55. LAst Armour Coins I Ever Grade ?

 

Seems like forever since I wrote the last blog. It's not that I lost interest, I just ran out of new armour coin info to talk about. 

I finally broke down and sent in my 1955 correct Mantle Black      (L or R) which I obtained to complete my 1955 set in "midnight black" and my prize 1955 "Cappo-de-tuti-capo" Mantle correct GOLD. 

The good news is PSA graded them in a few weeks...the bad news is that they have just raised the price to $75 each. 

I guess PSA just does not want to grade coins /pins any more. I mean who would send in a 1955 Vernon and get it graded for $75 unless you were sure it was a PSA 10 ?

Thus the question...Are these the last 2 Armour coins I ever grade ?? Probably unless something really special comes up. 

                                              CAPPO-DI-TUTI-CAPO

the last required coin for my complete midnight black set "42nd St"

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. 

 

50 Documenting Sale of Freasle sets for posterity

Instead of adding pricing to the Freasle sets that sold in the latest Heratige auction to my last post , I though I'd put all the info here....for posterity.

In summary:
1960 23 coins - $1200
1959 20 coins  - $564
1955 37 coins  - $2760

But...of course if you have learned anything from these blogs it is that value depends on both condition and color so I have added the full detail below .


We will see whether the buyer/buyers add these sets back into the PSA set registry.

1960 Armour Coin Baseball PSA Graded Complete Set (23). Offered is a 23-coin complete set of 1960 Armour coins. Every coin has been graded by PSA. Includes: Graded - PSA GEM 10: 7 coins, Banks/Yellow, Ford/Red-Orange, Fox/Lime Green, Malzone-Red Sox/Yellow, Mathews/Red-Orange, Pinson/Red-Orange, Triandos/Yellow; PSA MINT 9: 2 coins, Crandall/Yellow, Wynn/Red-Orange; PSA NM-MT 8: 12 coins, Aaron-Braves/Yellow, Aaron-Milwaukee Braves/Yellow, Boyer/Yellow, Colavito/Yellow, Conley/Red, Daley/Red, Drysdale-Space L. and A./Yellow, Drysdale-L.A. Condensed/Red, Kaline/Red, Malzone-Boston Red Sox/Lime Green, Mantle/Yellow, Stuart/Red; PSA NM 7: 1 coin, Mays/Dark Yellow; PSA EX-MT 6: 1 coin, Allison/Yellow.

1959 Armour Coin Baseball PSA Graded Complete Set (20). Offered is a 20-coin complete set of 1959 Armour coins. Every coin has been graded by PSA. Includes: Graded - PSA MINT 9: 4 coins, Malzone/Orange, Robinson/Navy Blue, Skinner/Red, Triandos/Red; PSA NM-MT 8: 13 coins, Aaron/Pale Yellow, Ashburn/Red, Blasingame/Pale Yellow, Cerv/Royal Blue, Crandall/Pale Yellow, Ford/Pale Pink, Fox/Royal Blue, Kuenn/Pale Pink, Podres/Pale Pink, Sievers/Grey Green, Thomas/Pale Pink Turley/Dark Pink; PSA NM 7: 3 coins, Antonelli/Navy Blue, Banks/Pale Yellow, Jensen/Red. 

955 Armour Baseball Coins PSA-Graded Complete Master Set (37). Offered is a 37-coin complete master set of the first Armour baseball coins from 1955. This was the first of three editions produced by Armour, the others coming in 1959 and 1960. Every coin has been graded by PSA. Includes: Graded - PSA MINT 9: 9 coins, Crandall/Bright Yellow, Doby/Peach, Ford/Navy, Jensen-Red Sox/Black, Rosen/Bright Yellow, Simmons/Bright Yellow, Spahn/Pale Green, Turley/Red, Vernon/Red; PSA NM-MT 8: 14 coins, Antonelli-N.Y. Giants Back/Lemon Yellow, Antonelli-New York Back/Black, Berra/Pale Green Finigan-Quincy On Back/Lemon Yellow, Gilliam-Bats L or R/Red, Haddix-Narrow Gap/Black, Jensen-Reb Sox/Orange, Klu/Red, Kuenn-Cond. LTR '54 AVG/Lemon Yellow, Mueller/Orange, Reese/Lemon Yellow, Reynolds/Aqua, Thomas/Dark Yellow, Trucks-Whitesox/Red; PSA NM 7: 9 coins, Finigan-Ouincy on Back/Black, Gilliam-Thin Lips/Lemon Yellow, Haddix-Wide Gap/Red, Jackson-nfielder Back/Blue, Jackson-Infielder Back/Red, Kuenn-WD SP NM '54/Chalky Yellow, Mantel-Incorrect Spelling/Orange, Snider-Decimal-.341/Navy, Snider-No Decimal-341/Navy; PSA EX-MT 6: 3 coins, Kuenn-Last Line Bat/Thr/Navy, Mantle/Correct Spelling L-R/Navy, Trucks-White Sox/Pale Green; PSA EX 5: 2 coins, Gilliam-Thick Lips/Navy, Mantle-Correct L or R/Pale Green. 

