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I can answer any questions pertaining to US paper money from the colonial period through today. I have been with PCGS Currency (a neutral third party grading service) as a grader since 2008, I now work for them in a part time fashion, do work on the National Bank Note Census and buy and sell for fun and profit. (if you're full time with PCGS you cannot deal in paper as an employee, same for PCGS coins) I've handled virtually every rarity, I've been inside the numismatic vault at the smithsonian and handled their paper money collection. I'm also dabbling in ancient coins but I would not call myself in expert in that field. It's really exciting to me to see a numismatic thread here. OP if you wanted to edit the title to include paper that'd be cool, I see some people have asked about paper in here and you've been answering so maybe I'm not even necessary, just thought I'd throw it out there Al Harrington fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Oct 26, 2013 |
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Oct 26, 2013 06:26
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Ron Don Volante posted:Feel free to answer any questions about currency! I personally have very little expertise in that field. I pm'ed a mod to change the thread title. Good questions It can be a rich mans hobby but it's just like coins as you have material for any budget really. I'd like to see the average person get a raise so more people can participate in the hobby and yes paper values declined along with all collectibles during the recession but they have been recovering, that and paper money as a hobby has really been exploding. World currency is the future and it's something I'm learning as I go. (PCGS (coins not currency, we aren't as big as them) just opened a branch in China and supposedly they have 24/7 coin stores in Hong Kong) The first U.S. piece of currency that was issued that is still legal tender today was in 1861, prior to this and a few years after this individual banks, stores, counties, cities, states etc issued their own currency that they had printed by the American Bank Note Company or a similar printer. This was an interesting period of time because a lot of the midwest was vast woodland that no one occupied so you had guys in New York contracting with the ANBCo to print currency issued from the First National Bank of Bumblefuck Michigan and unless someone actually trekked out there who was to say what was good currency and what was entirely garbage. Anyway as there was so much of it (and a lot of it deemed worthless) a lot of it still exists. You can buy this type of stuff from $20-$100 all day long. (and up as there are rare locations of course) If you don't mind my asking where are you located? As long as it isn't some small town I could probably show you something from your area be it this period of time or the national currency period from 1863-1935 (these were different as they were backed by US bonds and are still legal tender and vastly collected) I would go ahead and say from the colonial period to today you could get something from every period of time (not every year)for a couple hundred bucks except perhaps the war of 1812 stuff. There are so many different categories of US paper. You have your federal reserve notes that is of course all we see today, but you had legal tender notes issued by the US itself, gold certificates, silver certificates, treasury notes (redeemable in silver or gold), nationals, fractional currency during the civil war period when everyone was hoarding coin, confederate currency, military payment certificates, the pandoras box of obsoletes I mentioned earlier etc. Also even stuff that was just printed is collectible in some form of another. You have your star notes (which I can explain but I think you already know because I saw you mention them in the thread) but you also have people collecting "fancy" serial numbers. Personally I don't get into that but a lot of people do, to the point that recently someone in the hobby did a little media tour talking about them. You have low serial numbers like X00000001X through 10 are big bucks, also all one number like X66666666X and then people get into silly stuff like repeaters X12981298X radars (palindromes) X97755779X etc The new hundreds just came out after years of clusterfucking and people are flipping them for a little profit on ebay even as non fancies or stars. and then just like coins you have your errors PS. your site is indeed really nice, I started with Morgans myself before I dove headfirst into paper Al Harrington fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Oct 26, 2013 |
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Oct 26, 2013 20:23
