ninamason's Last 20 Posts
| Women On 20-S'?
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
 Posted 03/24/2015 03:07 am
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CopperCastle, I work in retail. I assure you, I see hundreds more $20 bills than $1 coins of any flavor. That isn't a fair comparison.
Andrew Jackson is a disgrace to our country (Trail of Tears, anyone?). Much better Harriet Tubman or Sojourner Truth. And while we're at it, Hamilton was no great shakes either. He can go, and Susan B. can get a proper portrait that doesn't make her look like the Wicked Witch of the West.
And as long as we're at it . . . Lincoln off the penny. He's had it for more than a hundred years, give someone else a go. Same with Washington--do that 200th anniversary coin they're so set on, and then replace him. Our three lowest-denomination bills and three lowest-denomination coins have the same three Presidents on them, and have had since 1938 (at the latest, with Jefferson on the nickel). You're telling me you can't find ANYONE ELSE in almost 250 years worth taking those spots? (Abigail Adams? Dolley Madison? Pocahontas? Martin Luther King? Frederick Douglass? Cesar Chavez? Nikola Tesla? Come ON.) |
| | Forum: US Paper Money and Banknotes |
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| How Can I Determine If It's Silver?
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Posted 03/18/2015 10:56 pm
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Okay, sound test it is, and the results are . . . clad.
I tried a little Verdi-Care on it, and voila, this coin is from either the 1990s or 1980s (too much of the bottom is worn away to be sure of that third digit, but it's clearly got some kind of closed top), Denver Mint, and based on the large amount of pitting I can see on Washington's bust post-Verdicare I'm going to hazard a guess that this coin has been acid-dipped. |
| | Forum: US Modern Coins |
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| Reagan $1 Design Candidates
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Posted 03/18/2015 02:35 am
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I'm not a Reagan fan, but even so I have to say NONE of these do him any justice. It'd be like doing an Obama coin where the entire focus was his ears or having had Washington's coin be that one AWFUL portrait of him where all you can do is look at his mouth because it's so unnatural.
I realize this would involve not using a Presidential portrait, but surely a photo of him a few years younger from his Hollywood days could be obtained that would provide a more dignified, less "I'm only a couple of years from Alzheimer's and don't you forget it" look? (Not all the way back in the 40s, but like . . . I found some great images of him in Death Valley Days. There must be publicity shots somewhere that don't include the cowboy hat.) No President deserves to be made to look flat-out decrepit, regardless of your opinion on them. (Remember how dignitaries would be seated alongside FDR for photos so he wasn't singled out as "lower" than them? We should extend that courtesy to all our Presidents.)
If we HAD to go with one of the options above, I'd go with the third one but done in the coloring style of the last one. The finer lines won't be as dramatic on an actual coin, and will draw more attention to his actual profile than his age. |
| | Forum: US Modern Coins |
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| How Can I Determine If It's Silver?
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Posted 03/18/2015 02:23 am
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Okay, so. Today got handed a quarter at work. It's worn thin and the edges are milled down, like it might have been a dryer coin or something (much thinner than the middle). You can clearly see Washington and the eagle, but all you can see of the date is the top of the 19--no help there. If it's clad, it's worth 25 cents.
Here's the question: I used to know how to do this and have forgotten. How can I find out if this is silver and worth keeping for its value? Will normal tests work on a coin this damaged? I guarantee checking the weight won't help, or I'd have used the food scale right at work--too much of the original metal is missing. |
| | Forum: US Modern Coins |
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| Guess Who's Returned!
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Posted 03/16/2015 3:10 pm
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Hi, all!
The nieces are great! They're in Australia right now--their dad was assigned down there for a work project. I'm back in Arizona saving for a move back to Houston. How's everybody? |
| | Forum: Coin Community Family Topics |
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| Women On 20-S'?
