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bobh

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Everything posted by bobh

  1. Thanks for the notice, Steve. Sorry to hear this news. I had a nice exchange with Maya back a few years ago ... she was the one who gave me the initial tip about the different obverse "Adam's apple" varieties of the 1897 gold 15 rouble coins. She will be greatly missed.
  2. What a great find! Just don't tell anybody where you found it, because they'll be all over the place with their shovels and metal detectors. Looks like there is a filing mark on the obverse at 7 o'clock. People occasionally used to do this with gold coins to make sure they were genuine and not just gold-plated. Good luck with the grading process!
  3. At the very top of the page on the left are two little flags ... clicking on the Stars and Stripes should put it in English mode. I realize now that they might not translate everything, though ... especially the navigation menu in the catalogs as well as the auction descriptions seems to be only in German. Oh well...
  4. You can view their website either in English or German. I think they have gotten up to about one or more auctions per month by now. Good luck!
  5. Thanks! I suppose I have to be thankful that a lot of U.S. bidders wouldn't bid on these in an overseas auction because of prohibitive customs and shipping costs, plus the fact that slabbed coins are definitely not as popular over here as they are in the States. On the other hand, there just aren't that many nice U.S. coins offered over here at auctions.
  6. Haven't really kept up my acquisitions in this thread for the last few years, although my coin gallery page is pretty much up to date. But I just won four coins in a German internet auction, and I got such a good deal that I wanted to share it with you. The 1937 Buffalo nickel was advertised as being in an ANACS holder; when I received the coins, it turned out to be in an old green PCGS rattler! Fortunately, the coins look a lot better in hand than the pictures. I've been participating in this company's internet auctions on several different occasions and have never been disappointed yet (WAG online, https://www.wago-auktionen.de/). Here is the latest story: -----------+---------+----------+-------------+------------------- Coin: | Grade: | Slab: | PCGS price: | I paid (in Euros): -----------+---------+----------+-------------+------------------- IHC 1859 | AU/Unc | -- | $260 (+) | € 54 IHC 1875 | MS63BN | PCGS | $300 | € 120 Buf 1937 | MS66 | PCGS old | $80-$100 | € 40 Buf 1937-S | MS66 | ANACS | $110 | € 36 -----------+---------+----------+-------------+------------------- Total: € 250 Buyer fee (15%), shipping and PayPal: € 44 Grand total: € 299 -----------+---------+----------+-------------+------------------- Paid in US-$: $ 321 PCGS prices total: $ 750-770 (!) Grading to me was accurate. Not too bad, eh?? Pics (from the auction; haven't had time to make my own yet):
  7. It could be a collector's mark, but it is too large and very crudely made. The fact that there are several counterstamps on the same (beat-up) coin makes me think it was used to try out the die before its real usage was attempted. Someone like the Baron would have certainly had a better stamp made (it was a joke, anyway! ). Maybe some ambitious young students did this?
  8. Perhaps Baron Eduard von Falz-Fein? He wrote an introduction to the Sincona auctions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_von_Falz-Fein
  9. Have any of you looked at the prices realized list yet? At the end, there is a list of unsold lots. Very many of the lots which were offered in the last part of Sincona 24 did not sell. Most are silver minor denominations (5, 10, 20 kopecks etc.) in high grade, mostly in slabs. Is it because of the higher estimates? The slabs? Or did all of the Russian buyers just decide to leave after the close of Tuesday's auction (perhaps to save one night's hotel expense)?
  10. Thank you, alexbq2! I think you must be right ... perhaps it was even announced in Sincona's auction catalog of the first part? Here is an interesting page about Södermann's biography (in Russian) which also contains a few paragraphs by Randolph Zander about him: http://staraya-moneta.ru/biography/832/ Since he lived out his last years in Switzerland, it would make sense that his family must be selling the rest of his collection through Sincona.
  11. I'm wondering who the collector was. There are so many rarities here that it might be able to find out who it was by deduction. For example, lot 1077 (pattern 25 kopecks 1911 in nickel). There were only 5 pieces struck. This one belonged to King Farouk and later to Randolph Zander, according to the description (what does "via private treaty" mean?). Most of the quoted collector notes in the descriptions are in idiomatic English and display a great deal of knowledge about varieties, things that were not documented even by Severin. Also, the collector was familiar with GDM, Ilyin and all of the famous auctions (Hess, etc.) It must have been someone close to the Russian Numismatic Society in America, IMHO. The only person close to the RNS selling his collection recently has been RW Julian, but I think he has been selling his coins through Jim Elmen's WWCC auctions. Who else could it be?
