[stgecko] I generally collect raw coins. Few moderns would I have concerns of authenticity and since I don’t intend on selling any of them the “grade” is irrelevant for me…I’ll let my heirs deal with “value” when I go toes up, six feet down.

Latest YouTube with Speg on the Ancients was amazing…coins from centuries BC through the Second Temple period to Benzextine to Midevil times…amazing coins and history. BZ

Thought this set was interesting. US Mint issued 1973 as part of the Bicentennial releases. Major battles and leaders of the revolutionary war replicas of “America’s First Medals”. These were minted in pewter! Until I saw these medals I was unaware of the Mint ever minting anything in pewter. The set originally released for $50 I believe…I bought a couple years ago at $35. The booklet tells about each medal and the medals themselves have a lot of Latin legends and captions.

These are the Liberty Medals issued so far…just sharing. I’m a coin collector, not a photographer but the general essence is there. Some interesting twists in the series so far. First was an allegorical Lady Liberty with Flag and Torch of Freedom. The next issue showed a Black Lady Liberty and as part of the 225th Anniversary of the Mint the done a four Medal Set with four mints and four finishes like was done with the Kennedy Half 50th Anniversary set. Next we get an Asian Lady Liberty but done on a 2.5 ounce planchette in high relief. The medal due in 2021 didn’t come out till 2022 but breaking from the allegorical Lady Liberty we got a bucking Mustang casting off the saddle of oppression. This year we just got the Bristlecone Pine tree, believed to be the longest living of all flora or fauna living up to 5,000 years + with the theme of Perseverance. Though I love Lady Liberty I like the artistic expression of the principles of Liberty.

Some of my favorite Vintage Commemorative Half Dollars. The Oregon Trail, beautiful art work from James Earl Fraser and wife Laura Gartin Fraser; being from Texas I have to include the Centennial of Texas Independence…kind of unique that the Eagle is featured on the obverse; the Tercentenary of the Pilgrim landing; the Oakland Bay Bridge and the Huguenot-Walloon.

The send function has been fixed so I can actually have conversations in followable threads! Hopefully as the platform grows and the inevitable glitches get resolved this might become the platform of choice. The various groups that are forming seems that no matter what you focus on numismatically you can find people to share info and discuss the challenges. The buy/sell/trade group looks promising. As functionality for inventories and sets grows to include those of us that collect raw coins it should become a great tool. Thank you to the technical team for all the help.

#ToddPollock…there are no messages in my messages folder nor have I received any questions via my regular email address. The inability to respond to comments on my posts or comment on other posts was there from the start. I sent action comment that the only two icons available in comments section were an images icon and an emoji icon. A day or two later I saw a paper airplane icon which seems was the send or post functionality that I was missing. I sent a comment thanking for the prompt resolution but the next day the paper airplane icon had again disappeared and have not been able to reply to comments or comment on other posts since. As for the creating sets and listing items in my collection it appears that functionality is exclusive to third party graded items or I’m missing something along the how to line. I have mostly OGP and raw coins. Counting shipwreck artifacts I believe I have a grand total of 13 “certified” specimens out of literally thousands of coins so if that functionality is not available to those of us who don’t collect plastic slabs, se le vi, no biggy. This is my collection…lots of specimens but not much in plastic slabs.

I’ve sent action requests multiple times regarding my inability to respond to comments on my posts or comment on posts made by others. I can create a new post but can’t have effective discussions that way. I have not received any response on the issue from site admins. Can’t create sets since the vast majority of my coins are raw…or perhaps I’m missing something on using that functionality. Will take a pause and try back in a couple weeks.

I've just added a set [set:6afc0de2-3191-11ee-bdc5-060e37a4c43f].

#VDBCoins … safe space is an ongoing problem. That’s actually my middle sized safe. The small one that I outgrew became my wife’s jewelry safe when I got what is now my commemoratives safe…then got this bigger safe and I’ve still spilled over into half of my gun safe.

I only have 21 Vintage Commemoratives but the moderns are a bit more involved. This safe is strictly commemoratives and shipwreck artifacts, which I guess in the broad sense of the term are commemoratives. I have artifacts from the Admiral Gardner of the East India Trading Company, the El Cazador of Spain, the S.S. Republic of the Civil War era and the Italian Cruise Liner S.S. Andrea Dorea that collided with the Swedish Cruise Liner S.S. Stockholm and sank in Nantucket Sound.

#stecko but I guess for commemoratives we should start at the beginning…1892/1893 the Chicago World Columbian Exposition. Columbus Half for each year, neither particularly rare and the Isabella Quarter…24,124 distribution

#stecko here’s one of my favorites…only 36,000 made it to distribution, the Lafayette Dollar

#TNHighwayman - I do have a very detailed inventory of my collection for those dealing with the things that won’t fit in the U-Haul to the afterlife…some would say too detailed, it’s a spreadsheet with about 20 Tabs that break it down to coin/set types: Unc. Mint Sets, Proof Mint Sets, Silver Proof Mint Sets, Bullion SAE, Burnished SAE, Proof SAE, SAE Sets and Gold Eagles, Commemoratives…and the list goes on. I made a formula for what I call “Base Value”…basically just the spot value of silver and gold and face value of coins & currency that don’t contain specie, essentially the “zero numismatic value” base, which is currently about $25K. I emphasize to my wife that the true value is MUCH HIGHER, certainly my XF 1842 Seated Liberty Dollar is worth much more than the $19 melt of the silver so I have some tools in place for her. As for a “trusted coin dealer” for a city of over 700,000 we have two local coin shops I know of and sadly don’t have a lot of trust in either, but hopefully I’ll be around long enough to develop some contacts that would give her honest evaluation and advice on liquidating.

#stgecko Antietam is on my “when I hit the lottery” list. There are a lot of the vintage halves that are pretty geographic specific but I look more towards the historic events and people…Grant, Danial Boone, Lexington Concord, Oregon Trail, Oakland Bay Bridge, the US Sesquicentennial, etcetera and there’s about six or seven of that nature on my dream sheet. On the moderns it’s not quite as difficult to get high quality without breaking the bank but there are so many. When they made the quasi rule of two subjects per year I think that was a good thing.