JamminJ's Numismatic Year in Review

[JamminJ]

Hello everyone,

 

I have this week off from work and have been using some of my free time to take pictures of my favorite coins. As I was doing this I noticed that over the last year in addition to really finding an area of specialization I had picked up some really killer coins. I figured why not post my "top ten" of the year. Most will have been posted before but a few I never got around to. Feel free to add any coins you particularly like to this thread.

 

Anyway, my first selection: a 1687 half thaler from the Austrian state of Salzburg:

 

I've previously posted a history of Salzburg so I won't repeat it here. This coin is actually common as 17th century coins go so I wanted either to get one really nice or really cheap. This is actually the third example of the type I considered buying this year. The first was in Spink's inventory when they set up at the Summer Long Beach show but it was just a bit too hairlined to make it into the really nice category. The second I actually tried to buy out of the unsold lots from one of Jean Elsen's auctions but it had already sold. This one was pointed out to me by Greg in an e-bay store when the seller listed a few other Austrian coins. I had a cash flow crunch at the time but fortunately It was still there after a few more paychecks allowed me to replenish my coin funds.

 

This one hasn’t been posted before as I had some trouble getting a good image. The coin has flashy luster but the toning makes it difficult to photograph. That the thing was made bent like a potato chip also made it difficult to catch the luster. Everything else about the coin is quite a bit above average, it is almost fully struck and the surfaces are original and free of distracting marks.

 

Always wanting to be helpful, Greg suggested cracking it out dipping it blast white and resubmitting for an MS66.

 

-JamminJ

[JamminJ]

And here's the second selection: an 1827 1/3 thaler from the German State of Waldeck-Pyrmont:

 

I'm not that happy with the picture but since this coin is currently at NGC it will have to do for now. The yellow spooge in the photo is actually attractive coloration in person. I sent it in because >90% of my collection is NGC slabbed the uniformity was worth the extra fee to me.

 

This one was another e-bay purchase. I was browsing e-bay one evening while waiting for my wife to get ready to head out for a chicken dinner. As luck would have it at the very instant I found this coin (it had just been listed) she was ready to go. Since I didn't have time to check the valuation, reputation of the seller, etc., I had to eat my chicken all the while wondering if someone else would hit the BIN while I was out. Once again, good fortune smiled on my numismatic endevours and the coin was still there when I returned. Since the price was fair and the sell on the level I hit that BIN with a smile.

 

The smile grew bigger once the coin arrived, it's just super in every regard. Even my local dealer who used to work in the world coin department of Bower's and Ruddy though this was the nicest he's ever seen. My reall collecting interest waned after the dissolution of the HRE in 1806 but for extra nice coins I make and exception.

 

-JamminJ

[JamminJ]

And here is selection number 3: a 1707 Hall mint Austria thaler:

 

This one was actually an upgrade to my collection. The first one (same type, date and mint) was bought raw off e-bay early in the year, later slabbing as an AU55. The MS64 just kind on fell into my lap. Greg* and I were at our number 2 semi-local dealer one Saturday looking through boxes of world coins to slab and resell. The owner popped into his safe and pulled this coin out and asked if either of us were interested. I sure was but the price put me off for a bit. Thinking it over during lunch and weighing the plusses and minuses I concluded it was worth it to buy as it was a significant upgrade to the one I already had and the price could be partially offset through the sale of the first one. In the end I bought a bit less for resale to accomodate this coin and brought it home with me. Often for me the mark of a good coin is one I grow more fond of with time and that's true of this one.

 

-JamminJ

 

*Boy, he sure figures in a lot of these coins, doesn't he?

[JamminJ]

Here's selection number 4: a 1530 1/4 thaler from the German State of Augsburg:

 

Kind of switch from the previous three in that rather than being a particularly nice example of a fairly obtainable coni, this one is a lower grade example of a truly rare coin. I started thread regarding the importance of events occuring in Augsburg during 1530 so I won't repeat them here.

