rrantique

Posting this a little late, but I thought I'd say "Happy Thanksgiving" to everyone.
I found myself remembering a recent conversation with Ben, where he was wondering when he'd get his own cell phone (recall: he is 7), and we thought he'd probably get one in a few years, maybe as he's getting into middle school and starting to do things for school and such without us around or with him more, but we also pointed out that this would be subject to us having the money / funds available at the time for him to have a cell phone and pay the plan on it. We pointed out that it's always possible to have lean times and he just kind of shrugged that off and was like, "but that's not going to happen."
Oh, how I wish I could share his confidence!
He's too young to remember the year I didn't have a job. He's still really too young I think to remember much of the time before 2021, before his mother went back to work, and that was the point when we finally really got comfortable again - when we had 2 incomes again. Before that, we were making it, but we had to be more careful with the budget than we have been the last couple of years.
But that was something I just had to think about and laugh about on Thanksgiving. "Yes, lean times do come. But they're not here right now, and that's something to be grateful for. And we have savings and a buffer to help us when lean times do come. And that's something else to be grateful for."
 
On another note, I did manage to image the new 3P and 6P coins, and image the recent additions to my modern Italian projects.
I thought I'd call out the results with the 3P coins. They're copper-nickel coins, so, perhaps unsurprisingly, they tone in a manner similar to what you see with some old US Nickels.
There's a pretty major difference between the level of detail in the hair on the 1955 vs the 1957. I don't know if this is a die state issue or a strike quality issue. Were the details missing from the die at that point or did the coin just not get hit hard enough to transfer them? Overall, looking at the rest of the coin, I think the strike was solid but the die just didn't have the details to transfer.


Here's a 6P reverse, just to share how the Leopard looks:

 

Every day I wake and realize that I'm still alive...
I cuss...I smile...
I realize health and active lifestyles are wasted on the young, but then I take note that they have no clue what awaits them when they are as old as I am.
 

Today I received my proof type II silver eagle and it is gorgeous, encapsulated in it's OGP with certificate of authenticity, from the West Point mint. I now have proofs from both San Francisco and West Point mints. I am happy with my collection overalll and have just eight more dates/years before my collection is complete in terms of years of issue. After that will come variations thereof, but a lot more slowly! I spent a lot of time and cash to get started but I feel I will have something worth my while and maybe even more much later down the road.

