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Thank you for visiting Coin Community. This site was created to help educate collectors to make the hobby of coin collecting as safe as possible. This is our main purpose. Our Coin Forum is the main ingredient, although we have plenty more resources and are always adding to the site. To the right you will see the last ten topics started on the forum, take a look if any titles interest you. It only takes a minute or two to register and join the conversation and it's totally free. There is no better way to learn about coins than to interact with coin collectors like yourself. We can learn from each others' mistakes, ask questions, and get advice from each other.
 Today I saw what is to become the new 2010 cents design, while I did think the coin needed a "face lift", I did not think of all the choices to be checked out for the actual new design, on the reverse, that this design would be selected. I do not think the design has any artistic character, no originality, simply put, bland, and to be selected over some of the other submitted designs, well I think the ball was dropped. I would of thought the selected design would of had some artistic "jump out at you design",with the technology today, the infusion program IMO, there were other designs submitted which I thought would of become the winner for the new design, this is just my opinion, any thoughts or opinions welcome  Read or Comment on this Topic |
 Pictures don't tell the whole story. I've been in the market for one of these for quite some time. Certified Retail, even for circulated ones seems to be in the $450-500+ range. I saw this one on the bay, and honestly wasn't very impressed.It did look to have some nice crust on it around the rim, and I figured I'd be fine with it if it went cheap enough. I put in a low bid, and won it to my surprise. PCGS put 58 on it, but it honestly doesn't look like a 58 to me at all from the pics. Absolutely no luster, details look pretty weak, lots of hits etc....They are pretty big pictures too. Well, it might look 45-50 or so in hand. I paid $350, so probably about what it's worth to me. I received it today, and was absolutely blown away. Not only does it have luster, but full, blazing, uninterrupted luster! It is actually really well struck too. The ebay pictures, though large, really hide a lot of the detail. The best part though is the crust! What I thought was dirt, or brownish toning; is actually iridescent blues and purples! I know gold coins can tone in iridescent colors, but I rarely ever see it and have never owned one. And now I own one that with colorful toning...completely by accident! The only thing that the ebay pics show accurately are the little nicks. Yes, those really are there, but remember that this coin is the size of a dime and the nicks are practically invisible unless you look at the coin under a loupe. This coin truly has the look of a quality MS-61 to 62 in my opinion, and is one of the most beautiful coins in my collection right now. Hot early commemoratives on eBay right now. Commemoratives under $5 on eBay. Read or Comment on this Topic |
Today I got an on line catalog from a well respected firm in Great Britain. One coin really got my attention. It is a very RARE Mexican 8R from 1864 struck at Alamos. The estimate for the coin is listed as 450 to 550 Pounds. Here is the coin followed by the auction description.  Quote: 698 Mexico Cap & Ray Alamos AR 8 Reales 1864 A PG, KM# 377, Elizondo #182, rare, VF, some Chinese chopmarks. £450 - 550 I see only one real problem here - anyone care to guess what it is? By the way, before you guess - the coin is REAL but there is a problem. Read or Comment on this Topic |
 Somehow a 1971 U.S. half got thrown into the hopper with planchets to be struck to make a 1982 Panama Half Balboa coin! Then the coin was somehow not detected by quality control and is available for one lucky collector to own. Details from both coins are very strong. Obverse has strong outline of Kennedy, "In God" under the beard and "We trust" prominently showing on the shoulder. Rev has stars and rays from the half above the shield and eagle of the half Balboa and lettering and more stars visible along the sides. This is an incredible eye appealing, dual county, dual denomination, dual dated (spanning eleven years) error and a wonderful coin to add to your collection! Read or Comment on this Topic |
 The Proof 1930 Australian copper penny is internationally renowned as the most valuably copper coin of the modern era through its exceptional quality and the circumstances of its striking. One of the original six pennies has just been offered for private sale, expected to sell for around two million dollars. However some experts have questioned the coin's advertised provenance as the Mint Master's coin...... Read or Comment on this Topic |
