Tom's Recommended Film of the Week

I'm Not There

Most folks will either dislike or be confused by I'm Not There. Even fans of Bob Dylan may find it anoying and disjointed. It is a unique vision of the direct Todd Haynes and as such, it takes some getting used to.

I'm Not There presents segments of Bob Dylan's life, with no particular adhearance to historical accuracy. It mixes Haynes life perceptions with Dylan's larger than life characters. It offers the reasonable outlook that some people, such as Dylan, create many different personnas within one lifetime.

Most significantly however, if puts forth some excellent acting, with six people all playing different eras of the Dylan mystique. Marcus Carl Franklin is the child Dylan, Christian Bale is the folk/religious Dylan, Cate Blanchett is the electric rocking Dylan, Heath Ledger is the pop-icon Dylan, Richard Gere is the reclusive older Dylan and Ben Whishaw is the unique thinking Dylan under the harsh light of public fame. Together they present a single perspective of a driven man, whose own fame and subsequent public-perceived responsibility so shocked and disturbed him that he spent years trying to reinvent what he had so successfuly invented. It's a grand portrat of an artist trying to create in the shadow of a man propelled into unwanted leadership.

If that all sounds confusing then I think you have an idea of Haynes creation in I'm Not There. It's not a simple stright forward film, it's nit light entertainment, but it may keep you thinking for a while if you give it a chance.

Sources For Collecting South African Coinage

After more than 20 years of work as numismatic market analyst for the Standard Catalog of World Coins series, one bit of advice I can surely give budding collectors is: educate yourself before spending your money. In the old days, we used to say, "Buy the book before the coin", which was good advice, but in todays fast paced world you can do so much more.

For instance, if you want to begin collecting South African coins, you can start by learning about the home market. Check out the South African auction site Bid or Buy and see how they do the eBay thing on their home turf. Bid or Buy has nearly 3,500 listings in their coin catagory as of this posting and most sellers will ship to Europe and the United States. Take time to view the SA Mint site and see what they are producing today. Check around the Internet and see what South Africa has to offer in the way of coin knowledge, specialty references, websites and blogs.

Then see what the Australian, European and U.S. markets are up to. Check out Noble Numismatics auctions, as they often have South African coins and medals in their sales. Take a look at the Dix Noonan Webb auction site, where the South African proof sets I mentioned in my last posting are being sold today. Get on the mailing list or check out the World Coin News ads for Dennis Gill, the Garden City, NY coin dealer who has over 80 classic South African coins for sale on his latest price list.

Of course, using a Standard Catalog, DVD or the NumisMaster website, is a fine grounded base to start from, but knowledge is not a single celled creature, it is always growing and evolving. We have many experts who help us to grow the Standard Catalog of World Coins and NumisMaster and if you seek to gain knowledge of your own, perhaps some day you will be one of those experts too.

Eight South African Proof Sets at Dix Noonan Webb

One more unusual group set to close in tomorrow's Dix Noonan Webb sale No. 78 is a run of eight South African proof sets. Normally I do not see too many of these at auction, though I know they do trade privately. Some 20 years ago these scarce 20th Century cased sets were a very hot commodity, with high prices and a handful of collectors striving to obtain them. Low minatges and high collector interest made for a volatile market mixture, but once a couple of the higher buyers left the field, market prices dipped a bit.

It will be very interesting to see the bidding activity on these sets, which run from lot 728 to lot 735. Even though the market did soften from those former highs, the last few years there has been a bit more interest and most of the sets have very low mintages especially in the 1930's. In addition some nice South African material has been more available to collectors outside the home market and this has stirred some buyers to look for bargains. We'll see if this translates into more bidders with higher limits again, or if these sets remain somewhat repressed.

Within the last two years I have noticed a increase in individual prices of choice proof pieces  and some of the early set prices have gone up on NumisMaster, but this sale will be a good barometer to judge possible future performance for these scarce South African Mint cased sets released from 1923 to the 1950's and beyond.