Burks

I just bought one of those a couple weeks ago. I asked about it on another site with a large world coin community. Here is a response I received:

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Have you seen some of the variety finds lately? Just in the past week or two.

Two Morgan Scarfaces ($$$)

http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=26&threadid=914384

Huge money to be found. I play the Ohio Lotto (best chance per play to win millions) each week, fully knowing my odds of winning are total crap. At least with varieties I just need to be in the right place, at the right time, and provide myself with the knowledge. Numerous people looked over those coins above and never glanced at them a second time. Even a lower grade Scarface runs four digits. One guy snagged it for nearly melt!

Well I placed my order:

1x UNC/Proof Silver

1x Proof Clad (for dad, he's a baseball nut)

1x Proof Gold (hey......maybe someone will bounce a CC or check? Site says backordered so who knows. This IS the government).

Gold is sold out

Yeah I'm tossing around the idea of buying a second set of silver. Would love a gold proof but man....

$450 seems almost too cheap to pass up. It'd be strictly to flip it later on.

Looking to get into possibly cherry picking some varieties. I know VAMs are popular and I have a book on those. It's old but useful, most I think are stupid.

But I know bust halves and mercury dimes are big too. Is the Cherry Pickers Guide good enough or should I get something more specific? Basically wanting types and varieties worth my time. If the coin is worth $50 without a variety, taking my time to find one worth $55 just isn't worth it.

I'll order both versions of silver for.myself and a proof clad for dad. Gold is out of my league

I can't decide if I want to go after these mint sets again or not. I have most from 1964 on (including proofs) up until the Statehood quarters. Then I didn't have the money and neither did dad (lost his GM job when the plant closed). I'm not THAT far behind though.

Purchases lately (photos to come as I haven't received all of them yet):

- 1963 Proof set: Scanned photo showed some nice toning on the half and quarter. It's the dime I really wanted.....it's either going to be ugly or a stunner.

- Southern Rhodesia 1951 Threepence PCGS MS63: Nice clean coin. Books $125 in UNC.

- Poland Solidus Shilling 1649: Paid $3. Neat, tiny little coin. Super thin.

- 1979 SBA Type 1 Proof: Pocket piece for me!

Amazing find! Great job and even better eye.

I'm starting to save additional money for not only stocks but for bullion. I feel, for no SUPER exact reason, that silver is still a great source to invest in for even the short future (<5 years). I'm looking into getting silver bars and such that have NO collectable value. Don't need Maples or ASE.

What premium are you paying over spot? I heard <$1 + spot is a good deal for generic bars. Was looking at doing maybe 10oz every couple months to keep the supply moving. It seems easier to move than silver junk and such.

Congrats Art! Heck of an achievement. I'd like to get in on that but I don't buy much in the way of graded coins for a series. I'd love to start a Lincoln one or even a Mercury Dime.

Ooly at coin shows. And by me I'm on the lucky side. We have 4 coin shows a Month and all withing about 15 miles of me.

Just could never see buying from ebay and going tthrough the lost in mail, wrong coins sent, pay extra for postage, handling, insurances, paypal costs, ebay costs and on and on with extra costs. At a coin show, you get what you see and get it now.

I wish I was that lucky! Closest "coin" show is the local monthly flea market. Basically overpriced junk. Nothing special. I loved when I lived in Toledo because they had a monthly REAL coin show. Mostly bullion stuff but a few dealers had some true quality stuff. Prices were average, nothing Earth shattering.

Closest real show to me in Columbus, a 1.5 hour drive since it's on the other side of the city. Not bad but not something I'm going to every month. I'm planning on making it next month but who knows with work.

It's been a few years but I was carrying a 1921 Morgan and 200x ASE. I lost the Morgan in my move and the ASE went through the dryer, causing a lot of damage to it. So I put that one in the bullion box, never to see light again.

Recently I purchased a 1971-S proof silver Ike and a proof SBA (forget the date) off eBay. Ike cost me $3 over melt, SBA 2x face. So basically I'm in this $4 over their "worth", whether it be face value or melt.

