Saturday, February 21, 2009

1955 Error (Non-Famous)

Do you have an error cent and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Anytime I find a 1955 cent I hope that it is the famous doubled-die error that would make it over $1,000.00 easily. Even one of minor varieties would be cool to find but this find would not make me a thousandaire.

Although it does have some error that may not be clear on today's enhanced scans. Pushing the scanner to 700 dpi and raising the contrast while lowering the brightness I tried as best as I could to show the defects.

The front of the coin has a break from Lincoln's brow to the back of his hair.
The back has a break halfway through the right wheat ear with three thin die cracks reacihng the rim.

Honestly they're there.
It is not wear or outside damage instead I think it is a late stage die that began to break. Back in the 1950s dies were often used until failure. While this holds little significance in coin collecting world it can gain more. A quick Google search "1955 die crack" turns up others that are similar even a few that are nearly exact.

If a collector wanted he/she could buy them up and try to match the error and get what is known as progression. It is exactly what it sounds like, following the progress of a die crack or break. This brings up the value but still not by much.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 1 Cent / United States of America
Year: 1955
Mintage: 330,958,200
Metal: 95% copper 5% tin and zinc
Value: $0.25 because it's starting to green

Yes there is an argument that this is not an error coin since no mistakes were made but just a naturally occurring metal failure process but that is for another time.

Do you have an error penny and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Coin Drive

Do you have a real Euro coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Thinking about a post I made over at My Box Is Warm about things gone missing like thumb/flash drives I remembered a cool little one I came across.

These USB Flash Drives are made by a company I never heard of called LaCie, a quick search shows they specialize in external hard drives. Although a 7.5TB hard drive sounds cool I liked these little 8GB and 4GB flash drives pictured below.


For $29.99 and $19.99, for the 8GB and 4GB respectively, it's not a bad value for style but seeing how some people can't tell the difference between U.S. nickels and Spanish 20 Euro cents I don't think these will become common. Just a few months ago both were listed $5.00 cheaper so maybe if the have a sale it will be a good opportunity.

Check out how these drives blend with the Euros.

If I had a budget or if this blog were something more than informative I would get one of each and fill them up with the coin books I can purchase in .pdf format along with a complete list of legit coin websites built into a modified Firefox browser made for collectors. Portable OpenOffice with spreadsheets ready for a simple entry to organize your personal collection or install one of those professional coin software programs. Then do some sort of giveaway.

But alas I won't!

Do you have any type of money and want to know its value? Leave a question or comment and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Friday, February 06, 2009

Eh, er. How can I explain?

Do you have a Euro coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

I'm in line waiting to pay for a highly overpriced textbook when the young nice and giggly non-American student in front of me wants to pay with exact change. That is nice and all but she didn't understand why her two nickels where rejected by the cashier. Kindly everyone points out that those are Euros and not nickels, she asks "What's the difference?" Not knowing how to explain the entire currency system I traded a dime for the Euros and she paid the dime forward and hurray the line moved on.

I assumed the woman was Eastern European by old-fashioned visual and audio cues but wouldn't they still know of Euros? Plus who has Euros in their purse and still not know they aren't nickels. She responded in English very well.

You might think it was a scam to pass off funny foreign money as U.S. but 40 Euro cents is about 50 U.S. cents and she got rid of them for 10 cents. She did not stay long enough to try to give her my change of 26 cents to attempt to cover the exchange rate. Could it be I offended? No because she was so happy when she left after also refusing her receipt.

Strange exchange. I'm usually good at explaining money value but this nervous exchange had thrown me off. Either way I got me some Euros for cheap.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: 20 Euro Cents / Spain
Year: 2001
Mintage: 146,000,000
Metal: Brass
Value: $0.25 in Very-Fine for each

There were two but I just scanned it once because it would have been redundant, you know why repeat, there is no point in showing them again and again.

Note: The image was done using my other scanner. I rarely use it and the luster comes out less shiny but the details are high. (Click on image for a larger picture) The problem is I have less setting control. I'll probably use the regular scanner for future scans.

Do you have a European coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.