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Sap's Last 20 Posts
| I've Never Counted This Many Errors On A Bill How Did This Get Make Circulation
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Sap
Moderator
Australia
15164 Posts |
 Posted 06/07/2023 9:08 pm
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Quote:
I've Never Counted This Many Errors On A Bill How Did This Get Make Circulation
As a general rule, the answer to this question is "it didn't". If you find "multiple errors" on a coin or note, 99.5% of the time, it's usually just one "error" or event that has caused all of the differences. Which is why I'm suspecting "solvent" for this note, as it would be a single "event" that can explain all the "wrong features". Occam's Razor says that if one event happening to a note is improbable, then having multiple improbable events happen to the same note simultaneously is extra-improbable. Not impossible, just really, really, really unlikely.
And, as another general rule: if you find "spectacular errors" on a well-circulated note, the chances are highest that those "errors" were not there while that note saw that heavy circulation - somebody else would have spotted it earlier and kept it, or somebody in a bank would have flagged it as "unfit for reissue" and destroyed it, long before it got to you. |
| | Forum: US Paper Money and Banknotes |
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| I've Never Counted This Many Errors On A Bill How Did This Get Make Circulation
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Sap
Moderator
Australia
15164 Posts |
Posted 06/07/2023 8:56 pm
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The simultaneous "missing last digits" is indeed very, very suspicious. I'd tend to assume a Q-tip and some solvent, rather than an eraser, but I'll admit I've never tried either so I don't know what the results of either would look like.
I'm leaning towards "solvent", only because solvent can also explain some of the other features on the note (like the ink bleedthroughs). |
| | Forum: US Paper Money and Banknotes |
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| 1957 D Lincoln Wheat Cent Wrong Planchet Or Intentional Damage
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Sap
Moderator
Australia
15164 Posts |
Posted 06/07/2023 8:22 pm
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Having the correct weight and correct size clearly implies it is not a wrong planchet.
The rounded rims imply it was bezelled or spooned to some extent, perhaps for inserting into jewellery.
I would tend to assume environmental damage: the coin was sitting glued or otherwise attached to a surface for many years, causing the different corrosion rates on the two sides. |
| | Forum: US Modern Variety and Error Coins |
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| Please Help Me Identify This Coin (If It Is A Coin)
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Sap
Moderator
Australia
15164 Posts |
Posted 06/06/2023 6:50 pm
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It hasn't been cast in the traditional method of making cash-style coins - but it's been designed to kind-of-look like it was cast.
This, combined with being made of iron, points me toward it not being an official coin. My best guess: a "funeral coin", designed to be thrown into a funeral fire.
It seems to have the same design on both sides, which also points towards a non-monetary function. I can't tell if the script is Manchu, Arabic, or just random squiggles intended to mimic Manchu. But the lack of Chinese characters implies to me it is not of Chinese or Chinese-diaspora origin. Perhaps from somewhere in Southeast Asia. |
| | Forum: Identification: Unidentified Coins, Medals, and Tokens |
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| 1915 Belgium 10 Cents Variety?
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Sap
Moderator
Australia
15164 Posts |
Posted 06/06/2023 6:36 pm
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| These coins are made of zinc, and thus are highly prone to corrosion. This coin has lumps and bumps all over it that aren't supposed to be there; I would tend to assume on an old zinc coin like this that any odd bump that may happen to resemble "re-punching" is just a corrosion bubble. |
| | Forum: World Variety and Error Coins |
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| Small Greek Bullion Coin?
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Sap
Moderator
Australia
15164 Posts |
Posted 06/06/2023 12:34 am
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| The lettering is not Greek, but close - it's Cyrillic. The language is Russian; the word in the cartouche is "standard". The word on the mostly-blank back is "Lobachevsky N.I."; it was only after translating this that I realised there's actually a very faint portrait there, and the portrait is of Nikolai Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician. |
| | Forum: Identification: Unidentified Coins, Medals, and Tokens |
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| Hey Everybody! Look What I Have Here! (Showing Off Your Coins)
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Sap
Moderator
Australia
15164 Posts |
Posted 06/05/2023 7:16 pm
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Most of my coin-showing-off is done at coin clubs, where the audience is likely to be more receptive to the material than a bunch of random people. If you try it and find that your dinner-table guests always get bored of you and your coins, can I suggest joining a coin club, if you aren't in one already?
