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French Sower Small Toned Closet Collection
tmoneyeagles
Posts: 442
I posted this on a few other forums and thought why not post it here. I edited a few things and added a new coin as well to those of you who might've seen this thread already.
Introduction
I've always had a sweet tooth for toned coins. In my younger days of collecting I always dreamed how nice it would be to own a toned coin, not just some small crescent toning on a cheap Morgan Dollar, but real nice toning, something that goes around the coin, that flows with different colors throughout, and has excellent eye appeal. Over time I learned how to obtain nicer coins, buy some lower end coins, make what I call a small coin army, and sell them all at once. It fills my craving for coins, but also gives me an opportunity to get a lot of my money back at one period of time in the future, and combined with money I have at that current time, I have enough for really nice coins. I've bought many nice coins, considering my age and financial stage, and a lot of them were just normal coins, nice, but normal blast white, straight outta the mint color coins.
The Process
Now that I can afford the higher end coins, I started searching for them. I search through Heritage and eBay, and occasionally Teletrade and DLRC. I normally find what I want, on eBay though, and eBay is more convenient at the moment. The past month or so, I've just had the urge to buy something, and I was thinking along the lines of a toned MS65 Morgan Dollar. My dream a while back was to own a proof Indian Cent, and I never got it. The one I was going to buy was at $695 I believe, it was a PCGS PR66BN, with beautiful pruple toning on the obverse, and a lovely shade of orange on the reverse. I believe the day I showed it to Charmy, to see what she thought, it sold. I would have so bought that coin, not a single spot on it, and it was the finest example of a proof Indian in my many months of searching. After that happened I just lost interest in the proof Indian, and it is on the back burner for now. I passed on a lot of toned coins since then, lovely toning, but I haven't really agreed with the grades, and I'm not going to buy an overgraded, just for the toning, I want a PQ or near PQ coin, with toning, not one or the other.
I've always loved French coins, and I think the design used in 1898-1920 for the 2 Franc, 1 Franc, and 50 Centimes (in silver) was absolutely beautiful. I think it may have even influenced our own Walking Liberty Half Dollar. I thought for grins, I should buy some of these coins, so I picked up two of them raw, a 1918 1 and 2 Franc set from a seller on eBay. I thought, boy, these would look great toned wouldn't they? And here is where it all started!
I also realized that toned world coins, can really have lower premiums than toned U.S. coins such as the Morgan Dollar. People know that I have a habit of wanting to make a lot of things perfect to the best of my ability, and I quickly realized that I may not be able to make a United States toned coin set with the perfection that somebody with an actual income and money to spare from that income might be able to have. But what I did realize is that I do LOVE world coins, and I want to learn about them, and the designs, well, they are right up there with U.S. coins. Instead of trying to do something, like matching Paul coin for coin, tone-wise, why not, do something different. Buy a series that is familiar but a lot of people aren't hard-core collectors with, and to put a cherry on top, have them all be toned and graded.
The Coins
I went with my realizations and just did it. I bought three French 50 Centimes coins, all graded by NGC, and all eloquently toned.
The first one I bought for a total of $34.95.
Here are the seller's pics.
Now judging by these photos I was thinking that this coin was probably going to be darker in hand, and I'm glad I was wrong. Here are MY photos. This coin is killer!
The second one and third one I bought were from a seller known as shawneecoins, one of eBay's finest dealers in toned coins. The total for both of these coins with shipping was $97.88.
Coin number one - $39.95
Here are the seller's photos, which are great, by the way.
Here are my photos of the coin.
Coin number two- $49.95
Here are my photos of the coin.
Recently re-done photos of the coin:
As of today, I bought one more coin in addition to these three. I plan to take pics ASAP once it gets in. Here are sellers pics.
This one I paid a little more for, but I wanted it bad enough, and I think the pictures given don't do it justice.
Closing
I've discovered a cool, beautiful series I can collect, that isn't too long nor too expensive. The only hard part might be finding the rest as beautifully toned as these four.
I hope to add more coins to these set in the future.
