A Tribute to Excellence: Stefan Rossi, Engine Builder of the Year
In an era where dedication to craft sometimes takes a back seat, it’s refreshing to witness individuals who embody the spirit of hard work and excellence. Today, I’m thrilled to shine the spotlight on our customer Stefan Rossi, owner and proprietor of ACE Racing Engines, the recently crowned “Engine Builder of the Year 2024” by the esteemed Engine Builder Magazine. This accolade is a testament to Stefan’s unwavering commitment to his craft, and we at Interfanatic couldn’t be more honored to get to work with Stef and co.
Stefan Rossi Accepts his Trophy
The Mark of Distinction
Stefan’s recognition as Engine Builder of the Year is not merely a title; it’s a reflection of the precision, innovation, and passion he brings to every engine he builds. In a field where perfection is the only acceptable standard, Stefan has consistently raised the bar, inspiring peers and earning the respect of the entire engine building community.
You don’t get reliably performing 2,500, 3,000, and 4,000+ drag racing engines without dedication to craft and unwavering precision. Simple as.
The Interfanatic Connection
While Stefan’s expertise is the cornerstone of his success, our collaboration with him has been focused on amplifying his reach and reputation through tailored marketing strategies. With a deep understanding of his audience and a keen eye for the nuances of the engine building world, we’ve worked closely with Stefan to ensure his brand resonates with enthusiasts, professionals, and potential clients alike.
Lessons from the Winner’s Circle
Stefan’s achievement offers a valuable lesson for us all: Mastery is a continuous pursuit. In an ever-evolving industry, staying ahead requires a blend of traditional craftsmanship and forward-thinking innovation. Stefan embodies this balance, and his Engine Builder of the Year award is a shining example of what can be achieved through relentless pursuit of excellence.
As we celebrate Stefan’s well-deserved honor, we’re reminded of the power of collaboration and the impact of dedicated expertise. We’re proud to have been a part of Stefan’s journey to this milestone and look forward to the next chapter in his story. Here’s to many more years of building excellence, one engine at a time!
Resolution: An Interfanatic Quality
“Perhaps there is no more important component of character than steadfast resolution.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
Celebrating 25 Years of Empowering Success Stories From humble beginnings of hand-coding websites to today’s multifaceted marketing solutions, our commitment to helping visionaries like Stefan Rossi achieve their goals remains unwavering. Here’s to many more years of collaboration, innovation, and triumphs!
A New Site Takes Flight: The Fly-In Club Soars Again into Online Skies
A Warm Congratulations to the Fly-In Club Community
The Fly-In Club, a haven for collectors of the revered Flying Eagle cents and Indian cents, now spreads its wings in triumphant return to the vast expanse of the internet. Warmest congratulations to the entire Fly-In Club community on this occasion. We’re so pleased to be a part of it.
How the site presents on a desktop computer at time of launch.
The Fly-In Club’s new website is a beacon, welcoming coin collectors from all over. Anybody interested in James Longacre’s designs will find friends at the Fly-In Club. Check out the site, and you’ll find insights, stories, and the occasional hidden gem. Whether you’re a seasoned collector seeking to enhance your collection or a curious newcomer looking to take the first step into the captivating world of coin collecting with Flying Eagle cents (FECs) and Indian cents (IHCs), this site is here to illuminate your journey.
We’ll take a moment now to honor the club’s past webmaster, David Noble who passed on a few years ago. We hope to honor his legacy with this new site.
How the site presents on a mobile phone at time of launch.
The Spirit of Community
Much like the coins that bring you together, each with its unique history and allure, the Fly-In Club’s new website embodies the spirit of unity and shared fascination. It is a testament to the power of collective enthusiasm for these beautiful and interesting pieces of history, where every member contributes to the tapestry of the community. As you poke around, remember, this website represents a vibrant, thriving community, nurtured by a common passion for coins.
Members also get Longacre’s Ledger three times a year. It’s a phenomenal numismatic periodical that really digs into these series with all their intrigue and varieties.
And we’d like to offer our thanks to both Chris Pilliod and Rick Snow for their opportunity to take on this challenge with them. As big fans of coins with a few coin dealers as customers, it is with great joy that we manage the Fly-In Club website for the foreseeable future. We, too, are collectors, and we love our Flying Eagles and our Indian Cents. Such beautiful and historic designs that marked an important change in American numismatics. From the venerable 1856 Flying Eagle, some say the King of Small Cents, to the 1877 and 1909-S Indian Cents, if you want to know more you’d better talk to the people at the Fly-In Club!
The hope is to have the site updated regularly with fresh content from the membership. Whether it’s news about upcoming meetings or interesting new discoveries, we the new flyinclub.org will foster interest in these great coins.
To the Fly-In Club, its members, and all who have worked to bring this project to fruition, we extend our heartfelt congratulations. May your return to the online realm be met with joy, may your community flourish, and may the allure of the Flying Eagle and Indian Head cents continue to inspire generations of collectors to come.
