bobh

It might be real ... at least it doesn't look like the "usual suspect" when it comes to fake Gangut roubles! I would want to see the edge and check the weight before spending serious money on it, though. Besides that, a seller with only 15 feedback points makes me suspicious ... even if the picture is of a genuine coin, that doesn't necessarily mean that this is the coin one would receive. I wouldn't take that chance just in the hopes of finding a bargain.

The inner curvature of the wings, plus the length of the eagle's necks are the biggest differences, IMHO.

Congratulations, Sigi!

I can't say for sure about today, but I know that common-date 5 rouble gold coins slabbed by NGC as MS-66 and MS-67 were quite common back in 2005 when I bought most of my Russian gold coins. XF/AU common dates could be had almost for melt value; I paid just a little over $100 each for these two: Most of my other coins of this series (bought raw) could be had for less than that.

Looks like a basement job to me. Usually I get very depressed when I see fakes being sold for lots of $$$. But somehow I want to see this one go for $1,000! (Don't worry, though, I won't be bidding on it).

This might be of special interest to Russian coin collectors and dealers who have dealt with UBS auctions in the past: UBS Switzerland discontinuing numismatics services (link to my thread on the World Coins forum) There were a few fake Russian coins sold in recent auctions ... wonder if this had anything to do with their decision?

Well, when I usually get something like this, it lasts for a week or less, and my temperature usually stays below 38C - 100F. This time, my fever had gone over 39.5 - 103F, and I was ill for much longer. What I didn't have, which is usually a symptom of swine flu, is the diarrhea associated with it. So maybe this was not swine flu after all, but a rare case of "buffalo flu"

Here is one of the nicest Buffalo nickels I have seen in a long time outside of a PCGS or NGC slab: My wife and I have non-overlapping vacation schedules between Christmas and New Years, unfortunately -- so we decided to spend a week in the Italian area of Switzerland (called the Tessin, for those "in the know") during the first week of January which we both had off ... So we booked a nice hotel in Lugano for that time period. (Little did we know that it would actually be WARMER in Zurich, where we live, than in the southern part of Helvetia that whole week...) Unfortunately, I came down with the flu the day after we arrived (I really think it was the swine flu, but didn't feel like shelling out $85 to find out for sure...) So for most of the week, I just stayed in bed (yuck!) while my wife did all sorts of "wellness" things (massages, sauna, swimming, aroma therapy, etc.) Anyway, the first day we were in Lugano, we took a walk into town, and lo and behold -- there was a coin shop! There were all sorts of things in the window display, but this Buffalo nickel caught my eye. It is a very small store-front, but this coin -- priced at about $50 -- didn't let me go. The next day, I made an effort to go there, and I bought this coin ... I guess one might say, this was my "wellness" therapy! I might add that the dealer had graded this coin as "quasi FDC", or AU-something. In the USA, I don't think this coin would grade any less than MS-64, especially considering that early-date Buffs usually didn't strike up very well (except for the minute obverse rim ding at 2 pm ... what do YOU think?) (BTW, after buying a magnifying lens for the view finder in my Nikon D60, I'm FINALLY getting my pictures in focus! )

Thanks! I haven't gotten that deeply into the dimes yet, just a few goodies here and there. But maybe this will be my next target, who knows?? With this particular coin, I thought I might be able to pick it up on the cheap because neither the red book nor PCGS list any of the DDO varieties for this year and MM. I think it would grade VF or even XF -- the dies were so worn out by the time it was struck that little detail is shown even on high grade specimens. And the auction was by a German seller; I'm pretty sure there aren't very many die variety dime collectors over here. As the price list shown by Gerry Fortin shows, even in VF it is listed at over $100. So I think I got a good deal on it. As it turned out, one other bidder bid it up to the price it eventually reached (40€ or something like $59 including shipping to Switzerland); otherwise, it would have probably gone for about half that amount.

Looks like someone wasn't paying attention here: USA, Dime (10 Cent) 1876 CC, Carson City Reference (it's variety #72, BTW -- doubled die obverse, Fortin 107b, read all about it here: http://www.seateddimevarieties.com/pictorial/1876cc.htm. You can even see the obverse die crack through Liberty's forehead on these pictures): http://www.seateddimevarieties.com/major_100_pricing.htm Pics:

Nice catch, Mark! I think the Hawaiian dollar is the toughest of all the 1883 Hawaiians to find in XF or above. I like the even, dark patina on it.

Here are the links to the images:

JUDAEA. Bar Kochba Revolt, 132-135 C.E. AR Zuz. Undated, attributed to year 3 (134/5 C.E.). Extremely Fine From the Jan. 10 Stack's International Sale.

