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Beautiful Examples of Natural Toning from our “Battle Creek Toned Lincoln Cent Collection”.

Posted in Battle Creek Toned Lincoln Cent Collection, Choice copper, coin condition, Gammill Numismatic, LLC, lincoln cents, MSNS Dearborn MI, Natural Toning, Original Toning, Storing Toned Copper, Toning on Lincoln Cents, Uncategorized, Wheat Cents, tagged , , on January 5, 2020| Leave a Comment »

1948 Mint State Lincoln Cent (Bull’s-Eye Toning)

Some twenty years ago, Martha and I were attending the Michigan State Numismatic Show in Dearborn, MI.  An elderly gentlemen came up to our table, and said several dealers told him that we liked copper.  True.  He then proceeded to tell us that he had a small coin collection that he had amassed over the years, wondered if we were interested in taking a look at it and, if interested, purchase it.  I asked him if had brought anything to show us, and he replied, I have a few Indian Head Cents and some tokens for you.   His coins were all nice and original (original skin, if you will) and many were attractive AU’s and Mint State examples.  None of these coins were toned to any noticable extent.  We talked for some time.  He had been collecting US Coins and Token since the end of World War II, and explained that he had come to the point that it was time to sell his collection.  It was interesting to me that it appeared the coins he presented at the show had been stored away for some time.  Many were wrapped in old tissue paper or in old 2X2 paper envelopes.  However, he was quick to point out that  most of his really nice coins were in old coin albums.  I asked National Albums?  He replied, yeah, I’ve got some of those I believe.  My interest then peaked!  We offered him a price for the coins he had with him, and then told him to shop his coins around the bourse floor, and, if our offer was competitive, come back to see us, and we would make an appointment to view the rest of his collection.  His wife was with him and really didn’t seem very interested in the coins, but was enjoying looking at some of the jewelry on display at several of the tables at the show.

A couple hours passed and the couple came back to our table.  They said they were interested in our offer, but really wanted to sell the entire collection, and encouraged us to visit them at their home in Battle Creek, MI, to view the entire collection.

So, the rest of the story:   After returning from the MSNS show, we arranged a visit with the couple at their home in the Battle Creek countryside .  Now I am speculating, but my best guess was these folks were in their late 70’s at the time of our visit.  They had a very nice comfortable home and were very gracious hosts during our visit.  We learned that the gentlemen had been a life-long farmer in the Battle Creek area, and his wife had been a homemaker.  They had children, but none of the kids were interested in their collection, and it was just time to sell.

They walked us down a hallway to a large bedroom in which an old wooden chest was at the foot of the iron-post bed.  Everything in that room, and their house for that matter, reminded me of my grandparent’s home!  Now the old fellow opened the wooden chest, and it was full of coin albums, boxes of coins carefully labeled and stored in envelopes, sometimes wrapped in old tissue paper as well as related Numismatic Memorabilia (early Max Mehl catalogues, for example).

1946 Mint State Lincoln Cent (Bull’s-Eye Toning).

Of all the coins we saw that afternoon, and eventually purchased, the Lincoln Cents, Proof and Mint Sets, were covered in absolutely spectacular toning.  Both Martha and I had attended Bob Campbell’s course in Colorado Springs at the ANA Summer Seminar Series which was on the characteristics of natural and artificial toning, and we were immediately confident that what we were viewing, was in fact, beautifully undisturbed and original examples of natural toning on copper.

