• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Henri Charriere

Member: Seasoned Veteran
  • Posts

    9,433
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    33

Everything posted by Henri Charriere

  1. Great example! I've always loved these two-cent pieces. Look at that artistry! Look at the flourish on that 2 and the letters with definition! (No comparison with the generic, computer-generated fonts of today.) Thanks for sharing. First time I have ever been able to see one of these up close in over 50 years.
  2. Your collective losses. The population of the U.S. is 3.3 million; that of the world: 7.7 billion. I have not, and will not, ever block anyone.
  3. "The mistake of reading." A priceless gem if ever there was one right on up there with a former president's "I am not a crook." And I am well aware you haven't been around because you missed the donnybrook that quickly descended into fisticuffs with slurs being slung around prompting our colleague, Alex from PA., to literally beg the moderators to extinguish the distinguished venerable VKurtB's explosive thread which began so evenly with an ode to a federal judge, so touching it inspired him to declare he had never been prouder of being a Pennsylvanian. A thread is not unlike a newspaper, cellphone or television set. You can turn the page, scroll on, or switch channels. For the "mistake of reading" jewel I am going to grant you a lifetime exemption from review. Now, go and check out VKurtB's thread on Pennsylvania and the pandemic before the higher-ups expunge it. No hard feelings, buddy!
  4. His stand-alone comment, and I quote him directly, was: "Glad I have him blocked!" Now if you''ve chosen to participate in a childish game of hide-and-seek and cannot refrain from peeking, you're automatically disqualified. Riding the coattails of another member and rudely interjecting with a baseless comment regarding a conversation you are not privy to is not even eavesdropping. It's bad manners bordering on moral turpitude of the type that would jettison any hope you may have ever had of passing a Senate confirmation hearing. I don't know what's worse, engaging in pseudo-fraud (claiming under oath you have blocked someone you haven't) or having another equally clueless member cite a footnote made without attribution constitutes a "very useful contribution," -- an argument likely made by counsel to Lori Loughlin to get her daughters into college. As to the charge of abusing my thesaurus, you are confusing me with Joe Exotic. I have treated every animal whose care, custody and control I have ever been entrusted with, with the unconditional love and attention it deserves. This includes a stegosaurus, tyrannasaurus -- and Dino, our colleague VKurtB's prized brontosaurus, when he was obliged to attend to matters requiring his attention at the Royal Mint. Case dismissed on the merits. SO ORDERED. /S/ Q.A. 09.29.2020
  5. Absolutely the finest Lincoln I have ever laid eyes on and if God made anything finer he must have kept it for himself!
  6. Well, well, well. If it ain't the "nefarious 'leave me out of this' cabal" crybaby conspiracist! I applaud you for confirming you continue to follow me however embarrassing that must be to admit in front of the entire NGC numismatic community. What part of the pi-guy's admonition, "Do Not Feed the Trolls!" don't you understand? [My position on mint mark over-strikes in a nutshell: only the ones on Wartime silver nickels, 1942-1945, count. Period.]
  7. Here, sheer folly is exposed in all its wondrous splendor. RWB, a real live human being deserving of our utmost respect as a man of letters, sullies his good name by addressing an arbitrary alter-ego much like a chrysalis that has undergone a metamorphosis only to emerge as an unidentifiable papillon. Common courtesy requires I respond and do so politely with deference. No problem, that is, until an uninvited interloper shows up on my cyberdoorstep, unannounced, and having no inkling what prompted the exchange with RWB to begin with, blindly lobs a shot over a dead-heading, Liberian-flagged freighter (for all he knows) solely on the strength of another entity's universally accepted integrity. The very act of ignoring in the absence of knowledge is the epitome of "ignorance" (which I have taken the liberty of substituting for the "barnyard epithet" I would have preferred using which proper breeding suggests would be in poor taste in RWB's august presence). Postscript: if a recent exchange of missives between bsshog40 and a few titans of the industry is any indication, his gleeful proclamation that he has blocked QA served only to enhance -- not diminish -- the latter's reputation, immeasurably. My heartfelt thanks to all parties -- including the Moderators, for a rollicking good time!
