Gerry's Daily Blog

September 24, 2018

A Preview

 

Whoops! More Liberty Seated Halves from West Coast Purchase

   1840-O WB-7 PCGS VF30 50C                   1841-O WB-5 PCGS VF30 50C                   1842 WB-10 PCGS EF40 50C    

        

1842-O MD WB-9 PCGS EF40 50C                  1843-O WB-3 PCGS VF30 50C                1844-O WB-13 PCGS VF30 50C 

        

1846 MD DDO WB-10 PCGS EF40 50C                1854-O WB-3 NGC EF45 50C     

    

 

 

 

 

September 23, 2018

Cleaning the Wood Stove!

Greetings and welcome to a Sunday edition of the Daily Blog.

Seasonal weather has finally arrived to southern Maine. The 6:00am temperature is a crisp 42F with frost warnings for the foothills (west of Raymond into the New Hampshire White Mts). One of today's chores is cleaning out the wood stove and preparing for the heating season given the pending weather forecast. Today's high temperatue will be a comfortable 67F with mostly sunny skies but Monday will be down right cold with a forecasted high of 57F followed by more rain on Tuesday. Best to get the wood stove ready and GFRC photography requirements done during the next two days as autumn weather can be unpredictable.

Seth Godin's Blog: Like burning a hammer for heat

Today's Godin Blog dovetails nicely with my opening commentary concerning burning wood. He reminds us to avoid being short sighted for quick profits or personal gains. A reputation, goodwill and true relationships can takes years to build but could be lost in a heartbeat if not carefully managed. Think before you act.... This advice is so timely given the ongoing stress being created by online media and modern life.

Like burning a hammer for heat

Yes, it's true that your hammer has a wooden handle.

But throwing it in the fireplace to get a few BTUs out of it is a huge waste.

The same thing is true of your reputation, of the relationships you have, of your hard-won trust.

Don't burn it just because you're a little chilled.

 

Why Do We Collect Coins?

In Friday's Blog, I asked a simple question; namely, why do we collect coins? Following is another well prepared response from my good friend, Tom Coulombe (Massachusetts Collection). It is my honor to be sharing Tom's numismatic journey with Blog readers.

As youngsters......we had time to burn. And for my generation, at first.....it was toy WWII soldiers and I had quite a few of them, but I always wanted and needed more........for my bigger army.

When I eventually learned that the way to garner more soldiers was "funding", so, I eventually asked and learned to earn an allowance. After this warring phase was "won", I felt empowered to save the thing that acquired the soldiers......the funds.

And going to school I learned how to buy milk, savings bonds and eventually....... baseball cards on the way home. Eventually, I learned that I lived very close to a coin shop........it was easily within walking distance down my street. I also discovered that everyone seemed to be collecting something. My Dad collected repair car parts for our second hand Kaiser. There were lots of parts in the garage and in the cellar. He even bought and disassembled a few wrecks. My sister collected dolls......and pennies. My Mother had Hummels and a stash of two dollar bills. So, collecting seemed natural then.

The coin shop was very orderly. The lighting was great and with so many, many shiny and varied coins, I was intrigued.

The shop was run by Edna as part of her quiet home. Her husband was a Navy cook on a ship in a fleet usually on seas unknown. He was a very nice guy too. They had older children who were seldom seen around the shop.

Edna "was like" the best kind of school teacher I could have had. There were ....."no dumb questions.....". She told me about large cents, two cent pieces and three cent pieces. Her message was very simple: "always buy quality". and "buy a folder and try to collect them all". Edna was elected an officer of a numismatic organization in Providence, Rhode Island; and then her shop became very, very busy by the time I was in high school. She had a few big dogs for security and there was lots of smokers frequenting her shop. Even my mailman was a collector as I frequently saw him add to his collection. I was in the coin shop at least every month. Coin collecting seemed like an important and illuminating hobby. Eventually I learned that there were coin shops in the other surrounding cities, i.e., Attleboro and Brockton.......and a whole street of them in downtown Boston. So, numismatics was a business.

Eventually, I had several folders (but no penny folders). And later I had virtually "all" the non-penny folders. I had a blue book and a red book. I was "wired" to collect coins. I had an army of folders and I was seriously into saving and inspecting coins but that large magnifying glass did very little to help explain quality. It seemed more important to amass and fill folders, even Canadian coin folders. Then the hobby got a little weird.....double dates, full bands, full stairs, etc. Then there were proof sets to consider and commemorative coins.........lots of distractions. I found it hard not to generalize my collecting and I kept collecting. Then the distractions became silver certificates and vanishing silver......like silver was going to disappear forever........so amass lots of silver ...."in case it doubles." So, collecting became something called "an investment".

I guess that I was just a dumb kid who needed to learn about the world......with experiences I chose to delve into.

And I tried to find the best teacher(s) I could along the way to help me have some fun with my eventual hobby.

I was really just imitating several adult figures who were truly into this activity in different capacities.

And I have been very fortunate.

Eventually, ..... I learned how to focus on a series that intrigued me and that made me wonder again. Can I fill the folder?

Or how about seven blue boxes?

And I am still mostly enjoying the challenge.......as the steward of a very decent assortment of Liberty Seated Dimes.

I look at this hobby different now.......but it still seems to be a very worthwhile endeavor in and 'for' my mind.

But, for me, I do not look at it as a business or an investment or a distraction. It is "like" an honor to hold and sort of cherish relics that helped make this nation function peacefully, in part, because of this ancient metallic technology. They hold and somehow retain true value; and the neat, seldom used and maybe neglected, original ones may just be the best of the bunch. And by retaining them for a significant period of time I have developed a new feeling, a sense of accomplishment.
And that has become important to me more.....as I get old.......really old.......but slowly.

That is it......

 

Time to Sell a Few Gerry Fortin Web-Book Plate Coins

In recent PCGS and CAC submissions, I continue to add raw Liberty Seated dimes from my reference collection. My divestment horizon is long term as not wishing to compete with GFRC consignors for marketing time and space on the Blog and price lists. But occassionally, I will bring out the good stuff. This morning is one of those occasions.

Following are four Seated dime to consider. I bought the 1861 Type 2 Obverse F-110 for the variety and usage as a plate coin. It was purchased raw as an MS64 and PCGS graded it MS64...how did that happen? The 1865-S F-102 is a duplicate to the current web-book plate coin but has superior surfaces. PCGS was tough at the assigned VF35 grade as I purchased it as full EF40. But I feel redeemed with the CAC green bean. The 1867-S F-102a dime was difficult to part with. I've only seen two examples with the filled date since purchasing the plate coin from Brian Greer during 1991. I graded this dime EF45 in the web-book. PCGS felt it was only EF40 but again redemption with a CAC green bean. This piece is already sold for $1600. And finally, an 1868 F-102 dime graded PCGS AU50, just a tad undergraded. My web-book published raw grade was AU58. But again CAC redemption. The 1868 date has one of the lowest CAC populations at eight pieces! Three are in circulated grades, including this AU50, and the rest are in mint state. Many 1868 dimes were exported to Europe and never circulated in the United States.

Important Liberty Seated Dime Web-Book Plate Coins

Gerry Fortin Reference Collection

1861 Type 2 F-110 PCGS MS64 10C                                                   1865-S F-102 PCGS VF35 CAC 10C

    

1867-S F-102a R7 PCGS EF40 10C                                                   1868 F-102 PCGS AU50 CAC 10C

    

 

Residual Burchs Creek Capped Bust Halves Moved to PCGS Holders

It was a shame to crack out eight perfectly original Capped Bust halves from ANACS old white holders but necessary to sell this remaining consignment. All were submitted to PCGS and returned with grades that were identical to or very close to the ANACS grades. Then a CAC review produced a 50% CAC approval rate. Following are eight quality offerings with all the heavy lifting done for potential buyers. Prices have been adjusted to reflect current grades, CAC approval and market conditions. All eight pieces are currently on the 30 day price list and ready for purchase.

Burch Creek Collection Capped Bust Halves

Former ANACS OWH - Now PCGS Graded & CAC Reviewed

All the heavy lifting has been done....searching for a loving new home!

   1828 O-118 PCGS AU55 50C                    1832 O-102 PCGS AU55 50C                 1832 O-110 PCGS AU55 CAC 50C

        

 1832 O-112 PCGS AU53 CAC 50C                  1836 O-102 PCGS AU50 50C                    1836 O-110 PCGS AU50 50C  

        

   1836 O-110 PCGS AU53 CAC 50C             1836 O-116 PCGS EF45 CAC 50C

     

 

Wrapping Up the Blog

It is definitely Sleepy September as many other priorities in life are competitng with the numismatic hobby. College football, outdoor activities and cleaning wood stoves are all popular during this time of year. My advice is to avoid the stress inducing news, or what we've come to call news, and take time to enjoy outdoor exercise and hobbies. Exercise is necessary for a healthy body and hobbies provide relaxation for a healthy mind. Though the internet has dramatically improved our access to information, it has a deep dark side as there are people/organizations that attempt to influence our thought processes and opinions on a continual basis. Best to break the link and find our own quiet space.

I'm trying hard to follow my own advice towards positive thinking and a peaceful life.

See you tomorrow.

 

 

 

September 22, 2018

Entire GFRC PCGS Inventory on Collectors Corner!

Greetings and welcome to the Daily Blog weekend edition.

Southern Maine has been caught up in a cloudy weather pattern for days with seasonal temperatures. Showers will appear but nothing serious in terms of rainfall. Since spending long hours in the GFRC office, other than brisk exercise walks, the only impact of cloudy weather is the inability for spontaneous photography. There remains a vast backlog of unprocessed images on the laptop therefore cloudy weather is not impacting the relentless effort towards loading 300-400 new coins to the price list by mid October. So far so good!

 

Entire GFRC PCGS Inventory on Collectors Corner!

Matt Yamatin has done it again! After seeing my early week efforts to manually load GFRC inventory onto Collectors Corner, Matt emailed and requested access to the Collectors Corner upload templates. Within a few hours and using Excel command language, Matt wrote a routine inside the COIN database to aggregate all PCGS coins into the proper Collectors Corner upload format. His instruction sheet arrived on Thursday and yesterday, I was able to load the entire PCGS holdered inventory (740 listings) into Collectors Corner marketplace. GFRC now has a substantial Capped Bust, Liberty Seated and United States coinage position and let's hope the visibility translates into incremental customers and sales for GFRC consignors.

When the Yamatins visit the Florida GFRC office, in mid December, Matt and I will work on completely automating the COIN database extraction including adding NGC holder coins.

 

Twin Lakes Collection Consignment on Price List

I pleased to report that all the Twin Lakes Collection consigned items are on the price list and with appropriate descriptions. It is cool knowing that "on the price list" also means being on Collectors Corner.

The Twins Lake Collection consignor is in a cash raising mode, for other numismatic pursuits, and wishes to sell his consignments by the Whitman Baltimore show. I would encourage you to visit the 30 day new product price list and have a look at the Twin Lakes offerings. There are many quality coins to consider with several already on hold. One of the important highlights is a scarce 1905-O Micro PCGS AU58 CAC Barber dime.

The 1905-O Micro O is one of the major mintmark size varieties within Barber coinage. A Micro O mintmark, used for Barber quarters, was inadvertently punched into a Barber dime reverse die. But wait a minute you might say? Should not the Barber quarter mintmark punch be LARGER than that of the dime? Barber coinage enthusiatists immediately know the answer to that question. The Barber quarter reverse design leaves little space for a mintmark punch. Therefore a micro O is required to fit between the eagle's tail feathers and the last R in QUARTER. The New Orleans O mintmark punch for Barber dimes is larger than for quarters as there is more space available for the O mintmark. So now you know the whole story!

Heavy circulation for all Barber coinage results in few high grade 1905-O Micro O examples surviving. Most will be found in grades ranging from well worn Good through Extra Fine. In AU, this variety is very scarce and, in mint state, it becomes a rarity. The Twin Lakes specimen is one of four approved at CAC with only three better! PCGS total population at the AU58 grade level is only seven. I believe the grade rarity point has been made and someone should sieze the moment and jump on this offering. Please call me to discuss if this piece might be for you.

Popular Barber Coinage Die Variety - Twin Lakes Collection

1905-O Micro O PCGS AU58 CAC 10C - Priced at $3450

CAC Population Four at AU58; Three Better!

 

Why Do We Collect Coins?

In Friday's Blog, I asked a simple question; namely, why do we collect coins? My hope was to gain insights on how the collecting bug strikes and then use that knowledge to enhance the Liberty Seated Collectos Club outreach program or fine tune the Daily Blog content further. Initial responses have been excellent with insights into the collecting passion that we share today. Following are the first two stories to be offered.

An immediate response arrived from the Tenafly Collection consignor....

Why do I collect coins? For me, it's an extension of my incessant desire to put together a collection of anything - it's probably in my DNA to collect and the bug started early in life. Among my collections were stamps, rocks, fossils, postcards, baseball cards, Beatles cards, puddles (yes, I used to "document" puddle size after each rain and had a strict route - guess it helped when I began Hydrology as an engineer), LP's, ad infinitum. For example, if I found a light bulb, it HAD to become a COLLECTION of light bulbs for a museum.

Long story short, I still collect coins based on their design, history, worth, among many other reasons. The most important facets of my coin collecting are the discipline and patience necessary to reach predetermined goals which is usually difficult for the pure collector, who just wants to amass stuff. (no, I'm not ready for "Hoarders"). Also, the comradeship of coin collectors knows no bounds. And it gives me something to do every day.

A fairly new GFRC friend offered these personal insights...

My dad started me off collecting coins and I am now following in his footsteps.

I collect coins for their history and the thrill of “the hunt”. I love history and I always contemplate the history of an old coin when in hand— where has it been, who could have held it in their hand and why/how did it survive all these years in such good condition? I like to understand the story behind a particular denomination as that greatly enhances satisfaction in collecting it. I like to imagine myself in that era and how things were then. Maybe I’m sentimental about it. The thought of someone having the coin in their pocket and actually using it at the general store to buy needed staples is compelling. How we view coins now is most likely totally different than they way they were perceived then.

I am on a “mission” when collecting a specific series or denomination. Once my collecting goal is established, I don’t waver from it and try to achieve it as quickly as possible. I do get impatient. It’s like the difference between me and my wife when shopping at the mall. When I need something I go in I use a “surgical strike” to get it and get out whereas she has to go to every store in the place to look for it.

There is nothing more satisfying than achieving a coin collecting goal and capturing the history associated with the coins.

More personal stories will be published in Sunday's Blog. Please keep them coming!

