22 This Gold Armour gets a Thumbs Up

 

Some of you may have noticed the "Mopar" Armour coin lot of 244 1955 coins that was auctioned off in September. The first thing that struck me was the color distribution. You notice in the pic below that yellow was the predominant color. Normally the most common colors are aqua, orange and navy.

 

In case very few of those and loads of the same shade of yellow. I made contact with the winner and he says the yellows are the medium lemon yellow color (vs the dark yellow or the chalky lighter yellow). Most interesting, though was the one gold Antonelli coin.

 

From previous posts you know that I'm skeptical of the golds and silvers because I have seen attempts to paint  coins to make them appear gold or silver.  In fact I recently weeded one of these out that was up for sale. ( see blog # 19 - "Hi Ho Silver"  )

 

The winner sent loads of pics and in this case I do not need to hold the coin in my hand to know its authenticity. Note the coin is nearly transparent. I have coins like this in red and navy...They are rare.

 

 

 

Congrats to the winner, this is indeed one of the rare 1955 Armour gold coins. Doug Stultz ( see blog #18 - "Doug Stultz makes armour coins a collectable") has six golds from 55. In all I have seen probably 10 different players now in gold over the past two decades.

 

 



21 We'll Miss You Freasle

All of us who collect find part of  our satisfaction communicating with those we meet in the hobby. In the early years we would meet people at shows. In recent years we would become friends over the internet,  buying, selling, trading or competing with fellow collectors. As I mentioned a few blogs ago, one of the first contacts I made after Armour coins became available on EBay was "the Freasle" . At first we just new each other by our hobby "handles" but soon we were sharing info on our locations and where we grew up and the first time we had seen an Armour coin. The Freasle was unique because he owned a comic book store in Richmond. Since we were just a few hours away from each other we kept saying that we'd have to have to physically meet up one day, but we never did.

Last fall he shared with me that he was quite sick, had done all he could medically and was awaiting his fate. Last week his wife found my name in his records and sent me a message saying her husband had passed.  As part of our hobby he will be missed ! In all of my dealings with him he was an honorable man which is something you cant say about a lot of people these days. Our condolences go to his wife and family..................

20. 1959 / 1960 send away offers; New 1960 Yellow Variation Confirmed.

Couple of new topics for those interested in Armour Coins.


First there were two items  auctioned a few weeks ago on EBay for 50$ each that are of interest (but not enough for me to pay $50 for them) . Evidently someone kept the 1959 and 1960 offers that came out towards the end of the baseball season . Sending in two proof of purchases got you back 10 coins.


I do not remember these personally, but Doug Stultz recalls that only the common color coins were returned as part of this offer.

 

 

1960 Yellows

 

Earlier blogs have stated that the Aaron, Banks, Crandall, Fox Malzone, Mantle, Triandos group of 9 came in a distinct 1960 yellow color and a transparent version . The later is much more difficult to find.  I have also shown you an odd ball Crandall that is close to being a pale 1959 yellow shade.

 

Recently I have come across more of thee 1960 yellows that look like 1959s. Pics are below. I can now confirm that all 7 of the players exist in this opaque pale yellow color variation and all have complete back rims including the Mantle. I have not seen either the Malzone BRS or the Aaron Milwaukee Braves variations in this color. Let me know if you have these or have ever seen these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



19. 1955 Hi Ho Silver

We have gone over the relative scarcity of the various colors that have shown up in 1955. Most agree that the silver and gold colors are the rarest of all. While several gold coins have showed up in the past decade, the only silver coin that has showed up for sale has been the Berra silver that was recently auctioned as part of the Drier collection last year and is now being auctioned again by McAvoy for several thousand dollars.

A few weeks ago a silver Gilliam showed up for auction. Not only was it a Gilliam, but it was a Gilliam tight, L-R, the rarest of the 3 Gilliam variations.



Close inspection of the picture provided showed several notches on the front rim of the coin and something seemed un-natural about the bright color of the coin.

I made contact with the owner of the coin and she sent it to me for verification. Below are some close up photos I took of he coin. While the coin itself seems to be authentic, close inspection shows that in fact it is a navy blue Gilliam tight L-R that has been recently spray painted silver. I can actually see some of he navy blue color showing in the 3rd notch (near the AM in GilliAM..

 

 

The back of the coin also shows a partial finger print that could have been formed by picking up the coin by the edge while it was still tacky (right side of Dodgers). So unfortunately, for the owner, I think this is a fake. I informed the owner, who I don't think was responsible for this fake, since she would not have sent it to me for authentication if she was trying to pull a fast one on potential buyers.

 

Since this coin would have probably sold for over $1000 if real, it is an example for all of us that we better be careful when we are contemplating bidding such rare colored coins !