Newbie Questions - Madame Interview With SYRACUSIAN
Madame
Posts: 236
I didn't intend on it being an interview, but it turned out to be a brief one.
Hi,
sorry if it took me so long to reply, I had to catch up with a lot of work after my 10 day transatlantic trip to the US.
How many years have you been collecting?
Ever since I was a kid, but really actively, since 1993. By 1998 I had already built and sold two collections. I was selling them because I wanted to spend the money with my girlfriend, coins are always there, unforgettable moments are not. My third collection of Greek coins is still here, but I only add very few coins to it per year, as it's all mint state ,mostly complete and the ones I need are very elusive and obscenely expensive. I used to be ok with spending a small fortune on a good coin, now I see things a bit different. I still buy expensive coins, just not that expensive.
How did you decide what to collect?
It was easy, I'm Greek and I live in Greece. Switzerland only came last year to renew my interest. I've also collected G.Britain for a while. I'm a type set kind of guy, I don't like collecting the same design in different dates.
Lately I've been feeling a little lost in my collection.
I felt like that too, we all do I guess at some point. It took me a while before I decided that I did not want to be trapped in a Greek never ending collection for ever and I opted to collect other coins as well as well as dealing more. This way, I get to buy say 200 good coins per year and I get to keep only 10-15 among them, the rest is resold, instead of buying 10-15 and keeping them all. The little buy/sell game is fun, sometimes you lose, sometimes you win, but you get to handle much more coins than a passive buyer only. In this game, grading by a service like PCGS or NGC is essential. I also form temporary partnerships with members for that, and that's good fun too.
Do you register every coin once you have decided on what you are going to collect?
No, there's no registry set for any of my collections.But I wish there was, at least for Switzerland.
If you mean "submit" instead of "register", then yes, 99% of the coins that I buy end up in a slab, for a wide variety of reasons.
Is it better to have a dealer submit your coins to PCGS? Or thats just wasting money, you should do it yourself. I'm not ready yet to submit. But hope to do so in a month.
If you can do it yourself, it's better, you have more options.
When you register with PCGS do the always include a photo?
You mean when I submit a coin to PCGS? No, you have to ask and pay an extra $5 for the photo. The guy who does these photos, had come to Greece and photographed my entire collection back in December 2004, just before he got the PCGS job, I was quite lucky, you can see what he did in my sigline link. A good photo is a very useful tool, you can enjoy the coins better and the good photos come very handy at resale time,they can almost double the final price over the internet.
I'm asking you because you are so organized.
I wish I was, but I'm not.
I want to upgrade my collection. Plus what membership do you recommend for a newby with PCGS.
Always better to go for quality rather than quantity, but this is just my opinion.
I got the silver membership, because it was the cheapest. Besides, most of the times I use the economy service and the free grading coupons are for more expensive submissions.
Theres respect in my mind with PCGS.
In mine too, plus I like their holder and their photo service is invaluable to me. The slow turnaround doesn't bother me, I'm not a dealer. But NGC is very good too. For ancients I'd recommend ICG.
Man I really need that pick me up! It was like reading an interview for a magazine. I'm sorry for slamming with so many questions at once. It was pretty long, Now that I see it after a week or so. But man was it educational. I wish all coin collectors could have read it. Because I think a lot of new collector with not many years under their belt have the same questions. Probably some lurkers as well. But we end up asking questions one at a time in a forum thread. And receiving so answers from members with different opinions. That we Still end up a little confusing at times. Just so many opinions! Plus the history of when you started & your personal collection was great. How you got to quality over quantity was wonderful. Plus the lesson that spending big money on a few quality coins a year. How memories outside of the coin world are priceless. I'm so fortunate to have had the privilege to be enlightened. And I mean that from my heart. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. I know this is private message. But will you think about letting me post it. Because it was truly a learning experience. If you say no I fully understand because it is a private message of confidentiality.
I’m happy to say he said yes.
Forgot to add this to this thread as well. I've read about coins needing an acetone Bath. But have not seen a photo with any of the post I've read. So I submit my own coin in question. Is this PVC damage.
Madame
<< <i>Is there something I can do about this coin? My mother gave me some ikes, Kennedy, And this one.
She's the color she is because she stored her in the black lace she was given to her in and the the placed the coin in a very thick plastic Envelope type holder. In her hair is a goldish color but the is something green like mold or mildew that grew on the hair as well. Is this a case where an acetone bath is called for? what ever it is I don't want it to spead.
>>
SYRACUSIAN
<< <i>If this Peace dollar has been stored in a plastic enveloppe, the green stuff is undoubtedly PVC, coins' worst enemy, you'll find many threads about this subject if you do a little search with PVC as a keyword. Given the number of years, it's possible that the damage or part of it is irreversible, PVC litterally eats the coin and leaves small craters behind. Or it might only be superficial in which case a few acetone baths will remove it. In anycase acetone baths are recommended for it, if only to stop further damage. Make sure to use pure acetone, not nail polish remover and you'll probably need to leave it for a while to soak then repeat the baths in fresh acetone a few times,depending on how much PVC it has.You will need 3-4 little bowls for this, moving the coin from one to the other. Once all the green stuff is gone, you're ready. When you're done there's no need to rinse or anything, it evaporates immediately, but do this in a well ventilated area because acetone is no game. I'm not very good at this, I'm just telling you what I've read so far from other members, I have asked this question too actually and surprisingly my experiment was successfull, the instructions I got, especially from 1jester were idiotproof.But there wasn't much of that stuff on these coins either.
Go ahead if you want, post whatever you like, it's not as if I told you any big secrets. There are many knowledgeable members here, much more than me, each one specializes in something usually, so we all share what we know best. I have learned a lot from these nice people, the interaction with all of them, just like with you now is what I like best, it's what makes the Darkside my favourite place in the net, wether I have coins to share or not. It has become a daily habit to log in here for an hour or more, unless I'm on holidays or somewhere without an internet connection,or overwhelmed with work.
>>
Hi,
sorry if it took me so long to reply, I had to catch up with a lot of work after my 10 day transatlantic trip to the US.
How many years have you been collecting?
Ever since I was a kid, but really actively, since 1993. By 1998 I had already built and sold two collections. I was selling them because I wanted to spend the money with my girlfriend, coins are always there, unforgettable moments are not. My third collection of Greek coins is still here, but I only add very few coins to it per year, as it's all mint state ,mostly complete and the ones I need are very elusive and obscenely expensive. I used to be ok with spending a small fortune on a good coin, now I see things a bit different. I still buy expensive coins, just not that expensive.
How did you decide what to collect?
It was easy, I'm Greek and I live in Greece. Switzerland only came last year to renew my interest. I've also collected G.Britain for a while. I'm a type set kind of guy, I don't like collecting the same design in different dates.
Lately I've been feeling a little lost in my collection.
I felt like that too, we all do I guess at some point. It took me a while before I decided that I did not want to be trapped in a Greek never ending collection for ever and I opted to collect other coins as well as well as dealing more. This way, I get to buy say 200 good coins per year and I get to keep only 10-15 among them, the rest is resold, instead of buying 10-15 and keeping them all. The little buy/sell game is fun, sometimes you lose, sometimes you win, but you get to handle much more coins than a passive buyer only. In this game, grading by a service like PCGS or NGC is essential. I also form temporary partnerships with members for that, and that's good fun too.
Do you register every coin once you have decided on what you are going to collect?
No, there's no registry set for any of my collections.But I wish there was, at least for Switzerland.
If you mean "submit" instead of "register", then yes, 99% of the coins that I buy end up in a slab, for a wide variety of reasons.
Is it better to have a dealer submit your coins to PCGS? Or thats just wasting money, you should do it yourself. I'm not ready yet to submit. But hope to do so in a month.
If you can do it yourself, it's better, you have more options.
When you register with PCGS do the always include a photo?
You mean when I submit a coin to PCGS? No, you have to ask and pay an extra $5 for the photo. The guy who does these photos, had come to Greece and photographed my entire collection back in December 2004, just before he got the PCGS job, I was quite lucky, you can see what he did in my sigline link. A good photo is a very useful tool, you can enjoy the coins better and the good photos come very handy at resale time,they can almost double the final price over the internet.