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Posted 03/16/2015 3:09 pm
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I'm all for having civil rights people on our money. I mean, it's great that the country was founded and all, but our 250th anniversary is coming up. Let's update those faces (not to mention, Washington said he never wanted to be on currency, so why is he on so much of our money?). Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, certainly; Susan B. Anthony could do with a more flattering portrait than the single one circulating through our money; Cesar Chavez deserves a place; so does MLK. History is a living thing; elevating our Founding Fathers practically to the realm of secular gods and holding them there does nothing to educate or to show that we are a living, growing, changing nation. I've always assumed this is why the monarch's face changes on British currency--it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to have Richard III on the one-pound coin when Elizabeth II is in office. We have laws against having living persons on our money, but that doesn't mean the people have to be so long dead their bones are dust.
I would hesitate against putting Lady Liberty back on our money, though. Not because I think she doesn't belong there (she should frankly have never left), but because there is right now in this country a certain political fringe party that would hijack her image and our currency to test the "patriotism" of others. (I live in a red-hot bed for this party and I've been called "unpatriotic" and "a traitor" for everything from not being a Christian to speaking Spanish at work, and during the 2012 elections I was even physically threatened because I had an Obama sticker on my bike.) I can only see this party starting to do things like refusing to take "new" money with Liberty's face on it (or vice-versa with "old" money) or trying to destroy our entire banking system over it. |
| | Forum: US Paper Money and Banknotes |
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| Guess Who's Returned!
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Posted 03/12/2015 7:17 pm
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Mcshilling, I still have all my old stuff! It was and remains a bequest for my nieces. But I did drop out of the collecting game for awhile.
Silver Searcher--geez. Eight months? Ish? Too long. |
| | Forum: Coin Community Family Topics |
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| You're Never Going To Believe The Star Note I Was Handed
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Posted 03/12/2015 7:15 pm
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Someone at work handed me a 1974 $1. It's a bit flat in the way that suggests it was in a book for awhile, but it also looks like it's spent most of the last 40 years in circulation. I'm in awe--HOW?! It's fragile and it's going to require its own currency sleeve separate from my book of currency, but it's all in one piece.
(I know someone is going to ask for pictures. Online estimates show it's worth face, so I wetted it in distilled water and pressed it in a paper towel between book leaves to get rid of some of the dirt. I can't lower the value any more than it's already lowered by the state of the paper, so I'm not worried about the consequence of doing so as long as the bill remains in one piece. It's currently still drying and I don't want to move it until it's properly dry again, so pictures will be incoming once that happens.) |
| | Forum: US Paper Money and Banknotes |
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| Women On 20-S'?
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Posted 03/12/2015 7:11 pm
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Wait, so having men on all our currency is "normal," but adding women is "political correctness"?
I'm sorry, can you explain this to me? Women are approximately 50% of our population and 0% of the people represented on our circulating currency. How is that normal? |
| | Forum: US Paper Money and Banknotes |
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| State Proof Collectors, I Need Your Help
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Posted 12/21/2013 9:04 pm
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My brother-in-law wants to finish his Proof set. He's missing 2008 and has everything else in OMP. What is a fair price? They seem to be going $12-16 + shipping on the Bay, but that seems a bit high to me--but on the other hand, I collect neither state quarters nor proofs.
And are we better off on the Bay, or should I hop down to the coin shop and see what they've got there?
EDIT: Proof state quarters set. I missed that bit. |
| | Forum: US Modern Coins |
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| I Think I've Decided What To Do With My WWII Coin, But...
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Posted 12/21/2013 8:52 pm
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Okay, so.
Someone on the forum awhile back very graciously included a WWII one-pfennig with the Nazi symbol on it as a surprise in a trade. It was fascinating to see because while it was a terrible--beyond terrible--period in history (not just because of the Holocaust, either), there's so much we can learn from it.
But, I'm not entirely easy owning the coin--while I have no problem owning coins from dark periods of history (I have some Soviet Russian and Czechoslovakian coins, for example), something about that particular coin is just too much for me. I don't want to sell or trade it--I feel like that feeling would just transfer to whatever I gained by trading the coin--but I also feel that destroying the coin is a form of censorship, which I adamantly oppose. If we don't know our history we can't learn from it, etc.
