ikaros

Here it is!

Eek! I forgot to post the pics when I got home last night! I can fill in a few details, though. The base coin was a bog-standard 1987 which appears to have been drilled out so a ground-down 1997 obverse could be inserted; there's only a little bit of a double rim on the second obverse, and it overall feels just a little thinner than a standard US quarter. The second obverse is about 45° CCW off of medal alignment. Not a bad job overall, whoever did it, although of course a serious conman would have ensured both sides would have the same date. It of course takes up residence in ik's home for wayward bits of metal, now.

The coinage weirdness continues. Two-headed quarter from Lucky Pierre today -- as well as an AtB I hadn't had yet. Pictures when I get home...

This is my third proof in change this year... weird!

Silver proof Bicentennial half! Pictures when I get home from work!

No, I don't think I've had any Denvers. I discovered how ingrained the urge to pun is in me -- even when no one's around, I do it. I dropped a couple the other day and commented to myself as I picked them up, "Ooh, there's a bad case of fallen Arches."

No, not as our greatly appreciated fellow member here, but rather an exhibition at my local museum that I only just learned about today. Well, that settles what I'm doing with myself on my weekend--which has just begun. Hopefully photography is permitted and I can report back with some interesting things.

I've been getting several Arches quarters lately.

There's a perfect example right there of what I was talking about -- I'd be a fool to deny the Maria Theresa's importance and it absolutely belongs on a "greatest hits" list, but I've never wanted one myself. And maybe that's the effect of compiling a list like this is that I'm reconsidering that coin's place in my collection. What else might make up a greatest hits type set? I'll nominate a Walking Lib half for inclusion -- easily enough had in reasonably high grades and surely one of the most beautiful designs ever.

I'd definitely support including a Victorian florin (final portrait) and a cartwheel to a "greatest hits" list -- I concede some of satootoko's point, but not all of it. There are coins that I have no particular interest in owning that I'll admit are fine examples of the art. I might offer redefining this list as follows: coins that through technology, artistry and/or historical interest mark a particular level of achievement (or notoriety), and are accessible to the great majority of collectors. A list that's dominated by gold and extreme rarity only keeps people on the outside looking in.

Did you stop anywhere good for food? I can make several belated recommendations. Katzinger's, Schmidt's, Happy Greek/Mad Greek (not related, but both excellent), Mozart's, Hania's, Indian Oven... heh. And I wonder why biking to and from work every day doesn't reduce my waistline.

Oh, plenty. The Ike set only just started at the coin show when I was made an offer I couldn't refuse on that lot of slabs, though I've been wanting to do Ikes for a while. I've added it as a Registry Set on PCGS, too. Though for some reason, one of the codes wouldn't enter. Odd.

I'm not sure if you're laughing at the Altoids, or the cobbled-together German noun (which, as I recall, is feminine, though I gave the plural)...

Extra minty? Like an Altoid? In German... huh. Fremdprägtmünzen?

Here's the dollars. Gonna try to get more photos done tomorrow, if there's more sunlight (seems to be the best lighting even for coin photography). I need to re-take some of these, but it at least gets 'em imaged.

Apparently even some American planchets (not completed coins, though) have come from the Royal Canadian mint. It makes a certain amount of sense for British/Empire/Commonwealth mints to have the capability of minting coins for each other; the larger countries like England, India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have the finances and facilities to operate mints, whereas places like the Seychelles and Nauru pretty much don't. If there isn't a term for coins struck outside of the country in which they're intended to circulate, there really should be one. Any suggestions?

There's a list of foreign coins minted in US facilities here; Wikipedia also has a list of foreign countries with coins struck at the Royal Canadian mint. Just what I need, another category to collect.

Okay, a few calculations are in. The birthyear set is now just over 48% complete, and the Jefferson set is over 43% complete. I would call this progress!

The haul: The Jefferson Project (yes, it's still alive!): 1945S MS65 1950P MS64 1971S Proof 1973S Proof 1977S Proof 1978S Proof 1982S Proof 1983S Proof Birth Year Set: Ceylon: 1, 2 & 10 cents Dominican Republic: 1 & 5 centavos Finland: 50 penniä India: 25 & 50 paise Pakistan: 5 paisa Portugal: 5 escudos Switzerland: 5 fr Red Cross centennial Turkey: 1 kurus bronze In Soviet Russia, Coin Collects YOU!: 1936 20 kopeks 1977 1 ruble, Moscow Olympics Poland: 1933 2 grosze 1938 50 groszy British/Empire/Commonwealth: 1955, 1960, 1961, 1965 6d India 1936 1/12th Anna Ceylon 1951 10 cents S. Africa 1953 farthing Guernsey 1956 8 Doubles British Caribbean 1961 1c Jersey 1964 1/12th Shilling Miscelanneous Shiny Things: Bolivia 1951H 1 Boliviano 1973S-78S US dollars PCGS slabbed all graded PR69DCAM

I have bought my first tombstones! Six proof clad Ikes in PCGS slabs, and all graded identically. Plus many others; several holes are filled and several countries completed for my birth year set. No time for photos, Mrs Evil Twin is coming to get me so I can spend the next few days out at their place in the country.

In Columbus, on Labor Day Weekend -- anyone gonna be there? I've taken Sunday off so I can spend current money on obsolete money...

I'm less than pleased with Krause guides. My edition of 'Unusual World Coins' is riddled with typos and misplaced or mislabeled images, and fails to include several fantasy issues I own; my World Coins 1901-2000 (10th edition -- I only use it for planning and plotting, not pricing) does a little better along those lines, but has its own strange set of editorial quirks and peccadillos. I genuinely find Numista more help for research anymore.

I wince whenever I see anything like that; my thinking is that if you don't already know for certain that it doesn't have value above melt, then handle it like it does. Not as wince inducing, though, as some of the pictures I've seen on eBay of proofs for sale... and the picture is of the raw coin in the seller's bare hand. Anyway, I think beyond the coins with definite collector value, they should set aside some mid-grade coins, maybe a hundred or so, to put on eBay just to cash in on the novelty of the find -- see if they can get them slabbed under the title "St Cloud Hoard" or "Piggy Bank House" or something. Even if they're not high grade, there's always someone who'll buy a coin with an interesting provenance.

Did anyone else yelp when they started handling them? I was sitting here going "By the edges! By the edges, you fool!"

I'll settle for starting up Kodachrome production and processing again. You did say a blank check...