MARKET ACTIVITY
This quarter just past was perhaps the most lively ever for coin board listings on eBay. A large number of boards, both common and scarce, were offered as either single pieces or multi-piece lots. Some of these failed to make their reserves, but the better ones that did sell brought prices at or slightly above the published figures. Notable among these listings were 
several nice First Edition Whitman boards and a particularly rich assortment of Colonial brand boards. Very clean examples of the otherwise common Whitman Second Edition boards brought strong prices, as these are usually quite worn and faded. I was outbid at nearly every turn.
More successful for me were a couple stacks of coin boards purchased from two different coin dealers in New Jersey. The first included mostly routine entries that I put on eBay. The second batch, however, was rich in rarely seen boards by Colonial and Gramercy. These turned up a few new varieties, as well as upgrades for my own collection, while the remainder mostly went to very happy want list customers.
Though I haven’t been able to buy many boards on eBay, my selling activity there has increased. I recently opened an eBay store called Cagemast Coin Boards and Albums. We need new collectors to bring growth to the coin board market, and my store includes boards that are the equal of those on my quarterly price lists. My best items will, of course, continue to go to customers having want lists with me, so contact me with your own needs.
BOOK UPDATES
Collector Chris Buck sent me a photo of his Colonial board C1¢A1, which clearly has a yellow face in place of the familiar tan paper, yet it has the same black printing of previously seen examples. Since the First Edition board for Lincoln Cents has tan paper with sepia printing, I believe that it preceded both varieties of the Eagle/Indian board and that the yellow face of Chris’ board was a transitional experiment leading to the Second Edition. Thus, C1¢A1 is now renumbered as C1¢A1a, while the variety with yellow face paper is C1¢A1b.
I added to my own collection a new variety of the Colonial brand Shield/Liberty Nickel board having Publication 1. The previously known C5¢A2a will become C5¢A2a.2, and the new variety will be known as C5¢A2a.1. A reader’s question revealed that I had omitted a detail relating to Lincoln Printing board L1¢Be—it is the first entry for this title having subtitle numerals of uniform size; this was previously listed for L1¢Bf. Collector Mark Mally turned up a new Oberwise face/back combination—Mercury Dime board O10¢Bj is similar to O10¢Bi, aside from the back paper.
In one of the more exciting developments, I acquired the first known example of Gramercy Lincoln Cent board G1¢Ba. This is the standard edition which came with the Pennyhobby Coin Collectin’ Outfit boxed set and lacks the Trenton Saving Fund Society overprint. I had assigned a number to this variety, but it has taken until now to actually locate a specimen. This board included a couple of the removable plugs with which it was sold, the first of these I’ve seen. An illustration of one is included with this newsletter.
SPREADING THE WORD
I get a lot of calls and emails from persons who find me by doing an internet search on “coin board.” I’ve made some good buys from such cold contacts, but they have also led to some interesting publicity opportunities. The latest inquiry came from a nice lady who maintains a blog called The Copycat Collector about all manner of collectibles and the people who pursue them. Check out her entry for March 3, 2012 at http://copycatcollector.blogspot.com to see a profile of my coin board collecting. I’ve also updated the Wikipedia entry for “coin board,” adding our coin collecting boards to the existing text for merchandise boards.
