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What I mean is, how many times must an "error" exist before it is referred to as a variety? It seems that there are a lot of "mistakes" that occur that are called varieties. What is the difference between a variety and an error? This is probably a stupid question, but "inquiring minds want to know"!  Read or Comment on this Topic | ||||||||
So I was organizing my small collection of Canadian coins, when I came across this Canadian Quarter. It has the same obverse as the other quarters in my collection, but the reverse is different. As I have no books on Canadian coins, and I couldn't find it on eBay, could anyone shed some light on it? Was it a limited release? Is it worth more than face??  2000 Canadian Quarter  (sorry for the strange lighting...couldn't get a good reverse picture w/ the flash on...these are the two sides of the same coin) Read or Comment on this Topic | ||||||||
 I've been searching rolls pennies and other denominations pretty seriously for over a year now. Last night was without a doubt my best moment. As I was about to pour out and search one hand-rolled roll of pennies, I noticed a bulge in the roll, one of the coins in the roll was obviously not a US penny.
I immediately assumed it was a British penny. That's what such bulges usually are. It took me a while to work the mystery coin out. It turned out to be something goldish with the date 1915 on it. Could it be? I compared the color of the coin to my wedding ring (which is 18K gold) and it matched. I searched
online and found several (in better condition) coins that looked just like mine. They gave a weight. I snuck upstairs (my son was sleeping), got my coin scale and weighed it. All checked out! I can't believe it.The coins is, obviously, the only gold coin I've found. It is also the most valuable and maybe the oldest foreign coin I've found (it just beats a 1920 Canadian penny I found). According to my research, it is .987 find gold and has .349 grams of gold. Some EBay auction results I've seen lead me to believe it is worth around $100 and the melt value of it is currently about $100. I found the following description of the coin online: Austrian 1915 One Ducat Ducats were issued by Austria in 1612, and probably earlier. The last regular issue of ducats was in 1914. All the ducats dated 1915 are restrikes, of which there were 996,721 struck between 1920 and 1936. One ducat coins dated 1915 are still being produced by the Austrian Mint as official restrikes. Franz Joseph I was born in 1848, and died in 1916. Obverse The laureate head, facing right, of Emperor Franz Joseph I FRANC IOS I D G AUSTRIAE IMPERATOR Reverse The arms of Austria superimposed upon a crowned double-headed Imperial eagle. HUNGAR BOHEM GAL LOD ILL REX A A 1915 High Carat Gold Ducats were produced in high purity gold, 233/4 carats, making them among the highest purity gold coins ever issued for circulation. I only wish I could be certain how old it really is Read or Comment on this Topic | ||||||||
I have long held (do as I say, not as I do  ) that one doesn't require expensive camera gear in order to take high-quality pictures of coins. Well, since I'm selling my dSLR rig, it looks like I'm going to have to learn to practice what I preach. This ongoing thread will relate every step of the process - you are going to learn what it takes to create good images of a coin with an inexpensive camera at the exact same time I do. In the end, we will hopefully prove that the key to good coin shooting is not so much the equipment, as the photographer, at least in today's technological world. Bear with me if I make certain assumptions about the knowledge level of the readers; if you have a question, don't hesitate to post it here and I'll be happy to explain. Step One: Choose a camera Here are the prerequisites: First, a maximum price of US$200. That will buy a lot of camera these days. Second, full manual control. It's very important that you be able to vary exposure, aperture and ISO, as well as set a Custom white balance. We'll be explaining why these options are required during the process. Third, a Macro setting. I don't care what the specs of that setting are - it doesn't matter if you can focus on something touching the lens, because you cannot take a good picture of the coin without at least 6 inches between the camera and the subject. That's it. There are quite a few cameras out there which meet this minimum specification. There are some very high-quality review sites on the Internet to aid you in your research; these are two spots which I never fail to consult when researching a specific camera: http://www.dpreview.com/ http://www.steves-digicams.com/ Both of these sites have full reviews of the