Henri Charriere

🐓: 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."

The gentleman has just posted a 1925 gold coin, of the incused persuasion, which you may wish to scrutinize in lieu of a suggestion he consult Basic Resources and What collectors need to know...

Hello there! I suppose Guess the Grade has its entertainment value, but there is a reason why coins are submitted to TPGS. Ideally, what you ask for cannot be done via pixelated images. I see some areas of concern which would warrant in-hand, personal inspection. I do not believe any ball park figures would do your coin justice. Hopefully, someone will weigh in with some valid observations of their own.

🐓: Hey Q! Get a load of this precious gem: ".... before I was super-active on the coin threads)..." Q.A.: Whoa Nellie! That's before we got here five years ago! Back then, he was a "mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper." Hard to believe... I wonder what changed... Tempus fugit.

I have revisited this topic (since my last post earlier today) wondering whether "truly rare" is any more, or less, subjective than "grading." I believe the above excerpt captures the essence of the "je ne sais quoi"-like quality of defining the otherwise indefinable, "truly rare." Another masterful stroke of articulated jargoning! There are some posts that ought to be preserved, in perpetuity. This is one of them.

🐓: You know what? He's right!... How did you know he'd know? Q.A.: I didn't... beginners' luck is all...

While I can appreciate your noble intent, had this been mine I must confess, I would have thrown this on a thread soliciting validation from fellow members that I had just found this lovely Morgan with lovely copper toning, denticles intact, believe it to be genuine, but just wanted a second opinion... then sat back in my chair to await the anticipated backwash. "C'mon Quintus! Silver dollars are just that. Silver, duh! "An insult to the House of Morgan! I am in league with those who don't want this out there! No, you may not have it! I absolutely forbid its display! "You are outright rejecting 150 years of knowledge and experience on this forum. You feel you know better? Send it in and post the result when you get it. Sheesh! To the Newbies: Don't say, [It will] "Never happen!" It did and it does. Some of you can recall the time a mischievous member (long gone) had members responding to his talking Rooster -- with one demanding it retract a comment it had made!!! Ah Mike, ... missed opportunity... 🤣

I am not going to touch this. Cheerio, mate!

Good question! (My uncle z would likely know. 🤣 ) The coin's composition is 90/10, gold/copper. The overall weight is 1.3397 ozs; 41.67 gms. The precious metal content, or actual gold weight (AGW) is 1.2057 ozs; 37.5 gms. BUT gold, a precious metal, is weighed in troy ozs; copper, a non-precious metal is weighed in avoirdupois (avdp) ozs. This coin is an alloy. The "operative" word (to quote my Top Follower) is "weight." But which scale is used is for far greater minds than mine to "weigh" in on.

Correctamundo. Just under a fifth of a troy ounce as compared with the 50-peso 1.2057 troy ounce [AGW] Centanario de oro of Mexico, first minted in 1921, commemorating its 100th anniversary of independence from Spanish rule.

Ahhh, First Day of spring! And here are a few stats I dug up overnite re Certifications of the earlier, "original" French 20-Francs gold rooster (1899-1906) series. To recap, there were about 33 million originals of the 117 million minted, and from the inception of TPGSs going on 40 years ago to the present, here is how the breakdown looks. All Mint State grades, 60 and up, totals: NGC 395/PCGS 508; All grades below MS-60: NGC 93/PCGS 56. (The lowest "low-ball" was graded adjectivally, as Fine.) On the high end, MS-65 to MS-70 (FDC in French) Totals: NGC 16/PCGS 46. (MS-66: NGC 2/PCGS 8; MS-67: Zero (none) at either. Bear in mind, these stats are for the "originals" only! The pickings are sparce. 🐓