This Could be You...

...or not.

301 pennies auctioned off for $10.7M

LONG BEACH, Calif. - A penny saved is not necessarily just a penny earned: One man's collection of rare American cents has turned into a $10.7 million auction windfall.

The collection of 301 cents featured some of the rarest and earliest examples of the American penny, including a cent that was minted for two weeks in 1793 but was abandoned because Congress thought Lady Liberty looked frightened.

That coin and a 1794 cent with tiny stars added to prevent counterfeiters each raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the

Dallas-based auction house Heritage Auction Galleries, which held the sale in Long Beach on Friday night.

Heritage Auction president Greg Rohan said the auction was the biggest ever for a penny collection, with hundreds of bidders vying for the coins. Presale estimates valued the collection at about $7 million.

"It was a fabulous night," Rohan said. "Every major coin collector of American cents was either there in person, bidding online or on the telephone."

The coins came from the collection of Burbank resident Walter J. Husak, the owner of an aerospace-part manufacturing company. Husak became interested in collecting at age 13, while visiting his grandparents who paid him in old coins for helping with chores.

There were 168 successful bidders, and the auction gallery got 15 percent of the total.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080217/ap_on_fe_st/odd_penny_auction
Image: (AP Photo/Heritage Auction Galleries)

Do you have a penny and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

A Token Effort

Do you have a token and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

I don't often make post about token because the varieties are tremendous and I don't own any token books. The most popular reference for tokens is the Atwood-Coffee Catalogue but it's hard to find. Not to mention the fact is most tokens are difficult to identify.even with pictures.

That said have a few I will show. Three are transit token and the last is a gambling token.

Luckily they were all American token because I know some stuff about them but foreign tokens can be extremely difficult to evaluate. All of these tokens are obsolete an no longer accepted anywhere.

Here are the stats for the tokens...
Type/Country: One Passage/Delaware River, PA, USA
Year: Don't know.
Mintages: Unknown.
Metal: Brass
Value: $0.25
Obverse Writing: Good For One Passage-Bridge Token-Commuter Token
Reverse Writing: Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission-Established-1934-Pennsylvania-New Jersey

Type/Country: One Fare/Queensboro Bridge, NY, USA
Year: 1947-????
Mintages: Unknown
Metal: White-metal (possibly aluminum mix)
Value: $1.00Obverse Writing: Good For-One Fare
Reverse Writing: Queensboro Bridge Railway Co. Inc.

Type/Country: One Bus Fare/Suffolk County, NY, USA
Year: Don't know.
Mintages: Not known
Metal: Aluminum
Value: $2.00 (updated to 2012 transit fare prices)
Obverse Writing: Good For One-Special Program-Bus Fare
Reverse Writing: Suffolk County,N.Y.-Bus Token

Type/Country: 1 Dollar/Frontier Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, USA
Year: 1967
Mintages: Not sure
Metal: Franklin Mint Metal?
Value: $4.00 in XF
Obverse Writing: Acceptable Only At The Frontier Hotel, Las Vegas
Reverse Writing: One Dollar Gaming Token For Use By Player Only-Frontier Hotel-Las Vegas-1967

Do you have a token and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Welcome to the Bahamas

Do you have a coin form the Bahamas Island and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Continuing with some decent looking coins from the bag I bought is some from the Bahamas.

While half of the coins were normal circulated types they did include some proofs. Which is not all that great because the circulating issues were actual rarer then the proof. For example the 1972 10 Cents had 11,000 coins minted while the proofs numbered 35,000. It's harder to find a brilliant uncirculated than an untouched proof.

Obverse above.

Reverse below.

These coins were made by the Franklin Mint in the U.S.A. in matte, special uncirculated, and proof. The little stylized F on the reverse is the mark of the Franklin Mint. Matte is basically the circulated coins, special uncirculated is like proof but all completely mirrored. Proof has the background mirrored and frosted designs.

Starting from right to left.
Here are the stats for these Bahamas coins...
Type/Country: 10 Cents Proof/Bahamas
Year: 1972
Mint: Franklin Mint
Mintage: 35,000
Metal: Copper-Nickel
Value: $1.00 if untouched

Type/Country: 25 Cents Proof/Bahamas
Year: 1971
Mint: Franklin Mint
Mintage: 31,000
Metal: Nickel
Value: $1.50 if untouched

Type/Country: 50 Cents Proof/Bahamas
Year: 1973
Mint: Franklin Mint
Mintage: 35,000
Metal: 80% Silver
Value: $7.00 if untouched($1.00 in crease since 2008)

These were sold in sets but if they were less then perfect they were cut out and put into circulation by collectors.

Do you have a coin form the Bahamas Island and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

New Zealand

Do you have a New Zealand coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

I got the lot of foreign coins about a week ago and as promised I'm showing of some interesting pieces. I paid exactly $0.10 per coin and the average value for the coins was $0.34 per coin. Some coins were horrible and full of damage. All the coins have been searched, you should always expect the coins to be searched even if they say unsearched.

I'll start with some New Zealand coins because some one just asked a question about them.

