Also, I have a 1986 US Lady Liberty Silver Dollar. Where should that be listed?

Thanks,
Bassam

Claykan

I have done three different US type sets a 7070 and the Whitman 20th Century album for each of my boys. I was thinking of doing one for myself to in MS grade as its not an overly expensive set and I have been thinking of also doing the Whitman 20th and 21st century album too that is even easier to do as they took out all the varieties like the t1 standing liberty quarter and t1 buffalo. I have also thought about doing the littleton US type album and looking into other albums.

But my new project is I decided to start a crowns of the world type set. That's how I found this website as I was doing research for the different crowns of the world. I am going to mix it with a modern bullion of the world theme. So say you have a 1890's jubilee UK crown but you also have a UK Brittania coin or Canadian Maple Leaf and a Canadian Dollar or a Morgan dollar and a Silver Eagle. Mixing the modern with the ancient.

I think the Dansco crowns of the world album will be the album I go with but what a pain of an album. It has 5 pages a 36mm, 38mm, 39mm, 40mm and 42mm page. The 36mm seems almost worthless as the Canadian dollar is the only 36mm I could find, I might ditch it for a 37mm page an then I can at least put in the Peruvian Sol and the Austrian Philharmonic on the page. Has anyone done this? Problem is the dimensions on a lot of the coins for example the New Zealand Crown is 38.61mm so would you try and cram that in the 38mm page or have it loosely sit in the 39mm page. Same say with the Silver Eagle thats 40.66mm do you try and fit it in the 40mm page or do you buy a 41mm page. Anyway know of way to add a little filler so a coin wouldn't slide if you went up to the bigger page.

Thanks a lot

This is the first time one of our pics were used for a national magazine that was not related to the hobby and is a recognition of how coin artistic images can go beyond our loved hobby. I'd also like to thank the folks at National Geographic for all their support and use of our image. So without further ado here is the coin featured in the article.

To provide a short summary, we decided to use dime mintages as a baseline and compare it to the performance of the Dow. The general idea was that if the economy was starting to get depressed the order for coinage would decrease and if times were good then demand for coinage would increase. Sure enough back in 2009 we saw a possible trend. But, identifying a trend after a major stock market crash is in itself not that impressive. Anyone looking in hindsight can make oddball connections so I am revisiting the theory to see how it has panned out over the last few years (good years) to see how the trend is going.

As annual mintages increased from 2010 to 2012 there were also annual increases in the Dow. It appears the trending works in up years as well as down years. Yet the real proof is still yet to be had as we still need to predict a significant stock market fall or even a rise. So where are we for 2013? As of June 2013 the U.S. mint has produced 1.12 billion coins and is at a pace to handily beat the 2012 figure of 1.6 billion coins.

If the trend theory holds up then the Dow should close out the year up versus the end of 2012. Now we have our first forecast and considering there are some financial experts claiming the market is overvalued and due for major correction it will be even more interesting to see how this forecast works out. If it does work out it still does not prove out the trend between the two. Beyond forecasting an up year it will also need to forecast a down year. This is definitely getting interesting :))

Please note that this all theory and speculation and should not be used for making financial decisions.

If there is no Mint Mark on the back below the slave cabin does that mean that the coin is a fake? I got it an a local auction.

How can I send photos?

Thank you for your help.

Since it was launched in January 2010, moneta has garnishing the Society’s trophy case winning:

• 1st place in the American Numismatic Association’s “Outstanding Local Publication” contest (for the 2010 volume)
• 1st place in the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association’s “Best Local Newsletter” contest (for the 2011 volume)
• 2nd place in the American Numismatic Association’s “Outstanding Local Publication” contest (for the 2012 volume)

So, come and visit and pass the word to your collector friends!

Regards,
Ken

http://www.paydayloan.co.uk/Fun-Stuff/payday-money-the-past-present-future-and-fantastical-part-1.html

Absolutely amazing! Back in July 2010 we celebrated having 100,000 visitors (that took 3 years to achieve) and here we are 2 1/2 years later with 5x the number of visitors.

