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When is a set complete?

100% filled or when upgrades are finished? For several months I had almost had my 32-64 quarter set competed, but I had one open slot- the 1950 D/S. I had been looking for a couple of months before I finally found one that I liked. I probably overpaid at about 85% of FMV, but it was a nice coin in AU53 that fit well with my set. The problem now is my 1950 S/D in VF details became a hole filler. A couple of months ago I thought I was in the running for a PCGS AU55- it was at $57 dollars with
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Another photo from Gary's photography setup

such true to life coloring! This is just a common date MS66 1958 D- but notice how well the different colors are separated and so clearly and accurately captured- Gary has created a fantastic coin photography set-up! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
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Show day part 2

Meeting up with Gary H Gary beat me to the story that happened post- show but I will add to it a little bit. I got to meet Gary's wife and of course she is just as nice a person as Gary is (as expected!) The bigger thrill for me than the show itself was that Gary had brought his whole photography set-up to take some photos of my quarters set. I learned very quickly why I can't get good photos of my coins! I can't explain his whole setup- but it involves camera stand- 2 special lights- a high
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Midstates show in Illinois

Part 1 I went to the Midstates Coin show on the first free admission day, Thursday April 23. The timing with income taxes being due a week before did not leave me with a lot of extra cash, so I was not looking to make any significant purchases. Since I collect both certified and raw coins I like to spend my time at the shows mainly looking at raw coins. I realize the dealers have a lot overhead for shows so I don't expect to get any good deals, so I am mainly looking for tougher dates or nice
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Interesting lessons learned about selling PF70 coins

Sharing (for what it is worth) for proof coins from 1999 to current In a previous journal I had talked about scaling down in some modern coin types to allow me to have more funds for other coins. The results of my selling spree have been enlightening so I thought I would pass them on- again for what it is worth. Now we are not talking about expensive coins here, mostly in the 15-40 dollar range. My observations are only relevant to coins that fall into this price range so they are not raritie
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6 to go!!!

But pretty much tapped out cash-wise for now I am down to needing just 6 coins to complete my 32-64 Washington set. (The PCGS 1937 MS66 is pending verification and the 1948 D MS66 has not arrived yet) It will still take me about 3-4 more months to complete as I have used up my budget for the near future plus the holiday season is coming soon. The 1934P and 1962D are somewhat allusive in MS66 and a little pricey. Of course I am sure I could get one now by overpaying one of the buy-it-now rip-of
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ANA show in Chicago

Can a show be too large? I went to the show on Friday. There were plenty of people but not so crowded that you could not get a look at the display cases. Not as many people sitting and yacking, blocking the display cases as I have noticed at previous shows. Most people were actively looking and/or buying. It almost appeared to me the layout of the show was by the price. The multi-million dollars homes of gold and high end coins on one end and the blue collar brick and mortar type dealers on th
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Slowly getting there on my 32-64 quarter set

Slowly but surely! As I mentioned in a previous post my main focus is to work on completing my 32-64 quarter set by getting the harder dates first at an affordable grade/ price and everything else in MS66. The complete set is 85 coins including the 50 D/S and S/D varieties, I have 67 so far. This is not a small feat to accomplish while working within a discretionary income only budget. I recently won an NGC MS65 1938-S from Heritage for $120 ($141 with Buyer premium). I share the price as par
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Minor change in direction

Led to a nice trade with 6 Mile Rick When I first started collecting certified coins I started with modern proofs and MS66 wheat cents. Of course modern coins can have different meanings to different collectors. For me it means 1965 to current- basically the end of the silver coin era. Others may define moderns as post 1934 or after 1946/7 with the end of the Mercury/Walker series. Anyway as time has gone on it dawned on me that to keep current with my proof sets I would be looking at buying 1
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A follow up to a previous post

Coin in hand A follow-up regarding the 1936D AU53 quarter I won at a Heritage auction. I wrote that I will never know if I got this coin at 30-40% off the previous auction prices because the market felt it was that bad, because it was Super Bowl Sunday and fewer people were bidding, or that since there was no live bidding afterwards no dealer could scoop it up cheap to resell. I came up with another option- the photos did not completely show the true coin as it looks in hand. I have now re
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Did the marketplace tell me I made a blunder?

Or were there fewer bidders on Super Bowl Sunday? My wife and I each had 4 $5 dollars squares for the super bowl. I assume most people know what squares are so I won't go into details about how it works. Basically the winning score after each quarter gets one quarter of the pot. Since we had no allegiance to either team in this year's Super Bowl we were mainly watching to see if we won any money. Going into the end of the second quarter it was 21-3, I had 1-6. I needed a field goal by San Fra
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Lost Heritage bid at the live auction

Missed it by that much This was only my second time bidding in a Heritage online auction. The live auction was held this weekend at the FUN show in Florida. I was bidding on a key date for my Washington quarter set, a 1936 D NGC AU53. I had the winning bid at 220 when the online auction closed. Rarely am I willing to pay what I would consider full retail price for a coin. I realize there are nicely toned, condition rarity or CAC coins that go for more than retail, but I am normally not a bidde
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Feeding the coin addiction when money is tight

