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NGC Journals

When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Joke not funny - needs Punchline.

In looking at the description for my Venezuelan set again it occurred to me that I never really closed the loop and brought it all back the coins and the set, so I ended up adding a paragraph towards the end that brought my discussion back to that set. But the whole thing got me thinking about an old routine from Ron White, when he stops, seemingingly in the middle of the joke, with no punchline to wrap things up. It just stopped and he said, "Joke not funny! Need Punchline." It was a
CoinsbyGary

An Improbable Medal Purchase

How did a medal I never knew existed become something I had to have in less than two months? Several improbable events, that’s how.   The improbable events started at the end of November as my wife, and I prepared to go on a cruise. Our 16-day cruise began in Los Angeles and ended almost 4,700 miles away in Miami through the Panama Canal. At the time, I was excited about transiting the Panama Canal. But I was especially thrilled to spend 16 days with my daughter, her husband, and my 17
coinsbygary

coinsbygary in So-Called Dollars

7
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

I'm going to have to think on this one...

For the first time in about 2 years, I’ve received a grading credit from NGC, and I’m actually faced with thinking about how I wanted to use it. A couple of years ago I knew I wanted to reholder the 10G set and I immediately saw that credit as a chance to build a graded set of Zimbabwe coins for a registry set. Last year I knew before I even finished the Zimbabwe set that the next thing I wanted to do was Venezuela – and I even went out-of-pocket on most of that because I’d already use
Revenant

Revenant in Registry

6
Why I like coins

Congrats to the 2022 winners

Congrats for those that were selected in 2022. So many winners in such a large pool of users on NGC, kudos to the judges going through all these individuals. I personally feel honored (and humbled) for being selected for one of my sets out of this pool. Looking forward to seeing winners for 2023!
ChrisInJesup

ChrisInJesup in New

3
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

My Thanks, Again!

Well, NGC and PMG announced the awards today around lunch time. Let me first say Congrats to Mike. I was happy to see so many familiar names, but I was most happy to see his name pop up on both the NGC and PMG side. Also congrats to many of the others I've often seen on the forums: The Welsh Dragon, ChrisInJesup, Physics-fan3.14, libertad1998, lehigh96, Ray USMC,... Hopefully I'm not missing anyone there but, gosh, it is a long list these days. NGC is increasingly generous on that fron
Revenant

Revenant in Family

11
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Sometimes you wonder if they're watching... but they're probably not! lol

So I made my post a few weeks ago about picking up that 1981 200 Lire and I talked about wanting to get a 1980 because of the design of that coin and how fitting I thought it was for a tribute set to my wife. At the time I was hitting up eBay to see if I could find any of the 1981 graded by NGC - most likely from this same seller because this seller seems to be about the only one offering modern Italian issues graded by NGC. But I didn't find any. So that had me looking for raw e
Revenant

Revenant in Italian Coins

2
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

People just make it hard to be nice...

One of my wife's favorite reasons to laugh and roll her eyes at me (other than my nerdy coin-collecting ways) is that she thinks I'm far too polite to people that come to the door trying to sell solar panels and telemarketers... It's how I was raised. I try to be nice and civil and give people soft but firm nos. I try to respect the fact that they're just trying to earn a paycheck and a living, and I try never to abuse or be rude to them. And yet, lately, I find these people testing my pati
CoinsbyGary

With Friends Like These

...Who needs enemies, or so the saying goes. Recently, a fellow coin club friend who collects modern coins notified several club members and me of a new Canadian-minted coin that I was unfamiliar with. The UHR-proof coin he referred to is the stunningly beautiful 2023 Canadian Peace Dollar. This coin has selected rose-gold gilt surfaces with an obverse luster that pulsates as the coin is tilted in the light. Having already spent what I budgeted for coin purchases this year, I just had to grit my
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

So... 6 next year?

So, the awards deadline has come and gone, and I made the joke to Shandy along the lines of, "Well, I lost the 50 Lire this year, but I managed to win in 4 Italian categories instead of 2 this year, so that's cool, right?" Her response was, "So, you're going to get me 6 next year, right?" "You planning to up my budget? " More seriously, my quip back to her would be that I'll feel pretty good about it if I manage the defend the title on 2 or 3 of these 4 next year. I seem to be decently good at c
Revenant

Revenant in Italian Coins

5
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Very Pleased with How These Came Out!

Okay... So I was working during naptime and in the evenings over the weekend, and work has been slow the first half of this week - both because the client on my main project isn't answering my questions and I think because they're not putting much on me right now having just gotten back from being at the hospital for two weeks, so I've taken pictures, and edited them and done some writing... but I just really want to show off these Rhodesian Penny photos and these banner images because I'm reall
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

I think I might just be out of time on this one…

Sam was finally allowed to go home last night. We had a follow-up with his pediatrician today and he should get to go back to school and ease back into normal activity on Monday. Ben is still, somewhat comically, trying to get his new front teeth in. It was very difficult getting out of there. I have rarely wanted to call a nurse a insufficiently_thoughtful_person to her face so badly. They tried to give him 2 vaccines in his two thighs at the same time and didn't restrain his hands while I
Revenant

Revenant in Family

2
Collecting world coins

Napoleon is finished - almost!

