A Custom Capital Plastics Holder & Two Dozen Toned Washington Quarters
TomB
Posts: 21,433 ✭✭✭✭✭
This was just a fun project. As many of you might be aware, I adore Washington quarters (primarily the original 1932-1964 silver series) and I'm also one of the original toning nuts. Toned WQs go back with me more than three decades and some of the coins in this image have been in my collection for nearly that long. I've acquired these pieces over the years and thought a nice "class picture" was appropriate.
I can recall the circumstances regarding the purchase of each of these coins, when the purchases happened and what I was thinking at the time. If you have questions about certain coins or the "look" of a piece please feel free to ask. Enjoy!
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You could make a Christmas tree out of those! 👍
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
Well done!
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@TomB - How did those quarters go into that Capital holder? Did they go in easy or did they fight you?
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
I think it may be a virtual CP holder.
Really? Damn! WoW! AI! Okay, thanks!
Disclaimer: I'm not a dealer, trader, grader, investor or professional numismatist. I'm just a hobbyist. (To protect me but mostly you! 🤣 )
Tom - do you have closeups of the second coin? It looks like a 32?
Just gorgeous to my eyes.
Coin Photographer.
Very nice group!
Awesome set
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Beautiful coins @TomB
I remember many of them!
That set is great!
Mr_Spud
Thank you all for the kind words.
I customized the Capital Plastics holder as follows. I took an image of a Capital Plastics 1941-1947-D Walking Liberty half dollar holder, which has slots for twenty coins, and then took off all the lettering from the image and added a sixth row to accommodate more coins. I then used the font from a Capital Plastics Proof Washington Quarter holder and copy-pasted it onto the Walking Liberty half mock-up. To make the word "TONING" I edited a copy of the font from "WASHINGTON" by taking the "TON" at the end of the word and splicing it with the "ING" found immediately before it and then added this spliced word to the Capital Plastics header. Lastly, I took photos of Capital Plastics screws and placed them into the proper positions to make it all look like it came together physically.
The images of the coins are just that; they are images. I took images I already had for two dozen Washington quarters and arranged them rather randomly within the "custom" Capital Plastics holder. I attempted to keep coins that were the same date and mintmark combination away from one another (things like multiple 1947-D or 1951-S coins, etc...). Additionally, I attempted to mix colors so that I didn't have a block of blue-violet coins in one corner and a block of orange coins in another.
None of this is AI. It's just photo-editing on the computer using actual images of real Capital Plastics holders and then dropping in actual images of real coins that I own. I own all the coins and they look just like the images, but they are all currently in slabs. However, I did buy many of them raw years ago.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Nice coins and they present well in the black Capital holder.
Yes, that is a 1932 WQ. It is darn tough to find 1932 with that type of pure color-
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
I own all the coins and they look just like the images, but they are all currently in slabs.
Impressive.
Wow, ain't that a real beauty, I like 👍
Superb
Great looking display. I love it.
Was bottom left '46 one you had any doubts about ? same thing with top right '47 actually, but I haven't seen many like the 46.
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Now I'm putting my bib on @TomB Oh Man! What a collection of toners....Just beautiful quality and the presentation is perfect. Now If I saw those sitting in that holder at a dealer table I'd be throwing cash at them!
I realize the dates might be tough to read on these, but the coin I think you meant to mention first is a 1946-S (it's the only WQ from 1946 shown in the images). That coin really does have a rather unique look to it, not so much for the obverse, but rather for how the obverse is paired with the particular reverse. I've never seen that issue with such dramatic and relatively pure color on both sides. Over the years I have seen a small number of 1946-S WQs with similar toning, albeit less complete and/or less vivid color, which makes me think they might have been part of a small hoard all saved in a similar manner. This is also not a US Mint Set year, so these coins aren't found with significant toning at the same frequency as their 1947-1958 (1950 excluded) brethren. Of note, the obverse on this coin in-hand is a shade or so darker than the images.
This is one of the pieces I purchased already certified by PCGS and it was won out of a Heritage sale almost a quarter-century ago. Yikes...I'm old! It's still in the same holder. The HA images were rather poor (remember, this was a while ago) but I thought I knew what the coin looked like because of their written description and also because, as noted previously, I had seen this particular issue come with a somewhat similar look. At this point in time PCGS was also much more strict on toning with respect to what they considered AT and not only did they think it was okay, but I did, too.
Interestingly, HA decided decided to use a new, experimental auction format for their internet auctions so that they would not end all at the same time, but would continue up to an hour after the declared ending time based upon how many bids the coin received after that time. It no doubt reads much more complicated than the auction set-up was in reality. Basically, all lots ended at 10:00 PM CST, but if you bid on a lot during the initial live period then you were entitled to place additional bids on that lot during what might best be described as "extra time". If no bids were entered on a particular lot over a ten-minute period of "extra time" then the lot closed. Regardless, all lots would close no later than one hour after the original closing time.