  8. [To my many detractors who regard me as an ignorant, itinerant troll, one to be dismissed rather than reckoned with, I present the following transient thought on what I deem to be highly over-rated over-strikes (with one notable exception) sure to leave my unexceptional reputation intact.] It seems coin collecting, as a hobby, has moved its base of operations to the surgical suites and intensive care units from the brick-and-mortars of yesteryear. If you crash your car, you can expect a hefty repair bill regardless who is at fault. If a surgeon leaves a foreign object inside your body, you can sue him for malpractice. When I accompanied my wife to a dentist, we both had to sign legal instruments presumably backed by the force of law leaving his practice entirely blameless should either of us inadvertently contract COVID-19. Not so numismatics. If a penny, nickel, dime or quarter is damaged or altered in the most insignificant of ways, there is zero likelihood of a lawsuit for malpractice. Instead, we congratulate (criticize or even mock) the owner, depending on the coroner's report. FINAL COMMENT: ONLY AN OVERSTRIKE ON A WARTIME NICKEL SHOULD BE VALUED FOR THE STRIKING IMAGE IT PRESENTS. Everything else is just white noise, IMNSHO. Postscript: Instead of making defamatory, and clearly discriminatory admonitions like "don't feed the trolls," how about we all resolve this day going forward to stop patronizing purposeful mistake manufacturers masquerading under the quasi-legal catch-all term "errors?"
  9. [Letter of President Theodore Roosevelt to Secretary of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw, Dec. 27, 1904] White House, Washington "My dear Secretary Shaw: I think our coinage is artistically of atrocious hideousness. (emphasis mine) Would it be possible, without asking the permission of Congress, to employ a man like St. Gaudens to give us a coinage that would have some beauty? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt" (ref: RWB, in Jan. 9, 2012 issue of Coin World, and book under discussion in this thread by Goldfinger1969)
  10. In the absence of an ability to express myself more eloquently and absent contemplated violent objections from the principals involved in this discourse, I should like to propose Moxie15, with his permission, speak for me.
  11. I can see history is repeating itself here. One hapless soul who had the temerity to disregard super star Fred Weinberg's pronouncment -- the equivalent of a SO ORDERED as issued by a federal judge (which I take to mean is a major faux pas in polite society) was run out of town on a rail -- and I was excommunicated for simply insisting he should has his say however repetitious it had become. One enterprising lad went so far as to insist that I, whose lack of formal schooling could not be substantiated beyond the first grade, introduced malware that prevented numismatists, many notably prominent in their profession, from utilizing the scroll-on mechanism on their state of the art cyber-devices. So, by all means, present your errors in your own likeable, inimitable style but beware too that at some point you will tread dangerously close to that hidden threshold of the Twilight Zone from which there is no return as an appeal mechanism has as yet to be devised permitting the disfellowshipped from rejoiningn their former congregations. Wait! You can't be serious! Over a damaged coin? Yes, sir. For nothing more than offering a seemingly plausible, alternative explanation for an explicable error.
  12. Aside from the gentleman's religious convictions, which are neither here nor there, I would suggest the coin I would be inclined to pay a pretty penny for should be appraised. I believe it is universally accepted at this juncture in the numismatic pursuit that making such a request, while necessarily adding to the buyer's cost is by now routine and not unreasonable. Considering a recent unrelated thread determined $50. to be the upper limit a buyer would consider spending on a raw coin, I do not believe such a request would be regarded as unusual.
  13. The United States Government owns my coins. They are simply blissfully unaware of that fact. I have two choices, neither agreeable. Provide proof I relinquished my holdings irrevocably, or continue subsisting at less than one-half the Federal poverty line -- my wife's social security check is exactly $119.35/mo, mine is marginally higher; she is not eligible for disability payments though she was deemed as such by medical professionals; we live in subsidized housing and I have used a free Lifeline phone for the past five years though I suspect I am no longer eligible for one. No one I know approaches the actual cost of my living.
  14. Mr. BATH, I extoll your humble demeanor to all who will listen but, how does patronizing a collection of coins (and high denomination currency) assembled in a single location under one roof compare to the prospect of traipsing through every continent in the world at presumably geat time and expense? Are you aware, last I checked, it costs $65,000 to Summit Everest? How 'bout we give Go Fund Me a shot and set up shop in Sanibel Island, Florida?
