Saturday, October 24, 2009

Waltham Railroad Pocket Watch Crescent Street - 21 jewels



Waltham Railroad Pocket Watch Crescent Street - 21 jewels.


A very special place in pocket watch collecting field is held by US Railroad pocket watches. Train took an important place during american history. Antiques from this periode are in very high demand.

Waltham Brand produced many models. Today let's see the "Crescent Street" caliber that you can see in motion below. This movement was very reliable and solid, but what a pleasure for our eyes to see it in motion! Many of the mechanical parts are nicely engraved!

The dial is easy to read (Size 16) with great arabic chapter as usual for Railroad pocket watches. This Waltham Railroad pocket watch has a screwed back case to protect the movement. The pocket watch is "Open Face" type which is easier for a quick look at time.

The case is 14k white Gold Filled. It is extremelly tough to find this type of pocket watch with clean and immaculate dial because most of the time they were hardly used and many "Hairlines" occurs.

Prices are still going up, but this type of Waltham Railroad pocket watches are still affordable in the 250-350 US dollars range. The Railroad watch here is 250 US dollars due to the average condition. The case has heavy traces of wear, but movement is in great condition.

Hamilton Railroad Pocket Watch caliber 992 - 21 jewels



Hamilton Railroad Pocket Watch caliber 992 - 21 jewels.


A very special place in pocket watch collecting field is held by US Railroad pocket watches. Train took an important place during american history. Antiques from this periode are in very high demand.

Hamilton Brand produced many models. Today let's see the caliber "992" that you can see in motion below. This particular watch was produced around 1898-1900 as we can see by the serial number. This movement was very reliable and solid, but what a pleasure for our eyes to see it in motion! Many of the mechanical parts are nicely engraved, the main wheel is solid gold!

The dial is easy to read (Size 16) with great arabic chapter as usual for Railroad pocket watches. This Hamilton Railroad pocket watch has a double case to protect the movement. The pocket watch is "Open Face" type which is easier for a quick look at time.

The case is 14k Gold Filled guaranteed 20 years. It is extremelly tough to find this type of pocket watch with clean and immaculate dial because most of the time they were hardly used and many "Hairlines" occurs.

Prices are still going up, but this type of Railroad pocket watches are still affordable in the 400-600 US dollars range. The Railroad watch here is 600 US dollars due to the great general condition. The case has only a few traces of wear and is near MINT.
Dial is absolutly immaculate. And movement is AS NEW.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

US Morgan Dollars in Mint State condition


United States : Morgan Dollars in Mint State condition

This Morgan type dollar was minted in great quantity, but coins in uncirculated condition are extremely popular among collectors. Showing Liberty Head on obverse, and American eagle on the reverse. Design is extremely attractive and top engraver shows his skill in this classical type coin. Quotation will be depending of Mint place et Mint date.

Some Mint places as Carson City are scarcer with “CC” Mint mark, but in general this Morgan type coin is easy to find in average condition for a very raisonable price. I suggest to start to collect this Morgan dollar in MS63 grade or better which provide Mint State coins with minimum marks on higher relief, affordable in a price range 45-100US each. Prices increased a lot in MS64, MS65 …

This Morgan type was replaced by the Peace dollar type in 1921. The peace dollar 1921 is very scarce and hard to find, this is a key date. US silver dollars are extremely attractive because of great design and quality of strike, all around the world collectors are searching for these great coins very often in mint condition. Mint mark can be found below the eagle tail “O”, “S”, “CC” or no letter at all (Philadelphia mint).

I am myself looking for US dollar gold coin, very small in format with light weight in uncirculated condition. If you own such type coins don’t hesitate to contact me for offer. I prefere to buy whole collection of coins, and I am willing to pay top price for this kind of items.



Tuesday, August 25, 2009

French Polynesia currency Specimen banknotes serie



Rare currencies, rare specimen banknotes from Papeete.

The 100 Francs SPECIMEN of Polynesia (Papeete) is rare. To see one of these bank notes is not so evident. The latest signature: François de la Motte Ango de Flers - Maxime Robert, is not even report in the specialized catalogue of Bank of Indochina banknotes Kolsky as SPECIMEN at page 201. Mintage of this type is important: 3,425,000 for regular issue, but probably SPECIMEN banknotes are around 200-250 in existence. What's about to see a nice Gem UNC serie with consecutive numbers from Specimen 101 to specimen 114.

I recently got this amazing serie.

This banknote by itself is very impressive, large format banknote with dimension: 206mm x 118mm. Graphism is at its best as very often with Bank of Indochina banknotes. Design is signed Séb. Laurent and Rita SC. This banknote is using the type of 20 piastre 1928 from French Indochina, similar type was used too for Noumea. This 100 Francs was autorized in July 29th 1931 and finally was issued on december 1937 with alphabets from 15 to 230, mintage was around 5,400,000 banknotes for the regular issue. Reference in Kolsky catalogue page 201 is #513e. You will see here one of the nicest serie available. Hoping you will enjoy this great type banknote from Bank of Indochina SPECIMEN.

