My second childhood with V Nickels and Nic-A-Date
Paul Robertz
on the reverse, but already am reverting to some childhood pleasures
and loving it.
This week I ignored my usual precautions and bid on (and won) this lot
of 103 Liberty Nickels taken out of circulation in the early 1950s.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1343304656&r=0&t=0&showTutorial=0&ed=1018230157
Of course the 1885 caught my attention, and that of another bidder.
The seller was nice enough to send us both good scans of his 1885 and
1886 and add to his description that the 1885 might be an 1895 (Which
of course, was the case). The 1886 is a Good-4, or at least an
AG-3.7, and there were a couple of other dates still missing from my
old Whitman V-nickel folder. (My folder is still marked 35 cents,
which I paid for it at a used bookstore when I was 12 years old). Even
though this auction's underbidder emailed me to warn me I would be
disappointed (since he had also seen the scan of the "1885"), I did
not retract my bid.
The seller wrote back when I won saying that he had 4 more Liberty
Nickels so worn that his old eyes couldn't make out the dates. He
brought them to the post office but didn't mail them at first because
he had wrapped them in paper rolls intended to hold only 80 nickels.
He took them home and realized, after counting, that they were worn so
thin that 107 nickels fit into two rolls. I became excited when he
told me this, since I enjoy looking for undamaged but extremely well
worn U.S. coins.
The coins arrived yesterday and I had an enjoyable afternoon today
sorting them and upgrading my Whitman folder. When I was done only
two holes remained, the 1912-S and 1885, and four others were slight
upgrades in my long-dormant Liberty nickel collection. (I have an
1885 in an old red-label PCI slab, but that doesn't count for much in
my style of collecting). Most of the nickels were too worn to
attribute by variety. Since I have "the Complete Guide to Shield and
Liberty Head Nickels", I'll undoubtedly spend next weekend going
through them again to see if I can find a hint of a repunched date or
doubled die. I doubt that I'll find much of interest in these mostly
AG to G nickels --and I haven't heard of many collecting Liberty
nickel varieties yet. I'll probably spend a few at the local hot dog
stand, whose owner now also collects Barber Dimes after his cashier
undercharged me 9 cents a few months ago and received one of my
duplicates. (I got my start when I received a Barber Dime when I was
collecting for my paper route and gave that customer great service in
return.)
In my paper route days I would occasionally find a dateless Buffalo
Nickel in circulation, and bought quite a few more at the local coin
shop for 7 cents each. I used to spend Saturday afternoons dropping
an amber-colored acid called "Nic-a-date" on Fair to AG nickels. This
afternoon, I found my 30-year-old bottle of "Nic-a-date" and restored
the date of one of the Liberty Nickels -- 1890. "Nic-a-date" leaves a
whitish area on the coin after you wash off the drop, and the restored
date tends to vanish before the whitish stain turns brown. Still, it
can be a lot of fun finding semi-key dates, even though the proof is
temporary. Does anyone know what happened to the Nic-a-lene Company
of Shreveport, LA that marketed Nic-a-date and some other coin
cleaners?
The real high of this afternoon's nickel sorting and acid-dropping was
the slickest Liberty nickel I've ever seen. It has no rim dings,
gouges, or major scratches, and the reverse looks like a slug until
you hold it in the light just right to see the V. The obverse has no
starts and a barely complete outline of Liberty's head. Under her
neck, however, there is the top half of a 1, 2/3 of the first 8, a
donut hole whose position suggests a second 8, and a very slightly
raised vertical line which suggests the upper part of a 5. My wife
can see this also. That coin was destined for my extremely low-grade
type set, but it now fills the penultimate hole in my Whitman Liberty
Nickel folder. I don't dare destroy it with Nic-a-date, just in case
it turns out to be another 1895.
If I figure a way of holding lighting to the side of my kiddie
microscope (Intel Qx3) so that I can show this partial date 1885 to
the rest of you, I sure will.
