| Author |
 Replies: 197 / Views: 131,421 |
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
 Canada
2805 Posts |
Today I spent $15, recovered my short-changed $3 from last week, and picked up some mysterious Secret Santa-related items. Everything went pretty well!  Australian commemoratives: almost every Australian coin in the face-value bin was covered in crap! One of them even had tape applied to it, then scorched, leaving a black residue. I am wondering if there is a law that says that Australian coins can only leave the country if they are made to look disgusting... out of 30-odd circulating commemoratives in that bin, these were the only presentable ones (and one has still got a weird stain on it). I like these dollars, but collecting all of them must be very expensive... even worse than completing my loonie folder.  A Kiwi coin! This is an Ike-sized dollar commemorating the bicentennial of Cook's voyage (not "discovery", because Cook was clearly not the first human being to find it) to New Zealand. Krause value is very low... one of the non-commemorative dates is actually valued BELOW face value (75 cents, while the NZD is at 88 right now). I'll buy plenty at that price...  Some more island dollars. It's enough to make me want to go on vacation... just kidding, I hate being too hot (above 25 degrees Celsius).  One more country today: Liberia! This gives me coins from 170 different countries! This is momentous enough to bring out those irritating dancing fruit:    A little mix, including the highest-valued Romanian old leu coin. It uses a tacky font that I can't stand... you'd think people wouldn't engrave these typographical abominations into metal for all eternity, but one of Poland's commemoratives even used Comic Sans.   1 Austrian groschen... 1/100th of a schilling. This is a 1-year type, made to get through a glut of unstruck and undesirable Third Reichpfennigs and their planchets. While the 2- and 5-groschen coins survived until Euro replacement (although they were sets-only issues by the end), 1 groschen was minted until 1950 under the date of 1947, then dropped, never to be seen again.  This Nepalese rupee was 25 cents in a 2x2, which is catalog value. Sure, I'll take that!  Oh, baby! I have been talking about Panamanian coins recently - they combine all the desirability and specifications of American coins with the cheap prices of world coins. Think of the balboa as an off-brand U.S. dollar. This is a copper-nickel Eisenhower-sized dollar, and the 2x2 said $10... yes please! It's a sets-only issue (mintage: a paltry 200,000), and the condition is really great. With last week's 1999 balboa coin, this completes my set of copper-nickel large balboas. Excellent!! General Omar Torrijos, pictured here, died in a very mysterious plane crash just weeks into the Reagan administration, prompting this commemorative. He was a very strong advocate of Canal Zone nationalization, making him hugely popular in Panama. As for his demise... surely it was completely natural, because it's not like the United States has ever gotten rid of any other strong advocates for nationalization of U.S.-owned overseas resources* (ducks bullet).  You should all know the American State Quarters, and some of you should know that Canada did it first with the 1992 Provincial/Territorial Quarters. The idea has also spread to Japan, Germany, Mexico, Russia, Australia and many more countries besides. The first modern coins to commemorate all subregions of a particular geographical entity, though, were the Jerseyan Parish pounds (as I learned a while back on here). Starting in 1983, these coins commemorated all 12 of Jersey's parishes at a rate of 2 per year. It started off with St. Helier (mintage 100,000), but mintage declined more and more. By the time they reached St. Martin in 1987, mintage was just 10,000! This is the lowest-mintage coin I own. Certainly, not many people will be able to go for the whole set of these! And... I also bought some goodies for Secret Santa... not pictured here  * Mohammad Mosaddegh |
|
Moderator
 United States
189502 Posts |
Thank you for the latest update.  |
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