Trying to come up with some coin fun during extended downtime so back to the basics I had shoulder surgery last Thursday and find myself recouping at home while my wife is at work. I can do a little work at home but typing with one hand is very tedious. Just typing this is taking forever. So I find myself in a rare opportunity, home alone to spread out my raw coins. I have to keep myself off of EBay as much as possible lest I spend money I can't afford to spend. At this point I can only estim
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Grades back on my first NGC submission

Still have a lot learn but overall I am happy with the results my previous journal I outlined my guesses at how my 6 coins would grade. The grades are back and I was right on 2, close on 2, and in the wrong hemisphere on the other 2! 1879 S Morgan, boy was I clueless, my guess MS63, came back UNC details OBV tooled cleaned. I thought I was good at identifying cleaned coins. I guess that mirror like finish was not original. 1955 Franklin Proof, my guess PF66, NGC PF66, came from a PCI holde
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Sent in my first NGC Submission last week!

A test of my skills and how much have I learned about coin grading in the last few years In one of my previous journals I had asked the question-how to determine what coins to submit. Thanks to Gary, Rick and Steve1942 for some good points I had not considered. They reinforced that for many coins it is still cheaper to buy them already graded versus paying for the raw coins plus submission costs. Some additional ideas they shared were that the coin may be worth submitting in order to fill out
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A stranger saved me from a $50 blunder!

Plus a valuable lesson-always check the coins very closely! This story is almost too embarrassing to share but hopefully it may help a fellow collector avoid the mistakes I made. Tuesday I received a message through my EBay account. It came from someone I did not know and as far as I know have never dealt with in the past. He/she suggested I take a closer look at the raw VF/EF 1889 S Morgan dollar I bought a couple of weeks ago. They pointed out that the coin I bought had the same marks at 9
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Knowledge can be a beautiful thing!

Would this be called cherrypicking myself? Back in March my wife had given me David Bowers' Guidebook to Washington Quarters for my birthday. I enjoy and recommend his books for the collector that wants to learn more about a certain type of coin. Plus they are handy reference guides just to have in my coin library. I also have the books for Lincoln cents, Morgan dollars and Peace dollars. They can be found at a good price on Amazon. I especially like to read these books when I am short on buyi
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Spending spree!

Don't tell my wife! I received a new credit card with 12 months no financing- very dangerous in the hands of a coin addict! I decided I would use $1200 for coins and pay off $100 per month. I went over my budget, about $1320, but I filled some holes in my proof and type sets and got some good prices on several certified coins! It can be amazing what can be won at auction when you can set a bid and not worry about whether it will go over my budget (well, within a $1200 budget) For the first t
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How can PCGS grading be so inconsistent?

Auction coin appears to be way over-graded- or am I just still too much of a novice to understand? I won my first heritage auction- a PCGS 1938 Washington Quarter, MS65 for 138 with buyer's premium. Based on the picture the coin is not the most beautiful coin, the obverse luster appears to be covered by not the best grayish toning- but it has minimal marks. This was why my max bid was only 122. Another 1938- also PCGS- also MS65- also sold in the same auction for 178.02 with BP. Auction 1171,
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Do silver coins tone or corrode in the holder?

If a certified coin is toned in the holder- was that the way it looked when it was graded- how would one know? I bought my first MS Morgan dollar for my 20th century type set. It is a common date 1900 O- NGC MS 64. There is small dark spot on the reverse that is almost black. The rest of the coin has some light red-brown toning just around the rim, but nothing like this. I saw this spot in the auction and thought it might have been on the holder- I really did not know what it was. I got the co
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reverse of quarter

sorry about the flash in the picture I could not figure out how to put 2 pictures in one journal entry To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
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instant buyer's remorse

I had not received the coin yet and I had the package ready to ship it back! I have always liked the Washington silver quarters. I was born in 1958, so well circulated coins were still available in pocket change in the mid 1960's when I started to collect as a kid. I collected the usual things you could get out of change- Silver Roosevelt and Mercury dimes, Jefferson Nickels, wheat pennies. You could not get close to a full collection from change in any of these, but enough different date/mint
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To submit or not to submit

That is the question Last August I attended the ANA Worlds Fair of Money in Chicago. It was only the second coin show I had ever attended. WOW- what an experience! Talk about the proverbial kid in candy store. There were some great exhibits- but I must admit I spent most of my time going through the bourse. If you have ever seen the pictures of the show-, the bourse room was enormous. It was tough trying not to spend all my money before I got through the whole show. Of course, the dealer that
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Budget? What budget- oh- THAT budget

It's only money? As I look at other members registries, I amazed at some of the high quality collections out there, while others are more in line with my budget/collection. I see some collections of MS gold, MS Large cents- even one member has an almost complete set of MS seated liberty dimes- wow- as I struggle to work on a raw set in Good? I admit some times it gets depressing knowing that I probably will never have the income to support the purchase of even one coin that has $2000+ plus p
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