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Magugu posted:This is great, I mostly collect pcgs graded currency as of late, mainly small silver certificates. One of my issues I had as a dealer was I never really learned to properly grade. At the higher end of currency I find it difficult to tell the differance between a 66 and a 68. Could you possibly explain a bit of how you grade, the process I mean. And what are the subtle differences that we should be looking for. Awesome, do you do a registry set? Do you submit to PCGS? (im sorry your orders take forever it's not up to me  )I actually just sold 3 UNC 1928A $1 silvers various blocks I want to say FA, IA and LA (common blocks), raw but nice UNCS none the less We use a halogen lamp that allows you to basically bounce light off the note so you can see everything, you can do this with any light just angle it right up in the air reflecting off your living room light or whatever. We also use another overhead lamp, but once you bounce that light off the surface of the note you'll see how light folds show up well The difference between a 66 and 68 is all in centering, centering is everything, also registration (how well aligned is the back design which is smaller inside the face design when you candle (hold up to a light and see through the note) keep in mind also that just because the margins are perfectly centered they could be trimmed so they must be the right size, people trim notes, bleach them, smash them, redraw them, pretty much anything to make them appear something they are not, I know they do this with coins too but with paper it's more prevalent, lady exists that can "restore" notes to the point where we have a hard time telling anything has been done a 70 has theoretically perfect margins and they are full size with perfect registration, a 69 is a hair off, 68 is just a little "worse" if that makes sense, 69s and 70s are rare animals, maybe even more so than coins these seem weird but there's a bit less nonsense to them than coins when it comes to the uber high grades, grading both items is of course a combination of technical wear grade and eye appeal, and "wear" on currency is partially fold counting, it's weird but it makes sense eventually and in my opinion there's more consistency with paper than coins (something like a first round paper grader nails the final grade 90-95% of the time whereas coins its like 70 at best) I should also note there is a degree of "net grading of sorts" where lets say you have a note that is otherwise 68 or 69 but it has some really minor issue like a bumped corner or tiny crinkle from the printing process or some ugly fibers in the portrait affecting eye appeal that could then be maybe a 65 at best, you also have inclusions that are ugly and part of the paper but if they are see through pretty much the max grade for that item is 64 no PPQ, same for a tiny rust dot or some light foxing here are the standards "we" abide by http://pcgscurrency.com/g_overview.html click on the right to see how that breaks down by each grade in the same sheldon scale that coins use Al Harrington fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Oct 26, 2013 |
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Oct 26, 2013 22:18
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Ron Don Volante posted:Al Harrington : Are there any old banknotes from the Seattle area? most definitely now while some form of obsoletes or scrip may exist, pretty much all washington state obsoletes are unheard of, looking through heritage archives I just see depression scrip and panic of 1907 scrip which isn't terribly exciting and in my tenure at PCGS I don't recall seeing something that I would call an obsolete from the state, the reference books do not even have a listing for the state. now nationals however certainly do exist and aren't rare either, it's a big city so there were several banks, the census shows 995 notes known on the entire city this stuff exists on ebay right along with coins, here's a simple search of "seattle" in paper money> US http://www.ebay.com/sch/Paper-Money-US-/3412/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=seattle&rt=nc As you can see if you go to completed listings you could pick up a piece for under 100 bucks, and in my opinion these "hometown" notes are some of the coolest paper money has to offer, I'm from Winona, MN and I have several pieces from here, I also happen to have a note from a town that has my first name, another one that is my middle name and another that is my last name, nationals are very interesting on their own, many ways to collect other than "I live here and I have a note from here" which is cool itself  Jimmy James posted:I had a question about the Smithsonian. How do the USA coin and paper money collections compare to notable private collections? I've always assumed the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the US mint didn't always have a mind to keep special items for historical purposes, and that most of the good stuff would be what collectors kept around. I haven't seen their coins, I was there in conjunction with the guy that I do work on the census for, he has an over reaching project of trying to get more people aware of paper money and stuff, see this website: http://www.nationalcurrencyfoundation.com/ We are scanning their paper money collection a little bit at a time (which is massive) and putting online exhibits on the site and stuff, he has a lot of big ideas, maybe a coffee table book at some point. Now how does their paper money collection compare to notable private collections? It blows them out of the water, there are several pieces there which are unknown in private hands. For one I think someone mentioned earlier in the thread the $100,000 gold certificates, well I had the serial number 1 one and I think 3 others on the scanner bed at the same time, simply amazing. They have a bunch of checks from notable people including all presidents from Washington through I think Carter, so yea I held a handwritten check from George Washington that I believe was to pay his doctor like maybe a year before he died. They have proof sheets of virtually everything the Bureau of Engraving