Coin Talk

I thought this would be a good time to set the record straight.
I wanna rank the TPGs, including the holder/era that the coin was slabbed.
Here goes- (all imho)

The top dawg is....
#1) NGC (no-line fatties)
Including NGC black, these are THE best buy in numismatics today !!!
If you can buy a no-line fatty for greysheet $ or back of bid you are way ahead of the game. You can STILL find crack-out candidates in these slabs circa 2018. Be careful though, these holders are notorious for toning silver, sometimes enough to cause a 1 pt downgrade....

#2) PCGS (Old green holders)
Rattlers, doilies and green labels (sometimes yellow or blue faded)
1995 was the end of THIS era holder, they had a good run, and some numismatic scholars consider this era holder to be #1. Dont buy the hype, or drink too much kool-aid. The vast majority have already been picked over for upgrade candidates. Most of what you will find nowadays are accurately graded though.

#3) Anacs ( small white holders )
I could...

I do not buy expensive coins (although I admire all that I see here greatly. One can only dream!).
I do apply Renwax to most of my coins to enhance their appearance.
I have never sold a coin - so I am certainly not trying to hide anything from anyone..
just trying to bring out as much detail and eye appeal as I can. Sometimes it does wonders.. sometimes not so much. It can also be removed without much fuss.

Here are a couple of "before" and "after" shots. The first is the seller's picture and then mine after application. Not the same photography setup - so not truly "apples to apples" but I can assure you that in hand both depictions are/were very accurate.

I can also state that quite a few of the coins I have purchased already have wax applied and this fact is not mentioned when describing the coin. Does not bother me at all - but would that be an issue for the more experienced/high end collector?

How do you feel about applying Renwax to coins?




Before:...

This post provides basic information about the Proof 1961 Franklin Half Dollar with Doubled Die Reverse. Check your proof sets and keep an eye out for this one. It is a king of doubled dies. If you know any other good sources of information describing this coin, please let me know. I look forward to learning more from all you CT folks.
[IMG]http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab269/collect89/Franklin1961DDRNGC64Reverse.jpg[/IMG]

This Proof 1961 Franklin Half Dollar is commonly known from Cherrypickers as Fivas-Stanton FS # 50¢-013. With the new numbering system in Cherrypickers, it is apparently FS-50-1961-801. NGC lists it as 1961 PF 50¢ VP-001. ...

Hi all

I just wanted to share some learning/experience of specific gravity tests for my coins.

This is not intended to be a best practice overview of conducting specific gravity tests. Rather, I am just sharing my journey to date, in the hope that it may be of interest and/or benefit to fellow collectors.

Context to my coins

My coin collection (or amassed coins to be more accurate) is somewhat eclectic. I am attempting to build a coin collection that more or less spans from the dawn of coins, to pre-modern/decimal. My passion is most definitely in the age of sail/discovery, closely followed by Byzantium and ancient coins.

With that in mind, the structure of my collection is as follows:

Ancient – 500BC to 500AD (pretty much Roman and Greek coins)

Medieval – 500AD to 1500AD (which solely consists of Byzantium coins at this stage, as other medieval coins are both small and expensive)

Age of sail and discovery – 1500 to 1862 (weird that I have such a precise end date - I...

Hello Friends from CoinTalk!

This is my very first thread here, and, although I have been posting here on and off for the past year (it's been 1 year since I signed up), I haven't made much of a presence. So, just like you all share something with each other of numismatic interest, I would also like to share something with you, the Ancients Community.

I started collecting ancients almost 2 years ago when I did a quick Google search to study Roman Denarii, and found links to actual coins on eBay. This year, I became very interested in Byzantine coins and have been focusing mainly on them.

There are several interesting Byzantine coins I acquired that were over stuck on previous issues. Doug Smith has an excellent write-up here: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac70byz.html

Here's a part from Doug's write-up about the basics on overstrikes.

This was a recent purchase of mine, and it arrived today. I bought a Qi knife with it, but it turned out to be a fake (the metal resonated when tapped, the coin felt light in-hand, and the patina had a very chemical-like smell). That certainly puts a damper on the mood, but I can send it back. The round coin, however, felt pretty real in hand, but its bad company has cast a little bit of a shadow on it. It is among the nicest I have seen for the type. Anyone have any thoughts? @Ken Dorney @AnYangMan @Loong Siew

The reading is “Gong”, which is a city in the state of Liang.



A little bit of background on these. While they are China’s first ROUND coins, they came into the picture some 200-300 years after China’s first spade and knife coins. There is some conjecture as to why the round coins came into being, but I believe that they were trying to mimic the form of jade...

I recently purchased a couple hoards of 100 Huo Quans from the Wang Mang period. They were uncleaned and unsifted, so I got some gem UNCs, some worthless culls, and some interesting and scarce varieties. I prefer this method of collecting as I usually find a few surprises and I learn something from the context of all of the coins being together.

One thing I like keeping is coins with nice patinas. I just don’t see many Huo Quans that are red, so I kept most of them. (They are redder in hand.)



An interesting find was an example without the sprue filed away. This is highly unusual because these coins were almost always well-made and such significant oversights like this just did not happen. Maybe it is an illicit cast? The vast majority of the coins in this hoard were of the beautiful official style, but some were of much lower quality. The govenment had a monopoly on coinage, so it did not contract minting duties to private individuals. I think there...

Post any coins you feel are relevant!

Asklepios (Latin: Aesculapius) was the god of healing in the ancient world. Legend tells us he was the son of Apollo and the Trikkaian princess Koronis (Latin: Coronis). His mother died in labor and when she was laid out on the pyre, Apollo cut the unborn child from her womb. From this, Asklepios received his name which means "to cut open." He was raised by the centaur Kheiron (Chiron), who instructed him in the art of medicine. He grew so skilled in the craft that he could restore the dead to life. This was a crime against the natural order and so Zeus destroyed him with a thunderbolt. After his death Asklepios was placed amongst the stars as the constellation Ophiuchus ("the Serpent Holder").

The snake of Asklepios (Latin: Aesculapius) is thought to be Zamenis longissima longissima, a constrictor harmless to man and feeding on small mammals. It can grow up to five or six feet long and is native to southern Europe, preferring open...

On Tuesday 29 May 1453 an Ottoman army of ca. 80,000 men, led by Sultan Mehmet II, captured the city of Constantinople after a 53 day siege, bringing to an end the Eastern Roman empire. Rather than submit to the Sultan's demand to surrender Constantinople, the emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos chose to die fighting in defense of the city and his faith. Although the 7,000 defenders fought bravely, the city's massive 5th c. AD walls, which had for a millennium proved impregnable to successive sieges, were no match for the Turkish cannon, and the 80,000 man Ottoman army overwhelmed the small defending force of Byzantines and their Italian allies. Once Constantine realized the city was lost, he threw off his imperial regalia and plunged into the midst of the fighting. His body was never found.


There have been numerous studies of the fall of Constantinople, but one of the most convenient for English readers is Sir Steven Runciman's The Fall of Constantinople 1453. The quoted sections...