Quickness is necessity, the Penny Lady ® knows; just a few percent can be the difference between success and failure.
We’re here for your success. So we act as quickly as you do to bring about the results you need. And we’re not alone. There are a number of our clients who inspire us with their quickness. This week, I’ll tell you about Charmy Harker, The Penny Lady®.
The Penny Lady ®: Quickly Adjusting to the Needs of Coin Collectors
Charmy Harker, aka, The Penny Lady®, is a serious collector and coin dealer who has found ways to quickly adjust to the ever-changing coin market. Collectible coins (like anything traded for money) go through ups and slumps, and as a dealer perhaps the best way to counter those swings is to keep your inventory fresh. That’s one of many things that Charmy excels at – keeping her inventory new.
Harker branded herself as The Penny Lady ® after following a new-found passion for coins. She was very successful in the legal business before coins – she didn’t need coins. But looking back now, coins sure needed her.
When you go to a coin show, two things strike you immediately if you know anything about coins. One: holy crap, these coins aren’t the slightest bit rare. Two: there sure are a lot of old white guys dealing.
That’s not to minimize the recent resurgence of collecting with younger generations: Instagram has helped that immensely. And there are a number of dealers in their forties and fifties. That’s also not to minimize that if you look around, you’ll see collectors of all colors and walks of life.
But there are very few women. Mostly, we see the wives of dealers.
And that’s changing, in large part due to people like Charmy Harker. A successful female coin dealer is a breath of fresh air on the bourse.
And her inventory, which is expansive, is always fresh. She’s always quick to get new material for her avid collectors, and she’s always quick to get that new material professionally (and uniquely) photographed for her site.
Her customers’ favorite thing to do is view her new inventory. So she gives them what she wants with speed, consistency, and excellent service.
Here, you can see some recent changes made on The Penny Lady. Charmy just added some new inventory, including the desirable impaired proof S-9 – an original 1856 Flying Eagle Cent. Check it out!
“There is a force, a quickness that is translated through you into action.”
–Martha Graham
What a beautiful quote by a woman who created and traded in the artistic beauty of choreography. There is a force that drives all of us, and if we harness it quickly, the results of our effort may be beautiful.
That’s what we’re trying to do here. We bring beauty and data together quickly to produce results. The site in the video above is just as Charmy wants it. This is her translation of business beauty harnessed into action. We’re proud to be a part of it.
Interfanatic Service Focus: InterfanaticPower Business Website Production – Ecommerce
In my previous post, I told you about our Interfanatic Marketing Message Situation Report. In this week’s post, we’ll talk about our Interfanatic Power Business Website Production, which often includes eCommerce.
All the Power Business Websites we build include exceptional SEO. But when you need to do business over the Internet in a safe and secure fashion, we include that in our Power Business Website Production.
“We’ll help you choose the right solution and get your site up and running quickly.”
We’ll transfer products from your old site, or we’ll create new products for you – all with your approval. In Charmy Harker’s case, we also included our exclusive Coin Entry software which allows you to quickly post certified coins. It’s a real time saver that pays for itself very quickly.
We work with all the major eCommerce platforms: WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify, you name it. We’ll help you choose the right solution and get your site up and running quickly.
Interfanatic: Quick Answers and Quicker Action
We’ve been around the block a few times. We’ve seen it all! Please don’t be embarrassed at the current state of your website. We’ve all been there. Trust me: WE’VE ALL BEEN THERE. The most important part is that you know there’s an issue and you know you need help. That’s what we’re here for. We’re here to help. So give us a call. We have the answer.
Ron Guth has a numismatic career spanning decades as a pinnacle expert. He’s an author, an experienced executive, an auctioneer, … and proprietor of German Coins.
Guth built his first website around the same time we started our business – around 1998. (We started in 1999.) And as the Internet has changed, Ron Guth has changed with it.
As most of our successful clients, Guth embodies our quoter’s thought. Jessica Hagedorn is a bit of a maverick and found success in many ways – all of them through knowing how and when to adapt.
I had the great honor of working with Ron Guth when we did some marketing work for PCGS (Collector’s Universe) and handling the marketing for the second tranche brought up from the Ship of Gold. We worked together on more than that, too. It was always great working with Guth. He’s such a pro! Soft spoken, self-effacing, kind, and one of the most knowledgeable and sharp individuals you will ever meet.
And you have to be to take on the niche of numismatics that is German Coins! Coins of most countries are complex and intricate. There are entire libraries dedicated to the two-hundred denominations of U.S. Coins through history.
But German Coins encompass not only the intricacies of the modern era (West German, East German, and Unified Germany), but the upheavals of the 20th century and going back through the German States. Forget 200 denominations, how about 200 States, each with it’s own unique set of non-decimal denominations! And then there’s porcelain coinage, notgeld, precious metals coinage, territories – it’s insane. For reference: if you’ve ever seen the phone book size Krause “Standard Catalog of World Coins”, you know that of the three inches of material, US coins inhabit… maybe 1/8th inch of the 1900-2000 volume. For the 1800-1900 volume, twice that. German States comprise a full inch of the 1700-1800 Krause.
