Museum Quality: Part 1

Do you have old 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.

My lack of updates are a sign of a lack of finds. I was trying to steer all my college work to coin related items I was even going to make a coin sorter but I was out voted. So while at a recent art course in The Metropolitan Museum Of Art I took a side trip to find historical coins.

In numismatics ancient coins are not my strong point. I never got into them since they aren't found in change (normally) and the nice ones are expensive.

A collection of Visigoth coins meant to mimic Byzantine coins (images of Byzantine coins were too blurry to post) eventually they took on a style of there own.

Top to bottom, left to right...
Type/Country: Justinian & Maurice Tiberius Tremissis / Constantinople
Year: 527-602
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Gold
Value: Hundreds(museum pieces often carry an unknown premium)

Type/Country: Imitating Valentinian Solidus / Toulouse, France
Year: 450-460
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Gold
Value: Hundreds(museum pieces often carry an unknown premium)

Type/Country: Imitating Justinian Solidus / ?
Year: Mid-500s
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Gold
Value: Hundreds(museum pieces often carry an unknown premium)

Type/Country: Imitating Imperial Tremissis / ?
Year: Mid-500s
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Gold
Value: Hundreds(museum pieces often carry an unknown premium)

Type/Country: King Reccared Tremissis / Mérida, Spain
Year: 586-601
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Gold
Value: Hundreds(museum pieces often carry an unknown premium)



Fake coins have always been all the rage especially in Egypt around 308-320. Real coins were pressed in clay then the after they dried you have these terracotta molds. Next coins were cast with molten/soften metal of equal or lower quality. Not all forgeries were intended to scam instead it was for the lack of circulating money throughout the Roman empire.


The case was full of coins but the reflection and my camera skills made shooting difficult. The coins were in a corner next to the elevator showing a complete lack of respect.


Type/Country: Augustus/Capricorn Silver Cistophorus / Ephesus (Turkey)
Year: 25 B.C.
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Silver
Value: Hundreds(museum pieces often carry an unknown premium)

I'll show a few more at a later date and maybe do a little more research on what I saw and the museum experience altogether. I will post some more images on my other blog as soon as possible.

Do you have old 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.

1955 Error (Non-Famous)

Do you have an error cent 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.

Anytime I find a 1955 cent I hope that it is the famous doubled-die error that would make it over $1,000.00 easily. Even one of minor varieties would be cool to find but this find would not make me a thousandaire.

Although it does have some error that may not be clear on today's enhanced scans. Pushing the scanner to 700 dpi and raising the contrast while lowering the brightness I tried as best as I could to show the defects.

The front of the coin has a break from Lincoln's brow to the back of his hair.
The back has a break halfway through the right wheat ear with three thin die cracks reacihng the rim.

Honestly they're there.
It is not wear or outside damage instead I think it is a late stage die that began to break. Back in the 1950s dies were often used until failure. While this holds little significance in coin collecting world it can gain more. A quick Google search "1955 die crack" turns up others that are similar even a few that are nearly exact.

If a collector wanted he/she could buy them up and try to match the error and get what is known as progression. It is exactly what it sounds like, following the progress of a die crack or break. This brings up the value but still not by much.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Cent / United States of America
Year: 1955
Mintage: 330,958,200
Metal: 95% copper 5% tin and zinc
Value: $0.25 because it's starting to green

Yes there is an argument that this is not an error coin since no mistakes were made but just a naturally occurring metal failure process but that is for another time.

Do you have an error 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.

Coin Drive

Do you have a real Euro 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.

Thinking about a post I made over at My Box Is Warm about things gone missing like thumb/flash drives I remembered a cool little one I came across.

These USB Flash Drives are made by a company I never heard of called LaCie, a quick search shows they specialize in external hard drives. Although a 7.5TB hard drive sounds cool I liked these little 8GB and 4GB flash drives pictured below.


For $29.99 and $19.99, for the 8GB and 4GB respectively, it's not a bad value for style but seeing how some people can't tell the difference between U.S. nickels and Spanish 20 Euro cents I don't think these will become common. Just a few months ago both were listed $5.00 cheaper so maybe if the have a sale it will be a good opportunity.

Check out how these drives blend with the Euros.

If I had a budget or if this blog were something more than informative I would get one of each and fill them up with the coin books I can purchase in .pdf format along with a complete list of legit coin websites built into a modified Firefox browser made for collectors. Portable OpenOffice with spreadsheets ready for a simple entry to organize your personal collection or install one of those professional coin software programs. Then do some sort of giveaway.

But alas I won't!

