Ætheling

Some are saying keep the $2 bill, why?

The $2 bill is another failure like the Sac dollar ain't it? Might as well replace that with a coin whilst it's out of the running. It'd be easier to replace it now rather than getting a successful $2 bill and then a few years down the line everyone will be saying 'lose the rag $2!'

Coins are the way forward. In a paper/coin argument the coin will always come out on top because they simply last longer and therefore are more versatile. In a coin/plastic argument... plastic would do better.

May I be so bold to say Hi and enjoy the brief meeting with CP.2.1 ETC..I reckon.

Ey?

I also have quite a few HERMES and MERCURY coins, both Greek and Roman.  Online, my username has been mercury (or mercury-something) since 1985.  His common attributes are the caduceus and traveler's hat (petasos).  Winged sandals and winged cap complete the outfit. I have a couple of coins with just the caduceus, and oddly enough one of them is Conder token.

I know one of the most popular ways to collect Roman coins is by Emperor. However i must confess if i were to take up collecting ancients (which i hope to do one day) then i would take the collect by deity approach.

Mercury/Hermes being popular as is Jupiter, Juno and of course the ever popular Athene/Minerva. The latter the Athenian Owls being the most famous example of. Which is probably the coin i'd start on.

Greek/Roman coins are something i've wanted to do something about for a while but i've never yet got around to it. Although happily i seem to be slowly working my way back to that point one century at a time. So there is hope yet. On a few occasions now i've nearly bought an Athenian Owl, the only thing that stopped me last time was the hole that had been drilled into the coin. (Were these not done by bankers? Or someone similar to test for either the purity of the coin or to see if it was real? I honestly forget).

Ancient history just keeps playing over and over and over.

But with bigger weapons.

So, OK, you cannot afford an 1804 Dollar, so you buy a replica.  What do you have?  In the movie POPEYE with Robin Williams, Popeye had a "picture" of his Dad: a frame around a rectangle of cardboard on which was written the words ME PAPPA.  That is what you have with a replica. You might has well write the words 1804 DOLLAR on a circle of paper.

This is pretty much my stance on the topic too.

I did also consider the case for replicas being passed off at the genuine article although i did not mention it on here. One example i can think of comes to mind almost immediately whenever anyone mentions replicas is the following.

At the Jorvik Viking centre in York, England (which is basically a museum of sorts) they issue replicas of Viking coinage. The one's i've seen are examples that have a die muling from two completely different issues, so as to make it clear to collectors that these coins are not real Viking pieces. The reverse features the hammer of Thor as you would find on Viking coinage of the period, the obverse is a copy of the obverse of a contemporary Saxon penny of King Æthelstan (who was based in the south). Now no collector would would be fooled as such.

However several specimens have already turned up on ebay being sold as either genuine Anglo-Saxon issue coins of the kingdom of Wessex, or genuine coinage from the Viking Kingdom of York. More adventurous individuals have even promoted the coin as a rare 'error', having he bizarre obverse/reverse match.

As far as i can tell the coins don't say copy on them as UK law (as far as i am aware) does not require the word COPY to be put on the coins. I think they require An 'R' for replica (or something similar)... although this i'm not entirely sure about.

Do me a favor and read this answer in 9 months and see if you feel as strongly that you'd never buy a copy.

 

I'd rather have a gap, gaps are good, i like gaps... means i've got something to fill. When i complete a set i get bored with it very quickly. I've come to the conclusion i don't actually like finishing sets. That's why i make it as hard as possible to actually complete them.

Well many dealers have told me that the main focus of my collection is indeed a 'specialist' area in it's own right. As such getting coins for this set is very tricky.

The dealers that do sell the coins i require on the internet are usually not very evident and thus it takes some patient scouring through listings on search engines (using a whole variety of spellings and rewording). Unfortunately the vast majority of those listings are either archaeological excavation/museum reports or copies of the coins for sale.

So i'm getting pretty fed up of seeing copies here there and everywhere, but none of the real ones!

