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Wow Santa really must have liked me this year!



Can't go wrong with silver bars. I don't have an 1853 Seated Half, Bicentennial Silver Dollar, and the 2019 Apollo Commemorative Half so these are welcome additions. While I have a Churchill Crown, 1961 Mexico Silver Peso, and 1922G Germany 50 Pfennig these have much more luster and higher graded. Thank you so much Secret Santa!!!

 

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Opened my SS gift today! It was so much fun! I am going to visit family today so I will have to post pictures later.
Lets just say I was not disappointed!
Good job SS!

 

Well, I tend to go into SS time saying, hey, I'm going to do it to see what I can give to another that hits in a really nice way for the person who gets it. And then end up finding once I get my SS gift that it just is more than I ever would expect and so awesome, unexpected, and fun.

Again, this year, this is what has happened.

I received a box of Chocolates from a regional chocolatier, which I had never had chocolates from before, since I'm not in that area of the country. Also a cute Christmas card with wishes for peace, happiness, and love. And dogs are not always peaceful, but they do provide happiness and love, so I think I'm mostly covered with my dog.... thank you!

And last, but not least, my SS coin gift was (ta dum!!!)

A wonderful little coin called a dime. Minted in 1853, with less silver than the previous year because of the Coinage Act, which on Feb 21st of 1853, reduced the amount of silver by 7% in coins to account for the rise in prices of silver due to gold prices changing, so that new silver coins would not simply be melted for bullion to sell at a profit. And of course it meant that the previous year coins would be turned in for melt because it was worthwhile to take that arbitrage of higher content silver in coins and turn it into a personal profit. The mint also used melted coin silver to create the new coins I believe.

A little known numismatic fact is terms I did not know before looking up information on this coin and the minting of it --- "new tenor" and "old tenor". You would not think those applied to coins, per se, but they do because the coins are essentially fiduciary money. They generally have no real intrinsic value in them as they are traded for goods in an economy, but are 'trusted' because the stated value is backed up by the government. Many times the metals used for the coinage is not worth the value of the coins so that they can't be used as instruments of gaining wealth in and above the amount stated on the coin, but when they do, there can be problems. 1853 was a year where this problem that cropped up had to be dealt with with (well, most of) the circulating coins otherwise people would not be able to have them to circulate. Other years later on in our history also went and had similar issues, where the metal in a coin is worth more than the face value of the coin and it, without laws to stop it, either to change metal content or to forbid people from melting it. New Tenor means that the coin has a value consistent with what the value of the asset is that backs that coin. Old Tenor is one that is consistent with a previous value. The new tenor coins small coins of 1853 that had silver in them had to be about 7% less value than the old ones on metal content.

Anyways, this one is a VF25 1853 10 Cent Arrows coin. The mint had not had time to retool dies from previous years so they just added arrows (sort of like the War Nickels, where a large mintmark was prominently placed on the reverse of it) to easily identify a coin that had 2.49 grams of silver instead of a previous year one that had 2.67 grams of silver content. The arrows were used on 1853-1855 dimes. One function of those arrows would not just be the ability to identify easily a then-current dime to be able to use as normal spending money, but it also was there to allow those dimes without the arrows to be identified easily and turned in for the extra value they had, thus being a huge impetus to remove the old coinage from circulation. Two driving forces happened that year.

As a new issue, with other coins being melted for their silver content, a flood of newly minted coins came into being in 1853. So this year is not a rare mintage year at all for this coin. In fact, over 12 million of these were minted and put into circulation, which in itself is amazing as our population was about 23-25 million people, excluding slaves, who at this time didn't have a lot of ability to be trading in coins anyways. This meant that the mint pumped out about one dime for each two people in the US who were able to, theoretically, be using it that year, and even that is a stretch because the population included a lot of women and children and infants who would never also be able to use the actual coins for trade. No previous year ever came close to that, with the most minted in one year for a dime was just over two million. It reminds me of the 1964 nickel where, to combat a coin shortage, more than 1.7 billion 1964-D were minted and over a billion -P, so that there was no way that these would be considered 'collectible' in anyone's mind for the future as they could see it, though to do it the amounts minted were not done just in that year but were allowed to go into other years with this same date. In fact, because of the high mintage of this particular issue (the 1853 one), most would not see being saved at all from regular usage in circulation and dealers would shy away from wanting to keep them to re-sell for a long, long time.