 

GFRC's Latest Client Gallery - Jim Poston Consignment

Let's wrap up Saturday's Blog with eye appealing new offerings from Jim Poston. Jim attends many midwest coins shows and is always searching for potential GFRC inventory items along with material for the eBay account. I've highlighted two of my favorite pieces. First is a gorgeous 1826 O-112a Capped Bust half that is so blatantly undergraded in its early NGC Fatty AU50 holder. CAC review assigned a GOLD bean and rightly so! The O-112a die state is also cool with filled N in UNITED and filled first S in STATES. Next is a most pleasing 1884 NGC MS64 Seated half with serious cartwheel luster. This one belongs in an advanced collection.

Within the balance of the images, I would recommend the 1876-CC F-128 dime as perfectly original with its rusted obverse die as compared to a pristine reverse die; what a contrast! The 1878 dime is simply stunning and already there are three FRoR on the piece. Don't overlook the 1873 No Arrows Open 3 quarter as scarce and choice original. Finally the 1820 O-108 Capped Bust half in ANACS old white holder offers incredible eye appeal. Let's remember that not everything is the numismatic world resides in PCGS CAC approved holders. As I submit more coins to CAC, it is become apparent that great coins are being overlooked in terms of green bean sticker and we need to acknowledge this fact.

Jim Poston Consignment - Lots of Great Eye Appealing Coins!

1826 O-112a NGC AU50 GOLD CAC 50C                                                 1888 NGC MS64 50C             

    

   1843 PCGS AU58 5C                              1858 NGC Fatty MS62 5C                              1860 PCGS AU53 5C

        

                    1871 PCGS AU58 5C                          1857-O F-105 PCGS AU58 10C                 1876-CC F-128 PCGS AU55 10C          

        

  1878 Type 2 F-107 PCGS EF45 10C             1873 NA Open 3 PCGS AU55 25C                   1908-O PCGS AU55 25C           

        

    1914-D PCGS AU53 25C                    1820 O-108 ANACS OWH AU53 50C                1830 O-117 NGC EF40 50C  

        

  1894-O PCGS VF30 50C                            1861 PCGS MS62 50C 

    

 

Wrapping Up The Blog

For the weekend Blog edition, I'm taking a break with the Featured Coins segment. All 550+ readers well know where to find great coins inside the many GFRC price lists. I hope that you might find some time to review my offerings and those of many GFRC consignors towards a purchase.

Wishing everyone a great weekend. I will be back on Sunday morning with yet another edition and more ramblings.

 

 

 

September 21, 2018

Why Do We Collect Coins?

Greetings as another work week wraps up and welcome to the Daily Blog.

I've been up since 4:30 am and mulling over a topic for today's Blog without much success. Seth Godin has not posted an update. Gold prices are flat. There is no desire to watch the political drama in Washington as scotch consumption will dramatically increase. It is that or antidepressants. Some nut decided to metro train surf after the Yankees-Red Sox game and electrocuted himself. What are people thinking these days? Another stunt to be famous on YouTube or Facebook?

Thank goodness for the numismatic hobby and GFRC business that provides an incredibly busy and meaningful "retirement". How fortunate can one person be?

Why Do We Collect Coins?

But fundamentally, the core of the numismatic hobby is that urge to collect. But why do we honor that urge and spend countless hours online searching out our favorite coins or traveling to coin shows? It is a simple question, but I'm sure there are countless stories to be told. Is it the thrill of the hunt, cherrypicking a variety or just working towards a goal? Please share your insights....

I would like to invite Daily Blog readers to email their collecting stories and help the GFRC community understand the reasons behind that passion for collecting coins. Then maybe the insights can be applied towards stimulating more hobby participation by next generations collectors.

So feel free to write and share. Your inputs will be consolidated and featured during the upcoming weekend Blogs. Some inputs may be published without edits so please be aware when composing a response.

 

Quality Barber Quarters on GFRC Price List

The end is arriving for posting coins from that large West Coast collection purchase. This morning brings an initial lot of Barber quarters for consideration. The following eleven coins are already posted onto the price list to facilitate initial orders along with keeping sales moving during Sleepy September. The 1898 PCGS EF40 CAC offering is by far the most popular with five FRoR since being posted late yesterday. How I wish the balance of the lot would have the same demand....

Breaking into the Barber coin market has been a bit vexing. Continuing efforts are being made to expand inventories throughout the grade ranges. At this time, it appears that Barber quarters are the most popular of the three denominations based on GFRC sales results. So please enjoy the following group; multiple piece orders are welcomed.

Early Date Barber Quarters - Great Quality and Collector Grades

 1892-O PCGS VF35 CAC 25C                       1894-S PCGS VF30 25C                           1895-O PCGS AU50 25C   

        

              1896 PCGS EF45 25C                                 1897 PCGS AU53 25C                             1898 PCGS EF40 CAC 25C       

        

      1898-O PCGS VF30 CAC 25C                      1899-O PCGS VF25 CAC 25C                        1900-O PCGS VF35 25C           

        

  1901-O PCGS VF25 CAC 25C                      1902-S PCGS EF40 25C  

    

 

Global Financial News

We start this segment with new highs for U.S. equities and even the Shanghai index closing strongly upward. The United States economy is firing on all cylinders and incremental consumption will support trading partners.

Another day of gains looks in store for U.S. equities as stocks advance across the globe, with China's Shanghai Composite Index even closing up 2.5%. The DJIA and S&P 500 set new highs Thursday as the economic outlook got rosier: Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs across the U.S., fell to the lowest level since 1969. A recent spike in government bond yields is further signaling that investors are viewing next week's expected interest rate hike from the Fed as a testament to the strength of the economy.

As for commodities and interest rates, spot gold is in a tight trading range of $1200 - $1210. This morning's open is at $1209. Crude oil remains at $71/bbl while Bitcoin has moved up to $6693. The 10 year U.S. Treasury bond is yielding 3.08% and flat over the past few days.

Canada and U.S. NAFTA renegotiations continue to struggle over several core issues.

Another missed deadline? The U.S. and Canada showed scant sign on Thursday of closing a deal to revamp NAFTA. U.S. negotiators reportedly wanted Ottawa to agree to capping its American auto exports at 1.7M vehicles a year, something that Canadian industry sources dismissed as unacceptable. Pressure on Canada is growing, however, partly to push it through the U.S. Congress before Mexico's new government takes office on Dec. 1.

Here is an interesting headline concerning two seperate global internet platforms; United States and China based. The China based platform will have limited censorship. Google appears to be developing a revised search engine that will meet Beijing requirements.

Within the next decade, there will be two distinct internets: one led by the U.S. and the other by China, according to Eric Schmidt. "Look at the way their Belt and Road Initiative works, which involves 60-ish countries - it's perfectly possible those countries will begin to take on the infrastructure that China has with some loss of freedom." Recent reports suggest Google is developing "Project Dragonfly," a censored version of its search engine that could appease authorities in China.

California is a strange place. It is a sanctuary state, tolerates street side housing for the homeless and public drug usage but restricts the use of plastic drinking straws....

California has become the first state in the nation to restrict the use of plastic straws in full-service dining establishments. The measure, Assembly Bill 1884, limits restaurants to giving out single-use straws only upon request of customers. Businesses violating the new law could be subject to a fine of $25 per day and as much as $300 annually.

 

Featured Coins of the Day - More Quality Barber Coinage Offerings

This Blog edition has been a seat of the pants effort. I'm writing whatever pops into my head with no prior content plans. Since featuring a solid lot of Barber quarters as a gallery, let's continue down the same path and showcase other great Barber coins within GFRC inventory. Again, I'd love to understand who are the serious Barber collectors in the community towards building long term relationships.

Following are what I believe to be quality offerings.

           1898 PCGS MS64 CAC 10C                                                            1900-S PCGS MS62 10C            

    

1892 PCGS MS66+ CAC 25C                                                              1892 Raw EF45+ 25C        

    

          1892 PCGS MS65 50C                                                               1900-S PCGS AU55 CAC 50C    

    

 

Again wishing a pleasant Friday workday and close to the week. I will be in the GFRC office the entire day processing more images and hopefully, having another cool client gallery posting for tomorrow's Blog.

Please don't forget to revert with why do you collect coins stories. And of course, please consider a GFRC purchase to keep the numismatic engine chugging along.

See you tomorrow.

 

 

September 20, 2018

GFRC Ramps Collectors Corner to 350 Listings

Greetings once again and welcome to the ongoing Daily Blogs....

Here we are on an early Thursday morning with hot coffee plus a bowl of strawberries and blueberries with cereal and milk for breakfast.

Working at a country home office faciliates a healthy diet as the nearest fast food joint is 20 minutes away. Meals are being planned in advance consistent with a long term goal to transfer residual mid section weight to upper body strength. So far, so good this fall season with the exercise routine and diet. Exercise is an important counter balance to hours sitting at the GFRC office desk and also avoiding the weight gains that is so common among coin dealers. A coin business is mentally challenging but without physical demands. Therefore using exercise to offset the countless hours at a laptop is paramount for staying in shape. Matt Yamatin is definitely my hero and role model.....

Seth Godin's Blog - Diving boards

On most mornings, a quick visit is paid to Seth Godin's Blog for words of wisdom. There are days when the wisdom is complex and more focused on long term business strategies rather than personal insight and improvement. But today, Godin offers words to help contemplate if we are taking occasional leaps or simply living day to day in a predictable manner. Most of us can visualize the feelings of being on the end of a diving board before the plunge.

Diving boards

The leap at the swimming pool is obvious indeed.

Ten steps up the ladder.

The wait at the end of the board.

The moment in between not-diving and diving.

The leap is clear. We can see it and we can feel it.

In day to day life, we have worked to eliminate that feeling. Organizations and marketers and friends work hard to have it happen gradually instead. An incremental, almost invisible creep along a slippery slope, until the next thing we know we’re in a rut, or bored, or ill.

We’ve constructed a life where we rarely leap (new job!) and most of the time, we coast or fade or increment our way forward.

It might be worth investing the effort into turning some of your decisions back into leaps.

This Godin Blog rings so true concerning my personality. I struggle living life with that invisible creep as stated by Seth. Rather there is a need for mental stimulations such as exploring and ramping up Collectors Corners or taking on the challenge of staffing an expanded Fall Whitman Baltimore show footprint with 13 cases of GFRC inventory and a Seated dime set display.

 

GFRC Ramping Collectors Corner Inventory

Wednesday was mostly dedicated to adding incremental GFRC inventory to the Collectors Corner marketplace and adding a business logo. Since GFRC is trusted by a host of consignors to generate results and sell coins, it is my responsibility to increase placement of those coins into new marketing channels. The GFRC website and Daily Blog attract a consistent customer base but there are many more collectors who have not heard of or interacted with GFRC. So best to get out there and increase exposure at the expense of not processing more coins image for a day.

As of this morning, all PCGS holdered Seated quarters, half dollars along with Capped Bust dimes and quarters are being displayed on Collectors Corner. There is still much effort remaining to add all Seated coinage inventory and then moving into United States gold and Barber coins. Once the entire PCGS catalog is listed, then the next step is adding NGC holdered coins. NGC coins required more effort as the corresponding PCGS product identification number must be secured for each listing.

The feedback from GFRC customers and friends, who are monitoring the installation, has been positive. Images are displaying well and immediately differentiate GFRC from other dealers. Those little green CAC labels, on GFRC images, immediately flag CAC approved products. One person commented that GFRC is setting a new level of expectations for product descriptions as many other dealers write little in terms of product descriptions.

Already, there have been two orders via Collectors Corner, therefore pleased and will continue marching forward. This is yet another step in a long business journey.

 

New Coin World Email Newsletter Banner for October

As mentioned in prior Blogs, I've been retooling the Coin World marketing campaign away from paper print and to digital newsletters. Brenda Wyen has been a pleasure to work with as she took the time to truly understand the GFRC business and near term goals. Starting in October, GFRC will be featured as the top advertising banner within Coin World's Monday morning news blast. Here is the graphic concerning the upcoming Whitman Baltimore show. The point is straightforward!

 

Global Financial News

There is considerable Seeking Alpha news this morning worth sharing but first a look at commodties and key U.S. interest rate.

Crude oil has jumped to $71/bbl while spot gold remains flat at $1208/oz. Bitcoin is also steady at $6392 after a Japanese crypto firm was hacked to the tuned of $60M. The U.S. 10 year Treasury yields is holding at 3.07%.

We open headlines with a statement from Beijing Central government that China import tariffs will be lower for trading partners. This appears to be a political step towards dealing with a potential reduction in exports.

China is planning to cut the average tariff rates on imports from the majority of its trading partners as soon as next month - including the U.S. - fulfilling a previous pledge as a tariff war bites into trade. Premier Li Keqiang further said his government wouldn't devalue its currency to boost exports. We "must uphold multilateralism, the rules of free trade... If there are problems, negotiation is needed to solve them."

It appears that the European Union will attempt to counter China's aggressive Belt and Road Inititative with their own strategy for Asian countries.

Response to China's Belt and Road Initiative? The EU has launched a new "Connectivity Strategy" linking Europe and Asia that focuses on "sustainable, comprehensive and rules-based" networks. While it didn't delve into specifics, the bloc said it will build on its experience of regulating connectivity and creating cross-border transport, energy, human and digital links. "All regions and all sectors are important in their own ways."

More bad economic news from South America. Argentina is in recession.

There's more trouble in Argentina as GDP contracted 4.2% in Q2 of 2018. A drought at the beginning of the year slammed soybean and corn production, which account for a big part of exports, while more bad news followed suit. A selloff of the peso in May forced President Mauricio Macri to seek help from the IMF as the government agreed to cut spending as part of a $50B bailout.

U.S. companies continue to repatriate profits back to the mainland but at a lower level that Q1. $170B is still a substantial number for reinvestment in the U.S. economy after nearly $300B in Q1.

U.S. companies repatriated $169.5B in foreign profits in the second quarter - more than in recent periods but marking a decline from a revised $294.9B in Q1, the three months after Congress passed a sweeping tax overhaul. The legislation ended that practice of taxing foreign profits only as companies transferred them to a U.S. parent, instead imposing a one-time tax on accumulated foreign profits.

And finally, Amazon is becoming another example of predatory capitalism and following the same strategy as Walmart in destroying smaller retailers towards consolidating market share.

Retail sector investors are holding tight after a Bloomberg report revealed that Amazon plans to introduce 3K of its cashierless Go stores by 2021. The development could impact retail chains far and wide. Keep an eye on Walmart, Kroger, Target, CVS Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Dollar Tree, Dollar General and Sprouts Farmers Market.

 

Featured Coins of the Day - Important Liberty Seated Half Dollar Varieties

While loading GFRC inventory onto Collectors Corner, it was apparent that there are important Liberty Seated half dollar die varieties being offered. Following are some of these pieces to consider. Hopefully, a passionate die variety collector will be enticed to make an inquiry. I recognize this pieces are expensive; terms can be worked out.