camera I chose for this project. For those of you who know me, it's no surprise that I chose a Canon, but you will find plenty of competition at this price point, and all of the techniques will be the same regardless of the brand name on the camera. So, without further ado, here is the hardware for our little project, the Canon A720 IS:   Frankly, I was kinda impressed with how much $200 would buy these days. 8 Megapixels, 6x optical zoom, image stabilization....this stuff was all high-end a few years ago. This little beauty weighs less than 9 ounces with batteries installed, and fits easily into my shirt pocket. I chose the little Canon partly because of my admitted bias towards the brand, but also partly because I know the A-series Canons to be capable at the Macro end of things. Step Two: Setup and lighting Step Two: Setup and Lighting For the record, most of what I will be saying about methodology in this series isn't set in stone. There are many combinations of settings, and many lighting methods, which will result in an excellent picture. The things that favor older copper don't necessarily favor lustrous silver, and vice versa. There's one member posting here who can achieve beautiful results with a flashlight (Learjet, you listening? ), although that's not high on my recommendation list.However, we're talking about doing the best you can with the camera you have, and two techniques are absolutely imperative if you are to achieve your best. First, the camera must be on a solid mount of some sort. Copystand, tripod, sitting on a table while the coin is on its' end, it doesn't matter as long as you're not the one holding the camera. Second, use a delayed shutter. Virtually every camera on the market has a shutter timer, so you don't have to be holding the button down when the shutter snaps. These are necessary because of the very small field of view and depth of field associated with macro shooting. Remember, your goal is to get the biggest and clearest picture you can of the tiny details on a coin's face. If the camera moves by the slightest amount while the shutter snaps, you run the risk of blurring the shot. Use a solid background behind the coin. Generally, darker backgrounds behind lighter coins, and vice versa, will help define the rim more clearly and bring out color/luster. Many really good shooters mount the coin on something small (like one of those pedestals they use to hold up the center of a pizza box), to help make the background fade out of focus. You can light your coin in two different fashions - direct (light shining straight onto the coin), and indirect (light source bounced off something reflective before reaching the coin). The choices I will be making for lighting here are just how I like to do it, and don't represent the only good way to light a coin shot. Once you've got the rest of the process down, experiment. Play with indirect and axial lighting (search this forum for definitions). I generally stick to direct, undiffused lighting, myself, and that's how we're going to do it here. Just to emphasize the low-dollar aspect of this deal, for those of you who haven't seen it I'm including a picture of my ghetto mount/lighting rig:  The tripod was $20. The lighting is a 4' track unit with gooseneck 50W halogens, picked up for $14 on Clearance at Home Depot. I wired a dimmer inline with the power cord. All told, I had about $40 in that setup, and I've taken some of my favorite pictures with it. The coin mounts on 3 stacked computer CD players and an old black t-shirt. I use two sheets of white paper on top for the light background. And that's all it takes. I was finally able to snag a decent copystand on Ebay last year, so the tripod won't be in use, but the lighting is unchanged. It's always the best policy to try to get the lighting as close to vertical above the coin as possible; that's the reason why I settled on the goosenecks and small bulbs. The dimmer is so I can wick down the heat between shots; after all, silver melts at 1600 degrees. Be sure to check the forum thread for the rest of this series! Read or Comment on this Topic | ||||||||
I found another one to connect the dots on, except this suspect seller is taking it to the extreme.... 1. The sellers completed auctions. 2. Next buy the wrappers and crimpers. Check the purchases page. 3. This is where it gets good, check out all of the VDB's bought.... Here's 2. Here's 8 more. Here's another one.... There are a lot more, just thought I would list a few on here. 4. Here are some bags of wheat to fill the rolls At least in the description there is no mention of "unsearched". When will people learn? Some of the completed auctions are at least close to the value of the 2 VDB's but there was one that went for $100. I hope no one here bought any of these. Read or Comment on this Topic | ||||||||