One of the biggest contributors to the increase in visitors was the dramatic increase in web content during that time. I appreciate and would like to thank everyone for all of the hard work, photo donations, and editing input provided by all of our members.

The mission of the site has always been (and continues to be) to provide a free resource for coin collectors to share information and collecting ideas & tips. It is hard to describe in feeling of how that mission is resulting in helping people all over the world and I cannot wait to see where we are in another two years.

Regards & Best Wishes,
Ken_Kash
Master Admin

2012 was a quiet year. Europe and U.S. economies slowly recover and are on the mend. Natural disasters still plagued us but nowhere near as severe as 2011. And through it all each one of our members has made it through the year. With hard work, hope, and a little faith, 2013 has the potential for more promising fortunes for all of our members going forward.

In 2012 the U.S. ceased issuing circulating Presidential & Native American dollar coins forcing collectors to deal directly with the U.S. mint if they wanted to continue their existing collections. The “America The Beautiful Quarter” program continued with the release of 5 new designs but with a glut in past quarter mintages very few are found in circulation.

On the global front the U.S. is not the only country with special coins programs. A multitude of countries are continuing special coin programs for circulating coinage providing us with more opportunities to expand our collecting horizons with unique and affordable international coins.

On the bullion front, silver and gold saw modest single digit percentage gains which have helped in providing some stability to coin prices. If economic fears continue into 2013 we may continue to see gains in gold but whether or not it can sustain the gains for the whole year is anyone’s guess.

Here at Typesets.Wikidot.com, 2012 was our sixth year and the content keeps growing and growing. Here are just of few highlights of what was accomplished in 2012:

• Coin page descriptions went from 359 to 417. These page descriptions represent 663 types of coins with 938 supporting photos.
• Two new coin libraries were started; Mexico and France with latter being supported by our own member lutecium94
• A new 2x2 Template Library for those that wish to create their own collecting albums
• More than 489,000 visitors (I expect us to eclipse half a million visitors around February)
• Site visitors originating from the U.S. dramatically dropped from 70.6% down to 57% (making our site truly international).

Of all the new growth on our site, the one that I am most excited about is the new 2x2 Template Library. It provides a great resource for new and experienced collectors and I cannot wait to see the content grow.

And to wrap things up, we added 26 new members this year bringing the site membership up to a total of 85 members. So here is a special welcome to the 26 new members of 2012; rodneyjdavies, newmasmatik, chollyB, turboxx12, Edward Baken, Max Angeling, Ultrasilver, connors16, sarah Lu, SilverCoinJess, lutecium94, Dom Terrone, droccu, kalpoon, Briany, ansore, john radomski, Terri Renee Joiner, Papoumike, Dsquared, ken45, detectore, nflstore2012, Kathleen Agcaoili, Tim Treichelt, and finally Stephen970.
Regards & Best Wishes for the Upcoming Year!
Ken

As many of the members know I am from Connecticut so this hits home very hard. It has been emotionally draining as the deaths of all those 5 year old children is just unfathomable. As a parent, teacher, or anyone that has ever worked & lived around children you cannot help but place your own child in that story and feel the pain.

At that age children are still just babies from my perspective; helpless, innocent, and fun loving. They have no intent, evil or hatred and can be so easily hurt. Yes the shooter is dead, but it brings no solace and will never bring any closure to the families of the victims as this is the most unthinkable of acts. Again I ask that you keep the families in your prayers.

Sincerely,
Ken

Do not know why no-one thought of this earlier as most collectors know that certain metals have distinct tones when dropped but it was definitely a brilliant find. Beyond the Canadian coin test, I can see a great application for this in testing authenticity of older silver coins providing us with yet another tool in our arsenal.