1841-O Baseball Die Crack WB-2R PCGS VF30 CAC 50C                           1842-O Small Date PCGS VF35 50C                

    

1844-O Double Date NGC AU55 50C                                             1846 6/Horizontal 6 NGC EF40 50C

    

          1851 WB-8 R6 PCGS EF40 50C                                            1873 No Arrows Open 3 NGC EF45 50C

    

 

So ends another Blog edition on international road side trash pickup day! As you can tell, there were no new image galleries prepared for today's Blog. Rather, I reverted to sharing GFRC business initiatives towards having consignors and customer understanding the ongoing commitments towards increasing sales velocity.

Today's focus shifts back to coins and image processing along with expected CAC results for last week's submission.

Wishing everyone a great day in the numismatic neighborhood.

 

 

 

September 19, 2018

Huge GFRC Event at Fall Whitman Baltimore Show

Greetings and welcome to yet another edition of the Daily Blog; thank you for stopping by.

We open today's edition with a look at Maine weather. The forecasted residual effects of Florence failed to move northward enough to impact southern Maine on Tuesday. There was a brief four hour period of light rain during the morning hours followed by sun and clouds for the balance of the day. As the Blog is being composed at 5:30 am, seasonal temperatures (58F) are back and hopefully will stick around and pave the way for a full fledge Autumn season with the need for outer garments. It has been a warm and humid Fall season so far.

 

Whitman Baltimore Show Arrives Soon!

The Fall Whitman Baltimore show arrives in roughly four weeks for the GFRC team with many preparations under consideration. There is much to contemplate and organize when expanding a bourse floor presence. There is incremental staffing to recruit and train. Marketing the event is necessary along with inventory preparation for transport and appropriate displays. Finally, displaying my Liberty Seated Dime date and mintmark set requires an insurance rider on Hugh Woods policy. Efforts are underway; following is a preview of what customers and friends can expect at Booth 818.

- 10 cases of regular GFRC inventory from early copper through United States gold. That is roughly 900 quality coins for review and potential purchase.

- 2 cases of discounted coins. These are coins that will only be discounted at the Baltimore show and not on the website price lists. Coins will have net priced stickers and include GFRC aged inventory along with consigner coins where prior arrangements have been made for special discounting.

- 1 case of raw coins. Yes, GFRC will be transportng its raw coin inventory for those who are filling Dansco and/or Whitman bookshelf albums.

- 2 cases containing the Gerry Fortin Liberty Seated Dime collection. I'm thrilled to be placing my award winning Liberty Seated dime set on display at the Baltimore show. Two good friends have been recruited to host the set and allow customers to inspect individual coins. There will be strict rules concerning the handling of the set coins with no more than one coin out of the cases at any time per hosting person. I'm sure some of you will want to inspect many of the dimes. If that is the case, then best to secure an early bird badge and come view the set outside of bourse floor public hours. I will be strict on this matter so please don't ask for special treatment during regular bourse floor hours. The GFRC booth will be expansive and security is always a top priority.

Where is GFRC located on the Whitman Baltimore bourse floor?

Whitman Booth 818 - Home to Gerry Fortin and David Perkins Rare Coins

 

Consignment Wave Continues at GFRC Website!

Yes, new consignments continue to arrive at GFRC and on the price lists. Yesterday brought the partial posting of the Twin Lakes Collection consignment that will wrap up today. Next up is a batch of new offerings from Jim Poston. Following are a few highlights to wet your appetite. The entire lot should be posted to the Blog as an evening preview.

Jim Poston Consignment - Quality New Offerings Coming Soon!

1826 NGC AU50 GOLD CAC 50C

1820 O-108 ANACS AU53 OWH 50C                                                   1888 NGc MS64 50C         

    

 

Global Financial News

U.S. 10 year Treasury bond yields have spiked during the past 24 hours to 3.06% as the major commodity and interest rate news of the day. Otherwise, gold, crude oil and Bitcoin and essentially flat to the prior day.

The United States and China trade war continues to dominate Seeking Alpha headlines. Current news is somewhat positive with lower tariffs and retaliatory actions by Beijing. Asian stock market futures are positve as local markets are pleased with the restraint of both parties.

So China will not hit back at the United States with an all out RMB devaluation. The USD : RMB exchange rate is 6.85 and flat for that past 45 days.

Equity markets are starting to regroup again as traders remain unflustered by the latest phase of the U.S.-China trade war. "There was relief as the United States set the initial tariffs at 10 percent, rather than the expected 25 percent, seen by some as a gesture that it was buying time for further negotiations," said a senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management. China also hit back against the U.S. with a softer punch than anticipated, indicating the nation will not engage in competitive currency devaluations. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei shot up 1.1% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.2% on the day. The Shanghai Composite Index and Australia's ASX 200 Index both registered a gain of 0.5%. Meanwhile, the European Stoxx 600 Index is showing a 0.1% bump, and U.S. stock futures are mixed in early action.

There is speculation as to the reason behind the 10 year Treasury bond yield spiking to 3.06%. I don't buy a China sell off of U.S. Treasuries as Beijing's position is so large that large selling will decrease the value of their foreign reserves.

Keep an eye on interest rates as the China-U.S. trade battle ratchets up. Some analysts think the recent selloff in the bond market could be partially tied to concerns that China could use other measures to retaliate against the U.S. With Beijing seen as having limited room to match tariffs over the long term, some say China could attempt to dump the bonds to drive up borrowing costs in the U.S. The 10-year Treasury yield currently stands at 3.059%.

The Bank of Japan continues to create "dark money" through artificially low interest rates.

The Bank of Japan stood pat with plans to keep its benchmark rate very low "for an extended period," voting 7-2 to maintain short-term rates at -0.1%. It also reiterated an easing pledge to buy about ¥80T in government bonds per year (about $712B). Sitting below 1%, Japanese inflation is still below the bank's 2% target.

And finally, it looks like Boeing plans to ramp its 737 production to 63 planes per month! More jet fuel consumption on a global basis....

The mayor of Renton, Washington, tipped that Boeing is developing plans to raise its 737 production rate to a record 63 per month, even as suppliers struggle to keep up with the current pace. The mayor refused to name the local Boeing managers who told him about the plan for each of the factory's three assembly lines to produce 21 jets, saying he wants to protect relationships with his city's largest employer.

 

Featured Coins of the Day - Great Looking Indian Cents!

Ok, GFRC is not yet well known for handling early U.S. copper and Indian Cents but consignors are providing some awesome pieces to sell. So let's showcase some copper coinage to close out today's Blog.

1875 ANACS OWH MS65 Red                                                       1883 PCGS MS64RB    

    

1884 PCGS PR64BN                                                                    1897 PCGS PR64RB

    

     1898 PCGS MS64RB                                                                   1906 NGC MS65RD Fatty

    

 

So end today's Blog. There is much to get done today including a health walk, shipping and posting many more new coins to the price list. Collectors Corner posting also need attention as the first GFRC order, from that marketplace, arrived yesterday.

Please check back tomorrow for more ramblings and new coins!

 

 

 

September 18, 2018

Twin Lakes Collection Consignment Arrives!

Greetings on a Tuesday morning and welcome to the Daily Blog.

Rain is just beginning to falll as the day starts behind the keyboard. The Florence remnants have reached New England leading to a wet 24 hour period. Spending the day in the GFRC office will be in order after heading out to an early morning appointment. As a result, the Blog will be brief.

Monday brought literally a picture perfect Autumn day to the southern Maine coast. Len and Deb Augsburger just happened to be in Maine for a short holiday and were traveling north on I-295 to an island retreat. Lunch at the Royal River Grill in Yarmouth was a pleasant break from the office and chance to hang out with old friends. The Fortin's thoroughly enjoyed themselves as conversations with Len and Deb are always stimulating and a hoot. Deb was wondering if Len and I had brought coins for show and tell and was happily disappointed..... Instead, conversations focused on GFRC's Collector Corner rollout, the upcoming Whitman Baltimore and SeatedFest II events along with the overall state of the numismatic hobby; at least that is what Len and I discussed. So no coins, but still the Seated Boys chatting about numismatics as the prime topic.

The Seated Coin Boys - Yarmouth, Maine

 

Twin Lakes Collection Consignment Arrives!

Upon returning to the GFRC office, the Twin Lakes Collection consignment received priority attention, during the balance of the day, along with taking in sales orders and processing Tuesday's shipping until midnight bedtime arrived.

I must say that the Twin Lakes Collection consignment was a joy to process as the individual pieces are well above average in quality and eye appeal. Exactly 50% of the offerings come with CAC approval as a starter. Nearly all the pieces are at the ideal collector grades of AU55 or AU58 and should see significant demand once reaching the price list later this evening and tomorrow.

The Twin Lake ecletic lot presentation opens with a choice original 1905-O Micro PCGS AU58 with CAC approval. CAC has only approved 28 pieces with nearly all being in low to mid circulated grades. There are only three better than the offered example. I'm in love with the gem original 1834 B-4 Capped Bust quarter and will be a JUST BUY IT NOW recommendation. The 1858-O Seated quarter is very scarce at the PCGS AU55 grade level and will please the most selective collector. We close the headline images with a frosty original 1889 Seated quarter graded NGC MS62.

Please take the time to review the entire Twin Lakes consignments as there are a host of eye appealing offerings that could become special additions within an advanced collection. First Rights of Refusal (FRoR) are in order as I expect many of these pieces to be scooped up quickly including the 1846 quarter and 1854 Arrows half dollar regardless of lacking CAC green beans. Folks, these are awesome coins!

Twin Lakes Collection Consignment - Eclectic Quality Offering

1905-O Micro O PCGS AU58 CAC 10C                                               1834 B-4 PCGS AU58 CAC 25C

    

1858-O PCGS AU55 25C                                                                  1889 NGC MS62 25C

    

          1915-D PCGS AU58 1C                   1837 Sm Date PCGS AU58 CAC 5C                   1852 PCGS AU58 CAC 5C       

        

          1868-S PCGS AU55 CAC 5C                         1848 PCGS AU58 10C                             1873 Arrows PCGS AU58 10C      

        

1873-S F-101 PCGS AU58 CAC 10C                 1886 PCGS AU58 CAC 10C                       1888  PCGS AU58 CAC 10C      

        

     1900 PCGS AU58 CAC 10C                       1905-O PCGS AU58 CAC 10C                        1909 PCGS AU58 10C       

        

          1910-D PCGS AU58 10C                           1846 PCGS AU55 25C                              1855 PCGS AU55 CAC 25C       

        

     1855 PCGS AU58 25C                                1854 PCGS AU58 50C                                1926-D PCGS AU58 $1    

        

 

Global Financial News

Another day in the financial markets arrives with Asian stock futures calm to showing slight gains. Commodities and interest rates are absolutely flat to Monday's number and not worth the time to itemize.

We open with a Seeking Alpha headline that quantifies the impact of United States tariff efforts including the incremental $200B on China. The average tariff increase across all United States imports is a small 1.6% though there will be larger impacts in certain market sectors.

China has no choice but to retaliate against the latest round of U.S. tariffs, the country's Commerce Ministry said as Vice Premier Liu He convened a meeting in Beijing to discuss the government's response. Stocks across the globe are shaking off the news, with some considering the announcement baked into prices, while others expect the U.S. economy to ride out the impact for now. "Tariffs on another $200B will mean about 12% of U.S. imports have seen a tariff hike. That means an average tariff increase of 1.6% across all imports, so tiny compared to the 1930s, when they were 20%," said Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital Investors.

With all the attention on the Carolinas after Hurricane Florence and the Judge Kavanaugh approval theater, overseas developments are being ignored. The North Korea denuclearization effort remains active with South Korea President Moon in Pyongyang for talks.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has arrived in Pyongyang for a three-day summit with Kim Jong-un aimed at reviving inter-Korean relations and stalled nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea. Underscoring the emphasis on trade and economic engagement, several prominent business leaders accompanied Moon, including Lee Jae-yong, the heir to the Samsung conglomerate.

The European Central Bank has no plans for a crypto euro per Mario Draghi.

Urging lenders to venture out beyond their home country, Mario Draghi advised eurozone governments today to shore up the region's banking sector, including creating a common insurance plan for bank deposits. It comes after the ECB president said the central bank has no plans for a crypto euro. Such technologies "require substantial further development," he added, and there is no "concrete need."

The Europeans are first to launch a hydrogen fuel cell train....

Calling it a "new era in emission-free rail transport," European railway manufacturer Alstom has launched the world's first hydrogen fuel cell train. The Coradia iLint, which enters commercial service in Germany this week, can run for around 1,000 kilometers on a single tank of hydrogen, similar to the range of diesels. Alstom plans to deliver another 14 of the zero-emissions trains to Lower Saxony by 2021.

While back in the U.S., Coca-Cola and Coors are poised to make an entry into the cannabis drink market.

Following reports of talks with Aurora Cannabis Coca-Cola said it was closely watching the fast-growing marijuana drinks market for a possible entry. Molson Coors has already announced a joint venture with Hydropothecary to develop cannabis drinks, while Diageo is in talks with at least three Canadian cannabis producers about a possible deal.

 

Wrapping Up the Blog

As mentioned at the Blog's opening, I have an early morning appointment and need to be on the road shortly and wil be back in the GFRC office by lunch time.

Therefore, let's close out today's edition at this point. Thank you for checking in and hope you might consider the vaste array of GFRC offerings.

Will be back tomorrow morning with the usual ramblings. Have a great day!

 

 

 

September 17, 2018

GFRC Arrives to Collectors Corner with Initial 200 Listings!

Greetings and welcome to another work week. Thank you for stopping in at the Daily Blog.

A wonderful stretch of warm southern Maine weather comes to an end today. Today's high temperature will climb to 82F before the remnants of Florence arrive during the overnight and bring rains throughout Tuesday. The middle of the week sees us back to seaonal conditions in the low 60s.

Wildlife activity on the Fortin property has been above normal and probably due to the warmer than normal autumn temperatures. It seems that every other day a band of wild turkeys will stroll across the backyard. Young squirrels are frolicking around with two separate families concentrated in oak trees to the north and east of the homestead. Mice are active in the garage and peanut butter baited traps have yielded over 10 lunches for the crows. But Sunday late afternoon brought a special event. A large doe appeared and spent nearly 20 minutes munching on ground cover under one of the oaks. The squirrels, who had a home in the tree, became a bit agitated with the visitor and did their best to discourage its presence. And yes, the chipmonks are still around. I startled one chipmonk at the front door landing on Saturday and had to excuse myself......

Breaking news as the Blog is written.... It appears that feeding dead mice to the crows has resulted in a serious altercation between a group of crows and several hawks in the front yard. I did not realize that hawks were also feasting on the dead mice.

 

GFRC Arrives to Collectors Corner with Initial 200 Listings!

