54 Gold correct Mantle becomes "Capo de tutti cappo"

In blog 28 , in 2016, we anointed Silver mantle correct "cappo de tutti cappo". For those of you who don't know what that means check out some old Sopranos episodes. 

While most casual collectors were in awe of this coin, savy collectors spotted some further information in the pics supplied by Armour George. The presence of a gold streak in the coin meant there absolutely was a gold equivalent ...we just hadn't seen it yet.  

Well that ended last week when "Luke" contacted me about what he thought was a correct gold Mantle. It seems his father picked it up at a flea market in NC back in he 1990's and his son searched the internet to identify it and came across my armour coin blogs. He was especially interested in blog #19 "Hi Ho Silver" where I called out a fake silver Gilliam that had been obviously spray painted. 

Luke asked whether I would check out the current Mantle coin for him. How could any Armour collector turn down a chance to hold a correct Mantle gold in his hands. 

The coin arrived a few days later and I put it through my series of non destructive tests. It passed with flying colors. It is shown below. As you can see from the bottom row of pics it reveals the required transparency

The next step was to acquire it. I made Luke a very fair offer. Last thing I wanted was for it to come to EBay and set up a bidding war with the half dozen of you who would want to bid against me for it. Mission accomplished. So the gold Mantle correct (L or R) is now in the collection of ArmourPhil and since gold trumps silver it becomes the new "cappo de tutti cappo"

It will eventually be graded and put into the 1955 armour  set "Priceless" but not until PSA pricing comes down. Armour Phil don't grade coins for $150 !

53. 1955 Armour set in black, with all variations, finally completed

Sometimes Armour coin collecting is like a roller coaster ride ...you can go for months adding nothing to your set and then all of a sudden things heat up. 

That has happened recently to me. First lets discuss one of my 1955 sets. There are 24 different coins in the set and with variations PSA recognizes 38 coins when we include variations. By now we all know about the Spahn "comma" variation which is officially not recognized by PSA yet.  So for someone seeking a

complete set in black I think you would need 39 coins. 

I recently just finished the set with the acquisition on a Mantle correct L or R . I have seen probably a half dozen of these over the past 20 years but was never willing to pay the auction price that these went for. This time I finally paid the price to finish the set. 

I will eventually get it graded once PSA drops its prices back to reality. 

This coin actually wasn't the hardest of the (39) 1955s to get in black, it was just  the most expensive.  

So what was the most difficult to get ? Was it a Kuenn Bats/Throws ?? or maybe  Jensen "RED" Sox ? or maybe a Trucks "White Sox" 2 words ?? 

Nope, actually is was the Kuenn condensed. Only seen one of them in the past 20 years and it is  tucked away in my "midnight black" set known as 42nd st.  

If you have one of these please let me know.

As it says in my PSA set description "Where the underworld can meet the elite, Forty-Second Street" ....times square....the core of the big apple. This was our local subway stop in Hells Kitchen when I was growing up. The goal of this set is to complete the variation rich 1955 set in MIDNIGHT black ! Has the complete 1955 armour set with variations ever been completely assembled in the rare black color before ?? I don't know, but we do know never as a PSA registered set. Right now the Mantle correct L or R variation is keeping me from the full set. "

Well the The Mantle correct L or R variation no longer keeps me from the full PSA graded set...Now it is held up by the $150 PSA wants me to pay to grade it........

52 ANOTHER WARNING on 1960 Mantle rims and PSA GRADING

 

From my very first blogs back in 2012 I warned you, the readers, about the issue with 1960 broken back rims on Armour coins and singled out Mickey Mantle as the worst coin for this type of damage. 

Unfortunately this was not limited to buying this coin raw, since PSA was WAY WAY over grading these coins and they could be found as PSA 8s, PSA 9s and even PSA 10s !!!

Below is the first pic I used to explain the problem. 

 Did PSA mend their ways ?? or did those with such coins stop grading and trying to sell them to the general Mantle loving public - HELL NO !

Below is a Mantle  blue sold in 2018 where you can actually see the broken back rim laying on top of the coin. Is this a PSA 8 to you ??

 

Then there is the infamous red orange PSA 10 that I mentioned a few years ago which I will show again below with 40% of the back rim missing. 

Which brings me to the coin thats being offered  by PWCC today . Its a lime green  Mantle 1960 PSA 10 Armour coin and the bidding is already up to  $685. 

                         ARE YOU KIDDING ME !!!

Shame on PSA and shame on PWCC for trying to sell this coin as a PSA 10. 

The current population of PSA 10 1960 Mantle Armour coins is listed by PSA as 20 

So one thing you can be sure of is that there really are no more than 18 PSA 10s in circulation because at least 2 of them should be rated "authentic" NOT PSA 10s ! 

How did any of these make it by the supposed triple grading at PSA ??

51 Is Chalky dk Yellow another 55 Armour color ?

There hasn't been a blog in awhile, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been anything going on.  Being a lover of color variations I am always intrigued when a new color shows up after 60+ years. 

That happened recently when i received a message from old time collector "armour coin" He sent a picture of a 1955 Mantle correct that was clearly NOT a chalky yellow (which is a pale yellow with a chalky texture to it) It reminded me of a coin I got from SFLAYank nearly 20 years ago, a Berra that graded a PSA 10. It was the only 55 Armour that I had ever seen in that color and I hadn't seen one since....till now. As you can see below (seeing is believing) it appears that both Mantle and Berra exist in this color that we will call "dk chalky yellow".. 

Our unwritten rule to be accepted as a true color variation is that at least 3 of any color have to be known to exist, so this will still not be listed as a 1955 "official color" but maybe there are more out there. If you have any like this please contact me ...

This certainly ties the (1) known silver correct Mantle  as the rarest  of the 1955 Armour coins.