This is why I don't estimate what the collection will cost me. I know I can' afford it. But also know, or rather suspect, that somewhere in the deep soil of England there is a hord of several thousand coins of King Harold Godwinson which were buried to keep them out of the hands of the advancing Norman army. One of those coins is destined for my collection.

I hope everyone else is having fun with their collections. I'll try to drop by more often.

Thanks.

Earlier this year I picked up another great toy that has proven fantastic for coin shows. It is a 7 inch tablet that has allowed me to no longer carry books or lists to coin shows.

I realize some folks use smart phones that can do the same while others use an ipad, my problem was with size. I needed a screen that was large enough to easily bring up e-books but small enough that it was easily portable and a 7 inch screen was perfect and since I like to wear cargo pants it fit perfectly into the large pockets.

Now for the good stuff, I loaded an electronic copy of a Krause catalog for 20th century coins, a want list (in MSExcel), photos of all my coins, and an electronic copy of grading coins. Having these resources at my fingertips saved me money, time, and even allowed me to haggle for some coins. Best of all I didn’t have to carry around a notebook, pens, or books! Surprisingly I was the only person walking the floor using a tablet but I can see that changing in the very short term.

I am not going to endorse one tablet maker over another as I made my decision based on functionality. I needed a tablet that could handle e-books, use MSOffice tools, and be able to link with my home computer and it just happens that an Archos 70b tablet fit the bill. Currently, Amazon’s Kindle Fire is the top dog in the 7 inch screen size and major competitors want in on the action so expect to see lots of new stuff from major manufacturers (such as Samsung or Acer) and at reasonable prices if anyone wants one for the same reasons.

I divided the coins into piles, 1 for coins older than 20 years and 1 for coins younger than 20 years and was shocked by the disparity. 18 of the coins were older than 20 years while 22 were younger. And the ones that were 20+ years were actually in decent condition with the exception of two quarters from 1967 & 1969 and a 1940 cent which were worn down to a very good condition. It is hard to believe that many of these coins have been circulating 20, 30, or even 70 years and that is one of the elements that attracts new collectors. The history in your pocket change is absolutely amazing.

Since the bulk of the coins were pennies (21) I thought I'd share some pics on how well good o'l Abe Lincoln has withstood over the years.

This leads me to a piece of advice for all new collectors and maybe even some older ones :). Do not place a hobby over your personal life and commitments. It is understandable that you can get excited about a hobby but I have witnessed firsthand people that should have used money to pay bills or save for something big (like college) instead spend it on a coin purchase. In my case, all of the holiday shopping and credit card bills finally came due so without hesitating coin collecting was placed on hold and the bills got paid.

The same can be said about personal time, you can spend too much time on the hobby and not enough with family or friends. If you over extend yourself people will feel ignored and resentment starts to set in. At the end of the day it all comes down to practicing time & financial management. Find that balance and you’ll be a happier person all around for it.

As for me personally, March is the beginning of signing my kids up for the start of traditional spring activities (more time & money). Also, some of the February commitments did bleed over to March as I couldn't pay off everything in one month so I expect to not be buying coins again until April as I need to take care of family first. As the old saying goes…"Life just happens".

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

2011 was a tough year for many of our members. Poor economic times have left some unemployed, banks are still failing (in Europe and the U.S.), freak blizzards, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and floods. Whew! Somehow, each one of our members has made it through one heck of a year. Hopefully 2012 will hold much more promise going forward and want to take the time to wish everyone nothing but the best for the upcoming new year.

2012 we will see the loss of circulating Presidential & Native American dollar coins due to poor economic times. I expect other nations that have circulating commemorative programs to follow suit and only offer such coins to the collector market at more profitable pricing. Personally, I did not mind seeing the dead-head coins disappear but the Native American coins were being produced with some interesting designs and will miss these in pocket change.

On the bullion front, silver and gold started the first half of the year sky-rocketing to new highs but economic times affected these fronts as well. The second half of the year saw prices decline back to where they started.