Back in October I mentioned that I was getting the green light to order another of my small Gold coins because of a mixture of money coming in from a bit of OT and a few other sources and I said at the time that I’d probably order a Venezuelan Gold 20 Bolivar from the early 20th century / pre-WWI era.
Well… 5 months later, I finally ordered it.
I was holding off for the longest time because we were simultaneously spending a fair bit of money on things we needed for the house, we were spending a lot on Christmas, and we also had some medical costs and upcoming Vacation costs. We got past most of that, and then my wife changed jobs and got a big raise, so I was finally feeling very happy with the finances as we came out the other side of all that spending… and then it was time for us to go on our vacation, and I didn’t want to order the coin in the run-up to the trip because I didn’t want an expensive coin arriving while we were on a trip. We just went on the trip and got back on the 5th.
So… having waited a few more days, waiting for the billing cycle on the credit card to close and therefore locking the CC company into giving me a free 30 day loan, I pulled the trigger on the coin.
Our personal finances and making sure that we always maintain very healthy cash levels was only part of it. I’m being honest the coin was a little more on the expensive side – usually I’m buying things more in the $550-600 range and this one was $675. So I had been hoping that maybe another seller would list a similar coin to the 1911 MS64 I was looking at for a better price. I’d also looked into other coins and other options, trying to see if there was something else I wanted in the form of a small world gold coin that I felt was priced somewhat more favorably. But… it had been 5 months, and the price hadn’t come down, no others had come up for sale at comparable grades from reputable / established sellers, and I hadn’t seen or come up with anything else I’d rather get… So I decided to pull the trigger on it.
If I’m being honest, I decided it was time in at least in small part because my wife had turned it into a running gag whereby every time it came up she’d poke fun at me and imply that I was just going to waffle forever and talk about it forever and never actually buy the thing. When the wife is actively poking fun of and ridiculing your inaction, I guess it’s time to do something to shut her up.
I sat down in bed with the laptop and ordered it right in front of her while she faked protests about how I was ruining the joke and now she’d have to find something new to tease me about. “Exactly! That’s the whole point!”
In the course of looking for this, I had looked at and also seriously considered getting one of the 1930 Gold 10 Bolivar coins. I had considered getting that and one other small thing and having two smaller gold coins – maybe to pair with my Swiss 10 Franc – instead of 1 slightly larger one. But, clearly I decided against that.
However, in the course of looking at that I was curious about the fact that I was ONLY seeing the 10 Bolivar from 1930 and I wasn’t seeing it from any other dates like I had the 20 Bolivar.
After looking into it, the 10 Bolivar was a 1-year coin that was minted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Death of Simon Bolivar – his death, not his birth. It was a 1-year circulating commemorative of which only 500,000 were made and only 10% of these were released to the public. The other 450,000 were kept in the Central Bank’s Reserves and partially released to investors. However, because it was a “circulating commemorative” and not a “commemorative” or a bullion issue, and because mintage of the 20 Bolivar stopped in 1912 – before / at the start of the first World War – I think this makes the Gold 10 Bolivar the last gold coin that Venezuela struck for circulation.
I stopped spending most of my hobby money and stopped looking at eBay for the most part around October or November because I didn’t want to spoil any surprises from my wife. I’m glad I did. However, this means I have been hoarding my collecting budget for several months and I have bit of a wad – which is more than enough to pick up a MS65 10 Bolivar to go with the 20 Bolivar, and I may well do just that.
Where they exist (because they don’t for Zimbabwe, at least, not when it was called Zimbabwe), I like having these old gold coins to hold next to the more modern coins from the same country. This ties back to my interest in collections on Hyperinflation and currency debasement and devaluation. I think it’s very cool to be able to hold up an Italian Gold 20 Lire from 1885 and a Brass Italian 200 Lire from 1986 and think about how the currency, it’s value, and its representation changed it 100 years. It’s fun to be able to hold and look at a Venezuelan Gold 20 Bolivar or a 10 Bolivar from 1930 from 1911 next to a steel-core 10 Bolivar from 2004, just before the first redenomination (and the switch to the Bolivar Fuerte) in 2007. Pairing them together can just make for some awesome tangible expressions of the change and what was lost in that 100 years and I hope to be able to show and talk to Ben and Sam about these things in the years to come.
In my recent silence I feel like a duck on the pond - you're not seeing much from me right now, but my feet are working under the surface. I hope to have more to share soon, but this entry is enough for today.

In looking at the description for my Venezuelan set again it occurred to me that I never really closed the loop and brought it all back the coins and the set, so I ended up adding a paragraph towards the end that brought my discussion back to that set.
But the whole thing got me thinking about an old routine from Ron White, when he stops, seemingingly in the middle of the joke, with no punchline to wrap things up. It just stopped and he said, "Joke not funny! Need Punchline."
It was a bit funny making that change, however, to a set that just won an award, and it made me think of a recent conversation where someone asked me if I still work on and add to these sets. And the answer was, of course!
The Zimbabwean note set has probably had about 20-25 notes added to it since it won an award in 2020.
The Zimbabwean coin set was only about 14-15 coins at the time when it got its award in 2021 and it still needed several additions to bring it up to a complete 23-coin set.
As I continued to find more information on them, I also continued to build out my descriptions on both those sets.
The Venezuelan set is only about 66% complete and I need to add several coins - most of which I already own in raw form - to make it complete, And I want to make it complete.
I don't know that I'd say I'll always consider these "open." I remain open to upgrading the Zimbabwean coin and note sets in the future if coins and notes come up, but I consider both to be pretty idle and not really active projects anymore. At a minimum I'd say both are on a firm hold until I get an itch to try to improve the few lingering weak points in the coin set or go on a massive overall to push the average grade on the Note set up.
But I definitely don't just drop these things once they win something.
I think where that becomes a problem for the person asking me about this is they were wondering if I'd ever consider publishing these things and the writing and research in a physical form, and to do that I think I'd have to reach some kind of final state beyond which further additions and alterations are unlikely. Although I suppose you could open up the idea of editions.
 
Edited to add: I guess I should visit the main page more often. I just saw the announcement about DW Lange passing. That... is a bummer. He always seemed to have a great sense of humor about things when he posted on the boards and it was always nice that he took the time.

How did a medal I never knew existed become something I had to have in less than two months? Several improbable events, that’s how.
 
The improbable events started at the end of November as my wife, and I prepared to go on a cruise. Our 16-day cruise began in Los Angeles and ended almost 4,700 miles away in Miami through the Panama Canal. At the time, I was excited about transiting the Panama Canal. But I was especially thrilled to spend 16 days with my daughter, her husband, and my 17-month-old grandson.
 
