NGC Journals

What we forget and the power of the journals

A while ago I was looking back through some of my old journal entries, something which I’m sure many of the long-time journal author’s do, and I found the first entry that references my 10G set, just as it was getting started, which I made right around 10 years ago in May 2009. The thing that struck me in reading that post was how much of that information I’d forgotten in the intervening years. I remembered that the 1875 was the first coin purchased for the set. I had not remembered th

April 6, 2019

Changing Our Coinage

Hi everyone. I'm also a member of the ANA. We have some very good and smart collectors. We have kids that you don't have here with I believe is good. Now I have been there a while. And I have read fifty blogs here there journals. And fifty forums that's were you ask a question of ask for help. Now these one hundred combined blogs and forums all what to change this and change that. Well here are some figures according to the Treasury Department of they made a dollar coin they would lose 23 milli

April 4, 2019

Mokie's Den

National Money Show Musings.

The weather was great, despite a forecast of some rain, the walk from the trolley station to the convention center was pleasant, and the ANA National Money Show turned out to be all that I expected. I had two purposes for attending the NMS. First, I had signed on as a volunteer for Saturday but knew the heavy lifting would be at the end of the show, when we had to pack up our considerable amount of "local sponsor club" stuff for storage until the next show in May. So, I had duties to be sure, h

Mokiechan

April 1, 2019

Rest in Peace Bob Sr.

As they say, “when it rains it pours.” My step-father's father, Bob Wright passed away yesterday. I can’t say it came as a complete shock, but the timing was still surprising. I spent as much of the day as I could with my Step-father on Friday (3/28) while still making it back to my side of town to get my son from daycare – we live about 45 miles away from each other. The loss of Choya’s mother was the instigation for building the 1932 mint set and the other birthyear sets that we made

March 31, 2019

Success!! (With the Micka Mouse Money)

After my son’s lukewarm response to the Chuck E Cheese 40-year tokens in the aftermath of his birthday party I left the tokens sitting out on my nightstand. Ben comes into our bedroom a lot in the mornings when he first wakes up and he likes getting things off my nightstand and playing with daddy’s stuff. Today he comes into our room and sees the tokens sitting there. He takes interest, picks one up, holds it out to me and says, “Daddy, I need it” - his way of telling me I need to get it ou

March 30, 2019

Mistakes With Tokens And Labels

Hi everyone. Well I just received five tokens back from NGC.Let me tell you I'm happy there slabed. However if you thought the Franklin Press was bad you should see what they did to my Newgate token. Don't get me wrong they do an excellent job. But when they make a massive one like this it causes me problems. I'm disabled. I can't go to shows there is no club by me so I do English auctions. That's the best quality. Now I just can't get up and go to the post office. Someone has to go fo

March 28, 2019

The Triumvir Who Didn't Get No Respect

Newly edited and re-posted Owner's Comments for an ancient obol struck by Lepidus, part of The Roman Empire, an NGC Ancients Custom Set. Participating in the Roman Empire’s genesis were many monumental figures of ancient history: Julius Caesar, his ally-turned-assassin Brutus, Pompey the Great, the famous lovers Marc Antony and Cleopatra, Octavian (a.k.a. Augustus), and then there is…Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (88? - 12? BC). If the name isn’t familiar, no wonder - Lepidus turned out th

March 28, 2019

My continuing efforts to indoctrinate my eldest son

Today we had Ben’s 3rd birthday party at Chuck E Cheese’s (which my son still calls “Micka Mouse” because I don’t think he yet fully understands that Mickey Mouse and Chuck E Cheese are different characters, but he understands that they’re both mice). He loves going there and he’ll often ask, “can I got to Micka Mouse?” So it seemed like a great place for his party. The party was originally supposed to be March 3rd. We’d planned to have it really early just in case my wife was put on bed rest at

March 25, 2019

Why Do I Slab Conder Tokens?

Hi everyone. This is probably the most asked question concerning Conder Tokens. Some reasons are justified why they should not be. Let's go there first. The big dealers and sellers and experts will tell you that the grading companies do not know allot about these. There right. P.C.G.S. Does not even mention edge writing. This is important concerning rarity. Some labels are wrong even here in NGC. I wrote a journal on the Franklin Press. They have it down as a colonial. It was not made here and n

March 23, 2019

Rome's Second Most Famous Dictator

Newly Edited and Re-Posted Owners Comments posted on an ancient denarius struck by Lucius Cornelius Sulla, part of the Roman Empire Custom NGC Ancients Set... Julius Caesar may have been Rome’s most famous dictator, but he certainly wasn’t the first. Dozens held the title in the early Roman Republic, wielding varying degrees of absolute power, up until 202 BC. After that, the title was seemingly abandoned for more than a century, until someone rose up to claim it again: Lucius Corne

March 23, 2019

Et Tu, KOSON?