I'm asking you because you are so organized.
I wish I was, but I'm not.
I want to upgrade my collection. Plus what membership do you recommend for a newby with PCGS.
Always better to go for quality rather than quantity, but this is just my opinion.
I got the silver membership, because it was the cheapest. Besides, most of the times I use the economy service and the free grading coupons are for more expensive submissions.
Theres respect in my mind with PCGS.
In mine too, plus I like their holder and their photo service is invaluable to me. The slow turnaround doesn't bother me, I'm not a dealer. But NGC is very good too. For ancients I'd recommend ICG.
Man I really need that pick me up! It was like reading an interview for a magazine. I'm sorry for slamming with so many questions at once. It was pretty long, Now that I see it after a week or so. But man was it educational. I wish all coin collectors could have read it. Because I think a lot of new collector with not many years under their belt have the same questions. Probably some lurkers as well. But we end up asking questions one at a time in a forum thread. And receiving so answers from members with different opinions. That we Still end up a little confusing at times. Just so many opinions! Plus the history of when you started & your personal collection was great. How you got to quality over quantity was wonderful. Plus the lesson that spending big money on a few quality coins a year. How memories outside of the coin world are priceless. I'm so fortunate to have had the privilege to be enlightened. And I mean that from my heart. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. I know this is private message. But will you think about letting me post it. Because it was truly a learning experience. If you say no I fully understand because it is a private message of confidentiality.
I’m happy to say he said yes.
Forgot to add this to this thread as well. I've read about coins needing an acetone Bath. But have not seen a photo with any of the post I've read. So I submit my own coin in question. Is this PVC damage.
Madame
<< <i>Is there something I can do about this coin? My mother gave me some ikes, Kennedy, And this one.
She's the color she is because she stored her in the black lace she was given to her in and the the placed the coin in a very thick plastic Envelope type holder. In her hair is a goldish color but the is something green like mold or mildew that grew on the hair as well. Is this a case where an acetone bath is called for? what ever it is I don't want it to spead.
>>
SYRACUSIAN
<< <i>If this Peace dollar has been stored in a plastic enveloppe, the green stuff is undoubtedly PVC, coins' worst enemy, you'll find many threads about this subject if you do a little search with PVC as a keyword. Given the number of years, it's possible that the damage or part of it is irreversible, PVC litterally eats the coin and leaves small craters behind. Or it might only be superficial in which case a few acetone baths will remove it. In anycase acetone baths are recommended for it, if only to stop further damage. Make sure to use pure acetone, not nail polish remover and you'll probably need to leave it for a while to soak then repeat the baths in fresh acetone a few times,depending on how much PVC it has.You will need 3-4 little bowls for this, moving the coin from one to the other. Once all the green stuff is gone, you're ready. When you're done there's no need to rinse or anything, it evaporates immediately, but do this in a well ventilated area because acetone is no game. I'm not very good at this, I'm just telling you what I've read so far from other members, I have asked this question too actually and surprisingly my experiment was successfull, the instructions I got, especially from 1jester were idiotproof.But there wasn't much of that stuff on these coins either.
Go ahead if you want, post whatever you like, it's not as if I told you any big secrets. There are many knowledgeable members here, much more than me, each one specializes in something usually, so we all share what we know best. I have learned a lot from these nice people, the interaction with all of them, just like with you now is what I like best, it's what makes the Darkside my favourite place in the net, wether I have coins to share or not. It has become a daily habit to log in here for an hour or more, unless I'm on holidays or somewhere without an internet connection,or overwhelmed with work.
>>
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Comments
<< <i>I'm asking you because you are so organized >>
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Seriously though - great reading.
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." -Luke 11:9
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." -Deut. 6:4-5
"For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us." -Isaiah 33:22
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<< <i> Dimitri is an interesting person and a class act. >>
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Theres respect in my mind with PCGS.
In mine too,
After yesterday's grades, I retract that comment, their inconsistency is starting to really annoy me.
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