Here at Typesets.Wikidot.com, 2011 was our fifth year and the content keeps growing and growing. Here are just of few highlights of what was accomplished in 2011:

• Coin page descriptions went from 250 to 359, these page descriptions represent 584 types of coins with 776 supporting photos.
• More than 300,000 visitors
• The Canadian Library & Type Set pages were cleaned up
• The United States & Canada "Collecting by Country" pages were updated and represent the new standard going forward
• We received so many Australian and Israeli coin write-ups we had two create two new libraries dedicated to just these countries
• The U.S. Commemoratives (pre 1982) in the U.S. Library were completed almost single handedly by one of our own members (GregA)

Going forward for the site all fees have been paid, in fact we even jumped on re-newel special where we got two years for the price of one! So the site will continue for not just another year but two. Site fees are not the only good news; we also increased the allocated memory from 2GB to 5GB giving us a ton of more room for additional pictures, files, or videos.

And to wrap things up we added 20 new members this year bringing the site membership up to a total of 59 members. So here is a special welcome to the 20 new members of 2011; curtis knee, rajean1, Jeffrubino, mantecaneil, magoo83, sherer, rysheart, silvertime, chettaboy, Ron Ackert, Anniejames, Hany Fathy, blackbert1, wolfkill, vhzone_28, CINCITY, olindh, paul neda, consto, and finally kyle32.

Regards & Best Wishes for the Upcoming Year!
Ken

In an announcement by Vice President Joe Biden, production coinage (circulation strikes) will cease to exist and coinage will only be produced to meet collector demand but at a premium. According to Biden this was the result of government investigations into cutting waste in government and that it will save the public $50 million dollars annually.

Joe and the committee leading the investigation have not their homework or else they would have discovered the multiple analysis' that showed long term savings of using coinage in-lieu of dollar bills saves even more. Or maybe they did know but their were other interests at play?

Either way this will have an impact on collectors who have been saving each coin for a set, but more-so for the young numismatic (YN) collectors out there. Limited quantity production runs will cost more as someone will have to pay for the time to set up the machines, tooling, & handling. This will most likely push the cost for an uncirculated coin anywhere from $3 to $5 per coin whereas the YN's only had to pay a dollar at their local bank and considering most sets include Philadelphia and Denver issues then the pain is felt twice.

link to yahoo article: http://news.yahoo.com/presidential-dollar-coins-victims-budget-crunch-192510623.html

Thanks for helping.

Consto.

please can you give me a price guid for FAO medals Helen Newton Turner, Grace of Monaco & Fitama Abdal Mahmoud. All these medals are gold and weighs 14.9 grams each.

Jagdish

The remainder of people that wandered around were vest pocket players or other dealers looking for new material which sounded fine until it hit me. These tables that were suffering are small local dealers. They do not attend the major coin shows, tour the country, have the wealthiest clientele, or access to some of the larger coin auction houses. When a dealer or vest pocket investor approaches them with a coin for sale they hesitate with making a $2,000 to $5,000 investment and almost can never afford anything above that price range. To them this is a big investment; their ability to turn over high value coins is much less so their business has had to rely on the collector as much as dealer to dealer sales. Coin shows probably make up a decent percentage of their income. Now I’m starting to appreciate their anger or frustration.

So what is going on here? Is it collector attitude, the show sponsor, or dealers? The internet has been an information and point of sale boon. Millions of coins are available for sale with photos, there are specialty websites to assist almost any collector, forums to trade war stories, and even a place where you can sell your stuff at auction. This new technology without a doubt has influenced collector attendance at the local shows but it seems too easy to blame the internet.

I asked the dealer if he was interested in my opinions and he said he was willing to listen. So I explained from my perspective (nice word for my opinion) that it has nothing to do with collectors but the issue is with dealers and promoters.

