received from the mint in only 4 days from ordering

In 2005 the first issue of Canada's yearly Tall Ships $20 Hologram coins came out and I got one for my set of themed coins. A little reluctant at first because of not particularly liking the "cheap" look of painted coins or colored picture coins, I bought that coin because of the superb design and detail. I was realy surprised to find how beautiful the coin was when it arrived, and what a great medium a partial hologram image is for a ship-themed coin. The 2005 had the hologram on the water where a tilt of the coin could create a darkening sunset, or a brilliant orange sunrise reflecting in the waves. The 2006 had the hologram in the sky, where with the right tilt a looming squall can be seen in the distance--complete with lightning.

I have been anxiously awaiting the release of the 2007 version,{ as I'm sure many of you who collect moderns can probably relate with} and on Monday I saw that it was available at the Royal Canadian Mint Website and purchased it. On Tuesday I got an email saying that it had shipped !!! And I was stunned today when I stopped by the post office and it had arrived!! Four days after placing the order I had it in hand...super service from a mint.

My only other recent purchase was a nicer Whitman Album for my Buffalo Nickels. I just want my albums to be a bit more uniform--same style and color-- and now I found a new conundrum. I was down to just needing a nice full date 1913-S to finish this set...but low and behold---this album has HOLES for the 1918/17 D nickel and the 1937-D 3-legged nickel. I wonder what the odds of finding quality raw coins of those varieties is. Well, it looks like more crackouts for my albums are in my future.

Speaking of slabs, I have 6 coins in receiving at NGC..and one coin somewhere at NCS. I say somewhere because I sent it several weeks ago and called after 1 week to make sure they got it--they did--but that's all I know. I guess I'll wait until it has been a month, and if it doesn't appear at NGC by then I'll call again to check on the progress.

So, even though my collection has only grown by 1 coin in the past several weeks, I have still been very busy with the hobby...I even finally finished all of the individual coin descriptions in my signature set

Here's a photo of the 2007 Tall Ships series edition..this years' ship is a Brigantine, a great 2-masted ship...

PS: the 2005 and 2006 editions can be viewed in my High Seas sig set Gallery Page #1