Toning is all about storage techniques, and is the result of a long and slow oxidative process in which chemicals in the environment interact with the surface of the coin.  The Lincoln Cents, Proof and Mint Sets had been stored in that trunk, undisturbed to varying degrees since the late 1940’s and 1950’s.  The old fellow told us that the trunk was what his belongings were shipped home in at the end of his service in WW II.  I wish I could tell you the type of wood that old trunk was made of, but that detail is missing.  The albums ranged from the old National Albums, Library of Coins Albums and various Whitman Albums.  The Lincoln Cents were housed in a “Library of Coins” album.  For the most part they appeared to have been carefully chosen Mint State or near Mint State examples, certainly quality-wise much better than the Indian Head Cents in his collection.  I asked him about the source of his collection over the years.  His reply, as I recall, was that he had gotten them from local banks, friends and occasionally local dealers and coin shows.  I asked him if he had ever sold any of his coins before now.  He said no, never sold a thing.  I’m guessing from our visit that many in the area knew of his collecting interest and frequently offered him small family accumulations.   Sometimes, when dealing with collectors, buying or selling, you learn a lot about their personality.  In this case, we were dealing with very knowledgable and meticulous folks.  Details and organization were a top priorities in every aspect of their life( at least as viewed by us).  They resided in a very comfortable farm home with every thing in its place!  They appeared to be happy and very content in their community, and were enjoying their senior years with great clarity and confidence.   These were people you like to know and call friends.

1959 D Mint State Lincoln Cent (Iridescent Green Toning)

Many of the Lincolns in his collection had not only spectacular ‘Bull’s-Eye’ toning but also beautiful deep intense iridescent green toning, which was incredibly thick, almost to the point of obscuring the underlying mint luster.  However, under direct light the original mint luster was in full beauty.  I am sure a professional photographer could make these coins truly remarkable examples of  natural toning on copper.

1946 D Mint State Lincoln Cent (Iridescent Green & Rose Toning)

How do we grade these raw uncirculated examples?   Well, we just call them Mint State Beauties, free from plastic encapsulation, for the time being.   The coins pictured in this article represent about 10% of the toned wheat cents (30’s,40’s & 50’s) in our Battle Creek Toned Lincoln Collection.  If you think grading is a subjective exercise in establishing value…grading toned mint state examples is really subjective.  Some folks believe toning is surface damage and stay away from buying them.  Others view toning as beauty, adding great value to the coin.  In our present numismatic market, almost all markable and beautifully toned coins are going to be encapsulated by either PCGS or NGC.  Encapsulated/Certified coins are the market makers and are guiding grade and value in almost every aspect of collecting.   We certainly buy and sell in the certified market, but in some cases, as in this example, we prefer to view the originality, free from plastic, at least for the time being!

We purchased this collection raw, not a certified coin in it.  Were we fair?  Did we pay this couple a premium for what was clearly a collection with some unique examples?  You bet we did, and here’s why:  First, it was, and is, the correct thing to do.  Your reputation of fairness in dealing with collectibles of any kind is your bond.  In this case, the toning was unique enough to us that we estimated the value of these coins would certainly increase; and demand would be high going forward.  So yes, we paid a premium that yielded an outcome that both buyer and seller could agree upon and be happy with.

Oh, you want to know how much of a premium?  Don’t be like a long-time customer of ours.  Every time we sold him a coin he insisted on driving us crazy by wanting to know what we had paid for the coin.  He wanted to know, and apparently approve, our profit margin…really not his business!  We sold him coins for 15 years, never divulged that information, and apparently he learned to live without knowing every little detail of our business.  He was a great customer but we always knew that question was coming…how much did you pay for this coin?  He became a very dear friend…but we never divulged our cost.

1947 D Mint State Lincoln Cent (Light Iridescent Green with Soft Rainbow Toning)

One Final Note:  How do we store these toned Lincoln Cents?  Well, we place them in a nice cotton pouch, and then that pouch goes into a 2 X 2 paper coin envelope.  Ideally envelopes of low sulfur content (archival quality, if possible).  The coins are then stored in a low humidity environment with air temperature @70 degrees year round.

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2009 ANA Summer Seminar on Advanced United States Coin Grading and Problem Coins. A Critique.

Posted in coin condition, coin investments, collector investments, Economy, Gammill Numismatics, Grading, Grading problem coins, Half Cents, Hard Times Tokens, knowledge is power, large cents, rare coin investment, shield nickels, Stand Alone Coins for Investments, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 28, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Instructors: William Shamhart, Jr., Charles Browne, Lane Brunner, John Dannreuther & John Albanese

Week of July 4, 2009

If you aren’t familiar with the five names above, you should make a concerted effort to find out who they are and where you might meet and learn from their years of experience in numismatics. These gentlemen have a strong background in numismatic research, the marketplace, pricing and “grading” some of the most famous collector coins that have appeared in the market during the last 20-30 years. Of course, these were the gentlemen who taught the ANA’s Advanced United States Coin Grading and Problem Coins class out in Colorado Springs during the second session of this year’s ANA’s summer seminar series.