Dealers:

1. Most dealers at this particular show price their coins incorrectly. When you ask how much for a coin most reach down grab a grey sheet and then quote the ask price and only come down a few dollars. Here is the reality check, as a buyer I can pay that price anywhere so why should I buy from you! Understand that collectors have internet access and can get as good or better pricing online. Dealers need to factor this in to create some financial motivation so ease up on the high prices.

2. Are you listening to your customers??? Each show location probably has different buyer habits so watch and listen to what they are buying and adjust your inventory. In this dealers case he said most buyers are interested in a single type of coin and not a whole series. So stop displaying 100 Morgan Dollars in a case and throw in variety.

3. Figure out how to accept credit cards. Coin shows are one of the few venues that still do not accept credit. Are you kidding! Most folks do not walk around with thousands of dollars in their pocket. How about creating a paypal account and advertise you accept paypal. Many people have smart phones with web access so this would open a whole new world for both the customer and dealer.

Well at this point the guy was pretty much upset but he didn’t stop me from continuing so I moved on

Promoters:

1. Most promoters do a darn good job of advertising and getting dealers to rent tables but that is usually where many small shows stop. You cannot stop there, as a customer I can go anywhere to buy coins so add something else to the venue. Most successful shows have some type of speaker or special learning sessions. One really good one I witnessed was at a Texas coin show. The promoter advertised a special session for collecting 20th Century coins. It was about an hour of powerpoint presentations and when they were done they handed out info pamphlets about 20th Century U.S. coinage and a checklist to make a set. He also announced that dealers had special sections to find these type coins and they could be easily recognized by a round green sticker on the coin holders at each dealers table.

2. Offer free wireless, this day in age how much does wireless access cost for a day? This would give dealers another resource to use at the show. You could use it to show customers additional content online and educate your customers that you do have an online presence. Or offer to let a customer use your laptop for that paypal customer without a smartphone.

3. What happened to door prizes and giveaways? I’m not talking about that free garbage from the U.S. Mint that’s handed out at the door but useful stuff; books, coins or supplies. There are still small shows that do this and benefit greatly but overall most small shows have dropped this to keep table prices down to attract dealers. My advice here is stop being so darn cheap!

4. Speaking of the door how about a greeter? It would be nice if someone said “Hi welcome to the… “ and then give you a map of the show/tables, a schedule of events and a list of dealers with additional contact info (shop location, website, e-bay, whatever). A friendly face still goes a long way.

At this point I stopped my rant and the dealer just shrugged and just said “yeah I guess so”. I think he stopped listening after I criticized his pricing and got him upset. What he probably heard was “your too expensive and you should give your coins away” and everything else just went in one ear and out the other.

Regardless of whether or not he listened I did listen to him and now appreciate the position of smaller dealers. At the same time I have seen good and bad shows and tried to share that experience. Hopefully there are some folks out there that get the message that coin shows need to be freshened up with new venues and a sprinkle of modern technology.

The answer is maybe. The material removed is not obvious without magnification but the tremendous amount of brush marks in the coins fields are quite a distraction. For myself I was simply looking for a single example of a George V design and I believe a little aging and toning may diminish the the ugliness of the brushed fields so it barely squeaks by as an acceptable piece but I will annotate it as "Heavily Cleaned".

ISBN:079481943-5
Advertised Price: $17.95

If you have read any of Q David Bowers books in “the Official Redbook” series you have some Idea what to expect from this book. I have to admit that I didn’t have much interest in Morgan dollars, but over the holidays one of the National dealers ran an ad offering a number of the books in this series for a significant discount. Wanting to continue to build my Numismatic Library I decided to pick up this volume and one other.

When I received the two books I discovered the Dealers Gimmick… they reproduced their full page add as a sticker and placed them over all of the other advertisements in the book! This ingenious advertising ploy is actually not an issue except for the one page where the wrinkled a sticker when applying it and the page doesn’t lie flat. The book is written in Bowers’ Friendly and engaging style, and as typical of his books in this series there is a lot of background material before he gets around to the Date by Date analysis of the series.

