Category Archives: Hobby

Color again

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Vrede van Utrecht five euro in color!There is another 5 euro coin available and this time they minted another small batch of colored coins. The number of colored coins is 1000 and this is a little bit more then the previous set with the colored tulips, which counted 750 sets. Again the entire batch sold out within a day.

The colored set of the Utrecht five euro coin exists out of 6 silver coins where each has a little colored detail. For each country/area that signed the treaty of the Peace in Utrecht there is a colored coins present in the set. For each country the coloring that is used is based on the countries flag or arms from 1713. The countries that participated were France, Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Savoy.

Even though these coins are not legal tender this remains a mystery when you review the website of the royal Dutch mint. Clearly they want to sell the colored coins quickly without any hassle. They announced (*) the coins on their website with the specifications stating “Nominal value: 6 x 5 euro”. In the news item announcing the new coins the colored set is mentioned right alongside the rest of the coins. A bit strange because the colored coins are legally viewed worthless and should not be considered legal currency.

The (official) colored coins sold by the royal Dutch mint until now:

Year Coin Quantity Introduction price
2013 Vrede van Utrecht color set 1000 sets
6 silver coins per set
Nominal value 5 euros per coin		 € 275,00
2012 Lucky 10 cents 15.000 coins
Nominal value 10 cents		 € 4,95
2012 Tulpen vijfje color set 750 sets
4 silver coins per set
Nominal value 5 euros per coin		 € 200,00

(*) Sadly the royal Dutch mint does not preserve the content of their website. As soon as a product is no longer available in their shop all the details related to the product disappear.

Scarcity

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2 euro dubbelportret!The departure of queen Beatrix and the arrival of our new king Willem Alexander is of course very big news and just like a lot of other commercial parties the royal Dutch mint is trying to get a nice slice of the cake. They are producing aankondigingspenningen (announcement coins), abdication sets, special 2 euro coins and a lot more merchandise. Right now all products feature the portrait of our queen, but after the 30th of April there will surely be a big number of new coins which are minted with the portrait of the new king Willem Alexander.

The new 2 euro with both portraits of Beatrix and Willem-Alexander will be mixed with the normal 2 euros and there will be 20 million of such coins, so for sure you will encounter a few of them. For collectors the KNM has a different approach. Once again the created an extra nice coin but in a very limited edition. So limited that they were sold out in days. It seems like a standard approach to quickly sell a few coins which then become very rare and expensive.

The last few emissions by the KNM in 2013:
2 euro dubbelportret – sold out in 3 days
2 euro verdrag van rome in coincard – sold out in 15 days
muntrol 2 euro dubbelportret – sold out in 1 day
BU set Nederland 2013 – sold out in 11 days

Once sold out the price of the coins usually quickly doubles. It almost obligates collectors to review the KNM facebook page and website to keep up to date with new releases. I am not sure what exactly is the advantage for the KNM, but coin dealers must be very happy.

Cats&Dogs

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Dog!Cat!The wait is finally over. Cats and Dogs, Boys and Girls, a never ending battle between men’s best friends, combined with the most epic battle of all, the battle of the sexes. Action-packed in just half a minute of gaming frenzy.

An easy and exiting game, now playable on your Android phone. Practice your reflexes as you try to keep up with all the action on your mobile. This hot new game is available as an Android App on Google Play now and best of all, totally free!

The object of the game is as easy as it is challenging. Select either cats or dogs and boys or girls and start the action. Avoid touching the wrong animal or gender. Are you able to get the high score of the day, while only playing one minute? Don’t wait any longer! Get this game now!

View the all time high scores and today’s best scores.

Art on the wall

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Art on the wall!Who would not like a piece of original art on the wall. I already have my ‘Dre‘, but now it has become a lot easier to get some really unique art.

Using the website ‘Werk aan de muur’ you can browse through thousands of pieces of art and you can even upload your own creations. Once you have found a piece you like you can set a lot of options to get the art exactly as you want, specifying material, size, etc. It is so easy that I already have my own little Adrie Berg art shop.

Torchlight

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Torchlight 2!Finally, a game that plays how it is supposed to. A while ago I tried Diablo 3. It was a nice game, but it had a few shortcomings. The earlier versions were a lot better. Diablo 3 was just to easy, impossible to play without internet and quite expensive.

When Diablo left mi a bit disappointed I went and searched for alternatives, and quickly I ended up with Torchlight. Today the second version becomes available. Torchlight 1 (and surely also Torchlight 2) is very similar to Diablo. Killing monsters and searching for the best equipment. At the same time you are saving the world from all the evil. A concept that agrees with me.

Torchlight has a nice few characteristics. Much more color and the style of the game is sometimes more like a cartoon. Very nice. The hero has the talk to kill monsters and he does this accompanied by his faithful pet. Compared to Diablo it becomes clear that Torchlight is better in almost every possible way.

Version two of Torchlight becomes available today but I think it will only have a digital version. You won’t find the box in the shop. The most amazing thing is the price. The game will be sold for a mere 20 dollars, which translates to a little over 15 euros. A very nice deal! You don’t need internet to play… can create your own multiplayer games… and if you want you can extend the game yourself.

Where Diablo left me with doubts and in the end made me decide not to buy the game (a good choice because I quit playing the game a long time ago) I will buy Torchlight 2 for sure. Selling such a nice game for little is something that must be rewarded.

1.500 Euro destroyed

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Orange lucky dime!15.000 colored coins. This was the eventual number of the orange colored lucky dime. A dime that really wasn’t very lucky if you look at the recent results of the Dutch football team.

During this sale of colored coins the Dutch Royal Mint invalidated/destroyed coins with a total value of 1.500 Euros. These 1.500 Euros they colored, packaged and sold for (1.500 x 4.95 = ) 75.250 Euros. A nice profit.

Now we wait. We wait to see that the next release by the Dutch Royal Mint will be. Will they continue with coloring parts of the coins they release or will they finally realize that colored coins are still a gray area in regard to the law and when considering coin collectors.

Diablo 3

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Diablo3!A long time ago I was a very frequent player of computer games. Diablo was one of the games I liked playing and recently a new version of this game was released. A game I just had to try for myself.

A free version is available which you can use to try the game. The free version allowed you to play a small part of the actual game, but you can only get access to the free version if you know someone who has bought the game, and who is willing to give you one of his special try-out keys. I was lucky because I knew just such a person.

Now for the game. The first thing I noticed is that it resembles the previous version a lot. Really a LOT. Did this really take 8 year to create? My PC did not match the minimum specs but still the game ran surprisingly well. Killing monsters went smooth and easy and I did not run into problems. The old feelings I remember having while playing this game resurfaced.

I managed to perfectly kill lots of monsters, but that the game was without problems is not really accurate. The new version of Diablo requires you to be online while playing and you need to be logged into your battle.net account. Not really a problem, except that it fails quite a lot of times. Sometimes you loose your connection in the middle of the game, and all you can do is exit the game and restart it. After the last update I am unable to play at all. To bad.

The last issue I have with this game is the price. In the local shops you can buy the boxed version for a little over 40 euros. The digital version is easier to get, without leaving home at the Blizzard site. This digital version is without box and without CD but for some strange reason it is priced at almost 60 euros. A ridiculous difference.

My conclusion: It is a nice game, but for now I´ll stick to the demo version even though I finished this small part of the game already a few times.

A worthless painted coin?

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Colored coin!What is exactly the deal with these colored coins that keep appearing. It was a question that kept playing in my head and after some research I finally got an idea. I started wondering with the appearance of the colored 5 euro coin where there were suddenly some non official versions, only to notice that these non official versions were not called ‘illegal’. It seemed that anyone is allowed to paint their coins.

