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Pooper Trooper
Jul 4, 2011

neveroddoreven

We've all probably got a beloved relative who had a coin collection, or a jar full of old coins, or a shoebox filled with old paper money from around the world. Some of us were probably lucky enough (or kissed enough rear end) to have it passed down to us, some of us weren't as lucky but got inspired to start a collection. Others may just appreciate the artwork, others may collect coins for their precious metal content, some even invest in coins! But, whatever the reason, collecting coins, paper money, tokens, bullion or whatever is a very interesting hobby in many ways, with thousands of passionate collectors squinting into loupes, digging through old coin jars and rolls or staying up waiting for ebay auctions to end, hunting for what will make their collections exceptional.

The themes and possibilities of each collection are endless. Some collect world coins, others have themed collections. Some try to collect one of each coin ever minted in their state or country, some look for the highest possible conditions in coins. Years, mint marks, historical context, engravers or sculptors, dead presidents, serial numbers, minting errors, they're all dots that can be connected to form the outline of a collection.

Now I'm relatively new to coin collecting, so I don't have nearly enough knowledge to share in this thread, but as it turns out there's lots of goons here that do! The Ask us how much your old coins and paper money are worth over in Ask/Tell is full of experienced collectors, appraisers and enthusiasts, so I took it upon myself, with their blessing, to take some of their posts from there, a lot of wikipedia links and make this thread for us to show off our collections and drool over other people's and maybe even inspire someone to start one of their own!

Wikipedia posted:

A few common themes are often combined into a goal for a collection:

Country collections: Many enthusiasts focus their collection on only a single country—often their own. In contrast, some collectors attempt to obtain a sample from every country that has issued a coin.[
Year collections: Rather than being satisfied with a single specimen of a type, a great many collectors collect type by year; for example, one Memorial Lincoln Cent for every year from 1959 (the year it was first minted) to 2008 (the last year it was minted). This is perhaps one of the most practical ways to collect a national currency since probably the majority of coin reference books and coin albums catalogue in the same manner.
Mint mark collections: Many collectors consider different mint marks significant enough to justify representation in their collection. When collecting coins by year, this multiplies the number of specimens needed to complete a collection. Some mint marks are more common than others.
Variety collections: Because mints generally issue thousands or millions of any given coin, they use multiple sets of coin dies to produce the same coin. Occasionally these dies have slight differences. This was more common on older coins because the coin dies were hand carved. But differences—intentional or accidental—still exist on coins today. Generally this is in a very small detail, such as the number of leaves on the ear of corn on the recent US Wisconsin state quarter.
Composition collections: For some, the metallurgical composition of the coin itself is of interest. For example, a collector might collect only bimetallic coins. Precious metals like gold, silver, copper and platinum are of frequent interest to collectors, but enthusiasts also pursue historically significant pieces like the 1943 steel cent or the 1974 aluminum cent. (Note that because the latter example was a pattern coin (a proposed design that was never produced for circulation) the U.S. Government considers private ownership of the 1974 aluminum cent illegal.)
Subject collections: Collectors with an interest in a certain theme or subject (such as, ships or eagles) may collect only coins depicting that interest.
Period collections: Collectors may restrict themselves to coins of the 18th or 19th century, while others collect ancient and medieval coins. Coins of Roman, Byzantine, Greek origin are amongst the more popular ancient coins collected. Some collect coins minted during a particular ruler's reign or a representative coin from each ruler. Collectors may also take interest in money issued during the administration of a historically significant bureaucrat such as a central bank governor, treasurer or finance secretary. Coins reflect the events of the time in which they are produced, so coins issued during historically important periods are especially interesting to collectors.

Coin condition and value
In coin collecting, the condition of a coin is paramount to its value; a high-quality example is often worth many times more than a poor example. Collectors have created systems to describe the overall condition of coins.

In the early days of coin collecting—before the development of a large international coin market—extremely precise grades were not needed. Coins were described using only three adjectives: "good," "fine" or "uncirculated". By the mid 20th century, with the growing market for rare coins, the American Numismatic Association helps identify most coins in North America. It uses a 1–70 numbering scale, where 70 represents a perfect specimen and I represents a barely identifiable coin. Descriptions and numeric grades for coins (from highest to lowest) is as follows:
    Mint State (MS) 60–70: Uncirculated (UNC)
    About/Almost Uncirculated (AU) 50, 53, 55, 58
    Extremely Fine (XF or EF) 40, 45
    Very Fine (VF) 20, 25, 30, 35
    Fine (F) 12, 15
    Very Good (VG) 8, 10
    Good (G) 4, 6
    About Good (AG) 3
    Fair (FA, FR) 2
    Poor (PR, PO) 1
In addition to the rating of coins by their wear, Proof coinage occurs as a separate category. These are specimens struck from polished dies and are often packaged and sold by mints. This is frequently done for Commemorative coins, though annual proof sets of circulating coinage may be issued as well. Unless mishandled, they will stay in Mint State. Collectors often desire both the proof and regular ("business strike") issues of a coin, though the difference in price between the two may be significant.

