Coin Talk

This was a rather difficult challenge. Would have been a lot easier if I didn't put silly restrictions on myself.

I started this challenge back in 2008 and was determined to find Soviet coins struck from 1988 to 1991. This must be complete with COA and the boxes. Turns out this was not a good idea. If I decided to go with the coins alone, I would have completed them a long time ago. What makes this remarkable is that there's only 12 coins to this yet it took 6 years to hunt them down; the last coin taking at least three years to find! Please note that I was not actively hunting them down.

Note that starting from this year, there is a huge influx of counterfeit / replica of Soviet silver commemorative coins. These are VERY dangerous counterfeits - you might as well check out ebay and have a look. Sellers are still honest enough to claim that they are replicas but if you didn't look at them carefully, you can be fooled.

Presenting a couple of the more beautiful Soviet silver...

Hey folks, since I cancelled my attendance at the ANA Summer Seminar (due to the heavy smoke, ashes and evacuations) and I don't have any shows until mid July, I found myself with a little extra time, so I hope you don't mind but I thought I'd recycle some articles I've written (and posted) before. It's been quite a while and perhaps these will be helpful to some of the new folks on this forum. This first one is on Coin Show Etiquette through the dealer's perspective. Comments are welcome!


Recently, I wrote a couple articles having to do with difficult customers, so I thought it might be helpful to remind collectors about some simple coin show courtesies and etiquette, as well as give a few pointers to those new to attending coin shows. Of course, courtesy goes both ways; however, if you want to try and get the best deal and/or build a relationship with a dealer, it can only help your position if...

I saw these back in November and definitely wanted some. I was hoping to win one on a drawing Patrick Rothfuss offered as part of his Worldbuilders charity give-away (that is open to anyone that donates.) You can visit Thetinkespacks.com or Shirepost.com for more information.

They are made by a private mint (Shire Post Mint) owned by Tom Maringer. I first heard of the mint from Tom years ago here on CT. He hooked me up with some nickels with counterstamps back then.

In honor of this recent purchase I am going to offer some of the nickels up in the contest section a little later.

Rules:

• The first five people to name a coin in the contest thread (not already mentioned or shown by another CT member including me in this thread)
• that is used in either story (George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones or Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind)

Will receive a free counterstamped nickel as shown in the contest thread I start. Should be easy to figure out where to find...

$750 accidental cherry pick?

I’m working on completing a registry set of Kennedy Proofs, with only two coins remaining (1964 accent hair, 1998 SMS). Last week I saw a chance to upgrade my current 1964 PF66 (non-cameo) to a coin a couple points higher and also with cameo, so I put in a lowball bid, not really expecting much. To my surprise, I took the coin for about $10 less than the NGC price, including shipping, so I was happy.

Well, today I received the coin in the mail. The coin was as described, and looked like a very nice spot-free and hazing free example of a 1964 Kennedy. And then I noticed something funny. A serif on the “I” in Liberty seemed to be very short, practically non-existent. Since one of the two remaining coins I need to complete my registry set is the 1964 Accent Hair variety, I waste a lot of time looking at these Auctions, but too poor to actually place a realistic bid for a nice example. I instantly recognized this truncated serif as...

Greetings, all! I've been browsing through this forum for a while and I recently decided to join.

My collecting focus is on Renaissance and Baroque medals. I see that the majority of the posts are on ancient coins, but was wondering if anyone else on here collects medals? If there's any interest, I would be happy to share images and background on some of my pieces, and I would greatly enjoy seeing what other members have.

A few quick selections from my collection:


Pope Sixtus IV, 1473
Construction of the Ponte Sisto
(Cast Bronze, 40.2mm Ø)

By Lysippus the Younger

Obverse: Bust of Sixtus IV facing left, bareheaded and wearing a cope decorated with arabesques. Around, SIXTVS · IIII · PONT · MAX · SACRICVLTOR (Sixtus IV, Supreme Pontiff, Connoisseur of the Sacred).

Reverse: View of the Ponte Sisto surrounded by a wreath of oak leaves. Above the bridge, CVRA RERVM PVBLICARVM (He Cares...

