By Kelly Kopa My father yells to the back of the van: “Today’s the day, I can feel it!” It was the summer of 1994. Denny’s had issued a new series of limited edition holographic major league baseball cards. As the van pulled into the Denny’s driveway, a faint sound of moaning and the occasional “dear […]
Long Story
The Coin Geek: Bible Verse on U.S. Coins
While all current U.S. coins bear the national motto “In God We Trust,” a few designs from the 20th century actually cite a specific Bible verse.
The Coin Geek: Misplaced Dates
In the 1700s and 1800s, the dies used to strike coins were made partly by machine and partly by hand. Every step in the coin-manufacturing process creates the chance for another error, and misplaced dates (sometimes abbreviated MPDs) can be spectacular – if you know where to look.
The Coin Geek: A Kindness Repaid
Like any other professional numismatist, I have had many mentors who have given me assistance and insight throughout my career. Most of their gifts I could never pay back, so I pay them forward instead. Every once in a while, though, I get the chance to return a favor. In Spring 1998 I was 12 years […]
Overtaken By Events: Unexpected Collectibles
While I love looking at and studying old guns, my interest in “antique” firearms is almost purely from the shooter’s perspective. I don’t own any firearm I can’t shoot – no high dollar collectible wall hangers for me! When I started working on The Handbook of Modern Percussion Revolvers (from Krause Publications, due out in the […]
Chaos and Elkington Owls
Aestheticism is the Rodney Dangerfield of design movements: It can’t get no respect. Vintage English silver cups are quite common but examples from the Aesthetic Movement, decorated with owls, moons, stars and exotic plants, are the oddballs of the graphic design world and have a unique beauty if you look for it.
The Golden Age of Comic Reprints
Just recently, I received a big box filled with books from one of my favorite publishers, Fantagraphics. This company, which has been around for years, publishing everything from The Comic Journal and Amazing Heroes (trade journals for comic fans) to Love and Rockets, the award-winning series from Los Brothers Hernandez, to a line of sex […]
The Coin Geek 4: Of Forty-Eighters and Forty-Niners
(There is little more enthralling or evocative than a huge gold ingot of assayers gold, and little assayers gold more intriguing that that of Justh & Hunter, two names numismatists will recognize instantly from its intimate connection to the most famous lost treasure shipwreck of all, the S.S. Central America. Read on for John Dale’s entertaining history […]
