Call me foolish...little things I did not know.

magikbilly

...but I did not know "dreck" was an actual word!
I thought it was some weird offshoot of coinspeak like "smoe" or...smoething. I thought it just meant surplus goods, perhaps a but common - but not trash or garbage.
I have been using this term incorrectly for some time.

Anyone else find you've been using a "numismatic" term incorrectly?

Happy Thanksgiving folks

Eric

MGLICKER

A good Yiddish/English dictionary would serve you well in numismatics.

lcoopie

Not a numismatic term at all

sparky64

My old coin dealer said that a 1913 buffalo, that I was interested in, had some, "schmutz" on it.
I didn't know the definition of that word but I somehow I knew what he meant.

amwldcoin

<< <i>Not a numismatic term at all >>



LOL but fast becoming 1!

magikbilly

<< <i>

<< <i>Not a numismatic term at all >>



LOL but fast becoming 1! >>



That is why I put the "" and" around "numismatic" - the technical word "crusty" is not, strictly speaking, a numismatic term either, but has its place


Eric

Edit to add: Marsha, THE sales lady, once used that word with me "schmutz" and there was little doubt as to what she meant. It was as bad as "...it's a nice coin..."

WTCG

It is a real word with a Yiddish origin.

Justlooking

I've found that mostly actual words are used in this forum.

ricko

Actual word and used in many other applications, but has become quite common in numismatics over the past ten years.... Cheers, RickO

nags

As far as I'm concern the word has no place in numismatics.

I guess I had never heard the word bourse prior to signing on to this site.

braddick

Without peeking, how many here can immediately identify what P C G S stands for?

MGLICKER

One of the more colorful members here introduced the term some years ago. It seemed to more or less replace widget. Maybe it was a widget with schmutz.

ColonelJessup

<< <i>One of the more colorful members here introduced the term some years ago. It seemed to more or less replace widget. Maybe it was a widget with schmutz. >>



Happy Thanksgivukkah,newbie. To an obviously well-studied lurker, welcome. .

Perhaps you have not had the chance to endure the entire (modified) Sperber Taxonomy of Quality. I (modified) it because she was bammed and I blocked her alt's PM's

1) ++ borderline whatever

2) Widget - quite acceptable if clearly identified as second-rate. If a white MS68 1881-S $1 is not PCGS CAC, it's a widget. All dusky MS63 (either TPG) 1884-O $1's are widgets. Actually, all coins, except coins you don't own, are widgets. It's OK to own widgets, but they should be PCGS CAC widgets. Pretty decent widgets. White 1945 50c MS67 PCGS CAC are widgets.

3) Schlock Not obnoxiously sub-par, but feh . MS62 $20 Libs.
Sometimes you see schmutz on schlock. It's just dirt. Often benign natural deposits. Check 17 recent threads about acetone

It can, regrettably, also represent a broad range of substances far beyond the range of the simplistic and lazily-labeled generic soubriquet "putty'. Substances schmeared on the surfaces to mask a fault. Sometimes an upgrade of nice schlock to widget can be worth 30%. Sometimes a fiendishly brilliant schmutzing can get you an upgrade from widget ++ to the deceptive and unstable very low-end but decent-looking "stuff" now semi-inexplicably and mostly unexpectedly (sending in packages is a percentages game), Hemi-semi-demi improbable, but your actuary is surprised. Statistically predictability is what you pay him for. . It's part of your business plan..... UP A POINT.... finally . .

4) Crap -Any non-VAM 1878 $1 (any reverse) F15+. Or something you didn't buy because you were outsniped.

5) Dreck - specifically turds and accompanying effluences. With the very uttering of the word the speaker should spit. If lucky, in a gennie.
Scratched or cleaned or, if you're a buyer, something you'd call a coin that might crack into a 62. . . (

Or, perhaps, the very people who make a living at this. People who, for their production of and/or participation in the dastardly distribution of doctored dreck, are doomed. Not clear which Circle of Hell will be taking them after the drawing and quartering
and the pouring of Jewel-Luster into their wounds. Surely such some of them are, even as tryptophan and Romo interceptions activate my vacillating instinctual impulses for dozing and ice-cream, even now, they are eating away at the very foundation . . etc . etc.

It is rumored that one or two PNG members condone this. These are of doubtful moral probity.

6) Scheisse - 3 times worse than dreck. Long ignored because it became conflated with the much more fun-to-say dreck. Scheisse is a German word that wasn't integrated into Yiddish. Perhaps your brother-in-law who left your sister and the two kids last month.
Maybe worse than that. .
Something in the inventory of an unpleasant dealer, sometimes the guy who bought you dinner last night. This is not something you'd say to his other best friend. Usually
A heavily corroded VG Chain Cent with a rim gouge 2:30 obverse and counterstamped with a swastika double-dips in the murkier miasmas of scheisse.


I'd love to hear feedback for the initial explorer into this dark country. Without the impolitic public remarks. The alt's PM's are still blocked. She knows where to find me. I saw her drone. I expect a phone call tonite at 2:30. Unless she's on a flight to Tokyo or to the secret Sydney gazillionaire who owns the Outback. The real estate, not the restaurants .

Sonorandesertrat

And who buys dreck? Only a schmo (or a schlemiehl, if one if being generous).

Billet7

<< <i>I've found that mostly actual words are used in this forum. >>



Actual grammar on the other hand...

TwoSides2aCoin

I had no idea so many giants would take me under their wings, with such grace and style. Who'd have thought they had wings ?

coinhack

Probably my least favorite choice of words on this forum. Almost always used to disparage someone else's coin. As soon as I see someone use this term I tend to discount anything else they have to say. Widgets is just dreck lite. Another way to discount the value of someone else's coin without literally calling it poop. When someone refers to their own coin as a widget, I feel they are foolishly devaluing their own coin but when they call other people's coin widgets they are attempting to elevate their own coins by putting down so-called common coins or common collectors.

Elcontador

<< <i>And who buys dreck? Only a schmo (or a schlemiehl, if one if being generous). >>



Actually, pendejos and boludos buy dreck. Personally, I prefer the word 'govno,' which is Serbo-Croatian and also Russian, to dreck.

Frankcoins

<< <i> Another way to discount the value of someone else's coin without literally calling it poop. >>



dreck n. Slang --
Trash, especially inferior merchandise
[from Yiddish drek, excrement, from Middle High German drec, from Old High German]

ricko

Great post ColonelJessup.
Accurate assessment Coinhack..
Cheers, RickO

breakdown

Colonel Jessup -- tremendous, just wow. Someday, some of these should be assembled into a book and handed out to the unsuspecting and uninformed at conventions.

P.S. I love the Seger quote (which I just noticed) as your signature. May I humbly offer my favorite Seger line,

"Gonna cruise out of this city
Head down to the sea
Gonna shout out at the ocean,
'Hey, IT'S ME!'"

P.P.S. "Romo interception" -- although a useful Thanksgiving expression, he didn't have any yesterday. The trytophan may have been causing flashbacks.

kranky

Got a good laugh from the Colonel to start the day.