I was all in on the canal when we finally reached Panama City. I gobbled up as much information about the canal as possible. I took dozens of pictures of one of the seven engineering wonders of the world. To this day, I’m soaking up all things Panama Canal. I even have a wallpaper image of the canal on my laptop!
 
When I got home, the most improbable event of all occurred. A few years ago, I decided to let my membership in the Central States Numismatic Society lapse in favor of PAN. When I went to the post office to pick up the mail, I noticed a large envelope with a return address to CSNS. Inside the envelope was their newly reformatted winter 2023 copy of “The Centinel” and a note asking me to come back. As an aside, I like “The Centinel’s” new format. At any rate, The Centinel had an article entitled “Commemorating the Big Ditch” by Juan L. Riera. The article described the opening of the Panama Canal on August 15, 1914, and the so-called dollar struck to commemorate it.
 
Do any of you have that “gotta have” coin for your collection on your want list? After reading the article, this so-called dollar (HK-398) immediately went from never heard of to first on my want list of “gotta have” pieces for my collection. I immediately went surfing on the internet to find my new must-have. I finally settled on a nice medal from a dealer I had previously dealt with. Having a medal available in the marketplace for me to purchase is the last improbable event in a long series of incredible events.
 
Fortunately, this medal was reasonably priced and now stands as the perfect addendum to a most memorable cruise! Add to the fact that this medal (1 of 50,000 serialized medals) was carried aboard the SS Cristobal. The Cristobal was the first ship to transit the Panama Canal on August 3, 1914. At the official opening of the canal on August 15, 1914, this medal was given to 200 dignitaries aboard the SS Ancon. The Ancon is the first official ship to transit the Panama Canal. Though this medal is 1 of 50,000, the dealer who sold me this medal estimates that only a couple hundred examples of it survive today. Perhaps the low survival rate can be attributed to the high international appeal of this medal scattered around the world.
 
This I do know that my medal graded MS-62 by NGC is among the nicer surviving examples. The design of the Panama Canal completion medal was recommended to the John F. Newman Co. of New York (manufacturer of the Panama Canal Completion medal) by Miss Elizabeth Rodman, cousin of Capt. Hugh Rodman, U.S.N., Supt. of Transportation, Canal Zone. Though the Panama Canal completion medal was copyrighted in 1913, the official issuing date of the medal is recognized as 1914.
 
This medal measures 38mm in diameter and is struck in bronze. The serial number marked on the reverse is 11138. The obverse of the medal features a woman standing on the prow of a ship transiting the Panama Canal. Her arms are outstretched, holding a ribbon. Under her hands are two globes, the eastern hemisphere on her right and the Western hemisphere on her left. The inscription on the ribbon, translated from Latin, is “Columbia unites the oceans.” The woman has rays of light emanating from her head. There is a banner over her head with the motto boldly proclaiming, “Prosperity to all Nations.” Though I can not find any documentation of the fact, I believe the woman is a personification of Columbia.
 
The reverse features an inscription under the seal of the Panama Canal Zone. It reads: Commemorating the opening of The Panama Canal to the Commerce of the World Copyrighted and Bearing A Serial number is one of 50000 Carried on the Vessel making the First Passage Through the Panama Canal as Authenticated in Certificate Signed by (signed) Geo. W. Goethals Chief Engineer and Chairman lsthmian Canal Commission.
 
A significant expansion to the Panama Canal opened on June 26, 2016. This new expansion allows much larger ships like my cruise ship, carrying 5000+ crew and passengers, to transit the canal. I am posting a picture I took of the Agua Clara locks as my ship exited the Panama Canal on the Atlantic side.
 
References:
Winter 2023 edition of The Centinel, “Commemorating the Big Ditch” by Juan L. Riera
https://www.so-calleddollars.com/Events/Panama_Canal_Completion.html

So here is the 2nd post about 1 submission, splitting off the 500L coins to give them their due, befitting a group of 7 coins (decent sized group in their own right by my submission standards) and a group of coins that represent their own, very important project.
And here are the results - Shandy and I picked the ones to send together when we had more than one of a certain date, but we didn't play “guess the grade” on these because we didn't have a big selection of graded coins in different grades to look at with Zimbabwe. We just had 2 coins - a MS67 and a MS68.

