I'm back!

Been busy with other things and am just now getting back to doing something with the coin collection. Tonight I figured we'd start with some Silver Dollars (Peace and Morgan) that I pulled randomly from a box.

New eBay fees going into effect on February 20th and I plan on getting as many of these coins listed before then as I can. The way I figure the math, the new fees will be a substantial increase based on how I'm selling the coins. I don't mind paying eBay for what they earn, but I'm not going to pay any more than absolutely necessary.

The first few coins will start going up about 9:30 CST tonight... click here to see what I've got going.

Thanks for checking things out!

Little Progress Report, Lots To Learn

It's been a while since my last post simply because I haven't been sure what to say. It's a little ignorant and counter to why I started this to just sit here and ramble off the coins I have listed on eBay. It was my thought that I could somehow summarize what I am learning about grading coins and their value, and that it would be a benefit to someone else who found themselves in a similar situation. But for all my reading, looking at coins, and even going to a local coin auction, I haven't had any epiphanies. At this point I don't feel I have much to add to the public conversation that isn't already published in books or available online. If I have learned anything, it's that I will always have a lot to learn about numismatics.

That being said, I am changing the purpose of my blogtime. I'm simply going to eliminate any sort of defined mission or purpose, while maintaining the focus on coins and currency. I’ll do my best to not ramble about stuff you can see for yourself, such as the auctions I have listed.

With that in mind, I've found a very helpful website in the last week:

World and Ancient Coins
http://www.beastcoins.com/
I'm learning (and financing my learning) by selling many of the non-US coins in the collection. Beastcoins has some great photographs of these types coins. I happened upon them while researching a Mexican 1/2 Real coin dated 1820. The photo on the site allowed me to positively identify the coin, and gave me lots of information on silver content and mint marks. Since I don't have too awfully many foreign coins to deal with, and since most of them appear to be of limited value, I have not invested in the current world coin books. From what I've read, these are the books to have:

Interesting Old Coins

When I first found all the WWII era German coins in the folders from my Dads collection I was quite excited. While I didn't expect they were exceptionally rare -- I'm sure many were brought to the states as war trophies -- it's pretty disapponting that market just isn't very strong. They're quite simply neat coins that represent a dark, landmark period in our worlds history. I rushed to get them listed for eBay's 20 cent listing sale... they end tomorrow night. Maybe we'll have some last minute bidders.

What's going up tonight... well I do have a few more of the German Reich coins, this time the pfeinnigs, and a pre-WWII 2 German mark coin. I also tossed in a few good early American coins. 3 capped bust dimes, a rare 1918 Illinois Centennial silver commemorative, a lot of 1996 proof and silver proof sets, and a well worn 1864 2 cent piece.

That 2 cent piece was exciting because the flip it was in said "Small Motto" which, even in the poor condition it is in, is shown at $110 in the 2006 red book. Wow, might be some real money there I thought... well, I got to looking at photos of the 2 types and I am not convinced it really is a small motto version. The bids should tell us...

I'm getting better at taking coin photos too. The light I have with an intigrated magnifier works really well for illuminating them. I am still trying to get rid of the shadows behind the rim, but the colors and details are showing up really well in the photos. The camera really provides significantly better overall image quality and the flow is faster than the scanner.

Tonights auctions are starting slowly as I type this. Thanks for paying attention, and thanks to everyone who has trusted me with your business.

Time away...

Well, it's been a couple weeks since I've really even looked at the coins. I got through many of the items that were, well, easy and now it's down to the brass-tacks. I knew it before I started, but this is like... real work.

Not much to report, but I do have a handfull of mid-20th century German coins, a nice 1903 German 5 Mark coin, and a 1925 silver commemorative going up on eBay tonight. I might have been able to move the German coins individually, but the modern German coin market just doesn't seem that strong on eBay. (or maybe the coins just aren't desireable) For those interested, I do have quite a few pre-1945 German coins as well. I may wait till later in the summer or into the fall for them. Too many folks have too many other things to do than eBay in the summer, and I'm not convinced they will sell as well as I think they should.