When evaluating a coin, the following—often subjective—factors may be considered: 1) "eye appeal" or the aesthetic interest of the coin; 2) dents on the rim; 3) unsightly scratches or other blemishes on the surface of the coin; 4) luster; 5) toning; 6) level of detail retained, where a coin with full details obviously is valued higher than one with worn details. If the coin is judged favorably in all of these criteria, it will generally be awarded a higher grade.

Damage of any sort (e.g., holes, edge dents, repairs, cleaning, re-engraving or gouges) can substantially reduce the value of a coin. Specimens are occasionally cleaned or polished in an attempt to pass them off as higher grades or as uncirculated strikes. Because of the substantially lower prices for cleaned or damaged coins, some enthusiasts specialize in their collection.

tl;dr version:

Ron Don Volante posted:

Coins are graded on a 70 point scale with a corresponding acronym, MS-70 being a perfect mint state coin with all details fully struck (this is virtually impossible to attain except for some 21st century coins) and 1 being a featureless disc of metal. 60+ is mint state (or uncirculated), which means the coin has no discernible wear. A higher grade doesn't always mean a higher price though--an AU ("about uncirculated")-58 coin might have a tiny amount of wear but still be a lot nicer than a MS-60. Not every number in the scale is used, as the difference between a AU-58 and an AU-59 coin would be impossible to determine--certain numbers are used much more frequently.

Magugu posted:


Coins are valued by 2 main criteria, rarity and condition (in that order.) Rarity is pretty self explanatory, the fewer the coins that are minted the rarer it is and the more valuable they are. Condition is the grade of the coin, the more detail that is left in the coin the higher grade the coin is, and by extension the more valuable it is. There is also a thing called condition-rarity, where its a fairly common coin but it is extremely rare in higher grades. Standing liberty quarters come to mind as a coin that has a lot of condition-rarity, just check the price guides and look at the value of the higher grades.


Resources

Jimmy James posted:

Here are some good links for the OP that I came up with off the top of my head:

http://www.sixbid.com/ - Great site that lists major coin auctions taking place worldwide. Most of the auctions are not for your average collector, but are still fun to look at. I would recommend going through the individual auction house's registration and bidding processes if you decide you are interested in. And as with all other auctions, always read the fine print.

http://www.vamworld.com/ - A good compendium of Morgan Silver Dollar varieties. Collecting by VAM is usually something pursued by the more veteran Morgan collectors, but it's something everyone should at least be aware of.

http://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/world/ This is the most complete world coin price guide I've found online. It is an electronic copy of every single Krause manual. I have a physical copy of Krause, and everything I've looked up on the NGC website matches it. It's not really useful for anything made before 1600. There is usually a more detailed catalog for specific countries and time periods, but it's a good one stop shop for a decent amount of information. Prices do not reflect actual dollars and should only be used to get an idea of relative rarity/desirability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apn-kYEl-Xw - PCGS grading webinar 1: This is a shortened seminar on coin grading. It's really useful if you aren't already a knowledgeable coin grader. Each of these is almost an hour, and I found it really useful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTcdbqhhsSs - PCGS grading webinar part 2 : proofs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJKl4bOP9II - PCGS grading webinar part 3 : no grades

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M75GZeKZb38 - PCGS grading webinar part 4 : counterfeits

Any tips on taking pictures? I can't capture the detail on the coins.

Zogo posted:

Using a scanner is the best option, if you have one.

Ron Don Volante posted:


If you have a macro-zoom capability on your camera, that's usually pretty good. Macro-zoom + a tripod + no flash + good natural lighting = best quality. Scanner might be a good option too.

I've got a couple 1922 Peace dollars that I want to sell but they are pretty tarnished, is it safe to just use some silver polish on them?

obscure_reference posted:

Please don't! Just like refinishing an old piece of furniture, much of the value comes from keeping the coin as-is. That beautiful toning on the Morgan dollar Ron Don Volante posted? Silver polish would've taken it away, plus all the rubbing you'd have to do would leave little marks that downgrade the coin's condition. Even if your coins have dark black tarnish, it's best to let an expert clean them after they've bought them from you.

A nice and simple display frame by Shere

Shere posted:

I thought about display options and eventually went a little arts and crafts about it. I went to a local craft store and grabbed a nice (deeply set so there's plenty of room for coins) desktop tri-fold picture frame, a couple sheets of blue foam and some black felt for backing. I used some identical sized but less valuable coins to draw holes on the foam, cut out some snug holes for my coins and now they're sitting pretty nicely on my desk in the frame. Since you can only see one side, this works better if you have two of the same coin so you can do one facing each way.
The frame is faced with glass and there shouldn't be anything harmful to the coins in the foam or felt. I'm just guessing here though. They sell double sided frames, but they're generally made to press two sheets of paper together, not enough room for a coin. Plus I feel like scraping glass directly against them is a bad way to go. Mine are just in a nice soft bed with glass in front of it.

