What Is Your Favorite Coin?

[quote]Originally posted by SFDukie

Metalman
Funny die break on that Roosie-is that a well known one? How did you find that one?

Hi SFDukie

Im not sure how well known this particular coin is, I have found 2 of them,, I find found this coin searching rolls that I bought off of ebay a few years ago, I was putting together a couple of circulated Roosevelt sets,, its these type of coins that piqued my interest in variey and error coins.

Rick

what a cruel question to put to a coin person. how is a person going to answer that without loosing a large part of the sanity that is left when one gets into this madness. my favorite is probably the next one I just gotta have ! now what should I get? a walker? a morgan?.oh that fsb merc looks good !hmmmm that barber half would look good. aaaaarrrggg what to do

quote:

---

Originally posted by SFDukie

Metalman
Funny die break on that Roosie-is that a well known one? How did you find that one?

Clad
Always enjoy your insights into modern coinage. It's never occurred to me to ask-how do you personally go about finding that 1969 WQ up to your standards? Do you have particular folks on the lookout for you? Do you ever search rolls?
Don



Lim
Pretty "coin".
Don

---

There are no rolls. There are no bags. Even singles are scarce. Oh yeah, they made millions and, no doubt, there are a few rolls around but finding one will prove a monumental challenge. If you keep your eyes peeled you'll see an occasional roll pop up for sale in dealer stock or on ebay but without exception the ones I've seen are assembled from mint sets. There are a very few Denver minted original rolls because these were fair quality. The Philly issues were just awful and weren't saved.

It is mint sets which constitute virtually the sole source for '69-P quarters. Unfortunately large percentages of the '69 mint sets are gone and many of the remaining ones are degraded by tarnish. Fortunately this tarnish is not a big problem for the P quarter and only about 10% of these are severely affected. When these sets were made about 80% of the P 25c's were poorly struck and/ or marked up. Almost all have planchet scratching still visable. Today only about 5% of the surviving coins are even attractive and these sets get harder to find every year. In gem condition this may be the true key to the series. The '82-P and '83-P are also quite tough in gem so it's going to be a real fight.

quote:

---

Originally posted by OldDan

After thinking on this subject, I have decided on the Oregon Trail Memorial Commemorative half dollar. Both James Earle Fraser and his wife are favorites of mine, and on this coin I get the best of both worlds, so to speak.
Still need a couple to complete the set. They aren't all that hard to find, but the ones I'm afte have to have a slight honey yellow cast and match all the other coins already in the set. I settle for anything between MS-63 and 65 for grade. No more beautiful coin has ever been minted here in the USA. IMO

---

Old Dan, that's exactly what I was going to say, right down to the honey yellow toning. I know just what you're talking about, I have a couple of Buffalo nickels with that same color. Unfortunately, I don't have an Oregon Trail at this time, it went the way of some other stuff I had to get some land that I just had to have. Not only is the design beautiful, but the concept of the pioneers moving west is so intriguing to me! middle aged Dan Forgot to say I was born 100 years too late, but if I had been born 100 years before that, I'd probably be saying the same thing!

quote:

---

Originally posted by toast

Lim, Macca's should put that photo in his guide. First time I've seen it.

Goodasgold, that's a cool coin and a cool clock that hangs around while you look at it.

---

Thanx, toast ... and like I say, just one of many 'favourites'.
And good to see others' favourite coins too - all are fantastic!

Cheers

Ah the denarii, well to be honest Roman coins are pretty well 'ubiquitous', is the word i'd use. There's that many Roman coins around here there and everywhere and less people collect ancients than moderns that in actual fact the majority you'll encounter are most likely real. That said though forgeries do exist, both modern and contemporary, as with all series'.

I have a few denarii that I have purchased all straight from trusted dealers that are registered with the BNTA, (British version of the ANA). Comparatively (to US coins) they're not that expensive. The one above was fairly expensive c.$130 (if I remember rightly), but that's because it's a coin from earlier on in the Empire, [Domitian was the last of Suetonius' "Twelve Caesars", the others in order were; Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian and Titus].

Coins of those Emperors tend to be more sought after, post-Domitian Emperors (or at least those that reigned long enough) generally tend to be a bit cheaper especially when you get to Antoninus Pius, Septimus Severus, Marcus Aurelius, Caracalla and Trajan. I think what lowers the price is that as the Empire progressed things started to get really confusing as you get Emperors coming and going faster than the year was out, in 238 there were six Emperors, three of them ruling at the same time. That and the coinage began to deteriorate both in quality and intrinsically.

Roman coins are addictive though i'll warn you... consider buying them very carefully.

To be one of my favourite coins, it has to (a) look good, and (b) have an interesting story behind it.

This is one of my favourite coins:

Italian Eritrea tallero, 1918.


The story: The famous Maria Theresa thaler circulated widely in the 'Horn of Africa' in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Italy, owner of the colony of Eritrea, felt that for locals to accept second-rate copies of second-rate Austrian coins and reject perfectly good Italian coins was an insult to imperial pride. So they tried these coins: an "Italian Thaler". The design is deliberately reminiscent of a Maria Theresa thaler. The obverse shows a portrait of a Maria-esque personification of Italy rather than the distinctly non-female King of Italy, and the reverse shows an eagle (not a normal Italian national symbol at this stage) bearing the arms of Italy.

Economically, the coins were a failure - the locals weren't fooled and, despite being slightly larger and slightly better silver, they rejected these coins in favour of the Theresas. In the end, the mint at Rome was striking its own imitation Theresas, for use in Eritrea.

I've only ever seen the one for sale down here; I paid AU$40 for it in 1998, but it's not in crash-hot condition. Mintage figure is 510,000 but who knows how many have been melted down since then. It's a one-year-type.