Answering the question therefore the answer is a resounding no, no and double no. I'm into coins for the history, for the places they been, the events they've witnessed and the hands they've been in. Not for the looks of the coin so much. When i see a copy, even if it's a faithful reproduction in the faithful .925 silver alloy, all i'm seeing is something that was minted in 19XX and not in 9XX.

So nope i wouldn't.

That is what happens now anyway with the 'Need-a-Penny/Take-a-Penny' bowls all over the US.

Hang on you mean you have jars on the side full of pennies to let people give or take as they please?

Wow if you did that in England those jars would be empty pretty quick. Infact over here they have to put gauze wire over the money fountains to stop people trying to take it back out.

I'm telling you if they had a penny jar on the counter in our stores i'd be swiping ten pennies a day from every one i came across. And i certainly wouldn't leave any... jeeze i even stood at the till for 5 minutes once waiting for my penny change whilst the cashier opened a new bagful into the till.

Pennies make Pounds.

Varieties are the reason (well one of them) why i won't dabble in copper/bronze.

Because even if you attempt the simplest of date runs you get snookered half way through when the number you have to get suddenly gets doubled.

I'm one of these collectors that likes to have them all ticked off as got. I figure well what's the point i'd never have a complete collection and do i really want 30 odd or more pennies/farthings all dated 1860?

Varieties can be a real pain in the backside. A few here and there can add spice to a series, a whole series with 16 or more varieties of each date, then count me out.

Also the reason i moved into hammered, you can just do it by type as every coin is unique.

If you need to raise money for BPCI prises, feel free to do so. 

That is another idea i'd had, although i might rekickstart the 'centuries competion' which would need prizes.

Ah now there's thought.

In coin fairs in the UK I have noticed specialist collectors searching out the specimens and the price varience is tremendous for the finer examples.

Its a specialist field.....Pecks reference work covers 50 pages for the coinage of 1797.Hope this helps.

Fifty pages!

Why do copper/bronze collectors always have to go totally nuts with the varieties. Silver collectors just record things like spelling errors, over dates and more noticable lettering/design varaiants. Minor lettering positions and sizes tends to be just classed under the blanket term of "many varieties and types abound" with no real effort to persue them further. Which i always though was a sensible option, because you have to draw the line somewhere, if you don't you'll end up classing every single coin minted of a type as a different variety, as of course they are all unique to a 150th of an inch.

That was very informative and an enjoyable read too! I look forward to more...

But honestly, there aren't that many countries that are still using 1 dollar bills... canada, uk, europe, australia, new zealand, etc all DON'T use 1 dollar bills!!!

The UK never used a $1 bill. A £1 note maybe but i don't remember those as they were way before my time. Okay i was four when they were demonetised, the most money i ever saw when i was four was perhaps twenty pence. If i was really lucky i'd get a £1 coin.

Personally i'd replace all notes with coins, but i think that's got something to do with that time i had to chase a £20 note down the street. T'was a very blustery day that was.

I've been on a mission to convert all notes to coins as fast as i get them. I regularly carry between six and thirteen £1 coins in my pocket most days. £2 are wonderful, wonderful things. I only have the one on me at present.

Whilst i might like carrying around £2, £1, 50p, 20p and 10p coins by the bucket load. I absolutely hate 5p, 2p and 1p coins.

I might also add, i have no wallet, don't like them they can be stolen or lost and bang goes all your money. I tend to throw mine loose in my pockets, £5 here, £3 there, another £2 in a different pocket and a couple of pence in another.

I never really liked proofs much. They'd look better with a Matt finish as Edward VII Matt Proofs of 1902, now they are nice!

The Cartwheel 2d is thought to have been struck up to 1830 (all dated 1797) with further commerative issues after this.

Peck spent a lot of research on the 1d and 2d cartwheels and there are numerous varieties.

That i didn't know. I honestly thought they'd only been minted in 1797-99 and mintage had ceased around the century change over.

Although i've never focus on copper/bronze coins so my knowledge of them is next to nothing.

1893 is a year that sets were produced because it's the year they switched to the Old Head portrait.

