Want some so called ‘GODless’ GOlden Dollars with no edge lettering? You’ll be suprised to know that there are several types of errors and other ‘new errors’ that can be associated with this type of coin. (Please see my other guide on errors in general with the Golden & Presidential Dollar coins)This coin with EDGE LETTERING marks the 100th anniversary of the last coin to sport a readable edge. …The StGaudens $20 gold coin (1907-1933) Except the lettering is ’stamped into’ or incused into the edge. What more (a bummer) since the Date and Mint Mark is on the edge, it would be indistinguishable to know if the ’smooth edge’ coin came from P or D mints.  Though most of the errors seem to come from the Philadelphia mint and shipped to Florida.

Missing Edge Lettering: is the most obvious seen error. With the first errors selling upwards of $500 and more, and $2000 for a slabbed. A more reasonable value is $50 and $100 for a slabbed MS65+

Doubled Edge Lettering: this may be the most likely candidate for a collectable of value. This coin should have doubled lettering all around the edge.

Double Die Edge Lettering: Similar to above but only part of the lettering may be doubled.

Partial lettering: Coin with missing lettering, possibly a missing mintmark, or other letters. This may be caused by a flake of metal, gease or some foreign object in the way when the edge lettering is applied.

Inverted Double Die: Possibly the most rare of errors is a coin which the edge lettering is made then have been ‘flipped over’ then lettering applied again in reverse of the other.

Obverse/Reverse Right Edge Lettering: No fault of minting at all. Coins with face up or tails up may have the edge lettering in readable position. Or Rotation Position of Edge Lettering, meaning the position of ‘GOD’ is not always at the position of ‘Liberty’s Torch’

After the discovery of gold in the southern United States a new mint was constructed in Dahlonega, Georgia. The first coinage exited its doors in 1838 and it continued minting until it was closed due to the civil war in 1861. The 1861-D gold dollars were struck after the Mint was seized, the mintage figure for this rare issue is not listed in Mint records and has been estimated at 1,000 to 1,500 examples. The Dahlonega Mint struck only gold coins and used the “D” mintmark.

If you are on a tight budget and want something really beautiful to have as your centerpieces, don’t buy flowers.  Make one!  Here’s how…

1 bag hershey’s kisses
1 medium sized styrofoam ball
1 1.5ft long .5 inch diameter craft stick
block of styrofoam
1 pretty planters pot
moss
glue sticks and glue gun

*Most of these items can be bought at a craft store for under 10 dollars for the whole craft*

Glue hershey’s kisses(still in foil) around entire area of stryofoam ball.  Insert craft stick into bottom of ball.  Place styrofoam block inside pot to fit (might need to cut it a bit).  Insert stick into middle of stryofoam block inside pot.  Put some moss over the pot so it looks like grass.  You can touch this up with ribbon or various other things to make it even more festive.  Perfect for a spring wedding.

This guide is intended for the seller who does not have a lot of knowledge about trains, but is looking to sell the “old trains that were stored in the basement.”

When selling model railroad equipment, the most important thing to include in your listing is the scale, such as N, HO, O, etc.  Sellers who have little experience with model trains sometimes make the mistake of listing their locomotives and cars under the wrong scale; if a potential buyer is looking for an HO scale locomotive, that buyer will be looking for HO scale only… an HO scale locomotive listed as N scale will not get many (if any) bids.  The seller should pay close attention to the scale of the model being sold, and list it correctly.

The type of rolling stock (locomotives and cars) being listed is also important to note in the auction heading.  Many times, sellers with little knowledge of trains or model railroads will list their auctions with generic titles like “train,” “trains,” “train car,” and the like.  This will not generally get the attention of the average buyer; most of the time, a person seeking a caboose will search under the word “caboose,” and so forth.  Try to determine the type of railroad equipment you are selling.  Is it a steam locomotive or a diesel?  Steam locomotives are usually black and cylindrical, with various domes and piping on the body, and driving rods and other moving parts near the wheels… the “choo-choo” sort of locomotive.  Steam engines will rarely have any markings besides a number on the cab and/or a railroad name on the tender (the “coal car” which is usually attached to the locomotive).  Diesels have no visible moving parts besides the wheels, and are generally boxy or streamlined in appearance; they can be in a variety of color schemes.  If you are selling a freight car, is it a tank car, or a boxcar, or a hopper?  Please keep in mind that NOT every railroad car is a “boxcar.”  Boxcars are just that… cars shaped like boxes, with doors on their sides.  Tank cars look like cans on a set of wheels.  Hoppers are open-topped cars with chutes on the bottom, while covered hoppers have a roof.  Gondolas are basically low, open-topped cars with flat bottoms.  Flatcars… well, they need no explanation.  Cabooses are usually short, boxy cars with a few windows (they are NOT “passenger cars”).

