The gold Baseball Hall of Fames came yesterday

My order for gold BHOF's came yesterday. Two of them look good, but one may have a scratch.

I can't be sure. I think it is on the coin, but it could be on the capsule. The only way I could be sure would be to pop it out of the capsule. As I'm not the most adroit person, I'm afraid that I might screw that up and damage the coin.
Under the microscope, I can see something in that area. That makes me think it is more likely to be on the coin.

I decided to just send them all to PCGS. I chose Modern, Secure Plus, and added TrueView. I like the Secure Plus slab, especially for gold and the TrueView will make it easier to see why PCGS blinked if the coins are not PF70.

It is unfortunate that the Mint is so sloppy with expensive proofs. Scratches shouldn't happen. The other two coins don't appear to have scratches, but there are small scraps of black fibers sealed in with the coins. That really shouldn't happen either.  Although I think we already pay enough of a premium to expect better, I'd rather pay more if that's what it would take for better quality control.

Note: All my coins are in a safe deposit box. I keep nothing in my home.

Contests and giveaways: http://coins.aplawrence.com/2014/05/contests-and-giveaways.html

Morgan Dollar: America's Love Affair with a Legendary Coin

According to the Amazon page, this book is supposed to be released on June 24th, so I placed a pre-order. To my complete surprise, Fedex delivered it today, June 5th.

This is a year by year, highly detailed examination of Morgan dollars. Not by die variety like the VAM book, but the history of each coin: changes to dies, certified population and price guides, plus historical trivia related to the coin, its mint or Morgan himself. It's a market study and a history lesson with Morgan Dollars as the backdrop.

Each year is illustrated with high-resolution photographs from the Coronet Collection, the PCGS Number One Finest Morgan Dollar registry set of all time.

If you are a serious collector of Morgans, you'll probably want this.

Buy this book at Amazon and help me support this site!

Note: All my coins are in a safe deposit box. I keep nothing in my home.

Contests and giveaways: http://coins.aplawrence.com/2014/05/contests-and-giveaways.html

Coin Collecting Forums Reviewed

Coin related forums are a great way for you to find other coin collectors to talk to and to learn from. There are a great many of these to choose from, but I'm only going to look at a few here.

Collectors Universe

This was the first forum I joined after I returned to coin collecting.  It's a very active forum, though the software is outdated and very clumsy to use.

Many dealers and advanced collectors can be found here. You can get a lot of help here and learn from very knowledgable people. For example, I was able to get authoritative answers on an obscure token in just minutes.

On the other hand, this can be a rough and tumble place. Arguments break out frequently and criticism can be harsh and very personal.  I feel that the value of the knowledge there far outweighs that and the clunky software.

http://forums.collectors.com/


ModernCoins.com Forum

This forum covers both coins and raw bullion. It is much more active in the bullion and rounds areas than in coin collecting issues, but there are a few true numismatists posting there, so you can find interesting discussions. This does not have the broad range of expertise found at Collectors Universe, but it is an active forum with many posts daily. The software is modern and easy to use.

What I particularly like about MCF is the friendly nature of the posters. Of course there can be squabbles, but overall this is a much friendlier place than most.

Also unusual is that owners and staff of the parent company regularly participate in the forum, answering questions and contributing new content.

http://www.moderncoinmart.com/forum/

Postscript: Metal stackers tend toward the right wing conservative side. I got tired of the constant Obama bashing and more. The forum does have a rule against political diatribe, but when I asked them to enforce it, they refused.  I then asked that my account be deleted.


Coin Talk

Another very active forum. The level of numismatic knowledge is spotty, with many naive posts of the "What is this worth" nature, complete with a fuzzy picture of a dateless buffalo nickel. The software is modern and easy to use.

However, if you can ignore that, there is value to be found here. 