Ron Guth is one of the few sharp enough to take on such a daunting task.
But if you want a deep and rich niche of numismatics to delve into, German Coins are for you! That would be one helluva type set.
We began helping Guth with GermanCoins.com a few years ago. We added a shopping cart to his site, and gave it a quick redesign at that time. More recently, we relaunched the site with an all-new design that makes the site easier and faster than ever.
This quick video shows the changes the site has seen through its life.
To survive and yes to thrive, we have to change. We have seen so much change through our 20 years in business. From Netscape to Google, from MySpace to Facebook, from Nokia to iPhones, from AdWords to Yelp, we’ve seen so many fads come and go.
One thing that hasn’t changed: having your own website to tell your story the way you want to tell it is the way to go. You’re not reliant on some external force presenting your message. It’s on you. You get what you want.
“I don’t need a website, I just use Facebook.” Now that facebook is the home of fake news and toxicity on the Internet, that may not be the place for you. Plenty of businesses use facebook successfully. But if you want your message shown without distraction, it may not be the best place to showcase your products and services.
“I don’t need a website, I just use Yelp.” Which is great, so long as you have 5-star reviews! But what happens when Yelp doesn’t prioritize your correct reviews, but rather chooses to showcase some nutjob’s? You have to pay their fee, and even then you may not get what you want.
Websites are not the be-all, end-all, but I’ve heard so many times through my career that “websites are a thing of the past”, and yet here we are.
We’ve adapted this service multiple times through the years. The main thing you get in any service is labor – our prices are determined by the time it takes to properly complete the service you need. In the case of Power Business Website Production, we build a proper business website for you with either a focus on SEO (which most businesses care about) or speed (which is important, but not always the priority.) If you want both, look for our The Works service, which includes both incredible SEO, incredible speed and performance, and more. If neither are critical, look at our Basic Site Production.
Most customers we’ve experienced are most focused on SEO – getting traffic to their site. We’ve always done some SEO service in our builds, it’s just a requirement of the times. But to really focus on SEO in 2021, there’s considerable extra labor involved. And the results are always worth it – especially in the long run.
“…we invest extra time with our SEO-focused builds, we invest extra time in lightning performance for speed-focused builds.”
Some customers are not interested in SEO, (surprisingly.) For those customers, we emphasize the speed and performance of their website. When you have a business that is not concerned with SEO, it’s because you have enough customers – you just want referrals to have something sharp to see when they check you out. As we invest extra time with our SEO-focused build, we invest extra time in lightning performance for speed-focused builds. We have a couple of options here, including headless website builds, that might work best for your application. Talk to us about your needs and we’ll guide you.
If you focus on speed with your Power Business Website Build, there can still be some SEO done. If you focus on SEO with your Power Business Website Build, there will still be good performance. But getting those last few percent of each are labor intensive, so that’s what we do. We invest the labor on your behalf to get you the website you want.
Interfanatic: Adapting to Thrive
Our business changes every second of every day. We don’t do the same thing we did in 1999. Our systems and processes have evolved to adapt to the current business model that works best for our clients. What hasn’t changed is our commitment to excellence. We haven’t changed our willingness to what’s needed to ensure we do everything in our power to help them be successful.
You see, some things need to be adapted. Others, like doing what’s best for our customers, do not need to change.
Coin dealers require immense knowledge. Just to know where to look for current market prices takes understanding of using a huge number of varied resources. And, like all business ventures, they must exhibit immense courage to go out on their own and earn a living wage.
Most coin business in 2021 is online. It’s less risky and simpler that way. Many brick and mortars have closed their doors, eschewing complications and overhead in favor of doing business online only.
Not Ron Sannes and Vincent Rangone of Palos Verdes Coin Exchange. They have bucked the trend, opening, succeeding, and indeed growing their business at its physical location. Sannes and Rangone do so by harnessing their immense knowledge and by employing their courage. They use their experience to power their self-confidence, harnessing their courage and turning it in to success.
Gracian knew many wise people. And he saw many persecuted and slaughtered for their wisdom in their faith. But he also saw that wisdom not shared was wasted.
Sannes and Rangone use their wisdom and courage to succeed. And we’re so pleased to be an integral part of their success.
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Sannes for close to a decade. If you know Sannes the way I know him, you know he personifies courage.
We don’t claim to be courageous, but I guess we must be at least a little. I prefer to think of Interfanatic as encouraging the courageous. We guide them with our wisdom and experience to success. Courage is definitely a part of our everyday life, but just a little bit. We keep going and we do our best to help our courageous clientele thrive.
Do you have any idea how complicated it is to price a coin? First, you must authenticate it – difficult in this time of sophisticated and prevalent counterfeits. Then, you must grade it. Difficult to ascertain even for the most seasoned coin graders. Then you must know how to correctly employ a cross-section of coin market exchanges to properly price your coin for a viable sale. As a dealer, you must know the highest amount you can pay and still make money on a sale, and you must price competitively for a quick sale as collectors don’t like stale inventory. And you must have the knowledge to do all of this with confidence, on the fly without any reference but your experience.