Hands down the big win here is the grade on the 1990 - the highest grade in the submission going to one of those two super important coins that they brought back from Italy nearly 30 years ago. And it is a legitimately good grade - not just the highest grade in a low scoring submission. 😅 An MS67 is dang good for something that spent 28 years in a bag. That 67, combined with the 1992 in MS67 and the ’82 and ’85 in MS68, gives the set a strong core.
The 1991, also crucial for the same reason, didn't do as well but it did good enough. An MS64 is high enough for it to not be too much of a liability to the set point / score-wise.
With both of those I thought they would grade well but you never know when a grader is going to feel there's a bit of wear that you didn't see and then you get an AU55/58 - like that 1875 10G I posted about seeing on eBay some time ago. These grades are going to help these coins stay in the set as the sentimental core of it while still keeping the set strong.
I had hoped the 1992 would match the MS67 I bought last year but it just missed at a MS66. However... I still feel like this coin is more attractive than the MS67. So, I think this is actually the coin I'll keep in the set for now unless I need points and adding back the MS67 could make a difference. 😅 But, the MS67 does look mighty fine in the images I got of it. We’ll see.
The result on the 1985, while not a bad grade IMO - I would have been pretty happy with straight 65s to fill out the set - basically confirms I made the right choice snapping up that MS68 from the same year.
As to the other 3 - two MS66s and a MS64. Again - solidly "good enough." Two of three hit the MS65 threshold I wanted for filling the set with gem uncirculated coins or better and two of them did 1 point better. The one that missed only missed by a little.
Now I just need to cut up those Franklin Mint sets and send in that '1983 and '1987... and find an '86, '95, 2000 and 2001...
 
Some other fun updates that are somewhat related:
The certificates arrived from NGC - I pulled them out of the mailbox the same day I posted about the Zimbabwe grades. It's possible they were sitting there for a while. Life was a bit crazy, and I wasn't checking the mail - almost late paying the water bill!

I told Shandy that, since I took a picture with the plaques, she needs to hold these.
For those that thought it would have been great if the Zimbabwe coin award had still had my little typo on it, you may be happy to know the distinction of immortalizing that goes to the "Best in Category" certificate, which are generated and printed automatically.

I've been working as hard as I can to get the descriptions for all 29 of these coins fleshed out and finished and uploaded into my registry, but not adding them to the sets that they're for. Once they arrive I'll pulse out full group of coins (the ones that made the cut anyway) into the main sets and then I just have to get good pictures of everything! 😅

...And now I have it! A search encompassing a fair number of years has culminated with the purchase of an MS-61 1882-H Newfoundland $2 gold coin. This is like a dream come true from the first time I knew that this coin existed until now. FYI, I bought the book, "The Gold Coins of Newfoundland 1865-1888" shortly after it was published in 2017.

In 1865 the Royal Mint began striking new coins exclusively for Newfoundland including a $2 gold coin for a then population of 122,631 people. You will notice the conversion values for this coin on the reverse of 200 cents/100 pence. This is related to Newfoundland's coinage being based on the British Pound well before Great Britain adopted the decimal  system for its currency. Thus there was 240 pence to the pound which converted to $4.80 in Newfoundland currency.

The Newfoundland $2 gold coins were struck for circulation irregularly between 1865 and 1888 from a low mintage of 2,500 to a high mintage of 25,000. Incidentally my coin has a mintage of 25,000. The 1882 coin also has an H mintmark denoting that it was struck at the Heaton Mint in Birmingham. This coin was designed to be nearly equivalent to the American Gold Eagle which also circulated in Newfoundland. A US gold eagle contained 0.48375 ounces of gold while the 0.91666 fine Newfoundland $2 coin  had 0.0981 ounces of pure gold. Thus the Newfoundland $2 gold coin was worth $2.0277 US dollars. The diameter of the Newfoundland $2 coin is 17.983mm and the weight is 3.328 grams.

I have been looking for a suitable yet affordable example of this coin for many years. My problem is that this coin is scarce and was popular as a circulating coin. Thus there are very few nice looking coins to be had. I had decided that if I was going to pay good money for this coin, I wanted it to look nice. With only a handful of MS-65 coins and steep prices for an MS-64 coin, I was looking for something in the AU-58 to MS-62 range. Without really looking too hard this coin popped up on e-bay with a best-offer option. I put forth my best offer and it was a sale. The gold toning on this coin gives it contrast. As such it is a very nice looking coin with lots of eye appeal. Gary