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NGC Journals

Collecting world coins

Quality, multiple sets and financial reality

My last journal entry highlighted that completion of my Spanish Charles IV 2 reales Registry Set may be somewhat of a challenge and this prompted me to look again at how practical this would actually be. As mentioned before only 19 of the 41 issues have graded examples and of those only 11 had mint state examples, often as a single coin, making completion of a graded mint state set extremely unlikely, the equivalent raw coins also seem to be lacking. Assuming the coins actually exist for such
ColonialCoinsUK

ColonialCoinsUK

8
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

“PIF by Borrower”

For months now I’ve been crossing my fingers hoping that I’d get a nice bonus and we’d be able to pay off my student loans and maybe finish paying for the cruise we’re wanting to take in October. I’m still waiting to find out about if I’ll get a bonus this year, but we just got a big surprise on our Taxes. Because we can claim an extra dependent this year and a couple of other things this year, instead of owing money we’re going to get some back and this is going to let us pay off my loans,
Revenant

Revenant

12
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

New photos of the Civil War Tokens

I have four old graded civil war tokens that I've always found it difficult to take photos of because they're mostly pretty dark brown, they're in the old style holders and it's hard to get a good shot of something dark when it's surrounded by so much white. Anyway... I decided to take another stab at these and see what I could get. I think these came out pretty good so I thought I'd share. Three are pretty common patriotic varieties and one is a store card that I found interesting, es
Revenant

Revenant

4
Mokie's Den

My Most Favorite Island

Whitman Folder #9088 is a remarkable little folder, a typical 3 panel folder, that has transported me back in time to a wild island off the coast of North America. 9088, the Newfoundland Coin Type Collection consists of 7 denominations for 1 Queen, and 3 Kings of England.  Her Provincial coin collection starts with Queen Victoria in 1865 and ends with King George VI in 1947.   In 1949, Newfoundland joined Canada and became her 10th and last Province.  As I may have mentioned in previous
Mokiechan

Mokiechan

3
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

I now own 1 “stickered” coin I guess

I sat down with my wife earlier in the week and we ordered the gold sovereign. I decided on an NGC Graded MS63 1915 George V Sovereign – A coin struck at the Royal Mint during the Great War. It arrived yesterday. Below are some of the seller’s images. I had been holding out to see if eBay would put on a 10% eBay bucks deal heading into Valentine’s day. They put on a 5% deal for president’s day and I decided to go for it. I’ll get about $22.20 in eBay bucks in April that I can use for
Revenant

Revenant

7
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Sam turns 1 – The kid has definite potential

Sam is now 1 year old! He’s still not crawling or walking, but he’s sitting up on his own. He managed that skill at 11 months, which is very good for a 29-week preemie that had a grade 4 IVH which was then complicated by hydrocephalus. His PT, neurologist, neurosurgeon, ophthalmologist, and pediatrician are quite happy with him. Side note – an infant should not have so many doctors, but I digress. PT thinks he’ll soon be army crawling. The main hold up for that and sitting up on
Revenant

Revenant

6
Thanks for the coins

"Making" some scarce dated Netherlands Gold Ducats

I started buying the Netherlands gold ducats in 2009 after reading a book called "A Splendid Trade."  Also that year I read "Pirate Hunter" about Captain Kidd from New York, and how he got done dirty by the new Dutch King William of England of the late 1600's / early 1700's.  I checked on Ebay, my go-to source at the time, and found I could get my hands on what turned out to be fairly common dates from the 1600's.  No matter.  Once I had a 1648 in my hands, and some warped worn out ones from the
deposito

deposito

10
Collecting world coins

Collecting the small coins

As my original collection was British sixpences I seem to have a preference for the smaller denominations over trade coinage as these saw extensive day-to-day use and high grade examples are therefore much more of a challenge. This situation coupled with surprisingly limited data and research means that the opportunity to make new discoveries is much greater - or is it that I am just a glutton for punishment? For example at a recent auction a major London dealer thought my quest for die numbers
ColonialCoinsUK

ColonialCoinsUK

6
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

The Diamond Jubilee Penny

A few months ago I gave a technical presentation for the local section of my professional organization. Speakers for these events usually get little gift bags as a “thank you.” Such is the state of my life with kids and everything that I never got around to looking in the bag until just recently (a sad waste of candy, to be sure). One of the things in the bag was particularly interesting to me as a coin collector. The local section was founded in 1942. I don’t know what possessed them
Revenant

Revenant

2
Looking to purchase a 1893-S Morgan Silver Dollar XF-45 or perhaps a AU.

Question about the 1909-S VDB wheat penny. Any penny collectors out there?

