It was my year end goal and an enlightening experience.

While I was building my early set; I had hit a roadblock and was getting burned out looking for good coins, in the right grades, so I decided to work on the short set, as a relaxing diversion----a way of keeping me involved, while still looking for the really rare and expensive stuff. It was just some cheap fun, at first! It also had some overlap with my one per date set that I was also working on, as I had almost all of those early coins already filled out except for one and I needed to start finding coins dated from 1934-1947.

At first, I thought that it would be 'easy' to build a short set and I had always believed in buying the keys first, which I still advocate and am very glad that I did, so this is another reason and the WHY that I waited, until now, to complete the short set. BUT little did I know how challenging the S minted short set coins would actually be. I always knew that they were difficult but I have earned a completely new respect for the Walker short set, now, by actually putting one together. Even the D minted coins can be struck softly and are not easy to find lustrous, smooth and original examples but, with some diligent searching, nice ones can be found that are worthwhile and that meet those requirements. The eye appeal can also be off the charts for the short set imho. The Walker is, after all, a beautiful design.

It took me 2 years and 8 months to assemble it. My weighted GPA is about 66.10. I have two MS 65s (1941-S OGH and 1942-S rattler), three MS 67s (1941, 1942 & 1943 Philadelphia coins), two MS 66 +s (1946 & 1947 Philly coins) and the rest are all MS 66s. It is almost split right down the middle between the two grading services, too, with 45% PCGS and 55% NGC coins, as I buy the coin and not the holder. I also look for older slabs, when I can find them. Finding ones that have CAC stickers are nice, too, if I don't have to pay a hefty premium for them. I was lucky to find some fully original pieces, as well, that have some rich color (1945-D, 1945-S & 1947 P), I wound up ranked in the 17th position at NGC and I am done with the short set. I am very happy with those grades and with those particular coins, so I will NOT be upgraded anything, at all, unless something really extraordinary comes along and at a decent price.

My last two coins were a 1946 P PCGS MS 66+ (my mom's birth year) and a 1945 P PCGS MS 66---both of which I purchased yesterday. Both of these are CAC green stickered and the 1945 has a PCGS 30th anniversary green label, which I think is kind of cool. I thought that I paid a little too much for the 1945 P coin but after research (Heritage & other major auction archives) I have found that other CAC'ed PCGS MS 66 examples are going for a premium, so I am very happy with that price and I like the green label AND the green bean. But most importantly I like the coin.

Cheers to all and have a great weekend!!

WF

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