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NGC Journals

THOMAS

The 2022 W Negro League Baseball gold $5, uncirculated coin is the lowest mintage Modern Commemorative

The 2022 W Negro League Baseball gold $5, uncirculated coin is the lowest mintage Modern Commemorative at 1,507. I searched the 2025 Whitman Red Book and could not find any Commemoratives of a lower mintage and I assume it's the lowest minted U.S. Mint Commemorative. Does anyone know of a lower minted commemorative. I have it listed in my custom Registry Set “AFRO-AMERICAN HISTORY COLLECTION BY THOMAS BOWERS JR”, which is a complete collection of Afro-Americans and Themes on U.S. Mint coins.
CoinsbyGary

An Unexpected Trade & Purchase at the ANA Show in Chicago

As a retired coin collector in the process of selling off much of my collection, I still enjoy occasional new purchases, albeit on a much lower budget. I also enjoy window shopping on the bourse floor at the coin shows I attend. The coins I seek are like needles in a haystack to fill holes in my collection, or they can be whatever catches my eye. I only carry enough cash to make nominal purchases, which makes it a fun and inexpensive outing at the show. One of the nice things about having t
Eagles in Vermont

Lincoln Cent

So, I have a 1982 Lincoln copper cent, small date, P mint. It's in probably MS68 at very least- acquired in 1982 as a birthday gift; part of a set of seven made in that year, I left it in its packaging envelope ever since. Great shape, high luster, finely detailed. Apparently it's worth a nice chunk of change, especially in the condition it is in. I am thinking of grading it with NGC and offering it for sale. Thoughts anybody?
CoinsbyGary

My Heritage Consignment, the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly

On 8-20-24, my consignment of 11 Netherlands Wilhelmina 10-Gulden gold coins sold in an auction conducted by Heritage Auctions entitled “Netherlands & Dutch Colonies World Coins.” Overall, it was a good auction, and I made a nice profit from the set. Still, certain aspects of the auction reminded me of the old spaghetti western starring Clint Eastwood, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Thus, I will organize each aspect of this auction into those categories, starting with the Good. My d
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Well, Beryl was no fun at all

For anyone wondering how we made out with Hurricane Beryl, we were without power for 4 days. It went out on Monday morning about 3:40 AM and it didn’t come back until around 7 PM on Thursday. We initially went over to my in-laws house 7 minutes away because they had a generator that could power the AC, but then on Wednesday the generator failed – probably a problem with the regulator – and we had to go out to Winnie to get a hotel room for the night – a frankly crappy, tired-looking little hotel
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Time to get ZiGgy....

I’ve been periodically checking to see if sets of the new 2024 ZiG coins would pop up on eBay. Last night, I checked again, and some had popped up at reasonable prices, including some sets being offered by a dealer in Ukraine that I’ve bought a lot of coins from in the past both for my Zimbabwe set and some other projects. Apparently, they’d been up a bit and 10 sets had already sold. They were showing 4 left, for a Buy It Now of $7.19 with some auctions going starting at $1.00 too. I decid
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

He certainly seems to be going for it:

Well, it certainly looks like PA JK is out to take me out of the #1 spot on the Zimbabwe set: I gotta say I'm surprised. I didn't think there'd be too many other people out there that determined to sink money into what I'm still pretty sure is a money-losing endeavor undertaken for the giggles, but he seems out to do it to and beat me at it, after Xanno also completed a set. Who knows... there is the one coin he's offering that would be an upgrade for me. Maybe I'll buy it from h
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

What I found

Somewhat unsurprisingly the search for the 1924 Double Eagle at the coin shop was unsuccessful- they didn't have any 1924s but the manager gave me his card and said to call on Monday and he might have something upstairs, not on the floor. After that, we spent some time looking at the foreign and ancient case. Shandy wanted to look at a coin from Sicily from ~220 BCE that was about $160 but she decided the design didn't really speak to her - but it's an idea I'm going to remember for do
Coins of the Philippines

First Colorized Coins of The Philippines

Today, June 12th, is independence day for the Republic of the Philippines—a country whose coins I collect with great interest. Last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) issued a commemorative coin set that honored the 125th anniversary of Philippine independence and nationhood on June 12th. This NCLT set is the first colored coin set of the Philippines. It was produced by the BSP using the latest digital printing technology. The set has three coins consisting of 100-Piso,
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

I guess we'll see what we see...