Newly Edited and Re-Posted Owners Comments posted on an ancient Dacian/Thracian stater mimicking Brutus' designs, part of the Roman Empire Custom NGC Ancients Set... Marcus Junius Brutus (85 – 42 BC) was the son of Brutus the Elder and Servilia Caepionis. Servilia was also mistress to Julius Caesar, prompting uncertainty regarding Brutus’ true biological father. The young Brutus started his career working for his uncle, Cato the Younger. He later held important political posts and m

March 21, 2019

The Coin That Killed Caesar

Newly Edited and Re-Posted Owners Comments posted on an ancient denarius struck by Julius Caesar when he reigned as Rome's Dictator for Life, part of the Roman Empire Custom NGC Ancients Set... The Coin That Killed Caesar is the dramatic epithet attached to denarii, such as this example, featuring a lifetime portrait of Julius Caesar. Before that time, Rome’s coinage had never portrayed the face of a living Roman. Beyond breaking from numismatic tradition, these coins also proclai

March 19, 2019

Plot twist! The MS62 1888 10G resurfaces!

Some of you may remember from my post about getting my MS65 1888 in early 2018 that, at the time I won that coin, I’d only seen one other coin of that date come up for sale that had been graded by NGC. That wasn’t too surprising given that, at the time, only 20 had been graded by NGC and, even now, only 22 have been encapsulated by NGC. I don’t think I’ve ever bothered to check this before but PCGS has graded a total of 33. So, assuming there hasn’t been any that were cracked out and/or re-

March 19, 2019

Collecting in Dansco Albums or Any Albums

Hi everyone. Well the first proof set has been released and they have a special gift. It's nice but there is no place marked for them. These albums depending on which ones you like perform a great service to collectors just beginning at any age. Now where do you get the coins to put them in. I get mine from the mint. One reason the proof, and proof silver, are untouched. The uncirirculaded sets P& D also are important. Now many of you think there not worth anything. There not valuable

March 16, 2019

The Elephant and the Snake

Newly Edited and Re-Posted Owners Comments posted on an ancient denarius struck by Julius Caesar, part of the Roman Empire Custom NGC Ancients Set... Ancient coins provide us with a palpable link to a specific time and place in history. Their wondrous, diverse iconography frequently epitomizes the setting in which they were struck. More than a means for exchanging goods and services, they publicized - and even influenced – the very course of ancient history. A notable example is thi

March 16, 2019

Mokie's Den

The Age of Manufactured Rarity

As you're all aware, the US Mint is giving us all an incentive to purchase their proof sets, and uncirculated set in the form of 3 different Lincoln Cents with a West Point Mint Mark. One of the W Lincolns, standard proof, is already in the wild and will soon be slabbed by the tens of thousands, the other two, a reverse proof, and an uncirculated version. This is a very smart marketing decision by the Mint, they have guaranteed themselves higher sales for each of the three sets and they have a

Mokiechan

March 14, 2019

Cicero and the Divine Bull

Newly Edited and Re-Posted Owners Comments posted on an ancient bronze featuring Deiotarus, King of Galatia, part of the Roman Empire Custom NGC Ancients Set... In 3rd century BC, a conglomeration of Celtic tribes migrated from Europe into central Asia Minor, eventually founding their own realm of Galatia, the “land of the Gauls.” Due to their central location, Galatians factored in local power struggles, often opposing Rome. Of particular note was Manlius Vulso’s infamous 189 BC gen

March 12, 2019

The Founding of Rome: The Tale of Romulus & Remus

Newly Edited and Re-Posted Owners Comments posted on an ancient denarius featuring Roma, Romulus and Remus, part of the Roman Empire Custom NGC Ancients Set... According to ancient mythology, the Trojan prince Paris presided as judge over which goddess was fairest: Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite. To aid the decision process, each deity paraded nude before him – inviting centuries of artistic interpretation – and offered the choice of an enticing bribe: world domination (Hera), military prowess

March 10, 2019

Maybe I was wrong about the pricing on the 20 Trillion note…

In fairness to a seller that I have and now continue to do business with I think I need to take back my earlier assessment that they overcharged my wife when she bought that ungraded Zimbabwean 20 Trillion Note for $60. I guess the thing that should have been my first clue was that they’ve always offered returns and gave us a perfect, no-fuss return on the note and I’ve always been able to get very reasonable prices from them on so many other things, including most of my oth

March 8, 2019

The New Silver Good or Bad Idea?

Hi everyone. Well my sons started collecting the state quarters. He likes them so he continued. Well we came to The America the Beautiful Quarters. Now for the first eight years there was never a problem. Always the same. He likes MS 69 and bought the silver proof coins. We get to this year. It seems the ATB quarters are made with the new silver. I said this should be good. Well they came out and no one had them. Except the mint sets. So I started to ask why. I contacted my regular seller who ha