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thedeadpoint

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  • 7 months later...

I'm horrible at updating this thread for two reasons: 1) I don't add to my collection that often (every 2-3 months) and 2) my scanner hasn't worked for a while. But I am making an effort to change both of those points! I decided to frequent my local dealer more often in hopes of finding a few nifties for my collections. We also have a new scanner.

 

First, a note on the new scanner. As you'll see, the pics are subpar. Even when my old scanner was operable, I could never get pics I was satisfied with (another reason I didn't post). Why use a scanner? Because I don't have a good set up or a lot of know how on digital photography with my point and shoot camera. Even if I did, I rarely hook my camera up to my computer (i'm a procrastinator). To help solve the issues of scanner/camera set-ups, I'd like to propose a dedicated forum to those questions. Check out my proposal here:

 

http://www.coinpeople.com/index.php?showtopic=26048&hl=

 

I bought a few things since my last update. From memory:

 

- 1911-D Barber dime - XF - for my Barber dime series

- maybe another barber dime

- maybe a type coin or two that I found interesting

- 1935 A North Africa $1 silver certificate STAR note (good for one dollar of silver when redeemed) - signatures of Julian and Morgenthau - yellow seal - Emergency note issued during World War II for use with the Armed Forces in Europe and North Africa. Friedberg # 2306*. Certified Fine 12 by Currency Grading and Authentication, Inc. The population of star notes is not shown but I estimate 500 were issued (the Hawaii star note had 500 issued for 35 million standard notes. North Africa had 27 million standard notes printed.). Despite the rarity and value, it is only a semi-key compared to others in the silver certificate series. Almost all of the 13 notes I'm missing (of a 56 note collection) will require a good deal of luck, patience, and $$$ to add to my collection. Yikes! Bought at summer Baltimore coin show.

924194A.jpg

924194B.jpg

- 1929 - $10 Federal Reserve Bank Note - Richmond (my hometown) - XF - FR 1860-E. Population 1.36 million. Nothing too special about this. I saw this at my coin dealer (they're stocking some nice currency for once!) when I was looking for something for Elverno for Secret Santa this year. I got him a $20 of the same issue and I got myself the tenner. I thought it was a good deal and I don't have any notes of this type. It's in good shape and, best of all, from Richmond!

925895A.jpg

925895B.jpg

 

Now before I get to my recent purchases, here are my 2010 collection goals:

 

I'll have to save up some money for the Baltimore Coin Convention in March. That's usually the only time I really add to my collection.

 

I still haven't found a good 1928 or 1934-S Peace dollar to cap off that series. I don't expect to find one in 2010 without paying big bucks. I'm guessing that most of my additions will be to my smaller series. Barber dimes and V nicks in XF+ are finally coming out of the woodwork. I think I can make a big dent in those. Maybe add 10 to each series?

 

I've had decent luck finding some rarer notes in my silver certificate series. I may be able to cross off all of the varieties that cost less than a grand. Then I'll have the super rare stars to track down.

 

I may also start a new banknote series. who knows!

 

I should add "share my new purchases regularly"...

 

Anyway, I dipped into the local store yesterday and found what I hoped to find:

 

1908 Liberty Head "V" nickel - UNC - mintage: 22.7 million

977425.jpg

 

1912 Liberty Head "V" nickel - XF - mintage: 26.2 million

977424.jpg

 

I told you they weren't great pics....

 

They are additions to my "V nicks in XF+" series. This is probably my favorite series. It is very doable and, with one obvious exception, should be possible on a modest budget. I haven't made much progress because I can never find suitable examples. Rarely do I find any XF or AU coins. They are usually more worn or, if uncirculated, expensive and/or slabbed!

 

Last night, I got out my Barber Dime die varieties book to see if I could diagnose a particular interesting variety for these two new additions. Alas, 1912 has no interesting varieties listed as 1908 was the last year of any possible varieties (the date was struck into the master die starting in 1909). Luckily there were many 1908 varieties listed! I checked them all against my coin and no luck. I looked hard in the denticles and around the digits for any traces of misplacements. Nothing.

 

I set my book down and realized it was a Barber Dime book... DUH.

 

So I went online looking for a good die varieties book for the V nick series. I'm hoping someone can point me towards some. Websites, books, anything.

 

Does anyone know if the following books go into varieties in detail?

 

- Peters, Gloria and Mohon, Cynthia, The Complete Guide to Shield and Liberty Head Nickels, DLRC Press, Virginia Beach, VA, 1995.