David
found in change was a 1940 cent, i still have it, not the best coin in the
world, but its nice :P
I have is kinda of a type set of nickels, a 1944-D, 1999-D 1936-D Buffalo,
and a 1907 'V' Nickel, and one that i like because its the only one i
found, a 1975- D/D it has a D over another, looks like a bigger, slightly
tilted D, it may not be bigger, just down more then the other, but its
still nice, ill but my 'set' (even though i dont have any thing older then
a 'V' nickel ) on my web page some time :)
David
--
Please visit my site:
http://home.earthlink.net/~brinkley2/
"Paul Robertz" <pjro...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:698b274f.02041...@posting.google.com...
Fred A. Murphy
On 14-Apr-2002, pjro...@aol.com (Paul Robertz) wrote:
> I became excited when he
> told me this, since I enjoy looking for undamaged but extremely well
> worn U.S. coins.
You need to leap all over the Barber quarters I have up on ebay. They're
goods or slightly less in most cases, yet I have 55 of them in a 40-coin
tube. I've had as many as 70 in a 40-coin tube before.
--
Everyone can play. Here's the quarters:
http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItems&userid=bigg...@telocity.com
Paul Robertz
> On 14-Apr-2002, pjro...@aol.com (Paul Robertz) wrote:
>
> > I became excited when he
> > told me this, since I enjoy looking for undamaged but extremely well
> > worn U.S. coins.
>
> You need to leap all over the Barber quarters I have up on ebay. They're
> goods or slightly less in most cases, yet I have 55 of them in a 40-coin
> tube. I've had as many as 70 in a 40-coin tube before.
I've checked out all of your Barber Quarters, Fredd, and have found
them to be in average condition for the series (AG-3 to VG-10). When
I collect Barbers, I usually wait for a coin with full Liberty, unless
I just need a quick hole-filler. When I'm adding to my extremely low
grade type set, I get excited when I find a coin without damage that
is so worn that "Fair" is a euphemism. (You might recall the 1794
half cent sold with a reverse like this a couple of weeks ago.)
Unfortunately, all of your Barber Quarters have dates that are visible
without having to hold the coin at a certain angle.
Jan Wessels
surprised to read that american collectors also collect the lowest possible
grades. Why is that?
I used to think US collectors only want MS64 or better (and are willing to
pay huge prices for them comparing to "lower" grades as EF).
Jan Wessels<wishing every coin in his collection was VF-40!
"Paul Robertz" <pjro...@aol.com> schreef in bericht
news:698b274f.02041...@posting.google.com...
Stujoe
thusly...
> I read a lot of "MS-64, MS-65 or even better" stories on RCC. I am a bit
> surprised to read that american collectors also collect the lowest possible
> grades. Why is that?
> I used to think US collectors only want MS64 or better (and are willing to
> pay huge prices for them comparing to "lower" grades as EF).
>
> Jan Wessels<wishing every coin in his collection was VF-40!
HA! a coin that grades that high has hardly done a lick of work in
its life. Almost as bad as those spoiled MS64's! :-)
I like circulated coins. I can appreciate high grade MS ones too but
I don't have many. I also like the old brick bungalow house (75-80
years old, best guess) I live in. I can appreciate a new house but I
don't live in one and I don't think I would like it as well as the
old one I am in.
An old house and a circulated coin both have character and history.
You also don't have to worry as much about either one if you have
kids around them. :-)
--
Stu Miller
The Stujoe Collection: http://thestujoecollection.tripod.com
RCC Coins: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jcarney44/coins/rccers.html
RCC FAQ: http://www.telesphere.com/ts/coins/faq2.html
Jan Wessels
not drop it!) so they can see what their father is so excited about.
Jan
"Stujoe" <stu...@NONADASPAMprodigy.net> schreef in bericht
news:MPG.1723cd612...@news.prodigy.net...