Mark Stilson

Do a search for Phocas. Found a couple pretty close.

BTW do the search at vcoins.

7 plus million dollars worth of gold coins were found at a man's house after he passed away. The true value has not been figured out yet. That was the worth in gold weight.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c2#/video/us/2012/09/18/dnt-nv-7-million-in-gold-coins-found.krnv

It's both+. Lint and other contaminants can cause problems. But the box with the drill bits were supposed to be sterile. It's all according to what the need is for. According to what type tests they expect to run it could effect the outcome.

BTW side note. Worked on some equipment one time at a company that did aerospace work. They brought us in to a curtained off area. Not clean room or even close. But we only got to see a nondescript block of metal. It was just drilled and tapped but not the real equipment. We did our work on it and they did tell us when we were finished it was going through some kind of 5 step decontamination procedure. No clue as to where or what it was. That was secret. Kind of neat.

Either a dip or soaking in something like alcohol or sealed in acrylic. One thing to note here though is it would not have to go through the same decontamination procedures as the drill bits. Things that would not touch Mars material did not have to be as clean. The main thing they were worried about there was pulling a sample and being contaminated by earth material. Think about if they did not catch the mistake. Pull up a sample, find cellular activity, make an announcement and then realize it was due to earth microbes. Just wonder how many tests are canceled due to the problem.

I've been hitting the garage and estate sales. Even if I don't see any I ask. I have had coins brought out for sale by doing that. It is kind of slim pickings most of the time.

As a mod of another forum. It's tough to clamp down completely. IP addresses change, country of origins change, names, and email addresses change. If the group I mod started doing blocks I'd be blocking myself. I've seen spam from about every country or email domain, Some one may come in and say a couple generic statements or even on subject and turn out being one. This group is very good on the spam control. At the group I mod to do the job I check the board for new members, log on as mod to check the postings, then may even log in as admin to delete spammers. But you get fresh or non-repeating names or spammer email addresses that don't show up as spammers. And IP addresses that don't even show up as a possible spammer address. But turn up as spammers days or weeks later. It can be a pain. The amount of time you can spend chasing spammers can turn up high. Minimum time I normally run is about 5 minutes per new member doing preliminary checks. Sometimes up to 20 minutes if something really feels funny. Multiply that by how many new users come through and you can see where it can add up. You would about have some one here 24\7.

One forum I joined awhile back I almost gave up on. The first about 5 or so posts have to be approved by a mod before they are seen after that you are set as full member and the posts go up immediately. Now they only have 2 mods so it may take some time as in a day or more for your first posts to show up. Most members are people who are already members of one or more local metal detector clubs and know the site through word of mouth and invitation. Worth it to get in for me since it's local information and folks I know in person.

Some of them you have a tough time figuring out what they are at lower grades. But something like one of the big clashed dies I'd go as low as it takes if recognizable. After all passing up a coin you may get for 25 to 30 on a coin that is worth hundreds maybe thousands of dollars would be silly. All of the coins I've bought with the except one of the over dates were picked up at standard date/mint prices. Even the easy tail bar 1890 cc's I have were right at standard 1890 cc prices. And those are pretty easy to spot.

Picked up several coins at an estate sale. Tough picking. Even though I was there when it first opened. I had several other people at the same table picking up coins. The U.S. silver coins picked up for silver price and the foreign coins were 50 cents to a dollar. Some of them really aren't worth much if anything other then giving to the grandkids. Some though were silver. I have not photographed all of them yet. But here's what I have.

1888 Morgan

1901 O Morgan

1916 one penny

1933 1 kronor

1938 1 penny

1940 5 Ore

1942 5 Ore This one I need to look at a little more. Kind of looks like a die clash but doesn't match the reverse.

I may go back and see if any coins are left. They drop the price by at least half on the last day of the sale. So if any left I may be able to pick up the rest for a few bucks.

You could toss it in some mineral or olive oil and forget about it for a month or two and see if it will help some. But it does look flat.

Heritage http://www.ha.com/c/index.zx , Teletrade http://www.teletrade.com/coins/cat.asp?realized=1 and even ebay if you look in the advanced search function and mark completed listings can show you prices. (BTW I posted here since this is not a pm me forum.)