Thanks for looking y'all
Introduction
I've always had a sweet tooth for toned coins. In my younger days of collecting I always dreamed how nice it would be to own a toned coin, not just some small crescent toning on a cheap Morgan Dollar, but real nice toning, something that goes around the coin, that flows with different colors throughout, and has excellent eye appeal. Over time I learned how to obtain nicer coins, buy some lower end coins, make what I call a small coin army, and sell them all at once. It fills my craving for coins, but also gives me an opportunity to get a lot of my money back at one period of time in the future, and combined with money I have at that current time, I have enough for really nice coins. I've bought many nice coins, considering my age and financial stage, and a lot of them were just normal coins, nice, but normal blast white, straight outta the mint color coins.
The Process
Now that I can afford the higher end coins, I started searching for them. I search through Heritage and eBay, and occasionally Teletrade and DLRC. I normally find what I want, on eBay though, and eBay is more convenient at the moment. The past month or so, I've just had the urge to buy something, and I was thinking along the lines of a toned MS65 Morgan Dollar. My dream a while back was to own a proof Indian Cent, and I never got it. The one I was going to buy was at $695 I believe, it was a PCGS PR66BN, with beautiful pruple toning on the obverse, and a lovely shade of orange on the reverse. I believe the day I showed it to Charmy, to see what she thought, it sold. I would have so bought that coin, not a single spot on it, and it was the finest example of a proof Indian in my many months of searching. After that happened I just lost interest in the proof Indian, and it is on the back burner for now. I passed on a lot of toned coins since then, lovely toning, but I haven't really agreed with the grades, and I'm not going to buy an overgraded, just for the toning, I want a PQ or near PQ coin, with toning, not one or the other.
I've always loved French coins, and I think the design used in 1898-1920 for the 2 Franc, 1 Franc, and 50 Centimes (in silver) was absolutely beautiful. I think it may have even influenced our own Walking Liberty Half Dollar. I thought for grins, I should buy some of these coins, so I picked up two of them raw, a 1918 1 and 2 Franc set from a seller on eBay. I thought, boy, these would look great toned wouldn't they? And here is where it all started!
I also realized that toned world coins, can really have lower premiums than toned U.S. coins such as the Morgan Dollar. People know that I have a habit of wanting to make a lot of things perfect to the best of my ability, and I quickly realized that I may not be able to make a United States toned coin set with the perfection that somebody with an actual income and money to spare from that income might be able to have. But what I did realize is that I do LOVE world coins, and I want to learn about them, and the designs, well, they are right up there with U.S. coins. Instead of trying to do something, like matching Paul coin for coin, tone-wise, why not, do something different. Buy a series that is familiar but a lot of people aren't hard-core collectors with, and to put a cherry on top, have them all be toned and graded.
The Coins
I went with my realizations and just did it. I bought three French 50 Centimes coins, all graded by NGC, and all eloquently toned.
The first one I bought for a total of $34.95.
Here are the seller's pics.
Now judging by these photos I was thinking that this coin was probably going to be darker in hand, and I'm glad I was wrong. Here are MY photos. This coin is killer!
The second one and third one I bought were from a seller known as shawneecoins, one of eBay's finest dealers in toned coins. The total for both of these coins with shipping was $97.88.
Coin number one - $39.95
Here are the seller's photos, which are great, by the way.
Here are my photos of the coin.
Coin number two- $49.95
Here are my photos of the coin.
Recently re-done photos of the coin:
As of today, I bought one more coin in addition to these three. I plan to take pics ASAP once it gets in. Here are sellers pics.
This one I paid a little more for, but I wanted it bad enough, and I think the pictures given don't do it justice.
Closing
I've discovered a cool, beautiful series I can collect, that isn't too long nor too expensive. The only hard part might be finding the rest as beautifully toned as these four.
I hope to add more coins to these set in the future.
Thanks for looking y'all
0
Comments
Gary
good luck
Don't shoot me now, but I've seen many sowers in MS63, 64, 65, 66 unslabbed, dirt cheap. Heck, I own more than a few myself.
Take the same coins and slab them and all of a sudden you have $40 to $50 coins instead of $1 to $10 coins.
I'll wager many darksiders have extensive numbers of Sowers raw that aren't worth much. But, "let the plastic in your life"-sing to
"let a woman in your life" by prof. Higgins... and they're worth more, much more.
I love your coins, don't get me wrong-very attractive.
is that you end up being governed by inferiors. – Plato
World Collection
British Collection
German States Collection