That’s exactly what Ron and Vince do daily at PV Coin Exchange. They have earned an excellent reputation as fair dealers from both sellers and buyers.
Palos Verdes Coin Exchange deals daily in both run of the mill coins like common Lincoln cents and Morgan dollars, to rarities both conditional and exquisite. They deal in bulk 90% silver and rare certified gold coins. Their shop in Malaga Cove, near the police station (safe) and wisely positioned at the foot of the Palos Verdes Peninsula ‘Hill’ gives them an excellent place of business for estate inheritors and coin collectors.
Palos Verdes Coin Exchange is also a member in good standing of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. This gives buyers and sellers confidence in an established business.
“Interfanatic manages PV Coin Exchange‘s Search Ad spend to help them provide a consistently high level of service.”
It’s great fun working with PV Coin Exchange. They’re great at what they do, and the subject matter is interesting. I often find myself enthralled by the history that these little artistic artifacts, these coins, represent.
They asked us to set up some Search Ads to present their business to the locals. It’s working out well. Their reputation is building and they now have a steady stream of regulars that come by the shop to see what’s new. The locals on the Hill now know they have a resource they can trust to get fair prices for their coins when they sell an estate or collection from Palos Verdes.
When business slows down, we increase their ad spend to keep a steady stream of customers. When the shop gets busy, we turn down their spend so they don’t get overwhelmed. All of this ensures they provide a high, consistent level of service.
Also, as we have substantial experience at many levels in the numismatics industry, we often consult for them and discuss business ideas. All in all, it’s a great relationship.
So you have a business idea, but you’re not sure how to get a domain. We’re experts in buying, selling and procuring domain names. Sometimes customers ask us to pick up a few domains while they consider their options.
The way it works is, of course ‘.com’ domains are still the most desirable. Also, shorter domain names are more in-demand. As such all four-letter .coms are bought. Most of the five-letters are gone, too. As such, even major businesses are settling for non-.coms or longer domain names.
You can set up a subdomain, xxxx.domainname.com, for free if you have that domain. And of course you can your domain length to help customers find the right part of your website. For instance, we often use get.interfanatic.com to direct people to our Get A Quote page. And that page is interfanatic.com/get-a-quote. It’s intuitive and memorable, making it easy for our customers and search engines to find.
A few years ago, a friend of ours came to us with a business idea. He wasn’t sure exactly which direction he wanted to go, so we picked up a few domains for him. One particularly desirable domain had recently come back on the market, so we swooped in and picked it up for him. We also picked up a couple that were slightly less desirable so if he wanted to sell his best domain for a profit, he had that option.
We’ve also negotiated to purchase already-taken domains for customers. And sometimes, companies want a second domain just for their email addresses. We’ve handled all of that, too. We’ve done all manners of domain dealing for clients in our 20 year history.
So if you’re thinking of a business idea, come to us and we’ll take care of you. We’ll get the best domain for you and handle the renewals. That way, if you ever get a suspicious email, you don’t have to worry about it – we take care of that for you. Our service helps our customers rest easy about their most valuable commodities – their domain names.
Interfanatic: Promoting the Courageous
It’s daunting to take that first step. Whether you’re a serial entrepreneur or a first-time trep, we love consulting with you and lending our experience to tour success. Let’s build something great together. Not only have we helped many new businesses succeed, we’ve helped to start new businesses, from drafting complete plans, to marketing, and to working through start-up problems. Of course, we’ve helped many successful businesses break through to the next level, too.
We’re here for the courageous. We helped you take the step, and we helped you take the right step in the right direction, with back-up plans in case things don’t go as planned the first time.
We’re here for you.
This week’s image: Interfanatic‘s founder, Ryan Delane, takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.
Courage, an Interfanatic Quality. Interfanatic Digital Marketing founder Ryan Delane takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.
Endeavour – she represents the courage to continue. After the Challenger debacle, it would have been easy to pack it in. But NASA didn’t. With the help of good people, they were forced to face their complacency. The shuttle program was forced to ask questions it didn’t want to ask. It was forced to look into things for which it didn’t want to see the answer. It took courage, but ask they did. Answer they did. It wasn’t pleasant. With courage, Endeavour was the result. And with it, the shuttle program continued.
You’ve got to be quick. Sun Tzu saw the need fifteen hundred years ago just as we see it today.
A fast response will often win you the battle. I’ve found this in business, too. I see my best, most successful customers employ quickness – or rapidity – to earn and keep their businesses running.
I think of Ron Guth and his Executive Directorship of the Numismatic Literary Guild. He needed help quick, and we were able to step in and help. His customers, his membership, wants doing business to be quick and easy. So Ron did what he had to do to facilitate quick and easy business for his members.
As he was quick to respond, we endeavored to be quick in response to his need. And everybody got what they needed.