Okay a few to help the dated coin thread when we get to them. Poland 1/2 grosz 1509 1510 1512 1513 1514 1518 1519 1520 1521

I'm afraid to bid on one and get in a bidding war with someone here.

Here's a list of what I've got coming. 1509,1510, 1512, 1513, 1514, 1518, 1519, 1520, 1521

Almost forgot got one of the Paramount Redfield dollar also.

Both are greek. The first one is an King of Macedon with Hercules face and a seated Zeus on the back. The second Athena and an owl . A good place to look is http://www.cngcoins.com/ Either the coinshop or eauctions has a pretty good selection of greek coins to look through. Also there is a search function If you start an account at http://photobucket.com/ you can post the full size pictures here. Also if you could either measure them or place something in the picture to judge size. On the King of Macedon coin look closely at the object to the left of Zeus and the one under the seat to help ID. It would probably help to post this over in the Ancient Coin forum here. http://www.coinpeople.com/index.php?/forum/245-ancient-coin-forum/ Not everybody may look here.

A bump

I don't have a 1525 but I have 9 pre 1525 coming my way I bought as a group deal.

I don't go out of the way to collect them. But I do have 2 of the old photo anacs (Franklin half and morgan dollar) and one or two rattlers and a few ogh's the latest being the 1881 cc ms 65 I picked up.

I am having a real tough time with the close ups. I don't have the dual light set up at the new house. Need to get another clamp type lamp. So far can just barely make out the faint line under the second and the line from the tail feather show in the pics. I have not been able to get a decent pic of the line at the lip. So far I've taken about 40 shots to get these. One thing that doesn't help for clear reflection free shots is being slabbed. For awhile back at the old house I have the two lamps and some white paper reflector set up. Need to do something like that here. One of the things they don't mention is the slight polish line under the one. It shows up good on the last full shot of a coin they used at vamworld http://www.vamworld.com/1881-CC+VAM-6

Been a while since I picked up a morgan. .

1881-CC VAM-6 Dash Under 8, Double 18, CC Tilted Left III23 – C3b (Dash Under 8, Double 18, CC Tilted Left) (178) I-2 R-4 Obverse III2 3 – Faint dash under right 8 wears away on late die stages. First 1 doubled on right side surface of shaft. First 8 doubled on surface at the top inside and bottom outside. Die marker – Horizontal thin line die impression on lower lip. Reverse C3b – CC Mint mark centered and tilted slightly to left. Die Marker – Thin horizontal die scratch under second tail feather from right. This one is late die state

You know I took a quick look first time and I did not notice the 1902 date on the silver eagle. You would think if they are going to make fakes at least get the dates right. I mean come on 84 years off?

To me the 1879 and peace dollar if fakes are pretty good at least from the pictures.

My favorite coins out of my collection is ones passed down.

Just wondering have you tried a magnet on them yet? If magnetic that would easily confirm as fakes. The second set I'm pretty sure is fake. Easy one to spot is the 1799. The first set can't tell you for sure, but if bought from the same person would be suspect. Better close ups of the individual coins would help. But even with that having them checked by a reputable coin dealer would be your best bet.

Out of all of them. Not in this order I like the 2 6 pence especially the England is in great shape. The Chinese cash really tough times for the Emperor Xian Feng during his 10 year reign the Taiping Rebellion ,Nien Rebellion, Second Opium War, Battle of Palikao. Cuban 40 centavo, Austria 10 heller really nice condition and complex design. Italian 50 centesimi made of Stainless Steel but magnetic. They had two types non-magnetic and later magnetic. The Philippine coins helped firm up my collection from there. All in all turned up pretty nice pick up. On the most part decent coins, none cleaned, low end completed prices from ebay sales would total about 30$ over the I price paid. Admittedly some of the coins are barely worth postage. The 10 Cash is kind of a mystery on price. Krause shows it a lot higher then other other 10 cash around the same time, but sold ebay prices didn't reflect that. $30 for good in Krause $9 ebay. May have been someone getting a deal though. Not sure.

Next and last group France

Okay, went ahead and finished out the last of them. Egypt and British realm.

King Farouk was the owner of one of the 1933 Double eagles.