Some things you may not know about New Zealand coins, as of July 31 2006, 10, 20, and 50 cents coins were replaced by new small thin versions and the nickel (5 cents) coin was removed from circulation. These coins are demonetized and no longer accepted in the their native lands.

Obverse above.

Reverse below.

Some coins turned out to be Proof or Proof-like.

Starting from right to left on the top row.
Here are the stats for this New Zealand coins...
Type/Country: 2 Cents/New Zealand
Year: 1972
Mint: Canberra/Royal Australian Mint
Mintages: 17,525,000
Metal: Bronze
Value: $0.10 in VF

Type/Country: 2 Cents Proof/New Zealand
Year: 1973
Mint: Canberra/Royal Australian Mint
Mintages: 8,000
Metal: Bronze
Value: $5.25 in Proof

Type/Country: 2 Cents/New Zealand
Year: 1975
Mint: Llantrisant/British Royal Mint
Mintages: 20,015,000
Metal: Bronze
Value: $0.10 in XF

Type/Country: 10 Cents/New Zealand
Year: 1972
Mint: Canberra/Royal Australian Mint
Mintages: 2,039,000
Metal: Copper-Nickel
Value: $0.15 in XF

Type/Country: 10 Cents/New Zealand
Year: 1976
Mint: Llantrisant/British Royal Mint
Mintages: 5,016,000
Metal: Copper-Nickel
Value: $0.10 in XF

Type/Country: 20 Cents Prooflike/New Zealand
Year: 1969
Mint: Not sure.
Mintages: 50,000
Metal: Copper-Nickel
Value: $0.50 in XF

Type/Country: 50 Cents Prooflike/New Zealand
Year: 1969
Mint: Not sure.
Mintages: 50,000
Metal: Copper-Nickel
Value: $0.75 in XF

Type/Country: 50 Cents/New Zealand
Year: 1976
Mint: Llantrisant/British Royal Mint
Mintages: 2,016,000
Metal: Copper-Nickel
Value: $0.50 in XF

Type/Country: 1 Dollar/New Zealand
Year: 1976
Mint: Llantrisant/British Royal Mint
Mintages: 36,000
Metal: Copper-Nickel
Value: $2.00 in XF

Type/Country: 1 Dollar/New Zealand
Year: 1977
Mint: Not sure.
Mintages: 90,000
Metal: Copper-Nickel
Value: $2.00 in XF

Do you have a coin from New Zealand and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

NY Coin Show

Just a quick note to anyone who wants to go to coin show and is in NYC this weekend.
I always threaten to go but I become lazy and just skip it.

Here's a direct quote from http://www.nyinc.info/

The New York International Numismatic Convention is the United States’ most prestigious numismatic event targeting the needs of the world and ancient numismatic communities. The 36th Annual NYINC will be held at fabled Waldorf Astoria Hotel, located at 301 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022, between 49th and 50th Streets. Our dates will be January 5-13, 2008.
The NYINC will feature a bourse area consisting of 100 of the leading specialists in world and ancient numismatics and will be held on the 18th floor meeting room level of the Waldorf Astoria. Our event will also include a full range of educational programs and meetings as well as multiple auction sessions cataloged and conducted by several of the leading numismatic houses in the world, including Heritage Galleries and Auctioneers; Gemini, Ltd.; Classical Numismatic Group; Baldwin’s Auctions, Ltd; M&M Numismatics; Dmitry Markov; La Galerie Numismatique and Ponterio and Associates, Inc.
Auction lot viewing will open on Saturday, January 5. Auctions sessions will be held Sunday, January 6 through Saturday, January 12. The bourse area will open from 2PM-7PM on Thursday, January 10 for the Professional Preview. For a $100 registration fee, payable on site, Professional Preview attendees will have access to the bourse area prior to the regular public admission hours to the bourse. The Professional Preview is open to both collectors and dealers without booths.

The NYINC bourse area regular public hours will be:

Friday, January 11	10AM-7PM
Saturday, January 12	10AM-7PM
Sunday, January 13	10AM-3PM

Public admission is $10 for a three day pass valid throughout the event. Children 16 and under with an adult are admitted free of charge. A $5 admission discount coupon valid Friday-Sunday may be printed by clicking here.

Do you have a coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

End of the Year Stats

Do you have a coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

The year 2007 is over and my change finds have gotten slim. Although I did find a few star notes the older money has all but stopped. While last year I found a 1907 U.S. cent this year I found a 1927 U.S. cent and nickel.
Half of my change finds where from friends and family, the other half was from local stores most just a few blocks from my place.

Here are two graphs that shows the decline in my foreign coin finds. In 2006 I had found 43 coins from 14 countries which was the lowest until this year. In 2007 the amounts reduced to 27 coins from 8 countries.
As usual Canada dominated all with Bermuda, Great Britain, Greece, and Trinidad & Tobago being the only countries that repeat.

Oldest United States Find
1927 Cent
1927 Nickel

Oldest Foreign Find
1958 Canadian Dime

Most Valuable Find(above face value)
2003A $1 dollar star note in UNC about $5.00

All in all I found 48 coins compared to 56 last year, my high was about 250 in 1998. I did make it up by buying 92 coins most from the mint or eBay, compared to 42 last year.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and change for all.

Do you have a currency/note/bill and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.