Can anyone point the way to ALBANIA ?

PuddlePirate

I am looking for 3 coins from Albania

1968 KM52.1 a 25 Leke "Dancing with Swords"
1996 KM 78 a 20 Leke "Ancient sailing vessel"
1986 KM E13 an Esssais "Sailing vessel"

I have no dealers on my little island and haven't had any luck at all looking on the net. If you have a spare in your collection I'm interested, if you know a dealer who carries them it would help. I'm going to give the "Dancing with Swords" as a prize at our next local Fencing Competition, the other two are for my personal collection.

Thanks in advance

Doug

Stork

What a great idea for a fencing prize! I've seen the sword one by itself on ebay only once or twice. Usually I see it in a proof set (1968,69 or 70), which is how I got mine.

Do you like to ebay much? A search on Albania usually turns up 50 or less coins to look through. Maybe someone knows an online dealer with a good Albanian selection? Some great designs there.

PuddlePirate

I've been looking for months, I have even tried buying a few of those "world coin lots" on Ebay with little prayers to the "fickle god of coins" for just a "little teensey bit of luck" no dice. I guess I will keep on looking.

On the side I've delivered two babies via phone (I'm a 911 operator in a small town) neat experience but not as good as being there for my three daughters!

Shipcoin

<<...I've delivered two babies via phone>> ---wow you are really great man, PuddlePirate

About Albanian coins: "swords" were shown here a few times--great coin, looks as "very hard to get" one--was here the same question about that coin afew months ago;

20 leke relatively spread one, I have it in my fleet, will try to catch another one from my local dealer for you ;

The third one is rare one---my local dealer found it once, but finally decided to take it for his own collection!



And.... here you can find a plenty of great ship coins images:

World Ship Coins (ignore the Russian--just click one the pics to get the enlarged images!)

laurentyvan

This is from an Albanian proof set that is usually around on E-Bay although this one I got at a coin shop. I always enjoy this coin-perfect award too PuddlePirate! If I spot one I'll let you know...

PuddlePirate

ShipCoin - you find any of them and I will gladly take them off your hands. I just don't have the resources here on the "emerald isle" (currently under a foot of snow with more coming). Thanks for the link, soooo many ships this will keep me busy awhile 8P

As for delivering babies by phone, I don't recommend it, of all the 911's I've handled in the last four years since I retired from the CG those two were the ones that made me sweat! Great feeling when it was all over. I even got to visit the kiddies afterwards.

Laurentyvan - That's the one. Looks even better in the picture. I think the kids in my fencing group would really like it ... although I will probably have to find two, its just sooo... purty!

coinrookie

There are atleast two of the coins you are looking for on e-bay right now.


Steve

PuddlePirate

Coinrookie - yeah I saw them, I'm going after the 20 and 25 Leke the 50 Leke got away before I could bid on it. Now it comes down to how far the competition is going to stretch my wallet and if I can hang in there until the end of it all.

cosmicdebris

Albanian eh? I love the lions. I need a 5 Qindar Leku to complete the non gold lions.

Stork

Linkage

PuddlePirate

Cosmicdebris - I love the kitties too but can only afford to chase one thing at a time. The Albanian Lions are impressive peices though and beat most of the African peices I've looked at.

Stork - thanks for the link, I got my eye on it - it only has to last 2 more days before I can snag it. Do you think the "buy it now" price is reasonable? My Krause says it goes upwards $120.

Thanks for keeping me in mind!

1960NYGiants

I just won the 50 Leke today and BIN'd a 25 Leke on Sunday.

Keep looking, they are out there!

Gene

syraq

Stork - thanks for the link, I got my eye on it - it only has to last 2 more days before I can snag it. Do you think the "buy it now" price is reasonable? My Krause says it goes upwards $120.


If you don't place a bid and wait to snipe it, you give the chance to another bidder to BIN it and make it disappear. If you do, the BIN feature goes away and then you place a higher snipe just to make sure.


How exactly did you do this thing with 911? Do you have previous experience with delivering? Where you giving phone instructions to somebody?

PuddlePirate

Syraq - I helped deliver each of my three girls, two with a midwife present and my last one was in the backset of our station wagon while on the way to the hospital and that was just the wifey and me until Abby came out .

As for 911, all "US" operators are required to get a "National" Emergency Medical Dispatch Certification which entails two weeks of classes and then 16 hours "extra" training a year. I am EMD, AED, para-medic and fire-fighter certified. The para-medic and fire-fighting certs came from military experience and has helped on more than one ocassion.

With delivering babies its a nightmare giving phone instructions especially when there is a language barrier present. In the two cases I handled one of the ladies was from "across the border" and was afraid to go to the hospital because she thought she would get deported back to mexico (didn't happen). Anyway, there is an extensive "card" system for everything concerning pre-medical dispatch, with delivering babies the thing is over four pages long, you are dealing with everything from dilatation to blood pressure and bleeding, clearing airways, the possiblility of shock and a myrid of possible delivery problems, each of which has to be dealt with and eliminated if possible. Then of course there is the "fear" factor as well. Toss in a language barrier - my spanish is decent but very basic and her english was very basic - and so you sit and worry if they are understanding what you are telling them to do. All the while praying the medics can get there and take over - eyes and hands on scene are better than the voice on the phone any day.

911 can be very intense and at time very aggravating, each call is different. You never know what is going to come across the line when that phone burps. Anything from Barking dogs next door (yes people call 911 for barking dogs) to the 14 year old girl who just cut her wrists, sexual assaults, heart attacks, gunshot victims, bar fights, drunk drivers all the way to people just wanting to talk because they are depressed or angry and need to vent. Our small town has roughly 17 thousand people not counting outlying villages and we handle an average of 25 911 calls a day, I shudder to think of what the "big city" dispatch centers go through. I have a friend who is trying to talk me into going to work for the Boise Idaho PSAP, they are critically short of 911 operators and they work with twenty 911 dispatchers per eight hour shift. A far cry from our little 2 dispatcher shift which deals not only with 911 but island wide Fire and Police dispatch as well. A good day for me is when I go to work for my 8 hours and everyone - cops, fire department and citizens are all alive and well when I go home. That isn't always the case but we win more often than we lose.

laurentyvan

I admire what you do-keep up the good work!