Here's what I have so far:



There's plenty of room to work with things too, like you could put small labels under each one if you wanted. I just kind of slapped it together as a proof of concept, the spacing is a bit off and the cutting a little sloppy. Though the foam is rather forgiving, especially if you cut small - the coin will just stretch things to where they need to be. I cut out an extra hole for whatever Nickel I get next, I centered the half dollar high in the middle so I could put either a dollar coin or something large-ish down on the bottom. The right side I'm not sure yet. The foam sheets come in tons of colors and ran like 39 cents per pre-cut sheet, felt was even cheaper. The frame itself was about $8. No glue or tape or anything involved, just need some decent scissors. Also CLEAN THE GLASS before re-assembling everything.

This is a great thread! I think I have some old coins somewhere in the attic, and you're getting me interested in the hobby. Where did you learn what you know? Are there any good websites or books I should look into?

Ron Don Volante posted:

That's a great question! In coin collecting, or numismatics, the central mantra is "Always buy the book before the coin." The best book for new collectors to buy is undoubtedly the Red Book. It isn't so important that you buy the most recent edition as the prices will always be outdated (and slightly inflated) but it provides solid background information on all the U.S. coin series, and gives you an idea of the relative prices. I personally learned most of what I know from that book and from subscriptions to some numismatic magazines. You might see if you can find a copy of Coins Magazine at wherever they sell magazines nowadays (you could once get single issues at Borders, but so much for that). It isn't a very well-written magazine and the articles can be repetitive, but it still has lots of good info. You might also check out the ANA, the American Numismatic Association. My membership with them has lapsed, but it includes a subscription to a good magazine in addition to some other cool perks. I also learned a lot by going to coin shops and coin shows (where a bunch of dealers come together and sell coins). If you live by at least a semi-large city, there should be at least a couple of coin shows every year. Even if you don't want to buy anything, it's fun to just walk around and see what people are selling. It also might be worthwhile to see if there's a coin club in your area. The members are almost certainly going to be old people, but old people have a lot of knowledge and are always really welcoming to new coin collectors. You could also check out jpscorner for supplies and buy some albums if there any specific series that you're interested in collecting. I got started on a type set ten years ago (one of every type of U.S. coin ever made) and I'm still trying to fill up my album! Finally, I'd check out your local library for books on coins too. There's a good chance they'll have the Red Book, plus lots of other basic informative books.

I'll try and update the OP with any new stuff as it comes up!

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Pooper Trooper
Jul 4, 2011

neveroddoreven

To get the ball rolling I'll post my main coin collection. The theme is rather obvious: Space! It's amazing to me how many space-themed coins there are, from all over the world, and it's my goal to obtain at least one of each!

Marshall Islands 2014 $1 series: Soviet Russia in Space

Here presented in the series in which they flew, Laika (first living Earth-born creature (other than microbes) in orbit, in 1957), Belka and Strelka (first doggies to come back to earth from orbit, 1960), Yuri Gagarin (first human in orbit, 1961), Valentina Tereshkova (first woman in space, 1963). All coins are proof, silver-plated Cupronickel, mintage of 1,000.


USSR 1983 1 ruble: 20th anniversary of the first woman's flight into space, proof, Copper-Nickel-Zinc alloy, mintage of 55,000


Marshall Islands 1989 $50 First Woman in Space This coin is part of the Milestones of Space Exploration series issued in 1989 and consisting of 24 coins. 999 silver, proof, mintage of 25,000. Featuring Vostok 6, Tereshkova's spacecraft.


Mongolia, 2007, 500 Tugrik - Sputnik-2. Featuring Laika's bust overlooking the earth, and her spacecraft, Sputnik-2. :( RIP little doggy. Proof, .999 silver, mintage of 500.


Mongolia, 2007, 500 Tugrik - Mir. This coin features the first space station ever, Mir, in orbit around earth. Proof, .999 silver, mintage 500.


Mongolia, 2007, 500 Turgrik - 50th anniversary from the launch of Sputnik-1. This little guy only weighs half a gram, is 11mm in cicumference and is actually 24k gold. Proof, mintage 10,000.


Niue, 2012 $1 - Stars Flight. One of my favourite coins, depicting Mir, the Milky Way and a holographic type stamp with Gagarin on it and Vostok-1. Proof, .925 silver, mintage 5,000.


USSR, 1981 1 Ruble - 20th anniversary of Gagarin's flight. Features Yuri Gagarin in front of the Salyut station with two Soyuz spacecraft docked, "1961-1981", hammers, sickles, rockets, i love this coin! (Almost?) Uncirculated condition, CuNi, mintage in the millions.