GFRC is very pleased to announce that consignor coins are quickly being loaded on the Collectors Corner (CC) online marketplace.

The CC setup task was straightforward given the experience with the COIN database as written by Matt Yamatin. There are several Excel spreadsheet options for listing coins and descriptions. Since CC is a Collectors Universe product, the system is built using the PCGS ID system for numbering individual dates and mintmarks. Loading PCGS holder coins is as simple as scanning the bar code into a spreadsheet, adding descriptions and an image link. CC does the rest of the work for the user. Loading NGC and raw coins takes more effort as PCGS ID numbers must be located and inserted. Separate input templates are necessary. To get online quickly, GFRC's first step is to upload only PCGS certified coins, which makes up the majority of inventory.

After working diligently throughout Sunday, GFRC has loaded complete PCGS Draped Bust, Capped Bust and Seated quarter inventories along with partial Liberty Seated dimes and Seated half dollar inventories. It would take another two solid days to move the balance of GFRC inventory onto CC but time is precious towards loading incremental consignments to the price list. The CC project will be a balancing act with already committed activities but I do expect to have all PCGS coins loaded by the end of September.

Automating the CC input database is possible and will require Matt's Excel programming talents towards an extraction application from the COIN system. Once that is accomplished, updating GFRC's Collectors Corner inventory could occur on a daily basis. New price list entries could be added to the GFRC and Collectors Corner websites in parallel.

Sorry, but with the attention given to the CC startup tasks, there was no time for incremental image processing and the generation of a a new image gallery for today's Blog. How I wish to have two sets of heads and four hands.....or 48 hours in a day.

 

GFRC Consignment Moratorium Concludes - Another Wave of Forthcoming Consignments

It is becoming rapidly apparent that the numismatic market is embracing the GFRC business model in a substantial way. Building a numismatic community, as the core mission, is yielding substantial demand for the host of provided services. The Daily Blog is averaging 500+ hits per day. The Open Set Registry averages 25-30 users per day while Sales Archive usage is slowing increasing with between 15 - 30 hits per day. For the vaste bounds of the internet, there are miniscule numbers. But for our niche numismatic community, these numbers represent a reasonable starting point to build upon. As they say, Rome was not built in a day and neither will GFRC.

I've digressed from the core message... GFRC's consignment moratorium is completed and another consignment wave is arriving before the Fall Baltimore show and continues afterwards. Following is a list of upcoming consignments.

Mt. View Collection of Liberty Seated Quarters - The rollout of this 120 piece consignment and date and mintmark set is the next major priority.

Twin Lakes Collection - 23 pieces of AU55 - AU58 small denomination Seated and Barber coinage with about 50% being CAC approved

Jim Poston Consignment - 17 pieces of quality Capped Bust, Seated and Barber coins, many with CAC approval

Susquehanna Collection - 14 pieces of old time Bowers & Ruddy purchased coins arriving back from CAC review this week

Gerry Fortin Reference Collection - Over 25 more Liberty Seated dime web book plate coins also arriving back from CAC review by end of week

To Be Named Collection - Massive Liberty Seated half dimes and half dollar sets painstakingly assembled at the die variety level. The Seated halves will ship this week for review and PCGS grading submission

Sunset Point Collection - Complete set of Liberty Seated quarters with most being in the AU/MS grade range. Yes, the early Carson City dates are in lower circulated grades but most of the semi-key dates are in high AU grades.

 

Global Financial News

We start a new financial week with Asian markets showing negative futures as the United States - China trade war accelerates. First let's take a quick look at commodities and interest rates.

Spot gold starts the week at $1202/oz and has been in a tight trading range for over a month. Crude oil is holding at $69.50/bbl while Bitcoin is also flat at $6482. The 10 year U.S. Treasury yield is once again back to 3.0%

The United States - China trade war will become a serious economic event as the next phase emerges. China is in a position to disrupt United States company supply chains that would lead to falling equity pricings. But a supply chain disruption would cause a long term exit of U.S. manufacturing out of China. Devaluing the RMB, to maintain exports, will also be an issue as U.S. imports will become so expensive that the trade gap will worsen. China has no strong cards to play.

The Trump administration is reportedly set to announce a new round of tariffs on as much as $200B in Chinese goods, while Beijing considers scrapping upcoming trade talks in response. The duties will be set at 10%, below the 25% level announced in early August, to diminish the impact on U.S. consumers ahead of the holiday shopping season and before midterm elections. Global shares are edging down on the news, while the Shanghai Composite closed at its lowest level since 2014.

China will not be content to only play defense in an escalating trade war with the U.S., according to the Global Times, which is published by the ruling Communist Party's People's Daily. Besides retaliating with tariffs, China could also restrict export of goods, raw materials and components core to U.S. manufacturing supply chains, former finance minister Lou Jiwei told a forum on Sunday. There are also worries Beijing may be plotting a currency devaluation.

U.S. Liquid Natural Gas is heading to Germany to relief the German dependence on Russian energy supplies.

U.S. companies expect to begin delivering LNG to Germany in four years at the latest, according to deputy U.S. energy secretary Dan Brouillette, and will challenge Russia which now accounts for 60% of German gas imports. In July, President Trump accused Germany of being a "captive" of Russia due to its energy reliance and urged it to halt work on the $11B, Russian-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

Brexit must be aging poor Theresa May at a rapid rate. There are no winners in this battle other than the EU bureaucrates.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for another referendum on Britain's EU membership, saying Theresa May's handling of Brexit negotiations had become "mired in confusion and deadlock." While MPs will get a vote on whether to accept any final deal, the prime minister is also feeling heat about her Chequers Plan from euroskeptic Tories. Rumors are swirling about a formal attempt to oust her if she doesn't back down.

The Greeks have suffered through nine years of austerity with capital controls being lifted shortly.

Greece plans to further loosen capital controls "very soon" and is on track to lift all restrictions, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said in an interview with Naftemporiki. The measures were imposed in July 2015, when, at the height of its debt crisis, it faced bankruptcy and a euro exit, but last month it emerged from its final of three international bailouts and almost nine years of austerity.

 

Featured Coins of the Day

Yes, the Feature Coins segment is back today! When loading GFRC inventory onto Collectors Corner, it was so apparent that many great coins are sitting in inventory and really should find new homes. Over the weekend, GFRC managed to sell two imporant Seated quarters from the Hoosier Collection; 1854-O Huge O NGC VF35 and 1873 NA Closed 3 PCGS AU50.

So let's feature some more great Seated quarters to kick off the day! The 1839 VLC is a rare reverse hub with all seen being in low circulated grades. This example is attractively priced since purchased fairly. The 1857 Smoking Liberty is probably the finest example on the planet and graded PCGS AU53 CAC.

1839 Very Long Claws PCGS VF30 25C                                         1851-O PCGS VG10 CAC 25C      

    

1853 NA PCGS VF35 CAC 25C                                                   1853-O PCGS EF45 CAC 25C

    

1857 Smoking Liberty PCGS AU53 CAC 25C                                      1867 PCGS EF45 CAC 25C            

    

 

Long Blog edition today and time for health walk and getting more consigned coins processed and on the price list and tomorrow's Daily Blog.

Thanks for visiting and please consider a purchase. Sleepy September is turning out to be sleepy and your help would be appreciate towards finding new homes for the vaste amount of consignor coins on the GFRC price lists.

Wishing everyone a great week.

 

 

 

September 16, 2018

New Jersey Collection - Carson City Seated Dollars Arrive to the Price List

Greetings and welcome to the Daily Blog on a Sunday morning.

Another perfect southern Maine day is a hand and time away from the GFRC office is warranted. Once the Blog is completed, I'm off on another early morning 2.5 mile walk with 8 lbs weights. This exercise routine is starting to bare fruit as stamina is increasing and those extra pounds at the waist line, acquired while working in China, have been transformed into upper body strength.

 

Matt Yamatin Finishes 129th at Berlin Marathon

The Fortins have been awake since 3:00 am watching NBC Sports Gold coverage of the BMW Berlin marathon and witnessed history being made as Eliud Kipchoge smashed the world record with an amazing time of 2:01:40. Watching a human being slicing over a minute off of a 26.2 miles world record was stunning. While this was taking place, Matt's time was being monitored on a Berlin marathon tracking app. Matt started the race well and held an exciting 2:27 pace through the first 25km. Then the long distance challenges started to appear with a video from wife Chikae showing the pain on Matt's face. At the 35km mark, Matt's pace dropped slightly to a projected 2:30:18 mark and he hung in to finish in 129th place with a race time of 2:32:27. Another video of Matt resting at the finish was sent by Chikae and he is in good condition but disappointed. Though Matt was focused on breaking the 2:30 threshold, his race time was a new personal record and slashing his old best performance by over 4 minutes! A 2:32:27 race time places him in excellent company within the international marathon running community. We continue to be incredibly proud of his accomplishments and international adventures.

 

New Jersey Collection - Carson City Seated Dollars Arrive to the Price List

GFRC is pleased to announce the arrival of the New Jersey Collection's Carson City Seated dollars to the price list. The following four dollars are ideal prize holdings for collectors who have modest means but wish to complete a full set of Liberty Seated dollars. The four Carson City dollars are raw, as purchased years ago, and house in a special Capital Plastic holder. After careful considerations, GFRC and New Jersey consignor have decided it is best to break the set and sell each piece individually. If a buyer comes forward selecting 2 or more pieces, then the Capital holder will be included with purchase. .

Mintages for the four Carson City dollars are low; 1870-CC (12,462), 1871-CC (1,376), 1872-CC (3,150) and 1873-CC (2,300) with the 1873-CC being a substantial rarity at all grade levels.

Detailed preservation state and surface condition descriptions are provided for each dollar on the price list. Carson City Seated dollars, at these pricing levels, infrequently arrive to the market and an opportunity for a serious collector to make an acquisition.

New Jersey Collection - Carson City Liberty Seated Dollars

Housed in Special Capital Plastic Holder and Individually Priced

Click on Image for Higher Resolution

1870-CC Raw VF30 $1 - Priced at $2,500                                      1871-CC Raw VF30 $1 - Priced at $5,000

      

1872-CC Raw VF35 $1 - Priced at $3,000                                       1873-CC VF35 Raw $1 - Priced at $11,500

      

 

Wrapping Up Liberty Seated Quarter New Purchases

Progress is being made with populating GFRC inventory and rolling out the balance of a West Coast collection purchased prior to the CONA show. Today's Blog showcases the remaining Liberty Seated quarters from that collection per below. After the Seated quarters are posted, there is a 35 piece lot of Barber quarters to work through that will completely wrap up this recent new purchase.

Last of Liberty Seated Quarter New Purchases

  1844-O PCGS VF35 25C                             1854 PCGS EF40 25C                                  1855 PCGS EF40 25C

        

1859 Type I/I PCGS EF45 25C                    1859 Type I/II PCGS EF40 25C                            1863 PCGS EF40 25C    

        

      1875 PCGS AU50 25C                             1876-S PCGS AU55 25C                                  1888-S PCGS VF35 25C

        

1891 PCGS AU55 CAC 25C                       1891-S PCGS EF40 25C

     

 

More Consignments Starting to Arrive

Saturday brought the delivery of a quality 23 piece consignment from the Twin Lakes Collection. About 50% of the coins are CAC approved with most being Liberty Seated half dimes, Seated dimes and Barber dimes along with a small group of nice Seated quarters. All have been photographed. Roll out will take place at some point during the coming week. The Mt. View Collection of Liberty Seated Quarters is the next major GFRC consignment rollout with other new consignments worked into the schedule.

 

CAC Submission Results Due on Wednesday

Several consignors presently have coins at CAC for review as part of a 50 piece submission made last week. Approval results are due this coming Wednesday based on prior CAC turnaround times. The submission should be back to the GFRC office by next weekend and yet more coins to be added to the price list.

 

Wrapping Up the Blog

All items worthy of discussion have been mentioned therefore time to wrap up the Blog for another day. The second half of September is upon us with increasing foliage colors and excellent weather. I'm grateful to be living in Maine during this time of year.

Thank you for checking in and being loyal readers.

 

 

 

September 15, 2018

What About Those Toning Patterns on Scott Restrikes?

Greetings and welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Blog.

Saturday arrives with early morning fog that will give way to another beautiful day. Foilage colors are noticeable even if peak colors are still four to five weeks away. With the late summer rainfall, the Autumn colors should be spectacular this year.

 

Matt Yamatin: Berlin Marathon Update

Matt and Chikae are in Germany with the BMW Berlin marathon starting in just 19 hours; Sunday 3:00 am ET. Given Matt's prior international marathon times being sub 2:40, he finds himself in the first corral with the world's elite runners. Berlin weather conditions will be partly cloudy and 60F with low humidity at race time. These conditions are ideal as Matt has always been a cold weather runner. What a thrill and adventure this will be regardless of the outcome.

Family and friends back in New England are wishing him well!

 

What About Those Toning Patterns on Scott Restrikes?

The posting of the Susquehana Collection 1861 Scott Restrike in Friday's Blog brought emails and phone conversations. The primary topic was the odd shaped toning patterns seen on both the Susquehana piece and the Heritage NGC MS62 CAC auctioned lot. What are those patterns all about and when did the toning occur?

During an afternoon phone conversation, with a GFRC customer who is considering the purchase of the Susquehana specimen, we discussed originality and how I was certain that the CSA reverse was perfectly original. During the conversation, we discussed the odd shaped toning pattern and the individual pointed out that the arcs resembled the outlines of the reverse eagle wings. Based on that observation, the following comparison was prepared to verify that indeed, the CSA reverse toning patterns are a function of the reverse eagle device on base coins.

Let's use a time machine and go back to the 1870s, when J.W. Scott struck the 500 pieces on original New Orleans 1861 coins. Imagine the operation and crude equipment that was available for the project; probably a garage type setup. Not cracking the CSA reverse die was of utmost importance!

Planing the reverse details off of 500 coins certainly came with variability. Enough metal required removal to eliminate the reverse devices but too much metal removal would lead to a thin planchet and risks for cracking the reverse die. Therefore, the planing operatin probably erred on the side of caution and removed only enoguh reverse metal to eliminate most of the devices. With process variability, some base coins had the reverse details completely removed while others did not.

The process of planing or grinding the silver coins required a slurry or greasing liquid between the coin and the grinding wheel. The chemical composition of that slurry is unknown but would have a chemistry that would react with silver if not fully flushed from the base coin's surface. Imagine if a base coin was not completely planed leaving a faint impression of the reverse eagle. The slurry chemisty would puddle along the edges of the residual eagle devices if not completely washed off and then would dry leaving surface reactants. Then the base coins are manually struck. Are the strikes thoroughly cleaned after being struck? It is doubtful based on the above image as the toning patterns are on top of the relief indicating a surface reaction after a Scott restrike example was struck and in storage.