- Wescott, Michael, with Keck, Kendall, The United States Nickel Five-Cent Piece, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1991.

- A Guide Book of Shield And Liberty Head Nickels: Complete Source For History, Grading, and Prices by Bowers

- TREASURE HUNTING LIBERTY HEAD NICKELS/FLYNN & VAN NOTE

 

I did find this OK site:

 

http://www.libertynickels.org/variety.php?

 

It's a better resource than nothing but I'd like to find something as exhaustive as the Flynn book on Barber Dimes. I'll wait a few days to see if anyone has comments about the above books before I set my money down.

 

 

That's all for now.

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Great looking Walking Liberty Half and it looks like it has a monster strike. In my humble opinion I think Walkers followed by the Mercury Dime an the Buffalo Nickel are our countries best coin designs. I like Morgan Dollars and the Barber series and I have a small group of each of them. I think if the Mercury dime was placed on a fifty cent coin it would be great but still have a somewhat weak reverse. The Walking Liberty has it all in terms of looks on both the obverse and reverse.

 

Killer looking Walker :ninja:

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Thanks, everyone!

 

I forgot to post about one other addition I've made in the last few months:

r1777.jpg

 

Richter # 1777, Martin # 1060, silver shooting medal, 1898 Albisgütli (Zürich) Cantonal Shoot. Engraved by Fritz Landry, Neuenburg. 26mm, VF+, 3,000 minted

 

My first shooting medal. I've always admired them. When Rod Moore (schutzenfester) opened up his new online store, I just had to have one. This one, luckily, was there! You could not get a US issue as nice as this, as old as this, and as rare as this for such a good price!

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  • 2 weeks later...
I also see that you branched out to coins from France - nice as you said in one of my posts that you only collect USA coins ;)

 

Ahh yes.. Well one of the fellas here had those coins for sale. They were just too beautiful (and a good deal) to pass up! My budget isn't great, so the little funds I do have, I try to use on my U.S. series.

 

But, deep down inside, I do like some world coins! :ninja:

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Thanks, everyone!

 

I forgot to post about one other addition I've made in the last few months:

r1777.jpg

 

Richter # 1777, Martin # 1060, silver shooting medal, 1898 Albisgütli (Zürich) Cantonal Shoot. Engraved by Fritz Landry, Neuenburg. 26mm, VF+, 3,000 minted

 

My first shooting medal. I've always admired them. When Rod Moore (schutzenfester) opened up his new online store, I just had to have one. This one, luckily, was there! You could not get a US issue as nice as this, as old as this, and as rare as this for such a good price!

 

 

Now I know who the ####### is who bought that before I could get my grubby paws on it... You are acquiring discerning tastes in coinage and medals, congratulations. :ninja:

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Ahh yes.. Well one of the fellas here had those coins for sale. They were just too beautiful (and a good deal) to pass up! My budget isn't great, so the little funds I do have, I try to use on my U.S. series.

 

But, deep down inside, I do like some world coins! :ninja:

When I first started, I was strictly American issues -- Jeffersons, Franklins and Ikes. The Canadian coins that slipped over the border held no interest unless they were silver, commemorative, strange metal, or pre-Liz. Now world issues are almost all I do; I keep up with modern circulating issues, but I can't think of the last time I went out and deliberately bought an American coin for my collection.

 

Although the way things are going, at this rate I'm going to *have* to buy the '09 cents and quarters. February 2010, and I still haven't seen any coin dated 2009.

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  • 1 month later...

I've finally sat down to write about my trip to the spring Baltimore Coin & Currency Convention last Friday. Another long post. Extra points if you read it all.

 

The floor was open til 6 and I was meeting a friend in DC in the evening AND I live in Richmond, 3 hours away, so I took my time getting to the show. Didn't arrive til closer to 3 p.m, when many coin dealers are headed to dinner.

;)

 

 

I was hunting for the keys to my Peace dollar series and some keys to my $1 silver certificate collection. I arrived on the floor with my 2008 red book, Friedberg, and spreadsheet with values from Heritage, Numismedia, Red Book, and Friedberg. That proved to be an awkward thing. I've brought spreadsheets before, but this was the first time dealers actually looked at it. A few times I was too lazy to say "Do you have Fr. 1617*, 239, 238*........" and just handed them the list and had them tell me if they had them. One or two times, the dealer asked to see my list. Each time was awkward because I had values on their.

 

Dealer: "Where are these values from?"

