ikaros

That looks consistent with an 1800 6 Kreutzer of Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor and first Austrian emperor.

I already do almost all my purchases on plastic anyway.

I guess the cold is a better preservative than the salt water is a corrosive... if asked to bet on what would be left of paper money by now on the Titanic, I would've cheerily wagered on 'mush'.

Art nearly predicted what I pulled from the machine at the local Kroger's last night -- it wasn't a 53D Roosevelt, but it was a 52.

The only thing I would add so far as cleaning goes is be as absolutely gentle as possible - nothing even remotely abrasive. I'd start with nothing more than water (preferably distilled as tap water will have whatever chemicals your local water plant introduces, plus whatever native minerals are in your local water supply) and a very soft cloth, wielded delicately. Any coin with any enhanced value I'd say should not be cleaned at all.

I didn't like slabs until I got a couple slabbed Ikes. I have changed my mind, and don't mind them at all now, certainly for higher-grade coins.

Hello and welcome!

Is there a way to not share my collection on the cloud, and does it have in-app ads? Thanks!

I used to keep a 'lucky' piece -- I stopped for two reasons. The first was I stopped believing in luck and in my ability to influence it, and the second was I felt really guilty adding to the circulatedness of a vintage coin. That said, when I completed a model of the Yellow Submarine, it much more appropriate to me that the coin I put in it as ballast (they recommended a US cent) was a sixpence from the 1960s. The folklore about silver is interesting -- recall that it's silver bullets that one uses against a werewolf, rather than gold, and silver objects are effective against vampires and other legendary critters as well. I suspect that legend came down to that form because silver was something that almost everyone could scrape up a little of; gold was out of reach to your average serf and might as well be Kryptonite, but silver pence were minted all the way up to the reign of Charles II, and since halfpence and farthings were just silver pence halved or quartered, pretty much everyone could get their hands on at least a little silver. Assuming (and I don't know for sure and welcome correction) Continental coinage of that period was comparable, that's probably why silver gained its place as a protectant against evil spirits and monsters, rather than gold. It was scarce enough to have an aura of mystique about it, but not so scarce that it was utterly unavailable. That's my theory anyway, and I am not a folklorist.

DP - You could mitigate that by added two things: no elected officials until they've been deceased for 25 or 50 (or more) years. And stagger the bills so they're released one each year in sequence. Each design gets a 7 year run, and there's still a new design every year. Balaji -- thanks, I didn't know they were still running those off. I knew they were still legal tender, but thought we were still running on the last batch printed.

I'd like to see a complete redesign every five years or so. We could dedicate each bill to a theme and change it with each redesign -- one bill could be about science, another about literature, another about art, that sort of thing. If the $2 is brought back, and we still cap it at the $100, that's seven bills we could use to represent more than just deceased political figures. Mostly I just love the idea of a science-themed bill with Henrietta Leavitt or Annie Jump Cannon or Grace Hopper or Sally Ride (or George Washington Carver or Richard Feynman -- men do science too!) on it.

Wow! Great sleuthing! I assume the denticles and rim would be a separate part fitted to the main die?

And the wrong kind of lettering -- yours is more ornate. But I think we're in the neighborhood. I'll keep poking around.

It'd be nice to see our paper money radically redesigned, and more often than once every couple generations. Our pocket money could be celebratory rather than bo-o-oring.

That's quite a remarkable piece. I'd swear I've seen that portrait before -- it looks like the Straits Settlements portrait:

I would love to see it happen; I'd help someone run it, but I should like someone else be the lead. Next time we do the Ugly Coin Competition, I'll step up to organize it, though!

That flattish spot at the top - I'm wondering if there might have been a metal loop that got snapped off, does it look like that's possible? My google-fu hasn't paid off yet, I still haven't spotted anything quite like this. The legend is interesting -- 'King of Greater Britain' rather than 'King of Great Britain'.

Is there any other text on there, and what kind of metal is it? And if you have a scanner, maybe you can get an acceptable image by scanning it directly -- that would be the most helpful thing, thanks! My own google-fu hasn't turned up anything that matches what you've described, although there appear to have been a lot of coronation medallions, both publicly and privately produced.

Went back to the same machine, and found a 2001 New Zealand 5c piece. Gonna have to hit this machine more often.

Love that 5 kopek -- something about the combination of incuse and relief, I dunno, but I've always liked the effect.

Wow, what a great idea for a set, one coin from every mint... as if my wallet isn't in enough trouble!

Best reason there is. I always come home from the Ohio State show with a couple that fit that category.

I'm going to go with a few here. First is the Bicentennial quarter, a design I've always loved: and second and third are the steelie I pulled out of a Coinstar the other day, and a silver war nickel from my Jefferson collection -- real in-hand reminders of how intensely men and materiel were committed to the war effort in WWII:

No, it's definitely 20th century issues (1901-2000), but the cover also definitely says 10th edition. One more Krause error...

Same machine paid off again today, mostly common dimes and pennies, nothing collectible, one arcade token... and one Italian euro cent.