I returned today, mostly to show my friend around (who ended up buying $10 worth of very small world coins) and finish buying things for Secret Santa. I spent $10, although an undisclosed amount of that went towards mysterious gifts, and indeed, someone is going to receive at least $5 worth of coins...  This nice Australian $5 coin was being sold for $5. The boys in the Australian forum say it's not worth much more than that anyway, but I like it! It's big and shiny.  And this Dutch 1/2 gulden was found in a melt bin - I think it's at least XF. This was an unpopular denomination, last made in 1930, and I have a soft spot for such things (I'm sure all of you with those Kennedy half albums share this sentiment). There are two 1929 varieties, where the pearls on Wilhelmina's diadem relative to the letters above it reflect a slight movement of design elements in that year, but this is the cheap one. Still, catalog value is about $5, which is not bad for a nice piece of silver! Everything else, well... wait and see (and keep an eye on the Secret Santa thread)! Edited by nalaberong
12/11/2013 10:22 pm
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
Today was the day of cheap European copper! Oh no! This all put me out $10.  Here's another Austrian 1816 kreuzer. "Why buy two?", you ask, because you've astutely remembered the 1816-A I got at the Edmonton Coin Show. Well, this has an "S" mint-mark, which makes it scarcer than the common 1816-A. And there is something funky about the planchet... it's a bit small and a bit misshapen, yet the edge is continuously pocked correctly, so it must have been made wrong... I doubt it's worth a lot, but it is an interesting slip-up.  And a 1800 kreuzer. The price was $1, and I thought "well, it's more than 200 years old, so what can I lose?". Catalog value is actually about 50 cents in G... however, instead of going dull and dark, this coin has had its design turn a jet-black (it's billon, though, not iron). The result is an aesthetically pleasing contrast, making the design really stand out.  This German states coin was marked "Saxony" and priced at $1.50. This is my first German states coin (well, I think I have a slick from Lubeck somewhere, but...), and I did pretty well on it! 1855 is the low-mintage date of the 2pf's 3-year run: only 536,000 made, compared to 2,182,000 in 1856. The price doesn't change much, but aren't I lucky anyway?  I saw what looked like a funky diagonal view of the Lincoln Memorial, and I thought "could this be an ultra-rare American pattern cent?". No... it is a private souvenir token with Ben Franklin on it that's the exact size of a normal Lincoln Cent (and that's not the Lincoln Memorial). It looks fairly old, though... and it is a nice token.  Australian coins. The dollar has been brutally mistreated. Please, when you take these coins out of Australia, don't tape them to anything...  And some New Zealand coins. The copper-nickel florins are common around here... but I have not seen a Kiwi penny before. The $2 coin is very shiny, and I like the security edge.  Three pounds. I'm hoping to find a fake pound one day, but I don't think that day is today.  Latin American coins... the Peruvian 5-sol was sitting on top of the 12/$1 bowl, but face value is $1.92! I also got two Nicaraguan cordobas... Nicaragua is a bit of a difficult country to find.  Tiny coin! A Thai 25 satang is even smaller than a dime, and worth less than a cent, but I can't help thinking it's cute.  Most of the rest. Edited by nalaberong
12/18/2013 9:45 pm
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
Canada
11922 Posts |
More nice buys Question, what denomination is that Netherlands coin? |
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
1 cent... I got it because it was made in the reign of Willem III, which is a first for me.
|
|
Moderator
United States
189502 Posts |
Very nice! |
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
I went back with $20 today, because it's Christmastime...  My first Papua New Guinea coin... an enormous set-issue-only 10-kina (worth about $5) copper-nickel coin. 45mm makes it decisively the biggest coin in my collection. It's the highest-mintage date of the series, at 4,134 (!)... the silver proof version is actually much more common. Numista hasn't yet included it, which makes it pretty rare. Yet catalog value is only $12.50! The total mintage of all dates of this coin's entire run is 8,803... wow.  I have wanted this for a long time - the Austrian 1848 - 1908 corona series. Franz Joseph, the second-longest-ruling European monarch of all time, had reigned for 60 years, a feat matched only (in Europe, that is) by King Louis XIV and Queen Elizabeth II. So every precious denomination got a lovely commemorative design that year, from this little corona to the ounce-sized gold 100 corona, which is my ultimate dream coin and is the nicest gold coin of the 20th century (sorry, American gold fans, it's true). Krause doesn't like to tell you what the edge lettering is; this corona has the nice inscription VIRIBVS VNITIS (With United Forces), the motto of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.  