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Entries in this journal

When Perfect Just Isn't Good Enough

Just another twist in this great hobby! The last piece of the puzzle finally arrived in the mail this week. It was the last coin I needed to complete my 21st Century Type Set! I now have a 100 percent complete type set. While this is a nice personal accomplishment, it certainly doesn't stack up to completing a 20th Century, a 19th Century or a Master Type Set. This is only the fifth complete registry set I have managed to put together. Completing registry sets on a tight budget is no easy task
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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The Rush of Feeling Like a Kid Again

I filled a hole in my Lincoln Album! I hope every one had a great New Year's Day. It only comes once a year. Well, the parades are done and the bowl games are mostly over so it is time to get back in the saddle, sort of speak. If the last few days are any indication of how 2016 will turn out then I believe it will be an awesome year. I filled a hole in my Lincoln Cent album! Bear in mind, my set is missing the big boys of the Lincoln Cent collection, 1909-S, 1909-S VDB, 1914-D, 1922 (no D),
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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Damn Pennies

What to get Dad for Christmas! The day after Christmas and every one is trying to recover from their family gatherings. Things are no different here. It is a rare occasion when most of my kids and their spouses all gather together at the same time in the same place. We call it a clan gathering around here. I have to admit my kids know their old man pretty well. There is a running joke in my family that when you don't know what to get Dad, me, or you want to put something extra in his stocking
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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A Penny For My Thoughts!

Upgrading the coins of my youth and a Christmas wish for everyone. Merry Christmas everyone! There seems to be something strange when you are sitting on a back porch on Christmas Eve in short sleeves putting a journal entry together. Looking back on the last year, we'll make that the last two years, my coins have proved to be quite the calming sanctuary for me. I started collecting graded coins in 2009 but my love of the hobby goes back to my youth, almost 50 years ago. It was all folders
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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Life Has A Funny Habit Of Getting In The Way

Has it really been two years since my last entry? Greetings to one and all... I feel like I fell off the face of the earth but in reality the last two years have just been crazy. Deaths in the family, a couple of weddings and of course the usual unexpected home and vehicle maintenance issues and poof time and money both go flying out the window. But fear not, I have not abandoned this hobby we all love so much. I did have to let my membership fees slip for a while but I'm still bottom fishin
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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Finding the Value You Can Afford

"The best time to buy is when there is blood in the streets" - Warren Buffet It sure has been a while since I put back-to-back weekly entries in my journal. Like I said last week, I have been plodding along scouring the web for deals and steals on coins. Interestingly enough, I have been bottom fishing long enough now to notice there are distinct trends and cycles to where you can find the best deals. These cycles can vary as quickly as a week or take a couple of years to mature. But alas, I a
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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TOO LONG BETWEEN ENTRIES BUT I'M STILL HERE

BE CAREFUL: That light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train! Hello my friends, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and you are looking forward to an awesome Christmas. It seems like forever since I put a journal entry but life has a funny way of getting in the way. I am doing well, however, despite the last 18 months or so. It has been a particularly rough ride and we lost my father, father-in-law, and just recently my mother-in-law. However, this journal is not about the twists
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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I Think I Found The Real Gem In These Foreign Coins

And I still don't know a great deal about it! I've been slowly but surely working my way through my buddy's stash of foreign coins. Up until a few days ago I had thought that the 1898B Chopmarked British Trade Dollar was the real find in the lot but I now believe I may have been wrong. As I worked my way through the coins, country by country, I ran across one coin that had no country affiliation written on it just "En Barcelona, Peseta, 1810". I put it aside because it struck me as odd and I
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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I HAVE VISIONS OF CASABLANCA

Another interesting coin this time from Morocco My adventure in foreign coins is proving to be just that. It is most definitely much more than I anticipated and all of it in a good way. Not being one to shy away from a challenge sorting, identifying and subsequently attempting to value all of my friend's coins from around the world is a learning experience for which I am most thankful. The potential history that each one of these coins holds is truly fascinating. The images some of them conjur
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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This Coin Is Just To Cool Too Go Without A Picture

I just had to take a picture Every once in a while a coin comes your why that you find incredibly fascinating for its design or perhaps in this case for its history. I have been trying to move a bunch of foreign coins for a friend but this coin so deserves a picture. I will most likely never collect Mexican Spanish Colonial Coins but that in no way deminishes my awe for this coin, 1780 2 Reales. (Sorry folks, I already have an offer pending on this one.)
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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The World At Your Finger Tips -- Part 2: The Saga Continues

Just when I thought things couldn't get more insane! Quick revisit: Cosmetic case full of old foreign coins and bills, owner doesn't have a clue as to what he has, I lend a helping hand to ID and value the coins. I believe that is where I left you in my last entry. So here we go again... I guess I graded and valued about 85% of the coins and bills this guy gave me to evaluate. Fortunately, most of the grades were in the G to XF range on the coins which my grading skills can handle fairly w
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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The World At Your Finger Tips When You Least Expect It!

Sometimes, it's just plain better to be lucky rather than good. As luck would have it, I found myself at the right place at the right time over the holidays. My wife and I were browsing our usual antique furniture haunt and I started talking to the owner. We know the owner fairly well as his store is one of our favorites for antique furniture and we have done a good bit of business there over the years. Anyway, the guy asks me if I know anything about old coins. I figure he might have found a
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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Happy New Year -- It Has Been Far Too Long!

Alas 2013! You are a welcome sight for my weary eyes. My last Journal entry was in July when I finally completed my Eisenhower Dollar Proof set. For the year, I'd have to say that was the high point of my collecting. I continue to scour the auction sights, bottom fishing as always for those really exceptional deals for my collection. In doing so, I've managed to add a number of PF70UC Lincoln Memorial Cents to my set. My graded sets are still primarily modern coins but they have expanded somew
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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IT TOOK ME 2 PLUS YEARS BUT I DID IT!

