Man, William, that poor kid.....he has had some bad luck.  I feel for him and for your whole family and I hope Sam makes a speedy and complete recovery soon.  It seems like this forum is a good place for you when life throws you curveballs.....I remember when Sam was born and he had all of the health issues he did.  You were here with us a lot then.  And things turned out okay.  This will be the same.

As for the Zimbabwe coins......it sounds like you have some competition there, my friend!! That should make things interesting.....I'll be interested to hear more about that when you get around to writing about it.  It's interesting to see what people have been getting into collecting-wise with the pandemic and everything that goes along with that whole thing.  It's definitely impacted the hobby, though not my little corner of the world with it......most people are looking for attainable goals, not lifelong numismatic insanity.  

I wish you and your family all the best during this tough time.  Hopefully, Sam's luck will change.  

~Tom

Poor little dude, we're all pulling for him and quick recovery. 

Did you get imaging through NGC for the Zim coins? I imagine you didn't as you take excellent pics of your own, but I wonder how many NGC would have imaged for their own use? It will be a good comparison, your images vs NGC Photo Vision. That's one of the advantages about collecting coins that no one else does and submitting them, if NGC does not have an image of a coin for their records they will image the coins and send you a copy.  Since no one else in their right mind would send in Zim coins you probably have a good chance of getting NGC images of most or yours. 

Maybe the next time I need to spend a couple of extra bucks to qualify for free shipping I'll throw a Zim coin or two in the cart.  Better watch out. 

On 9/24/2021 at 5:21 PM, Fenntucky Mike said:

Poor little dude, we're all pulling for him and quick recovery. 

Did you get imaging through NGC for the Zim coins? I imagine you didn't as you take excellent pics of your own, but I wonder how many NGC would have imaged for their own use? It will be a good comparison, your images vs NGC Photo Vision. That's one of the advantages about collecting coins that no one else does and submitting them, if NGC does not have an image of a coin for their records they will image the coins and send you a copy.  Since no one else in their right mind would send in Zim coins you probably have a good chance of getting NGC images of most or yours. 

Maybe the next time I need to spend a couple of extra bucks to qualify for free shipping I'll throw a Zim coin or two in the cart.  Better watch out. 

I'm starting to feel like one of the things we're going to struggle with is keeping O2Sats over 95% with no oxygen support. They're reducing it but he's having trouble going to zero.

I am still waiting on Grades. They still just say "Scheduled for grading" again as of the last time I checked.  I don't get it.

If you want a few I can probably send some your way before long. I have extras and I plan to buy more to look through soon. Also: You are just crazy.

Edit to add: The Bond Coins seem likely to need images since I don't think these have ever come in to NGC. The pre-hyperinflation coins... some, maybe. The steel-plateds differ SLIGHTLY in size and weight from the non-plated but the designs are the same and NGC has graded some of these before.

On 9/24/2021 at 3:57 PM, Mohawk said:

I feel for him and for your whole family and I hope Sam makes a speedy and complete recovery soon... I remember when Sam was born and he had all of the health issues he did.  You were here with us a lot then.  And things turned out okay.  This will be the same.

At this point he's improving, he's on room air and off oxygen. He should get to come home tomorrow. The only thing is he has to start drinking more and eating more and taking his meds on his own. He is really the one that's going to decide at this point when he gets to go home. We had to have a meeting with someone today because he was already kind of a lean kid but he's lost weight over not eating because this and they're worried about how to get more calories in him.'

On 9/24/2021 at 3:57 PM, Mohawk said:

As for the Zimbabwe coins......it sounds like you have some competition there, my friend!!

Eh... yes and no. Based on what I'm seeing I doubt I have or will have serious competition for the type set I'm building for a while there. There is some movement mostly focused on a couple of denominations and raw sets but nothing to suggest someone is planning to match me in the registry - at least not yet.

On 9/24/2021 at 3:57 PM, Mohawk said:

most people are looking for attainable goals, not lifelong numismatic insanity.  

You can still do insane things with attainable goals...

Building this coin set is very attainable, but also fairly bonkers.

On 9/24/2021 at 11:03 PM, Revenant said:

At this point he's improving, he's on room air and off oxygen. He should get to come home tomorrow. The only thing is he has to start drinking more and eating more and taking his meds on his own. He is really the one that's going to decide at this point when he gets to go home. We had to have a meeting with someone today because he was already kind of a lean kid but he's lost weight over not eating because this and they're worried about how to get more calories in him.'

Eh... yes and no. Based on what I'm seeing I doubt I have or will have serious competition for the type set I'm building for a while there. There is some movement mostly focused on a couple of denominations and raw sets but nothing to suggest someone is planning to match me in the registry - at least not yet.

You can still do insane things with attainable goals...