Thanks for looking.
-Jeff

Busy Busy Busy...

This past week I've had so little time to spend thinking coins that I did not get a single thing listed tonight. I had photographed a small collection of WWI and WWII foriegn paper money, started to list it and in research realized it wasn't worth listing each note individually. So, I'll probibly just create a few lots and be done with 'em. There isn't that much paper money in the collection to worry about.

I was at an real-world auction today with my pays-the-bills business and picked up a nice 1925 Stone Mountain commemorative. It may not be as good as I what I paid (my preliminary grade is about an AU-50), but it was a fun diversion in the midst of a slow moving sale. It's a pretty coin.

Got a few more supplies in the mail including some nice white gloves so I won't be finger-printin' all over the coins when I photograph them. They are nice gloves... thicker than most I saw available on eBay (most look like glove shaped cheese-cloth). I got them from eBay Seller ID JayGlove - they also have a website www.jayglove.com. I recommend them.

Thanks for all your bids tonight! I'm so pleased how well tonights auctions ended, when I really didn't have anything I thought was terribly thrilling listed. I appreciate your business and thank you for helping me along on this journey.

Week 2 Drawing To A Close

Well, tonight the second round of listings will end. Things are looking good so far, but I'm a tad anxious because a few of the items are not doing as well as I hoped. There's still time left, so that may change.

I spent quite a bit of time this week trying to figure out how to get a good, clear scan of very reflective silver coins. I've concluded it isn't possible with the hardware and software I have, so most coins now will be photographed instead of scanned. I thought the scanner would be able to better show detail and coloration with a lot less lighting problems - and that does appear to be the case on copper and nickel coins, but try as I might the silver just looks too fuzzy.

This past week was very busy, so I didn't get as much work done on the collection as I hoped. I've pulled many of the coins from folders and have them in individual flips. And I did get a good magnifying light ordered so I can better inspect the coins. I understand not everyone grades with magnification, and maybe I'll be able to do that at some point -- right now I just think I'm better off with a better view of the details.

So what did I find this week? I was excited to find a 1909-S cent (not VDB) in one of the folders and a 1925 half-cent in really good condition. I also found a box of 1965 special mint sets in their original envelopes, a couple of which are sealed. I was going to just list those tonight but after looking at a couple of the coins I think it'd be better to break the sets and have Kennedy halves slabbed. Ray ordered these in 1965 and left them sitting in the original box as they were sent fron the mint. They got pushed to the side for now.

I can't really say there is much exciting going to be up for auction tonight. I guess I could be surprised, but I just didn't have the time to get much else ready to go. I'm very anxious to get some of the raw coins listed and am spending more time looking at and cataloging them (for accounting purposes).

Now that I've got some money to work with (from the first sales), there's a really good chance I'll get some of the coins sent off to be graded and slabbed. More on that later in the week.

First Auctions Closed

The first auctions I launched 7 days ago ended tonight. Woohoo! Thanks so much for all your bids, in my eyes it was a wildly successful night -- especially considering there were only 8 auctions ending. Sure, 2 them remained unsold, but then I didn't expect those two would sell unless I got lucky.

Twelve more auctions went up tonight with a handfull of great SILVER proof and uncirculated lots. These are mostly from my Dads portion of this collection. Actually, everything after 1986 will be from the portion of the collection that came from him.

I'm still reading through the ANA Coin Grading book. Where the 2006 redbook is more comprehensive (in the learning about coins arena) than the 1998 edition I had, it's not nearly as helpful to me as the ANA's book. I have a habit of studying the hell out of just about everything I get involved in and the broad history of grading and its importance is something I devoured.

Just ordered a whole mess of cardboard and plastic (no PVC) flips along with a few large bill holders. I still need to find a good magnifying light. Things like that aren't easy to find out here in the middle of nowhere, but I'm headed to the *cough* bigger city this week and hope I can pick something up there. If not I may have to look online - in this case I just really want to see/feel what I'm getting.

Again, thanks for your bids this past week. Click here and take a peek and the new items up for sale!