Wheezydog 1500 Contest Ended 10 Pm 7/21

I will enter in a day or two....

Going to enter my 1890 Seated Liberty half, which is PL.

July 18th is Saturday, so it doesn't end on Friday after all.

After much deliberation here is my entry. I am still learning the ins and outs of coin photography so my pics are not the best but I feel the coin is neat and maybe one most of you have never seen.


The pride of my world coin collection:
1997 South Africa "Natura Series" Cape Buffalo 1oz. Gold Proof
#699 of 2,472.

Beginning in 1994 the South Africa Mint in Pretoria, South Africa began the "Natura Gold Proof Series". Each year the mint releases a 4 coin set (1/10, 1/4, 1/2, and 1oz). 1994-1998 The African "Big Five" were commemorated followed by the Monarchs of Africa 1999-2001, followed by 2002-2004 Big Cats, followed by Giants of Africa which is the current series.

Weight: 31.107 grams
Metal: Au 999.9.
Diameter 32.69mm.
Designer: AL Sutherland
Mintage: 2,472

These coins are popular and thus command a high premium over bullion value. The very low mintage make these coins hard to locate, as I have only seen one come up for sale on ebay over the last year.

The coin has an interesting mirror-like pattern across the obverse and reverse which account for the bright areas in the pics.

The obverse: Cape Buffalo Bull, year, and Country of Issue
The reverse" Cape Buffalo Bull fending off an attack from a Lioness, natura, and metal composition.




The revere pic is much better than the obverse.

Wheezydog has encouraged me to share the story of my "amazing vanishing coin", so I will. And as soon as I get THAT over with, I'll immediately make a second post with photos of another coin which, fortunately, I was able to find.

The "amazing vanishing coin" has now vanished for the second time in its 25 year history. The coin was originally minted at the Philadelphia mint, in 1984. It was a rather UN-assuming, UN-remarkable 1984 penny. The coin first came into our lives in 1985. By then it had been in circulation for probably close to a year.

My then 4 year old son, Michael, was the first to witness its vanishing act. One minute it was in his hand, the next minute it was out of sight...in his stomach.

Michael was our first child and my wife and I were convinced he'd need to have his stomach pumped or perhaps surgery in order to keep the penny from doing him harm. The doctor in the emergency room assured us, however, that all we had to do was let nature take its course.

The next day the penny reappeared. I have thoroughly checked the records kept on such matters and am convinced that this was the ONLY penny ever minted at the Michael Mint. A very unique coin! I am not ashamed to tell you that shortly after it was minted I violated the cardinal rule of coin collecting: I cleaned the penny!

The penny went into a 2x2 and into my collection. In order to remember why I had placed it in there I wrote, "Mike's p**py penny" on the 2x2. I'm at a loss to explain why I can't find it. Perhaps my son removed it at some point in order to avoid possible embarrassment, in fear that I might decide to take it out and show it off at family gatherings...?

Okay...so now that we have the story of the vanishing coin out of the way, here's one that I can still put my hands on. Unfortunately, a little too much "hands on" keeps this from being a better coin.

I started collecting as an 11 year old when a neighbor GAVE me his collection of Mercury dimes, Lincoln Cents and Jefferson nickels. There were no key dates, and my neighbor believed in "polishing" his coins...frequently. Still, for an 11 year old, it was a pretty cool thing to get...absolutely FREE! And it got me started collecting.

For several years after that, my efforts at collecting were confined to things I could find in circulation. I had no idea that you could go out and buy UNCIRCULATED coins.

Then one day my dad brought home an 1885-O silver dollar he had purchased from someone at work. My dad said that, according to the seller, it was uncirculated! I just knew that it was gorgeous and I wanted it. Dad told me it was mine if I raked all the leaves in the backyard - no small project because our two maples were gi-normous!

It happened to be raining when he brought that coin home so I couldn't rake them right then. In fact, it rained for a couple more days. While I was waiting for the rain to stop, my dad would often torture me a little bit by sitting in his favorite chair and flipping the dollar off his thumb up into the air...over and over again.

That's right. He had removed it from it's protective holder and was handling it and flipping it with his bare hands. He didn't know any better and, back then, neither did I. I didn't yell at him to stop. I just watched and hoped it would stop raining. To the two of us, "uncirculated" simply meant that it had never been used in commerce...never bought milk with it...never bought cigarettes...never been in a cash register. We could have rolled it up and down the driveway to each other and we would have both still considered it uncirculated.

Fortunately, his "flipping" was the only wear it received. The rain stopped, the raking began and I owned a nice, bright, shiny dollar.

Here it is, still in the ratty 2x2 I put it in, way back in 1966.

With a mintage of over 108 million, the 1907 Indian Head cent is by no means rare. This particular example (I'll call it vf20) has a small clip (I'll call it less than 5%) at the 10 o'clock position with Blakesley effect showing around the 4 o'clock position.
A curved clipped is actually an incomplete planchet that is formed when the sheet of metal that the planchets are punched from fails to advance properly, causing the next punch to overlap a previously punched hole.
Some coins with a curved clip exhibit what is known as "Blakesley effect". Before a planchet is struck, it goes through a machine to "upset" the rims. When a clipped planchet goes through this machine, there is no pressure on the side opposite the clip. This results in an improper rim across from the clip. The resulting coin shows a weak strike (in this case the beading) across from the clip.
I recently "rediscovered" this coin going through my collection and remember the day I "found" it. In the mid 1970's I was going through my Fathers coins (he was not a collector, he just saved stuff) and I found this clip in a bag of mangled and mutilated coins he had pulled from coin operated machines. He had been in the business for 40 years and acquired quite alot. I had to explain to him why I was excited by this find. (I was 13 or 14 at the time). My Dad succumbed to cancer 9 years ago this month. I really miss him. It's only fitting that I share one of his finds! Enjoy!

In the book "American Half Cents: The Little Half Sisters", Roger Cohen introduced his Cohen Variety System
for Half Cents. The Half Cent is the lowest face value coin minted in the U.S. - all done at Philadelphia.
Though there were several series with various designs, I want to pay particular attention to the Classic Head
series (designed by John Reich) which ran from 1809 to 1836

There are three Cohen die varieties for the 1828: C1, C2 and C3. The C1 and C3 have the 13 star
obverse, and differ slightly with the position of the last "S" in STATES on the reverse. The C2 is the 12 star
variety, where for some reason the die maker didn't punch in enough stars. Of the three 1828 die varieties,
the C1 is the scarcest.

Acquired as part of a Craigslist coin lot purchase, the pictured 1828 12-star Half Cent is my oldest coin.
Today we often speculate if errors are truly errors; or "errors" created by the mint to stimulate excitement
in the numismatic community; nevertheless an intriguing piece of history. Written only 27 years ago, a copy of
Roger Cohen's book in second edition, in top condition, is worth at least twice as much as this coin if not more.
This baby may be headed for the CCF auction block some day soon.