Quickness: An Interfanatic Quality
It’s not always easy to be nimble – to respond quickly. When the machinations are in place to keep the momentum of work in front of you going, it can be a difficult distraction to take on something new out of the blue.
Yet, we understand the importance of helping out quickly whenever we can. It has won us business. And once that high standard is set, we must keep pushing to keep the bar there. We have to keep responding quickly.
Quickness is a necessity in our business, despite the impermanence of its nature. So, we work to be quick.
And we’re not alone.
Quickness in Coin Books? Ron Guth Employs Quickness to Keep Membership Strong
Ron Guth is a major numismatic author. He’s written many books about coins and collecting through the years – major works, beautiful words. Great coin books.
So on top of his many businesses, he also is the Executive Director of the Numismatic Literary Guild. This is a task he takes seriously. Not only does he serve his hobby, he’s working with the many friends he has acquired through the years.
It was time for memberships to renew, and Ron needed help with his site. His new site! Unfortunately, the people that built it disappeared, as so often is the case. Luckily, Ron knew we were around, and we got him heading down the right track. Twice.
The result is smooth business operation for his guild, and happy members.
“Unfortunately, the people that built the website could not be reached. Luckily, Ron knowsInterfanatic is around.”
It’s a great feeling to know that Ron trusts us when the chips are down. And it’s a great feeling when we can outperform our competitors. But hey, these are tough times, I just hope they’re okay.
Website production is about staying on track. We have systems and processes in place to keep things moving the right direction.
It’s also about quickly responding to difficulties that arise. Hackers, server issues, ISP issues, user issues. By having systems and processes in place, we can quickly and efficiently respond to threats or problems. It’s not always easy, but because we have over 20 years of experience, many things are easier. This ain’t our first rodeo.
If you need a quick fix for your website, that’s what we’re here for. We do projects of all sizes, all the time.
So next time you need something fixed quickly, think of us. We’re here to help.
Interfanatic: Down with the Quickness
Not every project has to be a multi-thousand dollar deal. We do hundred dollar fixes all the time. We take pride in our ability to get work done quickly. Just ask us.
This week’s image: Interfanatic‘s founder, Ryan Delane, takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.
Quickness, an Interfanatic Quality. Interfanatic Digital Marketing founder Ryan Delane takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.
This is one of my favorite photographs of all time. It was a rainy day at Brands Hatch, and a lucky owner got to take Prost’s Ferrari F1 for a spin at lunchtime. The sound was glorious. The car twitched and wiggled around the damp English concrete, all the while screeching and screaming its glorious tune. That is a seriously quick car – at a seriously quick track.
“Efficiency signifies the productivity of the process.”
– Susan Page
Efficiency sounds so clinical. It’s interesting to hear about it from a newspaper woman. Efficiency is not something that comes to mind when you think of journalism, but of course it’s critical. Excellent writing is all about being concise. It’s about getting the story across completely using the fewest words possible.
But she’s referring to the productivity of the process. At Interfanatic, we have a lot of processes. We have systems galore. We don’t really think about it in these terms any longer because they’re such an intrinsic part of our work. But we’re always trying to find ways to be more efficient for the long run – because it’s better for our customers.
This brings to mind one of our clients from just a couple of years ago: Collectors Universe and PCGS. Now THAT is an efficient company!
Efficiency: An Interfanatic Quality
Efficiency is ingrained. Of course, we have to constantly fight for it. Our business is on an entropic trend with efficiencies fighting inefficiencies on every front. Efficiency doesn’t have to be impersonal, but it does have to work.
We’re constantly on the lookout for ways to make things happen faster, simpler. Any time there’s a complicated process, we seek to simplify it. Our business is rife with new tasks, new processes, and these are not always beautifully efficient.
Over time, we hone new processes to make them simpler and more efficient. It helps us save time and money. And then we can pass that efficiency to our customers through savings.
PCGS is Efficiency in Action
The Professional Coin Grading Service is an incredibly efficient outfit. They deal with tens of thousands of collectibles daily, and they get those tens of thousands of items in front of dozens of extreme experts to get their honest opinion of condition and / or value.
“[PCGS is] an incredible outfit performing a massive service to an industry that intrinsically requires their talents.”
On top of that, they’re dealing with some of the most valuable and rare collectibles in the universe. The collectibles market is much like the stock market, in that it fluctuates daily based on supply and demand. They are the third party that helps buyers and sellers know what is in front of them.
A few years ago, we handled a couple the marketing initiatives for PCGS. Well, we Interfanatic, did not – I did. We handled some of their social media, many of their email sends, and a video marketing program related to a big rollout of collectibles for a big customer. It was awesome!
But in doing so, I got to see how clinically efficient PCGS is. They’re not that way just because they want to be – they’re that way because they have to be. When you’re dealing with collectibles on this scale, you have to treat them agnostically, and you have to treat them quickly – efficiently. It’s an incredible outfit performing a massive service to an industry that intrinsically requires their talents.