I'm new to the world of pennies and am looking to purchase a 1909-S VDB penny in MS. But I see that this penny comes with further classifications of BN (brown?) and RB (red brown?) ( and maybe more?). My question is, which classification is more desirable and/or worth more -- the BN or RB? Thank you in advance for your help. 
Master Of Coinage

Master Of Coinage

3
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

The challenge of finishing the 10G Set…

I’ve known for a while that finishing the 10G set might require buying some raw coins and submitting them to NGC for grading myself. The grading credit that NGC just gave me for winning the journal awards seemingly makes this a good time / year to go for it – buy a raw 1880, 1885, and 1886 dated coin and send them in. The set would finally be complete at that point except for the 1879/7 but I’ve never felt especially committed to that variety anyway. Even the way NGC defines the set, includ
Revenant

Revenant

6
Coin Inspector

Latest Submission Results

Hello everyone,  I wanted to share the results of the batch of coins that I submitted at the FUN show a few weeks ago.  It only took 18 days for NGC to grade them and get them back to me.  That's pretty good for the volume of coins they received at the show!  I submitted 9 Libertads, and 4 of them came back a perfect 70, so I am quite pleased.  My only disappointment is the 1/10 oz gold coin came back MS 68.  I suppose that's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes.  If you can't tell from the pi
Naked Angel

Naked Angel

6
AlanLastufka's Journal

Rock bands on gold coins?!

The Royal Mint just started a new series called Music Legends. It's an annual program and each year they'll feature a different band on silver, 1/4 gold, and 1oz gold coins. The first band was Queen and the two gold pieces sold out immediately. Here's mine, got it to add to my Symphony Set. The first modern band to make it into the Symphony Set!
Lastufka Collection

Lastufka Collection

2
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

So… when are you buying that other gold coin?

This was my wife’s question to me shortly after we went to the coin shop on our anniversary. When I got a big raise in October my wife agreed to buying the $10 gold Eagle for Sam’s birthyear but said she considered that more a purchase for Sam and that I should get something that was more “for me.” The answer to her question was basically, “when these other bills are paid off and I feel comfortable enough with the finances to drop $450-500 on something unnecessary.” I got the coin
Revenant

Revenant

5
Collecting world coins

If you wait long enough ....

It is nice to see people are making progress with their collections, despite other commitments my own collection is ticking over albeit very slowly. In the introduction to my Typeset of French Napoleonic Coinage I ended with 'The distinct prospect of finding that first, or elusive high grade example for a particular issue remains and makes every auction catalogue a potential source of a new discovery' and this situation probably holds true for the majority of older world coins, particularly mino
ColonialCoinsUK

ColonialCoinsUK

5
Looking to purchase a 1893-S Morgan Silver Dollar XF-45 or perhaps a AU.

How much dollar value does a CAC sticker really add to a coin?

This is my first Journal Post, so please bear with me. I'm in a quandary I purchased a rare 1893-O Morgan in AU53 from one dealer's website and the pictures were great and the price reasonable.. I cannot afford anything over a AU53. Once I received this AU53 Morgan it did have pretty good eye appeal without magnification. It is more "white" when looking at it with my bare eye. However, under 7x magnification is EXTENSIVELY bagmarked which takes away from its eye appeal in my opinion.  No
Master Of Coinage

Master Of Coinage

5
Mokie's Den

A Great Little Show Coming Soon

My Pittsburgh Area Numiez, the South Hills Coin Club of Bethel Park PA will be holding their 60th anniversary coin show on February 1st and 2nd.  I believe it is important, even in the age of online auctions, to attend shows, even the smaller ones.  By attending smaller shows and supporting their bourse, you are keeping many small part time dealers in the game and you are stimulating the local coin community.  The South Hills Coin Club show will have approximately 40 dealers and will also h
Mokiechan

Mokiechan

1
Michael Byrne

If There Is Anything To Get My Irish Up It's The Mint

Well like I said in the title I'm upset again with the mint. Now I know they have put out some wonderful coins. I can't say they haven't. But I just found out that in 2020 were going hunting again. Or should I say your going hunting. There doing the same thing with the 2020 quarters as they did in the flop of 2019. There is a spin. A privy mark celebrating the end of world war two. Now I followed last year very close. So far I believe four percent of last year's have been found.There are two tho
MIKE BYRNE

MIKE BYRNE

4
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

The Queen’s Beast Sets – I might actually finish these.

Over the weekend I got a package with 4 of the Yale coins. Back in December I finished picking up the rest of the Falcons that I needed. So that gives me all of the coins I need for the first 6 issues and 2/3rd of the total I need for the 7th issue – so I’m almost 70% of the way there now and I’m only about 1-ish issue behind. After thoroughly failing to keep up with the statehood quarters and the presidential dollars as they were coming out I’d like to actually be able to say that I
Revenant

Revenant

5
The 1951-D Jefferson nickel

NGC and Staff members,

To NGC and Staff members, I wanted to get back to you for such a nice write-up you did featuring my Jefferson collection. I've often known I made no mistake selecting this company where the quality service is often the deciding factor. The members who put this together 'Thanks so much' it means alot. This was a very exciting journey for me- so many ways to collect in this series'I wanted to get a little of each type. As much as I'd of loved to complete this collection'due to my health issue
James G. Berline

James G. Berline

3