49 New 1959 Vernon variation

Its been awhile since my last blog and quite a few of you have asked whats up. Loading these does take a little work and you just need to be motivated to write them. Basically I just ran out of what I thought were important Armour coin information tidbits that I wanted to pass on to you fellow collectors. A remarkable find has spurred me to write up blog 49, but while I'm doing that I will catch up on other new information as well.

Answering Mail

Some of you have asked why I don't typically answer questions left on the blogs. The answer is simple. This blog platform provided by Google free of charge allows folks to leave comments or questions but does not trigger me that a message has been left. So I would have to make a daily visit to every blog to stay completely up to date. If you want to leave a message better email me at philgarrou@att.net. If you want to leave a comment for everyone to see keep doing it this way ...thats fine.

1955 Trans coins 

Armour Al, SFLA Yank and a few others have written discussing the existence of transparent coins.

In blog 47 we looked at 1960 colors and indicated that most of the colors came in transparent variations. As a life long chemist my conclusion is that he transparency, translucency and opaqueness is due mainly to the quantity of filler (usually SiO2 or sand if you will) that is added to the plastic mix).

In blog 45 we looked at the so called " dk red trans" 1955 coins where not only can you read the back of the coin (looking through the front) you can see what appears to be precipitated (ppct) red pigment particles. This is somewhat hard to see in a picture on the internet, but clear as a bell when holding the coin up to the light. It appears that this same phenomena can be found for the 1955 navy coins and Armour Al reports that he has a near complete set in this "cosmetic" variation. They are certainly not new colors and not something that I would have expected Bob Lemke to have added to the Std. Catalog of BB Cards (my friend Bob passed away in 2017 ).

So for now, lets simply conclude that for sure dk red and navy 1955 have coin examples that show this strange precipitate phenomena, other 1955 coins can be found in varying states of transparency/translucency/ opaqueness. They are not new colors or variations. If you don't agree...speak your piece.

Rare reds show up in TX 

In the late fall of 2019 OPC baseball in TX put up a rare find of 1955 reds. While we all know that reds are a common color these were reds mainly of the 55 rare variations. In blog 42 we already discussed the fact that many of the variations are rarely seen in red or orange. One could presume this occurred towards the end of the molding runs and they were running out of red dye (red + yellow = orange), but whatever the case, we knew they existed (see blog 33) but were hardly ever seen.  Well OPC found a lot that had at least 5 each of both Mantle correct variations and put them up for sale on EBay. I personally did not buy any because the seller put over inflated  prices on them while their condition appeared, to this knowledgeable observer,  to be no better than vg or PSA 5. Some had back edge chips and all had real rough back edges and wear on the coin faces. This collector does not pay $1500 for a coin like that even a red correct Mantle.

Armour PSA registry sets repositioning. 

A shout out is due to ChiSox Tony whose 59 set has moved into the top 5

Part of this set repositioning is due to sets being sold off. For instance it appears that Outlaw sports has sold off most of his 1955 collection and my old friend Freasle's widow ( see blog 21) has  finally put his sets up on the Heratige April 26th auction.  If I can remember I will update this blog with final prices in a few days.


NEW 1959 VERNON Variation

With those tidbits behind me whats so important that It spurred me to write this first 2020 blog ??

Well Armour Al sent pictures of a 1959 Vernon coin in a dark yellow shade (not the pale yellow that is standard for 1959 coins) As you can see below it has Vernon as a member of the Senators not the Indians ! The back shows a pitchers 1958 W / L record that is not filled out. Maybe that is because Vernon was not a pitcher  but rather an infielder as it clearly says on the coin.

Vernon was traded to the Red Sox for the 1956 and 1957 seasons and then Cleveland for the 1958 season. 

The best guess we can come up with is that the coin designers were asked to produce a prototype set sometime before the 59 season. The designer obviously screwed up and produced this Vernon coin/s (who knows how many were made) This obvious error was caught and never made it into commercial distribution.

I checked with the Godfather of Armour Coins Doug Stultz, who is enjoying his retirement, and Doug says "Never seen one like that before"  .

I never cease to be amazed about how much new information we can dig up about 60+ year old coins.