Dollars to Donuts
DOLLARS TO DONUTS
I have been collecting coins for about 62 years. Six years ago I began looking at currency as many coin dealers had both coins and currencies.
I first became interested in currency when I inspected (for the first real-time) the reverse of the $2 bill. The closer I inspected it, the more amazed I became in the ‘art’ of engraving. All those people on the reverse of the $2 gave amazement to me that someone poured over an engraving plate with a jeweler’s loop and turned out a work of art rivaling any of the oil, watercolor and canvas artists. In fact, after going to myriad art shows and auctions, I believe the ‘two’ could be one of the greatest works of man.
Then I look at some of the tapestries, Sistine Chapel in Rome and I am also amazed at the talent involved there.
So, being that coins have been my ‘thing’ for so many years, and I don’t like having a van follow me to shows, I decided to stick with coins and add a few currency items to broaden my horizons.
I am a member of several coin, currency and collectible clubs and am not a real good member, because I don’t attend the meetings and activities as a good member should, but I started while earning a living and now that I’m retired, I am loathe to change my ways.
BUT…, I do intend to continue my knowledge base and will, when possible share certain gems with you as I have time and deem them interesting. Soooo…. To start this journal:
I began my currency experience at the FUN Show in Orlando about 6 years ago, when my table mate had a client come up and had a fistful of CGA notes. He wanted my mate to see if any were worth crossing over to PCGS. Well, he had quite a collection and at the show, PCGS would have them back the next day and so we did it.
At that time, it was about $20 to cross one note and like I said, he had a lot of them. Neither he nor my mate had the cash on hand, so I handed over a stack of $100’s,(more than I like to think) and the next morning they were on our table, and a few hours later, the table was besieged by collectors and by the time we went home that Sunday, the table was cleaned out of currency while my coins held a distant 2nd.
My table was the 2nd most successful table at the show, all the others were tied for 1st.
So, before we closed out the show, the client, my mate and I agreed to meet about a week later and see what the client had to sell.
To make a long story short, I bought 89 pieces (all in CGA label) [knowing at that time, the CGA label were stinkers), I carefully looked through them and was enthralled with the fancy serial #’s and in fact, for the most part, what appeared to be desirable and collectible. (evan though they were mostly modern items.)
I had these notes for a time, and nothing moved as all were concerned about the CGA label.
So, with that being said, I deemed it necessary, if I were to get any ‘action’ on my inventory, I needed to cross to PMG or PCGS.
For no good reason, I leaned towards NGC for my coins, and that led me to PMG for currency.
That led me to my first real study of currency because being that it costs around $20 to grade one, [plus expenses such as mail, insurance and other charges which allows the Post Office and NGC to have such beautiful buildings].
I then went to the books and references to ascertain which were worth grading, and which were better off holding in CGA.
Of the 89 items, 60 odd were worth cross grading and so I did. As expected, the CGA items dropped 1 or two grades, (never 3 or more) so I did pretty good.
I am reticent at putting these up for sale, and I have great fun showing these at various venues for coin and currency clubs and shows.
What I am going to do with these will be the subject of my next journal. But for now, I hope you enjoyed this one.
Capt. Brian
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