ikaros

I collect by osmosis, mainly. I just shed a fair load of coins, actually, giving a stack of duplicates to my best friend's wife's best friend--mostly British copper, and a few strays. Generally, I hit the LCS once a month, have a big blowout at the Ohio State Coin Show every Labor Day weekend, and scour eBay periodically. Bought a bunch over eBay this summer. I'm still waiting for the Central States show to come back to Ohio, but it seems to be permanently lodged in Chicago now.

Taking a nod from geologists' use of coins in images to show scale, Mars Odyssey has brought quite a nice 1909 VDB cent to image for calibration purposes: Is this the first coin sent to another planet? And I'd like to know how they decontaminated it without disturbing the patina.

The Haul I did pretty good at the coin show today--no pictures yet because I'm at Evil Twin's place and not at home, but here's the list: For the Jefferson Project: 1952D - MS65 1955 - PR64 1956D - 'BU' 1976S - PR 1979S T2 - PR67 DCAM For "In Soviet Russia, Coin Collects YOU!" 1k 1939 3k 1977 5k 1930 10k 1967 For the predecimal collection: Farthing: 1924 Halfpence: 1923, 1929, 1931, 1947, 1954 Pence: 1929, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1961, 1964 Threepence: 1943, 1957, 1959 Sixpence: 1966 Shilling: 1953 Scottisn Half crowns: 1950, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1959, 1963, 1967 Birth year set: Ceylon: 1 rupee Poland set: 1966 20 groszy Miscellaneous things: 1863 Italy 10 centisimi 1887 Deutsches Reich 1 pfennig 1952 South Africa farthing 2008 Kazakhstan 50 tenge - Vostok spacecraft

This beauty is now retired to my Jefferson Project. Shooting with a new camera (Polaroid i1437) -- I think they're better images, yes. 1943P Silver Nickel

This weekend here in Columbus. Anyone else gonna be there? I can only manage Sunday this year because of my work schedule, and I only got that because I traded my Sunday shift for a co-worker's last Wednesday shift... but I'll be there!

I've been remiss in imaging my recent purchases, but given the news yesterday, I decided to get these two in particular done: Glendinning Man in Space series: Gemini VIII Glendinning Man in Space series: Apollo XI Thousands of years from now, when humanity really does live out among the stars, we'll still remember who was first to put his foot on another world. There are precious few heroes of all of humanity, and we lost one yesterday.

I am clearly in the wrong geographical location for good CoinStar hits.

What is this "sell" you mention? I do not know this word...

So I went to the State Fair on opening day two weeks ago (and again last week) and partook of RED VELVET FUNNEL CAKE. Funnel cake, roast corn on the cob, and ice cream frozen with liquid nitrogen are the three things I must have at the fair, and then whatever looks good. RED VELVET FUNNEL CAKE was just too amazing. Complete with cream cheese icing. I also stumbled across a deal on a new Polaroid camera, an i1437 -- 14 megapixel, antishake, face-finding, all sorts of goodies. So I have a new digital camera, and I'm still gettin used to it, but it's not bad. One of the dealers had a dime box of coins, and I picked up a Liz 2 1960 Canadian nickel, several George VI Canadian nickels ('42, '44 V, '49) and a '38 Canadian cent, a '37 UK halfpenny, and a 1949 Israeli 5 prutah. At 10c each. Makes me happy. He also had a set I have been wanting for ages -- I have a couple of the aluminium ones that I posted many moons ago, but he had the complete 22 coin bronze (or brass?) set of the Glendinning Man in Space medals from 1969. For five bucks, in their original display card, but without the booklet and folder. Haven't photographed it yet. Anyway, here's some of the coins. 1949 Israeli 5 prutah 1937 UK Halfpenny 1939 Canadian 1c This one came off of eBay, though. Had to have it. I'm a huge Marvin the Martian fan, and the "In Gluteus Maximus We Trust" sold it once and for all.

You own a pilot?

Never had gold, never had an American halfpenny, never had a Bust anything, a halfdime, or a 3c piece of either content. These oversights will be corrected some day.

Mmm, I loves those George V large cents. Great acquisitions!

Still not quite got the lighting right, but the images seem to be a definite improvement over what I had been getting. Lustrous and proof issues are the hardest ones to capture well! A circulated piece takes the light evenly, that's easy.

And it was a completely random discovery. I searched on 'deco' on a whim, and there it was. It's just incredible in hand -- both deeply and subtly sculpted. Less luck on eBay today -- my attempt at sniping an Isaac Newton piece and a Thai proof set both got sniped. I don't know how many of us were throwing in our bids at the last possible second, but it was more funny than annoying to watch the numbers jump.

I love those coins that don't fit any of your collecting categories but just catch your eye so hard you have to have them anyway -- great find!

Even though I still have pics pending from my last LCS run above, I wanted to get this up today. Made several purchases off eBay last week, and most of them have arrived already. And I think my coin photography is getting better. West Germany 1 Mark 1963F -- for the birthyear collection 2009 Kazakhstan 50 Tenge Apollo-Soyuz commemorative -- for the Blinded Me With Science! collection This is the one that blew my mind; I wanted it as soon as I saw it, and I can't believe no one bid against me for such a beautiful bit of sculpture. 1917 10 Cmes Ville de Besançon emergency money

Oh, but that's a beauty. D'you know what year it is?

That's gorgeous! Count me in for a chance at it!

Sure, wake up my inner editor. Under Blank Planchet: "Not perhaps an error per say" should be "Not perhaps an error per se" (and should be italicized since it's not English). Under Wrong Planchet Error: "Below is a picture of a 2 pence design struck on a 1 pence planchet." should be "Below is a picture of a 2 pence design struck on a 1 penny planchet." Pence is plural. Under Multiple Errors: For "...tend to be more actively sort by error collectors.", did you mean "...tend to be more actively sought by error collectors."? Really good stuff there -- I deeply envy that poor threepence at the end of the page!

So Wednesday (which is my Sunday since I work Thursday to Monday and therefore Thursday is my Monday and Monday is my Friday and so the middle of the week is my weekend and the weekend is my middle of the week and I think I just made myself grammatically dizzy) I decided to pedal off for Hoover Dam. No, the other one. The intention was to do photography. I came back with only about 10 pictures because one thing I forgot to do was charge the battery in my camera. And since I also forgot sunblock, I think you can figure out what else I came back with. And since that's only about a mile or three from my Local Coin Shop, I had no excuse not to stop in. Added a few proofs to the Jefferson Project (the L&Cs) and the 2012P and Ds. They haven't cracked any proof sets yet so they didn't have single '12S proofs yet. Found another gapfiller for my birth year set, a Finnish 20 penniä. For the Soviets, 1977 5 and 15 kopeks. For the Brits, a 1912 halfpenny. And for the Poles, a 1976 2 złote and a 1978 10 groszy. Pictures to come, as usual!

'09P Northern Marianas quarter, and a '10P Yosemite NPQ. Only '12 I've seen yet in change was a cent.

My first Coinstar hit! A 2009 Bahamas penny, and two Canadian quarters: one 1969, and a silver 1961!

I'm not a basketball fan myself, but as a Deadhead, the Lithuanian team has a special place in my heart. I think I might need to get me one of those!

Yeah, I have to fight down the urge not to add those to my list of things I collect... my resolve probably won't hold forever.

Bits of 1, lots of 5, a little bit of 8 (with regard particularly to my birth year world set).