Could anyone describe the commotion at today's coin show in Santa Clara? Upon entering the hall, I saw police but really didn't get the full story outside of a few snippets from my dealer friends. However, as time wore on, I did sense a few dealers were on edge, and here's where I unwittingly became drawn into today's events. The story begins when I visited a dealer—who shall remain nameless—to browse his inventory of Mexican coins. Here are the full details because they are critical to this story. It's somewhat long, but hopefully to the point. This dealer takes two stacks of Mexican coins from his case (avg. value $15 each), and hands me one stack at the time, which I then inspect in loupe with both hands in plain view…and the dealer standing just 3ft away. When I finish one stack, I exchange it for another. I'm very methodical when buying, only inspecting one coin from a stack at a time, always keeping inventory in full view. After spending perhaps 10 min. with this dealer, I hand him the last stack and thank him for his time. The whole time, this dealer was standing in front of me, watching me (or so I thought). Ten minutes later, while at another dealer's table way across the hall, I was confronted by the dealer, who explained that his stack of coins I gave back counted up short (11 vs. 12), and asked if I could explain why? But, as he did not count these coins in front of me, I was at a loss to explain the discrepancy. So I simply asked him if he saw me do anything wrong? No answer from him, so in order to put him at ease, I proceeded to empty my wallet and every pocket on my person. However, this did not seem to put him at ease at all and he said something like "I don't want to insult you…you look like an honest guy, but then again the professionals look that way", casting another suspicious glance toward me.  Honestly, I started to get a little ticked off at this point, and wanted this conversation to end because I could not see satisfying a guy who didn't think he miscounted (and he couldn't name the missing coin). Apparently, he didn't consider that a pro might not waste his time to steal a $15 coin? During the day, I handled coins worth several magnitudes more than that one which mysteriously....did not disappear from dealer's tables.  Obviously dealers need to protect their own interests, and with that in mind, may I offer a few suggestions to those who might read this forum:• If you're going to count stacks of coins, count them (out loud) when you hand them to the customer, and then count them when they're returned. Simple as that—like they do at banks. • Protect yourself, meaning do whatever you need to feel secure. Set things for your own peace of mind, and don't expect customers to "fill the gaps" by their own conduct, as they cannot possibly secure your own inventory. • If you feel you must confront a customer on something, it's helpful to come across with something tangible to resolve, rather than a vague suspicion that can neither be proven nor disproven (since we know the pros work "magic"). • Have you ever considered providing a feedback survey for your customers? Many businesses do it, whereby simply asking good questions you'll gain important insights into collector's needs while also serving as positive marketing. In my business, I've found that small contests entice people to fill out surveys. On the "other side of the coin", there's much that collectors can do to uphold their end, such as: • Don't give a dealer cause for worry. If you're looking at coins, keep them in full sight at all time. I may be a bit of a stickler, but if I need to get something out of my pocket…I put the coins down, stand up and remove my wallet, etc. I try to keep my hands visible at all times. I also don't bring bags which dealers might need to watch. • If you can, try to look out for anyone suspicious around dealer's tables. • Don't mix coins that you previously bought/own with coins you want to buy. Keep the dealer's coins in a distinct pile within their sight until they are paid for. I've even seen collectors wander away from tables with coins they don't yet own. • Some dealers don't like to haggle on the price—they'll let you know and respect that. I may be stating the obvious here, but today's events had me wondering. If you got this far, thanks for reading.  Read or Comment on this Topic |
 This one of my better raw Franklin halves, and I am not sure about the grade. If I had to make a stab at it, I would say...MS63 Your opinions, please! Success Read or Comment on this Topic |
I'd appreciate your thoughts on this well circulated coin. As always, I apologize in advance for the photo size/quality (I couldn't do any better myself); they are the ones provided by the seller. Thanks in advance for your assessments.   Read or Comment on this Topic |
 I will admit I know nothing about coins. Well, I know how to spend them. Today I was putting my change in my drawer and I noticed a pretty neat penny in the group. It is a year 2000 penny. On the side with the face there is no word "trust" as that area has a little straight part on it. On the other side there is "state" printed upside down on the word "cent" Read or Comment on this Topic |
 In 1866, the Mint introduced a new nickel design to replace the older Half-Dimes. People were hoarding precious metals, and it was felt that a move away from silver was necessary to keep coins in circulation. Between that, and the efforts of magnate Joseph Wharton (for whom the famous business school is named), the decision was taken to produce the new coin in nickel. The Chief Engraver of the Mint, James Longacre, designed the new coin based upon his Two-Cent piece design, and the mint proceeded to re-learn the lesson taught by the original Indian Head Cent composition: Nickel doesn't strike easily.  