  15. For what it's worth, I again requote Lord Bertrand Russell: "It is the pre-occupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents man from living freely and nobly."
  16. When I was very young, my mother would take me to places that no longer exist anymore one of which was the Chase Manhattan Bank Money Museum. And she said something that stuck with me all these years: "Everything you could possibly want is right here. You don't need to spend money on it. You can come visit it any time you want." I never forgot that.
  17. This fellow is eminently qualified to be a bill collector or marshal suitably attired to effect residential evictions in Kings County (Brooklyn) in New York City.
  18. I like my version better. Unfortunately, an official autopsy conducted by an oversight committee of Congress held in Executive session was ordered kept under wraps in the National Archives for a period of thirty-seven years. As the story was related to me, the damage resulted as a result of an accident involving Victor David Brenner's daughter, an [unnamed] friend and a tricycle she had received for her seventh birthday. The physical injuries sustained by both victims far outweighed the minor damage incurred by the coins which were not discovered or the subject of speculation until 1949.]
  19. To All Concerned: I neither need nor require a signature line. (Why would anyone need or require a signature line for a made-up user name?) The very suggestion of the dissemination of signature lines is highly suspect. If you really want to introduce a little excitement in your life, why not also include your birth date, social security number and right thumb print? There is not a single person frequenting this site who is unaware I am the one and only Quintus Arrius. What most members, including my favorite, VKurtB, may be unaware of is, quoting Shakespeare, "Who steals my [change purse and wallet] steals trash. So act accordingly.
  20. Why? Are safe deposit boxes prettier than they used to be?
  21. [I recall a banner headline in one of Robert Ripley's Believe It Or Not books, published in the late 1920's. It read: LINCOLN WAS WRONG! The President, as quoted from his 1863 Gettysburg Address, said: "The world will note nor long remember what we say here...." Notably, his words, on that solemn occasion were long remembered and never forgotten -- 150 years later. As far as can be determined by psycholinguists, and the like, who engage in analyzing blocking, censorship, disfellowshipping, defiling, destroying, detonating, blotting out, "collapsing comments" -- and not content to simply "ignore" but threaten to do so, and childishly make public pronouncements proclaiming their impotence are, in the word of today's chief executive officer of the United States, "losers," incapable of engaging those they mistakenly believe to be superior to them in some way. To quote the late, great Jerry Rubin, one of the Chicago Seven conspiracy trial defendants, "The motto of my school was, 'Rise to the Highest.' I got myself a federal indictment. How much higher can you go?" I defy anyone to prove to me they have been X'd out by more than 37 members! So, numismatically speaking, how does one nip being "ignored" in the bud? Simple. You scroll through comments and arbitrarily pick one of the thirty-seven people you know has not ignored you and has demonstrated the mettle needed to engage you with civility and maturity.] I was accorded the top honor (by those who continue to agonize over a decision which unbeknownst to them continues to give me unfettered access to the best of the best with nary a care in the world on my part) -- and truth be told, they find that intolerable. Happy collecting, collectors!
  22. I am delighted to hear the buyer was able to get a refund. I am, however, a little hesitant about throwing the term criminal around, after all, nothing was proven. The seller very likely told the buyer if he was unsatisfied for any reason, he was free to send it back. Due to my own disinclination to exercise rudimentary due diligence, I am now the unfortunate owner of an item I was led to believe was the earliest ticket sold for the new subway whose inaugural run took place in 1904. It did not occur to me that elevated trains had been running since the 1870's and the subway lines built since were all privately owned. I do not have it in me to pass my error to others -- even alleged trolls have values -- so my only option is to offer it for Exhibit in New York's Tramsit Museum. Willie Sutton was an accomplished professional bank-man. The illiterate demand note-passers you have today are inept drug addicts who give criminals a bad name. I am glad there was a happy ending to this story. All things considered, I have been extraordinarily cautious -- and lucky, using eBay.
  23. [Aside: With all due respect to Prof. HILL, I would certainly like to know why the single most recognized numismatic expert who can rightfully claim, legally or otherwise, to have subjected or visited upon coins unspeakable horrors others are reluctant to even hint at -- in the interests of an advancement of knowldge, has yet to render a diagnosis as to what happened to these coins which have apparently lain around, unmolested and out of circulation for at least the past sixty years, or more.]