Coin Talk

I continue to add to my Eastern earlier issues of Septimius Severus whenever I find something slightly different. I am going to bore you all now with some of the minutiae of my speciality.....

The "Victory advancing left, holding wreath and palm" type is common enough with two entries allocated in RIC based upon whether the obverse legend is PERTE (RIC 461a) or PERET (RIC 461b). There are sub-variations that appeal to a specialist like myself with regards to how the obverse legend breaks e.g. the normal P-ERET and P-ERTE vs the less common PE-RET and PE-RTE or IMP II vs IMP I-I vs IMP - II. None of these legend breaks impact on RIC number. There are a number of reverse dies with diverse legend breaks too though I think that attempting a proper study of all die combinations would be a work of many years.

I have just obtained a new minor variation where the engraver has missed an R on the reverse leading to VICTO AVG. Nothing earth shattering but adds to the range to possibilities in...

In 1994 a North Carolina coin dealer told me this tale, or the bare bones of it, anyway.

It allegedly happened near Orangeburg, South Carolina, in the wake of the wide swath of destruction wrought by Hurricane Hugo on the Carolina Lowcountry.

Now bear in mind that the tale I'm about to tell you is from a secondhand word-of-mouth story I heard 24 years ago, so it's been embellished over many retellings, and by now it's more legend than factual account.

(Edit: and I've embellished it even more here, after making it into sort of a short serial. Ever go to the movies and see "Based On Actual Events" at the beginning of the film? Well, sometimes you've got 90% fiction painted atop 10% fact. Think of this tale that way, though even the few "facts" are hearsay. But something like this might have happened. I for one like to believe that it did.)

I found the story...

Roman Empire
Trajan (AD 98 – 117)
AR Denarius, Rome mint, struck ca. AD 107 – 108
Dia.: 19.1 mm
Wt.: 2.94 g
Obv.: IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC PM TR P; Trajan laureate bust right, left shoulder draped.
Rev.: COS V PP SPQR OPTIMO PRINC; Danube, velificatio, reclining on rocks, right hand holding the prow of a ship. Left arm resting on overflowing container of water. DANVVIVS in exergue.
Ref.: RIC II 100


When I refer to Trajan as “the best” my intention is not to clickbait everyone into an argument about who should be considered the best Roman emperor (even though that kinda sounds like fun…). OPTIMVS PRINCEPS (the best first citizen, I.E. the best emperor) was an actual title given to Trajan by the senate due to his ability to hold power while keeping the people appeased and the senate feeling important. While modern observers can rightly debate the merits of this...

One of the suspected struck counterfeit varieties we are aware of is the 1797 “S-139” large cent from a 2015 TPG submission package.


In our process of trying to identify these through images we go to the internet and search several sites for internet and auction example images to find any with the characteristic matching marks. In the case of this “variety” we had the lone submitted example only, and roughly a year passed until we found a matching one; the internet listing for this 2nd example was removed prior to a sale being made, and we lost track of it.


But like a “bad penny”, these seem to raise their heads eventually and this missing one made its way through an internet buy/sell site showing it broken from a TPG slab; unfortunately a friend “won” it and sent images after the fact. I was of course disheartened when I quickly matched it to that example.


That led to more discussion and...

This evening, I was doing some research on a new coin and learned there has been a paradigm shift regarding the identity of the female deity on the reverse of this denarius of Faustina Senior. This highlights the importance of not taking the venerable old references such as RIC and BMCRE as gospel.

Post your comments, coins the standard references misidentify, your Faustina I coins, or anything else you feel is relevant.

Here's the coin in question:


Faustina I, AD 138-141.
Roman AR denarius, 3.0 g, 17.1 mm.
Rome, AD 145-150.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: AVGVSTA, Female figure standing facing, head left, holding spherical object and resting left arm on circle-shaped object.
Refs: RIC 366a; BMCRE 432-33; Cohen/RSC 73; RCV 4586; CRE 147.

You'll notice I was very vague in my description of the reverse. That's because the traditional view that the reverse depicts Venus holding an apple and resting her arm on a shield has been...

I posted an image of my first acquired President Kennedy Appreciation specimen on July 3, 2014 here at CT. https://www.cointalk.com/media/the-john-f-kennedy-appreciation-medal.1317/

Well, I did acquire four additional specimens since then.





My collection of five President Kennedy special Government medals (procured by the White House Office for President Kennedy's use). These medals functioned as a presidential apprecitory award. 44 mm in diameter and in bronze. Only 300 were struck. Designer was Frank Gasparro.

These medals are presidential numismatic artifacts. One had to be in good favor with President Kennedy to be awarded one. (You could not buy these medals from the U.S. Mint.)

Medals are Class 5 of the President of the United States (POTUS) special Government medal (sGm) series.http://www.potus-sgm.com/

Top center specimen: This is the Mary Gallagher specimen (personal secretary to Mrs....

I know that there are many strike conscious collectors out there that flock to the strike designations such as Full Steps (Jeffersons), Full Bands (Mercury), Full Torch (Roosevelt), Full Bell Lines (Franklins), and of course the Full Head Standing Liberty Quarter. In this thread, I would like to examine the value in collecting FH versus non FH SLQ's.

Let's first start by looking at the difference between the Full Head designation for both T1 and T2 SLQ's. I have posted photos below that illustrate the difference between the Full Head and non Full Head coins. Technically there is a different standard for 1916 SLQ's which I will not address due to the coins overall rarity. The other 3 full head definitions as stated by PCGS are listed below (courtesy of THE OFFICIAL GUIDE TO COIN GRADING AND COUNTERFEIT DETECTION).

The head detail is slightly modified and strengthened considerably for the 1917 Type 1 issues. Instead of hair...

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:...