Shield Nickels are notorious for cracked dies and relatively poor strikes, even though they're only 25% Nickel by composition. Clean, fully-struck examples tend to sell at a premium for this reason. All the same, they were popular coins in circulation, replacing the despised fractional currency which precious-metal hoarding had forced into being. So, production proceeded furiously - so furiously, in fact, that no Business Strikes were produced in 1877 and 1878 because of the vast number of nickels in circulation. But I'm not here to talk about the Shield Nickel, I'm just long-winded. In 1881, Mint Superintendent James Snowden decided to unify the designs of the Cent, 3-Cent and 5-Cent Nickel. He directed his Chief Engraver, Charles Barber, to develop a unified design. The first two denominations were only ever produced as patterns, but the new 5 Cent piece began Mintage in 1883, which brings us to the coin presented here for your viewing pleasure. The new 1883 Liberty Nickel was the first in a line of less-than-distinguished Barber coinage designs. In keeping with the unification design, the denomination was represented by only a roman numeral on the reverse, a curious feature which led to the infamous "Racketeer" Nickels. Enterprising profiteers took the new nickel, gold-plated it, added reeding on the rim to mimic that of real gold coins, and passed them off as five-dollar gold pieces. The unsophisticated merchants of the time accepted them, even though the design bore no resemblance to the current true Half Eagle. They were the same diameter, though, and the obverse was close enough to pass a cursory inspection. Needless to say, the new nickel design was hastily changed during the 1883 mintage run, leaving us with the 1883 "CENTS" and "NO CENTS" types. Approximately 5.5 million NO CENTS nickels were minted, and about 16 million CENTS types. The coin pictured below is the NO CENTS type. It shows both planchet flaws and the die cracks indicative of the Mint's difficulty working with this relatively new metal composition. Read or Comment on this Topic |
I attended the 200th Anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth in his Kentucky hometown of Hodgenville this morning. The Mint was making available to the public a limited number ($5 maximum) of cents. I saw Nelrak's post; I guess you could go through the line multiple times, but I got my 10 rolls and got out of there! Here are some photos. (Note: the roll I opened had mostly pieces with spots, which seems to unfortunately be a chronic problem with new Lincolns).  Have a look on eBay for some now! Read or Comment on this Topic |
Perhaps a couple of weeks late, but here are some resolutions for 2009 concerning my collection of US coins: 1. Preservation - Be sure that all coins are not stored in any holder that could contain PVC. I have already moved any loose coins in flips into Saf-flips or Capital hard snap cases. Also add another re-chargeable desiccant pack to the bank box. 2. Take Stock - Create an inventory of all my coins on a spreadsheet, by denomination, type, date and mint, with grade, cost and any other features of note. Along with the inventory, photograph all the albums, and single coins that I intend to keep. Put the inventory and pictures on a CD and also create a backup copy on my second hard drive. 3. Pare Down - sell all the duplicates replaced by upgrades and other coins I am not that interested in collecting on the Community or Ebay, or bid board. 4. Acquisitions - continue slowly to acquire key date IHCs, Walkers, and 7070 gold types to complete those sets, but waiting for the market prices to fall and catch up with the recession before purchasing. 5. Generosity - continue to give all the children in my family coins on major holidays to encourage them to collect. Also to look for opportunities to encourage new collectors wherever I encounter them, including new posters on the Community. 6. Knowledge - continue a process of learning all that I can from a variety of sources, but especially from those on this forum. How about you?? Have a great 2009! Read or Comment on this Topic |
After a fellow collector expressed interest in determining specific gravity for his coin, I wanted to do a brief demo on how I perform SG tests on small objects including minerals and coins. The credit for this test goes to Swamperbob, who describes his method in detail here. Yesterday, when I received a fascinating coin in the Secret Santa Exchange, I thought it would be an excellent subject for this demo, as well as suggest composition for 8 Skilling coins during this period.  The most important element of this test is an accurate scale, followed by correspondingly accurate methods. Here I use a pocket jeweler's scale which I have calibrated against other instruments to an accuracy of +/- .04 grams. Previous SG tests with known materials have confirmed reasonably accurate SG results from .7 grams and upward. So at 2.90 grams, this 8 Skilling coin is an excellent candidate for this test. Since calculating SG involves suspending the coin in water, at first glance a simple electronic scale appears unfit for the task. Yet, it is quite possible to get good results with the setup as pictured, where the scale is positioned over the edge of the table to allow suspension. For this method to work well, you will create a harness to hold the coin securely but not interfere with the scale or surrounding supports. Pictured below is a light harness made from a bamboo rod and copper wire that holds the coin securely without damage. I should note the wire was not wrapped around the coin, but consists of a few loops which loosely stabilize the coin.  