• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

My Thanks, Again!

1 1
Revenant

660 views

Well, NGC and PMG announced the awards today around lunch time.

Let me first say Congrats to Mike. I was happy to see so many familiar names, but I was most happy to see his name pop up on both the NGC and PMG side.

Also congrats to many of the others I've often seen on the forums: The Welsh Dragon, ChrisInJesup, Physics-fan3.14, libertad1998, lehigh96, Ray USMC,... Hopefully I'm not missing anyone there but, gosh, it is a long list these days. NGC is increasingly generous on that front. But, in saying that, please don't think I'm marginalizing the accomplishment - there's like 13,000 users and they give out about 45-50 plaques a year and I think only 1-2% of users have ever gotten a major award in the ~20 year history of the awards. So, Congrats! It's a cool thing. :) 

I am very happy to get a New Best Presented Award for my Venezuela set! :banana::banana:

I really was not thinking that would get a Best Presented this year. I thought If I got a Best Presented it might be for the 500 Lire set. I thought if that Venezuela set would get something it would be a Best New Set. - Don't ever think I have a crystal ball, I'm often wrong. lol However, the 500 Lire set did not win this year, so Mike's crystal ball also clearly is not perfect either, at least this year. lol 

And, now, instead of waiting until my membership renews in June, I need to get on getting the rest of the coins for that set ready to go in. :D Or... I might end up waiting until June anyway and spending the Reward Credit and the Membership Renewal Credit at the same time. Time to finish that set and have a set so nice and dominant it sits on the top spot for the next 10 years, right? lol 

The judges got me chuckling a bit this year with the comment about "Revenant documents the circuitous ways in which he built his collection." lol

I mean, admittedly, I do drone on about how these sets were built in the coin descriptions. I do often wonder if I drone on and belabor this a bit too much and it might lead to audience tune-out lol. At the same time, the lengths that I have gone through to build these sets (Zimbabwe and Venezuela) are the main reason why I think they might not have a serious challenger for the top spot in the category for a long time - at least on the NGC side. On the PMG side, thanks to certain specific dealers, there's enough graded material to make those much more approachable. But, on the coins side, if you want to build these sets out, you can't just open your wallet. You have to do the work - at least for now. This may change in the future.

You haven't heard from me much lately because December was full of, among other things, kids being home sick all day with colds and such. But, I'm also shifting to a lower gear for now on the coin and note collecting side. Part of this is just because I've mostly finished most of my main projects for now - I just need to send in some coins to fill some holes in the 500 Lire and Venezuela sets. But, I don't know that I'm going to have a lot to talk about until and unless I find some cool new thing to build out in some epic way and add written and photographic flourishes to.

I do have a few ideas...

Shandy did surprise me on the 25th however with 2 new Rhodesian Half Pennies. That's a nice little set to build but emphasis is on little - it's only 5 dates / 5 coins and I now have 3 of them. But I may be emphasizing trying to get the last 3 coins to finish a half penny and a penny set from that last period where Zimbabwe was still part of the Commonwealth of Nations.

I'm also considering messing around with ~1970s era Rhodesian cents from the Civil War era - the civil war lasted like 15 years... which sounds... hideous.

Another contender might be spinning off from those Dancing Elephants (Rhodesian Pennies) and building an Elephant themed set. I recently rain across a 1941 Liberian Cent design with an elephant on it. From what I was seeing (haven't confirmed) I think it might have been struck in the US, at the PA mint, which immediately made me think Coin928's set / collection.

1 1



11 Comments


Recommended Comments

My congratulations to you on your awards and the others you named, especially Mike. I've seen his name on a number of my journal post replies! BTW, I hope your kids are are doing better now. Gary.

Edited by coinsbygary
Link to comment
On 1/6/2023 at 2:52 PM, coinsbygary said:

My congratulations to you on your awards and the others you named, especially Mike. I've seen his name on a number of my journal post replies! BTW, I hope your kids are are doing better now. Gary.

Thanks! You should check out his Ukrainian note set on the PMG side.

Ben is a healthy kid and just shrugs things off like you'd expect a kid to. Sam continues to be more complicated, but we managed to stay out of the hospital this time, albeit with the help of steroids, inhalers and a whole bunch of drugs and support. O.o I'm not going to be surprised if he ends up with an asthma diagnosis and he just generally does not seem to deal with respiratory infections at all well.

Link to comment
On 1/6/2023 at 3:55 PM, Coinbuf said:

Congrats!!

Thanks!

Anything new and big you're working on for down the road or are you continuing to focus mostly on the penny set that won last year?

Link to comment
On 1/6/2023 at 3:03 PM, Revenant said:

Thanks!

Anything new and big you're working on for down the road or are you continuing to focus mostly on the penny set that won last year?

No not really anything on my radar, picking up a few Lincoln cents here and there to continue plugging holes in that set.   I would enjoy finishing some of the other sets I have started but the prices of US coins have really shot up and I'm getting priced out of the market.

Link to comment

Congratulations William! Well Deserved my friend. :golfclap:

Quote

Let me first say Congrats to Mike. I was happy to see so many familiar names, but I was most happy to see his name pop up on both the NGC and PMG side.

Thanks! It was a long row to hoe on the PMG side but I got there. Yes! :whee:

Quote

I really was not thinking that would get a Best Presented this year. I thought If I got a Best Presented it might be for the 500 Lire set. I thought if that Venezuela set would get something it would be a Best New Set. - Don't ever think I have a crystal ball, I'm often wrong.  However, the 500 Lire set did not win this year, so Mike's crystal ball also clearly is not perfect either, at least this year.  

Meh, (shrug) but now I think the 500L set is really poised for 2023. :)

Quote

The judges got me chuckling a bit this year with the comment about "Revenant documents the circuitous ways in which he built his collection." 

Ha, that got a laugh out of me as well and then I had to look 'circuitous' up in the dictionary. lol

Link to comment
On 1/6/2023 at 5:26 PM, Fenntucky Mike said:

Meh, (shrug) but now I think the 500L set is really poised for 2023. :)

Honestly this outcome makes me a lot less confident on that. The judges just don't seem to respond as well to the personally themed projects like the 10G set and now those Italian sets. I seem to win awards for the sets that are more focused on the coins and the historical context of the coins. Which makes sense but Im not sure it portends good things for that undertaking. I guess we'll see. 🤷‍♂️ 

In either case, some of that $500 credit is going to go towards filling the last 3 slots in that set with the best examples I can find. I'll be proud to bring that to 100%.

I can ALMOST bring the Venezuela set to 100% now like I did Zimbabwe last year but there's still 1 more coin I'd need.

I guess more on that later.

Link to comment

Congrats to you Revenant! :banana: And to all the other winners.

I agree it was nice to see some names that I recognized as well as seeing some new ones.

Working on a new set for this year as well as adding to my other sets, mostly Solomon Islands $1 and BVI $10 with a smidge to my Burundi type set.  

Link to comment

Congratulations on the awards Revenant and Mike and everyone else. A lot of great sets were featured this year!

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now