Encased Newsletter v02n03 March 25, 2022

It’s been a while since I sent out a newsletter. The reasons are varied. First I didn’t have anything to say. What that means is that I haven’t made any significant changes to my website and haven’t bought anything really interesting to talk about. Finally I had hoped that there would be input from my readers that would generate some comments and give me some material to write about.

Several readers have reached out to me recently asking if they had missed the newsletter. So here we go with a new one.

New Readers:

We have several new readers from Kelly from Penny Press to several north of the border readers. Welcome one and all. Total subscriptions is 29. Please pass on this newsletter to others and invite them to jooin. Participation is encouraged!

Readers Comments:

Bruce, Wanted to follow up with you about your slabbed encased coin observations. I have never seen nor have I ever tried to have my encased coins slabbed by another TPG company other than ANACS. They have always been so easy to work with and willing to go that extra mile when slabbing coins or items that may be off the beaten path, such as encased coins. A few years back, I submitted my WV State Quarter set that Cecil Startcher had encased and had ANACS do custom labels for me. These will always be in my collection. See pictures attached. The only other slabbed encased coin that I still retain in my collection is the one that was given out by PAN at the 2012 World's Fair of Money. It is a great memory of one of the last big shows that Cecil and I attended together. I am thinking that 'grading' encased coins has become a new thing. I have seen a change in the grading philosophy with these third party grading companies. In the past only "pure" coins, medals and tokens were graded. Now this is an area of untapped $$$$ and they are seeing it. I am now seeing all kinds of things with grades on them. I'm not surprised but I've never been about the grades with my encased coins rather I am more interested with the preservation of them. Joe

Editor – I bought the Houlton, ME HS encased and reached out to Joe for more information about Cecil. I then got into the above response from Joe about slabbed encased. Personally I am thinking of slabbing my Bears and Vulcanite encased more for the preservation/protection of the coin, than actually grading. Also I noticed that the slabbed encased ones aren't selling very well on eBay.

Bob writes:

I recently acquired a 1945 encased coin for the Moweaqua Grain Co. of Moweaqua, Illinois. It does not have the usual "Victory" obverse, but it has the phrase "A Victory Token" on the reverse. I believe you recently wrote about a "Victory" 1945 Moweaqua, Illinois encased coin you own. Did it have the usual "Victory" obverse or was it like the one I just described? Please advise.

Editor – I wrote back to Bob letting him know that I also had that piece in my collection. There is not a “Victory” encased with the traditional type 1 obverse.

Kelly from Penny Press has recently joined this newsletter. I asked if he was producing any encased currently and he replied:

I am not doing much lately. The machinists I used to cut die blocks are either dead or retired, so the prices have jumped. If you ever need an article on how they’re made (or coins in general), let me know.

Editor Whine?

To everyone. If I haven't made it plain before I am looking for content for the newsletter and website. I am looking for someone as a backup webmaster so that if I am unable to produce content someone will keep things going. The domain name encasedcoins.info is paid for until 2041. Currently the hosting is free. That may change depending on the owner of the hosting company. But I want the site to continue, rather than languish or die because something happens to me.

Ebay

Some observations regarding encased listed on eBay. There are a number of sellers who are now listing encased starting at $4.99 to $9.99 with a shipping cost of over $4. I recently ran a search of listings about to expire and found that there were a lot with no bids. I didn’t do a count, but it seemed that there were only one in 15 or 20 listings that had a ‘bid. I just did a count of the first 20. Two had bids. I know that I am only buying encased that fit into a narrow list of needs.

I did buy an encased cent from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Probably over paid for it. I bought it because the horseshoe on the obverse has a mule surrounding the horseshoe.

Another search I run is “highest price”. The first listing are for encased stamps or gold. I dislike the e1901 PAN AM EXPO Encased INDIAN Penny Token Night View of TowerBay policy of allowing any item in any category. But I just ignore the crap and look at the encased. There has been a 1974 Lebanon, Illinois Centennial listed for $1974.00 for months. This seller is on some good drugs.

Then there are the rare, but IMHO overpriced encased "1911 Encased Liberty V Nickel Salem Oregon Watt Shipp Guns Bicycles Good Luck” for $495 which has been for sale for over 2 years that I remember. A 1903 J.W. McBride Union Sample Room encased cent Sullivan Illinois. This one is unique. It appears that the cent is off-center, but not in the traditional manner. Could be the photography or angle, but different. It also has a small ring at the top for a chain. Seller is asking $500. Interesting piece, but out of my range. Ok, yes I have paid close to that for an encased bear. While I’d like this one, I would have a tough time paying $100.

Last, Hermann The Great THURNAER & GORMAN 1890 encased for $550. This one has been around for a while as well...I wish the sellers good luck, but won’t be bidding on any of these. Now if they had a vulcanite encased from the Pan-Am Expo...oh yeah there is one of those available. 1901 PAN AM EXPO Encased INDIAN Penny Token Night View of Tower. This goes for $350. I’d want to sell it for that if I was selling. But as a buyer $175-225 is more reasonable. If it was slabbed, then perhaps I’d buy it.

What’s With Irradiated Encased?

For years the Irradiated encased from the Museum of Nuclear Energy were junk box $1 items. Now they are listed on eBay for hundreds of dollars and are selling at $10- $100. Considering that the dime that was encased were usually supplied from pocket change, collecting them by date is a challenge. So what’s up? One concrete answer that I have found is that there are varieties of irradiated encased. The basic and common highly available type has the irradiated dime under a plastic dome and it’s legend is: American Museum of Atomic Energy – Neutron Irradiated. It comes with black or blue type. Of the 16 or so examples I own, the font and size varies slightly and the color of the printing is 11 black vs 6 blue.. Since this was a printed insert bought by a government agency that variety is to be expected (lowest bidder). I see these currently listed at $4.99 auction starting point to over $30. The “World’s Fair” blue plastic variety is more common and not as highly sought IMHO. I should also point out that I own a Barber irradiated dime.

Then there is the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Neutron Irradiated which is available for $125 to $250. I have seen this variety occasionally over the last couple of years, but never really looked closely at the legend versus the more common one above. The price of these doesn’t seem to be related to the type of dime or date. This is just a less common legend. I have a nagging thought in the back of my mind that I have seen one other legend, but cannot recall it.

Thoughts?

Since I have been remiss in writing these, I am going to send this out and sit back and wait for replies.

Happy Spring!

Bruce