Poll: vote for the next potential LordM "Eclectic Box" newp (and likely last purchase of 2017)

What should the next newp be?

My current cash status is pinched, to say the least, so there will not be any bigger purchases for the rest of the year unless I sell off some of my beloved but secondary love token collection (which I've decided to sacrifice to feed my more-beloved primary collection).

Back when the Eclectic Box was a "box of twenty" collection with a fixed limit of pieces, I was for a time trying to bring the minimum value of all the inidividual coins up to $200+. Now that I've abandoned the limit of twenty pieces and am letting the collection grow - gradually, as money permits - I see no reason to set an arbitrary minimum value per coin, though I do want to maintain some standards of quality and eye appeal, obviously.

This final purchase of the year is likely to be more in the high two-figure price range (or just barely over $100) rather than in the mid-three-figure price tier. Two of the selections below are for sale for less than $100 US (if only just), with the third costing a little bit over a hundred bucks.

Vote for whichever one(s) you like the most or find the most interesting/appealing. There is, of course, no guarantee that that's the one I'll choose (or that I won't end up going for something else entirely), but this trio is my "short list" of contenders.

(All of these are for sale on overseas sites, so the prices are converted from Euros, hence the seemingly odd US dollar amounts. I might encounter an additional surcharge for PayPal currency conversion.)

Coin A:

England (Tudor): silver sixpence of Elizabeth I, 1575.

This one is well-worn but has nice grey toning and I like its appearance, for the money. It has a reasonably decent portrait for a lower grade example. And it is a dated coin. I've wanted a decent (dated) Elizabeth I coin for a while- the only one I've owned previously was a holed 157(-2?) halfgroat with a typically ghosted-out portrait, on my old Holey Coin Vest. And it seems her larger denominations were all undated, since putting dates on English coins was still not yet a regular practice at the time. So I've been keeping an eye on sixpence coins, but with any kind of eye appeal, they tend to get rather pricey. I think this one is a wholesome "compromise" coin, with acceptable looks and an affordable pricetag. But if I do add it to the Eclectic box, it would become my lowest grade coin for now, since everything I presently have in there is VF or better. I've been reading a little about the Tudors lately (thanks for the book, @Aethelred), so naturally my numismatic attention is drawn to their coins a bit.

Price: $85.68 ($82.16 + $3.52 shipping)





Coin B:

German States (Pomerania-Stettin): silver doppelschilling of Bogislaw XIV, undated, ca. 1620-1625.

This coin is monster-toned and just maybe Mint State (though that's difficult for me personally to determine). Plus, it has a crudely rendered but charming griffin on it. Griffins happen to be my favorite mythical beastie. (Trivia: the original Lord Marcovan* character rode a griffin he had befriended after saving its life.) Pomerania-Stettin is now a part of modern Poland, but these coins seem to be cataloged under the German States, which I suppose reflects the 17th century political borders during the time they were made.

Price: $99.76 ($88.02 + 11.74 shipping)

(*Lord Marcovan was a half-elven Ranger lord and my favorite Dungeons & Dragons character I created during my misspent early-1980s teen years, when I should have been studying instead of daydreaming. I eventually decided to work on my real-life character and seek real treasures instead of imaginary ones, but ol' Lord M did survive to become my Internet alter-ego and username.)





Coin C: Germany (Imperial): aluminum pfennig, 1917-E, off-center mint error.