This is a tightly controlled forum - read the rules of conduct carefully. I did not, and earned a seven day ban for a comment that wouldn't have even been noticed at most other forums. The moderators enforce the rules tightly, which has caused griping that you can easily find with a little Googling. Simply put, obey the rules and you'll have no problem. 

http://www.cointalk.com/

Coin Community

An active board with reasonably modern software.  A good level of expertise and, like MCM, a general sense of friendliness missing from some other boards. The topics are tightly focused, but you can view at a higher level or drill in.

http://www.coincommunity.com/

Collectors Society

Not a very active forum and uses outdated software.  They do, however, have an interesting and useful "What You need to know" section which contains basic information about numismatic topics. Unfortunately, although that information can be quite good, its value is sometimes diminished by poorly formatted articles that are hard to read and references to images that do not exist.

http://boards.collectors-society.com/

Coin People

This is not a very active forum, but does seem to do more with world and ancients than with U.S.   The software is better than Collectors Universe, but not on par with Coin Talk and MCM.

http://www.coinpeople.com/

Coin Help

The front page of Coin Help promises much, but the actual content is thin.  Still, you might enjoy browsing through it. The forum section is not very active and tho software is old and clumsy.

http://coinauctionshelp.com/

Please let me know of any forums that should be added.

Note:  All my coins are in a safe deposit box.  I keep nothing in my home. 

Contests and giveaways: http://coins.aplawrence.com/2014/05/contests-and-giveaways.html

Second shipment of Baseball Hall of Fame Gold seems to be happening

It seems that a long delayed second wave of BHOF gold is finally shipping from the mint.

At a coin forum today someone said their credit card was hit on the 28th and when they called, the rep said it should ship the first week of June.

Another person said their order # 42926xxx shipped yesterday (Monday) morning.

My order 42927xxx hit my credit card on the 28th and was shipped today, June 3rd.

Note:  All my coins are in a safe deposit box.  I keep nothing in my home. 

Contests and giveaways: http://coins.aplawrence.com/2014/05/contests-and-giveaways.html

Moisture and your coins

Years back, I never gave moisture a second thought. I should have - my safe was located in our basement and that basement certainly got musty, but I never thought about the contents of the safe. I guess I was lucky - I remember some wheat cents corroding, but it wasn't even that many of those and nothing else was harmed.

Still, I read that dire consequences can befall your coins if you don't prevent high humidity. That worried me, so I started investigating.

My first concern was my safe deposit boxes. That's where everything really valuable is and it's also where I have the least control over conditions. The vault is on the same floor as the teller area and is air conditioned, so I feel that's probably fairly safe, but people do recommend desiccant.

My home safe, which only has papers and low value coins, also needs desiccant.  There is more need here than at the bank, because we almost never run air conditioning. We have central air, but neither my wife nor I like it, so it takes really brutal conditions to get us to turn it on. Therefore, the safe definitely needs protection.

But what to get?  The most common form of desiccant is that "blue indicating" silica gel and apparently there are some health concerns with that:

Cobalt Chloride has been classified by IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) in Group 2B. Which states Cobalt Chloride is possibly carcinogenic to humans. Very toxic to aquatic organisms. May cause long term adverse effects in the environment.

I found an "orange indicating" silica gel at Amazon:

Is that safer? I don't know, but I ordered one.

But will that be enough?  I found this "Use Silica Gel and Desiccants for Maximum Results"  which says I'd need about 60 grams for the safe.  The box I ordered is 40 grams, so I guess I'll need another or will need to regenerate it more often.   I think I'll just try the one first and see how often it needs to be baked.

That article also points out that regenerating requires many hours in an oven.  That could be inconvenient, especially in the summer.  Inexpensive as it is, buying these to throw away without regenerating seems very wasteful and offensive, but I might just buy a few more and save regeneration for the winter months.

Note:  All my coins are in a safe deposit box.  I keep nothing in my home. 

Contests and giveaways: http://coins.aplawrence.com/2014/05/contests-and-giveaways.html

Why did we make Trade Dollars?

