This past year has been a phenomenal year for my collection and in particular my 7070 type set. In just this set alone, I have both added and upgraded a total of 21 coins! That amounts to almost a quarter of the coins within the entire collection!

Believe it or not, this came to me as a surprise along with the sum money I spent. When you assemble a collection with a coin here and a coin there you can amass quite a number of coins in a relatively short period of time. And that when my only intention was to upgrade certain gold coins, carefully select quality early coppers, and fill in the miscellaneous odd coins remaining to complete the collection.

Having met all these goals, I am thinking that I might have bit off a little more than I could chew when I made them. Now Im not complaining, but maybe I didnt realize how ambitious my goals were at the time. Regardless, I have acquired a lot of really nice coins this year.

I am ending the year with the final piece needed to complete my type set. That coin is an XF-40 1802 No-Stems S-231 Large Cent with a pedigree to the NGC award winning Mervis Collection of Large Cents 1793-1814, Complete by Sheldon Varieties. I am looking forward to taking delivery of this coin very soon.

The second to last coin I bought is a CAC stickered MS-64 1908 Liberty Half-Eagle with beautiful satin-like luster. As a type coin I singled out the 1908 Liberty Half-Eagle for an upgrade because it is the last coin of the venerable Liberty Head obverse beginning 70 years prior with the 1838 Eagle. Since the 1838 Eagle is not a collectible coin for me, I am very pleased with the 1908 Liberty Half-Eagle.

My type set is not the only set that saw activity this year as I added a total of 7 tokens, medals, and coins to my seated imagery custom set. This included a couple of scarce pieces, the 1853 HK-6 so-called dollar commemorating the Crystal Palace in New York and an 1835 Bavaria 2 Taler commemorating Bavarias first railway.

Additionally, I am starting a new custom set of coins and medals designed by Laura Gardin Fraser. I have already bought a couple of the medals and soon I will be looking into whether NGC will certify them. This set already has 2 coins. The first coin is a proof 1999-W half-eagle commemorating the death of George Washington and the second is the 1947-S Philippines 50 Centavos Douglas Macarthur commemorative. Although I started this set this year, 2016 will see a lot of activity in this set.

I also want to upgrade several more coins in my 7070 set for 2016. Those will be coins currently grading VF to XF that I can easily afford to upgrade to either AU or MS. I may also upgrade the Liberty Head and St Gaudens double-eagles that were not a part of my gold upgrade project this year.

Other gold purchases in 2016 may include the gold renditions of the Mercury Dime, Standing Liberty Quarter, and Walking Liberty Half-Dollar. I will have to take more time to think on those, but that decision may go the way of the high-relief $100 gold Liberty this year. When I saw the sticker price on that coin, I passed on it because it infringed on my higher goals.

I am currently pondering what to do about my Morgan collection. For several years now this set has been idle. I am thinking of re-working this set to include just the coins grading higher than MS-63 and populating the rest of the set with attractive circulated Morgans. I simply do not care for Morgans grading in the low MS range because of excessive contact marks. There will of course be exception clauses for toners and GSAs that grade in the MS range up to MS-63.

Thus, I will be very busy in 2016! Hopefully though, Ill be able to scale back my ambitious goals to be less of a strain on my pocketbook. In closing, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Gary

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