This is a neat error. It's been in my watchlist for more than a year. I'm not an error coin specialist, but when I do buy them, I like 'em dramatic and easy to notice, which is why I gravitate to off-center or multiply-struck pieces. I already have an obsolete off-center coin in the Eclectic Box, and this German Kaiserreich piece is a relatively common type in general, but the seller calls it "CH UNC" and I am inclined to agree that it does indeed look like a nice Mint State example. The photos seem to be a bit overexposed, but if I buy it, this will go to PCGS and get the TrueView photography. I initially was thinking this was one of the iron WW1 issues, but I guess those were just the 5- and 10-pfennig pieces. These 1-pfennig coins are aluminum, which explains why this one is so brightly whitish in color. I also like the orientation of the off-center strike in this case, which left the date and mintmarks visible, as well as all of the essentials of the design, despite being significantly off-center (and therefore quite appealing as an error). It is the only coin on this list over $100, but I think it's a pretty reasonable option at the price, given the error and the likely MS grade. A non-error coin of this date and type catalogs for a mere $18 in MS63, however, so unsurprisingly, there is a significant premium here for the error. But that is to be expected.

Price: $122.65 ($111.50 + $11.15 shipping)

 

I don't know Pats from Ginos. I assume these are places in the actual Philly town? Here down South in Jawjuh, I'm limited to Philly-style steak sammiches. Am rather partial to Michael's deli for that.

As to the coins above, maybe I will be able to get more than one of them if I can sell some stuff.

Multiple votes are allowed in the poll, BTW.

 

Except the Aethelred penny is now gone, alas, so I do not in fact have an English hammered piece any longer. (Last update was November 4th. One's gone out and one's come in since that time.)

So it's an Eclectic 26, now. Not 20.

And the term "eclectic" kind of implies that anything fits, I reckon.

But you're right- these are all kind of along previously-traveled paths for me. Some things appeal to me more than others, and those categories tend to get heavier representation, of course.

If that Lizzie 1 sixpence was in a little bit better grade, there would be no contest here. But it would also not be for sale at such a (relatively) modest price.

 

Hey, good point!

I prolly should've kept this one, huh?



I shall need to work on that.

My lack of a Conder token has also not gone unnoticed by me, or people like @Stork...

 

Thanks. I hadn't read up on the history yet. I suspected it was a sort of "overlapping" situation like that.

 

Hey, nice lookin' out on the possible "graffiti" on the griffin in Coin B. My eye didn't pick up on that. That would certainly be a dealbreaker if it were true. But I think that's just some crosshatching to indicate "feathers" on the griffin's breast. (Like I mentioned, it is a rather crude rendering.) So just a part of the design, in other words. For comparison, here are some other examples from the same seller. (With whom I've done business before.) They have some nice ones, but none of the rest appear to have the killer toning Coin B above has.




Hmm... some of the others do have pretty nice toning, though. All of these in this latest post are dated examples - all 1621- note the "Z1" (21) on either side of the "DS" (for "doppelschilling") on the reverse, which is lacking on the undated (ca 1620-25) coin in the poll.

And they're a few bucks less, too. But despite it being an undated one, I still think the toning on Coin B in the poll is superior.




Y'all reckon either of the two toned 1621 pieces here might be a better pick than the undated but killer-toned one in the poll? I do prefer dated coins in the early modern stuff, as I mentioned in my comments on the QE1 shilling/Coin A.

But oh my, that toning on Coin B really speaks to me...

Well, there's no stronger vote of confidence than a statement like that from somebody who's willing to "put his money where his mouth is". Your vote of coinfidence is a pretty strong validation, as I see it.

@Stork's comment of restrained approval is valid too, though. I probably could hold out for a better example, when I've got more money:

Then again, I just sold two nice love tokens, so it looks as though I'll be able to scoop up at least two of the coins in this poll... if not all three, should I sell something else soon!

(Then I'll be needing to speak to @H8_modern about a recently-posted coin of his that we've discussed...)

Maybe I will grab the Elizabeth I sixpence, and if I should happen to upgrade to a nicer QE1 sixpence later, I could offer the one above to you at cost, @Curtisimo. If, hypothetically, you were still interested when and if that happened. Of course I intend to submit that one - and any and all of these I purchase - to PCGS, so if I do sell any of them later on down the road, they'll be slabbed. All my non-ancient stuff goes to PCGS, for reasons of personal preference that have to do with more than just grading. (Yes, I'm a "Kool-Aid drinker".)