But I do make an annual "coins and money" presentation to a Conversational English class that I volunteer at, and the young people there are generally not coin collectors or interested in coins. I tend to assemble three 20-coin pages which I use for my talk.
First page: history of coinage, and a general overview (my oldest coin, my smallest coin, my largest coin, coins used in colonial times, that sort of thing).
Second page: I try to bring along coins from the countries our students come from - usually old coins from those countries, that they're not likely to have seen before. This does need some cultural sensitivity (eg. try to avoid using WWII-era coins to represent the Asian countries).
Third page: "Coins with stories". Might be an interesting story about the circumstances of the coin's issue (like the Racketeer Nickel), or an interesting story about how and where I obtained it.
I try to downplay the value of any coins I display, even when some of them obviously are valuable (I normally have at least one gold coin, as well as several ancients, and people don't need to be told that such coins are valuable). I don't include any stories along the lines of "I bought this coin for $2 but it's actually worth $2000" - that just looks like a rich dude bragging about his money or, even worse, makes me look like a swindler who conned some poor ignorant person into selling me their valuable coin cheaply. I try to promote the truth that you don't need to be rich to enjoy coin collecting, and one way to do this is to be just as passionate in talking about the coin worth 50 cents as the coin worth $1000. |
| | Forum: Main Coin Forum |
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| AR Denarius Of Domitian. Damnatio Memoriae?
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Sap
Moderator
Australia
15164 Posts |
Posted 06/05/2023 6:47 pm
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No. Damnatio Memoriae would have obliterated his name, as well as his face. The face would also have been erased more thoroughly and utterly. Plus, the reverse figure on this coin is Pegasus, who is suffering from no such proscriptions, yet has the same deep scratch-mark through it.
Silver coins, generally, don't show much evidence of damnatio happening. The relative ease with which silver and gold coins could be melted and reminted, means any coins withdrawn under the damnatio would have been melted down, rather than officially defaced. It's almost always bronze coins that tend to show evidence of damnatio.
Which leaves the explanation of the deep scratches. To me, they look more like "plough damage" or "trowel damage", rather than ancient test-cuts. The freshness of the cuts,the ragged edges of the cuts where the chunks of silver torn away are still hanging on to the coin, clearly indicate the coin did not circulate after the damage was done. |
| | Forum: Ancient, Greek, Roman, and Medieval Coins |
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| 5 Kopeck 1970 Cant Find In Any Catalog.
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Sap
Moderator
Australia
15164 Posts |
Posted 06/04/2023 7:07 pm
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It appears to be some kind of strange fantasy coin - not a regular USSR coin. "KOPECKS" is not the correct Russian spelling for the denomination (it's spelled "KOPEEK", with a Cyrillic "P", on genuine coins; Cyrillic/Russian does not have a letter shaped like "S"). The design is otherwise loosely based on very early USSR 5 kopek coins. The coat of arms is also "wrong" for 1970; the number of ribbon-windings is supposed to correlate to the number of member-states in the Soviet Union, and there are supposed to be 15 ribbon-windings in 1970, not six. A regular USSR 5 kopek coin from 1970 looks like this.
"Fedorin", the reference quoted on the PCGS page for your coin, is a specialist Russian coin catalogue. Somebody with the book (and who can read Russian) might be able to tell you what "Fedorin-116" is classified as. |
| | Forum: World Coins and Commemoratives |
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| What Exactly Is The "Steel" In Modern Canadian Circulation Coins?
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Sap
Moderator
Australia
15164 Posts |
Posted 06/04/2023 06:17 am
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Hi all, was wondering if the locals could help with a query.
Everywhere I look, the composition of Canadian plated-steel coins is listed as "steel". For example, the composition of a plated-steel cent is given on Wikipedia as "94% steel, 1.5% nickel, 4.5% copper".