First let me say that it is 100% allowed, you just need a different email address for additional accounts. 1) If you sell on eBay you should never buy with your selling ID. If you run into a seller that you must leave a less than positive feedback for, you may get a less than positive feedback in return. This can be devastating to your seller account but doesn't hurt your buyer account. 2) If you buy and sell on eBay, as a seller, you don't want your buyers to be able to look up what you paid for an item. 3) You need to have a secret buyer ID because believe it or not there are buyer stalkers. If you're very good at spotting deals, like die varieties and errors, you'll want to use a discrete buying ID to buy those coins. If someone slick catches on to your smarts, they will follow you. Please, get together another email address right now and do it, so I don't have to post a link back to this thread and say "I told you so" after one of these things happens to you. Register right now here. Read or Comment on this Topic | ||||||||
I would love to know whether there is any information on approximately how many, say Indian cents and Buffalo nickels, are still around. I think more than 3 billion Indian cents were minted, but of this, you'd have to think some are lost forever, some were mutilated and removed by the US Mint (how often does that occur, as I see mutilated modern coins all the time in circulation still). There is also a lot of discussion about silver coins being melted in the 1980s. Very, very few of these obsolete coins are still in circulated coinage- probably 1 Buffalo nickel per every several $100 in nickels. Maybe 1 Indian cent per every $1000 in Lincoln cents. Almost never see a Mercury dime in circulation. So I would think "still in circulation" would account for a very small fraction of the surviving obsolete coins Are there any data on what % of the total obsolete coins survive to this day? The obsolete coins are in the hands of dealers and private collectors. I'm just thinking about this issue and wondering whether such information if it is available could be helpful in understanding where there might be some coin types that are actually much rarer than appreciated. Read or Comment on this Topic | ||||||||
Does anyone have info on the 1994S and 1997S special uncirculated Jefferson Nickels? They were included in two sets from the mint--The Thomas Jefferson set in 1994 and the Botanical Garden set in 1997. The mintages are real low. Redbook says they resemble proof coins but with a matte finish. Are they that different? I guess what I am wondering about is are they worth the premium being charged for them? And also, how important are they for a complete Jefferson Nickel set? The 1997 with a mintage of only 25,000 sounds like it might be a key. Read or Comment on this Topic | ||||||||
Circulation - obviously, you aren't going to get very much that's too exciting or too exotic, but what you do find will be cheap - face value! If you don't handle too much coinage yourself, it never hurts to ask others for help. I know one guy who seems to have every member of his family, every resident of his housing estate and every checkout attendant in his suburb keeping an eye out for unusual coins for him. Banks - also a great way to get interesting stuff for face value. If you hadn't noticed yet, there's an entire subculture here on the forum of people who go to banks, buy up lots of rolls of coins, open them, fish out anything odd or interesting, roll up the unwanted stuff and send it back to the bank in exchange for fresh rolls. Another thing to ask about at banks is what they do with the "weird stuff" that's deposited there - foreign coins and notes, NCLT like bullion coins, that sort of thing. Often, bank workers are happy when someone volunteers to take that sort of thing off their hands. Charities and Churches - people seem to put all sorts of odd things into donation and collection boxes, and often the people who count the money have no idea what to do with the stuff. Try volunteering to help out at the charity, in exchange for the opportunity to keep (or purchase from them for fair value) any weird stuff donated to them. You'll be helping yourself build a collection, and helping the charity to get fair value for the objects donated to them. Garage Sales, Flea Markets, Antique shops, etc - Very hit-and-miss, but it works for some collectors. Many people have old/foreign coins they want to sell, and garage sales and flea markets are the place many people try to get rid of them. As I said at the start, some people can tend to think their coins are priceless treasures and ask for far more than the coins are actually worth, but other people are quite clueless and are happy to accept only a fraction of what a coin is truly worth. I know another guy about ten years ago who picked up a one ounce palladium coin at a local pawnbrokers for $10 - apparently, they didn't know what "palladium" was!  