Once your setup is complete, you are ready to conduct the SG test. See above for Swamperbob's detailed method. • First, weigh the coin without the harness, shown below as W • Weigh the harness without the coin in air, shown below as Sa • Weigh the coin suspended in air with the harness, Wa • Weigh the coin suspended in distilled water* with the harness, Ww (Note: coin should be completely submerged in water) • Weigh the harness alone in water, Sw (Note: if the harness is wet from a previous measurement, dry off completely before this test). *Note: add a trace of detergent to break surface tension. Now you have 5 distinct measurements, from which you can calculate SG as shown: W _________________ = Specific Gravity (Wa-Sa) - (Ww-Sw) Applying my measurements to the coin pictured above, I arrive at the following equation: W..................................................2.90 _________________ = _______________________________ = 9.35 (Wa-Sa) - (Ww-Sw)..............(3.65 - 0.75) - (3.34 - 0.75) Given a SG result of 9.35, I have a better idea of the silver content of this coin. As the SG for .999 silver is 10.49 and .999 copper is 8.96, the SG may suggest a composition of .250 silver and .750 copper. Does that sound correct? Read or Comment on this Topic |
This was going to be a reply in another thread, but thought it should get its own thread because I am sure plenty of people have this same question. So how do I look through cents for die varieties and errors?? Here's how I do it, and if I had the time I could go through 100 rolls a day this way: 1. Sort all the coins in a batch by date if the batch is more than a couple of rolls. I recommend sorting them a bag at a time (5,000 coins). One of the reasons for doing this is so that the more 'expected' dates can be gone through first, and the lesser 'expected' dates can be set aside for a rainier day. Another reason for doing it this way is purely logical and makes perfect sense - if you have 250 examples of 1985 cents to look through, you will get a better sense of how thick the design is and what some of the smaller details look like, and don't have to rethink your knowledge through every time you go from one coin to another. Additionally, you can get out a list of all the known dies for that given year and have them handy while you search, without having to flip back and forth through a LOT of stuff with each coin you look at. If your group is mixed, you might see a 1985 cent, then not see another one for another 60 coins and won't have the visual memory of what the other one looked like. This is more or less a waste of time. 2. Sit in a comfortable environment. If you're using a loupe, sit with a window or other light source behind you. This allows you to sit up in the chair and look at the coin in a comfortable position. Those who try using a desk lamp sitting in front of them have to bend over in different positions to light up the coin, which is a killer on the back after an hour or so of looking. If you are looking through a microscope make sure you set the lighting, magnification, and focus to a comfortable range and LEAVE IT THERE. Constantly changing the settings can play games with your eyes and cause you to miss stuff that's there, and see stuff that's not there. 3. Don't try to look through too many coins at once. Find your limit and don't exceed it. If your eyes start to blur and lose focus after three rolls, call that your daily limit and don't exceed it. I found that my limit is about 20 rolls a day, and I don't go over that. If you get tired of looking, you'll get lazy and stop looking. Your eyes will be catching most of the details, but your brain won't process them, and I promise you'll be missing stuff and wasting your time. 4. Know what you're looking for. Don't just go by what's been listed. Pay attention to all the details and pick out any differences and hold them aside. Keep looking, and if that difference appears over and over, you probably have nothing...but if you see something different on one out of 500 coins of the same date, you might have something worth further investigation. 5. Keep examples of the "nots" as well as the good coins. If you keep the things that aren't collectible, you'll be able to look back on them when you find something else in question and probably answer many of your own questions. My method: I have a stereo-zoom microscope with good lighting that did not come with the microscope. More so than not I find that microscope lighting that comes with the scope is not the proper type or intensity of light to use for searching through coins. I have a stick I made out of ash 1x2 boards that has a flute cut into it that's the right size for cents to fit onto it. I line up half a roll at a time on the stick, obverse facing up and look through them sliding the stick through under the scope. I then have an identical stick I use to flip the coins over so I can look through the reverses. I can often accomplish a half roll in under 3 minutes, or my entire 20 roll daily quota in about an hour, including holdering and marking everything I find. Read or Comment on this Topic |
 A collector in Oregon purchased a 1795 Reeded Edge Large Cent for $1000. This coin has been examined by numerous dealers raw. These various dealers felt the coin to be an alteration so did not take the coin seriously after examination. While they are deciding weather or not this coin is genuine and finally determined it was not, this collector buys it, submits it to PCGS and it comes back Good4. Now I ask you, why didn't these dealers pay $30 to see what PCGS thought? No brainer to me. This collector is expected to get $200,000-$300,000 for the coin. Read or Comment on this Topic |
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