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Approaching GFRC to Sell A Collection: Do's and Dont's Coin Shows, the Dealer Experience GFRC Approach to Rapid Pre-show Coin Screening Renting Quality Coins? Reviewing GFRC Luster Descriptions The Advanced Collector Tips on Offering Coins to Dealers on the Show Floor TPG Grading Thoughts Why Do We Collect Coins?
1860-1861 Type 1 vs Type 2 Obv Design Hubs Abandon the Ego and Sell the Coin Coin Collection Life Cycle Model Coin Doctoring, Enhanced 1861-S Liberty Seated Quarter Coin Marketplaces Evaluating Purchased Coins Gerry's Ground Rules for Buying Quality Coins Guess the Grade How Important are Survival Rates? Pricing Coins Question of the Day: CAC Question of the Day: Proofs Question of the Day: TPG Population The Case for Selling Liberty Seated Coinage Duplicates Underrated and Overrated Liberty Seated Dimes What to Consider with Coin Photography Where to Buy Coins: Auction House vs. Reputable Dealer
Barry Sunshine - Buying Right Greg Johnson - A Collector's Transition to Crusty Original Coins Harry Zhang - Chinese Coin Collecting in Transition Len Augsburger - 2017 ANA Summer Seminar Wrap Len Augsburger - Are you a Picker or Gobbler? Len Augsburger - Good Coin Security Len Augsburger - How to Take Care of your Coin Dealer Steve Davies - What is Toning? Warren Mills (RCNH) - How to Survive at Auction Scott Grieb - Of Coin Stories - Three Cent Shops and Double Eagle Prizes

Daily Blog Highlights - Customer Feedback

The Beauty of Original Coins - Published December 6 2018
Hi Gerry, I just wanted you to know that I am quickly taking on an entirely new appreciation for the difference between genuinely original CAC quality and the most likely cleaned or improved, "commercial" quality coins I used to purchase back in the day. I had an epiphany last night while looking through your price list of bust quarters for over an hour. It suddenly occurred to me that all of your CAC coins had a certain "look" that most of the non-CAC coins did not have. The non-CAC quarters had more of that 2-tone appearance that imparted a certain enhanced aesthetic beauty that the CAC coins didn't have. Then I realized that I had been looking at the beauty totally the wrong way. I was only looking at the coin from the standpoint of its visual beauty without considering the beauty associated with a genuine piece of Americana having survived for 2 long centuries in its original state.With the CAC coins, I was looking back in time at 1818, as if the coin had been put on somebody's desk and the room sealed until now. In the case of the non-CAC coins I was only looking back as far as the last enhancement. In the same sense, if the coin were melted, it wouldn't be 200 years old anymore, it would be brand new. Looking at all the CAC's as a group and all the non-CAC's as a separate group, the real beauty (and rarity) came to light. It occurred to me that out of a mintage of 28,000, how few still existed, and then how few of those could have survived without being touched or modified. It brought on a whole new sense of serious rarity. If only 5% were left untouched, these coins could be 1 in 100 as opposed to 1 in 1000 quite easily. And the difference in price did not reflect that disparity. Hence, the extreme rarity and true value seriously hidden in all original coins. 

My computer is close to the bed so this has become my nightly ritual for me prior to turning in. I check to see what Gerry Fortin came up with that day. My wife frequently asks how I can possibly look at pictures of coins night after night without tiring of it. I explain that people who really love coins get this "coin bug", and once you catch it you not only can sit and look for hours, sometimes it's really hard to stop because we're always aware of the possibility that the very next coin we examine may be the one we've been searching for. In answering her, it occurred to me that I had just answered the question I had been asking myself for a long, long time.
From Tenafly, Published on April 1 2018
In yesterday's issue, your resident author penned an article entitled, GFRC's Approach for Rapid Pre-Show Coin Screening. My goal was to describe a disciplined method for evaluating potential numismatic purchases. During the day, many readers wrote and commented on the usefulness of the article and their hopes to start employing these techniques at their next coin show. My good friend, Tenafly, provided his thoughts.....

All's well here in the state (for now) of California. I really liked the detailed "GFRC's Approach..." in this morning's blog. Like anything else the attention level has to be high for detail and quality while working fast with very few cut corners. Sounds like real estate appraisal when my mind has to focus on about 100 things at the same time while shifting gears constantly I also remember Dipper Dan's NJ store; he used to say, "you never know what's coming through that door", even way before the Pawn Stars coined that phrase. How true that was when one day an old (very old) lady dumped about 50 gold dollars out of a small velvet bag on the counter. And the bags of silver dollars delivered from an armored truck to his vault, about 50 bags. That took gallons of dip to dip them. And the smell...