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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