Stopped by the Perth mint booth. They had these neat show special cards they were selling. Half gram 2011 Kangaroo and a 1/10 oz silver koala. These cards were limited to 2000 for the show and they sold them cheaper than buying the two coins individually. They were $60 if anybody was wondering. I love their stuff so I couldn't pass it up. Despite it's small size, the melt value of a half gram gold kangaroo is (sadly) $30 now. Cool designs I thought. Then the first day I dropped this $5 gold Liberty off at NGC as a MS-60 in an old PCGS holder. Probably 15 years old. The next day I walked out with it as a MS-62. I REALLY thought it would make 63. I still don't know why it didn't. The luster is full. Hardly any marks. I think it should have been a 63 but they weren't willing to upgrade it a full three grades based on principle, IMO. Then I decided to pick up all the 52s in MS for my Franklin half set. Only have the 49s to go now. Picked up these two buffalos for my US type set. Really wasn't high on my list but I figured no better time to find exactly what I wanted for it. I've already got the MS-66 38-D/S in my avatar. And I had purchased another high grade 38-D for my regular buffalo set. But, now I needed one for the US type set so I got it and the 13 TY I out of the way. For anyone not familiar with buffalo nickels, when they first came out in 1913, they used raised ground under the buffalo. When I was a kid, I always thought that meant it went up vertically on the surface of the coin and I could never see it. Then I finally realized it's raised 'out' from the surface at you! (I guess that was a breakthrough and a half. lol) They did away with it after that year because the words "five cents" were going to wear off t0o fast. So they indented the ground after that, thereby protecting the lettering. But not before producing a bunch of raised ground Type 1s for the 1913, 13-D and 13-S. And then also producing regular indented ground type 2s' as well. Creating six different 1913's required to complete a set. These are common enough that I will crack them out for the album and just save the labels. I also picked up a loose $5 gold Liberty just because I really like them and wanted to hold one in hand that wasn't in a slab. Then I put it in this air-tite: And last but not least...... The main coin I wanted to get at this show because it's so hard to find more than 2 or 3 examples at a local show. Was #1 on my top 10 most wanted list. Found in just the right grade I wanted, while allowing me to still walk out with the shirt on my back. AU-53. There's some scuff marks on the slab that show up on the cheek. This one has some great detail left. The best example I saw there was a MS-64 which is extremely rare. There was also one MS-63 there with an asking price of $14k. Also saw a few AU-58s, a couple lower grade ones and some loose ones. Probably saw 10 at most. I'd say, even at a show this large, there probably wasn't more than 25 or so examples of $5 Classics on the floor. That's guessing on the high end. There were quite a few $2.5 ones to choose from.
Yeah, I decided I better get some more while I still could. Unknown to me at the time, the first day I was there, gold rose $50 in 12 hrs. Maybe there was so much concentrated at the show that it drove the price up.
I really like those buffalo nickels! The others are nice don't get me wrong, it's just that I am not a collector of them though I do appreciate you sharing them!