So when we had the opportunity to handle some of their marketing, these were some incredibly fun and rewarding projects for us.
Search advertising is the ultimate in efficiency. While the newcomer to the scene – social media – is not always efficient for newcomers, search advertising is the king of making your dollar go far. It’s a great way to establish your brand, and a great way to get your established brand in front of the right customers.
If you want to spend your money efficiently, get a digital search campaign going the right way. It will take some time to get it tuned in, so start by spending slowly. As you see the results you want and begin to understand why you’re seeing them, up your spend to get more of what you want.
It’s a beautiful process, and we’ve been proud to be a part of it for some great customers during these difficult times.
Interfanatic: Honing Efficiency
Like PCGS, we have systems and processes in place to help you become more successful while spending less. We’re here to help. It is my pleasure to help you get more business for less.
This week’s image: Interfanatic‘s founder, Ryan Delane, takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.
Efficiency, an Interfanatic Quality. Interfanatic Digital Marketing founder Ryan Delane takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.
While reviewing photographs to use for our social feed, I was struck by this image of a red rose. There is little that is so efficient in eliciting a reaction as a gorgeous rose. It is beautiful and immediate. The more you look at it, you have an emotional reaction to its visual and olfactory presence. It is a king (or queen, as the case may be!) of efficiency.
Unfortunately, things are not as severe as they’ll get. Remembering family, we’re in for tumultuous times, not tranquil ones.
If we could relax, perhaps we could improve things. But we can’t. Everything continues to get worse. And it will keep going that way, it seems. There is no tranquility when things continue to get worse because there cannot be. We must push forward to improve.
It would be a lovely thing to return to some semblance of tranquility. But that won’t happen. The same people who were insistent upon throwing us into chaos four years ago appear to have done it again. Last time, only 100,000 people died before their time (and growing.) What will it be this time?
We now know the cost of 100,000 lives. It is a tax cut for the ultra-wealthy. It is further dependence on foreign governments as we continue to go further and further into debt. Apparently, 100,000 American lives aren’t worth that much. Apparently, a strong and independent America isn’t worth that much, so long as the wealthy continue to get wealthier.
So when we seek respite in tranquility, it’s not going to be there. We continue to be weakened.
Our adversaries are winning. So much winning.
But when I think of tranquility, I think of the cool calm of Charmy Harker, The Penny Lady®.
Tranquility: An Interfanatic Quality
At a given coin show, it can be very irritating to be coin dealer. I’ve been on both sides of the table, and I know how wonderful customers can be – and what a pain in the neck. And I’ve been both! I’ve been both a great customer and a pain in the neck. So I know what I’m talking about.
Charmy is great. She will happily discuss coins with you, but she doesn’t suffer fools. She has a very clinical manner with people she feels is wasting her time, but she’s also a terribly warm person when you get to know her and do business with her regularly.
At the end of the day, her tranquil manner is what is required to maintain sanity and decorum. Some find her fantastic, but I’ve heard that some find her cold. She’s not cold. Charmy is awesome. She’s a coin show veteran. She knows her stuff. And she works with all kinds of great customers – big spenders and small fish alike. She just loves coins and loves sharing her love of coins.
And she’s a great client. 2020 has been okay for some and horrific for others. Through it all, she keeps an even keel and things rolling, sensibly. In a tranquil way.
You know what a great time is, to a coin collector? Checking out Charmy’s site. Her coins are beautiful. It’s relaxing to review the collectible coins on her website and just enjoy them. You can look at her collection (not for sale) or see the beautiful coins she has on offer. For a coin collector, it’s all a good, peaceful time.
For me, it’s fun to look at both. I’m not actively collecting anything right now, but I very much enjoy viewing her coins, and do so regularly.
The Penny Lady®, A Tranquil Repose for Collectors Online
If you don’t know anything about collecting coins, there are a couple of things you need to understand:
#1) Condition is everything.
You can have a Lincoln wheat cent in your pocket that to the untrained eye looks like one of Charmy’s very expensive examples. Maybe the year is not the same or the mint mark is different, or maybe it even looks exactly the same to you. The chances of you having a $500 coin in your pocket are lottery-chances slim. Of course it’s possible, but your penny has to be spectacular or spectacularly rare (odds are worse for you than one in a billion) for it to be worth money. And what looks perfect to you may not at all be perfect to an expert who eats, drinks, and breathes coins.
#2) Certification helps.
All of Charmy’s coins have been expertly certified to be what she says they are. Not only does she know what she’s looking at, she’s had an expert panel review the coins and independently come up with a condition description. This expert panel belongs to what we call a Third-Party Grading company. All they do – and I mean all – is sit and look at coins all day long to determine their condition. And their condition, combined with the other characteristics of the coin – the date, mint mark, and error or or other outside factors – determine the pricing. They look at literally tens of thousands of collectible coins per day.
And even then, many of the coins Charmy deals in are even more special, so they’re more valuable than the available price guides. She knows this because she’s spent years as a dealer going to coin shows. She spends her life buying and selling coins. So she knows what they’re really worth to a collector – sometimes better then the price guides say.