I absolutely love learning more about coins and having one in hand to enjoy and view is the best. Thank you, Secret Santa, for your thoughtfulness and in choosing a coin that can spur my knowledge of the history of coins in the US.

I won't be having better pics of this coin because of other issues in my life but know that if I was able to create them, I would, because another thing I love is great coin photography. For this one, I put the gifts against a background of a favorite Christmas placemat.



Closeup of the obverse

 

Merry Christmas to everyone. Santa brought me a bunch of Ancient and world Silver coins .An ancient Billion Antoninianus, 1524 Ludwig II Denar, 1839 3 Kreuzer, 1902 Canadian Dime, 1936 Australian 6 Pence, 1945 India 1/4 Rupee, and a Cook Islands Silver Round. I can't wait to research these. Thank you Santa.

 

That set runs a big span of history!

 

Opened my secret Santa box this morning and was greeted by a real eclectic mix of world coins. My favorites are the silver 2 kroner and the Weimar 200 Mark. Thanks Secret Santa!

 

Opened my gift and was pleased to find a nice letter with a numismatic poem. (Sorry for the wrinkles)



and a really nice 1821 bustie. Anything US that’s over 200 years old is pretty awesome. Thank you SS, I love it. My pics don’t really show it but the fields are amazingly clean for a circulated coin.

 

Opened my SS package today. Israel 40th anniversary independence day coin in 850 silver, George Washington commemorative set, and Philippines 10 centavos. Thanks secret Santa

 

Sounds nice! My Secret Santa got me a Faustina, Jr. Sestertius and a silver siglos from the Persian Empire.

I especially like the Merry Christmas silver bar and the 1821 bustie.

Oh, I just noticed! There's a Gallienus Antoninianus and an early modern silver. Kewl.

Gallienus was a remarkable emperor. After his father was defeated and reportedly made into a footstool, the Empire was on the verge of collapse, with rampant inflation and invasions. Also, there were breakaway states. He managed to hold the core of the empire together, but came to an unfortunate end.

 

I opened mine, Thank You Secret Santa
1980 The Coinage of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Proof Set, Silver Jubilee set, and a 1 oz Silver Xmas Round

 

We must have had a lot of members on the nice list!

 

I opened my box this morning and there was a whole mint inside!






































Well, actually there were 57 mints...




And a nice array of coins! The message inside noted that I'm mostly a US collector, but they were hoping I take interest in "the dark side". I actually do collect older foreigns, although I don't post a lot of them.

I did receive my first ever ancient and I really like it! Thankfully there was a slip of paper that told me what it was, otherwise I'd be totally clueless! I also got an assortment of foreign coins, some of which are silver! Thank you very much! (you know who you are...)



Here's a list, top to bottom left to right:

• 1981 UK 25 New Pence (Royal Wedding)
• 2000 Liberia 5 dollars (Presidents series, Richard Nixon)
• 1899/1900 Morgan Dollar Magician's coin
• 1920 Mexico 20 centavos
• Bi-metallic Las Vegas Gaming token (Brass/Silver)
• Constans I AD 337-350 nummus https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces104392.html
• 1883-D German 1 Mark
• 1900 Guatemala 1/2 Real
• 1934 Panama 1/4 Balboa
• 1897 UK 3 Pence

My top five favorites in order are:



Constans I AD 337-350 nummus





1883-D German Mark





1897 3 Pence





Gaming Token





Mexico 20 centavos







Honorable mentions:








Thanks again SS!

 

@Eric the Red That Silver Jubilee set is so nice!

 

The Constans appears to be Sear RCV 18647 or 18648. I can't read the mintmark after SMAL... 18648 has a dot at the end.

Alexandria, Egypt.

I had to fish my paper copy out. I haven't gotten volume 5 in pdf yet.

That's neat that ancients and early moderns are being included.

 

I like the little silver bars! I might participate next year,although I'd probably throw in an ancient. I have to ship directly from the vcoins or ma-shops dealer. It'd have to be from a dealer who does both.

About what's the average value of the Secret Santas? I know nothing about American coins, and I wouldn't want to shortchange anyone. I know how crappy it is to get shortchanged. Some of the more recent CT Secret Saturns had gotten kind of brutal. The numisforum ones weren't bad, only a couple of people got something egregious.

I spent about $125-ish on my Secret Saturn. Does that sound within the ballpark?