Trade Dollars are a strange coin indeed.  They have a long history (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_coin) as these are coins that were readily accepted by other countries - hence the term "trade".  Sometimes these coins were simply ordinary circulating coins that became commonly used for world trade.  The Mexican Peso and the Austrian Thaler were examples. But Britain and Japan and the United States issued coins specifically designed for that purpose.

Our trade dollars were also a solution to a glut of silver bullion. We had stopped producing silver dollars in 1873, but silver production was increasing even as world demand for bullion decreased. I suggest reading U.S. TRADE DOLLARS 1873-1885 for details, but the upshot was that we needed to export more silver but could not.

Trade Dollars were the solution, at least until we started minting Morgans in 1878. The U.S. Trade Dollar was 420 grains, slightly heavier than than the Liberty Seated Dollar (which wasn't circulating anyway) and proudly marked to show that.

The reverse design is reminiscent of the Mexican peso and the obverse is not dissimilar to Britannia on English coins - no doubt that these choices were deliberate to smooth acceptance. Southern China accepted the coin officially in November of 1873.

So, if you were in possession of silver bullion that had no good market, you could bring it to one of our Mints and exchange it for shiny new Trade Dollars.  Load those onto a clipper ship heading for China and months later you'd have silk, spices or whatever other goods you had purchased in China.  This was a good deal for the silver producers, but it was also good for trade.

Northern China did not accept the Trade Dollar.  We started having problems at home, too, as the value of silver continued to drop. People could trade cheaply bought silver for Trade Dollars and use those dollars here in the United States. However, nobody wanted them, so the typical use was to foist them off as wages on workers who then had a hard time spending them at full value.  That finally led to the total stop of the minting of Trade Dollars.

From a numismatic point of view, it is ironic that China is now the source of many counterfeit Trade Dollars.  Some are very easy to detect, but some are better made. Here are some links that you may find helpful.

Coin Fake Detection - Valid Trade Dollar Types

How do you spot fake Trade Dollars?

COUNTERFEIT DETECTION: 1875-S TRADE DOLLAR

Note:  All my coins are in a safe deposit box.  I keep nothing in my home. 

Contests and giveaways: http://coins.aplawrence.com/2014/05/contests-and-giveaways.html

Neonumia (for lack of a better word)

I initially called certain coins "shark jumpers", implying that these are silly, desperate productions that are trying to raise waning interest in mint products. This Baseball Hall of Fame issue is a mild example.

Here is something much more extreme. It's sculpture with a coin as its base - definitely not something you'd carry in your pocket!

I don't know what's going to happen with these types of coins. Will collectors in general accept map shaped coins, folding coins, coins with embedded electronics? I don't know. My instinct is that most of these, maybe even all, are ridiculous and that they truly are "shark jumpers" destined for ignominy. Some day this whole period of strange designs might be looked at much as we look at the Dutch Tulip craze now - a brief aberration of sanity.

On the other hand, I could be wrong. Even if most coin collectors ignore them, enough may find them interesting that they won't be disdained and consigned to the dust heap of numismatic history. Collectors may very well include some in their type sets - I could see that happening with the Baseball Hall of Fame coins very easily.

Other collectors may even specialize in these. In fact, that's quite likely and that's why I coined the word "Neonumia" (New Money).  This is in the tradition of exonumia (outside of money), but as these are generally NCLT (non circulating legal tender), they obviously aren't that.  Neonumia works for me, at least until someone comes up with a better term.

No matter what, I don't think this phase has legs. I really don't expect it last very long. I expect that the market for new issues will dry up. Some of the originals may retain value, but I really think that soon enough a mint is going to announce yet another absurd "coin" and get not enough orders to pay the cost or even get no orders at all.  I can absolutely state that if the U.S. Mint came out with a football shaped coin next month, I would not order any and I suspect I'm not unusual.

So, do you have any neonumia in your collection?  Would you collect neonumia specifically? Would you buy that football coin?

Note:  All my coins are in a safe deposit box.  I keep nothing in my home. 

Contests and giveaways: http://coins.aplawrence.com/2014/05/contests-and-giveaways.html