Therefore, my conclusion is that the toning patterns are indeed a significant badge of honor on Scott Restrikes and validate the originality of the piece. There is no porosity or surface pitting under the toning lines. Therefore some examples could be dipped to remove these patterns towards a higher mint state grade at the Third Party Grading services. In the case of the Susquehana example, the old mount keep this piece from being improved with the CSA reverse side of the coin being 100% original and choice. I would grade the CSA reverse side of the coin as MS63 given there are absolutely no blemishes to be found while bright light viewing reveals frosty cartwheel luster.

 

More GFRC New Purchases to Consider

The 30 day price list is being nicely populated with a host of new offerings. The 300-400 coin backlog is slowly transitioning to the price lists as each day brings more progress. About 40% of the New Jersey Collection Liberty Seated halves are posted and more will be listed in the next 48 hours along with new nice Seated and Barber collector coins.

Following is another lot of Liberty Seated quarters and halves that will reach the price lists today.

1847 NGC AU50 50C

  1840 Drapery PCGS EF40 25C                       1873-S PCGS VF35 25c                           1874-S PCGS VF30 25C     

        

      1845-O No Drap PCGS VF30 50C                   1845-O PCGS EF45 CAC 50C                         1891 PCGS VF25 50C               

        

 

Wrapping Up the Blog

There is little else to write on an early Saturday morning, therefore let's end the Blog here. Another full day of activities is at hand including the experimenting with Collectors Corner uploads and online inventory publishing.

Thank you for stopping by.

 

 

 

September 14, 2018

1861 Scott Restrike Arrives on CSA W-13 Base Coin!

Greetings on a Friday morning and welcome to the Daily Blog....

As usual, today's composition starts at 5:00am. The northern New England days are rapidly growing shorter as we reach the halfway September mark. Thursday's southern Maine weather was perfect. Cool mornings, for a vigorous health walk, lead to warm afternoons with bright sunshine followed by a subsequent rapid drop in late evening temperatures.

Much further south, Florence is bringing heavy rains and flooding. Last evening, a GFRC customer from the Durham, NC area passed along this commentary.

The comment I heard is "it's like being stalked by a turtle..."

Down at the coast it will be bad, inland two counties down the rivers will slowly rise over days during and after the rainfall (as much as 35 inches), resulting in massive flooding. I have two radio stations there where I have removed practically all the equipment and moved it to high ground. In my area. We expect 7 to 10 inches over several days, winds probably no more than 40 mph, local flooding but probably not affecting me personally except for getting around to clients.

I am rapidly tiring of wall to wall news coverage saying mostly the same thing over and over. Almost as bad as politics...

 

The Clickbait Phenomenon

It is the last line from the North Carolina customer that captured my attention as the same feelings are shared. The online news media has become an emotional amplification instrument and echo chamber. Each "news" website is competing for readership and therefore must resort to this new online phenomenon called clickbait. For those who have not yet added clickbait to a vocabulary, then here is a definition from Wikipedia;

Clickbait is a website link designed to entice users to go to a certain web-page or video. Click-bait headlines typically aim to exploit the "curiosity gap", providing just enough information to make readers of news websites curious, but not enough to satisfy their curiosity without clicking through to the linked content.

Clickbait is not a black and white situation but a progression of many shades of gray. In the past 6 months, I've noticed a heighten use of clickbait headlines at all the major "news" websites. Sadly, once the genie is out of the bottle, then society must live with the latest fast paced online innovations to attract our attention. The result is endless distracting headlines with little value content underneath those headlines. Every media writer tries to improve their "online hit" performance by grabbing our attention towards a click. What is behind that click appears to be shrinking in value as the emphasis becomes more on the click than the value to the reader. As a user of Google Analytics to monitor GFRC website performance, I'm in a position to see through the clickbait evolution.

Frankly, I'm worried about younger generations as their attention spans are manipulated in countless directions when seeking online information. As clickbait usage become more pervasive, my reaction is to completely tune out from the online news media as time in precious and these outlets are providing little value for the time spent. As Seth Godin would say, everyone is rushing to the bottom of the pile.....

 

1861 Scott Restrike Arrives from the Susquehana Collection!

In the August 17 Daily Blog edition, the Susquehana Collection consignor was introduced with the following commentary;

Noteworthy GFRC Consignment - Bowers & Ruddy Gallery Sourced Collection

Immediately after returning to the GFRC booth from the LSCC meeting, an individual approached the GFRC booth and wished to speak with me. Friends had recommended that this individual consider using GFRC to divest some 40 year old raw coin holdings that were purchased directly from Bowers & Ruddy Galleries. This gentleman and myself moved to the GFRC gold cases for a quiet discussion while Dan White attempted to handle the morning flow of customers. This individual has been a long time collector with coins purchased in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Many coins were directly purchased for Q. David Bowers. Then a single plastic page of 16 raw coins was offered for review and potential consignment. One scan of the coins and a few spot checks immediately exposed old time quality and conservative grading as compared to today's standards.

One of the raw coins in the plastic page was an 1861 Scott Restrike which I immediately sent to PCGS at the Philadelphia ANA. After nearly a month, PCGS returned the piece yesterday with immediate photography for today's Blog.

For readers who are not familiar with a Scott Restrike, the following explanation from CoinFacts is well worth the time to read.

Only four original Confederate half dollars were struck in the New Orleans mint in 1861, using the regular Seated Liberty obverse die that was already on hand for federal coinage, and a new reverse die that was engraved by A.H.M. Patterson.

Scott obtained the original Confederate States of America half dollar die in the 1870s, and proceeded to make 500 restrikes from the die in soft white metal, with an advertising inscription for Scott on the obverse and the impression of the Confederate die on the reverse. After these pieces were struck, he obtained 500 Seated half dollars dated 1861 (ostensibly from the New Orleans mint), planed off the reverse of each coin, and struck 500 examples with the regular Seated half dollar design on the obverse and the Confederate half design on the reverse. The obverse was slightly flattened on each resulting example (hence the restrikes are graded by the reverse only), but collectors could then obtain a specimen with the same obverse and reverse designs, and struck from the same reverse die, that was originally intended for a proposed Confederate coinage.

As the four original specimens struck in 1861 seldom appear on the market and are high priced rarities, most collectors will never own one, and only a lucky few ever have the chance to even see one. The restrikes represent a relatively affordable opportunity to own a prized example, struck from the original Confederate die, of what "might have been" had the Confederacy proceeded with its original coinage plans. The restrikes have earned their place as highly desirable numismatic items.

GFRC is incredibly pleased to be offering one of the 500 Scott Restrikes but more importantly, the CSA reverse is choice original uncirculated.

For numismatic curiosity, the base coin's obverse was studied and easily attributed as an early die state W-13 (Bisecting Date Crack) but without any traces of the die crack. The date position on CSA W-13 is unique and lends itself to a straightforward attribution.

So here we have an Scott Restrike with a choice original mint state reverse and CSA W-13 base coin that was well preserved for years due to a reverse mount. At some point, the reverse mount was removed and the remnants can be easily seen in the below GFRC images. Simply look at the obverse center and the dark maroon ring. Where the ring crosses through the horizontal shield lines, partial tooling can be seen.

1861 Scott Restrike - Choice Original CSA Reverse

Base Coin is CSA W-13 Early Die State (Bisecting Date Crack)

PCGS Genuine - UNC Details Removed Obverse Mount

Why am I certain that the CSA reverse condition is choice original mint state and willing to make this statement today?

Two reasons! First is the fact that PCGS grades a Scott Restrike strictly on the reverse since the obverse has been compressed during the restrike process. Secondly, I was able to locate the following NGC MS62 CAC approved example in Heritage Auction Archives. Please note the reverse on the Susquehana Collection specimen has the identical toning pattern as the NGC MS62 example. It appears that both of the following coins were stored together after striking as the CSA reverse surface contaminates and oxidation are nearly identical. How cool is this?

Scott Restrike - NGC MS62 CAC - Heritage Auction January 8, 2015 Lot 5848

 

Reverse Comparison of NGC MS62 CAC and Susquehana Specimen

The Susquehana Scott Restrike will be reaching the GFRC price list today after the asking price is finalized. Stay tuned for more on this exciting offering.

 

Quality Liberty Seated Quarter New Purchases

For those of you who have grown tired, or impatient, with the ongoing listing of Liberty Seated half dollars, then how about some quality Seated quarters from the same collection? Following is a nice initial lot of quarters to consider. All will be posted to the price list today.

Liberty Seated Quarter New Purchases from West Coast Collection

   1839 VL Claws PCGS VF30 25C             1840-O Drap PCGS VF20 CAC 25C                  1841-O PCGS VF25 25C          

        

  1845 PCGS VF35 25C                           1846 PCGS VF35 CAC 25C                            1847 PCGS VF30 25C

        

 

Sunset Point Collection - An Eclectic Mix of Duplicate Items

At the CONA show, the Sunset Point Collection consignor visited with GFRC and dropped off more consignments. Many of his NGC Fatty holder offerings were previously published, in the Blog, are are currently on the price lists. Following are some incremental pieces that were patiently waiting for my attention as I worked through a substantial consignment backlog (and continue to do so).

First is an important 1873-CC Liberty Seated quarter that resides in a PCGS G04 holder. This date is on so many want lists and I'm sure that a home will be quickly found. The 1860 3 cent silver piece is a proof with mintage of only 1000. It resides in an old white ANACS holder with Teletrade sticker on the back. This holder is well worn with haze being seen on the GFRC images. There was simply too much plastic haze to be editted. And finally, the Sunset Point consignor is offering a duplicate 1855-S quarter graded PCGS EF40. There were addition raw coins consigned at CONA but those are going to PCGS for grading before being offered.

Sunset Point Collection Consignment - An Eclectic Mix

1873-CC PCGS G04 25C

1860 ANACS PF63 3C Silver                                                   1855-S PCGS EF40 25C

    

 

Global Financial News

Well, the Global Financial News segment is being written while eating a salad for breakfast. How healthy is that?

We open with the usual look at commodities and interest rates. Crude at sitting at $69/bbl while gold is inching up the $1211/oz. Bitcoin is hanging in there at $6447. The U.S. 10 year bond yield creeps up again to 2.98%.

Seeking Alpha headlines are a mixed bag this morning. First up is Venezuela and the status of inflation after stripping five zeros from their currency. China may come to a partial rescue....

It's just been a few weeks since the rollout of Venezuela's new money, which stripped five zeros off the bolivar, but inflation of the new currency is already 100%. That would push annual inflation above 100,000%, according to Bloomberg's inflation scale. It comes as Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro meets with President Xi of China, one of his ailing country's biggest creditors, which has reportedly agreed to extend a $5B credit line.

This headline captures the point made in yesterday's Blog; the Great Divergence....

"The Wall Street Journal has it wrong, we are under no pressure to make a deal with China, they are under pressure to make a deal with us," President Trump tweeted on Thursday. He also took note of "surging" U.S. markets vs. "collapsing" Chinese markets. The S&P 500 is up 4.5% over the past three months vs. a 12% decline for the iShares China Large Cap ETF.

The iconic Volkswagen Beetle will be no more.....

Volkswagen is halting production of its iconic Beetle next year, ending an 80-year run for a car that introduced many Americans to the German brand in the 1960s. It's one of the longest-lived and best-selling vehicles of all time, with 22.7M sold worldwide. VW (OTCPK:VLKAY) said the move comes as it focuses on other models and its EV lineup, but left the door open for a potential return of the nameplate.

 

Wrapping Up the Blog

What an exciting Blog edition today.... It definitively took time to write but was lots of fun.

Ok, how about a shameless plea for orders during Sleepy September? I'm loading a host of new coins onto the price lists and will continue to do so today. Please consider checking out GFRC's vaste inventory towards a potential purchase. Consignors are waiting and anxious to sell their duplicates!

Wishing eveyone a great day and let's not forget those in the Carolinas that will be struggling with power outages and flooding during the upcoming days.

 

 

 

September 13, 2018

The Flow of Crusty Gray Liberty Seated Halves Continues!

         1872 PCGS EF40 CAC 50C                                                         1875-CC WB-10 PCGS VF20 50C

    

                1870 PCGS VF25 50C                     1873 NA Closed 3 PCGS VF35 50C                      1875 PCGS EF40 50C              

        

      1875-S PCGS EF45 50C                            1876-S PCGS AU50 50C                                1877 PCGS EF45 50C       

        

1877-CC WB-7 PCGS VF30 50C                         1878 PCGS EF45 50C      

    

 

Global Financial News

We open today's Global Financial News segment with an important graphic, from the Daily Reckoning newsletter, that well illustrates the growing gap between United States equity value and the rest of the world. For month's I've been discussing how the U.S. Federal Reserve is raising interest rates while Europe and Japan continue with their Zero or Negative Interest Rate policies. The result is predictable. A substantial equity market valuation gap has developed as capital flows to where it is best rewarded. The U.S. dollar is very strong and emerging market countries, with substantial debt loads denominated in U.S. dollars, are getting crushed.

The Federal Reserve is meeting again with the anticipation of another interest rate increase.

The Great Divergence

 

Looking at our usual commodtities and interest rates, crude oil is trading at $69.45/bbl while spot gold has moved up slightly to $1210/oz. Bitcoin is also up to $6434. The 10 year Treasury yield is also inching up to 2.97%

From Seeking Alpha headlines.....global oil supply has reached 100M barrels per day, a record level. The burning of fossil fuels continues on a global basis as world population and economies expand. Car ownership is always the first step for individuals in a prospering emerging economy.

Global oil supply was firing on all cylinders in August, reaching a record 100M barrels per day, but output may be tested in coming months amid Iranian and Venezuelan fallout. "We are entering a very crucial period for the oil market," the IEA said in its closely watched monthly report. "It remains to be seen if other producers decide to increase their production... Things are tightening up."

Trump is opening the door to China for more negotiations but will still impose another $200B in new tariffs.

The Trump administration has invited Chinese officials to restart trade negotiations, according to Larry Kudlow, as Washington prepares another $200B worth of tariffs on Chinese goods. "There's some information that we received... the top of the Chinese government wished to pursue talks," he said. Mid-level U.S. and Chinese officials held inconclusive discussions on Aug. 22 and 23.

After all the 24 hour media hype, it appears that Florence has weakened and is not longer a major hurricane. Excessive rainfall will still be a huge issue.

The center of Florence, no longer classified as a major hurricane after being downgraded to a category 2, is expected to strike North Carolina's southern coast tomorrow. Warnings from the National Hurricane Center still proclaim the storm surge and rainfall pose a grave threat to life and property. On watch are insurers, power providers, hospitals, livestock and crop producers, generator manufacturers and building stocks.

Chicago Mayor Emamuel hopes to launch universal basic income experiment after other tests in Europe has not gone well.