In both the real and virtual flea markets, knowledge is what will gain you the true bargains. Know your coins, and the bargains will jump out at you. Coin dealers - find a couple of good, reliable, honest dealers nearby, and visit them regularly. A dealer who knows he has a good, reliable customer will be far more willing to seek out coins on your behalf, and offer you bargains. Read or Comment on this Topic | ||||||||
 In response to this question posted in another thread...One thing I was wondering is how a double die becomes a double die? Good question. Dies start as a bar of steel with a finely cut conical shape to the end. A positive relief (looks like the coins) steel bar called a "hub" presses the design into the die, so it's backwards on the die. This, in turn, punches the coins with the design right side out so everything looks normal. During the process of making a die, the mint used to partially press the design (called hubbing) into the die, then send the die to an oven to cook it for a while - a day, actually. This process is called 'annealing' - it helps strengthen the steel so the die can punch a lot of coins. Then the die would return for another hubbing. This process was repeated until the die had the entire design impressed into it. Hub doubling is the term used to describe doubling that occurs on the die during the hubbing process. The die is not fitted properly into the hubbing press for one of its hubbings, and the impression is off. It causes doubling on the die. When these dies pass inspection (none were supposed to), they would be hung on the coining press and would mint coins with doubled designs...doubled dies. Doubled dies are scarce because the doubling is in the design on the die. The dies are very carefully hand inspected before they are placed on the press to make coins, because that design could potentially be repeated a million times...they want to make sure they get it right. But for one reason or another once in a great while a die gets used that has doubling on it. So...why doubled dies and not machine doubling? Well, machine doubling happens any time any die gets loose in the coining press - which happens very frequently - at least daily, if not more often than that. So...machine doubling to some degree or another is VERY common. Doubled dies, as described before, is very scarce and happens infrequently. How do you tell the difference? Simplest part is that machine doubling usually occurs with dies that have normal designs on them - the doubling is caused by the die bouncing and hitting the coin again, slightly off-kilter. This actually flattens part of the edges of some of the letters on the coins, effectively making them thinner than they would have been had the coin been struck normally. So, machine doubling is flattened down, and takes up part of the normal thickness of the letters. Doubled dies, on the other hand, are struck that way because of the design on the die. So, the doubling is actually thicker than normal letters on a normal coin. the doubling stands out just like the normal letters on the coin, and there is often "notches" at the corners of the letters, where the letters overlap and the two corners of the two sets of letters don't meet. The notch is the space between the corners of the two sets of letters. Now, not all doubled dies have notching in the classic sense, but the letters are usually thicker than normal letters in some direction or another. Best way to learn the difference...buy a few doubled dies or get a good book that shows a lot of pictures of them. Study, study, study...and do not expect to quickly find a doubled die in your change. I've been doing this for almost 30 years and can tell you from experience...finding doubled dies takes a LOT of patience. Another way to learn is to go back about a year in the threads here and look at every picture posted. Learn from what others have found. It costs nothing to read the millions of words of posts made here on this board, and there's a lot of visual help right here. have fun! Read or Comment on this Topic | ||||||||
I found these in a box of cents yesterday. The corrosion is a bit annoying for coins that are only 10 years old, but it's not like I paid extra for these. And thanks to Bryan for shipping me these from back East...that was very cool!  Read or Comment on this Topic | ||||||||