According to the law once a coin is painted it is no longer a legal form of tender. They are coins with a defect and are removed from the payment systems. As a collectible item they are nice to have and some are really pieces of art, and as such represent a certain value, but for making legal payments these coins are worthless. On the facebook page by the Royal Dutch Mint a number of critical questions were asked and you can read the following (about the Orange Lucky Dime, translated from Dutch):

  • RoyalDutchMint: … the Lucky Dime is made using an authentic 10 euro cent 2012, and the base of the coins is a legal form of tender but the dime is intended to be collected. The Royal Dutch Mint does not guarantee the coin can be used for making payments.
  • RoyalDutchMint: …, the original version of the Orange Lucky Dime 2012 is a legal form of payment. However, due to the added coloring the coin does not formally submit to the euro coin specifications and as such can be refused to serve as payment. This implies that the legal status as applies to the other 8 euro coins does not apply to the colored coins.

The peculiar thing is that the Royal Dutch Mint sells these colored coins and they seem to be quite unclear regarding the legal state of these coins. On their website they advertise these colored coins with these texts:

  • First official Dutch 10 cent euro 2012 in Orange.
  • Nominal value: 0,10 euro

They do seem to be referring to normal 10 cent coins. Still, they are worthless coins that are being sold alongside normal coins seemingly like they are similar products. The colored coins are a lot more expensive, but that they are not really legal tender only becomes clear after quite some investigation. It would be prudent if somehow this confusion was removed and it was made clear these colored coins represent a pretty and innovative product intended for collectors and that it does not represent legal tender.

A colored coin will not buy you anything but I think that still a lot of people would be interested in these pretty coins.

More coin related news.

Tina Cousins – Pray

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Tina Cousins – Pray

What a miracle is life
the fields are high and the fruit is ripe
so hold out your hands
yeah, hold out your hands
and you’re the same as me
you breathe the air I breathe
and we don’t understand, yeah
we don’t understand

We all see the same sun
each day a golden praise is sung
to the wonder of man
yeah, to the wonder of man
and when we look why can’t we see
all the riches that are free
oh we don’t understand, yeah
we don’t understand

And if you don’t ask questions you won’t know why
so say a prayer for the time while there’s still time
so pray for good and pray for love
pray for peace and pray it’s enough
pray for salvation
pray that we’re right
pray one day we’ll open our eyes, and
pray for them and pray for us
pray one day we can live as one
pray for the children whose time is to come
just pray they forgive us for the stupid things we’ve done

The clip

Selling colored coins

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oranjegeluksdubbeltjeColored coins are appearing in quick succession, and it seems the Royal Dutch Mint has found a need goose with golden eggs. His time they are selling 10 eurocent coins for 5 euros. Very easy money. The coins are sold as lucky dimes and have the number 10 on the front of the coin painted in orange. The entire set comes packages in a piece of cardboard, ready to be collected. Of course the person collecting this coin will be expected to pay 5000% more than the face value of the coin.

How long will it take this time for a cheaper alternative to arise to the colored coins. It is perfectly legal and with a potential markup of 5000% it seems to be very much worthwhile. It can even get better, you can paint your own coin! Just imagine, a little bit of creativity and a little bit of paint and all of a sudden a 10 cent coins is worth a lot more. Using the KNM markup you could even sell a home painted 2 euro coin for 100 euros.

Needed:

  • Colored Enamel Paint
  • Metallic Enamel Paint
  • Tiny Soft-Bristle Paintbrush

Instructions for painting or coloring an existing coin
1 – Quickly wash existing coin in warm water and mild soap. Use a soft-bristled toothbrush to gently scrub dirt from crevices of the coin’s surface. Pat coin dry with a soft cloth.
2 – Mix enamel paints to a smooth consistency by adding small drops of warm water. If using different colored paints, determine what the finished painted coin will look like. Practice with the paints by drawing a coin on a piece of paper.
3 – Lay the coin backside down on some paper. Carefully paint over the areas of the coin’s face. Let the front side of the coin dry naturally for 3-4 hours before turning it over to paint the backside. If using metallic paints such gold or silver, paint several layers of paint onto the coins. Let one paint layer dry before painting on the next layer.