and Printing ever printed (and some they didn't, designs that never were) I was never there for PCGS, it wouldn't be a terrible idea to have the notes slabbed, but what we are doing is scanning them at ridiculous DPI and putting them in mylar holders so there is really no need for someone to go handling them again or anytime soon anyway, they last had it done in the 70s so you can imagine how not useful that is now Lutha Mahtin posted:Please post all the cool obscure paper money you got. I had no idea there were such different eras of bank notes in the US, and that some were only worth the paper they were printed on. This is an online exhibit of some of the large size notes in the smithsonians holdings http://www.nationalcurrencyfoundation.com/exhibitgrouphome.html?groupId=LS I can post some cool small size, but the large size are more artistic, that and I don't want to completely poo poo the OPs thread up here here is the check I was talking about http://www.nationalcurrencyfoundation.com/printfilehtml.html?size=OS&fileId=4681 The $100,000 is uber cool  $10,000s are cool, there used to be 100 of them on a thing at the binions horseshoe, those have all now entered the collecting community  $5,000s are cool, much more rare than the $10,000s  Here's a HAWAII $1 silver certificate that is also a star note  After Pearl Harbor there was fear that the Japanese would take Hawaii and so they printed these up to be used down there (as well as $5's $10's and $20s) and they could just deem them worthless if that happened, I want to say down there you were only allowed to have $100 or maybe $200 in paper money that was not emblazoned with HAWAII  These are interesting, they are not legal tender for $10 grand, they aren't worth anything other than the collectible value The story is years ago there was a fire at I want to say a Washington DC post office and stacks and stacks of these were on fire and the firemen didn't know so they threw them out onto the street, and people picked them up because hey this thing says $10,000 in gold coin!, so for that reason most of them have water damage and they are all canceled, they are just basically fancy checks for moving gold between the banks and federal reserves Al Harrington fucked around with this message at 02:45 on Oct 27, 2013 |
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Oct 27, 2013 02:07
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The $10,000 is the highest denom that is still legal, it's of course worth many multiples of that depending on grade. $500s and $1,000s are some of the most popular paper money outside of maybe these guys:   the $10 is actually in my inventory Anyway you're going to pay at least 600 for even a rag $500 and about $1200 for a $1,000, they are super popular and I could direct you to a couple of dealers that deal in just high denoms so they'll have something for every budget. Personally I don't really deal in them because it's a lot of money to tie up to make barely anything. They're available on ebay and such but they are also a favorite of scammers on there, pretty much every time I have bought or sold a $500 or $1,000 it has been not worth the time
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Oct 27, 2013 16:14
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For the 1957A and B series combined there were over 2 billion notes printed, so these guys can be had for like $10 uncirculated, in this condition you'd be hard pressed to get anything above face for them unfortunately, sorry
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Oct 28, 2013 05:11
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with silver reaching $50 in the not so distant past which hadn't happened since the hunt brothers tried to corner the market in the 1980s it has everyone with an eye on silver I used to go through $500 boxes of halves and pull out several 40% silvers and many 90%s as well, I found not only JFK silver, but some franklins, a few walking libertys and even one barber half that was cut in half flipped around and welded together, as well as an error or two, but this was in the early 2000s when silver was perhaps $6/oz, and at that time I made hundreds and hundreds of dollars doing it, these were coming directly from the minneapolis federal reserve through this one bank but they stopped doing it eventually, nowadays silver is still what $20 something? an oz, I just don't see it being worth it as I'm sure everyone has done it already
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Nov 21, 2013 06:30
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Well, I'd say Morgans are the most collected silver coin, really can't go wrong with those
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Nov 25, 2013 01:35
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Ferdinand the Bull posted:I've got some old SOuth Carolina Confederate bills somewhere in my house. they can be, when you find them post pics and I'll tell you what's what
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Dec 21, 2013 22:19
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Ev posted:My grandfather passed away recently and before he died, he handed off his collection of coins and paper money to me. I gave it to my dad because that was his wish, but I don't think he thinks it's worth figuring if there's anything valuable there. Not that we want to sell it, but I'm curious. Well, as far as paper money goes get some pics up and I'd be more than happy to help.
