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Our logo
design incorporates both very rare and very common issues. It is
intended to stimulate the reader to look beyond the hype of many current
issues. The
Haiti
2 Gourde 1884 SPECIMEN note is one of my favorite
designs
and is rare
and expensive. The American Bank Note Company used this vignette, Ceres,
the Goddess of Agriculture, sometimes called the Goddess of Plenty, for a
number of
countries
from the 1880's through the middle of the 20th century. Issued during the administration of
President Salomon, an issued
example
of this note is listed under the Haiti section.
That example is an early "short snorter" with a very
historic signature, that of General François Manigat, the grandfather
of a recent
President of Haiti, scholar and historian,
Leslie
François Manigat.
The
Hungarian 20 Forint
coin is common and valued at about $2. I put
it aside from my pocket
change
on one of my visits to this
wonderful country. A study of the
design which features Dózsa György, the leader of a peasant revolt in
1514, will yield a treasure of
interesting information far beyond
its catalog value. Little did I know that
those many business trips to Hungary would yield this kind of treasure.
The
Fiji Silver Proof Crown
is one of only 1,000 minted but is still moderately
priced.
Fiji, another of my favorite places, issued this crown
to commemorate its 100th year of
independence from Great Britain.
The rare
Fiji Brewer & Joske
note
is from one of
the most
colorful periods in Fiji's history not unlike the American Wild West days.
This
note is not found with signatures
which may not be unusual
since the "issuing authorities" in Fiji were reported to walk
down
Victoria Parade in Suva, signing notes as needed to make purchases! A Fijian friend took me to the site of the original Brewer & Joske
Sugar Mills, now part of downtown Suva, but there wasn't much to commemorate this historic period.
The last item I will highlight is the
Chinese
Amulet. It was a
recent "purchase". No, I didn't find it in a remote corner of
Yunnan Province,
I bought it from a street vendor in
Chinatown (NYC). The obverse roughly translated says it will bring the owner
"more money"
while the
reverse depicts the Pa Gua, or 8 trigrams of the I Ching.
I paid $4 for it and I have to say that I have not
had any bad luck
since carrying
it around as my good luck charm, although I'm still waiting for the
money to start rolling in.
I
hope our logo
design, a labor of love, as well as my final project in a Photoshop
class, will motivate you to look
beyond the investment
or catalog price of an item and find an interesting story or a new
collecting specialty.
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