My problem is, from a chemist's point of view, "steel" isn't an element. "Steel" is a weasel-word without a strict definition; the word covers a wide array of alloys, the only thing they all have in common is a high iron content.
Does anybody know the actual composition of the steel used in Canadian coinage? Does it actually vary, depending on the supplier of the raw metal? Or is it a carefully guarded secret, kept under wraps to try to foil the counterfeiters? I would have assumed the actual metallurgical composition to be prescribed somewhere in the coinage legislation, but I can't find it.
Edits in bold. Sorry about that.  |
| | Forum: Canadian Coins and Colonial Tokens |
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| D.g.reg.f.d 1971 New Pence 1971
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Sap
Moderator
Australia
15164 Posts |
Posted 06/04/2023 05:37 am
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The coin is a Great Britain 2 new pence, 1971.
These are super-cheap, super-common coins - 1971 was the first year of issue, and they literally made a billion of them (1.45 billion, to be precise). They contain slightly more than 2p worth of copper. Even in super-high, mint-fresh-shiny state, they are only worth less than US$1. With those green spots all over it, yours is, sadly, less than pristine.
You might sometimes see on eBay such coins being offered for sale for hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars. These are criminals, using a bogus eBay listing to do a bit of money laundering.
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| | Forum: World Coins and Commemoratives |
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| Commemorative Coin Honoring Marilyn Monroe Centennial In 2026
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Sap
Moderator
Australia
15164 Posts |
Posted 06/01/2023 9:01 pm
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Quote:
Such a coin would be a "best seller" as opposed to the commemoratives honoring obscure persons or events.
I believe the guiding doctrine behind the issuing of "obscure people" commemoratives is that it was believed by the design committee that these people should be better known, and thus the coins are helping to advertise and promote their existence and contribution to society. From that perspective, Marilyn Monroe is already famous, so doesn't need the help.
Whether or not such coins would become bestsellers would, I strongly suspect, depend on the final design. |
| | Forum: US Commemoratives and Non-Circulating Coinage (NCLT) Including Grading, Varieties, and Errors |
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| Counterfeit Detection: 1903 Barber Dime
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Sap
Moderator
Australia
15164 Posts |
Posted 05/31/2023 6:49 pm
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Quote:
However, instead of being 90% silver, it is instead mostly copper (56%), zinc (30%) and nickel (11%)
This is the standard nickel-brass "counterfeiter's alloy", often used for the lower-quality Chinese fakes. It usually looks silvery enough in hand to fool even experienced silver handlers, but often photographs yellowish (as is the case here). |
| | Forum: US Classic and Colonial Coins |
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| Coins Of The Republic Of Texas
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Sap
Moderator
Australia
15164 Posts |
Posted 05/30/2023 10:11 pm
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Sorry for the bump, I missed this when originally posted.
The problem with the Texas dollar was that it was severely inflated, due to overprinting. Texas needed cash, but had no known reserves of precious metal. Making coins would have been hard (they had no minting facilities and no industrial base to create such facilities, so they would have had to pay a foreign mint, probably the US Mint, to design and make coins for them); making paper money was easy since all you need is a printing press and some ink. So they chose the easy route. Physical coins, and tokens, rely on the currency being stable enough that a coin isn't going to be rapidly devalued to the point of it being worth far more as scrap metal than as a face-value coin. The Texas dollar soon fell to being worth just a fraction of a US dollar; 1 Texas dollar was already "small change".
At times of inflation and financial instability, private low-value paper currency ("shinplasters") were used as coinage substitutes; these supplemented and eventually replaced the Texas redbacks and served as unofficial small change. The financial situation in Texas did not improve until after it joined the Union, so it never really had the chance to issue its own coinage.
Consider and compare the situation with the Confederate States, a couple of decades later. They had a much more developed industrial base, had some supplies of coinage silver, and even had inherited a former Union mint in New Orleans with Louisiana joining the Confederacy. Yet Confederate coinage never got past the "design and pattern" stage, for much the same reason as coinage was never issued in Texas: economic instability and overprinting of Confederate money, causing the economy to become hostile to circulating coinage. |
| | Forum: Main Coin Forum |
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