The name of the railroad that is printed on the car or locomotive is also important to include in your auction heading, such as “Pennsylvania,” “Great Northern,” or “Santa Fe.”  Reporting marks (railroad initials) can be listed instead, such as “PRR,” “GN,” or “ATSF.”  There are lists of reporting marks which can be found online; simply search under “railroad reporting marks” and a number of websites are available which will show the name of a railroad and its reporting mark.

If you have a locomotive that you wish to sell, but don’t know if it works, SAY SO in your listing.  Sometimes, bidders are not necessarily looking for a working locomotive; they may just want the body of the locomotive for a modeling project, or may want to use your old junker for spare parts.  For the same reason, if your car or locomotive appears damaged in any way, make sure you include a description in your listing.  Does your boxcar have a missing door?  Are the little step-ladders at the end broken off?  Is there a coupler (the “connector” at each end) missing?  Are there any scratches, cracks or dents?  Post a good, clear photo with your listing if you can; eBay will host one photo for free.

One last thing to avoid: titles with words like “RARE” and “WOW.”  A good honest title and description will get more attention than flashy phrases that lack any substance.  More often than not, buyers looking for model trains are not seeking collectors’ pieces; they’re looking for models to build or operate.  Give them a good accurate description, and they may be very interested in what you’ve got to offer.

People often ask whether or not it is possible to convert a biopak 30,45,60,or 240 into a underwater diving rebreather

Short answer: YES

They should be asking:

Is it worth it to convert a biopak to underwater use?

Short answer: NO.

Slightly longer answer: MAYBE

First off, you have to ask yourself what you hope to get out of it. Realize this: At present, there is no nationally recognized agency to certify you on this. Someday there may be, but not in your lifetime.  This means that no boat or dive shop will have anything to do with you and your rig, no mater how good it is.  Even Morgantown (current parts supplier) will not deal with you if you breath a word of what you are up to. You will be on your own. 

If you just want to experience rebreather diving, many dive shops have an “intro to rebreathers” that will cost you very little. (comparitively.) Certainly much less than it will cost you to even get your biopak into the pool.

If you wanted to use the biopak as a pure O2 rebreather,  and limit yourself to 20 feet, you may find you about break even.

If you were going to make it a fully functional CCR, capable of normal scuba depths, you will spend a lot more money than you would if you just bought a regular rebreather that you could get certified on.

If you can do without the services of a dive shop or charter boat, and if you can get your sodasorb and oxygen fills on your own (and you can, of course, if you are determined to do so.)  then the next question is:

How well do you know yourself?

 Will you ever finish the project? Most Biopaks you see on Ebay have been there before.  And again before that. Be honest with yourself, do you have any cars waiting to be restored? Got space in the trunk for a biopak?

What is your confidence in your skill level? would you pilot a helicopter you built yourself?

How are your diving skills?  You should be pretty comfortable with your rebreather skills before you try to build your own.

There are, of course valid reasons to build your own rebreather.  At this point in history, it is  unfortunately, still possible to build a better rebreather than you can buy. If that is your goal, the biopaks are not the place to start.  They have inherent limitations that cannot be fixed.

There are a couple of good reasons to build a rebreather out of a biopak, but cost is not one of them.

Often much is made about the original cost of a new biopak.  It is true that they go for  four to five thousand dollars each new.  Look at the catalog, though, and its not hard to say why. Six dollars for a screw, a few hundred dollars for a rubber diaphragm, it adds up.  These are designed to be paid for by taxpayer dollars, the prices would never hold up on the open market. Keep in mind also, that if you get serious about this, you will be throwing out about half the supposed value of the rig in parts that just don’t work underwater.

It is also commonly thought that the mask that comes with it can easily be converted to a Divator.

Depends on what you call easy.  First, the correct lens will cost you about a hundred dollars.  The AGA style masks also do not have nose access, so a nose block is also required.  Next, you need the face plate, and regulator, or rebreather adaptor.  You are looking at  $500-$1,000 to make a functioning underwater mask out of this.  So what you get, basically,  is an AGA skirt.

Fortunately, most people don’t use full face masks, so this is less of a problem.  It is not a problem at all if your unit ships with the scott mask instead, as there is no conversion at all for that one.