  12. I sat in all day today. I was the underbidder for lot 1029. In spite of my initial reservations, it was actually a very nice coin, but I can't see paying more than 800 to 1,000 for it. There was a tag from the original collector (presumably) in its holder where it was marked "AU". By today's grading standards, it would probably grade MS-62 or perhaps MS-63, IMHO. I still don't understand how lot 1095 got to be so expensive (it's not a proof, either)! Tried to bid on the 1912 Borodino rouble but without any success. Oh well, now at least I have some more money to invest in stocks... or in other coins...
  13. Today was only the first day. I intend to go tomorrow to bid in person.
  14. I looked at these coins today and some others. The descriptions are accurate, except for the lack of mention of the graffiti. The pictures do NOT do these coins justice! I look forward to placing my bids in person.
  15. It is nice to have discrepancies such as the ones you describe, of course. Grading is always going to be somewhat subjective. Since I live in Zurich, I'll try to find time this week to look at them in person. As to the three coins in lot 1031, I would have expected the printed catalog at least to mention the graffiti on both of the other coins not pictured (all of the coins in that lot are pictured in the Internet catalog). Just curious, does the seller write his own descriptions? Or Sincona?
  16. Look at lots 1029 and 1031, 50 kopecks 1899-FZ (1x) and 1900 (3x). Am I the only one that sees a discrepancy between the images and the descriptions? More specifically, I would not call these "uncirculated", much less "nice uncirculated" or "choice uncirculated".
  17. Interesting story, Igor! I remember seeing someone post a remark about Kazakov photoshopping some pictures of jetons in one of the Russian-language forums when the book had first come out. That should have tipped me off to this much earlier, but I forgot about it in the meantime. When I searched for "казаков монет фотошоп" in Google, I found other mention of some photoshopped images in 1916 and 1917 of the catalog in this forum (beware of porn pop-ups, though): http://rutracker.ga/viewtopic.php?t=951956 Looks like the 1/2 kopeck images of 1916 and 1917 are photoshopped from the same reverse, too.
  18. When I first saw this catalog advertised, I bought one -- being a collector of that period, I thought it would be nice to have. And I wasn't disappointed! There are several varieties which he documents, varieties I haven't seen mentioned in other catalogs. The rarest variety in his catalog, however, is one that Kazakov himself perhaps was not aware of: We know that in 1912, the reverse design of the 50 kopeck silver coins was slightly changed; the tips of the eagle's tail feathers are closer to the denomination in the old version, and the orientation of the tip of the crown relative to the denticles is somewhat different. But take a good look at the image used for 1912 50 k. in his book: the reverse is obviously of the old type! Ever since then, I have tried to find other examples. Hardly an auction which doesn't have a few of these, since it is probably the most common date. I always took a good look at the reverse images to see if this might be one of the old ones. No go so far... Until last week, when I was looking at the catalog again and noticed that there are a couple of stains or discolorations on the reverse of the 1912 in Kazakov's book. I had a dark suspicion, so compared the reverse of 1911 with 1912... IT IS A PHOTOSHOP OF THE 1911 REVERSE WITH THE DATE CHANGED!!! You can imagine how silly I felt -- almost violated, actually. Now, why would anyone need or want to do this? There are excellent images of much rarer coins than this one. Was there no nice specimen of a 1912 poltina available? Hard to imagine. Or did someone else sneak this photo into the book to discredit Kazakov? I still think it is an otherwise excellent catalog, but I wonder how many other of the images in the book are photoshop jobs?
  19. Just won this one -- haven't had a chance to upgrade this year in a long time (50 kopecks, 1896-*):
  20. Any ideas why they list this as "new variety, indistinct strike"? http://www.coins.ee/rubla-1913-bc-300-aastat-romanovite-dunastiat-ngc-au-details-ahmane-verming-2 Looks like the flat variety to me.
  21. Bravo, Marv! Was it difficult, parting with that beauty?
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