Looking for Coin Inventory Software? Looking for Books about a certain coin? Looking for information about a coin? Want to know if a seller is reliable? Most of the people posting as of now probably came to this forum because of a message on RCC: rec.collecting.coins, the Usenet newsgroup. If you do not know what RCC is and what it can do, then you should check it out. The "current events" of the newsgroup fall into some predictable categories: flamewars, eBay auction announcements, honest and dishonest dealers and collectors, and people who found grandpa's collection. However, if you use the ARCHIVES, you can find a lot of good information about numismatics and collecting. The best archive is Groups.Google (http://www.groups.google.com) where you specify the group (rec.collecting.coins) and from there you can select the hyperlink to Advanced Search. Or http://www.collectingforum.org Advanced Search lets you look for keywords, titles, authors, etc., through a range of dates.
Actually, there's quite a bit more to RCC today than Michael indicates, and it's not nearly as negative. There's lots of useful advice-type discussion about how to best use the grading services, how to best store your coins, how to best photograh them, how to avoid getting cheated on eBay, how to best ship coins, how to best use the pricing guides, and so on. There's human interest-type discussion too such as cool coin finds, boneheaded cashiers, how would you grade this coin, and so on. You don't have to go to the archives for old messages for this, though doing so can supplement the current discussion.
Mr. Atoz, the Archivist What took me to the Archives was looking for information about BUST HALVES. Then, I remembered that lately several people came to RCC with questions about coin software. Basically, the archives are a good way to find information about just about any aspect of numismatics. rec.collecting.paper-money has the same features, of course, as does any other newsgroup. Working as a security guard and having read through half a dozen books about security, I visited the alt.security groups. However, they were not as informative for "post and patrol" as RCC and RCP-M are for numismatics. The rec.collecting.* groups are pretty strong, well-visited, and lurked by authorative people. Coins is better off than Paper-Money, which is too bad, but true nonetheless, as witness that here there are Zero replies to my post about paper money.
Are we talking about the One Ember? If I recall correctly, they're selling for about $35 each. Eric Tillery sold a complete set of five (at the time) for about $165 last year (original issue price $80). There are now seven RCC tokens: One Ember (Ancient Greek Design - 2002) 120 struck Five Ember (Flamedrake - 2003) 122 struck Ten Ember (Incused Design - 2003) 120 struck 1/4 Flame (Troll Design - 2004) 122 struck 1/2 Flame (Colorized Muse - 2004) 121 struck One Flame (Silver 10th Anniversary - 2004) (Mintage not yet available) One Spark (Ancient Hand-Struck - 2004) 120 struck Jerry I own TWO complete sets!