Lets say you decide to do this anyway (I have done over a dozen, and will likely do more.)

The first step is to decide which model to use.  The bp 30 is very uncommon, and has an excrable scrubber, so let’s just ignore it altogether.

The BP-45 is a major league diversion from the line, it doesn’t come with any of the expected biopak style enhancements, such as a scrubber (used disposables) or regulator (seriously, it uses a capillary tube for pressure reduction). To make things worse, it has even smaller breathing tubes than the other biopaks, and none of the parts are compatible- with anything.  I have converted these to diving, but have since decided that there is absolutely no way at all that it can be made worthwhile, except perhaps as a joke.

BP-60

This is probably the easiest to convert, and the only one that was originally designed for diving. It started out as the CCR-25, a pure oxygen rebreather that also was marketed (unsuccessfully) to the military as the Cobra system.

When it failed that, it was colored orange and sold to firemen, where it did very well.  The bp-60 is different in a lot of ways from its predecessor, but not so far that it can’t be changed back. probably the worst factor of the bp-60 is that it has the world’s worst scrubber.  It is so thin that breakthrough is normal, not the exception.  This design also wastes a huge amount of sodasorb. The Bp-240 cannister holds less than twice as much, but goes four times longer.  Also, there are no ridges in the bp-60 scrubber to limit channeling, and no tension device on the scrubber bed, other than the compression of the foam pad, so settling is almost certain.  The scrubbers are interchangable though, so in essence, you can have biopak 240 performance in a bp-60 size, if you are so inclined.

The bp 240, despite its similarities to the ccr-500 and 100, was never meant for diving.  It shares more in common with the biopak 60, such as scrubber, scrubber lid, and plumbing.   The case is larger, both in length and width. It comes with the larger scrubber, but almost never the mask or tank.  The challanges of building a 240 are slightly different than a bp-60, but if you have built one, you can build the other. If you are looking to build a more serious RB, this might be the place to start.  Or it might be a total waste of money. (see below.)

Once you have decided which model to start with, consider the vintage.

Normally , the newer ones are better in several respects.

The hoses smell better and are more squash-proof. (older ones always have the squashies.) Newer ones have the push-button add valve. newer ones have movable scrubber connections, which many of the older ones had molded on. The newer ones may also have additional oxygen port connection areas available, though you still have to drill and tap them yourself.

Older ones (square box era) had better regulators. They were dual-tank style, not just limited to oxygen tanks.  They had a built-in o-ring, so you don’t have to get a bartok or plastic washer.

of course, if you end up not using the reg, this is not a plus.

Ok, lets assume you have selected the bp-60, modern style (rounded  top shipping box)

As I see it, there are three basic levels of conversion that you may attempt.  Obviously there are endless variations, so I’ll ignore them.

Level one:

for those who just want to make it work, no matter how poorly, either couch diving or swimming pool, for whatever reason.  They don’t care if it all rusts out, or how it performs in real world settings, they just want to join the storied leagues of RB divers in any way possible, no matter how minor.

Get a couple of hose clamps and a 1″ pvc fitting with a 3/4″ tee. Heat the tee and squash it to fit a scuba mouthpiece. Get a couple of snorkle one-way valves and poke them down the tubes in the appropriate direction, and clamp the Tee on. put fresh sodalime in the scrubber, and a full tank of O2 in. Breathe off of this for at least half an hour just to make sure you have it all down. Have a friend handy.   While you are sitting on the couch breathing, take a moment to add things up. You probably paid $100-$200 for the bp-60 carcass, another $100-$150 for the sodasorb, shipping, handling, small parts, oxygen fill, you are most likely $400-$600 into this thing,  and its only fit for a pool dive. Take your rescue diver buddy and go in the shallow end of the pool, sit underwater for a while and breathe, then try swimming back and forth for a while. Naturally, you will have done all normal rebreather checks topside first, so there should be no leaks.  If there are, of course, terminate the dive by standing up.

When you get out of the pool, look under the scrubber. There will be moisture. Dip you finger in the puddle, if it forms a string, it’s your slobber.  That’s OK. If it doesn’t, taste it.  If it tastes like chlorine, you have a leak.  That is not so good.It may be from your mouthpiece, remember, it has no shut-off capabilities, its just a pipe fitting.