Outgoing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is forming a task force that will consider implementing a so-called "universal basic income" program in the city. Although it won't be used as a starting point, an initial pilot proposal would see the city give 1,000 residents $500 a month to help pay bills. It's not alone. Stockton, California, will begin a similar UBI project in 2019.

And finally, the Bitcoin crash of early 2018 is one for the record books and close to the Tech Crash of 2000 in terms of magnitude.

One for the record books? Bloomberg's Michael Patterson notes the "Great Crypto Crash of 2018" has extended its collapse from a January high to 80% - worse than the 78% plunge in Nasdaq following the bursting of its bubble in 2000. Fortunately for the global economy, the actual dollar amounts in crypto are of far smaller measure than the trillions wiped out in the tech crash.

 

Wrapping Up the Blog

Another edition comes to an end and time to start loading the New Jersey Collection of Liberty Seated halves to the price list. Shipping is light this morning and should not take too long.

Thank you for checking in and appreciate the ongoing readership. See you on Friday morning.

 

 

 

September 12, 2018

Have You Perused the GFRC Sales Archives?

Greetings and welcome to the Daily Blog on a Wednesday morning.

Today's Blog edition will be a tad on the brief side. Eastern United States population is focused on Florence as it barrels towards the Carolinas and Virginia coast. There is little time for numismatics when natural weather disasters are imminent. Closure to home, a high pressure system over the Northeast will keep Maine dry throughout the weekend and into early next week. GFRC customers in the Carolinas are in our thoughts and we hope for the best as the the predicted rainfalls appear to be epic.

 

Have You Perused the GFRC Sales Archives?

One of the key learnings from a long semiconductor industry career is the need for crisp and accurate information systems for decision making. Informations systems are the foundation for operating a business, identifying productivity improvements or even attributing Liberty Seated Dime die varieties..... Each time that I've plunged into a major career change, one of the first analysis steps is checking the quality of the information system for conducting work and achieving goals. If there is no information system, then an initial project is constructing one!

The latest personal initiative is Gerry Fortin Rare Coins and once again, I faced the same challenges as in the past to accomplish goals. Accurate pricing of coins is paramount for success. Pricing coins too high means few sales, burying collectors in coins and developing an unfavorable reputation. Pricing coins too low will drive unsustainable volumes, low profit margins and not a sound basis for a consignment centric business model.

Compounding the coin pricing challenge is the host of price guides available in print and online. Most of these are poorly maintained for 19th century coinage due to lower trading volumes. CAC approval and its pricing premium elevates the price setting complexity to a new level. Finally price guides, in many cases, are static documents and might not reflect the dynamics of an active numismatic market.

Therefore my move into numismatic dealing and launching GFRC required yet another information system; The Sales Archive. Why is this so important you might ask? Here are a few reasons.

- Setting retails prices for coins is more complex that collectors imagine. Multiple factors such as originality, eye appeal, grade and rarity must be considered. Images are key for helping evaluate strike, eye appeal and originality; something a TPG holdered grade does not provide.

- Supply and demand along with market dynamics will impact prices. A coin may be a rarity, but then again, collectors seeking that coin may be even rarer!

- As previously mentioned CAC premiums are still evolving without an accurate price guide for 19th century silver coinage. CDN is more focused on United States gold and popular 20th century denominations, not early silver.

- Many collectors enjoy tracking coin pedigrees. Since GFRC brands each consignor with his/her own name, then tracking ownership pedigrees is possible and could be long term enjoyment.

- And finally, there is no historical database for dealer retail sales for 19th century coins in collector grades. Yes, there is Heritage Auction archives but those listings are mostly for higher end coin at the mint state level. What about coins priced in the $100 to say $3000 price range? Something had to be done to aid collectors make wise purchase decisions and GFRC is taking the leadership role to address this issue.

To service all the above reasons and needs, GFRC launched its Sales Archive and is diligently working to increase the amount of listings. Every GFRC sale becomes a record in the Sales Archive including those made during the 2014 and 2015 start-up timeframe. Current sales have excellent images and full descriptions. Following is the link to the Sales Archive and the first screen customers will encounter.

GFRC Sales Archive - http://seateddimevarieties.com/SalesArchive.html

Using the Sales Archive is simplistic. Just select screening parameter from drop down menus and the output table will constantly refresh based on the selected critieria. Below is a typical query for Liberty Seated, Half Dollars and the 1844 date with both Philadelphia and New Orleans strikes included.

As GFRC sales volumes continue to increase, so do the listings in the Sales Archive. There are over 9,000 listing at this time and each year GFRC adds another 2000+ listings. As one would expect, there is a concentration of listings for Liberty Seated coinage followed by Draped and Capped Bust coinage. Listing are described down to the die variety level in many cases. All new sales listings have die variety attributions and superb photograpy.

Where else can collectors of 19th century silver coinage find such a comprehensive pricing database that is online and available at no cost? Once again, GFRC's mission is to facilitate the growth of a strong collecting community and the Sales Archive system is one of the enablers of this effort. I sincerely hope you will take time to visit the Sales Archive and use it on a regular basis for numismatic purchase decision making.

 

More GFRC New Purchases Reaching the Price List

Following is another round of new purchases from a West Coast collection that have reach the price list on Tuesday evening. My apology for only listing Liberty Seated halves at this time. Those are the coins that were photographed prior to recent southern Maine cloudy conditions. Once a sunny day arrives, the Seated and Barber quarter runs in the collection will be imaged and offered.

Crusty original gray surfaces continue to dominate this new lot of Liberty Seated halves. There are several better dates in the group including the 1853-O that is so choice and the 1858-S that is gem original at the assigned grade level.

Yet More Crusty Gray Liberty Seated Halves from a New Purchase

1853-O PCGS VF35 CAC 50C                                                            1858-S PCGS VF30 50C      

    

                1850-O PCGS VF20 50C                            1855 PCGS VF35 50C                           1856-O PCGS EF45 CAC 50C        

        

      1856/1856-O NGC EF40 50C                         1857-O PCGS EF45 50C                             1858-O NGC EF45 50C       

        

 

Global Financial News

Today's Seeking Alpha headlines contain substantial information that one will not find on regular news media outlets. Before we jump into those headlines, let's take our regular look at commodities and interest rates....

Crude oil is once again approaching $70/bbl while spot gold is slightly above the $1200 threshold at $1202/oz. Bitcoin is sitting at $6279 and the 10 year U.S. Treasury bond is yielding 2.96%.

We open with a sobering commentary from a bond fund manager. His points are well taken and could be bullish for gold prices.

"Here we are doing something that almost seems like a suicide mission," Jeffrey Gundlach said in a fresh webcast about his DoubleLine Total Return Bond Fund. "We are increasing the size of the deficit while we’re raising interest rates... so late in an economic cycle." The rest of the "Bond King's" views: The dollar is going down, oil is headed for $80 to $90 a barrel, and it is now a good time for emerging-market or high-yield bonds.

Brexit may eventually cost Theresa May her job as British PM. This makes regular office politics appear like child's play.

A group of about 50 lawmakers in Theresa May’s government who oppose her proposals for a post-Brexit deal with the EU have met to discuss how and when they could force her out of her job, the BBC reports. A leadership contest could ensue if 15% of Conservative lawmakers, currently 48, demand a vote of no confidence. Meanwhile, Bank of England Gov. Mark Carney has postponed his departure again - until 2020 - to help steer the U.K. economy past Brexit.

Russia and China are being overt in their desire to eliminate the U.S. Dollar as the world's reserve currency. If this were to play out, then expect a sharp drop in the U.S. dollar as international demand would decrease. Best to be sitting on a pile of physical gold.

A day after Russia and China kicked off their largest ever war games, the two countries vowed to stand together against protectionism. "We see a serious challenge for all of the global economy, especially for the dynamically-growing Asia-Pacific and its leadership," Vladimir Putin declared. Both countries are further looking into using national currencies in their transactions, sidelining the dollar.

Crypto currencies are running into a host of regulatory actions....

Win for crypto regulation. The SEC has taken its first action against a hedge fund for cryptocurrency investments, while penalizing brokers who ran an "ICO superstore." FINRA also issued its first disciplinary action involving digital currencies, filing a complaint against a distributor of HempCoin. Regulators further scored a victory in their crypto crackdown as a judge ruled that ICOs are subject to U.S. securities-fraud laws.

 

Wrapping Up the Blog

Yes, it is indeed Sleepy September as collectors are focused on a host of other activities besides their numismatic hobby. Each year is the same with September being one of the weakest sales month of the calendar year.

For consignors, all I can do is ask for your patience as October is just a few weeks away including the impressive Fall Whitman Baltimore show. GFRC will be going into that show with huge inventories and 13 cases of coins for show sales. Bourse floor staffing is lined up including individuals to host the display of my Liberty Seated Dime date and mintmark set. It will be an exciting event and I'm sure that many consigned coins will find new homes at this event.

Immediately after the Whitman show is the NH Coin Expo in Manchester, New Hampshire. GFRC will have a corner table and 7 cases of coins left over from the Whitman show. Immediately after the NH Coin Expo, I'm once again heading to Shanghai for the annual Yunzhou Antique Mall coin show. And finally, let's not forget the Black Friday sale on Thanksgiving weekend. Wow, late October and all of November wil be an exciting time for GFRC and it customers.

Thank you for visiting today and every day. It is a pleasure to have 500+ readers taking time out of their busy day to read the Blog. Please do consider a purchase for your hobby as there are some many great coins in GFRC's inventory.

See you tomorrow with more rambling.....

 

 

 

September 11, 2018

Matt Yamatin Running BMW Berlin Marathon

Greetings again and welcome to another set of ramblings that are called the Daily Blog.

The day started early at 4:00am as I enjoy the solitude within the Fortin homestead and GFRC office. Evening emails have been reviewed with new purchases captured in the COIN system to kick off another numismatic day. Rain is falling and will last into early afternoon. All eyes are now on Hurrican Florence and the potential destruction facing the South Carolina coastal region.

 

CAC Submission In Transit

Monday brought the largest ever CAC submission with nearly 60 coins due to arrive at the Far Hills, NJ office today. Those of you, who requested CAC submissions for purchases and consignments, can rest assured that the task is completed with CAC results due by early next week. Since converting to USPS Express shipments to/from CAC, the turnaround time is slightly under 10 days. This will allow quicker processing of consignments and expectations for a large number of freshly evaluated coins to be posted to the price lists before end of month.

 

Matt Yamatin in Germany for BMW Marathon

GFRC's IT Director is traveling again towards breaking the 2 hours and 30 minutes mark at an international marathon. This weekend, Matt will be running the BMW marathon in Berlin Germany. Following is the opening introduction of the Berlin Marathon from the WorldsMarathons.com website. The Berlin marathon is an ideal venue for Matt to achieve his personal goal given the flat terrain and history of world records being set at this location.

One of the most endearing marathons around the world started over half a century ago. The Berlin Marathon is not only one of the largest, but it is also one of the most famous across the globe. Participants from over 107 countries, there are tens of thousands of racers, and officiants tout more than a million spectators. Racing through Brandenburg Gate and Victory Column, the BMW Berlin Marathon is one of the Big-5 marathons that make up the World Marathon Major series.

Pulling people from around the world, it is one of the most loved races due to its flat, looping course, tepid weather and enthusiastic onlookers. Over seven world records have been broken along this infamous loop, which is what makes it that much more excitement-filled. More than just a marathon, the whole city comes alive with more than 70 bands and a festival that pulls from the neighboring countries just for a glimpse of the action. The highlight of the festival is when runners make their way around Brandenburg Gate directly past the grandstand on their last 400 meters as the crowd cheers them on.

The Fortin and Yamatin families have seen first hand the amount of training that is required to be a world class marathon runner. We sincerely wish Matt the best during the upcoming weekend.

 

More GFRC New Purchases Reaching the Price List

Life is not dull in the GFRC office with a huge backlog of quality coins to process and load onto the price list. Today's client gallery features another eleven well matched Liberty Seated halves from a west coast collection purchase. The offerings start at 1860 through 1869 with most being San Francisco strikes. The lot is nicely matched in terms of natural preservation with old time gray patina. Grades range from VF25 through EF45; perfect collector grades for those focused on assembling circulated date and mintmark sets. As of the writing of the Blog, the 1863-S and 1866 Motto halves are spoken for. I'm sure more will find new homes during the next 24 hours.

More Crusty Gray Liberty Seated Halves from a New Purchase

1862-S WB-5 PCGS EF45 50C                                                   1863-S WB-4 PCGS EF40 50C

    

  1860-O WB-11 PCGS EF45 CAC 50C                1860-S WB-1 PCGS VF35 50C               1864-S WB-4 PCGS VF35 50C        

        

      1865-S WB-7d PCGS VF35 50C                   1866 Motto PCGS EF45 50C                1866-S Motto WB-7 PCGS VF25 50C

        

  1867-S WB-7 PCGS VF30 50C                    1868-S WB-8 PCGS VF25 50C                      1869-S WB-7 PCGS VF25    

        

 

Global Financial News

We open today's Global Financial News segment with an important graphic; the United States trade deficit with major trading partners. Red circles indicate a trade deficit with the billions dollar value inside the circle. Green circles are trade surplus. A quick check indicates China is the primary opportunity followed by Mexico and Germany. The European Union account for over $100B in trade deficit with Germany being the largest imbalance inside the EU and equivalent to Mexico.

This graphic easily illustrates the fact that the China-United States trade war is still in its infancy. Until Beijing brings about concrete plans to reduce the massive trade imbalance, there will be continued increases in tariffs and other measures to force actions rather than endless talks and negotiations. China faces a difficult situation of building up its internal economy, without increased foreign imports, while still maintaining a robust export economy towards buying time. The USD : RMB exchange rate is inching back up to 6.87 as of today. Devaluing the Chinese RMB is one option for Beijing government to maintain the status quo on exports.

 

Now on to Seeking Alpha headlines and our usual look at commodity prices and interest rates.

Crude oil is holding steady at $67.60/bbl while spot gold is also flat at $1199/oz. Bitcoin remains in the low $6000 range at $6346. The 10 year U.S Treasury yield has inched up further to 2.96%.

China is approaching the World Trade Organization for help in its trade war with the United States. This effort appears symbolic as best.

China will ask the World Trade Organization to impose sanctions on the U.S. next week for non-compliance related to a ruling regarding U.S. dumping duties. The 2017 WTO ruling was related to several industries ranging from machinery to metals to light industry for a total annual export value of up to $8.4B.

You know business is good when Boeing must call back retired workers to help solve production delays....

Retired workers were called back to Boeing to help fix delays in the 737 jetliner plant outside Seattle. Engine and fuselage shortages triggered the delays as Boeing accelerated production to record levels in June. The delays could hurt Q3 results and threatens the goal to boost build rates again in 2019. As of last week, the plant reportedly had about 50 semi-finished 737s scattered around, seven times the amount observed in July.