People's Republic of Bulgaria, 1979 10 Leva - First USSR-Bulgaria Joint Space Flight. Featuring Soyuz-33 that flew Russian Nikolai Rukavishnikov and Bulgarian Georgi Ivanov but suffered engine problems and had to return to earth before docking with the Salyut 6 space station. Proof, .999 silver, mintage 15,000.


Cuba, 1980 10 pesos - USSR-Cuba Joint Space Flight On the occasion of Cuba's first joint space flight with the USSR as part of the Intercosmos program. Proof, .999 silver, mintage 16,500.


Mongolia, 2011 500 Tugrik Yet another joint space flight coin, this time Mongolia's, the 30th anniversary. Proof, .925 silver, mintage 1,981.


Marshall Islands 1989 $50 First American Satellite Another coin from the Milestones of Space Exploration series, this time featuring Explorer-1. Proof, .999 silver, mintage of 25,000.


Hungary, 2012 1000 Fiorins - MASAT-1 The first Hungarian satellite launched, the MA(gyar)SAT(ellite)-1, a cube that's 10cmX10cmX10cm and mass of about 1kg. Proof, Cupronickel, mintage of 5,000.


Niue Island, 2014 $2 Soyuz A coin commemorating Soyuz's first flight in 1966. Proof, silver-plated cupronickel, mintage of 1,000.


Liberia, 2000 $20 Apollo X. Featuring the Apollo 10 shuttle launching in 1969 and the names of the crew (Stafford, Young and Cernan) Proof, .999 silver, mintage of 20,000.


Liberia, 2003 $5 Space Shuttle Columbia. Featuring the Space Shuttle Columbia in front of an astronaut with the inscription "1981-2003 IN SERVICE TO ALL HUMANITY". Proof, Cupronickel, mintage 50,000.


Liberia, 2000 $5 First Man on the Moon - Mission Apollo XI. Featuring Neil Armstrong planting the American Flag on the moon. I don't think it's proof, but probably in good uncirculated condition. Cupronickel, mintage 50,000.[/b]


Spain, 2000 1500 Pesetas - Millenium The certificate describes the coin as "a sykbolic link between the past and the future, featuring an astronaut watching the epic journey to the Americas by Christopher Colombus". Proof, .999 silver, mintage 50,000.


Guinea, 1970 250 Francs, 10th anniversary of the first moon walk. Featuring Neil Armstrong, the Apollo XI Lunar Module and a symbolic link between earth and the moon. Proof, .999 silver, mintage 26,000.


Australia, 2004 $1, 35th anniversary of the first moon walk. Fancy coin which, according to its certificate, utilizes an optic effect thingy patented by Kodak called Dynamic Imaging. So it has 3 images in one side (the planting of the US flag on the moon, Saturn 5 and Buzz Aldrin). Proof, .999 silver, mintage 40,000.


Austria, 2011 €25 - Robotik. This bimetallic coin features a robotic Vitruvian Man on the one side and on the other a render of the ExoMars Rover the first European/Russian vehicle planned to launch for Mars in 2018. Proof, 9 grams Silver/6.5 grams Niobium, mintage 65,000.


Fiji, 2012 $1 - Cosmic Fireballs series - Neuschwanstein This is a pretty awesome series of coins that have fragments of metorites in them! This particular coin is the cheapest of the series and the one with the lowest face value, the rest are all $10. It contains fragments from the Neuschwanstein meteorite. Proof, silver-plated Cupronickel and Tectite, mintage of 20,000.


[b]Fiji, 2012 $10 - Cosmic Fireballs series - Brenham. This one contains fragments from the Brenham meteorite which is a Pallasite that is, iron and rock. Proof, .999 silver, mintage of 999.


[b]Fiji, 2013 $10 - Cosmic Fireballs series - Chassigny. The Chassigny meteorite is actually Mars rock. That's right, I've got Mars rocks in my living room! Proof, .999 silver, mintage of 999.

That's most of them! I still have a few others but no photos of them yet. I'll post them some other time.

Super Aggro Crag
Apr 23, 2008




And, of course as always, kill Hitler.


I collect mainly U.S. 90%, U.S. bullion and private mint bullion from companies within the U.S., although I also have some sweet Engelhard bars. I keep my stack in a safety deposit box. I take pictures and inventory everything before storing it.

A roll of 1963 Franklin Halves


A roll of 1964 JFK Halves


A roll of 1964 Washington Quarters


A roll of 2014 American Silver Eagles

Super Aggro Crag fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Mar 14, 2015

Super Aggro Crag
Apr 23, 2008




And, of course as always, kill Hitler.


Here are my two 1 oz Engelhard bars with a few dozen Instagram filters.


Here is the 1930 Standing Liberty Quarter I got my dad for his birthday. 1930 was the year my grandfather was born.


