Steve D'Ippolito

It is interesting that the azimuth marks run counterclockwise here; the usual convention in the west is 0 is north, then clockwise to east=90, etc.

The cardboard squares are typically just called "2x2s" (provided they are actually 2x2 and not the 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 size).

Thank you for reposting this, Ex4! Its nice to wake up, tune in to the forum, and see my old pics! It brings back memories of a very nice trip to Washington DC, to see my brother and his brand new little girl!

 

The visit to the Smithsonian was serendipedous as I had no idea the collection was on display that day!

 

I visited it that same year; side trip from the ANA boston. Took pictures of those two cases, and more than likely left handprints and noseprints on the glass and drool on the floor.

More entertaining is the idea of choosing his third name, and becoming King Arthur II... but I don't think he wants to set up that kind of comparison. And I'm not sure he's even required to choose one of his given names. There hasn't been a Stephen for a while... or an Æthelstan, for that matter.

Stephen would be another historically unlucky name, as I recall.

Congratulations! Fifteen years is most definitely unusual in this day and age.

Happy Anniversary Colin & Rina. (I'd give you 15 thumbs-up, but the system only allows 6).

It works if those are quarter eagle thumbs-ups! (6 x 2.5 = 15)

I had a similiar situation crop up. Friends of mine going through their father's things--he immigrated from Afghanistan long ago--and finding a few coins. Unfortunately they turned out to be almost worthless.

It's a nit but... ditch the apostrophe in your titles ("Proofs" not "Proof's"). You certainly have found some toners here!

I will second that. It's definitely worth having an expert look this over, to ensure it's not an altered date or something like that.

Let me confirm this

You have a 1943 US cent, which appears to be copper, and does NOT--repeat does NOT--stick to a magnet?

A few years ago I read somewhere that quite some 1894 25kopeks were minted posthumously as the tsar had been very popular. Mintage is not given in Russian guide books like Wolmar or Konros, which means that it is not known. I think the 1894 coin is not rare but every collector wants it because it's the only affordable date of this type.

Sigi

 

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Heh heh heh. Mine was an 1893.

And just like that we are on 1511

It's interesting sometimes (speaking of people we think of as old finding something else old) to read the sorts of things university presidents and regents will sometimes send to their faculty--to remind them just how old the faculty is or how young the student is.

Freshmen going into college today probably have no meaningful memory of the Clinton administration, just for instance, and certainly won't recall the Lewinsky mess.

Quite some time ago I read something that pointed out that the first airplane was closer to the Jefferson administration than it was to what was then the present and of course that's even more true today.

Here`s a coin with a completely wrong edge inscription.

Oh for god's sake. It's also clearly struck in collar.

This is verging on being as bad as the fake gold coin I called a "parody" (non existent denomination--not just for that year but for that type, totally anachronistic type come to think of it, poor execution, etc.)

I was watching a video the other day about a guy who got so obsessed with beanie babies that he ended up dropping over $100,000 on a bunch of items that he literally cannot sell now.

I know someone like that too, She figured maybe 20 years down the road there'd be a nostalgia kick for them and she could make some bucks.

I was really cheesed off when my safe arrived, the company drove down from fort collins with a truck towing a horse trailer, all covered with beautiful artwork advertising their company. Then they blocked the street to unload the safe. WTF?!?!

That assumes they find out about this coin before they move on to the next.

Eighty bucks for the 1974 set?

I remember when they were all over the marketplace for 5-10 dollars... and I did buy a couple.

It looks like Seated Liberties were still being made in 1894... just not here. Good stuff!

I have to say when I saw the title what first came to mind was small trucks. I was wondering if there was a model called the Atahualpa or, in a more four-wheeling vein, the Chimborazo.

my English is not very good and I do not know the difference between purple and violet),

My English is somewhat better, and I will be damned if I know the difference. Though I have seen swatches that do show a difference. If I recall violet has more red color in those cases but my recollection could be wrong.

I think most people treat the two words as synonyms.

I never really did all that well finding (Russo-)Polish material when I was collecting Russian Imperial but when I sold the collection I hung on to a few pieces.