I haven’t geeked out on coins in too long. So let’s have a look at a few of my favorites on her site right now.
Look, there are hundreds of coins for sale on her site. So look for yourself. I picked these out from the home page to highlight because they are to my taste.
All photographs are Charmy’s. She retains copyrights, et cetera.
This is a pretty coin. This is a relatively common coin. There are literally billions of 1942 cents worth no more than $0.01. But this one, even as “rare coins” go, is relatively common in the grade of Mint State 65 Red-Brown. There are many much nicer coins. And they’re all more expensive than this one.
What I like about this one is it doesn’t look common. It has interesting color (we call it toning). The obverse, or head’s side has iridescent pinks and oranges, and the reverse is heavily iridescent yellow-green. This is just not a coin you see every day. And it’s a cool coin, and it can be yours for under a couple hundred dollars.
This is a really cool coin. It’s got a really cool price, too. I used to prowl eBay for unnoticed raw 8/7s. It’s not an easy thing to do – there are lots of collectors doing the same. What’s cool about this coin is, …well, where do I start? First, it’s a Flying Eagle. The mint only made these for a couple of years (three if you count the king 1856). It’s a neat design. While this coin doesn’t ooze eye appeal, it’s still a solid coin because it has all of the diagnotistics of the 8/7 in full view. And it’s a friendly grade of Almost Uncirculated 58, meaning the graders see it as very close to mint state, uncirculated. Philadelphia Mint struck this coin weakly, which is why to some it looks worn. But it’s not. And it’s got the CAC green bean that means not only did the experts look it over and determine it was a 58, more experts reviewed the experts’ work and affirmed they were right.
I love me some purple pennies. I had one years ago that I sold and I still kick myself for it. This one is kinda like the ’42 Wheat – an 1890 Indian is a relatively common coin. Mint State 65 is a great grade – it’s the bottom of what some call “gem”. MS 65 is the lowest grade you want if you want (and can afford) a “nice” uncirc coin. Don’t get me wrong, there are “nice” 62s and “nice” 68s, but in general, 65 is a great collector grade. And this coin is PRETTY. I’d love to see it in hand, with the flashes of mint red coming through blue and purple hues.
“And if you’re in need of a new hobby during quarantine, drag out the old box o’ coins from the attic and start learning about them.”
See, this, for me, is tranquility. I can’t afford any of these coins right now, but I can afford to window shop online. For a coin geek, that’s as relaxing as listening to Clair de Lune.
And if you’re in need of a new hobby during quarantine, drag out the old box o’ coins from the attic and start learning about them. They’re a window into the past; a vessel of art and time.
It would be my pleasure to discuss coins with you any time. So long as I’m not too busy getting stressed out with work.
Even ol’ Trumpkin got hacked. Which just proves that if the crooks want to get in badly enough, they’ll find a way to get past the lock.
There’s really nothing anybody can do to keep a determined hacker out. But we can do the basics to keep most out. Just like your house: if you leave the door unlocked and you live in a neighborhood where such action is not advised, you’re inviting the hoodlems. But if you at least lock your door, would-be thieves are more likely to move on to the next place to see if they forgot. You’re better off locking your door.
What we do, it’s a little bit more than that. It’s not full-proof, but it’s practical and it works almost all the time. We’ve been through getting hacked. We’ve learned the hard way. So we apply those lessons learned and our customers are much, much safer than they used to be.
Interfanatic: Keeping it Tranquilo
Let’s all just chill. Don’t let the orange motormouth angrifier get under your skin. Wouldn’t it be a much nicer place if we could just ignore him because everything he says is unimportant again?
This week’s image: Interfanatic‘s founder, Ryan Delane, takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.
Tranquility, an Interfanatic Quality. Interfanatic Digital Marketing founder Ryan Delane takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.
I did what was right. I voted. In doing so, I expressed my opinion, I flexed what little muscle I have. Was it enough? Probably not. I could have done more.
Also, I gotta mention, the ’31-D that was on Charmy’s site, the one I used for this week’s social – it’s already gone. I hope you’re the lucky new owner!
Collecting cents can be complicated if you don’t keep your collection in order. Now, think about trying to sell them.
When one coin is worth $100 in one grade, and the exact same coin is worth $350 toned, and the exact same coin is worth $10,000 two grade points higher, you’ve got to have your coins in order.
Charmy Harker, The Penny Lady®, does that. Which is how she’s helped the most exciting collectors build some of the most beautiful sets of collectible coins the world has ever seen.
Like Eliza Cook said, “Order is the sanity of the mind.” Collecting coins in enough insanity without a little order to keep things clear!
Order: An Interfanatic Quality
You might think you know what it takes to build a website. But to do it successfully for businesses over and over and over – there are a lot of moving parts. The launch checklist is about 2,381 items long alone. Theorizing, designing and creating a successful website is a bit like conducting an orchestra. The minute one thing is out of tune, it can all come tumbling down.
“Theorizing, designing and creating a successful website is a bit like conducting an orchestra.”
Just like Charmy brings order to the chaos of collecting, Interfanatic brings order to the chaos of creating websites that bring in paying customers.
Charmy Harker, The Penny Lady®
Do you know any coin dealers? I know a lot of coin dealers. Some of them are great! (Yes, I’m talking about YOU.) Some of them are not. Which is what makes Charmy’s success in excellence as a coin dealer all the more convincing. She has to deal with other coin dealers. Who are mostly men. And some are not nice to deal with.
She has carved her niche doing what she loves. She’s really into Indian Cents. Most Indian Cents in the world are worth a few cents to a collector. But the ones Charmy deals in can be worth much, much, much more than that. These little metal disks tell a snapshot of history, of art, of their time, and of their place in history. And she loves them, too.
If you’re interested in collecting small cents, Charmy has an excellent selection. Take a moment to peruse The Penny Lady’s most recently added coins for sale. You’ll love them, too. She has something for everyone. (Talk about a great gift for the person who has everything.)
Browse Charmy’s Collections
Charmy is good at infuriating people, too. She uses her website to show off her collections, which are not available for sale. Because they’re usually some of the best (which is what collectors want.) So, serious collectors can’t have them, and, well that really irks ’em.
Because not only is Charmy a successful dealer of pennies, she’s a successful collector of cents. She would never brag about her collection because she’s helped collectors assemble humbling collections. But the fact is, her collection is nice.
And on top of all of this, she’s just a nice person. She doesn’t suffer fools or intent hagglers because she doesn’t enjoy that. And its her business, so she gets to decide how she runs it.
Charmy Harker does a great job. And at the end of the day, she is after all The Penny Lady®.
“Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.”
– Immanuel Kant
There’s smart, and then there’s wise. Ron Guth is both.
Negotiating the field of German Numismatics is extraordinarily tricky. German coins are a complex group. Guth uses his wisdom to navigate the complexity of the coins, their history, and their buyers, with the skill of a seasoned master.
Wisdom: This Week’s Interfanatic Virtue
Kant’s quote is so perfect. It’s just too good! First of all, he’s Prussian (as are many of Ron’s coins). He’s a philosopher of the enlightenment, who expressed rich and complex thought, so much so, it’s still debated. He’s from the German States period of coinage, perhaps the most complex of a country with a rich and incredibly detailed numismatic history.
And it fits coin collecting so well. The science of numismatics consists of organized knowledge of coins: their design, their make-up, their art. Making a life of trading in these beautiful historical metal disks – that takes wisdom.
Ron Guth: The Esteemed Numismatic Author Who Would Take on The Germans (Coins)
Look, the study of United States coins isn’t easy. It very easily to overwhelms. And it’s very easy to know just enough to get yourself in a lot of trouble.
That’s why you need a trustworthy dealer as an ally as you explore “the hobby of Kings.”
But US Coins are child’s play compared to the complexity of German Coins. Coins from the hundreds of German States, to the Empire, to the Weimar Republic, to the Third Reich, to Germany broken into West and East, and Germany Unified, each period has it’s own rich complexity.
Debate About The Wisdom of Some Who Collect
Some insist that the despicable history of Nazi Germany must die insist we should forget. They’re not wrong. Some insist the despicable history should live so that we will never forget the terrible lessons we learned. They’re not wrong either. Surely, some people collect German coins of this period because they’re not right in the head. Surely, some just have interest in the history. For some, those “just interested in the history” use an excuse. But for others, preserving history – all history, good and bad – is their hobby. And, for some, it’s just about having one of each kind.
It’s an incredibly controversial debate to wade into. It takes the even hand of a wise master like Ron Guth to deal with this level of complexity.
And he does it deftly. Guth wrote wrote (and is writing) some of the most-read numismatic books of our time. He’s loved coins of all coins almost all his life. And he gladly shares that knowledge passionately with the good people with whom he surrounds himself.
GermanCoins.com, by Ron Guth
That’s why it was our great pleasure to take on GermanCoins.com. No doubt, some of the things there make us feel icky and queasy, but to focus only on that is to ignore the rich history that surrounded that time. There are thousands of coin types – not hundreds, or as in US coins, around fifty made for circulation. Thousands of coin types covering dozens of denominations from all through and over Germany’s rich numismatic history. Undoubtedly, there are some of the ugliest coins you would never want to see – but there are many more that are among the most beautiful and fascinating you could ever know.
Thousands of coin types cover dozens of denominations from all through and over Germany’s rich numismatic history.
It’s such an honor to work with Ron Guth.
German Coins: You Might Try Them
If it piques your interest to wad into this deep, difficult, complex and nuanced numismatic history, my advice is: buy what you like. Buy what you think is interesting. Buy what you think is pretty. But whatever you do, talk to Ron Guth about it first.
There are many wise characters in the worldwide traveling circus that is the world of numismatics. Ron Guth is one of our wisest American greats.