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: