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When Generosity is MORE Than Its Own Reward
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Doe Dough
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This piece is a cent overstruck with our Doe Brothers logo. We called
this "Doe Dough" and gave them as a "tip rebate" whenever someone tipped
a dollar or more. It was a great gimmick that really increased the hat
when we played. We should really pull them out again. On a related
subject, we just got booked for the Ozark Folk Festival on Oct. 13,
opening for Ray Wiley Hubbard and Ramblin Jack Elliot. We're also
performing next weekend for the Eureka Springs Jazz Festival. Earlier in
the season we also played at the Blues Festival. Funny thing is, we
really don't play blues, jazz, or folk. We just call it music. The site
is looking great. Ron Landis...Sat, 09 Sep 2000 11:51:31
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| 9/27
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Coin Reproductions Mailing List Started
CoinRepros is a group for people collecting coin reproductions or
replicas, such as those produced by the Gallery Mint Museum or Royal Oak
Mint, or the large "coaster" sized reproductions offered by a number of
manufacturers. Other possible topics may include silver rounds that
reproduce coinage designs, coins of other nations (such as Liberia) that
mimic legal tender, etc. Discussion is NOT limited to US coins and
reproductions, either.
EMail:Joe Sewell...Tue, 15 Aug 2000
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| 9/26
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1794 HalfCent 1793 Cent 1794
HalfDime/HalfDollar/Dollar
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Wider Is Better (apologies to Pontiac)
These little pieces obviously aren't anywhere near the
quality of Gallery Mint creations and you all know I am a large fan of
those creations. Still, these miniatures arouse my curiosity. They range
from roughly 6.5mm to 8mm in diameter. Accurate measurements are not
available to me...sorry!
Who made them? Are they still available? What did they cost?
These three pieces are being offered for sale on eBay as I write this.
It won't do any good to ask
EMail:Bill,
the Seller, because I have already been there and done that. He only has
the three and has nothing further to contribute to resolving my curiosity.
Does anyone out there have any clues for me?
While scratching around looking for more information on these I found
there are quite a few different miniature reproductions floating around
out there. So far I haven't found any quite so directly in GMM's main
period of focus but interesting little pieces none-the-less.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
Prices realized for the three pieces shown above were: HalfCent:$10.50+sh,
Cent:$3.84+sh and HalfDime/HalfDollar/Dollar:$4.25+sh. Ain't eBay GRAND?!?
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen...Sun, 28 Sep 2000 21:46:28
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| 9/25
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Good For $1 In Trade...Royal Mint
I purchased this token from a representative of GMM at the Milwaukee
summer show in 1999. I have no idea of its relation to GMM other than
that and assumed that if he was selling it, it came from GMM. Perhaps
Ron can shed some light on it. I bought it because the strike from
obverse to reverse made no match as far as patterns being off center. It
was a puzzle to me and continues to be so at this date.
EMail:Doug Chaussee...Mon, 25 Sep 2000 19:37:55
In regard to your Royal Mint token... This is a special piece made
entirely for the purpose of demonstrating roller milled coining at the
Texas Renaissance Festival. The rolling mill was actually powered by an
eight foot undershot water wheel. The rolls of the mill were engraved to
print a continuous strip of four different types of tokens of $1 and $2
denominations. The tokens were then cut out of the strip in a screw
press tooled with a punch and die. The tokens were given to children
"apprentices" who helped demonstrate the drop hammer at the end of the
demonstration. This particular piece seems to have been made from
miscued rolls. Mating the impressions was difficult using this
technique. The gears have to be "timed" exactly right or this happens.
Some were sold at face value. Very rare. Where the heck did you find
this?
EMail:Ron Landis...Sat, 30 Sep 2000 12:17:23
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| 9/24
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1793 Liberty Cap Cent with Cud on Reverse
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Cud Errors Are Production Errors
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1796 Draped Bust Dollar
with Cud on Obverse
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You won't see the press operator knocking the edges off production dies
in order to fill an order for a specific coin with a cud (broken die)
error. They might strike a few pieces from naturally broken dies but
that is a different sort of situation. Nice cud errors, like the two
shown here, should be represented in any collection of coinage errors.
They also make neat additions for us folks building GMM/Landis
collections.
Mike Ellis, of
1999 Ellis GMM Auction
fame, is currently offering the lovely cud error cent shown above on
eBay where he says:
This is one of the infamous Gallery Mint Museum reproduction 1793 Large
Cents. This one is BU with the copy stamp on the reverse. There is also
a major die break (CUD) on the reverse at K-3:30 (clock position). Most
of those released did not have the cud! If you can't afford the original
but want to fill the hole in your collection with the finest
reproduction available (because the dies were hand cut just like the
original!), this is your chance!
EMail:Mike Ellis...Fri, 22 Sep 2000 11:33:59
The fantastic 1796 Draped Bust Dollar with cud on obverse shown above
right was a lot in the afore-mentioned auction. For all sorts of very
difficult to obtain GMM specimens check out the
1999 Ellis GMM Auction
listing provided for us by Mitch Hight on his GMM website.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
Mike tells me that Ron Landis has agreed to let him hold another GMM
auction of selected specimens out of the Gallery Mint Museum's archives.
Now that will be an auction worth standing in line for...and you don't
know the lengths I will go to just to avoid any situation where there is even
a slight chance of having to stand in a line! Stay tuned and I will let
you know about the auction the second I learn any details. I never even
knew the 1999 auction was happening so missed the chance to really run
up the prices on most of those lots. The Chain Cents were a bit rich for
my pocketbook, but treasures like the Fort Bragg piece went for a song!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 9/23
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Click on image for enlargement
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1836 Coronet Cent reproduced on
First U.S. Mint Steam Coinage Press
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Three Piece 2000 ANA Medal Set
Silver Piece
Depicts
Ancient Coining
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Click on image for enlargement
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Winged Liberty
(Mercury Head)
Pewter Medal
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Click on image for enlargement
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Here is Ron Landis at his finest in my opinion! Not that there are any
flies on his elegant "COPY" coinage creations, mind you ...but... all
three of the medals shown here are original creations. Nary a "COPY"
appears anywhere on these pieces.
GMM announced this medal set in their September 2000 Collectors'
Update. They tell us that the 1836 Coronet Cent creations were
struck on a press that was built as a production machine, and unlike
other GMM creations, they are struck once and ejected into a bin. For
this reason we should expect bag marks and spotting. I'm here to tell ya
that the piece I received is a real beauty and I am well pleased with
it!
They didn't mention anything about the possibility of any silver casting
shot pellets not being completely melted for the Olympia hand hammered
pieces. On my piece they appeared at a most inopportune place and were
just the wrong color to blend in nicely.
I look forward to more of Ron's wonderful imaginative pieces!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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| 9/22
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Click on image for enlargement
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1793 Proof ChainCent w/periods&fullAMERICA
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EARLY GMM ChainCent Comes To Light
A person never knows what they are going to learn or experience any
given day when they crawl out of the sack. Today has been a real GMM
day for me...I ordered eighteen various pieces directly from GMM and
three GMM gold proofs plus a dozen 1786/1787 New Jersey GMM pieces from
a very friendly coin dealer. My wife is in Iowa at our middle daughter's
and has pretty much left me unsupervised! Well, there went October's
retirement check, so I reckon I'll have to live off the wife's even
smaller check.
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Click on image for enlargement
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Die Struck Insert
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THEN...when I thought I was pretty much done for the day, my
corresponding friend
EMail:Cliff Bolling
sent me the scans shown above and to the right along with the following
information:
I have a new piece I just picked up. It is an early GMM version of the
1793 Chain Cent, being the 'with dots' variety, has dots after date and
LIBERTY on obverse, and AMERICA is fully spelled out on the reverse.
This was struck with medallic orientation, unrotated obverse and
reverse. Also, it seems to be a proof.
I spoke to the folks at GMM and they told me that about 100-150 of these
were struck very early in production and sold along with all the other
Chain Cent creations. They didn't like the design details of this piece,
so they retired the dies after just a few strikings.
I've noticed that the fraction on the reverse looks like it might have been a corrected boo-boo, being originally 1/10, then an extra 0 added to make 1/100.
Then as I was putting the coin back in the holder, I found something
else. It was in the back sleeve of the holder. WOW! Who knew?? I believe
the letter and number punches on the embossed paper are the same as
the punches used on the coin dies.
EMail:Cliff Bolling...Fri, 22 Sep 2000 17:38:04
Shown here are the obverse and reverse of the only GMM chain cent I knew
about before today...some days are REALLY GREAT!
Now then to the embossed paper insert certificate, it indicates there
were 40 BU pieces and 30 Proof pieces struck. Since the folks at GMM are
likely just relying on memory, I'd think that the 70 pieces is a "better"
number than the 100-150. Of course, they might be including strikes that
the certificate didn't reflect at the time it was created. In my opinion
the certificate adds tremendously to the interest and value of Cliff's
specimen.
Were these wonderful certificates created for any other GMM issues?
Maybe Ron will let us know the specifics on which issues this was done
for! Sure wish GMM was still creating these certificates...at least for
the more valuable pieces. But who knew when they were struck that these
pieces would catch on like they have ... not even Ron HIMSELF, I'd guess.
Finally, I wonder about the COIN WORLD July 5, 1995
reference on the certificate.
Does anyone know precisely what that issue of COIN WORLD had to
say about GMM?
Maybe some kind soul out there will send me a copy of any relevant
article so I can share it with everyone.
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
BRAINSTORM!!! It hit me this morning... I'd bet that this die
struck paper insert was created from the canceled die. Everything
fits... the punches used and the placement of them in the open field
areas... that just HAS to be what this is.
Now I wonder if all GMM's dies are canceled in this interesting
manner?...THAT sure would make a super ScrapBook Subject!
Hey Ron...HELP!!!
EMail:Verne R. Walrafen
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