Tales of a Lifelong Coin Collector

Strange Silver Find

2012-02-07T09:31:00.003-05:00

I was emptying my coat yesterday evening, and found five quarters in my inside breast pocket... I had no recollection of putting any coins in there. Upon closer examination, I discovered one of them was a 1957-D! Very strange! I am thinking someone in my office put them there, as my coat does hang outside my cubicle, but for what reason, I have no idea.

Well, whomever put them there, thanks for the $5 in silver :)

RT Who's Minding the Mint

2012-02-02T13:43:00.000-05:00

Nice article on dollar coins versus notes.

Another box

2012-02-02T08:28:00.002-05:00

...another silver dime found! This time, it was a 1920 Winged Liberty, a.k.a. "Mercury", which looks like it may have had a mint mark removed. Not sure why anyone would do that: the Denver and San Francisco mintage numbers are lower than the ones in Philadelphia... weird.

Damsel in (Coin) Distress

2012-01-31T13:14:00.003-05:00

A colleague of mine forwarded a request he had read on one of his hobby boards, seeking assistance in evaluating a coin collection. I responded to the request, and today received an Excel spreadsheet with lists of various coins, from wheat cents to dollars. I opened my digital Krause book, and determined the values of the coins as best I could from just a year and mint mark: for the silver, I gave an intrinsic value, and for the non-silver, I provided a set of values for a subset of grades.

She thanked me for my work, and asked if there were any I was interested in; I gave her a short list of 10 that I would like to purchase, along with a value (which exceeded the numbers I had given her in the spreadsheet).

I would like to get these coins, but my first goal was to help her in having the information she would need to evaluate other offers, of which she has, for the pre-1965 silver coins.

Not 'board' of Lincolns

2012-01-30T10:38:00.004-05:00

I just read craigslist this morning, and found an ad for a 11"x14" board for Lincoln cents, dated 1901-1943. The post lists that the 1909 VBD, 1909-S VDB, 1912-S, 1913-S and 1933 cents are missing, but that still leaves a lot of valuable coins in there. I have asked to arrange a meeting to examine it; I offered their asking price.

Penny to the Rescue

2012-01-27T13:41:00.003-05:00

Another week, another box of dimes to get counted up at TD Bank to get the FRNs to get another box of rolls, and because I know how coins don't always flow into the reject bin properly, I made sure to give it a good examination... only to find a 20-eurocent piece from Germany that I know wasn't in my coins, plus not 1 but 2 silver Roosevelt dimes, a 1947-D and a 1963-D, the former of which happens to be on my want list to compete that collection. Woohoo!

Double silver strike!

2012-01-16T20:20:00.001-05:00

Found two silver dimes: a 1962-D Roosevelt and, amazingly, a 1941 Mercury!

The Times for Dimes

2012-01-13T12:44:00.003-05:00

I had set a plan in motion on Monday to go to the bank today and get a box of dimes. So far today I have found four dimes either on the floor, in a vending machine's change return cup, or in the coin counting machine at the bank... weird how things happen :)

Hopefully these are signs that there will be lots and lots of silver in the rolls :-) wish me luck!

RT He should think some more

2012-01-10T10:19:00.001-05:00

I just read this article about a self-proclaimed "think tank" who believes the Presidential dollar coins actually contain gold, and we could pay off the national debt if we melted them into bars and sold them:

www.kjct8.com/news/30172361/detail.html

I sent an email to the reporter, listing the seriously wrong assertions from her source. Sigh...

Gold in them thar lists

2011-12-21T09:53:00.003-05:00

My daily scan of craigslist advertisements has yielded yet another opportunity: Liberian $25 gold coins from 2000, some of the smallest in the world at 11mm in diameter and 0.0234 oz of 0.999 gold. After responding to the ad, and getting a phone number to call, I found out that the seller is working on commission, so the fact that he is selling them for below melt doesn't seem to concern him: he is getting his piece of the pie regardless. Perhaps the actual owner bought them when gold was they were produced: the per-ounce price hovered between $260 and $320, giving the coins a purchase price of around $7.50, so selling at $30 is still quite a profit.

I plan on holding on to them just long enough to turn my own profit: I have no real interest in these coins as items to collect.

Project Presibux 2012

2011-12-20T18:45:00.002-05:00

Here is my challenge to my readers: keep track of how many dollar notes you use in January, then on February 1st, get dollar coins of the same amount, and spend them as you would notes. If you get dollar notes in change, replace them for coins at the end of the day, and monthly (or more often as necessary) exchange the notes for coins. Let's put those billion coins into circulation!

Silver strike!

