Gordian III

Years ago I decided to add an ancient silver Roman coin. While Roman coins are a dime a dozen in copper, I wanted to have one struck from silver so I bought this silver coin of Gordian III, who became Roman emperor in 238 A. D. and ruled until 244 A. D.

Looking online I noticed that there are many variations of the reverse of this coin.

What is interesting about my example is how the head appears to be well struck and does not exhibit much wear on it but the text, especially on the reverse, appears to be "dissolved" a little. I wonder if this coin was recovered from a ship where the obverse was faced down and the reverse facing up constantly in contact with the harsh elements of a salty sea.

Investing In Silver

Most coin collectors have a tendency to be interested in precious metals and will purchase coins and ingots for the value of the metal contained therein. The following video shows the different ways one can purchase silver.

There are old silver coins, which are common and so worn out that they have little interest to a collector other then their silver content. These coins are known as junk silver. Many of the pre-1965 halves, quarters, and dimes trade as junk silver. There are also bullion coins. These are silver and gold rounds made as a simple way to purchase the metal. The US issues American Eagle coins in this way. Canada issues the Maple Leaf. The South African Krugerrand is another prime example. Private mints also coin their own rounds and bars. Silver bars are a better way to to invest since they can be found in 10 oz and 100 oz sizes whereas most silver rounds tend to be 1 ounce.

How To Photograph Coins

One can photograph their coins in various ways, a simple snapshot with their iPhone, a scanner, or using a professional SLR camera. Of course, with an SLR one can have a much more controlled environment with which to take the pictures.

Below is a photo I took of an 1885-O PCGS MS-62 Morgan Dollar with my iPhone 5s camera.

Below is an image of a scan of a Buffalo Nickel taken with a scanner.

While one can set a camera or scanner to save in the highest possible setting, there are still some limitations to the image quality. This is because even if the image is saved as a high quality tiff file it still lacks the latitude of color correction that raw files tend to possess. In the video below I demonstrate how to set up the camera and what accessories would be beneficial to take the photographs. I then demonstrate how one can edit the image. In last part of the video, I showcase a few coins photographed with my SLR.

How To Remove PVC Damage From Coins

When one purchases loose coins from a coin dealer, they are usually placed in a vinyl flip so that they don't get scratched in the commute from the store to one's collection. The problem however, is that many of the coins purchased this way remain in the vinyl flip to protect them. Unfortunately, these vinyl flips do not protect coins, but rather damage them. They have a chemical in them that artificially discolors the surface by slowly corroding the metal over time. These coins have a bland green sheen which doesn't look natural.

In the back of most coin shops, there exists a chemistry lab where coins are doctored up to make them more appealing to an unsuspecting buyer. One chemical, which is a staple in these chemistry labs, is acetone. Acetone will dissolve the green damage off the surface of the coin without readily eliminating the frosty mint luster seen in many silver coins. It does however have solvent properties which will also clean a coin, and remove it's patina. Grading companies are becoming very picky that one must use acetone with great care.

In the video below, one can see how acetone removes the PVC damage from the surface of a coin. I demonstrate how an uncirculated coin will retain its luster, whereas heavily circulated coins will end up being cleaned by the acetone that they will loose their patina. This doesn't mean that it is impossible to use acetone on a heavily circulated coin. One can use a cotton swab and painstakingly roll it over the higher areas of the surface, where the damage is more prevalent. Of course not all cotton swabs can be used since acetone dissolves plastic.

Monster Toned Morgans

When Morgan Dollars were minted, they were placed in canvas bags which contained sulfur in them. Contrary to what most people think, these coins which are generally associated with the Wild West, were not as popular back then as they are now. In recent times the Susan B. Anthony Dollars were highly unpopular due their small size. People would confuse them for quarters and the dollar coins of today are yellow so that one can discriminate better between them.

 

Between 1981 and 1999 the us government had stockpiles of Anthony Dollars since nobody wanted them. When the Morgan Dollars were being minted, cowboys, didn't really want a heavy bag of dollars weighing down their horse. Hence, many bags of dollars were being stockpiled into vaults, which is the reason we have so many high grade Morgans available to collectors as compared to other denominations of coins from that era. Naturally, the coins towards the back of the vaults were minted earlier and as more were minted they were placed in front of the older ones. Eventually, as they were being slowly removed from the vaults to be placed in circulation.

This resulted in a couple of things. First, since silver dollars weren't being minted from 1905 to 1920 the stockpiles were being slowly depleted. The later dates were the ones at the front of the vaults so they would be grabbed before the bags of coins in the back with earlier dates. Because of this many of the earlier Morgans are less expensive in mint condition than the later ones of which there are relatively fewer uncirculated examples. Second, the coins in bags placed towards the back were exposed to the sulfur in the canvas for a longer duration.