Do you have any type of money and want to know its value? Leave a question or comment and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Eh, er. How can I explain?

Do you have a Euro 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'm in line waiting to pay for a highly overpriced textbook when the young nice and giggly non-American student in front of me wants to pay with exact change. That is nice and all but she didn't understand why her two nickels where rejected by the cashier. Kindly everyone points out that those are Euros and not nickels, she asks "What's the difference?" Not knowing how to explain the entire currency system I traded a dime for the Euros and she paid the dime forward and hurray the line moved on.

I assumed the woman was Eastern European by old-fashioned visual and audio cues but wouldn't they still know of Euros? Plus who has Euros in their purse and still not know they aren't nickels. She responded in English very well.

You might think it was a scam to pass off funny foreign money as U.S. but 40 Euro cents is about 50 U.S. cents and she got rid of them for 10 cents. She did not stay long enough to try to give her my change of 26 cents to attempt to cover the exchange rate. Could it be I offended? No because she was so happy when she left after also refusing her receipt.

Strange exchange. I'm usually good at explaining money value but this nervous exchange had thrown me off. Either way I got me some Euros for cheap.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 20 Euro Cents / Spain
Year: 2001
Mintage: 146,000,000
Metal: Brass
Value: $0.25 in Very-Fine for each

There were two but I just scanned it once because it would have been redundant, you know why repeat, there is no point in showing them again and again.

Note: The image was done using my other scanner. I rarely use it and the luster comes out less shiny but the details are high. (Click on image for a larger picture) The problem is I have less setting control. I'll probably use the regular scanner for future scans.

Do you have a European 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.

Like Another Hole In Your...

Do you have a Greek 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.

Again those Canadian cents are trying to get my attention. I found another one yesterday oddly enough in the past month the four I found span four decades, 2006, 1997, 1985, and 1978. Still I will try to ignore them as much as possible.

Coin lots are generally full of junk coins meaning some are excellent but common while some are rare and damaged. For this coin from Greece someone insisted on turning it into a pendant.

While I'm not the biggest fan of 1800s coins I do know something about them. This one in particular is highly sought after in mint states. On average if undamaged and at Mint State 60 it would go for $1,000.00. This is the 1833-A which is rarer than the 1833 that is also hard to come by in high grades.

Look at the coin above you see why overtime they become rare. Some person thought, "Whoa never seen this must be rare let me nail a hole through it and keep it safely around my neck." You can see marks where the coin was held down to drill/nail also it started to warp. This damage drops coin value to nothing unless rare. The question becomes is this one rare enough.

Book value places a fine piece at about $50.00 while auction values hover around $80.00. Nothing compared to the 1845(o) Drachma that in fine condition goes for $1,100. At this point dropping the value by 90% seems appropriate. It is still silver.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Drachma / Greece
Year: 1833 A
Mintage: Not fully known, less than 1,125,000
Metal: Silver
Value: $5.00 in Damaged condition

So should you take that state quarter and turn it into a pendant? What if some future collector finds it and wants to kick you in the head?

Go for it. You can't play the "what if" game. I can only hope you do a little research in case you feel it might be rare but ultimately every damaged coin does raise the value for the rest that still float around.

Do you have a Greek 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.

Piastres

Do you have a Lebanese 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.

Three weeks into the new year and the three finds have all been Canadian cents of little interest. While it's still nice to find Canadian cents it gets a bit annoying that this coin is the only type I'm finding recently. So I'll keep up with my foreign lot.

The Piastre is usually equivalent to 1 dollar but in the case of Lebanon it is equivalent to 1 cent. To be more accurate it is 1/100 of a Lebanon Livre (Pound). Sure checking the current exchange rate and 1Lebanon Pound = 0.000665779 U.S. Dollars. This makes the Piastre = 0.00000665779 U.S. Dollars, yes quite grim.

This is why the last Lebanese Piastre were issued in 1980. They still are legal tender but for what I don't know.

As with most coins from Arabic countries everything is repeated in both English and Arabic. The date is where most people get confused. This is a 1969 coin not a 1979. A quick look at the conversion chart and you'll see what looks like a 7 is actually an Arabic 6.

In the late 1990s early 2000s I would get quite a few Piastres in my change I can only guess an influx of Middle Eastern visitors plus the phasing out of this coin in their country created an ideal opportunity. Since then it is rare to find one in my change even if they hold little value.

Still this one is in excellent condition for a forty year old, no offense.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 50 Piastres / Lebanon
Year: 1969
Mintage: 3,488,000
Metal: Nickel
Value: $0.75 in Unc

Do you have an Arabic 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.