"We're also continuing to organize the D.L. Hansen Collection by de-accessioning some duplicates that have been upgraded over the past year or so. This process, while seemingly easy, is anything but. It requires a lot of sorting, reviewing coins, submissions to CAC, and finding pieces that may have been misplaced by accident. I've often left the collection thinking Well, at least we're closer to being organized, but this time I left with I even got the modern Roosevelt Dimes sorted. In essence, I finished my current organizational projects and it should allow for us to proceed more efficiently in 2022 with de-accessioning pieces that are no longer part of the collections we are building. It's an amazingly cumbersome project, but it's also an amazing opportunity, and that is never lost on me.

"One funny anecdote from the trip is that I hadn't seen the 1804 Dollar in quite some time. And I thought that I should probably try to do a deep dive to locate it, if possible. Well, apparently it had been incorrectly filed. I managed to locate it, but not after having a few heart palpitations. "

Whew! -Editor

   

"Here is another interesting postcard or souvenir card. It is a traveling sort of museum with coins, stamps, and curios. Attached to the outside of the vehicle are license plates. If you enlarge the photo you will also see a number of circle shapes which are presumably the coins.

"I wonder if the museum was all on the outside of the vehicle or if people could also enter. Were the coins nailed on or glued on? Preservation of the coins is a thought shared by numismatists when viewing something of this sort.

"Sales of this souvenir card helped to fund the venture. It must have been a very creative or eccentric person that dreamed up this idea. The eBay seller dates the card from 1900 to 1920."

   

Neat item. I don't recall seeing this postcard before. Carol found a second postcard on eBay and I bought that one for my ephemera collection.

Is anyone familiar with this venture? I tried a search on newspapers.com, but the words are so generic I came up with nothing relevant. If we knew the name of the person behind it we might find more about it. -Editor

   
Images from PCGS CoinFacts

"I found this in the same Chicago Coin Club meeting report where members reminisced about being the first to see the 1913 Liberty Head nickel, which was at the Dec. 3, 1919 meeting."

"I guess these would be true First Strike coins."

"My catalog of Washington, DC tokens includes three denominations from the Willard, used in the 1880s.

"There are two types of tokens, each having the same inscription on its obverse and reverse, and both types struck with incuse lettering on 29mm nickel planchets. I don't know who struck the tokens, but several merchants in D.C. used the same type, and the common denominator is the fact that they were all in business in the mid-1880s. I've also seen many tokens of the same type from other cities."

   

Thanks - Dave kindly sent the above scans of images in his book. -Editor

"Here is a picture of the free-standing medal by Marika Somogyi commemorating Allied Victory in WWII, made in 1994 and distributed by the Jewish-American Hall of Fame."

   

Thanks! -Editor

"I wonder if there are similar stories in the US?"

Great question! I'm not aware of any. Readers? The market value of the piece would have to fall below the stated legal tender value for a commemorative coin to be worth spending at "face" value. -Editor

"The Georgia RR continued to accept these pieces of paper to help the paroled CSA soldiers ride rails on their journeys homeward. "

   

Thanks. Rick Lank had used this image in his talk at last week's PAN show. I'd remarked that I'd owned a note similar to this one at one time as part of my U.S. Civil War scrip collection. The note is payable in Confederate Treasury Notes. -Editor

"I continue to be happily amazed at our numismatic sections. We generate virtually hundreds of bidders all over the world, making many new collectors who discover the world of numismatic collectibles (we had almost 8000 registered bidders). If we have a weak spot, it's getting interest in the historic coin catalogs of the 19th century.

We love the competition, and I always try to make it fun for collectors. Of course we never know what is coming in the door, and half of it has no precedent in sales, so it's up in the air for value. We let the collectors set the values with their bidding, sometimes we have to drop well below the start price to get it going, but it always climbs back up. Folks want to know there is competition and value in the piece.

We still had almost 300 online Monday night at 7pm PST, after 5 days of selling!!"

Bibliophiles take note - examine Fred's offerings closely for numismatic literature and ephemera. Another sale is coming up hard on the heels of this last one. -Editor

Regarding this coin in an upcoming MDC Monaco sale, I asked Mike Markowitz, "Is that an animal on the reverse of this coin?" -Editor

   

"Yes - that is the conventional Roman representation of a peacock, which is a common symbol on posthumous Consecration issue."

"I have started a series of articles on third-party grader "authenticated" counterfeit coins.

"The topic is really controversial with the TPGs because they think it showcases their mistakes, but I think it adds to just how deceptive some of these fakes really are, and unfortunately many Hobbyists put so much faith in the TPGs' opinions...

"One of the main points beyond certified authentic by a paid TPG is that there must be differences to an authentic example and images to show the differences in each article.

"I am planning to develop the topic and types of counterfeits with each article, building on each one as they go.

"The 1st two have been published and can be viewed on CoinWeek."

Thanks. Follow the links below to Jack's articles. -Editor

   

Dale Kreuger passed along links to books and information about the CloudCoin digital currency. Thanks. See also the article elsewhere in this issue on a book about physical bitcoins. -Editor

This week a reader passed along a questionable eBay lot. It's a modern wooden toy box with markings of a "U.S. Government Mint." A 2013 Numismatic News article discussed these. -Editor