Show Us Your Lucky Penny

mr1931S

@coinsarefun said:
Sorry, just saw this today. As far as I know there are no copies or kopycat’s. Give them time they will.
But there are so many different Billiken items out there not just relegated to tokens.
In my opinion the red one graded MS65RB I believe. And never saw one that nice. There are a ton out there
there has to be a few. Just hard to find.

.

@mr1874 said:

THE GOD OF THINGS AS THEY OUGHT TO BE
BILLIKEN
COPYRIGHT 1908

You have a nice collection of lucky pieces. Thank you for presenting some of them here.

The Billiken is especially interesting to me. Are these subject to modern day copying? If so, how does one know if one is looking at an offered Billiken that it is original and not a copy?

It will be fun for grandson and I to try and find at least one of these at next show.

coinsarefun

.
Please let us know here. Would give me hope.

.

@mr1874 said:

@coinsarefun said:
Sorry, just saw this today. As far as I know there are no copies or kopycat’s. Give them time they will.
But there are so many different Billiken items out there not just relegated to tokens.
In my opinion the red one graded MS65RB I believe. And never saw one that nice. There are a ton out there
there has to be a few. Just hard to find.

.

@mr1874 said:

THE GOD OF THINGS AS THEY OUGHT TO BE
BILLIKEN
COPYRIGHT 1908

You have a nice collection of lucky pieces. Thank you for presenting some of them here.

The Billiken is especially interesting to me. Are these subject to modern day copying? If so, how does one know if one is looking at an offered Billiken that it is original and not a copy?

It will be fun for grandson and I to try and find at least one of these at next show.

crazyhounddog

@mr1874 said:

@crazyhounddog said:

@mr1874 said:

@MarkW63 said:

@mr1874 said:
Acid etch experiment in the interest of LEARNING more about how coin such as mine's V.D.B. might have been manufactured is not going to happen. Experiment is cost prohibitive. The acid needed is not just expensive, it is super expensive. And the shipping cost is very high as well.

People say this ruins a coin, but if say a Buffalo Nickel has NO trace of a date then its ruined anyway. Using a protect like doesn't un-ruin it either. Its cheap, and if the owner of the dateless (worthless) Nickel gets a peek at a trace of the date may have some satisfaction, nothing LOST!
But its cost isn't going to break the bank.

I know all about Nic-A-Date. Really a good product. I enjoy processing dateless Buffalo Nickels with Nic-A-Date. In fact, I have an album for the once dateless Buffalo nickels to reside in after I restore the date. I have learned how to use Nic-A-Date so that one can barely tell that the date was restored using Nic-A-Date. I once got $10 on ebay auction for a restored from dateless '15-S.

Nic-a-date ruins coins. Yes I can see very clearly a buffalo nickel that has been destroyed by this crap. It’s now garbage in my eyes and many, many others.

Destroyed because you can see the date after a successful Nic-A-Date restore? I mean, the nickel after being Nic-A-Dated is still worth at least a nickel, no?

this coin (1909-S V.D.B.) has been beaten to death and beyond BUT i am a fan of the learning/education process. since i don't recall actually saying it, so i'll say it now. just because the obv matches up some diagnostics, including the S and chip and position of the #6 09-s mm position and that it is in a pcgs holder doesn't make it authentic with an added vdb. occam is most likely correct here.

Occam's Razor. I'm familiar with it. What I seek is the answer to HOW was the V.D.B. added if that's what happened. I think the answer might be that the V.D.B. was added by the counterfeiter doing a rapid acid etch of the V.D.B. that was painstakingly constructed using acid-resistant paint on a genuine 1909-S cent from obverse die #6 and reverse with deep valley 'N' in UNITED. The entire piece was immersed in concentrated nitric acid (90% or greater strength) for just a very short time, just long enough to accomplish the etch, an etch that is marked by crisp, well-defined letters and dots. Simulated die strike accomplished by using a chemical, in other words. That's the simplest explanation I can think of.

one effective way to take this to the next level is to d/l many MAX images of 09-s and 09-s vdb images to look over the obv for matching polishing marks/die scratches etc which probably won't be there OR go to some of the lincoln cent sites and there are several at least and are pretty much all next-level with their research to look for other pups to comp on yours.

Doing what you are suggesting brother and I do is in the works but I still want to do the acid etch experiment on my .9999 Cu Golden State Mint piece by making a "7" on it using C.P. (Harsche's term) nitric acid to see what I get.

by doing this, you can help to relieve the need/desire to figure out how vdb was added as there is a 99% chance it has been there since the day of its' striking. i'll leave 1% out there since i don't have it in hand, nor do i want to.

Fair enough. Thank you, Mr. Newman, for your attention in this matter of helping to solve the mystery of the whispering SVDB.

Congratulations you just turned a nickel that was worth .50-$1. And made it only worth a nickel. Not so bad when you look at it that way but what if everyone decided to do it? Just like the idiots that artificial tone coins. All destroyed.

mr1931S

@coinsarefun said:
.
Please let us know here. Would give me hope.

.

@mr1874 said:

@coinsarefun said:
Sorry, just saw this today. As far as I know there are no copies or kopycat’s. Give them time they will.
But there are so many different Billiken items out there not just relegated to tokens.
In my opinion the red one graded MS65RB I believe. And never saw one that nice. There are a ton out there
there has to be a few. Just hard to find.

.

@mr1874 said:

THE GOD OF THINGS AS THEY OUGHT TO BE
BILLIKEN
COPYRIGHT 1908

You have a nice collection of lucky pieces. Thank you for presenting some of them here.