£5 to 3d set = £5000

5/- to 3d = £1000

Which means if it's a non-gold containing set then £3500 is way, way, way over the price (about 4 times the proper market price).

If it has the four gold coins then give or thake another £1000 and you're in the right region.

So, sent me a dud eh?  

Yeah but when the corrected issue comes off i'm sure it can be arranged to send some replacements.

I'm sure that Æ has noble intentions, however, I would like to mention that Coinpeople Site does not and never did ask for any donations.

Never said it did. Although of course if the CP Dollar idea takes off and you need money to buy in stuff to sell for the CP Dollars this should be a good way of helping to make the whole thing self supporting.

I'd rather have 2 Liberties and no Grovers.

And back to the Sac! They can do better than that.

Good luck and remember it's for a good cause.

 

What's the cause?

All money raised from selling these will be donated to the Coinpeople Site.

Well i'm not sure how this will be recieved, but there's no better way to find out than to throw it into the ring and hope for the best.

Well the reverse of the design shows the fictional Temple of Minerva located in the Olympian Islands (also fictional), but this is CP and we can imagine what we like.

Minerva is the Roman goddess of War and Wisdom and is associated and often conflated (i.e combined) with her Greek equivalent the goddess Athena (or Athene), who was the patron goddess of the Greek city state of Athens in classical times. The overall design is a segment of the front facade of the temple showing some of the columns. On the original drawing the roof is complete, however here the top triangular segment and the corner segment of the right have been removed so that it would fit on the note. (Which gives the temple an odd appearance granted)

The temple is partially inscribed with 'IVPPITER OPTIMVS MAXIMVS' - Jupiter Bestest and Greatest, which was a typical dedication to the god Jupiter (aka Zeus in Greek) in the Classical World, and therefore links in with the old tradition of the Capitoline Triad; Zeus, Hera and Athena (in Greek tradition), Jupiter, Juno and Minerva in the Roman.

One might also notice the presence of an Owl in the temple's pediment, the owl was forever associated with the Goddess Minerva/Athena after one took up residence in one of her temples. And consequently became a bird regarded as wise, since Athene was the goddess of wisdom, amongst other things.

There were two reasons why Minerva was chosen for this particular note, firstly because she happens to be my favourite of the Græco-Roman goddesses and secondly because she will be forever associated with the coinage as the famous Athenian Owl Tetradrachms shows all too well.

Thus to Minerva this note is duly dedicated.

These pictures were borrowed from Art, the notes look almost exactly like this except the serial numbers don't have white boxes around and the mint letter will be S rather than A.

The notes measure 9.7cm X 6cm, and when held up to the light there is a security strip hidden within that shows up.

The two notes are numbered; CPGA 10605 & CPGA 10606. (Please note that the number run from 601-606 were accidentally issued with black mintmarks rather than dark green ones, this has now been corrected and 607 onwards will not have this error. So only 5 of these notes will ever be available as i'm keeping 601 for my own collection).

Bidding will start at 50 cents (shipping is free as i'll pay that) and the auction will end at 20.00 hours GMT on Thursday 30 June.

Good luck and remember it's for a good cause.

We've already got some accidental errors on the Guinea notes. Luckily Art hasn't printed any of his yet so we managed to get those corrected prior to printing.

Unfortunately i had already reeled off some S mint notes and have then found a few problems on the preliminary run of the 20s and 10s. Damn!

I was going to destroy the ones i'd done and start again, unfortunately one set has already been officially released and is now in the Netherlands. So i figure i'm gonna just let these few problem notes out with the regular correct issues.

I don't generally like sending substandard stuff out but they cost me enough to print!

If you want to be 'inclusive', you might want to make up a currency name like what was done with the RCC coins. Any real denomination, past or present, will not be more or less inclusive than any other. Just my 2 prinnetos...

I suggest 'Peeps' as in Coin Peeps.

Is there also a 7.5 mark note?

I was going to say Anton i've been there and had the big brass keys to every room on this site and i never found anything.

Although i was going to issue special commemorative £4 and £12 notes... but i thought better of it!

That and the 13 Peeps note.