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 Replies: 17 / Views: 1,837 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1048 Posts |
It's 1947. Julius & Ethel Rosenberg are busily divulging military secrets to the Soviet Union. They've developed an impressive network of communist sympathizers, many with full security clearance working sensitive jobs in US Intelligence, the military and key defense contractors. Julius is compiling the information, Ethel is typing up documents for monthly delivery to a Soviet operative -- Schlomo Berkenstein -- functioning as a deli owner in Manhattan. Everything is going smoothly. Key design features of first & second generation nuclear weapons have already been delivered. All the Stalinists need to create their own weapon is the chemical formula for the triggering device medium. Then, there's a close call. Julius shows up in Central Park with a huge cache of military intelligence documents. He approaches the hand-off point by Bethesda Fountain. From 100 feet way, Berkenstein makes a two-fingered gesture meaning "danger", turns around and walks away. Wracked with fear, Julius hastily exits the park. That evening, the holy grail from Los Alamos arrives — the very formula Stalin's scientists have been waiting for: 150TTFS-GRFEE (15% ferrous-sulfate titrated in tintano-sulfide, prepared at a vectorized thermal gradient of five hundred-eighty-eight degrees fahrenheit). But another Central Park drop is way too risky. Instead, Julius instructs Ethel to pick up a corned beef on rye at Berkensteins Deli, and gives her this coin — the formula etched on the reverse — to pay for it. I'm quite sure that's exactly what happened. What say you?   Edited by pristine2
08/31/2023 7:32 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
 What are you talking about? Edited by Coinfrog
08/31/2023 7:35 pm
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1048 Posts |
Quote:
What are you talking about? You'd make a terrible Soviet intelligence operative. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
And you'd make a terrible mystery story writer. Please, if you want a grade, just ask for it.  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11891 Posts |
66
IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1048 Posts |
Quote:
Please, if you want a grade, just ask for it. The point was to draw attention to the graffiti on the reverse, which apparently eluded you. Edited by pristine2
08/31/2023 8:06 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12057 Posts |
I'm having trouble seeing graffiti (old man eyes strike again)
The coin is at least MS64 otherwise, not hard to get it to 65 but it has a few light scattered marks on the obverse and a couple tiny reverse marks. not counting the so-called "graffiti." Dies had some wear (you can see the flowlining) but the luster is that typical frosty white Denver luster.
As to the Rosenbergs, the government's strategy at the time of the grand jury and the trial was to ask for the imposition of the death penalty for both husband and wife, on the theory that Julius would confess as to the the true extent and scope of his (and others such as his sister-in-law Ruth and Ruth's husband David) espionage activities if it would spare Ethel from death. Neither husband nor wife would admit guilt or give an inch, and they were both put to death by electric chair. The cruelty of Ethel's electrocution (she was lethally shocked three times before death was achieved and some of the eyewitnesses reported that after the third and final attempt her body was visibly smoking) is sometimes considered one of the spectacles that helped build growing public opposition to the electric chair as a means of execution.
Member ANA - EAC - TNA - SSDC - CCT #890 "Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." -- Louis D. Brandeis |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1048 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4233 Posts |
I see a reeding contact squiggle and a couple other hits, definitely not graffiti. Some of your thread titles are a bit too much like click bait but they're entertaining. Tying this to the Rosenbergs was a stretch although I admire your creativity. I give the story AU58.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
6563 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2596 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1048 Posts |
Come now, those are clearly letters and numbers deliberately imprinted on the reverse mound. The tail end of the line is more questionable, but the first five inscripted read "150TTF5" The end 5 could be an "S". These aren't shapes that could randomly appear in linear sequence.  Also, for me anyway, coin collecting is intimately connected with history. I reserve an absolute right to write down any imaginative musings that come to mind. Edited by pristine2
09/01/2023 08:39 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
Please.  Edited by Coinfrog
09/01/2023 10:46 am
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
735 Posts |
I'll guess ms64
I've been collecting for a couple years... Favorite Coin's are Standing Liberty quarters, Working on my type set | Coffee, Corvettes, Coins & the CCF what could be better? |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
18668 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
Taiwan
606 Posts |
Agreed. No graffiti. Just an unrestrained imagination
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Replies: 17 / Views: 1,837 |
Posted 08/31/2023 7:39 pm
