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NGC Journals

When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

A 1980 Zimbabwe Proof Set

So, this entry is going to lack the length and the narrative of many of my more recent posts and just be little, “Look what I got.” But… I snagged a 1980 Zimbabwean proof set, in the original Royal Mint Packaging.   Mike had asked me a few months back if I’d considered getting into proof coins as I was getting the first round of grades back and ramping up my purchases of raw mint state coins. I’d initially just shrugged and said “Nah,” because I was focusing on the mint state /
Reflections on the Hobby

"Great Coins" vs "Bad Coins" - a Neophyte Definition

I have stated to fellow coin collectors and on the forums that I never want to buy a "bad" coin.  I have even gone so far as to say I try my best to buy "great" coins.  But, I failed to define "bad" or "great".  This has lead to some collecting friends being a little hurt (my word not theirs), as I assume that they look upon the "bad" coin that I am considering buying to be a nicer example than the one held in their collection.  My true feelings about coins: There are no bad coins, only bad hold
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

A 1985 500 Lire - "Finest Known Worldwide"

I thought I'd take a minute and belatedly share some progress on the 500 Lire set. A few weeks ago I won (unopposed) an auction for an MS68 1985. It is the only one in the grade currently with none finer. The seller chose to highlight and play this up in a somewhat over-the-top way that gave Mike and I a laugh. This is the same seller that I got the 1982 MS68 from, but there is an MS69 1982, and 1982s are far more heavily graded and in high grade than the later years. Just someth
Revenant

Revenant in Italian Coins

0
Collecting world coins

Before Zimbabwe there was ....

The area in south central Africa now bordered by Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa went through several reincarnations and amalgamations of territories before becoming Zimbabwe in 1980 - apparently they have inflation problems. I have a number of coins, almost all ungraded, from an earlier period, 1923 to 1953, when the area was called Southern Rhodesia and it was under British control. My original target was to complete a full date run for all of the denominations but after 20
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

NGC was fast on the plaques this year and I've completed my pair

I checked the mail Saturday, expecting to find something else and found a package from NGC that I immediately realized had to be the new award plaque. It turns out it included the coin too. We were outside with the boys and I showed the package to Shandy and she initially, seeing NGC, thought it might be the Zimbabwe and Italian coins.. somehow.  I don't know why. She's seen the boxes from NGC before when coins come back and this padded envelope looked nothing like that, but, as she p
Revenant

Revenant in Registry

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My World Crown Affair

Decimalization

One aspect of monetary reform taken by almost all nations was to change the subdivision of a currency into units of 10 and 100.  The main benefit was to simplify calculations for accounting purposes and was often undertaken to align with trading partners.  Nations often changed the size and weight of their coins as part of monetary reforms and sometimes changed the name of their currency.  Typically, these changes allowed the issuing authorities to reduce the amount of precious metal without the
jgenn

jgenn in Venezolano

5
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Moving along...

I thought it was worth an update to say, I got the email from NGC this week saying that they acknowledge the receipt of my 29 coin submission (22 Zimbabwe Coins, 7 Italian Coins). So the timeline so far is: 1/14 - Package Mailed 1/26 - Package Delivered 2/22 - Receipt Acknowledged and Submission entered as received by NGC 2/23 - Payment Acknowledged Looking at it, since I sent this box in, World Moderns have increased from the 71 business days they were at in Januar
Collecting world coins

What's in a name?

As a collector of British sixpences it is no surprise that on the addition of Napoleonic and Spanish coinage I was drawn to the smaller denominations. Often these are less well documented than crowns and the gold coinage and as such there are often new varieties that remain to be discovered. In my collection I have a Mexican 1773 half real coin where the King's name is spelt CAROLS rather than the usual CAROLUS - in this case a well-known variety (Calico 2019: 196, Cayon 11118, it's even in
Robertsson's IceCoinage

The 2022 100 Year Anniversary of Iceland's First Coins As A Nation

One hundred years ago in 1922 Iceland issued there first ever partial set of legal tender coins the 10 and 25 Aurar's.  With a growing nation that was in desperate need for coinage because all the coins used up to that time was from other nation's like Denmark, Norway or they would use tokens that was issued by large merchants companies that was either based in Iceland or Denmark and even the Faroe Islands. Iceland banned the use of tokens prior to 1922 because merchants can manipulate the cost
Iceman

Iceman in Iceland

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When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Modern Venezuelan (Hyperinflation) Coins

When I started down this road and started planning this entry in my head, I didn’t think I’d be posting this coming off a win with the Zimbabwe coin set, but... The thing you generally don't see with a hyperinflation collection is coins. Which is probably why it surprised and excited me so much when I realized that, with the release of the digital bolivar and the 3rd Venezuelan redenomination, they were releasing a 1 Bolivar coin with the 5 new banknotes. Then, when I went lookin
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

An Offer We Decided to Accept...

It is often the case that I have a few Gold coins with BIN listings in my Watch List on eBay. These are usually examples of the next type coins I want to add to my type-set of late-19th and early 20th century gold coins from different nations - what I call my Golden Nickels. This is a particular point of interest to me around this time of year when I'm hoping a Bonus or a good tax return will convince Shandy to let me buy one. One thing I'd been looking at for a long time was a MS64+ 20 Kro
Revenant

Revenant in Gold

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Collecting world coins

Which cat ate the Treaty of Amiens?

The Treaty of Amiens was signed in 1802 by France and the UK and ended the War of the Second Coalition and thus the French Revolutionary Wars. The resulting peace in Europe was only temporary with the British declaring war on France only a year later in response to Napoleon's continued and expanding occupation of territory thereby initiating the Napoleonic wars. This conflict then consumed Europe for more than a decade estabilishing the basis for the national boundaries we know today. Napol
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Covid continues to mess up... EVERYTHING

I mailed out that submission to NGC on Jan 14th. It got to the Sarasota distribution center around midnight on Jan 20th, processed through there in about half and hour and was marked as in route to the destination facility. And then... Nothing. Today is the 26th. It has not been scanned in 6 days and about 10 hours. Starting Monday I started sending emails and trying to shake things out because if it isn't at NGC by COB on Monday the 31st the new pricing comes into effect and the cost
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

My latest $20 tangent into “Oh, Neat!”

I opted not to go to the coin show this weekend. It wasn’t a week where I had Friday off and we have a crazy week coming up and I just mentally opted for a quieter weekend of getting chores done and hitting up a birthday party with the kids instead. But I thought I’d sit down and share a bit about my latest ~$20 tangent into the realm of, “well, that looks nifty!” One of the same dealers that I bought several raw Italian coins from also had some circa 1980 Chinese coins going as indivi
Revenant

Revenant in Random Nonsense

2
Juan Jimenez

Previously unknown Netherlands Holland Gold Ducat

For my first entry in the journal I'd like to show something I very recently discovered. I bought a 1612 Netherlands Holland gold ducat from a nearby collector who advertised it online. The price was right, so I picked it up. On careful analysis, though, I realized the coin is an overdate variety that I could not find anywhere, a 1612/1. I sent pictures to Dariusz Jasek, the Polish author of the award-winning "Gold Ducats of the Netherlands, Vol. 1" and after searching through his 30,000-record
Collecting world coins

An extra path...

For many years I have not only been following coins, and medals but also banknotes - and with a username of 'ColonialCoinsUK' it will come as no surprise that the focus of this was the banknotes of the British colonies. Congratulations to Alan Collection Malaysia for their Overall Acheivement Award in the 2021 PMG Registry Awards. To date I have resisted the urge as I would like to collect everything but the British Empire and the Commonwealth covered many countries, and many years, and I j
jackson64's Journal

Maddening Modern Collecting

Numismatics has been a part of my life for decades, sometimes very involved and others not so much. I repeat this tired, old mantra for the simple point that collecting has REALLY changed over time. From brick and mortar coin shoppes to coins in the Sears catalog, thumb busters at the bookstores and finding silver or wheaties in pocket change, we've really come a long way- and much of it for the better. One thing I do find maddening is the collecting of a simple modern "set." Those of you w
jackson64

jackson64 in Moderns

5
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

The Zimbabwe Birds are in Flight!

I took advantage of having the day off yesterday to box up the Zimbabwe coins and take them to the post office before Shandy and I went to lunch as a kind of pre-versary thing - today is the day. 6 years together. We were supposed to attend a wedding today for a cousin that will now share our date, but our child care got sick and Sam is dealing with his latest ear infection, so we decided to call some quiet time alone today and a nice lunch good enough and we'll try to just enjoy some stole
Collecting world coins

Making progress - sort of

For the first time in years I actually had some time over the break and managed to sort through some coins. As I have mentioned a few times my original collection was British sixpences and, in particular Victorian ones (1864 to 1879) bearing die numbers in addition to the date. In turns out I had nearly 100 such sixpences scattered through various boxes that I had not catalogued properly. Some of these appear to be duplicates, some upgrades, some are die numbers that I was missing, some are
Michael Garrity

1943 Mint Set

I have just now taken over the #1 position in the 1943 from my most-worthy competitor Chancey MS60+. I was able to do so by upgrading my 1943-D Steelie from the grade of NGC MS67+ CAC to a full NGC MS68 My1943-D and 1943-S quarters have been upgraded from NGC MS67 to  NGC MS67 CAC and NGC MS67* CAC respectively.       
Legionary1

Legionary1 in General Information

11
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

I have to share, and laugh, and give props here.

I got an email today from Ali asking me if I really meant to use the word “Causalities” in the title of my set and not “Casualties.” She wanted to make sure I meant to do that before she sent the plaque in to be made with it printed like that. I read that email and immediately wanted to bang my head on the desk. I do not think I will ever ever know how many times I have looked at that and not seen that, but, props to Ali, she caught it. I missed it. Shandy missed it. I have to as
When I’m Wiser and I’m Older

Well! Shut me up! Except... not really! XD

Mike has earned some kind of "I told you so," as he made references back in, I think, October, about the Zimbabwean coin set winning "Best Presented" this year and I was like, "Nope. Nah. Not gonna happen." I am, once again, very honored by the award and the recognition. 😃 I'm thrilled for Coinbuf, Lem E, deposito, jgenn and coin928 for their wins, many on sets that have been long labored and personal projects. It's a humbling thing sometimes to be listed next to such endeavors. But so
Revenant

Revenant in 2020 Awards

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CoinsbyGary

The Branding of the Medallic Art Company

The branding of the Medallic Art Company really began with the founding of the Art Students League of New York in 1875. In the early 20th century New York City became the arts center of America. It is no wonder with instructors like Augustus Saint-Gaudens, James Earle Fraser, Daniel Chester French, and students like Laura Gardin. (This same Laura Gardin would later marry James Earle Fraser in 1913). The Medallic Art Company of New York was founded in 1903 by French brothers Henri and Felix
coinsbygary

coinsbygary in So-Called Dollars

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