By David lange –www.coincollectingboards.com
MARKET ACTIVITY
There’s not a lot to report with respect to internet offerings, which have been unremarkable this past quarter. I’ve been slowly selling coin boards through my eBay store Cagemast Coin Boards and Albums, but it is the albums which seem to attract more buyers. Most of the boards sold by others have been relatively common items of average quality, but I was outbid on a few nicer items, none of them truly rare. One seller has an appealing assortment of Colonial brand boards for sale as a Buy-it-Now offering at a figure over retail value, and the several offers he’s received from me and others have not met with success. I did purchase a large (50+) collection of coin boards from the son of a deceased board collector, and this included some choice items that were quickly placed with want-list customers. There are still about three dozen items remaining from this purchase, and some of them will be found within the accompanying list Number 123.
BOOK UPDATES
Another error reported to me (sigh) is that Oberwise variety O1¢Bv.1, described in my book as having dates through 1941, in fact does not, which I confirmed by examining my own example. Its description is otherwise correct. O1¢Bv.2 is now known in two minor varieties: O1¢Bv.2a has mintages through “9 months” of 1940, and O1¢Bv.2b is updated with mintages through “10 months.” O10¢Bv has been renumbered to O10¢Bv.2 (mintages complete through 1940), and O10¢Bv.1 is added (“11 months”).
New backing varieties for Oberwise boards include O5¢Bx, O10¢Ag, O10¢Bg, O25¢An and O25¢Cg. In fact, there’s actually a new variety of backing altogether: Variety ‘n’ is now known with either the 1308 address (n1) or later 1317 address (n2). I’ve opted to not reassign all the Oberwise numbers based on this information, and ‘n’ alone will continue to be used in each instance. While I usually value accuracy above all, there’s a limit to how far one can go with details before collecting coin boards ceases to be fun!
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
I’ve been keeping pretty close to home this year, at least with respect to coin shows, but I’ll be co-manning the NGC spread at the ANA Convention in Philadelphia, August 7-11. Before that event I’ll be instructing a class on collecting United States type coins at the ANA’s Summer Seminar, June 23-29 in Colorado Springs. Co-instructor Frank Van Valen of Stacks/Bowers will be on hand, as usual, and it’s always a great week for everyone involved.
I also have tentative plans to meet with the son of one of the original coin board publishers, and I hope to have a report on this experience in the next issue of Coin Board News.
I recently spent a few days in Pennsylvania performing research for my next book on National Coin Albums and related items, and the manuscript for this first volume is about 80% complete. One chapter is already with my layout designer, and I hope to have the book in print sometime early next year.
Dave Lange