 

Me: "Heritage auction lots sold in the last few weeks"

 

Dealer: "Oh"

 

One dealer wasn't happy to see the note she bought for $800 and was selling for $500 could be had in the same condition on Heritage for $300. Needless to say, she would not lower her price and I was not willing to go to hers when they could be readily had online.

 

I remembered how difficult it is to look for key $1 silver certificates at a convention. The series is pretty common and sits on the bottom of big piles of notes. But the key notes aren't in most dealer inventories and, at the same time, aren't expensive enough to be feature notes. Oftentimes, dealers just bundle their notes in thick stacks. Sometimes they're ordered and I can point to a stack and pray a note I need is in there. Sadly, I ended up walking past many tables of notes. The disorder was intimidating, or the dealers didn't seem knowledgeable. Really, how should they know if they have a FR 1617* among their piles of notes?

 

I could only find two of the half-dozen or so notes I needed. Usually, I can find a few of each, but instead I found several good examples of only these two notes. All were in or near UNC. That meant I couldn't take a FR 239 home.

 

Instead, I brought home this:

 

926512A.jpg

926512B.jpg

 

1935 G $1 silver certificate (good for one dollar of silver when redeemed) - STAR note (replacement for error notes) - signatures of Smith and Dillon - with motto variety (has In God We Trust on reverse) - Friedberg # 1617*, 1,080,000 star notes printed. Certified Ch. Unc. 64 EPQ by PMG.

 

It's not one of the keys in the series, but I needed it. I got it at a good price from a dealer I've dealt with for several years at the show. It's easy to be remembered because there are not a lot of folks my age on the floor. He's always had trouble with me because his notes were always out of my price range, despite his amazing selection.

 

Anyway, I'll keep going to him in the future. He's been supportive and helpful.

 

My real treasure of the show is this girl:

 

979194.jpg

 

1928 $1 - silver Peace dollar struck at the Philadelphia mint. This is one of two keys of the series at a mintage of 360,649, almost 500,000 less than the next rarest. I'd give it about MS-64. The dealer had A LOT of the key dates. I had probably 8-10 1928's in different grades I could choose from. I've never seen a selection like that. They all were priced the same, so I chose the one that had the best luster and looks.

 

Peace dollars got me started collecting. It's my first series and my most complete. Unfortunately, I hadn't added a single Peace dollar to my collection in years. I had gotten all the easy coins in the set and was stuck on the keys. I also was busy working on the silver certificate series. I've seen lower grade examples through the years, but none had the right eye quality or price. I was determined to come home with a key from this show. We all know the saying "buy the best coin you can for your money". Well, I had more money than I'm used to, so I bought this UNC key.

 

I'm very satisfied. I've waited 15 years for that coin. It's the most I've paid for a coin and a key to my collection.

 

That was the end of the show for me.

 

I showed my mom the coin and note a few days ago. She was holding the coin, waving around with a loose grip, as she told me a story about her father's missing collection of Peace dollars. I thought to myself "Oh no, she's going to drop it. Nah, she won't".

 

Then I heard it hit the floor.

 

I wasn't happy. Her response was "What? It's made of metal. You can't hurt it by dropping it."

 

:ninja:

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I've finally sat down to write about my trip to the spring Baltimore Coin & Currency Convention last Friday. Another long post. Extra points if you read it all.

 

The floor was open til 6 and I was meeting a friend in DC in the evening AND I live in Richmond, 3 hours away, so I took my time getting to the show. Didn't arrive til closer to 3 p.m, when many coin dealers are headed to dinner.

;)

 

 

I was hunting for the keys to my Peace dollar series and some keys to my $1 silver certificate collection. I arrived on the floor with my 2008 red book, Friedberg, and spreadsheet with values from Heritage, Numismedia, Red Book, and Friedberg. That proved to be an awkward thing. I've brought spreadsheets before, but this was the first time dealers actually looked at it. A few times I was too lazy to say "Do you have Fr. 1617*, 239, 238*........" and just handed them the list and had them tell me if they had them. One or two times, the dealer asked to see my list. Each time was awkward because I had values on their.

 

Dealer: "Where are these values from?"

 

Me: "Heritage auction lots sold in the last few weeks"

 

Dealer: "Oh"

 

One dealer wasn't happy to see the note she bought for $800 and was selling for $500 could be had in the same condition on Heritage for $300. Needless to say, she would not lower her price and I was not willing to go to hers when they could be readily had online.

 

I remembered how difficult it is to look for key $1 silver certificates at a convention. The series is pretty common and sits on the bottom of big piles of notes. But the key notes aren't in most dealer inventories and, at the same time, aren't expensive enough to be feature notes. Oftentimes, dealers just bundle their notes in thick stacks. Sometimes they're ordered and I can point to a stack and pray a note I need is in there. Sadly, I ended up walking past many tables of notes. The disorder was intimidating, or the dealers didn't seem knowledgeable. Really, how should they know if they have a FR 1617* among their piles of notes?

 

I could only find two of the half-dozen or so notes I needed. Usually, I can find a few of each, but instead I found several good examples of only these two notes. All were in or near UNC. That meant I couldn't take a FR 239 home.

 

Instead, I brought home this:

 

926512A.jpg

926512B.jpg

 

1935 G $1 silver certificate (good for one dollar of silver when redeemed) - STAR note (replacement for error notes) - signatures of Smith and Dillon - with motto variety (has In God We Trust on reverse) - Friedberg # 1617*, 1,080,000 star notes printed. Certified Ch. Unc. 64 EPQ by PMG.

 

It's not one of the keys in the series, but I needed it. I got it at a good price from a dealer I've dealt with for several years at the show. It's easy to be remembered because there are not a lot of folks my age on the floor. He's always had trouble with me because his notes were always out of my price range, despite his amazing selection.

 

Anyway, I'll keep going to him in the future. He's been supportive and helpful.

 

My real treasure of the show is this girl:

 

979194.jpg

 

1928 $1 - silver Peace dollar struck at the Philadelphia mint. This is one of two keys of the series at a mintage of 360,649, almost 500,000 less than the next rarest. I'd give it about MS-64. The dealer had A LOT of the key dates. I had probably 8-10 1928's in different grades I could choose from. I've never seen a selection like that. They all were priced the same, so I chose the one that had the best luster and looks.

 

Peace dollars got me started collecting. It's my first series and my most complete. Unfortunately, I hadn't added a single Peace dollar to my collection in years. I had gotten all the easy coins in the set and was stuck on the keys. I also was busy working on the silver certificate series. I've seen lower grade examples through the years, but none had the right eye quality or price. I was determined to come home with a key from this show. We all know the saying "buy the best coin you can for your money". Well, I had more money than I'm used to, so I bought this UNC key.

 

I'm very satisfied. I've waited 15 years for that coin. It's the most I've paid for a coin and a key to my collection.

 

That was the end of the show for me.

 

I showed my mom the coin and note a few days ago. She was holding the coin, waving around with a loose grip, as she told me a story about her father's missing collection of Peace dollars. I thought to myself "Oh no, she's going to drop it. Nah, she won't".

 

Then I heard it hit the floor.

 

I wasn't happy. Her response was "What? It's made of metal. You can't hurt it by dropping it."

 

:ninja:

 

congrats on your peace dollar! nice post about the convention. What did your mom mean by her father's "missing" collection? Does no one know where he put it, did he sell it... ? Found that last bit interesting, feels like there's a story behind there?

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Nice writeup. Glad you did well at the show. I like both of your finds but can relate to how special that 28 $ is for your collection. Mom's do stuff like that - sorry but I chuckled when I read it.

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I see you took my advice plenty of money to buy a little money. :ninja: I know the feeling when you hear that drop. Luckily for me neither were "big" coins. A few questions did you have fun and see a lot of eye candy? Also what if anything are you going to do different to prep?

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I see you took my advice plenty of money to buy a little money. ;) I know the feeling when you hear that drop. Luckily for me neither were "big" coins. A few questions did you have fun and see a lot of eye candy? Also what if anything are you going to do different to prep?

 

Explaining to some of my friends why my coins/notes are worth that much has been difficult. :ninja:

 

I did have fun, always do. But I was a little flummoxed this time. I had a schedule. I was annoyed I couldn't find as many notes as I needed.

 

I didn't look at a lot of eye candy, unfortunately. The few times I did stop and drool were over copper cents. It's just amazing to see what looks to be a freshly struck large cent. Many had a lot of orange. I also enjoyed looking at the late 19th C, early 20th C US banknotes.

 

As for doing anything different, I would definitely print two sheets with my want list. One sheet would have the values and the other only the list. The latter I could show dealers to see if they had any of the coins/notes in their inventories. I decided to show them my spreadsheet a few times out of convenience but felt bad when they started questioning the values. Why educate them more than I need to?

 

I'd probably also tell myself to stroll the bourse floor after my money had been spent. Then I can really enjoy the eye candy.

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  • 7 months later...

I'll be posting my recap of the Baltimore show tomorrow or Thursday. Too tired tonight. Please pester me until I do!

 

Looking forward to it.

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