Unlike the Greek monetary system which was based around the value of silver and gold, the early coinage of Rome was based on bronze. The progression and maturation of Rome’s currency was chronicled by Pliny the Elder, who described the earliest bronze currency as “aes rude”.

While it allowed for wealth to be portable, it didn't fulfill all of the critical aspects of coinage, as it was only traded by weight, needing to be cast or broken into irregular shapes without being assigned a specific unit of value.

Eventually, these were refined into rectangular bars named “aes signatum”, which featured images and inscriptions, bringing them closer to actual conventional coinage. However, making change still required the bars to be physically broken into pieces. To further improve and optimize trade, the coinage was refined into cast bronze in a disc shape, known as “aes grave”, learning from the concepts...

PCGS describes the Full step designation as follows:
Jefferson Nickels. MS60 or better, at least five complete steps must appear on Monticello. Any steps that join or fuse together, whether created that way or subsequently damaged, cannot be considered for the Full Steps designation.

Now, I understand that. But upon further inspection/comparison before I send one of mine to them, I have found that a lot of their coins designated as FS do in fact have minor flaws on the steps. I was checking out the 1946 S FS nickels on PCGS coinfacts and even on their featured coins, they have minor step issues. Check out the pic below(1946 S MS66FS) all the way to the left of the stairs. So this raises my question of, how strict are they about the FS designation?


Below is a picture of mine. What do you guys think? Sorry for the bad picture. Regardless how the picture looks, the steps are completely full, except for that nick right in the middle....

This will be a multi-part series introducing some helpful tools that will make finding the coins you want easier, faster, automated, repeatable, and removing as many false-positives as possible with your auction searches.
Part 1: eBay Advanced Search Query

On eBay, there is searching, and then there is searching. I for one, can't even image wading through thousands of auctions without knowing how to used the advanced eBay search and filtering. Here are the basics:

Quotation marks: Searches for the exact word or phrase
Parentheses around keywords separated by commas: Act as an OR operator
Minus sign (-): Acts as a NOT operator

These can be strong together, with multiple instances of each, but there is a max of around 100 characters that the eBay search box allows for, after that it will get truncated and ignored, or sometimes there will be an...

PHOENICIA, Byblos. Uzzibaal. 350-335 BC*
AR dishekel, 13.3 gm
Obv: Three hoplites with shields in war galley left, roaring lion's head on prow, waves below galley; hippocamp left below; Z O (N O?) in field
Rev: Phoenician inscription*; lion attacking bull left
Ref: SNG Copenhagen 132, BMC 26.95, 4.
acquired August 2014

*Notes

• The date of this issue varies depending on source and ranges from 400 to 335 BC.
• Various references translate the inscription to ‘zb‘l mlk gbl (Ozbaal, king of Byblus).

Masters of the sea


Positioned at the easternmost Mediterranean, Phoenicians capitalized on the waterways and were renowned for their seamanship. Keeled-hull ships allowed them to sail the open seas and as a result, the Phoenicians developed a flourishing sea trade and unmatched naval power. You might consider them the world's first traveling salesmen.

Phoenician colonies...

Chopmarked Coins: A History; the silver coins used in China 1600-1935 by Colin James Gullberg (iAsure Group JEAN Publications, June 2014, 187 pages, 8-1/2 x 11, color ill., $40 + S&H). Order from the author Colin Gullberg <chopmarknews@gmail.com>.

For most collectors in most times and places, these were just damaged coins, worth less than unmarked coins in the same grade. For merchant sailor and numismatist, Frank M. Rose, they became a passion. For over 25 years, his 1987 work, Chopmarks, stood alone. Now, it has a worthy companion.

This is a narrative about collecting, a history of economics in China, and an overview of a huge, unexplored area of numismatics. It is the tip of the iceberg.

Gullberg illustrates the history of western silver coins in China with examples from his own collection, the Rose collection, and several other sources such as the British Museum, and Stacks Bowers. Coins are arranged by their initial year of issue. An example...