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No First Release/Early Release Labels for New Zealand Mint Coins

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Dan Hughes

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The New Zealand Mint completely shut down its operations on August 17th of this year because of a covid outbreak in the country. Easier for New Zealand to do than most countries because it is an island nation. Yesterday they reopened and began shipping orders again. During their shutdown they were still taking orders on new issues they had scheduled for release. I had a concern because all of the coins I buy from the New Zealand Mint I submit, as soon as I get them, for the First Release label. I had hoped that NGC would push out the cutoff dates for the First/Early Release labels on the coins being impacted but just received a response that they will not be pushing back the cutoff date. For me, the coins being impacted are the Star Wars Baby Yoda (Grogu) Holiday coin, the Disney Holiday Coin, and the Chibi Deathstroke coin. There are other coins that were sold during that period that will also be impacted that I didn't purchase. With the cutoff date for these coins only 5 days away (Sep 27th) it's possible someone may get their shipment in time to submit in the mail before the cutoff, although shipments from New Zealand take a little longer to get here. 

I was hoping NGC would allow people to submit their invoice paperwork showing the date the coin was purchased and submit the coins in their unopened shipment box showing the date shipped. That would at least be a way to show the coin was bought before the cutoff deadline, even though it wasn't received in time to ship in for the First/Early Release cutoff date.

Bottom line, if you collect First/Early Release New Zealand Mint Coins, there may be a very small population of the coins impacted from the New Zealand Mint shutdown, or potentially none at all.

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Short of submitting a whole set at the same time or doing what I did with my 10G coins and reholdering the whole set all at once, getting a full set of NGC graded coins with matching holders and labels seems darn near impossible. Sets built over years just aren't gonna March and it just doesn't feel worth struggling with to me, but I can understand your frustration with the Early Release designation.

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Ditto, I too have sent emails to NZ Mint and NGC.

If this cannot be worked out in a fair manor, I see no reason to continue collecting First Release labels and will most probably drop purchasing and grading altogether.

This is very disappointing if they are not going to make an exception for a mint shutdown.

I ordered the Chibis on August 2nd, the first day they could be ordered and received them today, September 27th.

The cutoff date is, you got it, September 27th.

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On 9/27/2021 at 5:52 PM, RDH2000 said:

If this cannot be worked out in a fair manor, I see no reason to continue collecting First Release labels and will most probably drop purchasing and grading altogether.

If no one can get them I'd say that's a pretty fair outcome. (shrug) If 1 or 2 get them and they try to make a quick buck on it, that will stink but that's how life goes sometimes. But I think rage-quitting over this is assigning too much importance to a label / a couple of words on a label.

Isn't this the kind of stuff that gives a set / series a story to tell? "All have a first release label except this one that was impacted by the 2020 pandemic and mint shut downs so none of these got that designation." 

Edited by Revenant
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On 9/29/2021 at 10:04 AM, Revenant said:

If no one can get them I'd say that's a pretty fair outcome. (shrug) If 1 or 2 get them and they try to make a quick buck on it, that will stink but that's how life goes sometimes. But I think rage-quitting over this is assigning too much importance to a label / a couple of words on a label.

Isn't this the kind of stuff that gives a set / series a story to tell? "All have a first release label except this one that was impacted by the 2020 pandemic and mint shut downs so none of these got that designation." 

Thank you for trying to talk me off the ledge. You are correct. However; I believe what will happen on these First Releases labels is the companies that have the shipments drop shipped to NGC will get the FR labels and the little guys, collectors such as I, will be left out and if we want to get the FR labels will have to purchase from the big guys and pay their mark-ups, which have went from a reasonable 30 to 40 dollars to 100 to 150 dollars. The 'rage' is also coming from frustration with the number of coins being released. NIUE has released 147 coin varieties in 2021, First I don't know how anyone can keep up with that and second the number of repeat characters and categories is devaluing all the types of coins that I like to collect. Thank you for your thoughts on the subject.

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On 9/30/2021 at 9:37 AM, RDH2000 said:

NIUE has released 147 coin varieties in 2021, First I don't know how anyone can keep up with that

Yeah... the NCLT has gotten so out of control. When I got back into collecting in 2007 I was big into SAEs and the 1 oz silver NCLT from all over the world but so many countries have gotten into producing so much of it I just gave up. It's just too much. It sucked the joy out of it to know I had no hope.

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On 9/30/2021 at 10:35 AM, Revenant said:

Yeah... the NCLT has gotten so out of control. When I got back into collecting in 2007 I was big into SAEs and the 1 oz silver NCLT from all over the world but so many countries have gotten into producing so much of it I just gave up. It's just too much. It sucked the joy out of it to know I had no hope.

Yeah, it feels pretty stupid paying 100 bucks for a 2 dollar coin.......

I am close on the giving up, like I said NIUE released 147 coins so far this year.

When there were a dozen Star Wars coin varieties they were a unique fascination, now I have 145 varieties of Star Wars coins and 'afraid' I don't have them all......

Thank you for letting me blow off steam.

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