My Eisenhower Proof set is complete. It's hard to believe I haven't written in my journal for about six months but it's been one of those years. Time seems to have just melted through my fingers and any extra money just doesn't exist. But I have been squirreling a little money away, a dollar here and a dollar there with only one goal in mind, get a PF69UC 1973S Silver Eisenhower Dollar to complete my set. Finally, I actually have something to write about again. Last week I was able to pick up
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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Pondering Another New Set

And trying to wrap my brain around it! Collecting on a tight (okay, very tight budget) means casting a wide net in search of those overlooked and under-priced coins that you CAN add to your set. You have to be patient and go with the ebb and flow of the market. When everyone is on the trail of the latest and greatest, you have to go the other way and get yesterday's hot coin. Of course compounding the difficulty of the search is crazy fluctuations of the metals market. When the market is burni
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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A Bargain Coin to Start 2012, How Much Better Does It Get!

A tough hole filled with a quality coin. Hit me, beat me, gag me with a spoon! Talk about being in the right place at the right time! 2012 is starting off on a fantastic note. I just added a 1967 SMS MS67RD Lincoln Memorial Cent to my Proof Set for a whopping $15.00. I have at least a PF69UC for every year from 1984 through 2011. Picking up high quality coins from 1983 and earlier to add to the set has been proving to be a bit of a challenge both in availability and cost. This wasn't one of my
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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Congratulations and Well Done One and All!

Everyone one is a winner and it's time to get back in the game. Well the NCG Awards have been posted and a hearty congratulation is order for all the winners. Well Done! The levels achieved by the collectors in this group never cease to amaze and inspire me. As a relatively small collector tied to a very limited budget I greatly appreciate the ability to look at and admire coins that are but a faint dream for adding to my collection. Yet, the complete sets so masterfully put together by others
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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It's 1/1/12, Do I Get An Early Release Label For My Journal Entry?

Probably not but I listed 12 coins that really are Early Release Coins. Well the New Year's Day is here. I hope everyone reading this has a wonderful, happy, and prosperous new year! Personally, 2011 was a wild roller coaster ride and I am not just talking about the precious metals market. Fortunately, everyone in family is well, there is still a roof over our head and there is still food on the table so in hind sight I guess 2011 goes in the good year column. My coin collection grew in fits a
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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Rapidly Closing in on the End of another Year

And as always this time of year is filled with excitement, wonder and joy. I still remember how excited I got when I found and joined the Collectors Society. I was just starting my adventure into the world of graded coins. In the month leading up to my joining, I had just purchased a few graded coins, Proof State Quarters if memory serves, and I couldn't get over how awesome the thought of moving forward with this phase of my collecting would be. Two years later, I am still enthralled with col
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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While Everyone Was Watching Eagles Soar

There was a lot of small change left to be had on the ground! Rarely do I get excited to the point of being downright effervescent when I buy coins. First, this is not a good negotiation strategy when dealing face to face with a coin dealer I much prefer a poker face with a wrinkled brow thrown in here and there just for effect. Second, when you are bidding on a coin in any auction, live or on-line, you run the risk of blowing your budget and chasing a coin well past your "logically set" upper
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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Money Grows on the Family Tree

Who would have thought that there was a tie to my coin collecting and my wife's genealogy? I love Christmas. It seems like I always come up with some screwy ideas for presents. As luck would have it, I was looking around the U.S. Mint web site looking to pick up the odd mint issues I haven't been able to afford during the rest of the year. (Christmas is always a good excuse to treat myself and fill in the most recent holes in my sets.) Anyway, while I'm not a big fan of the Presidential Dollar
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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Yet Another Anniversary But Not for the SAE, Thank Goodness

The time has just melted away. Oh my gosh, where has the time gone? It was two years ago when I first found the Collectors Society and in about two weeks I will have been a paying member for 2 years. It has been close to two months since I last posted a journal. Now, Thanksgiving has slipped by us (I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving) and Christmas is right around the corner. If time is money, then I should be a rich man! As usual, I continue to struggle with budget constraints, probabl
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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1323 Points Vaults Me to Near 30,000 Total Points

Sometimes is just better to rely on dumb luck! Okay, so as a rule I do not pay too particularly much attention to points. This is especially true for my $5.00 Dimes for Kids set. I?m looking to add any circulation strike dime I can add to the set for $5.00 or under. And that was certainly the case with a dime I picked up this week. Usually, I am very pleased to pick up an MS65 or MS66 Roosevelt Dime for $5.00 or under to add to the set or add to the extras so I can give it away to a kid with a
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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Becalmed At Sea

Very little to show for the month I have felt like a ship at sea in irons during the month of September. Still reeling from the financial storms of the summer, disposable income for coins has been scarce to say the least. Throw on top of that there have been relatively few very good deals on coins out there lately so ultimately my September acquisitions were almost nonexistent. Even the circulated rolls I?ve gone through have yielded only minimal hidden treasures. But all is not lost as I di
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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New Coins ? New Collecting Goals

Success is an awesome feeling! Pay day is just about 2 weeks away and that means it?s time to look back at how I did and look forward to what I want to accomplish in my 2011-2012 collecting year. The numbers surprised me this year. I spent less and got more than I had anticipated. With five coins still in the mail and an expected arrival some time this week, my total points will be well over 26,000. I?m really proud of this number because there are no duplicated sets and thus it is not inflate
Dennis B-migration

Dennis B-migration

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