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Coin Board News – Number 43

Coin Board News, David W. Lange

By David W. Langewww.coincollectingboards.com …..
 

For Collectors of Antique Coin Boards

Number 43 — Summer 2017

SOMETHING NEW

I’ve had a number of coin boards come my way since the last issue of CBN, though not enough to justify a separate document. Instead, I’ll just list them here and hope that they can find new homes. The roster includes several items for fans of vendor stamps:

  • 2373 W1¢C3b, F-VF, $17: Looks full VF, but there are numerous tiny pin holes in backing
  • 2374 W5¢B3b, VF, $27: Backing intact; vendor stamped for Hollinbeck Stamp & Coin Company in Omaha
  • 2366 O1¢Bk, F-VF, $22: Looks full VF, but several openings have clear tape over them on the back
  • 2369 O1¢Bk, F, $16: Vendor stamped for C. A. Kinsley (Genesee Street, city and state unknown)
  • 2370 O5¢Ak, VF, $34: Just one opening partially torn; scarce this nice; vendor stamped for C. A. Kinsley (Genesee Street, city and state unknown)
  • 2371 O10¢Aj, F-VF, $33: Vendor stamped for C. A. Kinsley (Genesee Street, city and state unknown)

MARKET ACTIVITY

The pace of coin board offerings was down this quarter from the bumper crop described in the Spring issue, but there were still more items for sale than has been typical over the past year. I purchased a number of the better ones myself, either for my own collection or for resale. Several partial cent collections in Oberwise boards appeared, the boards being unremarkable and the sets selling just below the retail value of the coins. Also offered were a number of rather dodgy Whitman Second Edition boards for common titles, and some of these are still running. This edition is always a tough sell in grades lower than VF, even when priced below catalog.

I acquired a small group of Whitman Third Edition boards, only because the negotiated price was too good to pass on. I’ve been finding that W3E boards don’t turn up with much frequency these days, and price increases may be in order down the road. There were a couple of single-piece offerings of Colonial brand boards for Lincoln Cents and Shield/Liberty Head Nickels, respectively, but neither is rare enough in so-so condition to attract much interest.

Among the most exciting offerings in recent months were four high-grade Oberwise boards containing partial sets of Buffalo Nickels, Barber Dimes and Barber Quarters (Parts I & II). The BIN prices were rather high, but the boards were just too sweet to pass up, so I made offers on all four that were accepted. A combination of new varieties and upgrades guaranteed that some were keepers, while my duplicates have already been placed with an advanced collector. A different seller on eBay offered three auctions of Oberwise Mercury Dime boards in nice condition that were nearly filled. As of this writing, one has sold, and the others are no longer listed. I wanted those boards, but the math just didn’t work for me. One that I did score from a non-eBay source was a VF-NM example of the rare early Colonial board C1cB2a.1 that upgraded my own rather worn piece. The new board features a vendor sticker that was unknown to me, and it’s illustrated in this issue.

Coin Boards

BOOK UPDATES

What made the various board offerings particularly appealing is that several were new, mostly minor, varieties. One major variety that escaped me but went to a reader of this publication is the long-sought-after first printing of Colonial Coin & Stamp Company’s board for Mercury Dimes. Variety C10¢B2a was a reserved number in my book and did not surface until recently. It features a different illustration of the coin type than the one seen on later printings, and this board is illustrated on the next page.

As one might expect, the other new varieties are for Oberwise boards:

  • O10¢Bs is new, with mintages through six months of 1940;
  • O10¢Bw.1 is an earlier printing of a known backing variety and has mintages through three months of 1941 (O10¢Bw.2 has mintages through two months of ’42);
  • O25¢At is new, and it’s rare to find additional varieties for the scarce Barber Quarter boards;
  • I’m not certain whether the following were reported previously, but O25¢Bn.1 has the 1308 S. Vermont address, while O25¢Bn.2 carries the newer 1317 address.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Around the time you receive this newsletter I’ll be leaving for the ANA Summer Seminar, where I teach a class entitled “Collecting United States Type Coins”. This time, I’ll again be joined by my co-instructor Frank Van Valen, who was absent for the past few years. After that, I’ll be with the NGC staff at its booth for the ANA World’s Fair of Money in Denver, August 1-5.

See you there…

–Dave

Photo of the author's desktop and computer wallpaper. Courtesy David W. Lange - Coin Board News

The author’s desktop, featuring Gramercy coin boards as his computer wallpaper. Photo courtesy David W. Lange

* * *

David Lange
David Lange
The author of several books on United States numismatics, David W. Lange received numerous awards and accolades from both the ANA and the NLG. David was the former President of the Pacific Coast Numismatic Society, the California State Numismatic Association, and the New Jersey Numismatic Society. He also had memberships in the ANA, the NLG, the ANS, the LSCC, the EAC, the BCCS, and the Rittenhouse Society. Career highlights included the launching of NGC's Photo Proof and writing historical copy for the United States Mint's website and H.I.P. Pocket Change program for kids. His specialties have included Seated Liberty silver, Philippine coinage under U.S. administration, and British coinage from 1816-1970. In 2007, David published the first comprehensive reference to Coin Collecting Boards of the 1930s and '40s, and for over a decade published Coin Board News four times a year. David Lange died on January 16, 2023. He is missed.

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