It has been a while but my graded Napoleon typeset is now complete Congratulations must go to @Mac5 who reached 100% first. Next challenge will be a Custom Set and will be one coin per mint, only about a third of the way there so that may take some time as most of my Typeset are from Paris - mintmark A. A project for the next few generations will be the Sets for Italy, Spain, Westphalia, Holland and all the tokens and medals before even attempting date runs. As we don't have
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

A Fresh New Hell

Well, it had been my intent to make a post this week about some progress working on the Venezuelan competitive set - taking some pictures and buying some coins, getting some in the mail, but Monday night Sam had a seizure that would not stop. Which forced us to call an ambulance. He's been in the hospital, intubated and under heavy sedation for going on 30 hours now. We're waiting to have some final test results soon but maybe they can bring him back up and take out the tube - EEG has been
Revenant

Revenant in Family

16
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Oh no… I have done the dumb.

It is only now, now that I’ve taken the coins from the submission and populated a competitive set that I realize I made a massive boo-boo when I sent these coins in: I had 5 examples each of the 10 Bolivar and 100 Bolivar Fuertes coins from 2016… but I forgot to look at them with Shandy, pick one of each out and include them with the submission. I should have submitted 24 Venezuelan coins, not 22. I think this happened 1) Because the number of coins and the number of different types wi
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Now that I think on it more… this WILL start competitively

So, I’ve talked a fair bit about my plan to make a signature set / custom set around the Venezuelan coins I submitted and just got back… but I think I’m going to table that for now and focus instead on building out two competitive sets: Reform Coinage, Type Set, 1879-2005, Circulation Issue Sets | NGC Registry | NGC (ngccoin.com) Set Details | NGC Registry | NGC (ngccoin.com) Reform Coinage, Type Set, 2007-Date, Circulation Issue Sets | NGC Registry | NGC (ngccoin.com) Set De
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

USPS and FedEx both stink, but… Never mind that! I have coins! Time for Unboxing!

I have to lead into this with the fact that I’m just very displeased with both USPS and FedEx at the moment. First, I go to the mailbox this morning and see a slip of pink paper saying that there was a package requiring a signature – that I’m 90% sure is the coins Shandy ordered – that they “attempted delivery” on late last week. We were home all day that day. We have a Ring Doorbell that logs motion events and people ringing the door. They did not attempt to deliver that package. They
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

The Italian Grade Results.

So here we discuss the Italian coins – 6 coins that come in 2 sets of three: 3 coins to fill out the 1986 Italian Circulation Strike Birth Year Set and 3 coins to fill some of the remaining gaps in the 500L set she wanted. Though the 1986 500L actually fits in with both groups even though it was acquired primarily for the 500 Lire set / as part of that effort. Here are the grades: On the 1986 set front… With the 5 Lire and the 10 Lire, with MS66 and MS65 grades respectively,
Revenant

Revenant in Italian Coins

0
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

The Grades Posted!

My grades have finally posted! I checked early this morning and the submission listed as shipped! Yay! And the box is in the mail and so it will probably arrive at the house before we leave for a short vacation and won’t end up stuck in the Post Office until I get back – Double Yay! I also now feel especially smart for getting the last post out on Wednesday night because I don’t like to make too many posts on the same day or too clos together. I had a feeling these were about to drop.
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

A Slow Parade of Dancing Elephants

When I was starting to shop for the 50 & 500 Lire coins, I used to start my Italian project for Shandy in November of last year I noticed that the same seller had MS66RD and 1 MS67RD 1962 Rhodesian Penny. It’s an interesting coin – it features two dancing elephants. It got my attention for 2 reasons: 1)     As a Rhodesian coin it is closely associated with the work I’d been doing with my Zimbabwe type set. 2)     As I had been wrapping up / mostly wrapping up the Zi
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Moving along and almost there maybe.

A couple of days ago my Venezuela & Italy submission finally hit grading / quality control. I'd said about a month ago I was hoping to have grades by yesterday or maybe sooner but it was not to be. I'm increasingly accepting that waiting longer than the advertised turnaround time is partially the price I pay for submitting things that are rarely submitted and which they probably have to put extra incremental effort into grading vs, say, a monster box of American Eagles. Like I said in a
When one get to experience all different aspects in life its always a adventure

My collections and what to do next

Im still in the process of creating a id and location inventory list im very organized so this is not too hard i actually enjoy this , anyhow i have decided to bring out all my collection tag each item with a id # and that id is written into my inventory log book then i fill in its details there and a location where i can find it when i need it" its simple and it works not doing it in any certain order right now but im also researching as i record to learn about each piece as much as possible be
RebelaRobles

RebelaRobles in At first

2