Tombac is one of many, many alloys of brass, but with a rather high percentage of copper (88%) and a low percentage of zinc (12%).
The alloy tombac was an unknown quantity to the Mint, in terms of how to get the best results and sharpest strikes. I think the 1942-43 nickels...
I'm thinking this coin might have been in a bezel or a locket, but I see no obvious signs of cleaning.
Nice 1909-VDB, well-struck AU, may have been dipped years ago. Shipped only to the United States. Price $12.80 postpaid. PayPal preferred. The...
Back to the postage factor on eBay; if you net $5.25 after eBay fees, considering they represent $1 in face value, you must ship them for $4.25 or...
Note that my original comment was made without benefit of photographs.
Selling them anywhere except in your hometown, face-to-face, postage will absolutely kill you. Deposit them to your bank account (they generally...
The government is self-insured. In case of theft or destruction, the BEP honcho calls down to the sweat shop and says, "Hey, Fred, print me an...
As I said a minute ago, the silvers are junk silver, nothing exceptional about them, worth very slightly over melt.
French coin is not silver, so in the 25c to 50c range. Three silver coins, melt value, no premium, about 13 times face value. Buffalo 5c, about...
Here's a link to the FRB-SF collections: http://www.frbsf.org/education/teacher-resources/american-currency-exhibit
Why would ANYBODY buy rounds or ingots when 90% is cheaper??? In a crunch, when you're trying to buy small items like gas or bread or milk, do...
True enough about Apmex, but the problem comes when you need to sell it, and try to convince a buyer (even an unsophisticated LCS) that it's 0.900...
Near-spot and numismatic-value, you can't have it both ways. If the price of gold goes up, the premium gets smaller and smaller. This is why...
Dan Sedwick is quite a guy. I met him at a number of coin shows in the South about 10 to 15 years ago, and I bought two of his books. He knows...
True. It's a free country. There's some analogy to love tokens here, although those were presumably not rare coins at the time they were carved....
Same theory for new cars, diamond rings, and designer gowns -- the minute you walk out of the dealership, they're worth, ummm, LESS, due to a low...
Yes, sir -- greed, exploitation, and manipulation, all great ways to make money; you need look no further than the dozen "too-big-to-fail" banks...
February 3, 2019: Buyer: "Wow, haven't seen a real silver dollar in a week! But it's all carved up, I'll have to discount it from 65x down to...
"it still costs them to keep track of you and monitor your account..." Which is a cost of doing business, not a suitable method of manipulating...
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