Chances are, at this point, you have concluded that there is a bit of hype in the concept of “easily  and cheaply converted” yes, you have actually breathed off of it under water.  You survived.  It worked.  However, in this length of time, you have also noticed that the breathing hoses are exceptionally long. They have to be, to go under your armpit and around to the center section.   Somehow, at this point, you realize that more needs to be done to make this thing really divable.

This would bring us to:

Level Two: a divable rig, pure oxygen

I am not going to cover SCR and the biopak, simply because SCR sucks.  They require an outsize tank (up to 50 cf are commonly used.) they still make bubbles, they still use more gas with depth, and in fact, can actually use more gas than open circuit, under certain conditions.  Add the cost of Nitrox and sodasorb, and you have, well, nothing good.   It is certainly easy to do if you want to, just drill a .490 hole in the side of the breathing chamber, and you can fit any Drager orifice you want to. But I said I’m not going there, and I won’t. That’s just throwing money down a rathole.

So the middle road here is to convert (revert?) the bp-60 to ccr-25 days.  You will come out of it with a pure-O2 rebreather, complete with 20 food depth limit. Just about the cheapest way to do this will cost you another few hundred dollars, bringing your total up to over a thousand, which would have bought you a Drager Ray (yes, its a justifiably discontinued piece of poo, but you would at least have a chance to dive it on your vacation to Grand Cayman.) and maybe the training, too. (Ray instructors, if there are any left, must be getting a bit edgy by now.)

But let’s press on.  First thing to do is strip off all the things that started rusting since your pool episode. all iron goes, all the aluminum, the honker, the suicide valve, and perhaps the orifice, though that is a personal choice.  If you are going to use the original regulator (yes, works fine at this depth) you need to change the pressure gauge for a submersible one.  Take the reg to a machine shop and have them spot-face the connections so you can use o-ring seal hoses, at least on the HP seat.  Decide beforehand whether you want the LP seats converted too, as they generally charge at least 60 bucks an hour (it adds up)  Either use an old style hp gauge, or get an adapter to use a new one, because the threads will be the same as LP side threads.

If you have the old turn-style bypass valve, dump it and replace it with a toggle valve or KISS valve. These run 50-500 bucks, depending. If you have the push button style valve, as a suggestion, take it apart, clean it and replace the schrader valve.  If you haven’t already, also replace the main oxygen addition valve, which is also a tire valve.  If the thought of being fed off a shcrader valve bothers you (and it will, the first time it fails to operate under load) then go to morgantown and order the little T-shaped lever.  It seems expensive, but it makes this work a lot better, and its definitely less expensive than replacing the main diaphragm. (HUNDREDS of dollars) I say replace because once the little brass insert falls off of it, there is nothing on earth that will make it stick back on (reliably) and so this little later-day mod is definitely worth it, if you hate that oxygen-starved feeling as much as I do.

As long as we are spending the big bucks here, I am going to tell you straight up, you need two things to make this work at all well as an underwater rebreather.

1: get the 240 scrubber. Its a couple hundred bucks, but quite necessary, if you hate that co2-buildup feeling as much as I do. ( you will.) you might not need to get the bp-240 lid, often it is enough to remove the cooling rings and grind off the bolt stubs to make it fit.  If not, another couple hundred bucks.  You can also stretch the scrubber if you are good at that kind of fabrication, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it, if you aren’t 100% with your skills in this area. if you choose that option, count at least 20 bucks, possibly more.

2: Get a dsv. Yes, you can make them, but there is a place in germany that sells them cheap enough that you don’t have to kill yourself trying to make one.  they are a couple hundred bucks, or you can get one of Gordon Smiths for about  six hundred.

3: wings. I know I said 2 things, but did you really think this would fly without some kind of BC? no, it won’t. get a nice trans-pac and wings, or something similar.  Yes, It may set you back another 500, but on the bright side, you can always take it with you when you graduate from this system.

4: Pony bottle: as with 3: above, you need one anyway, no matter what kind of RB you dive, so it doesn’t really count against your total cost. Lest this turn into a Monty Python skit, that really is the last of the major really needed items.

OK, now you could have bought a used dolphin with the amount of money you sunk in this thing, and if your time is worth anything, you would have had a sport KISS before you are done here.  So why do we do it? I can’t say, really what the attraction is… Oh, yes I can, I get paid for this.  What’s your excuse? Oh, well, anyway,  back to work.

The next thing you want to do is rotate the center section so that the connectors come out the top.  Move the lid latch if necessary, also you will have to build up the two bottom center section connection points, because doing it this way puts them in a bad location.  Some people have a delrin mounting ring machined instead, this is a great solution, but again, 60 bucks an hour plus delrin, which is not cheap. Nylon is just as good for this application, by the way.