I live with my sister, who is Jewish and knows I own it and have been trying to figure out what to do with it. She made a suggestion I rather liked: It turns out there's a Holocaust memorial museum in Houston to which I could donate the coin.
Here's the rub: I feel like there needs to be more than just a single coin as part of the donation. A pre-Hitler or post-Hitler (or both) one-pfennig, perhaps, to show just how much the war and the Third Reich changed Germany? A writeup on coinage changes and how they were another way for Hitler to exert influence (the Nazi eagle and swastika are very prominently placed on the coin, for those who've never seen one)? I don't want to go the route of putting in loads of world coins because I feel like the focus of the museums is on memorializing loss and demonstrating how completely Hitler controlled Europe, not on "look, we fought a war that changed history," but a single coin all by itself with no context doesn't really have anything to add to an exhibit.
Does anyone here have suggestions on what I could add to make this a proper donation that would be of historical value? |
| | Forum: Main Coin Forum |
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| Great Grandpa's Coins
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Posted 12/21/2013 8:33 pm
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YIKES! Get 'em out of that folder!
Folders are often glued together, which can do serious damage to coins. |
| | Forum: US Modern Coins |
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| Kennedy Half Redesign In 2014?
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Posted 09/27/2013 12:42 am
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| Conder, I could be wrong, but didn't that end with silver coinage? It may just be an illusion due to size, but I definitely had people tell me they wanted the halfs because a set amount of money in halfs was lighter than the same amount in quarters. |
| | Forum: US Modern Coins |
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| Considering Some Investment Buys In Silver
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Posted 09/27/2013 12:39 am
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| Denco, I'm not looking to go nuts. I just see silver prices way down right now compared to when I started this hobby and I'm thinking it's not a bad time to pick up some silver, but I'm not sure if I should be buying now or waiting to see if there are further drops, or if there are some coins/bullion that are better than others for sheer silver value. I'm probably overthinking it, but . . . |
| | Forum: Precious Metals and Bullion - Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum |
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| Kennedy Half Redesign In 2014?
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Posted 09/26/2013 10:50 am
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Jbuck, I just feel the need to say that when I was 10 years old and the State quarters were coming out, I was trying to convince my mom to get rolls of the old Washington quarters from the bank to save because "they won't be making them anymore and THOSE will be the rare ones 'cause everybody's saving the new ones!" As with so many things, she didn't listen to me. I bet she wishes she had now.
Anyway, re: halfs, I can tell you that when I was at Circle K I used to hand them out in change and people actually LOVED getting, for example, 55 cents with only two coins--the half and the nickel. I think if the design was changed to something more general--Liberty, for example, or a president or historical figure who isn't as "collectable" as Kennedy--the half would see renewed circulation. I used to get people turning down dollar coins, but never a half, and more than once I had people go "say, you got any more of those?" and trade me a pocketful of quarters for the fewer, lighter halfs--even after I said "sure, but you should know I check 'em for silver before handing 'em out." |
| | Forum: US Modern Coins |
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| Considering Some Investment Buys In Silver
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ninamason
Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Posted 09/26/2013 10:39 am
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But I've never actually BOUGHT silver as an investment before--always as a long-term "someday this is going to help my nieces in college" thing, and up til now it's usually been silver I found, not silver I bought.
It looks like the price has been falling rapidly, which makes me think now is a good time to buy, but I'm sort of shooting in the dark here. Should I be waiting to see if it falls further? Is there a better place to buy? (I was thinking of hitting up some local pawn shops, but I don't know how that'll go.)
I'm looking to invest $80-100, so it's not like I stand to lose a fortune here (although $100 is a pretty big chunk of change for me), but any advice y'all have would be great. |
| | Forum: Precious Metals and Bullion - Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum |
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