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Dec 21, 2013 23:58
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Mescal posted:Somebody told me that >$100 bills are still carted around between federal gov't agencies for their internal transactions. Is this true? I figure this is the best place to ask. I've never heard that and as they're worth well over face in any grade I would have to say I doubt it. The $100,000 gold certificates were never released to the public and were used for internal transfers of large amounts of money, maybe that's what you're referring to? A government agency (I won't say which) had a bunch of $500s and $1,000s graded with us (PCGS) and then they sold them in the Chicago area, evidently they were from a mobster bust.
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Dec 28, 2013 05:23
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they all depend greatly on the year, district in the case of the $500 and condition in the shittiest of condition a $500 will bring $600 a silver certificate $1 could be a number of different things between 1928-1957 the range here is literally like $1.25-$50,000 a 1963 $2 red seal is a "United States Note" or "Legal Tender" for slang in the hobby, not backed by gold in '63 $2.25-a couple hundred bucks for a high grade star note
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Feb 5, 2014 01:17
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generally no unless they're super old
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Feb 6, 2014 15:03
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pennies over face unfortunately I sell these for less than $10 a piece in uncirculated grade The F is the prefix letter in the serial number, it's just to denote that they rolled over to 100 million notes starting with A00000001A, which for this series they did many times, they rolled over through the whole alphabet and after Z they had to go to AxxxxxxxxB, and then they even had to roll to B-B, they printed over 2.6 billion notes for this series If you have one from the B-B block it's worth some decent money ($100+ uncirculated) either this is what you're referring to or you mean the Series is 1957B of which they printed another 700 million
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Feb 14, 2014 22:33
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ah, F624 is the face plate used and F2 is the area within that 32 subject plate that this note was while some people think the US just prints money like wild with no regard, they actually are extremely anal and keep meticulous records and have from the beginning
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Feb 15, 2014 00:18
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Franklin Halves can be fun coins, I think it's a nice design If you're just buying them as bullion I can't imagine the premium over spot is terribly much
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Mar 10, 2014 22:18
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I have to say that I didn't know that about shell casings being recycled for use in minting lincoln cents, great idea though I could tell you everything about US paper money and some things about ancient coins, but my numismatic knowledge of US coins is lacking a bit
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Mar 11, 2014 04:19
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Wow is that one with the green bean yours? Lovely toning
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Mar 19, 2014 05:25
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I could be interested in the paper, will need to see what's there
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Mar 25, 2014 00:29
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The Syrian coin is brass WWII Emergency Coinage, No Date (circa 1942)
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Mar 25, 2014 03:49
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fun fact: machines and a lot of people assume susan b anthony dollars are quarters and I've received them in change as such on more than one occasion
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Apr 16, 2014 02:44
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Peace Dollar is their slang term and the '28 is the better coin, I assume it's an S, if it's a '28 plain it's the key to the series Al Harrington fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Apr 17, 2014 |
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Apr 17, 2014 04:31
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c0ldfuse posted:I have zero interest in coin collecting (never had any real interest in collecting anything) but love this thread and have been following since start. It started on coins in 1864 if you look at the above posters morgan dollar you'll see it on the reverse above the eagle
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Apr 17, 2014 15:40
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:Are you confusing that with when they added "One nation under god" to the pledge of allegiance? no, it wasn't on paper money until 1957, introduced on series 1935G $1 silver certificates, varieties exist with and without the motto as it happened it 1957 right in the middle of the series being printed
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Apr 17, 2014 16:34
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Pcgs and Ngc guides are for coins in those respective slabs, red book is cheap and is retail for raw coin, eBay completed auctions are the best bet for pricing
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Apr 18, 2014 04:33
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yea that bottom text is unnecessary, nice looking design but it'll be interesting to see what it looks like in relief on a chunk of silver, is the obverse staying the same?, and $5?
