Funny ebay item

[jrkeller]

Check this out. I had a good laugh here.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...item=748721795

[Glom]

I'm slightly confused as to their views. They provide a link to a BBC article about JimO's dud contract in which they Beeb is its reliable old skeptical self. But then they continue to rant.

[g99]

Did they really stamp pennies with the moon landing or is it photoshop? I have several from that era, but i have not seen any that i can remember.

[Zathras]

No, they were not stamped like that then. It was probably done with Photoshop. I don't think he intends to sell it though. Some people put listings on ebay at 1 cent, with a 1 billion dollar + reserve, so that they can get their message across with a minimum of cost.

[irony]

Shame. Moon Landing pennies would make an awesome collectible, not to mention a great way to brag. I wonder why they didn't do that.

Then again, I'm from Canada, where they do commemorative currency sometimes for absolutely no good reason at all. Maybe they don't do that in the States. Still, shame.

[g99]

Hey canadian curreny is the best. Plus they have wacky nick names!!! Better than ye old boring greenbacks here in the U.S.

[irony]

On 2002-12-16 14:02, g99 wrote:
Hey canadian curreny is the best. Plus they have wacky nick names!!! Better than ye old boring greenbacks here in the U.S.

Absolutely true... you can't beat a country that calls its dollar a 'loonie.' Even when, what with all that commemorative currency, they rarely have loons on them anymore.

Canada has the prettiest money, the greatest hockey players, the best beer, and Great Big Sea. Worship us. ^^

[traztx]

On 2002-12-16 14:05, irony wrote:
Canada has the prettiest money, the greatest hockey players, the best beer, and Great Big Sea. Worship us. ^^

I was going to argue that Dallas has the greatest hockey players, but all my favorite Stars are from Canada anyway. Oh well, you win [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]

[tjm220]

On 2002-12-16 12:24, jrkeller wrote:
Check this out. I had a good laugh here.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...item=748721795

I wonder if Nancy is going to auction pieces of Planet X? [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[irony]

On 2002-12-17 13:46, tjm220 wrote:
I wonder if Nancy is going to auction pieces of Planet X? [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Howdy, fellow Calgarian. ^^

The sad thing is, if she did, people would probably buy them.

[tjm220]

On 2002-12-17 15:27, irony wrote:

Howdy, fellow Calgarian. ^^

The sad thing is, if she did, people would probably buy them.

Yeehaw! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_cool.gif[/img]

Too true that people would buy them, sad that eBay is the target for such atrocities. Buyer beware. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_frown.gif[/img]

[Vonstadt]

um...okay.

No real time data has been released??

NASA is blocking the scientific community from the Truth and all of this is proved by a weird looking penny.

um

Well I am convinced [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

My God in Heaven

[calliarcale]

A better monetary souvenir, in my opinion, is the old silver dollar with JFK on the face side and a bald eagle landing on the Moon on the "tails" side. I've got one of those, and I'll never spend it. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[David Hall]

On 2002-12-18 12:21, calliarcale wrote:
A better monetary souvenir, in my opinion, is the old silver dollar with JFK on the face side and a bald eagle landing on the Moon on the "tails" side. I've got one of those, and I'll never spend it. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Are you sure? JFK was on the half-dollar, not the dollar. I have a bunch of old JFK half-dollars, and the usual back was the great seal. The bicentennial edition has Independence Hall on it.

On the other hand, I also have a bicentennial Eisenhower Silver Dollar. On the back of it is the Liberty Bell in front of the full Moon.

[David Hall]

OTOH, I just ran across this:

http://www.ahs.com/catalog.cfm?metho...7C9210C5A7E874

Now, where did they get the Apollo 11 metal from? They didn't scrap the CM now, did they?

[calliarcale]

David, the one I have is a silver dollar. I'm positive. I can check when I go home, though. It's not the usual run of coins; it was a special commemorative edition coin by the US Mint. That means it's legal tender, but they weren't really expecting very many people to try spending them.