 

I bought this coin off the bid board in my No. 1 local shop. The seller is an older guy who is liquidating an lifelong collection of world coins and has a few cherries hidden amongst his garbage. The bid board closes at 5:00 on Saturday afternoons after which the next weeks board is brough out. The better coins are kept in a case and usually there's nothing that interests me in there. This week was different. I asked to see the coin and since I had never seen one and there is no standard catalog for 16th century coinage I asked the owner his opinion and what he thought it was worth. Even though he said he didn't know I decided the coin was worth the opening bid and put my number on the coin. With that the owner exclaimed "Damn - I knew you were going to bid on that. That coin is RARE. I wanted to buy it cheap after it didn't sell. The last one sold 12 years ago in an auction in Germany and brought more than six times my bid on this one..."

 

Needless to say, when the board closed the next week I was front and center ready to bid again if anyone else displayed an interest. No one else did and I was able to buy it for the opening bid. Immediately afterwards the shop owner made several offers to buy it from me culminating with one of 4x what I paid. I kept the coin but did promise he would get first shot if I decided to sell in the future (not likely).

 

-JamminJ

[JamminJ]

Number 5 is a 1618 Austria Hall mint thaler featuring Archduke Maximilian:

 

 

This was the first addition to a little mini set of Austrian thalers I came up with and am now 80% complete on. While the eldest male Hapsburg was almost always the Holy Roman Emperor during the era of coinage I collect, the brothers of the Emperor all held the rank of Archduke of Austria. In addition to the title of Archduke these guys were often given real authority as regional governors of various provinces of the Empire. The set I was working was for one thaler of each Archduke who received the coinage right in his realm. In addition to Maximilian here I also have a thaler for each of Archdukes Ferdinand, Leopold, and Ferdinand-Charles with only Sigismund Franz left to go.

 

I bought this coin at the Long Beach show from a dealer from New Jersey (Weiss?). They only set up once a year at this show but have some really nice stuff with some really strong prices. Since this coin isn’t a tough one the premium was moderate enough that it was a worthwhile pick up. The coin is better struck than usual for this issue with nice detail on Max’s garments. Additionally the blue rim toning strikes my eye as snazzy. It’s another coin that I’ve gown more fond of with time.

 

-JamminJ

 

[JamminJ]

Here we have a 1754 Hall (Free City – not the Imperial Mint) uniface ½ pfennig

 

 

Ho hum, you say, that’s just a 250 year old coin with a mintage of 40K in the lowly grade of MS63. Well, what makes this one special is that it’s the plate coin used to illustrate the type in the Standard Catalog of World Coins.

 

This was another coin I purchased from the bid board at my No. 1 local shop. The seller was the same guy who sold the Charles V quarter thaler. I actually passed on this coin the first time it hung on the board as there were several Hogmouth minors I desired more. The second time it came around there was less competition for my collecting dollar so I grabbed it – again I was the only bidder on the coin. At the time I didn’t even consider that it might be the plate coin until the shop owner pointed it out to me. We sat with the catalog and meticulously compared the light & dark regions on the coin to the one in the catalog, and they all matched exactly. The main ones are the coloration the hand and wingtip feathers, the spot to the left of the date, and the small bit of extra metal above the cross. I posted this coin in the “Ask NGC” forum where I told of my suspicions that this was the plate coin and asked if they make notations on their slabs for palter coins. The answer was send it in and if we agree we’ll make a notation. As you can see they agreed! My compliments once again to NGC for superior customer service in looking into this for me – I really appreciate it.

 

I kind of like uniface (one sided coins) and have a few other examples with one graded as high as MS66 but this one remains my favorite.

 

-JamminJ

 

[JamminJ]

This is a bonus coin to replace a double post: A 1871 Wurtemburg Victory Thaler:

 

 

This coin is one of four thalers struck by various German states (Bavaria, Saxony and Prussia are the others) at the successful conclusion (in their eyes) to the Franco-Prussian war. In theory I've been working on a set of these for over a year but this is the first actual coin I've added to the set. I've seen plenty of coins but apparently finding them nice is a challenge. This one was ordered directly from a dealer's website in Germany, found as the ersult of random browsing. When I asked if he had any other victory thalers of similar quality he he didn't as they were tough to come by, but did offer the hint that coins described in German as "practexamplar" are ones worth considering. This coin is currently off at NGC for grading.

