lincoln cent

Quickness: The Penny Lady ® – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

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.

Check out a recent inventory addition on ThePennyLady.com – an 1856 Snow-9 Flying Eagle Cent!

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!

Quickness: An Interfanatic Quality

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: Interfanatic Power 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.


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Diligence: VDB Coins – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

…all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.

Menander

As things are in 2021, they were 2350 years ago, when Menandros wrote great thoughts: they present themselves in drama. Menander was a playwright, a poet, and a comedian in Greece almost 400 years before the death of Christ. We see aphorisms and axioms presented in our modern drama, be it Bridgerton or The Right Stuff or The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel today, all reflecting aspects of the ancient human struggle.

Our problems are not new. Though this quote might be used by the Communist Xi to inspire his people to labor, we can also use it to reinforce our own work ethic.

Menander’s full quote is (undoubtedly a poor translation of the original Greek, but there we are), “He who labors diligently need never despair, for all things are accomplished by diligence and labor.”

I write now as this week I have labored diligently, to bring equity to my being. I have been afforded so much and must afford more, so I must labor diligently to pay for my space. To make a difference.

As it is with all of us: the human condition. And nobody understands that better than George Huber of VDB Coins. In the face of an ever-changing market, George labors diligently with his love of numismatics. He takes my recommendations and writes regularly on his website. The result is better positioning within the search engines.

As he labors diligently, we labor diligently for him.

Diligence: An Interfanatic Quality

It’s easy to work diligently when your customers are happy. It’s easy to work diligently when your customers appreciate your effort.

When things are not going well, we must dig down and keep working diligently until things are well again. When things are not going well, the motivation is to make them well. But when all is well, it’s important to keep on top of it – to keep things there, and going better.

George Huber of VDB Coins is Diligent

Selling coins is not always sexy. There’s a lot of cataloging, a lot of careful inspection, a great deal of labor that goes into a successful coin business. And, of course it can be dangerous. There are many fraudsters lurking, and storing inventory is itself a serious security issue.

To succeed, you must be diligent. And George is that. Especially in this age when everyone is vying for the attentions of the Internet, one must be diligent in their efforts.

We recommend writing and posting regularly to your site. Providing the search engines with regular, fresh, key-word rich, and most importantly valuable content is one way to get noticed and climb the ranks. Your content must be good – not spammy. You must provide information to your customers that they find valuable. But most important, you must be diligent about it. Don’t put it off – do it, and the results will come.

“The search engines reward George’s diligence, and we reward his diligence with our own.”

When George came to us a couple of years ago looking for a site redesign, we emphasized the importance of regular content updates. George loves his online coin shop, and he remains diligent in updating its content. The result is that he has increased his search position since the redesigned site launched in a couple of critical areas.

The search engines reward George’s diligence, and we reward his diligence with our own. The result is a solid website its business owner enjoys.

Interfanatic Service Focus: Interfanatic Basic Social Media Marketing

Social Media is ALL about diligence. You must post regularly, and you must interact with your followers continually.

It’s work. It’s hard work – not back-breaking, but certainly thoughtful work. Theorizing and enacting a lasting strategy of regular, constant posting takes work. It takes diligence.

If you don’t have the ability, we’re here to help. We can help you come up with a strategy and enact it. Interfanatic can even create content for you – content to use on your website, social media, email marketing – whatever!

We have managed some extremely successful social media campaigns for some major brands through the years. Interfanatic takes pride in our ability to work with budgets of all sizes.

If you need our assistance, it is our pleasure to help.

Interfanatic: Laboring with Diligence

We’ show up every day to do the tasks we and enjoy and the ones nobody enjoys. That’s our job. We do it, constantly, so that you don’t have to. We encourage you to, but if you’d rather, we can do that. Just ask us.


This week’s image:
Interfanatic‘s founder, Ryan Delane, takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.

Diligence, an Interfanatic Quality. Interfanatic Digital Marketing founder Ryan Delane takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.
Diligence, an Interfanatic Quality. Interfanatic Digital Marketing founder Ryan Delane takes or creates every image you see in our social feed.

I took this from a friend’s apartment, high within the Long Beach city skyline. On the left, the cranes of the Port of Los Angeles silhouetted against the Palos Verdes Peninsula, then the Wells Fargo building. As the sun sets on another day in the city, I’m thoughtful. I think about the people who show up and work diligently every day to make that town – and every town – go around. We live in a beautiful place. I’m blessed.

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Tranquility: The Penny Lady® – Interfanatic Customer Spotlight

From tranquility emerges power and strength.

C. Joybell C.

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

When collectors go to ThePennyLady.com, they’re looking for collectible small cents. Charmy specializes in Indian Cents, but she always has plenty of Flying Eagle Cents and Lincoln Cents (some call them “wheat pennies”) for your enjoyment.

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.

1942 Lincoln Wheat in 5 RB

https://thepennylady.com/coins/1942-1c-lincoln-wheat-cent-pcgs-ms65rb-toned/

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.

1858/7 Flying Eagle in 58

1858/7 1C Flying Eagle Cent (S-1 Strong) PCGS AU58 CAC

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.

1890 Indian Cent in 5 Brown

1890 1C Indian Cent NGC MS65BN Toned

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.

Feel the Tranquility with Interfanatic Power HackSecure Business Hosting with SSL

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.
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!

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