I also stack copper pennies. Any US Penny prior to 1982 is 95% copper. They made both in 1982.
I weigh all my 1982 pennies to figure out which is which. The copper ones weight about 3.11g and the zinc ones weigh about 2.51g.


Here are some random pictures of things in my stack or things I have since sold.









Next Up:
My first piece of gold
My Morgan & Peace Dollar Stack
My Zombucks stack

Pooper Trooper
Jul 4, 2011

neveroddoreven

Super Aggro Crag posted:

I collect mainly U.S. 90%, U.S. bullion and private mint bullion from companies within the U.S., although I also have some sweet Engelhard bars. I keep my stack in a safety deposit box. I take pictures and inventory everything before storing it.

A roll of 1963 Franklin Halves


A roll of 1964 JFK Halves


A roll of 2014 American Silver Eagles


Do you only collect silver or also gold, platinum etc? Some gold bars are beautifully engraved, such as this one.

Super Aggro Crag
Apr 23, 2008




And, of course as always, kill Hitler.


Pooper Trooper posted:

Do you only collect silver or also gold, platinum etc? Some gold bars are beautifully engraved, such as this one.


I've bought .5g and 1g gold bars for birthday and Christmas gifts but other than that it's been silver until now.


I recently purchased my first piece of gold a couple weeks ago. I decided to get a 2015 1/10 American Gold Eagle.
Excuse the picture quality. I only have a cellphone and this is the size of a dime.


Al Harrington
May 1, 2005

I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the eye
Cool collecting theme Pooper Trooper, are you aware of the space related paper money that is out there?

Mainly I collect ancient coins and paper money from my hometown, and other odds and ends here and there

I have some of my ancient collection up here:
https://collectivecoin.com/NiceCurrency

I just bought this for myself because that's the greatest portrait I've ever seen on a coin and he looks so pissed off in his full armor, bad rear end!


Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI 1721 Taler (ancestor of the Dollar) PCGS MS62

Pooper Trooper
Jul 4, 2011

neveroddoreven

WHAT SPACE THEMED PAPER MONEY? I've got some stamps but I figured that was about it. How about some recommendations?

Al Harrington
May 1, 2005

I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the eye

Pooper Trooper posted:

WHAT SPACE THEMED PAPER MONEY? I've got some stamps but I figured that was about it. How about some recommendations?

Check out Paper Money>World on ebay and search term space, quite a few different ones, there's a polymer one with planets that I'm not seeing there but I can't remember the country, will flip through the world currency catalog and see if I can find it


*edit*

figured it out

Romania 2,000 Lei from 1999

Al Harrington fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Mar 14, 2015

Zogo
Jul 29, 2003

Cool, I was hoping someone would make this thread.

Super Aggro Crag posted:

I also stack copper pennies. Any US Penny prior to 1982 is 95% copper. They made both in 1982.
I weigh all my 1982 pennies to figure out which is which. The copper ones weight about 3.11g and the zinc ones weigh about 2.51g.


When I was working on my US cent collection I used a really simple scale like this to sort:
https://youtu.be/dxhATdQVXbg?t=1m23s

Here's a good and complete collection of Lincoln cents:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1I06d_7lk


Not the easiest coin to find.

Jimmy James
Oct 1, 2004
The man so nice they named him twice.
Good start with the OP. I'll make my first post one of my favorite coin designs that kind of fits in with your space theme. A German commemorative for Corpernicus with the solar system on the obverse.

Super Aggro Crag
Apr 23, 2008




And, of course as always, kill Hitler.


Zogo posted:

When I was working on my US cent collection I used a really simple scale like this to sort:

Not the easiest coin to find.

I have a simple digial scale that I use for weighing... jewlery... that I also use for weighing the pennies.

I got the Wheatie back in my change from Dunks and I immediately put it up on eBay. Another time I was at the bank getting exact change for rent and bills and ended up getting six consecutive uncirculated $1 star notes. I didn't notice until I got home, otherwise I would have got them all. I tripled my money with those on eBay as well.

Brennanite
Feb 14, 2009
Digging all of these space coins. Might have to take up coin collecting with more vigor now.

Al Harrington posted:


https://collectivecoin.com/NiceCurrency

I just bought this for myself because that's the greatest portrait I've ever seen on a coin and he looks so pissed off in his full armor, bad rear end!


Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI 1721 Taler (ancestor of the Dollar) PCGS MS62

I love that I knew that dude was a Hapsburg before I read the name. Even in profile on coins, their distinctive ugliness cannot be masked.

DominusDeus
Jul 20, 2008
Ugh, where to start... I guess I'll get my gold and other coins out of the way. This is all the gold I currently own:


20 Francs, France, 1906

20 Francs, Belgium, 1870

20 Francs, Switzerland, 1927

Silver bullion, here are a few pieces:





The rest, including the above, can be viewed here. All told, a bit over 20 troy ounces of silver and 0.5601 troy ounces of gold.