 

-JamminJ

[JamminJ]

This one is a 1772 AS Austria Hall mint thaler:

 

 

This was one of the coins I received in the Great Birthday Coin Caper detailed on the boards here. To summarize, my wife conspired with Greg to give me a heart attack. Greg lent her a set from the Kennedy Mint (similar to Littleton but worse) and even removed the better coins replacing them with chrome plated stuff. My wife “gave” me this set snapping pictures all the way. Since my birthday coincided with the Long Beach show the original plan was to hold back the real gift until the evening so Greg could torture me all day long. However, fearing I would drive into a ditch on the way to the show, my wife took pity on me and gave me the real gift.

 

Very stressful way to do it but a very nice coin. This coin was in Greg’s collection which he sold to my wife. In addition to the lovely design and even more lovely blue-green toning it’s a key date coin not just for the type but for all the Maria Theresa thalers. In a related not, once I received this coin I decided that the Leopold I thaler of the neighboring Christmas thread would go to Greg in return.

 

-JamminJ

 

[JamminJ]

This one is a 1673 KB (Kremnitz mint) Hungarian 6 kreuzer, featuring Leopold the Hogmouth.

 

 

One interesting thing about the Hungarian coinage is how it evolved over the years. Originally the Hapsburgs kept the Austrian, Hungarian and Imperial affairs largely separate from one another, this being especially true when most of Hungary was under Ottoman occupation. However, as time went on and it became more apparent that the Emperor exercised little more than titular sovereignty over most of Germany they tried to bind Hungary more closely to Austria. This can be seen in the coinage as the earlier Hungarian stuff usually their patron Saint Madonna & Child o the reverse. This switched to the double headed eagle traditionally used for the Austrian coinage.

 

I found this coin languishing on Northeast Numismatics website. They had taken crummy pictures which really made the coin look blah and priced it very strongly. After sitting in inventory for a few months they offered it more or less full priced on e-bay with no sale. Another couple of months passed with no sale so the second e-bay offering still had a high BIN but the opening bid was discounted by 50% which dropped it into the “worth a shot” range for me and I was the only bidder. In hand it’s just marvelous. People had told me to “look under the toning for luster” when evaluating colorful coins but I never quite knew what they meant. That changed with this coin, under the nice orange and yellow is bright, booming luster. It’s also well struck for the denomination. My opinion is that they took some pride in craftsmanship on the larger coins but minors were just churned out in any old way.

 

-JamminJ

 

[JamminJ]

For number 9 we have a 1790 1 kreuzer from the German State of Brandenburg-Ansbach

 

 

This coin is another coin given to me by my wife in the Great Birthday Coin Caper. Originally this coin was bought by Greg at the Winter Long Beach show. We we’re wandering around and I was trying to describe the guy I bought a Gurk 10 kreuzer from the previous year when we turned a corner and came face to face with the very same dealer! I don’t recall the dealers name, but he was a very nice guy from Northern California who specialized in Mexican coinage. However, he had take a vacation to Prague and picked up some coins while he was there. He had two sheets of 20 2x2s each, I took one and Greg the other. There was some good stuff on mine, but Greg’s was awesome – I think he bought more than half the coin offered. Included among those coins was this one. Sometime later Greg had it in a pile of raw coins and offered to sell me anything that caught me eye in the pile. When I chose this one he added “excluding this one.” In the run up to my birthday he really beat me up with it, reminding me how excellent it was, how much it could be sold for, how scarce it mist be etc.

 

In the end, the coin was worth all the aggravation, I can’t imagine there’s a better one floating around. Great strike, semi-prooflike fields, clean as a whistle, you can’t ask for anything more!

 

-JamminJ

 

[JamminJ]

And the last one, an 1849 Frankfurt 2 gulden commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

 

 

Goethe was born in Frankfurt and is best known as the author of Faust. As discussed here recently in a neighboring thread, this one was received as a Chistmas gift from Greg. I had a hard time deciding between the Goethe and the Religious Peace coins for the final member of my top ten but went with this one as despite it’s lower grade the prooflike fields have stronger mirrors. They actually made proofs of this coin and I wouldn’t be shocked to find this coin was one of them – the mirrors are that strong.