This coin closed and I was not the high bidder, but I had mapped out a plan to bid in such a manner as to allow the fewest bid increments possible and I waited as the first ten-minute time period was about to come to an end before placing my bid. I then waited, waited...waited! Ten-minutes went by and no one else bid and this WQ was mine. I've often wondered if the person who was the high bidder at the traditional close of the auction realized that HA was running an experimental auction format where they had changed their bidding rules and I wonder if that person who had possibly thought they won the coin sat there in amazement wondering how it was taken away. My impression was that this auction format was not widely appreciated and HA, if I recall correctly, ended the experiment after a single try.
Anyway, that was a lot more writing than you were expecting for such a simple question. Here are larger images of the coin-
The next coin you asked about was a 1947, but again it is tough to read the dates and mintmarks on these images. There are three 1947-D WQs and one 1947-S WQ in the image, but I think you would likely mean the 1947-D immediately to the upper right of the 1946-S.
This coin was also purchased in a PCGS holder and it also is still in the same holder as it had been. It, too, was purchased nearly a quarter-century ago, even before I purchased the 1946-S (above). I saw this coin while walking the bourse and purchased it from John Benbow. Most folks likely don't know who John Benbow was, but at the time he had built the finest WQ set ever assembled. His PCGS Registry set is long retired, but it is still ranked in the top-25 all time and has an average grade in excess of 66.5 for the silver (1932-1964) series. My guess is that he retired the set and sold off his WQs in the 2000-2002 time period.
Regardless, I saw this toned WQ sitting within a sea of mostly white WQs that were all PCGS MS66 or 67 graded coins. I was immediately drawn to it and knew I had to buy it. The PCGS cert number on the coin indicates that it was part of a bulk submission, which makes me think that he was blowing out his years-long hoard of coins that weren't highest graded and that they all got regraded for the show. Many of hIs coins were completely white, which may have been the case for the ones he kept in his Registry set, as well. I didn't flinch at the color on this coin because I had found a pair of 1947-D Roosevelt dimes with essentially the same colors and patterns on them and they both came from undisturbed 1947 US Mint sets that I went through. I asked about where this WQ came from and he told me immediately it was pulled from a 1947 US Mint set, which made perfect sense to me.
The image of the coin I believe you were writing about is below-
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
For those unaware, you can right-click the images of the Capital Plastics holder and open them in a new tab. This will allow you to enlarge the images a little to make it easier to see dates, mintmarks or whatever.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Really like the lemon yellow reverse on the 46-S.
Here I am, barely struggling to hold back the desire to make my own Washington quarter set now...
Coin Photographer.
I'd like to hear more about your 1951-S with the killer orange reverse and the 1940-S with the delicate multi-colored obverse toning with white reverse. Oh how this set is compelling!
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
I'll write about the coins you are interested in, but I think there is a bit of a mix-up with those coins. US coins are "coin-turn" and not "medal-turn", as we all know, so to match up the obverse and reverse you have to flip the composite obverse image as if it were an hour glass and not flip it as if it were a page in a book.
In other words, the upper-most left-hand obverse pairs with the lower-most left-hand reverse and so on.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
You are right Tom. So I think I've made a hash of things! I was thinking coin #1 went with reverse #4 and then coin obverse #16.
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
It's all good, @Catbert! I probably should have put up a note for folks to keep that in mind.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Very impressive. What photo-editing program did you use and how long did it take you?
I might start collecting 'pictures' of coins I currently expect to never be able to afford.
I just opened up the images on my ten-year old Mac and used the default image program, which I believe might be called Preview. That was it. I already had the images of the WQs, so that took no time, but it might have taken me 10 minutes to edit the Capital Plastics holder from a twenty-slot 1941-1947-D WLH piece to the current twenty-five-slot custom text WQ example.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
What a stunning set. The time and care taken to form this set is entirely conspicuous, and represents the very heart of collecting. The coin that does it best for me is the 1947-s(?) in the low left corner.
Whit
Talk about eye appeal. What an amazing set!
Very nice Tom!
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Gorgeous coins Tom!!
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Gorgeous coins Tom!!
Well done!!!
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Extremely attractive set, well done!
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I really like how you used the actual words on the original Capital holder to create the new words you wanted to use making the whole image totally believable as being a custom Capital holder. And you made one side the obverse and the other side the reverse completing the illusion that it’s a real holder, very well planned out.
Mr_Spud
Outstanding.
I like that on so many different levels.
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My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress