What’s in a Flip? A coin by any other name, of course. A “flip” is a cardboard coin holder with an inert material “window” so you can see both sides of the coin. The ones I use are self-sealing, totally archival, coin-friendly and virtually indestructible by anything short of tearing one apart with bare hands. What do you get when you get a coin mounted by me in one of my hand-written flips?
Well, for one thing, you get my original non-copied “flat-written” handwriting on a flip. Some would say that’s worth the price right there, but they know me as a professional JazzArt artist and jazz musician and author of over 50 books, most of which are still in print, and some folks like me to sign the flips on more important coins, (coins that sell for more than $100) and I do sign & date them for those as ask for it.
So, apart from my handwriting — taught to me by my author/editor dad, Horace — what else do you get in this fantastic package, ie; coin stuffed into cardboard?
You get my attention.
The coin had to be found by me and recognized in some way so it could be classified and placed in a holder and identified and all that sort of thing.
So I looked at your coin, and saw that it was good, and I took the coin and it was placed into the Holding Bin and there remained it, until the time for flipping.
Gosh, until the word “flipping”, I almost thought it was a Biblical Passage.
Anyway, the time does come for flipping, but just before that, I look at the coin and ask myself the following question:
Do I really want to spend a quarter to house and this penny, and pay storage and waste space that could be used for more exotic coins?
It’s like those things you’ve paid for in a storage unit you’ve had forever; you end up paying something on the order of $30,000 to hold onto a couch and side table you could pick up at any thrift shop for $5 or less, and they deliver!
When I’ve decided to save the coin in a flip, I put it in, being careful … no, make that very careful … to align the reverse correctly north/south so that any die rotation will instantly reveal itself when I return the flip to “obverse-up” position, which I’ll do in order to identify the coin with my Sharpie.
And not just any Sharpie I happened to grab up from nearby somewhere. No, indeed. I discard a Sharpie after I’ve written about 50-100 flips. The Sharpest “Fine” Original Sharpie I can get my hands on doesn’t last more than 100 flips no matter what.
I pass them on to office staff and place them in a general “help yourself to these pens” bin, because I just can’t use them to ID a coin anymore. It adds to the cost of handling the coins, but it’s worth every penny, and it just makes sense.
Could you have resisted those two penny jokes at that juncture? I think not.
Lessee, what else do you get when you get a flipped coin from me?
I mentioned the handwriting?
Okay, well, you also get my opinion of the coin, which is that it’s better than an album coin, which is “GOOD” or slightly better, but that it isn’t good enough to put into a slab.
As a matter of fact, some of my better GEM coins could be slabbed, but those dates typically aren’t worth slabbing and grading. Why spend $100 to grade a coin worth $20?
Yet some people do just that.
Why? Because they’re crazy, that’s why. But their own rationalization would be something along the lines of “I found this coin, so I had it slabbed and graded!”
Beyond that, I can’t explain the passion.
Oh, you also get, right there stuck permanently (just try to get one off as I have, to try to save a flip from certain doom) onto the front of the flip, a COA, Certificate of Authenticity tell you that the coin is guaranteed to be a real coin issued by the U.S. government Mint and that it is exactly as represented or your money back, no questions asked (of course the coin must be returned in the same condition as it was when it left here or no deal — smashed coins that have been removed from the flip and sent through a gumball machine don’t count in this return offer, okay?).
So, let’s recount the situation:
You get an example of my original handwriting on a flip housing a coin that I say is what it says it is at the top of the flip, plus my printed guarantee that the item is authentic.
Were you to make your own flip thingy, you’d lack the guarantee for sure, and my handwriting as well. Quite seriously, you’ll have a better chance of selling the coin with the prepared flip from my studio than you would with a handwritten flip you did yourself, but you’re perfectly welcome to bang your head against the wall for a while, if you’re fond of headaches.
Oh, I just thought of something else you get with my flipped coins; my experience as a coin collector and trader, and my sensing.
Joel Malter used to explain his ability to detect antiquity and ancient coin forgeries instantly by saying “I just know”.
Fact is, there’s a word for it now: “Quantum Entanglement”.
Quantum Entanglement happens when two objects collide, albeit briefly, and have contact, however brief and unsatisfying it may be.
Boy, does Quantum Entanglement happen with a coin, and doubly, with a vengeance, because a coin typically passes through many hands and is present at many strange and violent events, this being Planet Earth and all, and bipeds being what they are, and all.
My point is that when you’re holding a forgery in your hand, no matter how convincing it is in shape, form and surface, inside it has no soul, no Quantum Entanglement, because it has no past!
It hasn’t BABBED, Been Around the Block.
It’s an archaeological virgin. That can’t happen. Even in a burial piece, with no circulation or use in daily life, there’s plenty of history — you can feel it.
In a forgery, there’s nothing. Emptiness. Voidness. Nothing.
Don’t forget that every coin I offer is a coin I found in Magic Find Coin Search. Therefore when I have a high priced coin in my hand, I take the time to feel its Quantum Entanglements — you never know, it might have passed through the hands of Annie Oakley, or been spent for a night’s lodging by Woody Guthrie.
No matter what its past, I take a moment to examine it without editorial comment or executive action. In short, I’m a good listener.
Quantum Entanglement is a great tool in the discovery, evaluation and authentication of ancient, antique and vintage items, and I use it all the time, along with my eye examination and loupe detection, microscopic checks on mint-marks and flaws and other technical details.
Quite often, I can “feel the presence” of a target coin in a stack or roll of coins, and I have plenty of video evidence of this, although fair warning; with the advent of editing and video fudging available to folks with the newest latest technology, I wouldn’t believe any video of anything I saw today.
We were already making videos — nothing was planned. Anyhow, you’ll see tons of evidence of this phenomenon when you yourself start sorting and searching coins, because you’ll have the same experience, only you needn’t wonder what it might be — it’s Quantum Entanglement telling you it’s here to save the day.
No, that’d be Mighty Mouse. Never mind; it is all so complicated.
Ah, the final capper to the “what do you get with a flip?” question:
The coin is somewhat protected against further environmental damage. Actually there are a number of things you could do to defeat the protective purpose of the flip:
1. Place the flipped coin in a vise, and turn the handle many times, until you can’t.
2. Carefully place the flipped coin into an excavated hole. Fill the hole in and wait seventeen seasons. Excavate the coin and see what happened.
3. Even more carefully than when placing it in an excavated hole, slip the coin into a vat of boiling sulphuric acid with just a touch of nitric and a smidge of whatever else happens to pop into your mind as you perform this authentic alchemical rite. Don’t bother to check on the coin later, it won’t be there.
4. The coin in its protective flipper should be inserted with extreme caution into a space capsule and launched into a stable 1200 mile Earth Orbit. It’s not foolproof, but it can’t be spent.
5. Place the coin, again in its protective flipper, into a Mohole Digger, to be carried far below the magma into the ironic magnetic core of the Earth, to the very center of the tiny Black Hole in the very very center of the planetary sphere, there to form a ring around the collar of the Event Horizon That Awaits Us All.
So, you thought you were just getting a piece of plastic sheeting in a piece of cutout cardboard, eh? There’s a whole lot more to a flipper than that! A whole universe more!
See You At The Top!!!
gorby