Bill Shamhart has been teaching advanced grading out at the ANA during the summer seminar series for a number of years and always brings along an “all star” roster of graders, numismatic experts and innovators in the hobby. Of course, Bill heads up the class and is a demanding mentor with the students’ best interest always out front. He is nothing less than a consummate professional whose philosophy is deeply seated in education.

Charles Browne is likewise a most respected PCGS grader and summer instructor with magnificent grading skills and a more than unique ability to explain the subtlety between that PF 66 and PF 67. Charlie also has a very enjoyable personality which enables him to readily share his strong fundamental understanding of market grading and the market place. He also has a mature and profound knowledge of the field of numismatics.

John Albanese, as most of you know, is the president of CAC. He was also one of the co-founders of PCGS and founder of NGC. He is a soft-spoken individual who is easy to engage and discuss grading and answer your questions. He is a man of many interests and seems to be one of the few who are able to see the “big picture” in the “collectibles space”. What an opportunity we had to have him there as an instructor for the week! It was a unique occasion to learn firsthand his insight into creating that little green “CAC” sticker. In addition, we benefited from his one-on-one instruction about grading which was an experience in itself. He was indeed, as they all were, splendid gentlemen with education at the top of their agenda.

Dr. Lane Brunner has served several positions with the ANA. Lane has a sharp and critical eye when it comes to grading high end coins and spotting coins that have problems of every description. His natural teaching skills were evident in our one-on-one examination of coins and explanation of problems that were present on many of the coins.

Finally, there was John Dannreuther, one of the co-founders of PCGS, a well-known world class researcher, author, consultant and rare coin dealer. John was just a wealth of information and enthusiastically shared his personal experiences in the business, as well as, some of his unpublished results regarding the minting process and in particular about proof coinage. His attention to detail during our one-on-one exercises was truly informative. John is currently working on his opus on proof gold coins and gave an excellent lecture on the production of proofs. What a wealth of information!

John, or JD as we learned to call him, rounded out a particularly unique gathering of instructors of exceptional caliber for our one week course.

All of these fellows have been around the business for a while (sorry for that guys), but as I am sure Bill would say……’the truth sometime hurts’.  These gentlemen are to be applauded for donating their time and energy so their students will not only be better at grading and detecting problem coins, but will also continue the generous giving of time and energy to numismatics through their example.

These instructors have seen, and in fact, been part of a lot of the change we have all seen during the last twenty years or so in our hobby. Their accomplishments range from the founding of the two most successful grading services and subsequent innovations, such as CAC, participating in numismatic service organizations, publishing articles, reference books and teaching.  Finally, they have been successful dealers who have prospered through ethical practices and survived the chaotic markets that occurred during the late 70’s and early 80’s.

From a historical perspective, these gentlemen’s mentors and current colleagues are among the greatest names in 20th century US numismatics.  I am sure that in future years, all the students in this class will delight in the fact that they sat in the room with these men for a week and were able to discuss the timely developments of grading, the coin market itself and contemplate the future of our hobby.

Now some comments about the class and its content.

There were twenty five students in the class, including one YN. We had five instructors for almost every exercise we conducted with one-on-one follow-up. The line of attack in the class was simple: we were to look at and evaluate as many coins in 5 days as possible, and then be able to gain a consensus within a group setting about the grade of those coins. I think we saw most US type coins (in copper, silver and gold) and in grades from AU 58 to MS 68 as well as a good number of proof issues.