Exposure of the Morgan dollars with the sulfur in the bags provides the right conditions for beautiful coloration when the silver oxidizes. Decades ago, these toned coins were unpopular. Bright white Morgans were more highly desired. Many of the toned coins were dipped to remove the beautiful rainbows and return them to their original white color. Because of that, heavily toned Morgans are difficult to find and have become highly sought out by collectors.

Toned coins are generally categorized by how heavily the toning is and also by the color scheme. Morgans that don't have much toning would be referred to low or medium grade toning whereas heavily colored Morgans would be referred to as high or Monster toned coins. These high and Monster toned Morgans are much rarer than low or medium grade toned coins that some collectors are willing to offer a premium over the listed value. This allows for individual specimens of more common dates to fetch a little extra cash.

Shown below is the reverse of an 1881-S PCGS MS-66 Morgan with some nice coloration in this lower toned example. The photo doesn't quite do justice to the colors seen on the lower left but at least one can see how the color progresses from yellow to darker, bright, colors with further toning.

Further toning of the surface renders a much more beautiful coin, as seen by another example of an 1881-S PCGS MS-66 Morgan Dollar, shown below. This coin has nearly all the characteristics expected of a Monster Toned Morgan. However, because the heavy coloration is on the reverse and not the obverse, this would likely qualify as a High Toned Morgan rather than a Monster. The obverse does have a beautiful green sheen to it but the bulls-eye target toning on the reverse is much to be desired.

Rare Date Error

 

A while back, on a different blog which I rarely post on, I featured my 1931-S Buffalo Nickel with a rare date "error" on it. It took years to figure out why the date was 11131-S rather than 1931-S.

I acquired the coin in the early 1990's from an elderly couple at my church who used to pass out Atomic FireBalls to the children. They knew that I was into coins so they gave me this coin. I took it to a couple different coin dealers in town, both of which have since retired from the coin trade. The first dealer wasn't sure how the "error" occurred and the other dealer claimed that someone had drilled through the side of the coin and raised the metal from the inside. I knew this was not the case on this coin because there was no evidence of any plug on the edge of the coin and it wasn't evident that the coin was tampered in such a way.

A few years later, there are two different coin shops in town. I took it to one and the dealer weighed the coin and said that the weight was within the proper range for this coin and that it was an original coin and not a counterfeit. He suggested sending it to a numismatic publication to have them write an article on it and perhaps they would investigate it further as they write the article. I did no such thing. The last thing one should do is randomly send coins through the mail to solicit an article from a random stranger. So my inquiries continued.

About 3 years ago or so I took the coin to the other main coin dealer in town, who also is an expert on Morgan Dollar die varieties and consults with PCGS on Morgans. He was able to explain exactly how the "error" occurred on the coin. It turns out that the "error" was not from the mint, nor was the coin deliberately tampered with to produce such an oddity. Shown below is a close up of the date on the obverse.

Focusing on the two 1's just left of the 3 in the date and one can see that they were formed from the 9 that was originally there when the coin was struck. Note how the tops and bottoms of the 1's are curved. Shown below is the date from a 1938 Buffalo to compare the shape of the 9 on these coins with the 1's from the "error".

Now it is apparent that early in the coin's history something banged up on the surface of the coin causing the 9 to split in the middle. It separated the left portion of the top and the left portion of the bottom in such a way causing them to fuse together, to form a 1. The part on the right also became 1.

Under magnification one can see the evidence of this as being the true reason as to what changed the date on the coin. Looking at the surface of the coin between the two 1's that were formed from the 9 one can see that the metal was ripped off and it looks different from the rest of the surface. This is the area just to the left of the red brackets labeled 1, 2, and 3. The area denoted by bracket 4 shows where the top left and bottom right of the 9 fused together.

Since the time the damage occurred, the coin continued to be circulated for a while until it was finally pulled out of circulation. The wear on the coin from use helped conceal the fact that the 9 was damaged. The couple that gave me the coin said that they found it in the parking lot of a grocery store and thought a car had run over it due to additional scuffs on the coin. I believe the scuffs, seen on the Indian's face on the coin's obverse, occurred at a later date from the ding that damaged the 9. This is evident in the fact that the surface of the date is worn out more than the scuffs on the face. I also don't believe that the coin was run over by a car in the parking lot as the damaged areas on the coin would have appeared fresh when compared to the rest of the surface.

While 1931-S Buffalo's in similar condition are worth roughly $15 each, I believe that this coin can fetch more due to the novelty factor of the date. I would love to have it sent off to PCGS to get certified but I doubt they would give it a true grade. I believe that due to the date "error" and the harsh scuffs on the surface that it would grade PCGS-Genuine.

All in all, this Buffalo nickel makes an interesting conversation piece even after learning how the date changed.

Introduction

About 3 years ago I started an Obsolete Currency blog where I discussed various notes in my currency collection. With this blog, I plan to discuss various aspects of coin collecting, show off some of my coins, and write about other similar things.