When you do this, you also destroy the warning label, so get another. Yes, it is important. Or get one of Jetsam’s, they are pretty much to the point as well.  Or you can use my favorite, the one I have inscribed (or scrawled) inside all of my deep-sea helmets:

“Today may be the last day of the rest of your life.”

That’s mine, but you can use it. Think on this every time you dive. Make sure it never comes true. (on a dive).  By coming out the top, you save about four feet of that convoluted hose, which may or may not make a noticible difference in your WOB, depending on how many sit-ups you do every day. Either way, it is a lot more elegant (less dorky) than the under-arm crap. Seriously, you have to wonder how they came up with that.

Most people will change out the original steel bottle for a C-size oxygen bottle. This is about as large as you can get without dismounting the oxygen reg. If you have used the original steel bottle, that works too, if you remove the pressure gauge and plug the hole it leaves.

Consider casting some weights for the inside of the cover, the  closer you can get this thing to your back, the easier it will breathe.  If you don’t like casting, get some really fine lead shot and make an epoxy-lead syntactic goober  and paste it in there (AFTER you get all your plumbing finalized.)

This will  only achieve about 80%  the weight efficiency of cast lead, but its a lot easier to do and you won’t get burned.

At this point, you have someting fair, you may be able to replicate a LAR-V dive profile, as far as depth and duration (20 feet, 3-4 hours) good on ya. Believe it or not, this may hold you for quite a while, if you live where there are a lot of great shallow dives.  You do not yet need oxygen monitoring, just a pressure gauge.

How much money do you have invested? Best not think about it. A lot, but remember, there are many reasons to build your own RB that cannot be counted in terms of money. I guess.

Level 3:

Free-fall zone. Heart of darkness. You are colonel Kurtz and your methods have become unsound. No messenger is coming up the river after you.  That sound is your wife beating on the garage door.  Better not let her in.

You have come over to the dark side, and there is no going back. you want to dive normal scuba depths, and maybe, beyond.  you definitely need some oxygen monitoring at this point. Be warned, as you cruise the web looking at what others have done: There are some pretty bad ideas out there.

Abandon the one hundred-two hundred dollar zone now.  you are in the one-two thousand zone. You can, of course, go to oxycheq and build your own oxygen monitor. Then you have to put it in a waterproof casing (all together now: sixty dollars an hour plus materials) or you can buy it stock, from one thousand-two thousand, depending if you just want monitoring, or an actual computer that calculates oxygen dosage in real time.

Now you also have to add a diluent system,  which means another bottle, another spg, another addion device, etc. (it is tempting to use your bailout as diluent, but not always a good idea)

you may also find that you have outgrown your noryl plastic orange box of death, and now want a stainless backplate, with a carbon fiber shell (at this point, it doesn’t matter whether you started with a bp60 or 240, there won’t be enough original parts left to tell the difference)

to paraphrase mr. Popeil: NOW how much have you paid? well, again, it doesn’t matter at this point, you are obviously into this thing for reasons no one but another bp fanatic can understand.  You have also run up against some of the dirty little secrets of the biopaks.  Small bore hoses are fine for shallow diving, up to normal scuba depths. In fact, they are preferable, if you have rough waters or ride submarines or scooters.  However, there really is something to the hose diameter thing when you go deep. It is possible, of course to adapt the hose sizes up, but the connection to the center section will never be larger.  In fact, one of them is only half diameter, and though not a real issue, it will cause you to have unclean thoughts about modifying your center section.

Dude.

at some point, you just have to accept the basic limitations of the device, or give it up.  When you get here, stop.