Not stopping with the grade, you had to determine the method of manufacture (mint state or proof), color designation for copper, other designations such as PL, DMPL, cameo, ultra cameo, FH, FBL, FSBs, FS, as well as, whether the coin had been lightly dipped (and thus graded) or harshly dipped and a “no grade”, cleaning (heavy vs light hairlines), re-colored or doctored to cover scratches or spots….and so own. All the coins were either PCGS or NGC to the best of my recollection.

We broke up into five groups with one instructor assigned to each group. Then the fun began.  “Number you papers from one to thirty” came the directive from one of the instructors. Another instructor might tell us that we have 30 seconds to inspect each coin and then must pass it to our neighbor. They reminded us to go with our first impression using only the naked eye and then if you see a problem use your loupe. A loupe was also appropriate for the smaller coins. It seemed as if we were off to the races…and in fact we were!

Coins were passed around the group; you recorded your grade; and after everyone had graded the coins, we begin an in-depth evaluation of the coins. The objective was to arrive at some consensus regarding the grade within the group. All the while, we were getting feedback from our table instructor in the way of questions, comments and tips such as, you might want to look at that coin one more time (since you clearly missed something the first time).  The greatest learning tool was in the effort to gain consensus regarding a grade.  This was the process that exposed everyones thoughts about  the grade of the coins and thus provided the forum for disussion with the each other as well as the instructor.

At first, it was hectic but as that first day progressed I think most of us fell into a rhythm that at least helped everyone get to the second day. Then it started all over again on day two.

We were looking at a lot of different coins and were processing a lot of information in a very short period of time. In the first couple of exercises the grade spread within a given group might be from AU 58 to MS 65 or higher.  The objective of the class was to narrow that range down to the correct grade, or to be at least only one point away. Despite the hectic nature of the process the composure and positive instruction from the instructors resulted in little anxiety associated with the process after the first day. We were now on a steep learning curve and had nothing but critical information to gain. This realization, I think, was a big turning point in the class. Now, we had nothing to lose so to speak, but everything to gain. So listen and learn!

As the week progressed, each groups’ consensus grade became tighter and we also gained a much better understanding of A, B and C coins within a grade.  This is something John expanded on with regard to certified coins getting those little green “CAC” stickers.  

All in all it was a great week and is among the strongest classes I have seen the ANA summer seminar series offer in many years.   There were several people that signed up for the class next year before leaving Colorado Springs at the end  of the week.  That says an awful lot about the instructors and class content.  I don’t know of another place where you could gain this type of information from a fine group of experts.  I might also mention, there were several students in the class that had taken the class in previous years (as in last year).

If  you have the opportunity and are interested in grading ,be sure to look into this class.  You must have completed the Beginning and Intermediate grading classes before you can get into this advanced class. 

Remember: Eye Appeal and Luster are the two things that your eyes see first when looking at a coin and thus represents that critical first impression.  Eye appeal and luster are the top factors being considered in market grading and thus pricing.

We were constantly reminded that with market grading, eye appeal adds a little, but forgives a lot.

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COIN COLLECTING IN THIS ECONOMY. WHAT’S A COLLECTOR TO DO?

Posted in coin condition, coin investments, collector investments, Gammill Numismatics, key date investments, knowledge is power, large cents, numismatics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 19, 2008| Leave a Comment »

The number of coin collectors has really grown since the launch of the State Quarter program in 1999.  It is great to once again be able to check your pocket change each evening in hopes of finding a much needed coin to add to your collection….and, at face value.  The number of grandparents assembling sets of the state quarters for their grandkids must be a staggering number.  Everyone is enjoying this old fashion approach to coin collecting and the hobby is enjoying both new and renewed interest from collectors of all walks of life. 

 

 

2001 Kentucky State Quarter with Reverse CUD and Polish Marks.  Rare Error Quarter.  Be sure to check your pocket change for this gem!

 

However, since 1999 things have changed dramatically on the economic front.  If you have been attending coin shows for the last couple of years, particularly the smaller local club shows throughout the country, you might have noticed that attendance is down.  In reality, things don’t seem much better at a lot of the larger shows.  All too many collectors just don’t have the extra income today to continue adding to their collections as they had in past years.  There has really been a loss of activity amongst collectors who live on a fixed income, have lost jobs, or have just had to watch their family budgets so much more closely than in times past. 