 

Featured Coins of the Day - $10 United States Gold

Gold prices have been struggling for the past months due to a strong U.S. Dollar. But there is a positive aspect to this situation namely, the ability to build substantial eagle and double eagle gold sets with just small premiums over spot gold prices. As the famous Baron Rothschild saying goes, "The time to buy is when there's blood in the streets." However human psychology is driven by fear and greed. We love to jump into a rising market and run away when an asset class is falling or weak.

Current gold prices appear to be a buying opportunity for those with extra disposable income. Buying quality numismatic gold brings dual exposure; to the bullion value and also collector value. $10 Eagles and $20 Double Eagles are currently excellent values on a historical basis. The challenge is to locate better dates in the Liberty and Indian series that trade at small premiums to their bullion content. GFRC has a sizable inventory of United States gold to consider. Following are quality $10 Liberty and Indian offerings that are recommended.

    1847 PCGS EF45 G$10                                                              1901 PCGS AU55 CAC G$10

    

1908 Motto PCGS MS62 G$10                                                            1912 Raw AU58 G$10  

    

1914-D Raw MS61 G$10                                                                  1932 NGC MS63 G$10

    

 

So ends another Daily Blog edition. Thank you for checking in as part of a day's regular online reading.

Please keep watching the GFRC price lists and Daily Blog for the posting of more new purchases and consignments. I'm on a mission towards substantially increasing GFRC inventory going into the late October Whitman Baltimore show. With all the new postings, serious collectors should start picking off the best pieces for their collections prior to the Whitman show.

And having said that, I wish everyone a well balanced day as we watch the approach of Florence towards the Carolina coast.

 

 

 

September 10, 2018

Consignment Wave Continues: New Jersey Collection Seated Half Dollars

Greetings once again and welcome to a Monday morning edition of the Blog.

Fall in southern Maine has definitely arrived. The office windows are closed since outdoor temperatures is only 46F. Cloudy conditions are at hand along with a light breeze. Rain is in the forecast; a perfect day for shipping orders and pricing out the New Jersey Collection of Liberty Seated halves.

 

Professional Training Behind Writing a Daily Blog

Often times, individuals will email and question the abilitiy to write a Blog edition each morning. How are topics derived? Where does the mental energy come from along with the discipline? These are excellent observations and probably best responded to with a explanation of prior life in the semiconductor industry.

Managing a large organization in a corporation takes substantial attention to detail, being politically astute and careful scheduling. Meetings can easily consume one's time if you allow staff and peers to do such. Especially during my last six years at CSMC Technologies, the Chinese art of solving a problem was calling a meeting and attempting to pass responsibility to somone other than the owning party. The first step in dealing with important issues was accountability; pinning down the party that owned responsbility. It was Internal politics at its best, but also cultural towards avoiding blame and losing face.

To survive and prosper in this type of environment, I would arrive to the office early and ahead of others to find solitude towards preparing for the upcoming day's challenges and must get done items. Overnight emails were quickly scanned for potential new fires, more meetings, and other items that would need addressing that day. Each day, a list of "must do" items was constructed. The prior day's list was reviewed with completed items removed and a new list prepared. The power of this activity was in the process and discipline; the writing down of a new priority list of activities each day. Those items that moved from list to list without closure were highlighted as requiring special attention or a different strategy by which to get them off the list.

Then the day's meetings and deliverables started with the list in my pocket as a reminder of what had to be accomplished. When situations and politics brought distractions, the list was a grounding tool towards basic control for managing an organization. One would step out of the latest crisis meeting to call subordinates or others towards ensuring that the items on the list were being managed and closed. If not closed, then what was the prognosis for closure? Again, accountability and making a mental note on the commitment towards follow-up.

For those who have not worked (survived is a better description) in this type of hectic for-profit environment; it could be difficult to visualize the daily intensity, focus and discipline. Multiple cups of coffee or strong Chinese tea were paramount towards maintaining a mental edge. Writing the Daily Blog is like being on a holiday as there is no stress during composition. I'm free to explore whatever topics come to mind at 6:00am. But guess what? There is a "must do" list of items sitting on my desk..... Old habits die hard!

 

New Jersey Collection of Liberty Seated Halves - Philadelphia Strikes

I'm incredibly pleased to be showcasing the next round of New Jersey Collection offerings in today's Daily Blog.

The New Jersey Collection consignor is one of the finest individuals in the numismatic hobby; in depth knowledge, heart of gold and passionate are best used terms to describe this friend. Like each of us, this person can offer a vaste amount of numismatic stories as his collecting career spans decades back to the formation of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club. That is over 40 years of collecting all Seated denominations in one form or another along with Seated exonumia.

So why are the New Jersey Collection Seated halves mostly in old NGC holders? The answer to that question requires a step back into NGC history via Wikipedia.

NGC was founded in 1987 in Parsippany, N.J. as one of the first independent third-party coin grading companies. In 1995, NGC was named the official grading service of the ANA. NGC commenced operations at its new location in Sarasota, Florida in 2002.

The New Jersey Collection consignor just happened to live in Parsippany NJ and found grading with NGC was much easier than shipping coins off to PCGS in California during the 1990s. Once professional certification was completed, holdered coins went into a host of bank safety deposit boxes as this individual was a collector and not an investor. He had little interest in the crack out and upgrade game. Rather acquiring more numismatic knowledge and building a broad network of fellow numismatists, with the associated camaraderie, were most important.

Divestment arrives for all indivuals in our hobby and so for the New Jersey Collection consignor. GFRC is so pleased to be offering the following group of Liberty Seated halves that were purchased raw during the 1980s followed by holdered in the 1990s. These halves are completely fresh to market and will be priced out today and hopefully will start reaching the price list by Wednesday. First Rights of Refusal (RFoR) are in order this morning. None of these halves have been to CAC review either. GFRC images are accurate as much care and attention was given to matching colors with the coin in hand. As for luster, you will need to carefully read my descriptions. Frosty white coins appear as steely silver colored in the below images. Many of the New Jersey coins have mirrored fields and reflective luster. Those will be specially called out in the descriptions.

New Jersey Seated Half Dollar Collection - Philadelphia Strikes

1846 6/Horizontal 6 NGC EF40 50C                                                   1851 WB-102 NGC AU58 50C

    

1853 A&R Double Die Rev NGC AU58 50C                                                   1863 NGC AU55 50C                  

    

   1840 Sm Letters NGC AU55+ 50C                        1841 NGC AU58 50C                    1842 Sm Date PCGS AU53 OGH 50C

        

   1842 Med Date NGC AU58 50C                      1844 NGC AU58 Fatty 50C                             1848  NGC AU58 50C          

        

       1845 NGC AU58 50C                          1846 Tall Date NGC AU58 50C                         1847 NGC AU58 50C          

        

       1850 NGC AU58 50C                              1852 NGC AU Details 50C                             1854 NGC AU58 50C          

        

           1857 NGC AU55 50C                                  1858 NGC AU58 50C                                 1860 NGC AU58 50C          

        

      1861 NGC AU58 50C                              1864 NGC AU Details 50C                        1865 NGC AU Details 50C

        

 1866 NGC AU55 50C                                  1867 NGC AU58 50C                                 1868 NGC AU53 50C 

        

           1869 NGC AU55 50C                            1870 NGC AU Details 50C                        1870-S NGC AU Details 50C 

        

           1871 NGC AU58 50C                     1873 NA Closed 3 NGC AU58 50C                   1874 Arrows NGC AU58 50C 

        

 1875 PCGS AU58 50C                                  1876 NGC AU58 50C                                 1877 NGC AU58 50C 

        

 

Global Financial News

Let's open the week with a usual view of commodity prices and long bond interest rates. There is little change in the commodity complex with crude oil flat at $68.10/bbl, spot gold at $1199/oz and Bitcoin falling further to $6262. However, the 10 year U.S. bond yields has moved up to 2.94% based on Friday's strong new jobs report.

Seeking Alpha headlines are late and sparse this morning. In the spotlight is China's trade surplus with the United States. The surplus continues to grow due to a booming U.S. economy.

China’s trade surplus with the U.S. in August reached a record $31.1B despite exports climbing at the slowest pace since March. Shipments were up 9.8% and imports up 20%. The U.S. has imposed $50B in duties against China, with another $200B in the works and an extra $267B in tariffs proposed.

It appears that Japan is benefitting from the U.S. and China trade war. A Japanese GDP of 3% is huge!

Japan’s Q2 GDP growth was the fastest since early 2016, hitting an annualized rate of 3% compared to the initial reading of 1.9%. The rate was impacted by a tightening labor market fueling automation and amid the escalating US-China trade war. Capital expenditure was a driver, revised to a 3.1% growth on the quarter from 1.3%, the fastest growth in 11 years.

And finally, the Russian currency (Ruble) continues to weaken as the country struggles with international sanctions. According to Trade Economics website, the average monthly wage of a Russian citizen (July 2018) is 42640 Rubles. At a 70.1 exchange rate, that calculated out to $609 per month. Eye opening isn't it?

Russia’s ruble weakened to the lowest level since March 2016 on Monday. The ruble dropped to 70.1 Rubles per dollar (-0.2% on the day) in a sell-off fueled by concerns over the central bank’s independence. Last week, prime minister Dmitry Medvedev called for rate cuts. The next interest rate decision is Friday. “This interference in monetary policy came at the worst possible time and has weighed heavily on the rouble,” wrote Commerzbank analyst Ulrich Leuchtmann.

 

Featured Coins of the Day - Cold Quarters Collection

The Cold Quarters Collection consignor is a private individual who has selected GFRC towards divestment of some serious Liberty Seated numismatic properties. Folks, there are some really cool Seated coins here including the 1848/1848 half dime and the 1873 Double Die Obverse dime. The latter is one of the finest holdered. I also like the 1852 and 1877-CC quarters and surprised these have not sold.

Reasonable offers are welcomed. So what is a reasonable offer you might ask? Well 40% off is not reasonable but maybe the consignor might accept 10-12% reduction. One never knows without asking.

Cold Quarters Collection - Consignment Highlights - Offers Welcomed!

1848/48 Med Date NGC MS65 5C                                                   1859 F-107 NGC MS67 CAC 10C

    

1873 WA F-103 DDO NGC MS61 10C                                                   1876-CC F-107b NGC MS64 10C

    

1852 Briggs 1-A NGC MS63 25C                                                   1877-CC PCGS MS62 25C

    

Thank goodness....a Daily Blog edition is done and attention immediately moved to the shipping department.

I will be the GFRC office all day and hope to hear from you concerning a potential purchase. It is indeed Sleepy September other that items on the 30 day price list.

Wishing eveyone a prosperous week. Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

 

September 9, 2018

New Jersey Collection Philadelphia Seated Halves Arrive Today!

Greetings on a cool southern Maine morning and welcome to the Daily Blog.

Yes indeed, Fall has arrived with cold overnight temperatures and an accelerating change in foliage colors. Then there is the shrinking amount of daylight to round out the annual seasonal change.

Today's sunrise was roughly at 6:00 am. The rapid decrease in daylight become so apparent this morning. I arose at 4:00 am and diligently started processing the New Jersey Collection Philadelpha half dollar images in the GFRC office. Here I was staring into darkness out the front office window while just a month ago, there would be ample early morning sun. Temperature is a cool 44F and will peak at only 63 later in the afternoon. The huge sugar maple, in the front yard, offers a substantial amount of orange and crimson hues as sunrise accentuates those colors. A family of squirrels is busy running around gathering acorns from two large roadside oaks.

Seth's Blog: Education needs to be inconvenient

Seth Godin has hit a home run with his September 8 blog. Convenience results in the saving of physical time since many painstakingly slow tasks have been automated or streamlined with technology. The problem with convenience is its addictive quality eventually leading to mental laziness. From my own personal experience, I refuse to use the convenience of GPS guided directions from a car's navigation system. Instead, driving through unknown territory is carefullly planned out using maps and personal notes to myself including backup plans. Some of you will read this and believe I'm an antique and unable to adapt to new technology. But no! GPS navigation systems make us lazy with the loss of fundamental planning and map reading skills. Another case; can today's children do hand division if a calculator is not available?

An example of too much convenience in the numismatic world is TPG grading! Why bother to learn technical grading when the TPGs provide the convenient of a label with the grading already done for you? Now they are adding variety attributions. Those who rely only on plastic and labels are missing out on important aspects of our hobby and may not be around for the long term as core skills are never developed. Instead, coins become a commodity with a price sheet. Yes, convenience does have downsides and as LSCC President, I must finds approaches to restore the inconvenience of learning among the membership.

Education needs to be inconvenient

It seems as though people now spend more time with their smartphones than they spend with other people, and the smartphone and app makers are working hard to make every interaction we make online ever more convenient.

Convenience sells.

It’s the dominant driver of our culture, and has been since the 60s. How can I get something that’s just good enough in exchange for it being more convenient? Hence the drive through fast food window, the microwave oven, the remote control, shrinkwrap licenses and 140 characters as a stand-in for exchanging ideas.

It turns out that the quest for convenience also drives many of the choices we make about education. It’s more convenient to have standardized tests and rigid curricula, so we don’t have to treat every student differently. And it’s more convenient to imagine that continuing education for adults might involve reading a summary of something instead of actually doing it.

Alas, we’re confusing the convenience of physical time-saving with the convenience of not extending ourselves in the quest for something better.

Education needs to be inconvenient because it relies on effort and discomfort to move us from where we were to where we want to be. The internet gives us more access than ever, and if we care enough, we can use that convenient access to explore the inconvenient places that we know we should be exploring.

 

New Jersey Collection of Philadelphia Liberty Seated Halves Debut This Evening!

Yes, I've been up since 4:00 am processing images for the New Jersey Collection Philadelphia halves that were insourced at the Philly ANA. There are 35 dates in total ranging from 1840 through 1877. Average grade is AU55/AU58 with nearly all being certified and encased in early 2000 era NGC holders. There are some really great eye appealing halves in this lot to consider.

The New Jersey Collection client gallery debut should arrive to the Blog around 8:00 pm this evening. Please check in and don't be bashful with potential First Rights of Refusal (FRoR). Once the images are posted, asking prices will be finalized with the consignor and another successful collection sale will be underway.

Feeding Frenzy for GFRC West Coast Collection Purchases

Saturday brought a hectic but great sales day for new purchases from a West Coast collection. So far, about 30 coins from the collection have been posted and 2/3 sold on Friday and Saturday across eleven GFRC customers. For those of you who missed the initial listings, there is much more on the way! I still have another 100 coins to be listed in the uncoming two weeks from this collection.