Going to be carrying these daily. In 20 years I'll submit them to PCGS in hopes of a PR-P01 grade. I've always wanted to see how proofs would age versus a circulated piece, so why not? It'll be fun. My hope is to image these at least monthly to keep up on their looks, whether it's a tiny or huge change.

I will carry both in the same pocket along with whatever other change I have. Probably find their way in my cell phone pocket once in a while as well.

Edit: Should clarify. Gun related. My other pocket piece is a Taurus .38 or if I'm feeling frisky, my 1911.

I'm good now. This can be closed

New pocket piece on the way.

Looking for a silver proof Eisenhower. Year doesn't matter. Just needs to be a proof only silver issue.

Cheaper the better. Not using it as a collectable, you'll see.

As much as I hate the slab game with CAC, WINGS, etc it's neat to have a piece of collecting "history", Know where we've come from with grading and companies to our current Big 3.

Even flat out told the guy "I'm really just buying this for the slab. It's neat to see where we've come from in grading." He seemed a little shocked and said I was the first he's ever heard do that. I hadn't been in that store in probably 4-5 years. Chatted with him a bit, guy was very nice. Told him my previous bad experiences with the shop, he apologized, and said I was welcomed to always come back and most importantly, BRING CASH.

I have my eyes on an 1818 Large Cent. It's RB but it's a problem coin, labeled "Harshly Cleaned". It's starting to retone but I almost can't pass it up for the price. It's the 1818 die that has a TON of die cracks.

Grabbed this at a LCS today. I paid only a couple bucks over ask, just for the slab. I didn't own a PCI and wanted one, they aren't easy to find.

I know this is the US forum but it also gets the most traffic.

What sites do you prefer to buy from? Can be auction, forum, or dealer related.

I've mainly stuck to here, Collectors Universe (PCGS), and eBay. The reason I'm asking is I'm always looking for a good deal and more exposure to coins, especially world. It's just so hard to find a forum that deals a LOT in world coins. I prefer forum related sites just because you can wheel and deal. It feels more "personal".

Example of a proof Lincoln using the new app. It's "meh" at best. Whatever.

Coin is actually represented fairly well for color. Pic looks like the coin in hand. Just the sharpness/quality is lacking.

It's called Magnifier HD or something. Turns out the Droid DNA does a sub-par job with macro photos. I figured since it (supposedly) has a better camera than the iPhone 5, it would take good macros. Not so much. Someone on another forum takes amazing, almost DSLR quality, pics with his iPhone. I tried to duplicate his setup, failed. Colors are terrible, half the coin is out of focus, etc.

Dad apparently fixed whatever was wrong with his camera. So I'll be getting that back. It's an old Sony F828 (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydscf828). I have some cheap screw on macro lenses but I ordered a higher quality piece from Amazon yesterday. Hopefully that gets me where I need to be (along with my DIY cardboard photobox).

1971 proof set. Everything is gold toned except the Lincoln. Took a gamble it would look better in hand, it's alright. The weird toned spot above his head is kind of distracting. Paid $5.50 shipped, can't complain. Didn't have that set anyways.

Pics coming. Got a new app for my phone to take better pics but my lamp died. Need to buy two more and make a photo box.

Thanks prince! I've been seeing a lot of high AU, low MS coins from the late 19th century going for as little as 2-5x melt. Well within my acceptable buying range.

Impressive finds! I'm going to try Monday at my bank for some nickel and half dollar rolls. Shouldn't be an issue but who knows. Wouldn't mind a box of halves!

What about simply reducing the amount of cents and nickels minted for a while? I don't see the reason to mint hundreds of millions when we probably have billions just sitting around in banks, vaults, and random places not being used.

When the circulating supply runs low, increase production a bit. Not like we need new designs each year or something.

Composition change seems like it would cost more to research and actually do than it would saving money. It'd be cool to have something like a brass coin but even brass isn't exactly cheap. What if (I mean when) we hit another huge war? Shortage!

My suggestion: I'd rather see the cent slowly phased out (but kept in mint/proof sets for those that care) and the nickel composition change. Make it out of cheaper metal. Maybe a little thinner. People won't like the rounding up but hey, they'll get used to it I guess.