If I can get my scanner working, I'll see if I can scan it in and put it on my website. It's pretty cool. I love the Apollo design on the obverse.

[RickNZ]

Beer? Is that what they call it? Others know canadian beer by the same name as american beer and liquid horse waste.

Incedently are you aware north american beer is so weak and tasteless due to prohibition?
Drinkers and swillers got use to the taste of watery beer due to 13 years of flat and improperly brewed home brews.

[jrkeller]

On 2002-12-18 13:34, David Hall wrote:
OTOH, I just ran across this:

http://www.ahs.com/catalog.cfm?metho...7C9210C5A7E874

Now, where did they get the Apollo 11 metal from? They didn't scrap the CM now, did they?

As I recall, each crew brought a 1.5 lb aluminum ball with them on their missions, specifically to make post-launch coins. They made about 250,000 coins from each mission.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: jrkeller on 2002-12-18 17:04 ]</font>

[calliarcale]

Heh, I just checked my coin collection and was reminded how much the memory cheats. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] My mind had merged several coins.

The silver dollar that I have has what looks very much like Buzz Aldrin or possibly John Glenn on the front. (Hard to tell; it's not a very good portrait.) On the back is the Moon and the Liberty Bell. The date on the front is 1776-1976, so it's a bicentennial coin. It may actually have been in general circulation instead of being one of those "US Mint limited edition" commemorative deals.

Meanwhile, I have three have-dollars. All have JFK on the front. On the obverse side, two feature Indepdence Hall. These are dated 1776-1976 and are thus obviously bicentennial coins. The other is date 1974 and features the front of the Great Seal.

I have a fifth coin that also contributed to my confusion. This one is a dollar coin, but it is not a silver dollar. Rather, it is a Susan B Anthony dollar. On the front is, of course, Susan B Anthony, along with the word "LIBERTY", a bunch of stars, and the date 1979. On the back is a bald eagle landing on the Moon with an olive branch in its talons. Above the eagle's head, you can see the Earth in the distance. It's a lovely engraving, and it appears that it was actually in regular circulation instead of just being a commemorative coin. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] Now i'm really sad the Susan B Anthony dollar never really made it....

[David Hall]

On 2002-12-18 19:43, calliarcale wrote:

Heh, I just checked my coin collection and was reminded how much the memory cheats. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] My mind had merged several coins.

So it looks like I was right and your coins are the same as mine. I only have a lone bicentennial dollar myself too. Big suckers, weren't they? As I mentioned before, the John Glen look-alike is Eisenhower. I think the Liberty Bell/Moon back design is pretty cool. As for the JFK half-dollars, I have about a dozen myself, with 3 of them being bicentennials. Nice, but nothing astronomy-related.

I also have about 9 or 10 SBA dollars. They are all dated 1979. I think they only produced them for the one year. Funny, I never really looked at the back of them carefully before. It's a really nice design. I can understand how you got confused though. Memory tends to do that. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Edit:For those of you who are interested in the designs we're talking about (especially our non-American friends), here is a scan of my coins. From the leftmost are: the Susan B. Anthony Dollar, JFK half-dollar (regular), JFK half-dollar (bicentennial), and the Eisenhower one-dollar coin (bicentennial). Sizewise, the SBA is 2.5cm diameter and the Eisenhower is 3.7cm.


http://www.occn.zaq.ne.jp/cuaea503/images/coins.jpg

_________________
...And that, my leige, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped. --Sir Bedevere

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: David Hall on 2002-12-19 04:49 ]</font>

[Irishman]

Good info, David Hall. I do have a couple of minor corrections.

I have a bicentennial dollar coin with Eisenhower on front and the Liberty Bell and Moon on back. However, I also have a dollar coin from 1971 with Eisenhower on front, and on the back is the same image as the back of the Susan B. Anthony Dollar. So, calliarcale, you are not as confused as you thought. They did make dollar coins with that backside.

