Shandy and I have picked (from amongst the coins I have so far) the ones we think are the best and these will be among the ones I send in a few months from now.

I am looking to make a couple more purchases of raw Zimbabwean coins between now and when these go out to NGC to try to get examples of the last few types I will need and maybe get better examples of some of these, so some of these may get bumped out of the submission if I find better – more on that in a couple of weeks probably.

The current crop includes:

1 Km-1a 1980 1C

1 Km-1b 1997 1C (rolling the dice for a MS66...).

2 Km-2 1997 5C (I’m hoping I might snag an MS64, MS65 or even an MS66 with these, but bumping that 1999 AU58 out is going to be easy with these).

2 Km-3a 1999 10C (These 1999s look very good and it could be cool to have a coin for that slot that I graded myself. I think these might have a shot at a 65-67)

1 Km-6b $1 (Might get another 63, but this one looks a bit nicer than the 63 I got back - fewer deeper scratches).

1 Km-12b $2 (This one looks… It may do a 63 or 64)

2 Km-13 $5 (It may do a 63 or 64)

2 Km-21 2017 $1 Bond Coins (These look great and should hopefully come back as a 66 or 67 like the other bond coins – hopefully 67).

2 Km-22 2018 $2 Bond Coins (These look great and should hopefully come back as a 66 or 67 like the other bond coins – hopefully 67).

The best of the 20C and 50C coins from the new batch basically look the same and seem like they would grade the same as the coins I just got back from grading so I’m not going to send any of the coins of those denominations from this batch in.

I may still add in that 2017 50C Bond Coin Shandy thought was the best of those to the above – I will get around to asking NGC to add slots for the $1 and $2 Bond coins in December probably, just to get ready.

I’m keeping the ones I’m planning to submit in flips, to make it easier to send them later and to separate them from the “rejects” / lesser examples, which are increasingly in 2x2s.In using both I find that I like different things about each and I find myself debating which I like more. I don't like the fact that the coins can slip / slide around in the flips a little if I'm not careful where the 2x2s hold them more snugly.

Every coin in this group so far has been picked with Shandy and I sitting together, looking at them in flips by lamplight, comparing them, and talking about which one looks the best. And that, without doubt, is the biggest victory of this whole undertaking. I have gotten to sit and look at coins with my wife, with her participation, talking, smiling, and laughing, enjoying the time together, and at the end she says she enjoys it and seems to mean it. No matter how the grades end up next year, there's the win – We’re finding more ways to bond over coin collecting together.

And I’m going to keep building on this. I’m already working on finding various ways to build on this – but more on that later too. I have no confidence in Zimbabwe coins alone to continue to hold her interest.

I think I did myself at least 1 big favor in that I broke it up. I didn't come at her all at once with 11 types and 60-75 coins to look at. I did this over 4 nights with nights in between and only brought 2-3 types and 10-18 coins at a time. I did some pre-screening in some cases to knock out coins I knew weren’t the winners. With something like this, especially early on, especially doing this at night when the kids are in bed and we're tired and winding down, you absolutely can't overstay or overtax your welcome.

When we’d picked through the last of them, very much to my surprise, Shandy asked if she was going to get “a link or something” to watch the Submission Tracker for updates herself when these go in. I don’t know how she could ever imagine these going in for grading and not getting constant, daily, yacking from me about it and watching for news. Utter madness.

Still, for so many reasons now, this set is well on its way to becoming something that will be near and dear to my heart for a long time.

We just celebrated our first Thanksgiving here. This will be our first Christmas in the new house. The tree is up. Time to start wrapping presents.

This is the last entry for the 2021 Registry Year, but there is much more to come. I’m both surprised at how much I was able to get done in the last couple of weeks in terms of upgrading my pictures and banners and disappointed that I didn’t get further – didn’t get to the Koalas, the cents, the statehood quarters or the mint state presidential dollars that I have. It will be a goal to continue this into 2022’s award cycle and try to improve the pictures on these and the other “Wright Family” mint sets to bring all of these sets in line with my new photo standards and make every set in my registry a set worth looking at and clicking through.

2022 may well not be an NCLT-focused year as I continue to look for ways to build on what I’ve started this year with Shandy and continue to emphasize projects and goals that we can experience and share together. I'm somewhat torn in that part of me wants to focus on building / finishing existing / old sets and not starting entirely new things, but I also think some new things sound more fun, more promising, and more easily shared with Her. Still TBD on that one.

Enjoy the journey.