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About this journal

This journal was originally to record my thoughts on collecting and building my Netherlands Wilhelm III Gold 10 Gulden Set and other projects like  my modern silver bullion NCLT sets. When it got started in the summer of 2007 I was single, in my early 20's, and working on my B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering. Starting in 2016, with my marriage and the birth of my first son, Benjamin, much of my writing has focused on raising my sons to have a love of collecting coins and exonumia and discussing how my collecting occurs in the context of my marriage and life overall.

Entries in this journal

The new Challenger has stepped up... and I think he's serious!

A few months ago I posted about a new set appearing in the Netherlands 10G set that had a coveted MS64 example of the 1879/7. This left me with a lot of questions and now they've just given me a lot more information and a lot to think about. The member has added 5 more coins to the set, including all the rarer dates, including the 1885 and the 1886 I've long looked for... and they all have the same invoice number... numbered -001 to -005. They almost certainly submitted these themselve

Revenant

Revenant in Gold

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

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Revenant in Gold

Someone's bitter pill - the things that shouldn't have been graded.

I have a saved search still on eBay for "ngc Netherlands 10G," so I get notified when one pops up without having to search myself all the time. I continue to hope an 1885 or 1886 will pop up one day to help me complete that set. But... 90% of the time I get an email and it's an 1875... or an 1877. I just got an email for my 10G search and it's an AU55 in a new holder, and I just can't help but shake my head and think, someone was REALLY disappointed when that posted the grade results.

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Revenant in Gold

I will get no end of grief over that joke…

A few entries ago I jokingly referred to my 10G set as my “golden babies.” I thought was being silly and a little tongue-in-cheek, but my wife has given me no end of ribbing about this, so I think I’m going to be continuing to catch grief about that for a while every time those coins come up in conversation. I think this cements the Zimbabwe set as my “pride and joy” and the 10G set as my “golden babies” whenever my wife feels the need to tease me. They do look good in the new holders

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Revenant in Gold

The 20 Mark and (Finally) Shipping the 10Gs

The 20 Mark coin arrived a while back and I was really happy with how the coin looked in hand. I’d been a little concerned about unattractive marks on an MS62, but I was very happy with the look of this one. There’s a significant number of scratches on the high points but nothing I consider too distracting or detracting from the look of the coin when I look at it in person (pictures can always be a bit hit or miss with how good or bad they make a coin look under high magnification). A

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Revenant in Gold

The 20 Lire and Soon the 20 Marks.

The 1882 20L coin arrived recently and I'm very happy to have it. It's a great addition to my growing set of smaller European gold coins from the late 19th and early 20th century - a group of coins I call my "golden nickels," because they're all about the size of a US nickel and because of what happened at around that same point in history with the "no cents" V nickels in 1883. It's a group of coins from the pre-Great War period that I think I'll always find endlessly fascinating. All

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Revenant in Gold

And now I got to order it! (The 20 Lire)

So work did come through with a bonus this year - smaller than last year but still a very nice surprise considering I wasn't expecting anything. So rather than making me wait to see what happens in Washington the wife let me order an NGC MS64 1882 20 Lire coin last night. I won't post pictures or anything because the seller watermarks their images but I'll be looking forward to getting the coin - hopefully sooner than their shipping estimate suggests - 2 weeks from California to Texas

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Finally Filled “the Gold Box” - ~13 years later.

With my anniversary present now in hand I have reached a milestone that I’d thought about a number of times over the years. I bought my first gold coin in 2007 - an MS70 graded 1/4th oz gold eagle - as a way of celebrating my 21st birthday that didn’t involve getting drunk - which didn’t interest me much at the time (or now, really). The idea of “first gold” seems to be special for a lot of people - people will often post about their first gold purchase in the “SilverBugs” subredd

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Revenant in Gold

Maybe it is paranoia but I'm still not doing it.

I've pretty much made up my mind that, before the year is out, I want to get my 10G set reholdered in scratch-resistant holders to harmonize the look of the set. I'm considering having them review the ones in old fatty holders to see if they might be able to pick up a point - this would be especially nice with the MS64 1887. I'm not sure how the best way to do this would be because, even if the grade doesn't change, I'd still want it cracked out and reholdered - There's just little point to me i

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Revenant in Gold

Possible Die Cracks and Thoughts on Die Life and Die Pairings

In looking at that 1880 10G coin I picked up a couple of weeks ago now one thing kind of stood out to me. There’s something on the left side of the Obverse that looks a lot like a die crack that runs between the K and one of the stars. Unlike a lot of the things you see people posting about in the Newbie forum you can actually see this with a naked eye and I think it really is a die crack and not a scratch - but I could be wrong. Looking closer under high magnification it looks l

Revenant

Revenant in Gold

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