20 years of everyone's favourite arcade game, Dance Dance Revolution! No, I'm making fun of the German acronym for Democratic German Republic. This is a commemorative East German 5-mark coin, comparable to the Soviet 1965 "20 years since victory in WWII" commemorative ruble: they are both the first of a high-face-value coin type, they both circulated a bit, and they were both made of a brassy metal while later iterations were made of straight copper-nickel. This is a nice coin, and I bet that thousands other like it were waffled come German unification... the East German bills are, as far as I know, still sitting in a soggy cave somewhere after being turned in en masse.  Yes, it's the maple leaf, the instantly recognizable symbol of Canada. San Marino stole it to put on the 2000 100-lire coin. How could they?! However, the design is well-executed and shiny... maybe we should ask the Sammarinese if we can borrow it, maybe a upcoming 20-cent coin.  I'm on to you, San Marino.  Is this Swiss occupation zinc? Surely not! After all, Switzerland wasn't occupied during WWII, although Hitler apparently had a personal vendetta against the place. Still, metal shortages affect everyone, and so we got zinc versions the normally copper 1- and 2- rappen coins. I dig the hat that's draped over the Swiss shield. |
|
Moderator
United States
189502 Posts |
Quote:
I went back with $20 today, because it's Christmastime... Works for me. Nice grabs! |
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
Something arrived in the mail today!! November 11, 2013: Quote:
I am expecting a letter from the Ukraine sometime next week. Yes, I overestimated the Ukranian postal service. But I did not overestimate Numista user ivanmosiuk! These coins arrived just in time for Christmas Eve.  First, Russian circulation coins. The major design elements were shuffled around a bit, leading to varieties (and I am now the proud owner of another kopek: they are pretty adorable).  I have posted Russian commemorative 10-ruble coins in the past, and indeed, there was no "standard" bimetallic 10-ruble coin: they all depicted different things. When they changed the composition to monometallic, the Russians decided to make a "standard" version this time: this is it. A very nice coin, and it still has that funky lateral image.  The two highest Soviet denominations, extremely worn. I already have shiny fresh rubles and 50-kopeks, so it is actually pretty cool to see these very worn coins. Maybe coins circulated more heavily in the Ukrainian S.S.R.  The last "typical" coins of the USSR before inflation took hold: the set of 1991 kopeks, excluding the two largest denominations (which are maybe more difficult to find than Krause claims). Here are the single-digit denominations...  ...and the double-digit denominations.  On to Ukraine! Here are the cheapest kopikya coins - the 5-kopiyok coin is from 2013. The Ukrainian hryvnia is worth about four times more than the Russian ruble, which must be embarrassing.  And here's a shiny fresh 50 kopiyok coin.  I got two hryvnias: this is the older style. The edge is lettered (with Ukrainian for "ONE HRYVNIA, 2003), which is nifty.  And here is the very shiny newer style! I'm very happy with these coins. Like every good Western Canadian, I'm distantly Ukrainian myself (1/16th!).  With the kopikya coins I already own, here is the full Ukrainian denomination set! Commemorative 2 and 5 hryvnia coins exist in base-metal, but I think they don't circulate.  There was also a bonus banknote! ₴2 is worth about $0.26, and I like the design.  To top it off, the envelope has some nice stamps I can soak off  Merry Christmas! Expect a post tomorrow...  |
|
Bedrock of the Community
Canada
11922 Posts |
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
Okay! This is it... The Christmas UpdateFirst, I used the ultrasonic cleaner on my 1908 corona, because some of the discolouration looked like dirt, rather than toning. And I was right! Compare the difference (no chemical agent nor physical abuse was used to remove any actual silver sulphide):  The second picture is a bit brighter, but you can see little dirt patches that are now gone. It certainly looks like a good AU coin now (and bought for VF money ).  In my stocking was one of these copper ingots! They might be overpriced, but they are certainly shiny. If only there were ones that read "CANADA * CANADA * CANADA"...  