Woods020

I haven’t seen one. I’ll definitely take a look.

I have been working on a fun side project I thought I would share. I have started collecting coins and exonumia related to my home state of Alabama. If anyone knows of other items I am missing please let me know and I will add it to my search list. Current Set: 1. Alabama State Fund So Called Dollar from the Pan Pac expo HK-402 2. Alabama 1921 commemorative half (I need to get a 2x2 variety as well) 3. White & Swann Civil War Token (Alabama was a single merchant state) 4. 2003-S Alabama State Proof in silver and clad 5. 2003-D Alabama State Quarter in NGC sample slab 6. Alabama state quarter mint cancelled 7. 2021-S Tuskegee Airmen Proof in Silver and clad My pictures are mainly listing pictures but including a few. Can anyone think of any other Alabama themed items I am missing other than minor tokens and clackers, which I have a collection started of those separately.

I am continuously looking for ways to expand my numismatics brainpower, and aside from simply reading everything I can find and looking at coins until my eyes cross to apply what I read, there isn’t a well structured learning pathway that I have seen. I stumbled across the ANA diploma program and was curious what others thought? Has anyone completed it and if so what was your experience? I’m a bit cynical and wonder if much is actually learned, but I’ll withhold judgement until I hear real experiences. Here is the program I am referencing if you aren’t aware: https://www.money.org/uploads/ANA Diploma Program 2020.pdf

Hahaha. You are far ahead of me I’m sure. I was just commenting on your half. It’s a great add!

Beautiful Lem! Something about these old halves that just embody all the great things about coins that make us enjoy this hobby.

The obvious answer is absolutely don’t clean anything worth grading. Now if you give specifics of what you want to accomplish, what coin it is, etc. there may be some advice to do some minor things. Pictures of the coin would help. But chances are very high you are best served to do nothing.

Finally starting to travel regularly again, and I’m going to start hitting some coin shops when I can. I will be in Minneapolis - St. Paul area with a few free hours Wednesday. Anyone have any suggestions of good dealers to check out? I will be in NJ/PA later in the week and trying my hardest to get time to run by Bob Paul rare coins in Yardley PA. He has a coin I am very interested in.

New add this week. Finally got it in hand today.

I’m working on opening a small online store and have started the process to become a dealer for Dansco and other supplies. I figure as much time as I spend on coins and supplies these days might as well try to have it support itself in a small way. Once I get it worked out maybe I’ll have what you need next time. It’s definitely a work in progress getting set up with various vendors and an online site.

I’ve heard the Dansco’s are hard to find right now. You’ll have a lot of fun with it. I have a Jefferson one completed through I think 2008. I need to look. I’ve been meaning to add a page or get another one and haven’t. I bought mine probably 75% complete when I got it, and finished it out. Mine are MS but not all 65/66 by any means and maybe one or two with FS. I have a feeling your album will be much nicer! But those are very nice albums. And the dust cover is nice as well.

It’s nice to get one in VG even with details. Anything pre-1800 is wildly expensive. This is a great add to your collection!

Yes there is tech that can determine metal content through the holder. The XRF machines are very expensive, but many jewelers have them. If you really have a curiosity a jeweler might scan it for a fee.

Beautiful Merc! Personally this is one of my favorite coin designs/series.

Is that the first Gen holder? I keep an eye out but have not seen one yet. I like the toning quite a bit on the coin.

There is some trick with toilet paper I’ve seen people mentioned but I don’t know how reliable it is between 40% and 90%. The clad coins appear darker and silver coins lighter through the toilet paper. Again don’t know it that will work here or not.

Generally you can see the layers on the rims, but there are instances where you can’t. There can be more/less of the silver in certain areas and it has been know to make the rims looks fully silver. You can weigh it. 40% should weigh 11.5 grams with a slight variance. A 90% silver will weigh more at 12.5 grams

Here is a resource on counter stamps. It’s quite the list but maybe will be useful. http://richhartzog.com/art/cma.htm

Same as the other a counter stamp. Someone may know the person or organization that did this.

This is a counter stamp I.e. a stamp added after it left the mint. It was somewhat common for the time and was done for varied reasons such as advertisement to silver smiths testing their hallmark. I’m not versed in them and someone may know If this is a meaningful one. David bowers collects them and has wrote a few books on specific ones.

I agree. I’m just saying I think you can tell what a sellers motivation is generally, but yes honesty should be involved regardless.

I think a lot of it depends on the end goal of the seller in question. Someone who wants to build a reputation and garner repeat business would be well served to be honest and transparent. Conversely many of the sellers are short term oriented and want to make quick sales. Ideally they are just a random name on eBay or the like and stay at arms length to push product with no regard to reputation. So the structure of the business will tell you a lot. But to answer the initial question yes if you want to build a business you should be honest. In the short term it may mean you don’t get top dollar for a particular coin, but in the long run the relationships you form will pay dividends.

I was viewing a coin currently active in legend auction. The description casually said “we don’t know why CAC would not certify this coin”. I actually thought that was nice to see. I sure haven’t seen it often.

I got this in today and the pictures actually don’t do it justice. It’s as clean as any modern proof I’ve seen and the cameo is sharp. It exceeded my expectations.