I was talking to my buddy at the coin shop and asked him if he is into VAMS. He said "NO" and he doesn't even look for them in his stock. He said he has well over 1,000 Morgans that I could look through if I wanted to. I could take home a couple dozen each week to attribute and label them. Then I could sell a few on Ebay and split the profit with him, no money out of my pocket at all. My question is this: Which VAMS are worth looking for that are easy to spot when you see them?  Any help would be appreciated! Read or Comment on this Topic | ||||||||
Counting 1921's, something like 650,000,000 Morgan Dollars were minted. It's not hard to find a year/mint combination which has 50,000 examples combined in PCGS/NGC slabs. This is a wonderful thing, in that it makes these shiny silver cartwheels accessible to thousands of collectors. On the other hand, there's a loss of exclusivity inherent in collecting such a common issue, unless one reaches into the upper condition ranges, where my wallet fears to tread. Another outgrowth of such high mintage numbers is the wide diversity of Morgan Dollar varieties, called VAM's. This acronym stems from the last names of A. George Mallis and Leroy Van Allen, the two gentlemen responsible for the codification and labeling of these varieties. Every known Morgan die combination is assigned a VAM number, each year/mint combination starting at VAM-1 (a "normal" coin) and proceeding upwards with new numbers assigned to each new variety as it is discovered. Sometimes, a known variety is discovered with an additional feature that sets it apart from the original. For example, the 1878-P VAM-33 is characterized by the strongly doubled legs of the eagle. However, at some point in its' life the dies used to produce this variety clashed, and coins produced after that clash showed evidence of it. These later, clashed coins are designated VAM-33A. Some VAM's are as common as grains of sand, and carry no additional value. Others bring a huge premium over normal pricing. The reverse die of the VAM-33 I mentioned before was also used with a different obverse, one which was hugely tripled in the leaves and cotton bolls. This variety, VAM-44, is known as the "King of VAM's and if you can find one, any one, it's going to cost you thousands of dollars to own. The 1921-D VAM-1X, showing a huge rim cud on the obverse, is unique - only one is known. If you find another, you can set your own price. In 1997, Dr. Michael S. Fey, PhD and Jeff Oxman published a listing of popular and collectible VAM's known as the Top 100. These were chosen not so much for their rarity, although some certainly are extremely rare, as for their striking departure from "normal." Although some are fairly common, carrying little premium over standard varieties, there's still a cachet associated with owning such a coin. Many hundreds, possibly thousands, of Morgan collectors specialize in Top 100 VAM's. Both PCGS and NGC have separate Registries dedicated to Top 100 VAM's. Now, to the point of my story (for those of you who have been able to struggle through my long-winded post). Top 100 VAM's are accessible to any of us - you need not have deep pockets to add one to your collection. Presented below are two examples, neither of which cost me any more than the "average" price for that date and grade. Occasionally, moisture is able to accumulate in a die while in the press, and the surface of the die rusts. This is almost always found on the reverse die, since it's the bottom one. The rust eats away at the metal of the die, and coins struck by that die show raised dots called "pitting." One example is the 1897-P VAM-6A, showing pitting below the eagle's tail feathers and down to the D in DOLLAR. I was able to acquire the one shown below at no premium over a normal variety; this is a very common VAM and supply exceeds demand. 
  For those who would ask, the two lines across the obverse are "on" the coin, and not "in" it. I could remove them, but it would be at the cost of the coin's color, which for me forms its' character. The most significant pitting is to be found on the Philadelphia issues of 1921. These dies had a hard life - over 20,000,000 Morgans were minted in Philadelphia that year, and VAM's abound which show serious die cracking and/or pitting. The 1921-P VAM-41A is the absolute leader of the pack when it comes to a messed-up die. The lower reverse is dramatically pitted, and this after the Mint discovered the rusted die and polished it to within an inch of its' life to remove the pitting. All the lines you see in the pics below are actually part of the die, raised from the surface of the coin. This is my all-time favorite VAM, and more than a dozen have passed through my collection. They're relatively common; the one pictured below is in a PCGS MS63 holder, cherrypicked from a prominent online dealer. 