 

GFRC Buys Out Balance of Iowa Collection

Marketing and selling the Iowa Collection of CAC approved Liberty Seated quarters has been one of the highlights of operating the GFRC business. A successful new approach was developed for quickly liquidating a significant collection with the consignor being most pleased with the outcome. As with the sale of every major collection, there are always a few offerings that do no sell for a host of reasons. In the case of the Iowa Collection, GFRC still has eight coins in inventory. The consignor wished to bring closure to the sale and approached GFRC with a buy-out offer that I could not refuse.

Effective immediately, GFRC has taken ownership of the remaining Iowa Collection piece as illustrated below. The buy-out price allows flexibility with current asking prices. Instead of immediately conducting a price reduction, let's take a different approach again. If any of the Iowa Collection pieces have been on your radar screen and pricing was an impediment, then please consider making an offer. These remaining eight coins need to find loving new homes as my capital constantly needs to be reused for incremental collection purchases.

In particular, there are two coins that are worthy of selective collectors assembling advanced Seated quarter collections. The 1853 No Arrows PCGS AU55 CAC quarter is truly special and a great value. I've add the CAC population report, above the image, which indicates this example is the only CAC approved piece in grades from EF45 through MS63. CAC approved examples are either clustered in the F/VF grade range or in high grade mint state. There is only one example CAC approved in AU or low mint state grades. Now is the time to pull the trigger and make me an offer!

Second on the I can't believe this one has not sold list is the 1857-S PCGS EF45 CAC specimen. Many individuals have expressed the same perspective but so far, no one has stepped up with a purchase. Again, now is the time to pull the trigger and make me an offer!

GFRC Owned Offerings from the Iowa Collection

1853 No Arrows PCGS AU55 CAC 25C - Only CAC Approved EF45 - MS63!!!

1857-S PCGS EF45 CAC 25C                                                         1867 PCGS EF45 CAC 25C

    

1847-O PCGS EF40 25C                                                                  1869 PCGS VF35 25C

    

   1892 PCGS MS62 10C                           1921-D PCGS VF30 CAC 10C                        1911 PCGS AU55 25C    

        

 

Oregon Beaver Collection Duplicates Reaching GFRC Price List

The Oregon Beaver emailed during Labor Day weekend and asked if GFRC could quickly handle a small consignment prior to the consignor heading off to an overseas trip. It is difficult to say no to great consignment opportunities and following are five new offerings to consider on a Sunday morning. The 1848-O WB-17 with reverse die cud and mint state grade is minimum R6 rarity and could be as high as an R7+ at offered grade. It is already on hold and being shipped on Monday to a passionate die variety specialist. The 1868 PCGS AU55 half is an attractive offering along with the balance of the consignment. All will be on the price list at some point today.

Oregon Beaver Collection Consignment - Duplicate Seated Halves and More!

1848-O WB-17 R6 Rev Cud PCGS MS61 CAC 50C                                          1868 PCGS AU55 50C                   

    

   1917 Type 1 PCGS AU58FH 25C                    1856-O PCGS AU55 50C                     1860-O WB-11 PCGS AU58 50C  

        

 

Wrapping Up The Blog

Yes, I've already worked nearly four hours in the GFRC office and it is only 8:00 am. Today's key goals are wrapping up image processing for the New Jersey Collection Philadelphia halves and selling more coins in inventory! Some consignors are already in cash raising mode from the upcoming Whitman Baltimore show followed by Winter FUN.

Thank you for making the Blog a regular part of morning reading. Please consider a purchase if so inclined as consignors wish for their cherished coins to locate new homes.

Take care and have a great early Fall Sunday!

 

 

 

September 8, 2018

Len Augsburger Guest Blog: It’s OK to be Dumb

Greetings and welcome to the Blog on a chilly southern Maine morning....I love it!

Talk about a dramatic weather shift as Fall has indeed arrived. Dry cold air is at hand with a chilly breeze permeating the GFRC office to start the day. Present temperature is 55F but feels colder, due to the lack of humidity, and will only reach 70 during early afternoon. Tonights lows could be in the high 30s in the Maine foothills and wide spread across the New Hampshire White Mts. Yes, Fall 2018 has arrived and time to work outdoors.

A special "gift" arrived in the GFRC email Inbox on Friday; a guest Blog from LSCC Hall of Fame Inductee Len Augsburger. For those who may not be aware, Len's current calling in life is directing the Newman Numismatic Portal while enjoying a leadership role is several major numismatic organizations. If there is someone vetted to write about numismatics, it is definitely Len. At the upcoming Fall Whitman Baltimore show, Len will be staffing the GFRC table along with Dan White and myself as the resident numismatists. Given that thought, Len wrote the following guest blog.

 

It's OK to be Dumb

The latest issue of FUN Topics, published by the Florida United Numismatists, brings another installment of Tony Swicer’s amusing column “Customer of the Week.” Swicer takes note of various coin shop customer activity, and no embellishment is required – people hang themselves with no assistance on the part of the dealer. A few examples:

“A lady calls and says, ‘I have some Indian cents, what are they worth?’ I said, ‘How do you know they are real?’ She says, ‘they are real, I dug them out of the burial mound myself.’ “

“An older man comes in with our newspaper ad. He says ‘do you buy gold dollars?’ I say we buy old gold dollars. He pulls out a Sacagawea dollar to which I replied that he could get all he wanted of them at the bank. He then left.”

“A lady calls saying, ‘I have a Buffalo nickel and it’s in excellent condition, what is it worth?’ I said what is the date on it? She says, ‘I don’t know – it’s worn off.’ “

You get the idea. The uninformed public can make itself look pretty silly when displaying ignorance of coin collecting basics. I get a chuckle out of Tony’s column, but I hope we go easy on folks who don’t know any better. The problem is that the people who don’t know any better get lumped in with the people who approach the situation thinking they are already experts. You see these in the Liberty Seated corner of the world, too:

Customer brings Greysheet to delaer’s table and complains that certified coins aren’t priced at sheet levels. Customer assumes that owning Greysheet “qualifies” him to price PQ specialized coins.

Customer insists 1842-O large date quarter is small date variety. Dealer explanation that “1” in the date has to have a flat top is obviously intended to steal customer’s coin at a discount price.

Customer shows coin for sale to dealer, of which a nicer specimen at a lower price is already for sale in dealer’s case. Customer’s coin was recently bought at retail and still in the old dealer packaging.

All this sort of behavior will set you up for a bit of lighthearted fun. So – don’t be that guy! On the flip side – don’t hesitate to ask questions. GFRC is more than happy to educate as opportunity allows. Collectors that understand more about their collections make the best customers in the long run. Basic questions that can be answered in the Guide Book do waste a dealer’s time, but more specialized questions that appeal to a dealer’s specific expertise make for good discussion. A few ideas:

Why is this Fortin-100 variety worth less than a comparable piece?

Why is this coin CAC’ed and the other not?

What is the availability of a certain coin, and should I hold out for a better example?

So – bring your questions to the next coin show and we’ll do our best!

 

GFRC's New Purchases Wave Arrives

How I wish to be able to process and load 25 or more coins per day to the GFRC price list! But in life there are operational limitations if one wishes to hold to a certain quality standard. In too many cases, growing companies will begin to cut corners to generate more output and I lived those situations first hand.

At GFRC, quality is paramount. Quality coins, quality images, quality descriptions and yes, fast responses to FRoR and purchase inquiries. Since there are only so many hours in a day, the result is a fairly fixed bandwidth for adding new coins to the GFRC price list. For September, I previously mentioned adding 10 coins per day on a seven day per week basis. So far so good...

Today brings another installment from a major collection purchase from a West Coast collector. About 140 coins were sourced from this selective collector who assembed quality Liberty Seated and Barber quarter and half dollar sets along with some other items thrown in for good measure. Nearly all coins are in the Very Fine through AU grade range with a fair number being purchased from GFRC. Luckily, GFRC was approached first when it was time to divest.

Yesterday, this individual started seeing his coins appear on the GFRC price list and sent the following commentary after spending a day at the Long Beach show. I've not made edits other than 'xxx'ing" other dealer names.

I see in your new inventory some of the coins I sold you are starting to show up. I note that your sell prices are very near what I paid for the items. That kind of makes me feel “good” about selling them to you. I mean, you dealt with me fairly and honestly, and you did not buy low so you could sell high. There are a couple of Barber halves I regret having to let go. If my refinance goes through, still unsure about it, I may well just re-purchase a couple from you. In this process of disposing of 90% of my collection (I still retain 80 of the newest, and nicest coins I have bought, from you and others), there is a great divide or variance in how dealers who sold coins to me react when I ask them to buy back the coins they sold me. You, xxx xxx, and xxx were among the best of them. Without hesitation each of them had no problem in buying back coins they previously sold to me.

Other dealers, and I won’t mention their names, either directly or indirectly refused to do so. They are dealers with whom I will never buy from again. Some could not use the material for their inventory, some were just to flat out busy to deal with it, some wanted to pay pennies on the dollar for what was so nice yesterday, only to be junk today… one usually difficult national dealer was quite fair when it came for me to sell back a wildly toned Morgan dollar. I was surprised he made a strong offer, after others in the Long Beach bourse only look at the grey sheet, where flat whites are down in price. Other dealers chided me for paying too much at purchase and now the grey sheets bids are too low. Items I bought just a few months ago, apparently have lost 50% of their value.

Following is the beginning of this individual's Liberty Seated half dollars in affordable VF-EF collector grades. Already several were scooped up on Friday evening after posting this client gallery. Please check the 30 day price list to locate which offerings that remain available for purchase.

GFRC New Purchases from a West Coast Collection

1867 PCGS EF40 50C

  1849-O PCGS VF30 50C                           1859-O PCGS EF40 50C                        1859-S PCGS VF30 CAC 50C

        

     1862 PCGS EF45 50C                                1861-S PCGS VF30 50C                              1863 NGC EF40 50C       

        

  1871-S PCGS EF40 50C                           1876-CC PCGS VF25 50C

     

 

Wrapping Up The Blog

With the cool weather, I'm immediately heading outdoors for a vigorous heath walk and graduating to 8 lbs weights for the 2+ miles walk. Afterwards, the balance of the morning will be in the packing and shipping department. Then it will be time to process more coins for this evening's latest gallery display.

Thank you for stopping by and please consider a GFRC purchase to brighten your weekend. Purchases from well known customers will ship immediately on Monday morning. Just confirm placing a check in the mail and your order will be shipped.

Wishing everyone a great weekend and special thanks to Len Augsburger for his guest blog!

 

 

 

September 7, 2018

Liberty Seated Collectors Club Edition

Greetings on a cool Friday morning in southern Maine and welcome to another edition of the Daily Blog.

Seasonal temperatures have finally arrived but not without one last show of force from Mother Nature. Thursday morning's heat and humidity was oppressive and by noon time, I could see the omninous gray-black clouds moving in from the northwest via GFRC's office window. It did not take long for the rain to start but then the winds kick in with near tropical force strength. Rains was moving sideways and pelting windows. As expected during a high wind velocity event, power was lost for about three hours. Even without power, I worked in the office processing images for today's Blog!

 

Liberty Seated Collectors Club Breaking News!

Today's Blog edition will focus on the Liberty Seated Collectors Club as there is considerable news to share. Wednesday's leadership team meeting was well orchestrated by newly inducted Hall of Famer, Len Augsburger. Following are the key outcomes of that meeting.

- LSCC will be giving three presentations at Winter FUN. Yes, Winter FUN is just around the corner and finally returns to Orlando during 2019. FUN dates are January 10 - 13 with dealer setup on January 9. John Frost, Len Augsburger and Gerry Fortin have volunteered to give Liberty Seated related presentations at the show towards more Liberty Seated coinage outreach.

- Jeff Ball joins LSCC Leadership team as Special Projects Director! I'm so pleased to announce that Jeff Ball has agreed to take a more active LSCC role and will be become an ongoing member of the leadership team. Our team is an amazing group of passionate numismatists and selfless volunteers. Current team members include Bill Bugert, Len Augsburger, John Frost, Dale Miller, Dennis Fortier, Carl Feldman, myself and now Jeff Ball. Jeff successfully managed the Premier LSCC Membership Medal program, which by the way, remains active through the end of 2018. More on this program is a few minutes.

- SeatedFest II planning is underway for the Spring 2019 Whitman Baltimore show. After several years of discussion and attempting to find the right formula for SeatedFest II, our club has assembled an exciting event that should draw huge attendance. SeatedFest II will have three key components.

The LSCC has already placed a large order for our fashionable polo shirts as we expect to sell many at this event along with recruiting another 10-15 club members, at a minimum.

If you've always wanted to take a course on Liberty Seated coinage and did not have the time or monies to travel to the ANA Summer Seminar in Colorado Springs, then make hotel reservations for the Spring Whitman Baltimore show!

 

Premier LSCC Membership Medals - Order Now!

 

2nd Production Run of Premier LSCC Membership Medals!

Jeff Ball, our new LSCC Special Project Director sent in the following announcement for the Daily Blog!

    

Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to own and pass down your heritage in the Liberty Seated Collectors Club! We are now taking orders for a 2nd and final engraving run of Premier Silver Medals. The medals are struck and waiting for your name and LSCC number to be engraved.

Oh yeh, you still receive the beautiful custom crafted Capital Plastics holder in which to store your cherished medal. The spectacular Jim Macor design and Dan Carr minting are a joy to hold in your hand.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: The maximum number of medals per member has been raised to 5!!!!

Yes, that’s right, you can now order as many as 5 total medals per member/number to share with friends or family.

Here is what LSCC members have shared with us regarding the medals:

“It has been my first chance to respond, but the Medal arrived in the mail last Saturday 8/4 or earlier, not sure. The very quick delivery, quality of the Medal of course and the whole process certainly exceeded expectations big time! Thanks for everyone's efforts from just one of the #s in the membership roster!”
PK

“I simply want to check in and say the medal arrived to me safely and I am thrilled. I should have sent this earlier so you could put a checkmark next to my name.”
BR

“I received my LSCC Medal in the mail yesterday. Well struck and much “eye appeal”... Thank you,
DD

“Got my medal – it looks BEAUTIFUL.”
DD

It’s so easy to place an order TODAY! Simply click on the link below and order via Paypal or US Mail.

http://www.lsccweb.org/Premier-Membership-Medal.shtml

Thank you for your support of LSCC and the Premier Medal program of 2018.

 

A Wave of Great Collector Coins from GFRC

Yes, it feels like a wave or a mountain, considering all the work involved.... There are so many great new coins sitting in the GFRC office patiently waiting to be listed. Below is another lucky group that made it through image processing on Thursday and will arrive at the price list today. First Rights of Refusal are quickly arriving based on last evening's Blog preview!

Within the major collection that I recently purchased, there are significant runs of Barber quarters and halves. This collection provided the right coins that I sought for expanding the Barber coinage product lines.