I also got 3 different 1oz bullion coins. First was this lovely 2013 panda. You've seen pictures, but these look so much nicer in hand... and the 2013 design is very cute, even if the pundits say it's unlikely to appreciate much. And the quality is very good - to my eye, it is perfect, so who bother spending a lot more for an MS-70 slab? Apparently, not even the TPGs get it right most of the time, so it seems pointless to me (although SGS MS70 coins will always carry a high premium, due to the conservative grading policies in place there).  The edge has some clever slanted reeding. I've only seen this on the Japanese 500 yen coin... until now. Hopefully it is difficult to counterfeit...  Next: an Armenian Noah's Ark, 2013! This is a fantastic design, and again, it looks flawless (the specks on the sun's rays are resting on the coin's surface, not a part of it...). Since the series only started in 2011, it is easy to get them all... this is also my first Armenian coin, so this is another push towards 200 OFEC coins!  And my first and only Maple Leaf, 2013: it's also very nice. I should probably own more, because of course they are easy to get in Canada, but I never got around to it.  A different metal object, because I also collect puzzles: this is Hanayama's fiendish Cast Square. A little pushing gives me the configuration on the right as the pieces slide... now I have to figure out what to do next to separate all 4.  And the equally difficult Cast Chain.  I also got some ego fuel: a desk embossing press! Now I can emboss anything made of paper with my initials and name. Heh heh heh.  And it works as promised. Defacing currency is a crime.  Here are some RCM products. The Lenticular Snowman is cool: some people say that the RCM puts out too much crap, but I think the flippers' market is too cynical about it. This coin made a great gift.  And the latest $20 for $20! These are probably a good investment, but I can't usually afford $20 at a time on one coin   Finally, the coveted DaYan ZhanChi speed-cube. You'll notice it has no stickers, just coloured molded plastic: and I had to put everything together myself! Each coloured square is an individual plastic tile, so to make a corner you have to put three corner pieces together, and an edge takes two edge pieces (plus a little "torpedo" attachment that makes it move better). And you have to adjust the tension yourself. It's serious business. Merry Christmas!  |
|
Moderator
United States
189502 Posts |
Thank you for the show. |
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
Today I met my slightly more distant relatives!!  (still in dealer's 2x2)  This one certainly has a lock on BU! The price was good, too (I scoped out this store ahead of time for items to put on my list so nobody would get taken advantage of...) Edited by nalaberong
12/26/2013 6:18 pm
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
After enduring the sub-arctic conditions on the walk to the mailbox (don't laugh, it's a shared one at the end of our cul-de-sac and I live deeply inland said cul-de-sac), I was astounded to find a CCF Secret Santa package in the parcel compartment! It's from a place that isn't Halifax. Here's what it contained...  Four countries I do not yet have!! Georgia, Moldova, Botswana and Gibraltar.  A U.N.-issued F.A.O. token, I vaguely remember seeing this in the 20-cent bin at Citadel Coins. I wonder if the owner is still brimming with fluoridation conspiracy theories?  Some hard-to-find coins. I really dig the square Pakistani one.  Bimetallics...  A Norwegian circulating commemorative! Mintage is about 1,200,000 and the Norwegian postal service has been operating for 300 years. It illustrates the traditional process of mailing a horse: the stamps usually affixed to the animal are not illustrated.  Some other nifty coins.  1949 Polish zloty!! At first I thought, "oh, just a boring aluminum zloty, but in good condition..." but no, it is the earliest aluminum zloty of its kind! Krause puts it at $65, and I was almost going to mail some cash back to Santa for this, but on ebay they only bring around $10. Still...   The rest. Thank you very much, Santa |
| |
Replies: 197 / Views: 131,421 |
To participate in the forum you must log in or register.
Disclaimer: While a tremendous amount of effort goes into ensuring the accuracy of the information contained in this site, Coin Community assumes no liability for errors. Copyright 2005 - 2026 Coin Community Family- all rights reserved worldwide. Use of any images or content on this website without prior written permission of Coin Community or the original lender is strictly prohibited.
Contact Us | Advertise Here | Privacy Policy / Terms of Use
|
| Coin Community Forum |
© 2005 - 2026 Coin Community Forums |
| It took 0.49 seconds to rattle this change. |
 |
|
First Page
Previous Page
Posted 12/11/2013 11:57 am