I also have three Susan B's - one each from 1979, 1980, and 1999, respectively. The original years were '79 and '80, I believe, and they briefly minted new ones in 1999 prior to the release of the new Sackies.

As for the Apollo 11 medallion,

Metal from the Apollo 11 lunar module was actually used in the minting process of this limited edition Apollo 11 Medallion.

How exactly did they use metal from the lunar module? Wasn't that left in lunar orbit to crash into the lunar surface?

[johnwitts]

Who was Susan B. Anthony?

[JayUtah]

The average American doesn't know who Susan B. Anthony was, and in that respect I'm an average American. Some notable female participate in early American history, no doubt. At least most people had some clue who Sacajawea was before the new coin.

The failure to identify with Ms. Anthony was one of the principal causes of the failure of the dollar coin, the other one being its uncanny resemblance to the quarter. The new dollar coin is at least distinct in color and size, but it still isn't widely used. This is probably because it was never widely distributed initially. For some silly reason we still don't have a widely used dollar coin. The British pound coin (which weighs about a pound) seems to be a wonderful success in the U.K. The U.S. still seems stuck on its paper dollar.

While I'm ranting, I really dislike standard American coinage. It makes no logical sense to someone who doesn't read English. A dime is smaller than a penny or a nickel, but is worth more. Size does not correlate to value. On none of the American coins can you find a numeral to indicate its value -- "10" for a dime, "5" for a nickel, "25" for a quarter, and so forth. You have to read the English words.

Okay, rant concluded.

[Rodina]

On 2003-01-01 23:41, johnwitts wrote:
Who was Susan B. Anthony?

Susan B. Anthony was a leader of the sufferagettes, the movement to secure women the right to vote on a federal level - although a number of states had granted women the right to vote as early as the 1870s (Wyoming was the first), there was no guarantee for women to vote on a federal level until passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in 1920.

See, e.g., http://www.susanbanthonyhouse.org/

And I don't think the recognition of Susan B. Anthony had much to do with the fact that no one wanted the coin. Enough Americans couldn't tell you who Alexander Hamilton is, but are perfectly happy to take your $10 bill.

[JayUtah]

The coin was introduced as "the Susan B. Anthony dollar", whereas we don't refer to the ten as the "Alexander Hamilton ten dollar bill". I still think they'd have had more luck with the "Sylvester Stallone dollar".

[SeanF]

Want to know why I think the dollar coins they have introduced have not taken off? Too bad, I'm going to tell you anyway.

Right now, I have eight one-dollar bills in my billfold. All I have to do is consider the difference between:

a) eight slips of paper folded up in my back pocket
b) eight big heavy coins jangling around in my front pocket

and I realize that I'm not real keen on giving up the bills for coins. Of course, the dollar coins don't turn up very often so it's not like I'm consciously making the decision, but if the clerk ever does say, "You want that four dollars in bills or coins?" I'm going to take the bills.

I don't think a dollar coin will ever become popular until they take the dollar bills out of circulation. Just my two cents (so to speak). [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[Kaptain K]

One reason the SBA dollar flopped was that it was too close in size to the quarter. Same thickness, slightly larger diameter. People kept confusing the two when sorting by touch. The new Sacajawea dollar supposedly fixed this by making it thicker, removing the ridges from the rim and changing the color. News flash. It is still the same diameter as the SBA! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_evil.gif[/img]

[JayUtah]

All together now, let's sing Monty Python's "Money" song.

[calliarcale]

Well, my Sacagawea is larger than my Susan B Anthonys. Maybe yours shrunk in the wash? [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[Kaptain K]

On 2003-01-02 14:01, calliarcale wrote:
Well, my Sacagawea is larger than my Susan B Anthonys. Maybe yours shrunk in the wash? [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

As I said, the Sacagawea is thicker than the Susan B Anthony, but they are the exact same diameter. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]