THIS IS A GUIDE BASED ON MY PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS, NUMBEROUS REFERENCE MATERIALS AND MY LOVE FOR ALL NEWFOUNDLAND’S BEAUTIFUL COINAGE, ……..THE NEWFOUNDLAND 20 CENT COIN BEGAN LIFE IN 1865, JUST TWO SHORT YEARS BEFORE THE CONFEDERATION OF CANADA INTO A UNIFIED COUNTRY.ADOPTING A SIMILAR PORTRAIT OF QUEEN VICTORIA TO THAT OF THE BRITISH SHILLING , ( A TRULY STUNNING DESIGN )  THIS SERIES STARTED FAIRLY STRONG WITH 100,000 PIECES STRUCK THE FIRST YEAR ,( THE TRENDS ON THE 1865 BETWEEN FINE-EF ARE 45.00-350.00 )  HOWEVER THE SERIES ALONG WITH ALL OTHER NEWFOUNDLAND COINS WENT INTO A FIVE YEAR HIATIS , LARGELY DUE TO LACK OF DEMAND ) UNTIL 1870, WHEN THERE WERE ONLY  50,000 STRUCK.  THE 1870 IS A VERY TOUGH DATE TO FIND NICELY DETAILED AND PROBLEM FREE THERE ARE SEVERAL LOW MINTAGE DATES IN THIS SERIES , THE LOWEST BEING THE 1880, WITH ONLY 30,000 PIECES STRUCK. ONE OF THE TOUGHEST DATES OF ALL IS THE 1876-H , TOUGH, IN THE SENSE THAT, ITS VERY DIFFICULT TO FIND FULLY STRUCK AND ABOVE FINE ( F-12 ) THIS DATE IS NOTOROUSLY WEAKLY STRUCK ( AS ARE MANY NEWFOUNDLAND COINS )ESPECIALLY THE REVERSE, IT SEEMS THE OBVERSES HELD UP BETTER IN CIRCULATION . MANY COLLECTORS CONSIDER THE 1885 TO BE THE KEY, WHILE THERE IS SOME DEBATE ABOUT THAT, IT IS A SCARCE COIN, IN FACT , THE SECOND LOWEST MINTAGE IN THE SERIES AT 40,000 STRUCK , AND TOUGH TO FIND IN BETTER GRADES. ANOTHER TOUGH DATE IS  THE 1873,WITH ONLY 40,000 MINTED, IT IS TIED FOR SECOND LOWEST MINTAGE WITH THE 1885. QUEEN VICTORIA REMAINED ON ALL NEWFOUNDLAND COINAGE UNTIL  AFTER 1900. THE 1904-H TWENTY CENT COIN WAS A ONE YEAR TYPE FEATURING KING EDWARD VII ONLY 75,000 WERE STRUCK, MAKING THIS A BETTER DATE . THE LAST OF THE SERIES , WAS ALSO A ONE YEAR TYPE , THE 1912 , WITH THE KING GEORGE V PORTRAIT, THIS WAS THE HIGHEST MINTAGE IN THE SERIES AT 350,000. THE END CAME FOR THE TWENTY CENT COIN AFTER 1912, LARGELY  DUE TO ITS SIMILARITY TO THE TWENTY -FIVE CENT COINS , MUST HAVE BEEN CONFUSING TO SOME PEOPLE IN THOSE DAYS. IM VERY BULLISH ABOUT THIS SERIES, LIKE THE NEWFOUNDLAND FIFTY CENTS, THESE COINS HAVE NEARLY NON-EXISTENT MINTAGES, AND IF DEMAND IN THIS SERIES EVER REALLY PICKED UP STEAM, THESE COINS WOULD SURELY GO THROUGH THE ROOF IN PRICE, A QUICK COMPARISION WITH THE UGLY , SHORT-LIVED U.S. TWENTY CENT COINS ( MINTED 1875-1878 ) THE LEAST EXPENSIVE U.S “DOUBLE-DIME ” IS THE 1875-S, WITH A MINTAGE OF 1.1 MILLION , THE TREND IN G-4 IS 65.00 !!!!!!!!! THAT ONE  DATE ALONE HAS NEARLY THE MINTAGE  OF ALL OF THE NEWFOUNDLAND  TWENTY CENT COINS COMBINED, PROVING THAT, IN TIME , THESE BEAUTIFUL TIMELESS BEAUTIES MAY YET ENJOY VALUES AND TRENDS MORE RELATIVE TO THEIR SCARCITY .  THANK YOU  DANNY ANABLE ______”CANADA COIN NUT “  _JULY _2006

Astronaut Ron Evans used at least one autopen example during his career as a space hero.  These fake autographs are still floating around and some may find their way onto eBay.  Collectors should be aware of the risk with Ron Evans signatures, especially with Apollo 17 items.

This Guide will reproduce some known examples of his fake autograph.  This comes from the archives of Space Autograph News, an underground and out-of-print newsletter published in the 1990s.

An autopen is a machine-generated signature used widely by celebrities and politicians in the previous century.  These fake autographs were sent by the thousands in response to fan mail.  Early NASA astronauts were known to use autopens, so savvy collectors always watch out.