The Billiken is especially interesting to me. Are these subject to modern day copying? If so, how does one know if one is looking at an offered Billiken that it is original and not a copy?

It will be fun for grandson and I to try and find at least one of these at next show.

I will certainly do that. I will have my hands full dragging my grandson away from the show displays of U.S. currency, however.

mr1931S

@mr1874 said:

@coinsarefun said:
Sorry, just saw this today. As far as I know there are no copies or kopycat’s. Give them time they will.
But there are so many different Billiken items out there not just relegated to tokens.
In my opinion the red one graded MS65RB I believe. And never saw one that nice. There are a ton out there
there has to be a few. Just hard to find.

.

@mr1874 said:

THE GOD OF THINGS AS THEY OUGHT TO BE
BILLIKEN
COPYRIGHT 1908

You have a nice collection of lucky pieces. Thank you for presenting some of them here.

The Billiken is especially interesting to me. Are these subject to modern day copying? If so, how does one know if one is looking at an offered Billiken that it is original and not a copy?

It will be fun for grandson and I to try and find at least one of these at next show.

I can't remember when I had more fun at a coin show. The dealers were ALL very cordial and enthusiastic about helping my grandson try to find what he was looking for. No Billiken token seen for sale, however. These must be very scarce. Grandson did find and buy some nice colorful, reproduction pieces for his currency collection in addition to a few Indian head nickels he needed for his album.

cmerlo1

Here are 7 of mine. Sometimes I wish I still had them:

LanceNewmanOCC

@cmerlo1 said:
Here are 7 of mine. Sometimes I wish I still had them:

DANG

cmerlo1

@LanceNewmanOCC said:

@cmerlo1 said:
Here are 7 of mine. Sometimes I wish I still had them:

DANG

They were in a 20-roll hoard of uncirculated 1971 die 1 (2 rolls), 1972 dies 2,3,5,7, and 8, and 1973 die 1 (1 roll) that a dealer friend of mine and I partnered on buying. He brought me in to verify the varieties were what the seller said they were. He had put them away in the early-mid 70's searching mint-sewn bags, and was adamant his attributions were correct, and didn't want to wait while I examined every coin. I did insist I veryify all of the 1971's since we were paying a LOT for them. We negotiated a price per coin and bought the whole deal. While getting the first batch of 300 coins ready to submit to ANACS, I found 12 die 4's incorrectly attributed as die 7's. The group of 7 above are the ones I still have images of. We sold the die 4's over the next 6 months and they ended up paying for most of the deal.

We've been slowly dispersing the hoard on eBay since 2015.

LanceNewmanOCC

@cmerlo1 said:

@LanceNewmanOCC said:

@cmerlo1 said:
Here are 7 of mine. Sometimes I wish I still had them:

DANG

They were in a 20-roll hoard of uncirculated 1971 die 1 (2 rolls), 1972 dies 2,3,5,7, and 8, and 1973 die 1 (1 roll) that a dealer friend of mine and I partnered on buying. He brought me in to verify the varieties were what the seller said they were. He had put them away in the early-mid 70's searching mint-sewn bags, and was adamant his attributions were correct, and didn't want to wait while I examined every coin. I did insist I veryify all of the 1971's since we were paying a LOT for them. We negotiated a price per coin and bought the whole deal. While getting the first batch of 300 coins ready to submit to ANACS, I found 12 die 4's incorrectly attributed as die 7's. The group of 7 above are the ones I still have images of. We sold the die 4's over the next 6 months and they ended up paying for most of the deal.

We've been slowly dispersing the hoard on eBay since 2015.

sounds like tons of fun! love deals where the one(s) that end up being the makers or near of it, are just shirked essentially and through experience/time/effort, pretty darn neat stuff is brought to light.

Doubledieanotherday

Doubledieanotherday

LanceNewmanOCC

@Doubledieanotherday said:

.
a nice tiger opal lincoln!

when you find the galaxy opal, YOU GOTTA POST IT!

vulcanize

I forget with which purchase exactly, but seller sent this one ounce copper round as a freebie gift two years ago.

mr1931S

That's the copper round I want to do my acid etch experiment on. Having problem buying 90% nitric acid, however. Supplier will only deliver to a business address so experiment on hold until I can figure out how to get shipment.

UPDATE: Have traded my whispering SVDB for a replacement. Replacement is from PCGS obverse die #4. I really like it. The dealer had it ready for me to trade with him. IF the whispering SVDB comes back as genuine I have the option of retrading the replacement for it or buying it a pre-established price that the dealer wrote on the invoice. Win-win for both of us. He was glad to get the piece back so that he could deal with it with both PCGS and the individual he bought it from.

Twobitcollector

mr1931S

The verdict recently came in on my S-VDB of the whispering kind. Coin was inspected by individuals at the highest levels within PCGS. The coin will be used as a learning tool by PCGS I am hearing.

The dealer I bought the piece from tells me that it was not possible to make a return of the item to the individual he bought it from. However, PCGS took care of the financial part for him so he is happy. I received a replacement S-VDB from the dealer in the exact same PCGS grade and it is from PCGS die #4. It's a great piece.

WIN-WIN-WIN for all parties involved.

This post closes the case on the whispering 1909-S V.D.B.

OAKSTAR

mr1931S

Lovely piece, OAKSTAR. PM me if you want to sell it. I would go $50.

mr1931S

My newest lucky penny...

Paradisefound

@mr1874 🤔 If I only to get ONE Penny……. Which __one should I get that is less than $500?