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#71 What Clubs Do You Belong To?
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By mmarotta on 28 Jan, 2014 20:22 in board : General Discussions
I just renewed my ANA membership, a little late, I confess... Even though I now live in Texas, I renewed my Michigan State Numismatic Society membership back in November. MSNS publishes a great quarterly magazine, in full color and on glossy paper. Each issue runs about 50-60 pages and offers about six or eight feature articles of about 1000 words each. (MSNS pays ten cents per word to a maximum of $100.) The articles tend to run the full range of interests because they are the independent contributions of active collectors: The Mich-Matist has no editorial calendar. Although I am not a member of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society, I am on the weekly E-Sylum maillist. (I have been an NBS member in years past.) Books are an under-appreciated aspect of our hobby. "Buy the book before you buy the coin" was the advice of Aaron Feldman, an avid dealer and collector of the previous generation. The NBS is for all aspects of publishing, often ranging far from books into auction catalogs, biographies of collectors or Mint officers, printed ephemera, numismatic tie-ins such as post cards and cigarette cards with coins, and much more. While NBS stalwart Wayne Homren is the editor of the E-Sylum, the topics are defined by the interests of the writers.In addition to your local coin club, national and regional clubs, and of course the ANA and ANS, perhaps about 50 different specialty clubs serve the hobby. Just about every series you can imagine is represented.
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#75 Re: Lets see some nice toned coins
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By VDB Coins on 17 Jan, 2014 09:12 in board : For Education and Promotion of Toned Coins
This is one that came in the mail last week, Franklin Half MS65FBL PCGS, Deep Mint Set Toning. It looks in hand just like the PCGS TrueView!Enjoy!Best Regards, George
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#76 Re: Vibrant Coin Market Looks Probable for Years To Come!
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By VDB Coins on 17 Jan, 2014 07:09 in board : US Coins, tokens and medals
I read recently where Heritage had sold more than $105 million in one week to get their New Year off with a bang! This included the Platinum Night and FUN auctions along with the incredible Mervis large cents, all the NYINC stuff and Currency, wow what a way to start off the year! The 1787 Brasher doubloon brought more than $4.5 million, the Hawaii Five-O 1913 Liberty nickel brought $3.29 million, and yet another 1927-D that had belonged at one time to Dr. Steven Duckor (and sold in David Akers' Dr. Thaine Price collection offering) brought almost $2 million.Obviously collectors are spending freely for top-quality material. I think it is a really good sign for the market that rare gold coins are going up while bullion gold is going down. I was surprised the Brasher didn't bring more but I think folks don't consider it a Federal issue; it's more a pattern proposal for Federal coinage, apparently. Nonetheless I think the price will be considered a bargain someday! I bought a few things from FUN and Mervis (and elsewhere) but the sweetest early gold coin I had my eye one got away from me. Best Regards, George
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#77 Re: The Libretas Americana Medal
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By VDB Coins on 17 Jan, 2014 06:59 in board : US Coins, tokens and medals
Great snag CoinsAreFun!I posted this on another forum and thought the folks here too would enjoy the story.Congratulations CoinsAreFun on a great acquisition!Not totally off-topic but when I went back to Yale recently for a concert I was able to meet and chat with the curator of the Yale Numismatic Collection, charming fellow named Bill Metcalf. After we had a good long visit and looked at some coins and medals (I was interested in their Bela Pratt and Russian stuff; little did I know what awaited me downstairs on display afterwards), we said our adieus and I went down as directed into the lower parts of Street Hall (the Numismatic Collection is part of the fabulous, world-class Yale Art Gallery) to the American Decorative Arts Before the 20th Century section (yep, how many museums have one of those?).Hanging on the wall -- rather anonymously unless one knew what one was looking at, along with many other medals, all behind a plexiglass shield (and with quite good security, I was glad to see) -- was a beautiful, high-end AU silver Libertas Americana medal. A little pamphlet in a wall hanger gave brief curatorial descriptions of each medal in the display. For many of them the legend was something like "Bequest of Wyllys A. Betts" Gasp! I flipped to the Libertas Americana: "Bequest of Wyllys A. Betts" (however they phrased it). My word! I was looking at Wyllys Betts' own silver Libertas Americana! I started thinking back to what I knew about Betts. That he was a New Haven resident. That is where Yale is. It was the end of a long day, and a lot of the medals I didn't have time to more than glance at briefly. I remember, though, an Indian Peace Medal of George I. Never saw one of those before.I don't know a thing about Betts' family life, but it certainly looks as though his entire Betts medal collection may be in the hands of Yale. I have down on my list to call Dr. Metcalf back and see what else I can found out.When I got back to my hotel room I was still so stunned that I had to pick up the phone and call a couple of numismatic friends to share the news. Even though we gave a wonderful concert, the Betts medals were, numismatically speaking, the highlight of the trip.Best Regards,George
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#79 The Libretas Americana Medal
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By coinsarefun on 13 Jan, 2014 15:24 in board : US Coins, tokens and medals
One of America's most beautiful Medals ever made.This is an electrotype of the obverse. I hope you enjoy viewing it.
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