Fortunately, if you can identify autopens, you’ll eliminate a lot of risky material from your portfolio.  Here’s a few general characteristics about an autopen signature:
Uniform thickness of the signature, from beginning to end
Consistent coloration of the signature
Occasionally wobbling to the signature, as if the paper slipped during the impression
Noticeable impression on the paper, since the autopen machine pushes down on the surface area.

In other words, an autopen looks almost too perfect.  That’s the hand of a machine writing.  On the other hand, whenever someone scribbles their signature, natural imperfections occur.  That’s what you want to see in an autograph–a natural blemished look.

Let me know if you have any updates to this Guide, and I’ll keep adding to it.  If this Guide is helpful, please take a moment to leave feedback.  I’m trying to become one of eBay’s best Guide writers, and I need your positive vote.  Thanks.

Everyday as we go through our daily lives, the world is producing the collectibles of tomorrow as far as ephemera is concerned.  We recently helped a young couple clean our their grandmother’s home, we don’t do estate sales, we just advise people as to the best way to handle an estate. During our visit, we found folders after folders of information that had been saved for the past forty or more years.  This lady was very particular about her household affairs.  As we began to go through files, we found the original reciept for a purchase of a painting, without that reciept it was just another painting, but the paper trail showed the date it was purchased and that she was the original owner of the work. The value of the painting went from garage sale $100 to a gallery collector’s piece of $4,000.  It is to be auctioned very soon at a fine art collections auction.  This is an example of the difference just one piece of paper can make. Is it any wonder ephemera collectors want to always look through the trash pile at estate sales !

Paper is not expensive to print and the designs of artists appear on a world wide variety of work. For the most part these small fragments of a larger picture are put in the attic or thrown in the trash can, and usually it can be collected free of charge or at a very small price.  A box full of paper at an estate sale is always a collectors dream, even if you only get one or two pieces of ephemera from the box, usually the small price you pay is well worth the effort of the dig.

There really isn’t a golden rule as to what is ephemera and what is not ephemera. If you are a theme collector and all you want are snowmen, then you are constantly searching for old Christmas cards, tags, decorations, wrapping paper, postcards and anything else that has been printed with a snowman. I know one lady that will gladly pay the asking price for a set of  green paper luncheon napkins with a snowman on it, as long as the hat he wears is black and there is actually a carrot nose on the snowman !  Theme collectors love to find the printed items that go with the 3-D objects they own, even if its a magazine advertisement for the product. It gives a display one really unique look.

Collecting by occassion has become a very popular way of saving ephemera. We have daily planners from the years everyone in our family was born. We have magazines from the day we were born, newspapers, just the same.  If our favorite toy from the 60’s is on a antique store shelf, the first thing we do is ask if the paper from the box was put somewhere.  Do you know many antique stores have a what not box full of paper that they just don’t know what to do with and many times, its paper that goes with the very items they are selling. Its hard to put in a display for them or they didn’t know they had a match. We have found some really nice Christmas Bridge Tally cards stuck inside books and no one took the time to remove them before shelving the book.  The price of the book wasn’t near the cost of what those tally cards would have cost if they were being sold. 

Collecting by date takes patience. We were first introduced to this by a man that stood in our booth for hours looking through over 3,000 postcards.  He collects anything mailed on December 7, 1941, although it was a Sunday, many post offices had skelton crews that stamped the postmark and had the letters ready to mail on Monday. He said he usually finds one or two each time he goes out searching. He said he has more time than money invested in his collection. Imagine items mailed from New York on September 11th, they are sitting in drawers somewhere and will be an ephemera collectors find one day. Collecting by date can also lead to a unique collection of items.  Dallas, Texas ephemera collectors still look long and hard at estate sales for items mailed on the date of the Kennedy assasination.

Collecting by mail cancellations, postmarks, stamps are another way people collect paper that has been through the mail system. There is a lady we like to talk to who collects all postmark from cities that have affectionate names,  Loveland, Colorado.  If she finds a valentine collection that still has envelopes, she is in heaven.

We were watching the Texas Rangers play baseball and I soon realized that we were about to witness Kenny Rogers pitch his perfect game.  I told my daughter to go out and by another program or two and to pick up any tickets she found on the ground along the way. We had gone to the game to watch Bo Jackson play in right field and instead we witnessed baseball history. Now we combined our tickets, the program and a Kenny Rogers baseball card we were given that night by Mother’s cookies and we had our perfect game collection. Kenny Rogers threw ninety-eight pitches that night for his perfect game.  and the attendance at the ballpark that night (46,581) was the largest crowd that had ever attended a regular game at the baseball field at that time. July 28, 1994, we were there and we have the paper to prove it !  Did anyone else think this was important, well one man did, he bought the remaining 1,000 programs  at the top of the seventh inning. We only got our extra one because who can refuse a cute little girl asking to buy a program.