The edge lettering on the genuine 1913 Romanov Tercentenary ruble is pretty much the same as was seen even back into the 1890s (possibly back to 1886 when they started doing portraits). It's recognizably the same style as my very worn pocket piece from the Brussels mint.

They have identical weakness in the strike and the sellers are at the same address. That sets the alarm bells off for me.

I checked the lettering on the reverse against a picture (from Uzdenikov) of that reverse and the Ts look too wide, also.. that was bothering me as they seemed out of proportion to the rest of the font.

Thanks for that pattern, I was unaware of that one. Looks very high relief on the eagle (though it could be the photography).

It does seem like every change to the small cent makes itg worse. I like the flyer, the indian head is OK, and the lincoln cents have gotten progressively worse. (What's this kid's drawing of a shield all about?)

I am using "A Guide Book of United States Type Coins", part of the red book series on specialized topics. I felt free to add or subtract types once I saw what he was doing, though. For instance I decided the recessed date on the standing liberty quarter was a new subtype; he ignores that.

I also consider weight and composition changes significant. So instead of the usual treatment of seated liberty coins where pre-1853 coins are one type, the arrows are a second type, and the post arrows coins are considered the first type again, I treat them as a distinct type. Also all silver coinage was altered in 1837--the silver content remained the same but some of the copper was removed, to change from .8924 to .9000 fine. (Fortunately this happened before any 1837 coins were minted, so looking at the date tells you what sub-type it is.

I have three more super-expensive coins to go, having purchased one already (draped bust/heraldic eagle half dime); they are the draped bust heraldic eagle dollar, the no drapery half dollar, and (drumroll) more expensive than the other three super expensive ones put together: the original 1836 Gobrecht dollar. The lions share of issues that are left are seated liberty coins of one sort or another. But then again, I am still missing the 1921 Peace Dollar.

It's worn enough I doubt it still weighs 6.25 grams; it might not even be over 6.

How to work state quarters into a typeset:

The book I got started with when I did my typeset is by Q. David Bowers, and he distinguishes between silver and clad, so he assigned every silver proof for each state a type number, and every clad piece a type number as well, for 100 total state quarters. 112 if you throw in the DC and Territories issues. The book was actually published midway through the state quarters series, and he left a substantial numbering gap between denominations, for future developments. The state quarters ran from 201 through 300, with the DC and territories not known to him at the time, but they clearly would have been 301-312. The problem is, Mr. Bowers started the halves at 401. So his numbering system is already broken, because there will be 112 national forest quarters, and possibly another 112 after that (the law gives the treasury and/or mint the option to repeat the program, albeit with new national forests, wildlife refuges and seashores for states too benighted to have any national parks).

This is a large part of the reason I decided my type set would span 1800-1964; I really did not want to deal with a set that was over half state quarters, I did not want to have to deal with the issue of whether a silver Delaware quarter was a different type from a clad one (and it would be, if I were at all consistent!. Running from 1792 to 1964 I identified 115 types and subtypes in silver, nickel and copper, of which 97 were issued 1800 or later. I numbered the 115 types sequentially, then invented a second system that you can parse and determine what the coin is, e.g., A1 is the first half cent type--which in turn has three subtypes, A1a, A1b, and A1c--and A1c had a weight reduction in 1795 so there's an A1c1 and A1c2. Those are 1-4 on my sequential numbering. B1 is the first large cent type, and only has two subtypes B1a ("Chain ameri") and B1b ("Chain America")--sequential numbers 8 and 9, etc. It ends with silver dollars running from 106-114 M1 through M7b and the Trade Dollar being type 115 (N1).

Thank you, Igor. And as a thank you for the education, let me tell you about the American worker in Moscow who got pulled over by a policeman, who started to explain to the American what he had done wrong. The American (who must have had a few lessons in Russian, but not nearly enough) interrupted the stream of Russian to inform the cop "Я не понедельник! Я не понедельник!" which certainly proved the American's point.

Unfortunately I was too busy laughing at this part of the story to follow the rest of it and find out how the incident ended.