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Apr 24, 2014 01:32
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Mescal posted:That's interesting, thanks. I think they could have done a million other things--like subsidizing retrofitting for arcades, laundries, etc--to encourage their adoption instead of just minting countless dollars and calling it good. The US will never have a popular dollar coin. not while they continue to print a $1 federal reserve note and the crane company won't be getting rid of that gravy train anytime soon
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Apr 24, 2014 02:13
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assuming it's genuine it would just come back "bodybagged" as it's damaged and say "VF details" (or whatever it grades, I do not know how to grade gold coins) just put it in some sort of holder and enjoy it
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Apr 29, 2014 17:49
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Al-Saqr posted:How rare/expensive is something like either the first minted post independence American coins or the first American paper notes worth today? the coins are rare and expensive as gently caress the paper money is available and there are some rare issues but as a whole they are not rare at all and affordable you have to remember that pre say federal reserve (1913) people considered coin money and paper just a receipt to get coin, so during the revolution they just inflated the poo poo out of the currency coming from the Continental Congress as well as the individual colonies, virginia was one of the worst offenders, issuing crazy denominations from $500-$2,000 on thin lovely rice paper in 1781, then they paid the patriots with this crap that was devalued as soon as it left the press coin was horded so much during the civil war that they had to produce fractional paper money that initially looked stamp like and later more like currency, they issued these well into the 1870s I was a oval office hair away from buying a 1795 flowing hair silver dollar in a problem free PCGS Good 4 for $2,000 just yesterday I could find you post independence currency for $100 Al Harrington fucked around with this message at 16:22 on May 1, 2014 |
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May 1, 2014 16:12
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Super Aggro Crag posted:Hahahahahaha, good one dude! if the republican led congress goes the gently caress away it will straighten out
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May 1, 2014 20:13
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since we're kind of doing show and tell in this thread, here's something cool:
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May 2, 2014 18:58
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dollar I have a half coming same date that NGC called repaired but missed that its actually a cool variety where STATES was originally engraved STETES and theres an obvious A over an E
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May 4, 2014 01:48
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raw from a dealer friend, there's an old old repair plug between the 5 and star, rarer 2 leaves variety
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May 4, 2014 20:49
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that's pretty funny these are dollar sized silver rounds right?
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May 6, 2014 20:00
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are any of the non US coins pre say 1700? and to ship coins I do the same thing as when I'm shipping paper money, the item is in a mylar or a flip, the flip I'll wrap in the packing slip so it doesn't come out, and then I put the item in between two piece of cardboard (I cut up cardboard boxes I get stuff in, well actually the GF does because she doesn't like the boxes sitting around), tape those together and then put that into a padded mailer (they're probably 4x8 or so), I bought those in bulk, a huge box of them off of amazon that has lasted me a couple of years already, and then a piece of reinforced shipping tape across the flap, in my opinion it's overkill, but the thing weighs 3-4oz with a single item and costs all of like 2 bucks to ship tracked through ebay Al Harrington fucked around with this message at 23:40 on May 12, 2014 |
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May 12, 2014 23:34
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JacquelineDempsey posted:Nah, they're pre-WWII, a few 19th century, for the most part. My crown jewel, so to speak, is this gold Ottoman Empire coin from 1865, like this fella: Well, I would look at ebay completed auctions and look at green numeral items that actually sold and figure out what you could realistically get and then figure eating 13% also, for all those "best offer" things, use this http://www.watchcount.com/ it will show you what it actually sold for, I don't know why ebay doesn't just show it a coin dealer is going to offer your 50-60% of what it will bring, that said if you don't want to worry about dealing with the public well then maybe the quick money is worth it to you *edit* forgot we were talking about all world material, yea ebay that poo poo, no one near you is going to pay anything Al Harrington fucked around with this message at 00:45 on May 13, 2014 |
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May 13, 2014 00:17
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x n to fill my Kia's tank.
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Exonumia>Tokens: US Trade
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May 13, 2014 21:34
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very interesting, could give ebay a run for its money
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May 28, 2014 19:38
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the greysheet for coins and greensheet for paper are meant for wholesale prices between dealers and buying from the public, some people follow them to the T, some don't use them at all and many people in the middle use it sparingly along with other guides and online results to ballpark prices, the sheets don't get into the minutia of varieties, certain dealers set the prices in there, so called "market makers" sort of like stock prices
Al Harrington fucked around with this message at 22:21 on May 28, 2014 |
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May 28, 2014 22:17
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AuntBuck posted:Early Kennedy halves were still 40% silver, same as the Franklins. I think they axed the silver content in 1970 so your 71's aren't silver but the others are. all Franklins and the 1964 JFK are 90% silver, 65-70 (the 70 is only in mint sets) are 40%
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May 30, 2014 23:24
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