You just never know when you will be a witness to history or what you are handed will become historical. If you haven’t started an ephemera collection but are interested, why not put a shoe box on a closet shelf.  Each time you attend an event, put the piece of paper you are handed into that box, the program, the ticket, maybe even a picture of someone from the cast.  You can clean and purge as you go or you can figure out what you want to collect from the by-gone eras based on what you find appealing in what you have been throwing in your box. Matchbook collectors are never picky, they bring home every printed matchbook they can and then use what they don’t want as barter or trade. One man only collects hotels, while another only hamburger joints, pretty soon you are networking your collectibles and trading items.

Do you need some help figuring out what you will collect. Look at this list and then check a few items. The next time you go on a junking expedition take your list and see what paper you find.  What if you collect items that are related to :  Education, Medicine, Railways, Hotels, Travel, Church, Electricity, Dancing, Law, Turnpikes, Theater, Cookery, Taxation, Hygiene, Circuses, Libraries, Aircraft, Banking, Travel, Cosmetics, Gardening, Navy, Charity, Insurance, Cinema, Crime, Agriculture, Fairs, and on the list will go.

We hope we will see you at the next flea market we attend, we will be the one sifting through paper finding anything printed with pictures of ladies doing farm chores.  Oh look, there is one now right on the front of the Carnation Milk recipe book.

HOW TO IDENTIFY FIRST EDITIONS

Right now, there are hundreds of pre-sale and pre-order completed cross stitch listings on Ebay which are mostly found at the store listings but some are also at the regular auction listings. Considering that cross stitch pieces take a long time to complete, some sellers sell these pieces in advance to the public. Some cross stitch patterns also very rare and hard to find and buyers usually ask some sellers to stitch it for them.
In response to this pre-sale listings, I hope this guide will help you on what to look for when you decide to place a custom order handicraft.
 
First, what is a Pre-Sale listing?

Defined by Ebay, “Pre-sale listings are those that describe items for sale that are not in the control or possession of the seller at the time of the listing. These listings generally consist of items that are sold in advance of a delivery date to the public.”

Is this allowed on Ebay?

Yes, but with certain rules to follow of which these might the areas that you need to watch for when thinking of buying a pre-order cross stitch.

Guaranteed Shipment & Delivery Date
Look for a seller/listing that guarantee that shipment occurs within 30 days from the date of purchase, whether it was sold via a regular auction or in a storefront listing.
Make sure also that the listing description clearly stated that the item is a pre-sale item with a delivery date. This text must be of the same size as the default font size of the eBay Sell-Your-Item form which is HTML font size 3. This can be seen right on the title or at the body of the auction. This font should not be on fine print or hidden.
 
Check the entire LISTING DESCRIPTION and find answers for the following:
What kind and color of cloth your piece will be stitched on?
What is the thread count of the fabric?
What kind of floss or threads will be used?
Any measurements specified, esp. framing allowances?
How about the pictures? Are they stock photos from the designer’s website or are they stock-photos of the seller’s previously completed pieces?
Where will my shipment come from? Seller might be from the USA but item might come from overseas. Make sure that this is noted also.
How will the item be packaged and shipped?
How about payment and refund policy?
Check the Seller’s Feedback Profile and Comments
Did the seller sells any “pre-sale completed cross stitch” in the past months and did the seller delivers the product within 30 days? You can check this out by going thru the feedback comments and check randomly what the others left.
If this is too much work, you can email the seller and ask for an auction number or link of a pre-sale made within the last 90 days, which is the time span that Ebay keeps ended auction active for viewing and feedback exchange. By having this auction number, you can also check if the buyer left a feedback or comment for such transaction. This is to check seller’s reliability and customer’s satisfaction.
If it is your first time to deal with the seller, it is always good to build a rapport first and be at ease with such seller. It might be a good idea to start buying a ready-for-shipment completed cross stitch to get a first hand look on the seller’s piece and selling practices.
Is a similar completed cross stitch piece readily available for shipment?
 
Before you decide to buy a pre-sale item, try to search for a similar item that is readily available for shipment. More likely, there is one available. You will save yourself 30 days of waiting and the worry that might comes with it.  If you found one ready for shipment but the price is too high for you, try to make an offer to the seller and you might be lucky.