I have a British Monarchs set I'm working on, currently on hiatus as one of my pieces has been languishing in NYC customs for over two months now. Phone call to the USPS to open an investigation solved nothing and told me nothing other than it's at customs. Keep waiting is about all I can do. Until I get that piece in, however, I'm back to Queen Anne in the form of a 1706 Royal Maundy fourpence. Here are a couple of pieces from that set:


2001 Queen Elizabeth II Maundy fourpence (Mintage: 1,132)

1914 King George V Half Crown

1797 King George III Twopence "Cartwheel" (needs a quick acetone bath)

Couple of other foreign coins:



One Balboa and Half Balboa, 1931 and 1933, from Panama.

50 Markkaa, 1981, from Finland.

2 Drachmai, 1973, from Greece

The oldest coin I have with a date on it:

Double Briquet (Double Patard), 1499, from Holland

So lets do some paper money. I have a little bit of Gandhi from India:


500 Rupees
The rest can be seen here.

Some hyperinflationary money from Zimbabwe:


100 Trillion Dollars

I have a bit of a US currency collection going, too, which can be viewed here, with some foreign currency at the end. A few pieces of my US currency:


Series 1929, $20 National Currency
Charleston National Bank, Charleston WV
Error 404, serial not found.


Series 1928, $10 Gold Certificate
PCGS Fine 15


Series 1899, $1, "Black Eagle" Silver Certificate
PCGS Fine 15


Series 1928, $1 United States Note

A few other silver certificates and a couple more large sized notes are also in the album, along with a HAWAII issue $1 and a North African emergency issue $10 which is neat; it has a blue 10 and a yellow seal.

DominusDeus fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Mar 16, 2015

Pooper Trooper
Jul 4, 2011

neveroddoreven

DominusDeus, good stuff! Do you collect foreign coins in general? If you can give me some specs that you prefer (age, condition, geographic location) and an address I can send you tons of stuff that I have doubles of. My grandpa was in the merchant marine for 40 years and I inherited his coin collection. It consists of circulated coins from all over the world, including some obscure island nations and stuff. Almost none of the coins are in good condition but quite a few are neat to look at!

Jimmy James I actually have that coin but its condition is nowhere near yours! Really liking it!

DominusDeus
Jul 20, 2008
Not much in the way of foreign coins, really. Most of what you see there I've gotten in the last 6-ish months. Mainly just picking up what I think looks neat (I have a second Finnish 50 Markaa on the way, beautifully toned). I have a few ancients I've gotten from the ancient coin thread in SA Mart, and I'm sure I'll be getting more into some foreign stuff, though. There are some Russian coins that look neat that I'll eventually get.

Jimmy James
Oct 1, 2004
The man so nice they named him twice.
Here's a cool, accessible world coin:



I think I paid somewhere in the 45 dollar range for it. A decent UNC, but has an obverse rim ding.

Pile of Kittens
Apr 23, 2005

Why does everything STILL smell like pussy?

I got gifted a jar of mostly South American coinage from the 70s, which some of you may recall was a time of great market fluctuations in that region. This lead to many countries moving to coinage whose metal content had nothing to do with its face value, and many of them minting with aluminum, which gives a distinctive Monopoly-money feel to these 1000 peso/australe/real coins. Guess I should dig that jar up and take some photos for you guys?

Pooper Trooper
Jul 4, 2011

neveroddoreven

Pile of Kittens posted:

I got gifted a jar of mostly South American coinage from the 70s, which some of you may recall was a time of great market fluctuations in that region. This lead to many countries moving to coinage whose metal content had nothing to do with its face value, and many of them minting with aluminum, which gives a distinctive Monopoly-money feel to these 1000 peso/australe/real coins. Guess I should dig that jar up and take some photos for you guys?

Yes please! I've only ever seen aluminum coins from Greece and they feel so weird in your hand, and also cheap even with their lustre intact.

Super Aggro Crag
Apr 23, 2008




And, of course as always, kill Hitler.


Man there hasn't been any decent $18-22 Peace Dollars on eBay for a few weeks now. I just need 5 more!

beep-beep car is go
Apr 11, 2005

I can just eyeball this, right?



I was gifted the coin (and bill) collection of my Father in Law, it looks like mostly WWII era money, with a decent supply of Nazi coins. Some of them are quite corroded, but I imagine they weren't working with the best metals towards the end :v: A bunch of occupied Japan coins and bills too. I'll see if I can dig them out and take some photos.

ohnobugs
Feb 22, 2003


Super Aggro Crag posted:

Man there hasn't been any decent $18-22 Peace Dollars on eBay for a few weeks now. I just need 5 more!

If you don't care about quality, keep an eye on this guy

http://www.ebay.com/usr/elgatoazul1944

Jimmy James
Oct 1, 2004
The man so nice they named him twice.

