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Entries in this journal

Things Are Looking Up...

...and happy days are here again!!! Today has been a really, REALLY good day. My weekend is Sunday and Monday, which is ok with me, as I can do errands and personal business on Mondays. My first order of business today was to go to the bank and city hall. I needed to put some cash from my pay check into my checking account, but the best thing was I caught up my interest on my bank loan. I also needed to pay my water bill, so over to city hall I went. So, what this means is, all I have left to
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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Every Cloud

...has a silver lining. First, I want to thank everyone who sent me nice messages. Your thoughts are truly appreciated. What really got to me the last 5 weeks are all the fine people who sent me cards, or messages or stopped me and talked to me on the street or at work. Knowing there are so many fine, caring people in this great country of ours was sometimes almost more than I could handle. It truly makes me appreciate all the good things and people in my (and our) lives. There really is a s
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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A Hard Journal Entry To Write

I learned some hard lessons. This is a hard journal entry for me to write, but it does need to be written. Before I go any further I must state something right up front. I'm not writing this for any sympathy or condolences, but to record some feelings, and a hard lesson learned. I have one brother, who also collects coins. They're mostly raw, for example, he's putting together a raw Walking Liberty set (as most of you know, the early years of this set can be quite pricy in higher grades). He
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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Having Fun

...with my ungraded coins, and in spite of my money woes. Hi All, I've been reading all the journal entries about redoing pictures, so I decided to work on mine some more. I did pick up one tip from the journals I read, and that is to tilt my camera slightly so it's not shooting straight into the slab. I have forgotten which journal this tip was in, but you know who you are and I thank you immensely. Another variable that has helped me is putting the camera (which is on a very short tripod
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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Another Nice Weekend...Fall Edition

A beautiful, sunny, 75 degrees, a gorgeos November day in Iowa. I couldn't ask for a better day to take as a day of vacation. I live about 22 miles north of Keokuk, and their local coin club has a spring (middle of May) 2 day show and a fall show (usually always the first Saturday of November). So this afternoon I hopped in the car and went down. I had a couple of raw coins I wanted to sell, and thought I would see what was available that I would want to buy. I sold the 2 ocins first, and al
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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The NGC vs. PCGS pricing debate

An amusing find in my coins. While sorting through my coins deciding on what I want to focus on and what coins will be sold, I came across and amusing (to me anyway) on the NGC vs. PCGS pricing difference. I truly feel the ONLY reason PCGS coins are valued differently (mostly higher) than NGC is PCGS graded coins are the only ones allowed in the PCGS set registry. To me, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand this. I follow the precept of "buy the coin and not the holder. Given the

A Dilemma...

...and I hope my fellow Society members can help. I have been having an enjoyable time trying to get my raw Mexican coins in some semblance of order, and I've found a few that are submission candidates. I've also bought a couple of raw, circulated Morgans that I've add to my raw set. I'm still debating between auctions sites for my coins that don't fit into my interests. However, I've run into a dilemma. While searching through my coins, I found a stack of Canadian coins I submitted for grad

Another Nice Weekend...

at the coin show and sorting through my stash. My weekend last Saturday and Sunday certainly helped with stress relief. I normally work Saturdays, and then have Sunday and Monday off. Since there was a local coin show 22 miles away over the weekend, plus a big drawing at our local minor league baseball team game on Sunday, I couldn't resist taking a day of vacation on Saturday to go to the coin show. Since money is tight for me, I was not planning to make any major (over $100) purchases, but

I Can't Remember Who Had Asked About Them

...I hope I don't start a firestorm with this journal entry. I sure hope I don't set off anybody. This entry is for the person who had wrote a journal entry asking for help about the American Arts Medals. I had messaged him(her?) with the comment that they are listed in the red book. So whoever you are, this entry is for you, as Stack's, in their May 14th Golden Opportunities Sale, has a Marian Anderson medal for sale. Again, I'm not trying to sell anything, just thought the member would be in

Focusing Update

and other tidbits I realize it has been a while since I've written. I must admit, I thought I'd be more down in the dump after deciding to focus my collection because of monetary constraints. To my surprise, I've been having fun, plus finding some Mexican coins that I'll be sending in for grading. I guess this would be a good time to give kudos and thanks to Amy and the rest of the staff at NGC for adding new & updating the world registry sets. I do appreciate all the Mexican sets that h

My Focusing Really Hurts

But maybe it's for the better in the long run. My focusing efforts really hurt tonight. In previous journal entries, I've written about the need to focus my collection, as I'm low on cash (the major reason) for probably the next couple of years. Also, I"m needing to focus on quality, as I truly love currency, but have to have them (since I"ve been in the printing industy) in top condition. With this in mind, I searched through my Morgan dollars tonight, with the plan to sell lower quality co

Musings...