Building this coin set is very attainable, but also fairly bonkers.

Indeed it is!!! I didn't realize how much there is to it......wow!!! That's quite a project you have taken on, my friend.  And, most importantly, I'm glad Sam is improving.  I had pneumonia once as a teenager.....I can't imagine it as a two year old!!!! The eating and drinking thing.....I can see how that would definitely be a problem.  He probably doesn't have much of an appetite from the illness and the meds, but yeah.....if he's lost weight he definitely needs to start getting some calories in him.  Since I am not a parent and have never even attempted to care for a two year old, I cannot imagine the stress of this.  I hope that he comes around and starts eating and drinking on his own.  I'm thinking he probably will, once he's feeling a bit better.

just a couple of general thought comments.....re ur long delay in grading, perhaps they dont currently have a person qualified to grade ur specific coins due to the sparcity of submissions? i once sent in a few ultra rare virtually unique coins that hadnt been graded before n it took a significant time for them to get a qualified person to grade...re ur son, one of my 6 children had several hospitalizations due to respiratory issues pre school years, the one thing id suggest u really stay on top of is with all the testing they do, closely monitor if any r tests that utilize dyes because if they do too many over a concentrated period of time they can do permanent damage to kidneys...im sure medical science is much better now then then but keep a close eye on that....godspeed on his recovery....

On 9/24/2021 at 11:08 PM, zadok said:

ur son, one of my 6 children had several hospitalizations due to respiratory issues pre school years, the one thing id suggest u really stay on top of is with all the testing they do, closely monitor if any r tests that utilize dyes because if they do too many over a concentrated period of time they can do permanent damage to kidneys

Fortunately I don't think we're dealing with anything like that. CTs and Xray series don't use dyes and all the CoVID tests just swab the nose. The Strep tests just swab the throat. They take their sample and test the sample but they don't really put anything in the kid or test the kid directly.

Unfortunately one of the two CoVID tests he's had in the last 48 hours came back positive so he's now being treated as CoVID positive in addition to being treated for Bacterial Pneumonia and he still isn't drinking... so this is going to be fun... Now basically we're all in quarantine and I need to test Ben again and if Sam does get to come home, unless Ben tests positive, they have to be separated.

On 9/24/2021 at 5:21 PM, Fenntucky Mike said:

Did you get imaging through NGC for the Zim coins? I imagine you didn't as you take excellent pics of your own, but I wonder how many NGC would have imaged for their own use?

Forgot to respond to this part, but thanks for the praise on the images. It has always been my plan to image all of these myself and take new pictures of the MS65 10C so they'd all have consistent images and make a banner image for the set similar to what I did with the 10G set with heavy emphasis on the Zimbabwe Bird Sculpture image.

Sam's O2sats are finally hitting 97/98 without help and he's smiling and eating on his own more - Shandy was having to hand-feed him. We're hoping he'll come home today. Only 3 nights in the hospital. "Only." 🙄

Sam is home. Weak, shaky, grumpy, angry and recovering but home.

On 9/24/2021 at 6:45 PM, Revenant said:

If you want a few I can probably send some your way before long. I have extras and I plan to buy more to look through soon.

Thanks for the offer! I'm gonna hold of on getting any of these for now,  if I do acquire any it'll be a completely random act or pure chance, like a few were in a bulk lot of coins I purchased. All joking aside I have been seriously contemplating going after some Rhodesian coinage but I just haven't been able to pull the trigger on it yet. I've thought about going for some Rhodesian banknotes as well but some of those have some pretty hefty price tags.  I got scared, but I keep finding myself looking at them.

On 9/26/2021 at 1:24 PM, Revenant said:

Sam is home. Weak, shaky, grumpy, angry and recovering but home.

On 9/26/2021 at 12:27 PM, Fenntucky Mike said:

Thanks for the offer! I'm gonna hold of on getting any of these for now,  if I do acquire any it'll be a completely random act or pure chance, like a few were in a bulk lot of coins I purchased. All joking aside I have been seriously contemplating going after some Rhodesian coinage but I just haven't been able to pull the trigger on it yet. I've thought about going for some Rhodesian banknotes as well but some of those have some pretty hefty price tags.  I got scared, but I keep finding myself looking at them.

Eh. Some of the Rhodesian notes and coins are interesting but they are very much apart from the Zimbabwe stuff and what speaks to me with Zimbabwe is the narrative of the set. The pre-1980 stuff just doesn't fit. Same thing with the pre P-83 Venezuela stuff.

Add in the price on Rhodesian stuff and I'm in no hurry.

As it is, I named my set "Strength and Sovereignty" and I may not continue past p114 with the end of the "Sovereign Bolivar."

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Sam is home. Weak, shaky, grumpy, angry and recovering but home

I'm so glad he's home!! That's excellent!