 

Last summer my No. 1 local dealer bought an old collection of German coins, most of which toned very nicely from sitting for many years in an old felt lined coin cabinet. Unfortunately, many of the coins had been cleaned somewhere along the line but this one escaped that sad fate. Once the coins came back from certification the dealer agreed to sell this coin to me but requested time for him to figure the proper pricing. In the interim Greg swooped in there and picked them up, with them landing in my gift.

 

-JamminJ

 

[GDJMSP]

JJ this is just too cool Great coins - and your dealer was right about that Charles V

 

You do realize that since this was such a great idea - that I'm gonna have to do it too Of course mine will be in gold - just to provide the proper contrast for your silver

 

I'm just mad that I didn't think of it first

[JamminJ]

JJ this is just too cool Great coins - and your dealer was right about that Charles V

 

You do realize that since this was such a great idea - that I'm gonna have to do it too Of course mine will be in gold - just to provide the proper contrast for your silver

 

I'm just mad that I didn't think of it first

 

I'm looking forward to seeing your stuff, as I recall you also had quite a year! But to give credit where it's due, the idea came from Fatman across the street.

 

-JamminJ

[gmarguli]

The 1871 Wurtemburg Victory Taler is an awesome coin. These can be found in quantity beat to hell/cleaned/damaged/etc. They just don't come nice. Like James, I am trying to put together a set of these. I've got zero so far as that is how many I have found in nice condition.

 

 

This coin is currently off at NGC for grading.

 

And it's blast white now!

[JamminJ]

And it's blast white now!

 

I hope you're joking!

 

-JamminJ

[the_Thing ®]

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder! One of the finest Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem Baldwin III AR Deniers known. 1143 - 1163 AD

 

[TJ]

Looks like little lugnuts. Good for pond skipping however.

[JamminJ]

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder! One of the finest Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem Baldwin III AR Deniers known. 1143 - 1163 AD

 

 

I like that one. Nice strike, well centered and lots of remaining detail.

 

-JamminJ

[the_Thing ®]

Here is perhaps THE finest known Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem Amaury Holy Sepulchre Silver Denier. About as sharp and perfect a strike you can get, uncleaned, with original patina!

 

[TJ]

What does "Amaury" mean? Never seen that word...

[the_Thing ®]

www.google.com

 

 

Educate yourself a bit. geez.

[TJ]

www.google.com

 

 

Educate yourself a bit. geez.

Don't guide me to google. Pls research the word and REPORT BACK! Thx®

[the_Thing ®]

I don't need to research it dipwad, I know what it means. I COULD tell you, but it would be better if you took it upon your self to correct your own stupidity, and not rely on me.

[TJ]

I don't need to research it dipwad, I know what it means. I COULD tell you, but it would be better if you took it upon your self to correct your own stupidity, and not rely on me.

Uncalled for attack. You would get a strike on Christian® forums...

[gmarguli]

I don't need to research it dipwad, I know what it means. I COULD tell you, but it would be better if you took it upon your self to correct your own stupidity, and not rely on me.

Uncalled for attack. You would get a strike on Christian® forums...

 

And you would get a strike for trashing several threads in this forum. You're so full of anger.

[TJ]

I don't need to research it dipwad, I know what it means. I COULD tell you, but it would be better if you took it upon your self to correct your own stupidity, and not rely on me.

Uncalled for attack. You would get a strike on Christian® forums...

 

And you would get a strike for trashing several threads in this forum. You're so full of anger.

Thank you. Yes, I will admit I am dealing with anger.

[the_Thing ®]

His anger is overpowering. I'll see if I can get Dr. Phil to reconsider us being guests on his show.

[Hoot]

Spectacular posts JJ. Nothing short of one of the most informative threads ever posted here. Thanks for taking the time to have shared the photos and the history with us.

 

Hoot

[JamminJ]

Spectacular posts JJ. Nothing short of one of the most informative threads ever posted here. Thanks for taking the time to have shared the photos and the history with us.

 

Hoot

 

 

Thanks, hopefully 2005 will be as productive as 2004!

 

-JamminJ

[Woodwind-migration]

JJ thanks for sharing. Those are absolutely beautiful.

 

One of these days I hope to get a real job so I can afford coins like those.