 So what does this mean to the hobby?  Pulling state quarters from circulation continues to be exciting but novice collectors as well as seasoned collectors become disenchanted with the same old thing and soon lose interest.  In addition, many new and old collectors are almost encouraged to leave the hobby because the US Mint keeps raising prices on an endless number of products.  Should we have to pay a premium for US half dollars or rolls of state quarters?  Maybe when the economic environment improves and collector’s disposable income returns they will return to the hobby.  Unfortunately, when these collectors take a leave of absence, a large number of them don’t come back!  Also, who knows when this economy is going to straighten out?

 

Considia 6

 

What can collectors do during tough economic times to maintain a strong energetic interest in coin collecting and most importantly their own collections?  Let me make a couple of suggestions that will certainly enhance your knowledge of both collecting and give you added information about your existing collection.  All in all, you will be a much more astute collector.

 First, many collectors are so busy assembling a collection that they rarely have, or take the time, to actually study in any detail what they are collecting.  Of course this certainly isn’t true for all collectors, but we have all purchased a coin or book with very good intention of doing more with it, but the time never presents itself.  Of course we have all heard the old saying, “buy the book before the coin”.  This is very good advice but most collectors are to impatience to take this to heart.  There is always the rush to make the purchase. 

 Now, is a good time to do some reading and research on what you have purchased and what is left to be purchased for your collection if you are working on a series collection or type set.  If you are a member of the ANA you have a number of great resources at your disposal.  They have a world class library for your use, available online or through the mail.  Most state and local clubs also have libraries available for your use.  Read about the coins in your collection.  1798 S-148, Horned 9You may even find that there are some interesting varieties in your collection that you haven’t yet discovered (see 1798 large cent variety (S-148, Horned 9) to the right.

There are also some very informative books which discuss the history of coins, the engravers who designed them and the circumstances under which they went into production. 

 

 

 

 

Another possibility is to take a look at how your coins are graded.  I know they were likely graded when you purchased them, but were they graded by you or the person who sold them to you.  There is also this thing called “grade inflation” that impacts our collections.  For this we can thank the commercial grading firms such as PCGS, NGC, ANACS and others, who grade, curate and certify coins for a healthy price.  Their grading criteria moves with the market demand thus grading becomes a moving target.  In any event, the longer you collect, theoretically, the better your grading skills should become and at the same time, if you are abreast of the market, you can stay in tune with the commercial movement of the market which influences the value of your collection. 

 

 You might also want to check for counterfeits, particularly the key dates in your collection.  The ANA has published several excellent books on the subject to help guide you and determine if your coin is authentic.  You can also have one of the third party grading services authentic your key dates as well (PCGS).  It is always wise to purchase key date coins that are known to have been heavily counterfeited (1877 Indian Head Cent; 1909 S VDB Lincoln cent; 1916 D Mercury dime to name a few) from dealers you know and trust or buy certified coins.

 Now may be a good time to evaluate your home security.  Be sure your collection is adequately insured and that your inventory is correct and up to date.  Have a digital photo or video of your collection or at least of the most value coins in the collection.  Make sure your home safe if both burglar and fire proof with a high safety rating.  Be sure to keep your inventory list separate from your collection!

 You might even consider purchasing a stereo microscope if you don’t already have one.  They run about $200 and can provide hours of enjoyment in studying your coins, particularly when looking for varieties.

 Evaluate your entire collection and see if there are items you might want to sell.  Look for things that you may no longer have interest in that can be replaced with new items to keep your collection moving in a direction that keeps you interested.

 Go to coin shows and coin shops and look at certified coins to gauge where the market grading resides.  See if you can find those coins in NGC holders that have been cleaned (or conserved) that they have been graded!  This might lead you to spend more time looking at PCGS coins which might be more original or as some might say, are still in their original skin.

 There are many things to do to improve and continue to understand your collection.  Believe me, in this economy, this is the time to do it!

 

 

 

Who am I?

 

 

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