| Author |
 Replies: 12 / Views: 2,128 |
|
|
Valued Member
Canada
133 Posts |
Being a new coin collector I have a question and would like to hear your thoughts about breaking up Specimen and Uncirculated Sets.
I have purchased a few of these sets over the past month and really love the Toonies, Loonies, 50 cent and quarters. I would love to display them were I could appreciate them instead of pulling them out of the boxes all the time to look at them. With the uncirculated sets, I have a few of the Christmas sets from past years and a few of the new Boreal Forest sets from this year. I'm not looking to sell them or make a profit but is it better to keep the sets complete the way they came or it is okay to break them up and sort the coins so I can keep my Toonies, Loonies etc. all together.
I will also be keeping a couple of the dimes, nickels and pennies, but I don't need 7 or 8 of each from each year.
Thoughts? Sorry if this is a silly question but I am already learning so much from these forums that I wanted to get some thoughts from you long time collectors. Thanks in advanced.
|
|
|
|
Valued Member
Canada
451 Posts |
The reason why I don't get sets is because I do not like the look of how it is displayed and I have always hated the idea of breaking them up. I just wish the Mint would issue some of the specimen specialty coins as is and not solely with the set. By looking at the aftermarket, I don't think you really lose much value by breaking up the set. You could probably spend the remaining coins in your set and still have that one loner specialty coin worth almost as much as the set all together. I don't see any issues with breaking them up, value wise.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
1002 Posts |
|
|
Valued Member
 Canada
133 Posts |
Thanks for that link canuck1us. It certainly helped my decision to break up a couple of the sets.
|
|
Moderator
 Canada
10463 Posts |
I break up sets all the time... I am always hunting for the perfect strikes to upgrade my small cents and nickel dollars... just got a 1973 cent graded SP-67, so I can cross that one off my list! (a very hard coin to find, because in 1973 specimen coins were issued in the double dollar sets, with that horrible red fluff that ruins the coins, and the double cent sets, which had the coins exposed to the open air).
"Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
1733 Posts |
I keep a complete set of PL/UNC sets but I don't hesitate to cut one up if someone wants something. Like this arboreal quarters set, kids want the quarters in their quarter book, so chop chop.
|
|
Valued Member
Canada
227 Posts |
Thanks Ugly for posting the counterfeit coin link. I checked it out and discovered that one of my silver dollars (a 1939) is a bogus.  |
|
Moderator
Canada
10463 Posts |
Barrie, can you post photos of your 1939 dollar? Or, would it be possible to send me your 1939 dollar and I can put it under the XRF here at work? I am working with someone to document the composition of the counterfeit coins. In fact, I will trade you a genuine 1939 dollar in exchange for your bogus one, so that it can serve a useful purpose for research and to prevent others from buying bogus coins. You can contact me by clicking on the 'email poster' link above.
To the site moderators: before you censor this post, please note that this is not a mere proposition for buying/selling/trading. I collaborate with Mike Marshall on Canadian counterfeits, and my having access to an XRF and SEM at work is providing Mr. Marshall valuable information on his fight against Canadian counterfeits. All counterfeit coins I receive and analyze, are subsequently submitted to Mr. Marshall, which in turn are documented for the RCMP counterfeit coordinator.
To other collectors: note that I do not make the same offer when it comes to 1945 and 1948 silver dollar counterfeits! But, if you have been burned and want to submit your 'made-in-China' or 'made-in-Lebanon' counterfeits for research purposes, both Mr. Marshall and I will accept them (no questions asked).
"Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
Edited by SPP-Ottawa
12/08/2011 3:21 pm
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
902 Posts |
 why would Big Tree Coin Factory (China) bother to do a 1939 dollar. |
|
Moderator
Canada
10463 Posts |
Most 1939 counterfeits are not from China...
"Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
1733 Posts |
Re purposed sterling silver from pawn shops in Baltic nations.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
902 Posts |
OK, next question. Why would anyone counterfeit a coin that is BV at EF-40 ?
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Canada
1733 Posts |
That's a great question.
I've postulated the appearance of some complete sets of uncirculated dollars up to 60~ish were all stamped at the same place and sold as a premium. I'm always suspicious when someone has multiple sets of uncirculated dollars and I've seen that twice now in the last five years. I mean guys like me have a set, and then usually a bunch of random acquisitions some MS, some AU and EF and so on. But who collects multiple complete MS sets? Not many people is the answer. I mean I can probably fill all the fishscales in MS grades 3 times over and in EF 10 times over, but I've been at it for more than 40 years and I don't live in Turkey. No offense at all intended to our resident Turkish collector Mol :)
Then I hear the discussion over metal content in the coins and I start thinking about QC at a place like the mint in the 40-60's and I'm filled with doubt that they were testing the heck out of everything that went in and out. Silver was dirt cheap. It's easier to handle than copper and sure wasn't deserving of a lot of time nor attention on it's purity or lack thereof. If someone was short of copper or just feeling lazy in making planchets, they made their jobs easier and the dies last longer by adding more silver. Now if testing starts revealing a lot of re purposed .925, there's something there worth reading because cheap sources of such are still widely available.
|
| |
Replies: 12 / Views: 2,128 |
|
Posted 12/05/2011 10:18 pm