...On the Lincoln Commemorative and Bruce Wilmore's focus Last week I received my proof Lincoln Commem and then I received an email saying my Uncirculated Lincoln has been shipped. If the Uncirculated is anything like the Proof, wow, I can't wait to see it. I believe all of you who have already received the Lincoln commems know what I'm talking about. I feel (and yes, this is my personal opinion) that the Lincoln commems are a close second to the most beautiful modern commem issued. As all of

Precious Metal Values

...the rest of the story (my apologies to Paul Harvey) I thought I would help out and continue the story that Average-Joe started. After consulting the table that Average-Joe provided, use this formula to calculate the silver value: Silver price (per ounce) x .0321507466 (weight conversion factor) x (weight of coin in grams) x fineness (from table already provided) Here's an example for a Mercury Dime: 13.99 (silver price) x .0321507466 x 2.5 (weight of Merc) x .9 This gives us a total
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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New Holders & The PCGS-NGC Debate

Like the holders, don't agree with the debate... I received my latest submission today, and I must admit I like the new holders more than I thought I would at first. One big selling point of the new holders for me is a lot less holder around the coin. Where I have had problems with this is on the smaller coins, especially dimes and 3-cent pieces. When I go to photograph them, the old holders were thick enough, the coin would be down in them on one side or the other, and all I would get around
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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January Is Almost Gone...

...and I'm happy!! Yes, January is almost over, and I've finally received my first 70 on a submitted coin. I received my second submission of the year back from NGC yesterday, and my 2006W Proof Silver Eagle is a 70!!!!!!!!! Actually, I thought the 2007W would be the one, evidently the graders at NGC saw something or didn't see anything as the case may be. Anyway, I"m happy for the 70, and hope this is the first of several. Actually, it was my first submission of the calendar year, but secon
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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Helping Out...

... or maybe more aptly called I can remember starting to collect when I was top1flight's age. I have a 1999-D SBA dollar that I'll send to top1flight if he would like to have it.
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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I'm At Home, But I'm At An Auction!

...plus a grading report. I hope Stack's doesn't mind that I used the name of their video bidding program. I'm logged into Stack's "The Golden Horn" sale. This is wonderful, as right now I can't afford to attend these sales in person. I would love to go to some of these, but finances are tight in the first place, and what little cash I have left over, I'd rather put to coins. (I guess all of us probably would!) Anyway, I've bought a Russian order already, and am waiting right now for some ot
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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It's 2009 And I Have A Goal

...Full Set of Full Bell Lines Congratulations to all of the award winners!!!! I truly feel the sets and journal articles have increased so much in quality, even since I've started my membership a few years ago. I especially enjoy the journal articles, and I look forward to another year of reading all the entries. Actually, I guess my title is wrong. I really have 2 goals for 2009. First and foremost, I would like to complete my Full Bell Line Franklin set. It may be hard, as I have to have

I'm Getting Excited...

...No, not that, but my coin submission is in Quality Control. Yes, I'm getting excited. My coin submission is in Quality Control, and my National Bank note I sent at the same time is Scheduled For Grading. :-) I can't wait to see the grades, I'm hoping for my submitted 70, so could we all keep our fingers crossed for me?! I've purchased several 70's but as yet have not received any 70's yet on coins I've sent in. I'll keep you all posted on how everything turns out. The photo today is a
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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2 Medals To Cross Over?

Hope JoiseyGirl gives me some good news. I think I'm going to have to quit buying some of these medals. I browse through auction lots, and see all kinds of medals that I think are neat. Only problem is, they're always graded by ICG. The Sac concept dollar I want to put in my Wild West Sig set, but I don't know if NGC will cross these over. Actually I want to put both of them in my sig set. I've always liked the Indian Head gold design, just haven't gotten the nerve (or the cash) to buy some hi
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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Merry Christmas To All

...and to all a collecting update! I can't believe it's only a few days till Christmas. It seems the last couple of months have flew by, with my work, my mom being in the nursing home & hospital and my collecting interests. I do want to wish everyone in the Society a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Even with all that has went on the last few months, I do count myself blessed; with my family, my friends here where I live and my online friends here in the Society, and all the nice peop
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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Still Tweaking My Sets

...trying to adjust my focus. If any of you have been following my refocusing efforts, you will probably notice I deleted my Indian Cent set. You may be wondering why, as I can understand the thinking that it would be a prime set to have, considering my interest in the west. I'll have to concede you'd be right, but there's a couple of big reasons why I did this. First, I've come to the conclusion the design is not quite right to me from a purely western standpoint, as I don't believe the hea
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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An Enjoyable Afternoon

....or a day at a coin show. Saturday afternoon was such an enjoyable and stress relieving time. I normally work Saturday's, and then my weekend is Sunday and Monday. I took a day of vacation though, as there was a small coin show in Keokuk, which is about 24 miles south of me. It's a really small show, maybe 8-10 dealers. However, there was one dealer there I hadn't seen before, he had a lot of nice currency. Unfortunately, the ones I wanted were well out of my price range, but I sure had a
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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Where Do The Days Go???

....they fly by when we're working on our collections I guess. It's November 1st already, another year (for me) has went by. Only a few minor purchases since I wrote last; another Franklin half, a French 1 1/2 Euro that will be put into my World War 2 signature set and a few raw coins that may or may not be sent in for grading. What has really been eating up the time is redoing most of my coin pics. I really do like my Pentax digital cam and I feel it will turn out some gorgeous pictures onc
Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

Iowa Silver Baron Bammer

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