Pooper Trooper posted:

Yes please! I've only ever seen aluminum coins from Greece and they feel so weird in your hand, and also cheap even with their lustre intact.

I dabble in crappy alloys from the 20th century. One of my side projects is to slowly buy up UNC examples of all of the alloy downgrades that happened in WWII. Examples are surprisingly popular/hard-to-find, so it's going slower than I originally thought it would. I'll take pictures of a few if I can get my camera working.

Here's a slabbed east german piece of aluminum:

Super Aggro Crag
Apr 23, 2008




And, of course as always, kill Hitler.


AuntBuck posted:

If you don't care about quality, keep an eye on this guy

http://www.ebay.com/usr/elgatoazul1944

Thanks I'll follow him. I'm kind of OCD about my stack with rolls of everything. My silver dollar tube currently has 10 Morgans and 5 Peaces.

Antifreeze Head
Jun 6, 2005

It begins
Pillbug

Pooper Trooper posted:

WHAT SPACE THEMED PAPER MONEY? I've got some stamps but I figured that was about it. How about some recommendations?

The Canadian five dollar bank note isn't paper, but it does feature an astronaut and the Canadarm rather prominently on the back.



Probably also the only bit of currency that made it's public debut from the ISS.

DominusDeus
Jul 20, 2008
Accidentally posted this to a wrong thread somehow, so moving it here, where it belongs;

Got these two Greek coins in:





Both are 30 Drachmai.

Pooper Trooper
Jul 4, 2011

neveroddoreven

Antifreeze Head posted:

The Canadian five dollar bank note isn't paper, but it does feature an astronaut and the Canadarm rather prominently on the back.



Probably also the only bit of currency that made it's public debut from the ISS.

Oh that's just awesome! I'll definitely get one of those! Thanks!

DominusDeus, good finds! They seem to be in very good state aswell, maybe in the low MS's? I've got a few of them too but they look like poo poo.

Do you guys like to have your coins graded and slabbed? It seems to be all the rage here (Greece) but I honestly just don't see the point. Maube because I mostly collect modern coins that are already proof struck, or because I don't resell my coins.

beep-beep car is go
Apr 11, 2005

I can just eyeball this, right?



Someone in my wife's family a while back was into coin collecting. The coins (and paper money) made it to my Father In Law, and then me. There doesn't really seem to be a theme to them, but there is a lot of pre-war, WWII and immediate post-war coins and bills.

No scanner right now, and any photos of the coins I took looks like they were taken with a potato, so it's just the bills for now.

Here's what I was given. All the coins are in little sleeves and I have no idea if that's the best way to store them. Probably not?


Pre-Mao China (probably?)


Imperial Japan?


Occupied Philippines


French!


German!


No idea!


Still no idea!


The collection is super neat, but all over the place. How do people display coins?

Super Aggro Crag
Apr 23, 2008




And, of course as always, kill Hitler.


Got any Morgans or Peaces?

beep-beep car is go
Apr 11, 2005

I can just eyeball this, right?



Super Aggro Crag posted:

Got any Morgans or Peaces?

Believe it or not, there is no American money. Tokens, and chits and souvenir "wooden nickels" not no real coins

Jimmy James
Oct 1, 2004
The man so nice they named him twice.

Shampoo posted:

Someone in my wife's family a while back was into coin collecting. The coins (and paper money) made it to my Father In Law, and then me. There doesn't really seem to be a theme to them, but there is a lot of pre-war, WWII and immediate post-war coins and bills.

No scanner right now, and any photos of the coins I took looks like they were taken with a potato, so it's just the bills for now.

Here's what I was given. All the coins are in little sleeves and I have no idea if that's the best way to store them. Probably not?


Sleeves are good. The only thing to watch out for with sleeves is plastic made of PVC. In the 50s-80s, there were a lot of coins stored in PVC containing plastic (even from the mint) that eventually damage the coins. Ideally the sleeves aren't stuffed into a box like you have in the photo, but I've seen worse. WWI and WWII stuff can range from being a dime a dozen to highly collectible. I have been collecting some WWI and WWII coins as a side project, but don't have too many yet.

The last two photos are of German paper notgeld. It's WWI era issued local german currency. There was a lack of money ~1920 in Germany in WWI and principalities started making their own currency. There are hundreds of different bills and coins from that era. Lots of beautiful colorful bills that would be fun for someone to collect. Most paper notgeld is worth about a dollar each, but the rarer ones can be worth considerably more. There is a whole subset of collectors that just collect that stuff because there is such a large variety of that stuff out there.

Brennanite
Feb 14, 2009

Shampoo posted:

Pre-Mao China (probably?)


That's a 100 yuan note issued by the Central Reserve Bank of China, featuring Sun Yat-sen. Oddly, the Central Reserve Bank of China was a Japanese puppet bank operating from ~1940-1945 in occupied China.