  Both of these coins were not attributed by the seller. That's the point of my story. Although the 1897 was fairly priced (I informed the seller of the VAM before buying it, and the original price was honored), the 1921 is probably worth three times what I paid. Neither coin cost as much as $40. Deals like this abound. With a little money and a little knowledge, you, the collector, can go out and add significant varieties to your collection at an affordable price. So go out and do it before I buy them all. Read or Comment on this Topic | ||||||||
Last week at the weekly Heritage auction, I purchased a Fractional Currency 2nd Issue $.50 Fr. 1317. I was happy to buy it, receive it, admire it.....and scan it... As I was scanning the note, something didn't look right about George Washington. It looked as if he had a face make over. I took a closer look at the fonts, mumbled a few expletives and was convinced, it was a counterfeit. What makes this interesting is that the note was certified by PMG as Choice AU58 EPQ. A nice grade in my opinion, that I was thinking saved me hundreds. The note is so well centered, but you take a look at what I saw. Portraits of George Washington. Notice the shape of the face. That was the first indication.
The next sequence of scans are from the upper right side of the Obverse.
Look at... the "States", then on the left side, the scroll work, then the beading around the "50". The engraved lines in general are not sharp as they should be. Second the engraved fonts do not have the same balance of white and black areas. Other parts of the note showed similar differences. ie the Locomotive, cargo and mule.  Since this PMG Graded.....this is a perfect case of "buy the note and not the holder" It stumped, PMG, Heritage and at first me, but then In my due diligence, I found it. And have been receiving some nice offers for it. Sorry I am keeping it! Jeff Read or Comment on this Topic | ||||||||
Over a period of a couple of years I have read message after message by people here who do not understand the basic foundation of what they are collecting. Probably more a thing of them not having taken the time to learn, rather than an inability to get it. That's the purpose of this post...to go through and explain the basics of how things occur, so an understanding of what these things are becomes simpler. Actually the whole process and the terms used to describe coins that result from each of the steps of the process is VERY simple. People make WAY too much of it and confuse themselves by trying to fit what they see in errors into the wrong part of the process. Doing this, they are left with no clue as to how the coin they have went wrong, and they always tend to misidentify what they have. First things first...the planchets and dies are prepared: Planchets start out as large and long sheets of metal rolled into coils. These sheets are fed into a 'blanking press' where the discs are cut out that will eventually be coins. This is where almost ALL planchet errors occur. Things like clips, broken planchets, wrong stock planchets, tapered planchets, etc. all have to do with the quality of the roll of metal being cut, or the machine doing the cutting. Dies are prepared in a separate shop. A large epoxy design is placed onto a reduction lathe where feelers trace the design and reduce it onto a bar of steel. This is a master hub. The master hub is used to impress the design in negative relief onto other bars of steel. At this point these bars of steel, called master dies, 'could' be used to mint coins, but these master dies contain the closest possible rendition of the design, so they are reserved to make other hubs called 'working hubs'. The working hubs (now in positive relief again) are used to make the working dies that actually mint coins. So, to review...one epoxy makes a few master hubs, which make dozens of master dies, which make dozens of working hubs. Each working hub makes dozens of working dies, which mint half a million or so coins each...the copies of the original design spread like a pyramid from top to bottom with each step, because each piece of each step is used to make dozens of copies for the next step. It's inside these steps where sub-types, varieties, and die varieties occur. Every sub-type or variety requires a new epoxy design and new master hubs...because the design actually changes. Take a star-less design and add stars, you need a new design. Take a date that's too small and make it bigger, you need a new design. The difference between the starless to with stars design change and the small to large date change is this: The stars would be added to enhance the design or to tell the public something changed about the coins...like the addition of arrows onto the dimes, quarters, and half dollars of 1853 to tell the public that the composition (silver content) of the metal changed. They actually changed the weight of the coins. THIS is a sub-type. Now the change from small to large date could be nothing more than a decision to change them because they were difficult to read. It could also be that the dies were breaking too easily because the stress points of the design were wrong. At any rate, the minor changes were something the Mint did to prolong the life of the die or to make the coins look better, but these changes didn't 'tell' the public anything. It could also be as simple as a mintmark punch breaking, and its replacement looked a little different. There was no public reason for changing the designs, thus they went unannounced and mintage figures were not kept regarding the changes. THIS is a variety. Next post... Read or Comment on this Topic |
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