A must have for any serious collector from French Polynesia (Papeete) bank notes.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Second Empire Covers



Napoleon III great covers to collect.

Interesting field of investigation specially for covers sent to foreign countries. Could be very interesting to follow the long delivery process in some case, or realized how fast was the delivery at this time. Many different marks are involved, some date cancellation are very scarce, special cancellations for train, steamers .... OR AIR MAIL. The case "Ballons montés" is unique in history. Extremelly desirable and expensive.

Second empire covers du to colonial wars offers many army marks issued during campaigns as Mexican war or european wars. Inusual destination countries are sometimes tough to find and could be expensive to buy. I am specially interested by second empire covers sent to South and North America. Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Peru from this periode with steamer mark or Panama mark.

Second empire covers sent from Mexico to France with army marks are my favorite.

Don't hesitate to let me know if by chance you have some of those to sell or trade.



France Game Tokens: Gold Coins Replica


Huge sets of french game tokens.

I bought recently a huge collection of french game tokens. These tokens were in used for money games, similar to Monopoly money. Exact REPLICA of legal french gold coins issued under Napoleon III reign. These great tokens are in different denominations from tiny 5 Francs to the large size 100 Francs gold. The striking of these coins is so perfect! It is amazing. Fortunatelly, these coins are stamped "COPY" which is very important to avoid a mixed-up with real gold money.

After some investigation it seems these tokens were in use around 1900's as Casino games tokens or in "cercles privés". Money games were not permitted with real money, so these tokens were used to follow the rules of Law.

This collection is really a curiosity because of quality of coins and also because of quantity (around 500 pieces):

5 Francs, 10 Francs, 20 Francs, 50 Francs, 100 Francs similar to french Napoleon III gold coins. I am now looking for the original gold coins from Napoleon III reign. Not sure I can afford such a lot in one shot!

France Prephilatelic covers




French prephilatelic covers marks.

The first stamped mark on french covers appears in 1695. Standard tarification for France was settled in 1676. At the very beginning the addressee was paying for the postage rate, not the sender. Being different was positively impolite. With time marks came with town name et date. Starting in 1830 was the wellknown "Fleurons" cancellation with many varieties. This cancellation mark was used for a long time periode.

Some "Fleurons" cancellations were found on the very first french stamp, the 20 centime black issued in january 1849. Old prephilatelic covers are part of history to discover. Envelopes at this time were not in use, so a paper sheet was fold and sometimes sealed by wax. These wax sealers are collectible part by themsefves, many wearing coasts of arms. Both correspondance and prephilatelic postal marks are here for you to study. Easy to read because of the perfect calligraphy in use at this time.

Very often you will be surprised by the quality of paper and ink. Some covers are absolutly in Mint condition, even if sender wrote them in the 1830's close two hundreds years ago. A world for you to discover!

Just start the treasure hunt, in many case these french prephilatelic covers are very affordable and easy to collect with a low budget.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Invasion from China: Fake coins






Fake coins made in China could kill the market!

I noticed in past months, the growing quantities of fakecoins on sale on the Internet. Some countries were with very few fakes on the market. But till now, we have to be careful. I saw a French 5 francs Napoleon I 1812B in XF condition on sale on ebay, pics seems to show an authentic coin but seller was from China. This coin was not stamped "Copy" as it was supposed to be to follow ebay's rules. Price was so low (below silver), I decided to buy this coin.

At the first glance, the strike on reverse and obverse, was extremely well done. The legend on the edge was very weak, and imperfect, the french MINT was not involved in this striking. Weight was 23 grams probably metal with low silver content or no silver content at all. I got a 5 Francs Napoleon III and a 5 lira Emanuele and 120 Grana from Sicily, in very similar quality. Ebay France is absolutely overcharged with the flow of fakes from China. Fake coins are essentially targeting coins from USA, France, Spain, Italy, Mexico and so on ... without proper stamping "COPY" or "REPLICA" on it.

Same problem with gold coins replica. Many tiny fake gold coins 9k, 14k, 22k not even weigh 0,5 gram.

My suggestion for coin collector starting his hobby collection ... Buy from a seller you can trust! Be extremely careful with sellers on ebay, check for their feedbacks.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Free information ...




Free appraisal online!

I will do my best to help if you need assistance about grading, pricing or need an offer on quality item for sale. I
am always looking for French coins in top condition as Louis XIV Ecus, Louis XV Ecus, Louis XVI Ecus, Napoleon Ier, and any gold coins. I am always looking for canadian coins in top condition as Victoria, Edouard, George V, George VI in any denomination. Thank you to let me know if you want to sell such items.

Philippe

Thank you for your interest in my website!


I will be pleased to help if you have any questions about my items on sale.