OK, I looked at the first five pages. The before and after pictures show minimal improvement, if any. Nothing compared to what BKB has shown, and what is a common problem with Russian copper from this period. I think olive oil is better than its reputation, but BKB is right when he says it sometimes takes several soaks in order to get it off. It also isn't the best procedure for every coin; I have had best results when there is only a very little amount of green. Besides, once the green is off, you might not like what is underneath the green (usually heavy pitting, lamination or other damage)! And if the green stuff is too heavy, by the time the oil has done its job, most of the desirable brown patina will also have been dissolved away. Might as well boil the coin (or whatever...) Also, I don't believe that bronze "disease" is contagious, but the fact that other coins might show similar symptoms is merely the result of inadequate storage and environmental conditions.

Strange -- none of the coins shown in that link seem to have verdigris, but other kind of dirt or dark corrosion of some kind. And with a few of them, I can't tell the difference in the before & after pictures.

Before: After:

Good job! You didn't say how you did it -- I usually put them in olive oil (extra vergine) for a month or two. Sometimes I change the oil and let it soak another several weeks if necessary. I don't know exactly how the oil works, but I assume that the organic crud is dissolved by the oil and the green stuff is dissolved by the acid content of the oil. Extra vergine olive oil is best because it has much less acid than the cheaper kinds. Of course, the desirable brown patina is also affected by the oil, but to a lesser degree. Somewhere I had a "before" and "after" of a copper 2k of Alexander I here on the forum ...

Wow ... congratulations!

I like pink for copper and gold, and dark blue for silver and nickel. Black is also pretty good for just about anything, but I like a colored background better (just my personal preference).

It is a matter of white balance setting. Maybe you could try to change it from "auto" to whatever best suits the kind of lighting you have? With auto settings, you never know what part of the image the camera is using to calibrate the setting. I am guessing that you are using sunlight, and that when the picture on the left was taken, there was a cloud which passed over momentarily ... it can make a big difference. Are you sure it isn't a NIKON Coolpix? That's what I used before I bought my Nikon D-60. But I'm still very happy with a lot of the pictures I took with the Coolpix, and sometimes wonder whether it was worth the $$$ to buy the Nikon (used almost exclusively to take pictures of my coins)!

That was a very nice read, thanks a lot ... and congratulations on your great acquisitions! As to the photography, there is a lot you can do without spending money on an expensive camera. You can get rid of the yellow easily enough by setting the white balance feature in your camera to "incandescent", because it looks like you used ordinary room lighting from incandescent bulbs to take these pictures. If you use direct sunlight or daylight bulbs, you should set it for "daylight". Some cameras will have an "auto" white balance, but you have to try it out and see if it works to your satisfaction. Usually you will then have to adjust the "temperature", or white balance, once again slightly (hopefully) in the image program on your computer to get it "just right". Some people prefer daylight bulbs over sunlight because you can experiment with different lighting angles much easier. Sunlight makes some coins appear washed out (silver), whereas I find it works very well with copper or bronze, or with heavily toned coins. With sunlight, you don't have to worry about the color spectrum at all, whereas with daylight bulbs you'll still have to do some minor adjustment after taking the picture. But in order to change the angle of lighting in sunlight, you have to move either the camera (i.e. the stand) or the subject. And this isn't very easy to do unless you have a very flexible stand which allows you to change angles without changing the length of the feet, for example. Actually, due to the range of subtle color variations and lack of extreme reflectivity, I would think that sunlight would be the way to go with paper money. But YMMV on this. Also, use a camera stand and the built-in timer on your camera to take pictures. It will improve focusing a great deal. Also, be sure to use "macro" mode for any close-up pictures. Experiment with the different kinds of auto-focus settings (if you have it) until you find the one that works the best. With paper money, as long as you can image the enire bill and still have some margin in the frame all the way around, you can minimize the inevitable distortion which happens at the edge of the picture (most cameras, even expensive SLR cameras, show distortion at the edges to some degree). But since there are no raised or incuse elements to deal with (as with coins), you should be able to get a good focus on any bill. With coins, there are always problems to choose the distance that will get the important elements into focus while leaving others a bit blurry. Also, the fields on most business strike coins are seldom perfectly flat which makes for "interesting" problems with light reflection. Proof coins are sometimes much easier to capture because their fields are mirror flat. Good luck with your new job!

Your first token (the one signed by Kirk) is a marvelous item! The second token (GB) looks like someone tried to copy the original. They sure did a good job on the portrait. It is so close to the original -- took me several minutes before I could spot any significant differences in design (spacing of the lines on the vest, the nose, and the ear, for example). The reverse lettering does look a bit cruder, especially the alignment of the letters. But why would anyone want to make a fake of something like this, then sign it with different initials? The fact that the inscription on the reverse is the same (except for the weakly struck "F") shows that whoever made this, wanted to pass it off for the original, IMHO. Are they rare enough that it would motivate someone to make counterfeits of it? Perhaps a contemporary counterfeit?

I just put up my own pictures of these now: Also, here is an encased Indian cent which I picked up for 8€ and small change on eBay last week: