lordmarcovan

Was visiting in my Dad’s living room.  Everyone was suddenly looking at me and laughing, for some reason.

No, I’m not going to be marching in the Pride parade.  The sun was shining through a glass prism on the window sash.

23 hours ago, kirispupis said:

Most days I go to the park to photograph wildlife. Here are a few shots from this week.

Wow!  Poor squirrel, but… wow.  Amazing shots!

21 minutes ago, Anaximander said:

I'm not seeing any denarii in @lordmarcovan's parade of coins for Caligula, so here's my float... 
Wave as it goes by 👋. 

    

We can hold a triumph worthy of Caesar when lordmarcovan gets all Twelve Caesars.  Maybe we'll even share our virtual trays. 

There’s a reason for that.  I’ve seen the prices on those things!  Wow.

I’ve always liked that general type.  The silver one is especially handsome!

It sort of resembles some of those Anglo-Saxon “porcupine” sceatta, but only marginally- and those were usually in silver.  For all I know, those suggesting a more Eastern interpretation may be right.

Hot weather is now upon us (91° yesterday, with humidity to match), so Grace is doing that thing again.  
 

Naturally she had to shake all that water off onto my leg.

I made a listing and I at least can see it.  But I only see three Greek coins listed in the entire Cabinet (mine and two others)… and … that’s all? 🤔
 

Nothing at all in any of the other categories?

A coin dealer friend of mine received this actual message today.

Iran (Persia): gold toman of Fath-Ali Shah, AH 1233 (1817), Yazd mint

Obverse: inscription in Persian calligraphy within beaded border.*
Reverse: inscription in Persian calligraphy within beaded border.
Issuer: Fath-Ali Shah Qajar, Shah of Persia (1797-1834).
Specifications: gold, 23 mm approx., 4.56 g. Type W. Dar al-Ibadah (Yazd) mint. 
Grade: PCGS MS62; cert. #34401230.
Reference: KM-753.13, PCGS-446914, Numista 119519.
Provenance: ex-Najaf Chalabiani, DBA Najaf Coins & Collectibles, Vancouver, Canada, 20 October 2017. Purchased raw.
Notes: Coins of this era of Qajar Dynasty Persia (modern day Iran) were still struck by the ancient hand-hammeredtechnique. By the latter half of the 19th century, more modern milled coinage was being produced. Because of Islamic traditions of aniconism, their coins do not bear images of sentient creatures like people or animals, rather favoring flowing calligraphic inscriptions and geometric designs instead. Yet somehow the coins are no less beautiful or interesting to look at despite their relative lack of pictorial imagery.
Comments: I purchased this coin because it was struck in AH 1233 (1817), which was the birthyear of Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith. I was raised in the Baha'i religion, so while it was certainly a beautiful coin to add to my collection, it has even more personal significance to me in terms of family tradition and sentimental esteem. I was happy when it graded Mint State after submission to PCGS for certification.

Guy Murchie wrote in The Seven Mysteries of Life that ALL humans are related as close as 50th cousin or closer.  (I believe it was admittedly a guesstimate.)

Dunno how true that is, but I thought it was an interesting statistic.

(Edit- Oops- this reply was intended for another thread.)

10 hours ago, Hrefn said:

Having a “bullion pile” of varied types of foreign coinage has one disadvantage.  Odd assorted foreign coins with nonstandard weights and finesses are less liquid than Canadian Gold Maple Leafs (leaves?  Doesn’t seem appropriate for the plural designating the gold coins.) or American Gold Eagles.  However, the @lordmarcovan strategy has advantages as well.

First, exactly because they are less liquid, nonstandard gold is less desirable to some potential buyers.  This means the person willing to acquire it can sometimes get the coin at spot, or close to it.  Even modern gold coins with relatively tiny mintages can fall into this category, selling for spot, or for no more of a premium over spot, than one would pay for a standard bullion coin struck in the millions.  

Second, the variety of types available is enormous.  The resulting bullion pile is more of an accumulation than a curated collection, but that is okay because the primary purpose of the bullion pile is to accumulate bullion.  

Third, over time a coin purchased as bullion has the potential to become a collectible coin.  The run of the mill common bullion coin will probably never appreciate any faster than the gold which comprises it.  But the nonstandard oddball coin may eventually command a price much higher than its scrap value, especially if unusually beautiful, historic, or rare.  The coins below were all purchased years ago at close to their bullion value.  The Russian coins, at least, have appreciated more than equivalent common bullion.  

In short, I think selective purchase of unusual gold coins, if done at a price close to spot price, is a reasonable strategy.  You sacrifice a bit of liquidity, but gain the possibility of significant price appreciation.  Buying beautiful coins with low mintages at close to spot probably maximizes this chance.  

Plus, it’s more fun.  

 

I agree- it’s more fun to add nonstandard coins that weren’t originally minted as bullion issues- though admittedly I’d have been better off on this one if I’d bought it closer to spot.

I’m into this one for $1,705.72 after fees.  And spot is only $1,620.19 as of this post.  Meaning I paid a premium of $85.53 over spot.  But I got a coin already NGC certified, with a mintage of only 23,000 pieces.  It’s the most common date for the type, but still a pretty small mintage compared to many modern bullion coins.

And I note that the NGC (Krause) priceguide lists this coin for $2,050 in MS65… and mine is an MS66- with only 8 pieces graded higher.  

(Not to mention it also has the sentimental value of being from my birthyear.)

So for me at least, it made a little more sense than some other random piece of bullion.  Though it likely doesn’t have huge potential for an increase in numismatic value beyond its bullion content, I do think it’s got a little more potential there (again) than a basic bullion coin would.  

I don’t mind that it’s slightly less liquid due to the nonstandard weight.

3 hours ago, MrMonkeySwag96 said:

I used to be really passionate about collecting Early Commemorative half dollars. I’m surprised I never bought myself a Pilgrim half dollar considering it’s one of the more common types

You can see why it was the “must have” type for me.

Aha!  So you CAN embed a short here!  I’ll have to try again over on CT…

Hm.  I’ve never been able to get that to work on CT with Shorts.  Won’t embed- I have to link to ‘em.  Never seen anyone else post one, either.

8 minutes ago, CPK said:

That cameo is beautiful! 

Supposedly, I'm also descended from William Bradford. Long-lost cousins, eh? 😉

Nice to see you, ‘Cuz!  🙂

(After this many generations, I reckon there are a lot of us.)

Family lore had it that my maternal grandmother owned a silver candlestick that had belonged to William Bradford.  Given how well-to-do she was, and the quality of some of the other heirlooms, I reckon that’s semi-plausible, though I never saw the candlestick in question.  So maybe it was real and maybe it was mythical.

While we’re at it, here’s another coin from my collection which depicts our common ancestor!

A recent pickup. I bought it mostly to just add to my bullion pile (though I did pay more than spot). But I also like the design, and it’s from my birthyear.

Peru: 1965 gold 50 Soles de Oro

Numista-46427.  KM-230.

NGC MS66, cert. #8207580-012.

.900 fine gold, .6773 oz.

Ex-Heritage Auction #61374, Lot #22307, 12 May 2024.

3 hours ago, David Atherton said:

Thanks!

I've been experimenting with the format, video versus shorts - with shorts you can be a bit more flexible with the choice of music and what not, videos are wide-screen. 

If my experience with the CoinTalk site applies here as well, I gather that the forum software will not let you embed YouTube shorts in a post, due to their upright (portrait) orientation, whereas standard widescreen YouTube vids (landscape orientation) can be embedded.  Is that correct?  (Haven’t tried it here.)

Wow, 2015.  I didn’t realize Cederlind had been gone that long.  Thought it was just in the last three years or so.  Tempus fugit.

@GERMANICVS - thank you!  I like that sestertius.  There was a very nice example of that type in the Heritage auction.  It too went for really crazy money- over $4,000 USD, as I recall.

@JeandAcre - I never had the pleasure of doing business with Mr. Cederlind, let alone meeting him.  But I did have several of his coins in my watch list when he was a VCoins dealer.

I bought (and submitted to NGC) a coin of this same date and type (see below) at the 2023 FUN show.  Like the coin below, it had some nice toning.  It came back “UNC details/cleaned”.  

I was pleased about the “UNC” part, but not so much about the “cleaned” part.  (In my non-ancient coins, I’m pretty finicky and reject stuff with any problem notations that doesn’t “straight grade” at a TPG).  So I sold that coin, nice though it was.

And subsequently ended up buying this AU55 example instead (also nicely toned- but straight-graded, no cleaning).  So I sacrificed a few grade points but got a problem-free coin.

Side note: I am from Brunswick (Georgia), which was named for the Hanoverian (Georgian) kings of England when it was settled in the 1700s.  Those same rulers of course originated in the German Brunswick (Braunschweig) lands.

Yeah, my Claudius sestertius got the star (first time I’ve ever seen a VF with it) but also got a “lt. smoothing” comment.  So be it.  I prefer not to have those comments, but sometimes I’ll accept them.

My Justinian tremissis got a “wrinkled” comment for its very lightly wavy flan.  But I was so happy that it got an MS grade that I disregarded that.  (Quite unexpectedly, I might add- CNG had called it gVF!)

3 hours ago, CPK said:

Yes we saw them here too, in central MO! A beautiful sight. Crazy that you got to see it even farther south!

This featured photo on https://spaceweather.com shows the aurora in Big Pine Key, on the southernmost tip of Florida!  And according to that page, it was also seen in Puerto Rico, for the first time in more than a century!