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livingwater's Last 20 Posts
| Question About An Athenian Owl
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livingwater
Pillar of the Community
United States
1757 Posts |
 Posted 02/22/2025 08:36 am
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| Compare pics of my Athens tetradrachms in your other post to pics you posted here. Notice mine have no cleaning scratches, no porous pits, are not badly worn, etc. When you buy an ancient or modern coin, avoid those with surface problems unless it's cheap and that's all you want to spend. |
| | Forum: Ancient, Greek, Roman, and Medieval Coins |
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| Personal Dilemma- Scuffed ICG Slab 1948 Franklin MS63 FBL
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livingwater
Pillar of the Community
United States
1757 Posts |
Posted 02/21/2025 4:53 pm
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It tried Novus polishing compound, 1, 2, 3 grades on a coin slab. I worked on it for over an hour, didn't make much difference. Maybe I quit too soon. Those slabs seem pretty hard. Deep scratches likely can't be removed with polishing.
It's rather frustrating to buy a new coin recently slabbed from a dealer and there's already light scratches on the slab. |
| | Forum: US Modern Coins |
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| Breaking Apart A NGC Case: Stupid Idea?
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livingwater
Pillar of the Community
United States
1757 Posts |
Posted 02/21/2025 06:48 am
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Some collectors like slabbed ancient coins, some do not. I prefer mine not slabbed. Modern collecitble coins can be damaged if touched/handled with your fingers. Ancient coins can be held, no problem. I enjoy holding my ancient coins, imagining who held them, used them over a thousand years ago. Of course when I hold one I do it above a table so I don't drop it on the floor.
You could put an ancient coin in a display case lika a museum. But then peeple could only see one side of it unless you suspend it over the top of a mirror. Friends and family would likely enjoy actually holding one rather than just looking at it. You could buy a few inexpensive ancient coins to hold and buy an expensive one slabbed or in a case to look at. Vcoins is a good place to buy in my opinion. There's a few CCF members that sell ancient coins on ebay and/or Vcoins, you can trust them, Victor's Imperial Coins for example. You can buy decent late Roman bronze coins for around $25.
I would not spend the money to buy a slabbed ancient coin that provides authenticity and protection then break it out, especially if it's an expensive one.
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| | Forum: Ancient, Greek, Roman, and Medieval Coins |
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| Which Company For Roman Gold Coin Grading? (Australia)
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livingwater
Pillar of the Community
United States
1757 Posts |
Posted 02/20/2025 06:48 am
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Yes, NGC is a good company to grade anceint coins. Import/export restrictions have been increasing. It depends on the country of origin and how the package is labeled. Usually small packages, single coins are not examined very often, it's large lots of mulitple coins and large antiquities that may get stopped at customs. I never had any problems recieving an ancient coin sent to USA from Europe, except one got lost in the mail years ago.
You could post photos of the coin here on CCF, get opinions if the coin is worth grading.
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| | Forum: Third Party Coin Grading (TPG): PCGS, NGC, ANACS, ICG, ETC. |
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| Decadrachm Of Syracuse Or Replica
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livingwater
Pillar of the Community
United States
1757 Posts |
Posted 02/18/2025 2:02 pm
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| Sorry I couldn't ID it for certain. Family stories can sometimes be wrong. My stepfather had a photo of Marilyn Monroe he gave me. He said his army buddy took it in Korea when she visited the troups in 1954. After my stepfather died I found out it was a photo actually taken by a newspaper photographer while she was in Mexico. |
| | Forum: World Coin Grading |
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| Decadrachm Of Syracuse Or Replica
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livingwater
Pillar of the Community
United States
1757 Posts |
Posted 02/18/2025 1:23 pm
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Welcome to CCF! It is not a Syracuse silver decadrachm, way too small. It looks bronze/copper to me. You could try cleaning it but I doubt there's any silver underneath.
It's possible but I'm not aware the ancient Greeks made the quadriga NIke and Arethusa with dolphins in small bronzes.
In Italy, Greece, Turkey, Egypt etc. when tourists visit they can buy modern replicas/fakes made to look ancient and modern made antiquities too, but they are not ancient. Your coin could be modern made for tourists. If it was an ancient decadrachm counterfeit it would have been made the correct size and look silver.
If it's a modern replica it's not really worth much. |
| | Forum: World Coin Grading |
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| 1887 O VAM 2 Doubled 1 Triple 7
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livingwater
Pillar of the Community
United States
1757 Posts |
Posted 02/17/2025 07:27 am
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| Nice one. Vams are fun to find. Most of mine are circulated coins, some are MS graded. As you likely know, many Vam numbers do not add much value to a coin. Some Vams do add value to a coin and have been given names like "scarface" "hot lips" etc. The most popular Vams are in Elite Clashed Morgan Dollars book, Top 100 list, Hot 50, etc. |
| | Forum: US Peace and Morgan Dollar VAM |
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| 1884 O Multiple VAMS?
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livingwater
Pillar of the Community
United States
1757 Posts |
Posted 02/16/2025 8:27 pm
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| No, I've never heard of multiple Vams on one coin. Vams can have different die stages like early, middle, late such as die cracks, die breaks as the die is wearing out. So a specifc Vam may look somewhat different depending on the stage. Plus Vamworld does not always list every indicator in the descriptions. There are differences between each Vam number, some obvious, sometimes small differences that can only be seen with a magnifier. |
| | Forum: US Peace and Morgan Dollar VAM |
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| What Is The Market Like For Communion Tokens?
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livingwater
Pillar of the Community
United States
1757 Posts |
Posted 02/14/2025 06:43 am
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I have about 25 communion tokens from Scotland. Mine range from 1678 to 1862. I'm not familiar with yours. Communion tokens were made in different cities and churches, some made in Canada and USA. If you do a browser search for books about them you'll find several. It there's a college library in your area you could see if they have any of these reference books.
Yours isn't in good condition so it won't be worth as much as a better one. You can go to ebay sold listing searches to get a general idea what they are selling for. I bought mine years ago, ranging in price from $2 each for a group lot to $35 each. |
| | Forum: Identification: Unidentified Coins, Medals, and Tokens |
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| Why Are So Many Ancient Coins Struck Off-Center?
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livingwater
Pillar of the Community
United States
1757 Posts |
Posted 02/11/2025 2:11 pm
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Maybe there were daily production numbers to make, quantity over quality. I don't know if anyone has ever tried to calculate the percentage of ancient coins struck off center. In my opinion many ancient coins are pretty well center struck considering the manual methods used.
Sometimes a coin wasn't struck off center, the blanks were a little too small for the dies. Dealers will sometimes describe such coins as struck on a small flan. This happened with the massive production of Athens silver tetradrachms made for roughly four hundred years. The style of the design changed over time. Many of them have the crest of Athena's helmet missing or Athena's tip of nose missing. On the reverse the owl's feet may be missing or some of the letters missing. Below is one of my Athens owls showing this. I have no clue why they were made this way, guessing quantity over quality.
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| | Forum: Ancient, Greek, Roman, and Medieval Coins |
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