He begins with an “about the Author” Page (curiously one of the pages that the dealer chose to cover with a sticker), and then after a few pages of Credits, Acknowledgements, Forward and Introduction, Launches into an exhaustive discussion of the History, Economic Factors and Politics associated with the Development of the Silver dollar, and the factors that lead to the production of Millions of these dollars year by year, only to have them immediately bagged and unceremoniously dumped into storage at the various mint Facilities, not to see the light of day for decades or in some cases for the better part of a century.

The story is so fascinating that one doesn’t even notice that you’ve read to page 111 of a 288 page book before arriving at the section the covers the analysis of each year by date and Mint Mark. But the fun doesn’t end there. Throughout the Detail analysis section (where he devotes one full page to each date and mint mark) Mr. Bowers’ inserts a series of Two Page Vignettes (28 all totaled) titled “Morgan Silver dollars, Rare Coins, and Life in year XXXX”. In these short sections, he continues a year by year discussion of the economic climate and the politics of Dollar production as well as the Coin Hobby/Rare coin Business at the time, finishing the section with a few paragraphs titled “Meanwhile, on the American Scene in XXXX” which constitutes a mini history lesson. While I’m still not much interested in collecting Morgan dollars, I found the book and incredibly interesting History lesson and a very enjoyable read!

Just got a new toy last week…a digital caliper and this thing is so fun to play with! Before I got this toy, I used a tape measure so this this is a FANTASTIC improvement. For most collectors this is definitely not a required tool and I'm sure some folks are thinking "this guy has lost it" but there is a good reason.

Sometimes we blindly trust our ever faithful catalogs like Red Book or Krause World Coins but does anyone ever question if they are right? No one is perfect (including this site). Myself and other collectors have found errors throughout the years with mintage figures, composition, and attributes.

Usually it is pretty easy when using a reliable source (like the U.S. mint) to find these errors but what happens when you don't have a reliable source? Or even worse, the sources you find all conflict with one another? That is what I am trying to resolve and this is one of the last tools I needed to do this and to share with the coin community.

Let take the example of a Philippine Centavo issued from 1937 to 1944:

• Red Book - lists a diameter of 24mm and no weight
• Krause World Coins - lists a diameter of 25mm and a weight of 5.3 grams
• The U.S. Mint - could not locate the data
• Misc Websites - most list a diameter of 24mm and a weight of 40 grains (not grams) to 5.184 grams

So who is right? Luckily I have three different examples and all different years (1940, 1941, 1944) so lets run through some real tests. First is weight; my digital scale came in at 5.1 grams for 1 coin and 5.2 grams for 2 coins so the 5.184 citation sounds accurate. The 40 grains is just wrong as 1 gram = 15.43 grains and 40 grains would equate to 2.6 grams so that source was just down right bad.

The final test is diameter; the digital caliper measured all 3 coins at exactly 24.7mm so neither the Red Book or Misc Websites hit the mark here. Krause was close with 25mm but still not accurate.

The lesson here is that while coin info (printed or online) is incredibly valuable it does have mistakes and you should have more than one source available to you to help in your coin collecting. My commitment is to validate as much coin info as possible and to aid me on that quest will be my precious toolbox of toys:

* lighted 20x loupe
* digital scale
* digital caliper
* gloves
* magnet

I did not base my opinion on some artistic masterpiece, some exotic metal composition or funky coin shape. Neither did I base it on some some incredible auction sale where only 1% of the U.S. population could even think of buying at those prices.

My criteria is more simplistic, I based it on what contribution it has to the everyday collecting community. I will it admit it was a tough call as I did consider the discovery of a new VAM variety but I came to the conclusion this discovery was important to numismatics all around and too important for just a single year of recognition.

My selection for coin of the year is the lowly 2010 U.S. Shield Cent! I'm sure all of the Lincoln Cent collecting folks are screaming “I could have told you that!” but if my reason for choosing the Shield Cent insults any Lincoln collectors I will apologize in advance. No I did not choose it because it was a new design, the fact that it comes in different compositions or even its reverse design.

What I saw over the course of the year actually came from non-collectors. I witnessed more people receiving these little coins in their change and actually pausing to examine the coin more closely. I had more people ask me “Have you seen this? Cool huh?”. These little copper beauties were creating new collectors throughout the year and this was without a lot of fanfare or mass media hype. I haven't seen this much interest in pocket change since the 1999/2000 time frame when the introduction of the Statehood Quarters motivated many to start collecting.

What made this a success was that the coins were readily available. The designs were not changing every few months allowing for the coin to quickly circulate and much of the public is becoming numb to the ever constant quarter design change so a change to a different denomination was a welcome sight. Will this have staying power to generate new interest every year? Definitely not on the same scale, but for its first year it has done one heck of job and I haven't seen another coin during 2010 bring more new collectors into this wonderful hobby.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

2011 looks to be an interesting year for collectors with a new U.S. Mint Director to be announced in January to replace outgoing Director Moy. The U.S. Commemorative program has two planned releases with the United States Army & Medal of Honor commemorative coins and both look to be popular amongst collector & non-collectors alike. And on the circulation front we can expect a new batch of the America the Beautiful quarters as well as the 3 ounce silver bullion versions.

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Looking back at 2010 one story that wormed its way into almost all collecting conversations was precious medals and in particular silver. Normally when talking precious metals most people talk gold which did have a good year ending up 24% but silver was up a whopping 76% making 2010 the Year of Silver.

Here at Typesets.Wikidot.com, 2010 was our fourth year and I couldn't be prouder of where we are. The site continued to steadily grow and here are just of few highlights of what was accomplished last year:

• More than 156,000 visits (more than double from 2009)
• Received a large donation of photographs from our friends at the Coin Collectors Unite site
• Coin descriptions went from 153 to 250 (our goal for the year was 200 so nice job everyone).
• Added 2 new U.S. Coinage Acts
• A new article on how to make Safe-T flip inserts
• A new article on how to create a One From Every Country theme set

Going forward for the site all fees have been paid so the site will continue for another year which translates into even more growth. The goal for the site this year will be very mild in comparison to years past and that goal will simply be to move us from 250 coin descriptions up to 300.

Additionally, the site has grown so much in 2010 that I can no longer maintain it by the proverbial seat of my pants and mistakes, typos, errors, or broken links that were not fixed quickly I apologize. One of my resolutions for 2011 is to become more organized and to start this off I created a “To-Do” page. As ideas or suggestions pop up I will modify the page to add a “wish list” tab so we don't lose any great ideas any of you may have.

Regards & Best Wishes for the Upcoming Year
Ken

This is not an uncommon practice as one can get tired from searching for that "right" coin to add or complete a set and buying something different is a temporary but wonderful distraction. It was one these "wonderful distractions" where I discovered I discriminate against certain coins.

When my eye tended to wander it was always towards large world (crown size) silver dollars or U.S. key/semi-key coins and I would quickly skip past or scroll by anything in between. Not sure how long I have been this doing but I caught myself recently on e-bay by pure accident during one of my lightning speed screen scrolls I accidentally clicked a listing. What popped up was a beautiful 1800's Portugal 500 REIS silver coin, which I ended up buying for $14.

It was not a huge piece of silver and it was not even close to the definition of rare. Wondering what else I have overlooked because it was not big & flashy really hit me between the eyes. Once you start looking at a wider field the number of interesting designs expands by 10 fold. Going forward I will not take any coin denomination, size or even composition for granted during an impulse buy.

Of course this could lead to the new issue of becoming too distracted to complete the set you had originally started out on but with so many coins out their to appreciate we'd be silly to not make the occasional impulse buy. Maybe a better way to look at is getting ideas for a new future set :)

http://s789.photobucket.com/albums/yy171/johnny1328_1986/20th%20Century%20Mexican%20Type%20Set/

http://s789.photobucket.com/albums/yy171/johnny1328_1986/20th%20Century%20Mexican%20Type%20Set/

Johnny1328

Well…the secret is out! I am a Canadian Wanna Be (LOL!)

Special thanks to Candy over at CCU for the link :)

This could not happen without all of the content we have created to share with the world. Because of this, site visits increase every month and I can truthfully admit that I am in awe of what people can come together and accomplish. Each and everyone one you, and you know who you are ;) I am proud to call you friends and can't wait to see what new levels we achieve.

So without further ado….THANKS EVERYONE!

I was reminded of this very recently working on a type set of Russian coins and all I needed was one 1/4 Kopeki. According to price guides it was affordable and readily available but I was thwarted at almost every turn. I could find no local dealers that carried the diminutive coin and struck out coin show after coin show. Not so easily beaten I turned to online dealers but struck out again. After 6 months I realized this was not going to be simple.

Refusing to admit defeat I wasn't out of tricks yet and switched tactics to online auctions. Finally I found what I wanted but was outbid on the very first attempt. Not a problem I thought to myself, I'll bid above current price trends. Still I was outbid at the last minute auction after auction (ARGH!).

It was suddenly 9 months, still no coin and my patience ran out. On the next few auctions I bid double the trend price and was still out bid at the last minute. Then for quite sometime even E-Bay had no 1/4 kopeki coins. After a 12 month search, I finally lost interest and moved onto another set. Then something amazing happened another 12 months later (we are up to 2 years for those counting), one coin popped up on my radar on a secondary online auction site and I won it for just $9.

At the end of the day this coin was far from rare but just shows the availability of foreign coins. So don't loose faith in completing a set, instead put it down for a bit and just check in once in awhile and that coin will eventually show up. They are out there we just need to be a little ahhh well patient :)))

I have a set of FOA medals vol.1 date says 1972 and the medallions look like gold ,
how can you tell if its gold?

and i also have the cion set FOA 1968

any value for theses sets ?

I have tried to find out more about the designers and their thoughts on the designs. I haven't had much luck. But I did find this brief article on Lisa Brett who designed "Dancing Brolgas" for the Northern Territory.

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2008/02/09/3313_ntnews.html

Search is back up & running just fine

Dimes
1875 Above Bow – G $12 , VG $16, F $21, VF $35, XF $50, AU $89, AU53 $132, AU55 $162
1876 – G $15, VG $20, F $28, VF $40, XF $54, AU50 $90, AU53 $108, AU55 $132
1877 – G $12, VG $14, F $15, VF $23, XF $53, AU50 $94, AU53 $126, AU55 $144

20 cent
1875 - G $222, VG $408, F $486, VF $640, XF $770

Quarters
1876 -G $23, VG $32, F $39, VF $61, XF $162, AU50 $210

Halves
1876 – G$36, VG $46, F $69, VF $92, XF $228, AU50 $330
1877 – G $29, VG $38, F $78, VF $104, XF $240, AU50 $330

Dollars
1870 – G $480, VG $720, F $1,000

Trade Dollars
1875 – G $168, VG $240, F $270, VF $390, XF $510, AU50 $670

Morgan
1878 – G $71, VG $85, F $90, VF $98, XF $104, AU50 $110, AU53 $124, AU55 $138, AU58 $150, MS60 $210

Half Eagle - $5
1891 – G $336, VG $360, F $402, VF $462, XF $575

Eagle - $10
1891 – G $650, VG $770, F $810, VF $890, XF $930

Double Eagle - $20
1874 – G $1,470, VG $1,530, F $1,690, VF $2,030, XF $2,590

https://www.bis.org/review/r081124e.pdf

I'll upload a scan if I can figure out how to do it.