Pooper Trooper
Jul 4, 2011

neveroddoreven

Good stuff!

Since they're loose coins and not in slabs or capsules I'd say the best way to store them would be a coin album, especially if you'd like to display them. You could put them individually in those little cardboard rectangles too but they're not that neat to display.

Just make sure you don't handle the coins too much (unless they're already in bad shape), pick them up from the rim etc. If you feel it's worth the effort you could put on a pair of latex gloves too. I do that with my (pretty worthless) world coins collection but mostly because I don't like the smell of rusty filthy old coins on my skin!

DominusDeus
Jul 20, 2008
My second Finnish 50 Markkaa came in.



That toning, though... If it had no design on it, it'd say those were photos of planets.

Jimmy James
Oct 1, 2004
The man so nice they named him twice.

DominusDeus posted:

My second Finnish 50 Markkaa came in.



That toning, though... If it had no design on it, it'd say those were photos of planets.

I like moderns without raised rims/denticles. I like how they were very sparse with the text as well.

Super Aggro Crag
Apr 23, 2008




And, of course as always, kill Hitler.


It's amazing how much you can low-ball people on eBay. My computer is busted right now but I picked up a few more avg. circ. Peace Dollars. 2 more to go!

Super Aggro Crag
Apr 23, 2008




And, of course as always, kill Hitler.


Just sold $10 FV in copper pennies for 2x face on eBay.

Finally got my new laptop charger in the mail. Here are some recent pickups!





Super Aggro Crag fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Apr 5, 2015

MrBling
Aug 21, 2003

Oozing machismo

Shampoo posted:


No idea!


Still no idea!


The collection is super neat, but all over the place. How do people display coins?

They're both Austrian and if I'm reading them right they aren't really money as such, more like vouchers.

Kassenschein roughly translates to "money certificate" and this particular one is for the area of Bad Vöslau and good for 10 Heller

The other one is basically the same except it is valid in "the lands of Oberosterreich" or Upper Austria.

MrBling fucked around with this message at 08:34 on Apr 9, 2015

Pooper Trooper
Jul 4, 2011

neveroddoreven

Took me a while but I've had some new stuff in!

2011 San Marino 5 euro coin, 50th anniversary of men in space. 18g silver, mntage 48,000. It's supposed to be BU but it looks like someone handled it and it's got some finger grease =/



2009 Isle of Man 1 crown, 40th anniversary of first man on the moon. This is the cheapo CuNi version that was put in circulation, I'll eventually get the silver proof one.


1979 Bulgaria 10 leva, 1st soviet-bulgarian space flight..500 silver, mintage 35,000


1988 Bulgaria 20 leva coin, 2nd soviet-bulgarian space flight. .500 Silver, mintage 100,000.


2001, Russia 10 rubles, 40th anniversary of man in space. CuNi center in brass ring, mintage in the millions.


1979 USSR 1 ruble, Sputnik and Soyuz Monument. CuNi, mintage 4.5 million


2015 Austria 25 euro - Cosmology.Quoting from the certificate: "Featuring an illustration of the galaxy on the obverse and the European Extremely Large Telescope on the reverse, Cosmology brilliantly deploys its contrasting blue and yellow niobium hues to bring the sky at night to life. Due for completion in 2022, the telescope will enable us to look deeper than ever into the galaxy and perhaps help us find out whether parallel universes and extraterrestrial life really exist. We already know a great deal about the origins of the cosmos, including the solar system, the planets and even life itself. We already know that we humans are also made of stardust, thus a journey into outer space can in some way be seen to be a trip back home." Metal content 9g .900 silver, 6.5g Niobium, mintage 65,000


Greece, 2009 10 euro, international year of astronomy. .925 silver, mintage 5,000 in proof coin set.


San Marino, 2009 5 euro, international year of astronomy. .925 silver, mintage 50,000.


Romania, 1999 2000 lei polymer banknote, "total eclipse of the sun 11 August 1999", thanks for the heads up Al Harrington


Canada, 2013 $5 polymer banknote, Canadarm 2 and Dextre, as per Antifreeze Head's suggestion


Also, irrelevant with space but I also got my hands on a 1974 British Virgin Islands proof set that I really like:





For any bird fans out there, the birds depicted are:
1 cent: Green-thorated Carib and Antillean-crested Hummingbird
5 cents: Zenaida Dove
10 cents: Belted Kingfisher
25 cents: Mangrove Cuckoos
50 cents: Brown Pelican
1 dollar: Magnificent Frigatebird (.925 silver, mintage 12,000)

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Super Aggro Crag
Apr 23, 2008




And, of course as always, kill Hitler.


Got another Peace Dollar.


Got one of every Zombucks in copper so I can fill a tube with 1 of each in silver and copper by the end of the series.

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