2011-12-20T13:23:00.002-05:00

I spent probably more time than I should watching the prices of silver (and gold) get pounded down and down, waiting for the "right moment" to make a purchase... and didn't. So, this morning, when I saw the metals staging a comeback, and knowing that this may very well be the bottom of a long rally, I went ahead and pre-purchased 3 2012 American Silver Eagles: one for the collection, and two as bullion to be sold later on.

Downsized dollars

2011-12-13T14:50:00.003-05:00

I just read the Treasury statement that the Mint is suspending the production of circulating Presidential dollar coins, immediately and until further notice. There will still be dollars minted for collectors, purchasable in the mint/proof sets and by the roll, but not in mass quantities.

With the turmoil over the purchasing power of a dollar, I am not sure what I, personally, will do. I know I will get the sets, because I always do, but will I buy the rolls, knowing their mintage levels will be far below the preceding coins? Is there an investment opportunity there? Stay tuned...

A venti and a scone, err, I mean a krone

2011-12-12T09:10:00.002-05:00

I stopped by the local Starbucks, as it was quite cold this morning. As I was waiting for my order, I looked down and saw a coin on the floor: nickel-sized, with a hole in it. I picked it up, and discovered it was a 1 krone coin. In the moment, I didn't know that Norway had not joined the Euro (probably for the best, all things considered), so I had to look it up on Wikipedia.

Got a Standing 17!

2011-12-11T19:55:00.001-05:00

Thanks eBay, for a nice app that allowed me to spot a Good or so condition 1917 Type I Standing Liberty quarter for a reasonable price.

New Year, new focus

2011-12-11T10:14:00.002-05:00

Well, almost a new year, and with that almost-ness, I am looking towards a new focus for my collection in 2012: completing my Roosevelt dime set. I am more concerned with the pre-1965 than the post-, and I have quite a few already, just need to fill in some holes. Hopefully I can find reasonably-priced specimens.

My efforts this year to work on Standing Liberty quarters did not pan out as well as I had hoped. The mid-year swing to build up some reserve funds in silver and gold took most of my finances off of the table, but thankfully they are not too far away.

RT Pay in Silver, not so much

2011-11-29T13:07:00.001-05:00

This article demonstrates that while governments of various sizes make statements and laws supporting precious metals as currency, they are not quite there yet.

RT Paper or Plastic?

2011-11-21T11:12:00.004-05:00

Nice little article on the beginning of Canada's shift to polymer bank notes, starting with the $100. This sort of thing would address a lot of the complaints made of our Federal Reserve Notes, namely that you can't distinguish one from another without looking at it.

Fact Check on Negative Dollar News

2011-11-07T13:21:00.002-05:00

I just wrote an email requesting some additional information regarding this article on the negative impact that shifting to the dollar coin from the dollar note would cause. Most troubling was the reference to Frank Luntz, who appears to have significant credibility issues.

Coin rescue attempt

2011-10-10T12:19:00.004-04:00

I just watched this report on coins found in a jar, and at the end of the report was this:

"That's a lesson they hope to one day teach their kids as they plan to polish the coins, put them in a display case and pass them from generation to generation."

I just wrote to the reporter, urging her to contact the girls that found the coins and stop them from polishing them. I also volunteered to assist in evaluating them, if necessary. It would be sad if there were some rare coins in that bunch and they were ruined.

RT Coins Against Inflation

2011-10-06T09:55:00.003-04:00

Simple, to-the-point article on the possible benefits of hoarding coins, specifically nickels. I get rolls of nickels to search for the 35%-silver WWII-era specimens, but here is another, more mainstream reason.

RT Support the COINS Act

2011-09-29T12:22:00.003-04:00

I encourage everyone to contact their representative in support of the COINS Act. It will save billions of dollars, and allow us to join the rest of the developed world in having a coin as our unit currency.

All Aboard!

2011-09-26T11:57:00.003-04:00

I watched the prices of gold and silver drop, and drop, and drop all last week. I sent an email to a co-worker of mine, asking if he would be interested in another combined purchase (trying to divvy up those pesky shipping charges), and he was.

I just picked up a nice batch of APMEX silver rounds, at about $35 each (after adding in their margin and the per-round shipping)... Already, the per-round cost has jumped almost a full dollar since I ordered; timing is everything!

RT Keep the change

2011-09-24T16:24:00.003-04:00

This editorial is so off-target, it isn't funny. Although it includes all of the reasons why dollar coins are better, the author insists that the people won't use them. If the government simply removes the dollar bill, like most every developed country, this wouldn't be an issue.

RT Dollar coins piling up

2011-09-07T10:42:00.002-04:00

Nice article covering the various aspects of the dollar coin-vs-note debate, and the effects of delaying the proper answer: drop the note, and use the coin.