence. Q.A.: Probably right. I prefer natural and organic, No artificial anything, but his, I mean its, forecast is within reason in view of "leading economic indicators."