Shandy and I have a couple's weekend coming up that originally started as going to a concert for her birthday and has turned into spending a couple of nights away over Father's Day weekend while the kids stay with their grandparents. As part of this we're thinking about jogging over to a coin store on the other side of the metro area, near where we used to live and where my old office was located.  I have about $3,150 sitting in my coin budget and I'll have about $3,350 when we make the tri
Revenant

Revenant in Gold

7
CoinsbyGary

To Everything there is a Season

As I go through my retirement years, my thoughts invariably begin to focus on what I leave behind, both the tangible and the intangible. Among the intangible is my legacy. Among the tangible is my coin collection. Don’t get me wrong, I’m in relatively good health. Furthermore, I want to live as many years as I can. But in the end, someone will get the coins I spent a good portion of my life to acquire. That said, my children are not particularly interested in inheriting my collection. There
captainrich's Journal

United States Mint Product Survey For Silver Medals

This week, the U.S. Mint sent me an email asking if I would complete an online survey about their "exciting" new silver medals planned for 2025. As an avid collector of the Mint's silver medals, such as the armed forces and Presidential silver medals, I decided to complete the survey. Unfortunately, these new proposed products turned out to be silver medals depicting current pop singers and DC Comics superheroes... When the survey specifically asked why I wouldn't be buying the proposed 202
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

And then there were three.

Well, somewhat to my surprise, PA JK has come out hard and has finished his set, as of just this last Thursday 4/25: So there's now 3 100% complete Zimbabwe type sets, heading into the release of the new 2024 ZiG coins and PA JK has taken away some of my Top Pop labels.  Having gotten an MS69 on the 10 cent bond coin and several very nice grades - including an MS grade $25 that has escaped me so far, I think PA JK is a much bigger threat for overtaking my set than I'd thought Xan
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Looks like the ZiG is going to zag down. Hard.

Mike recently helped bring to my attention that we're about to get our first new Zimbabwe coins in about 6 years and my Zimbabwe Coin and Note sets are going to be growing again. The new currency was announced earlier this month (I think around the 5th) and they're supposed to release the new notes tomorrow (on the 30th) and there are already some interesting signs that things are not going well: They announced 8 note denominations and 2 coin denominations (0.25 ZiG and 0.5 ZiG)
Phil Hauret

Mysterious KM# PN 10 for sale on Ebay

I've noticed that a mysterious and supposedly modern Burmese-Myanmar coin is now for sale on Ebay for $9,850, or best offer. The photos are the first good look of this coin I have ever seen. I have done a bit of research into it in the last several days and now have more questions than answers, and I was hoping that someone at NGC or in the community would have some insights. Here are some photos. One question I have is the date: how was BE 2602 converted to Christian Era 1942? If BE refers to e
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

The joys of the gold market...

As I've referenced recently, I've been sitting on and trying to accumulate some cash in my hobby budget to maybe buy a 1924 $20 double eagle in MS65 - my grandmother's birth year and now a newly 100-year-old coin. My grandmother would have been 100 years old in February if she were still alive. I finally got some things moved around and have saved enough that I now have almost $2600 in my hobby budget, and the coin, back in January, was going for about $2,500-2,600. But gold has moved
Revenant

Revenant in Gold

2
My Journey Through Collecting Coins from the USA, Brazil and Portugal

An Important Pedigree for Brazilian Coins (cont.)

Five additional RLM pedigreed coins that I purchased after the original Heritage RLM auctions are shown in the pictures above.  The data for these coins are shown below, including the dates when I purchased the coins as well as the change in the price that I paid for the coin compared to what the coin sold for in the original RLM auction.  Other interesting information is also included.    Brazil, 1832-R 6400 Reis, gold, NGC 55, NGC census (33 total, 8 in, 24 better)    I purc
Desert Gold

Desert Gold in General

0
My Journey Through Collecting Coins from the USA, Brazil and Portugal

An Important Pedigree for Brazilian Coins

The RLM Collection, which was assembled by Dr. Roberto Monteiro, contained an impressive selection of gold coins, gold ingots, and medals from Brazil.  This collection contained examples of most of the rarest gold coins from Brazil and was one of finest collections of Brazilian gold coins ever assembled.  This made the RLM pedigree very desirable.  The RLM gold coins were auctioned during the first three of six auctions by Heritage as shown below.  The last three auctions included medals fr
Desert Gold

Desert Gold in General

0
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

This was a little late for April fools, and it's a little early for 4/20.

Well, I've been a bit quiet lately because I've been hoarding my cash and working on some other things, but I thought I'd pop in and check things out. I got quite a shock when I saw this: I've said before that I thought that set was strong enough that it had a good chance of holding up over time, so this immediately got my attention and then I see this: I've been aware that Xanno was trying to complete his set and he was rapidly filling his in, but how is it even
My Journey Through Collecting Coins from the USA, Brazil and Portugal

Eight Great Coin Pedigrees

In 2018 CoinWeek published an article by Doug Winter titled “Eight Great U.S. Coin Collections,” i.e., https://coinweek.com/doug-winter-eight-great-u-s-coin-collections/  You may recall that in one of my previous posts I mentioned that Doug Winter is a renowned dealer of U.S. gold coins.  He has written numerous informative articles that you can find on his website.  In this linked article he lists the following great U.S. coin collections: 1.    The Ed Milas Collection of No Motto Half E
Desert Gold

Desert Gold in General

0