Top Pops and not.

For those of you that keep up with the Lincolns, you may have already noticed that a couple of my sets have moved up.

My Memorial set has recently climbed a spot to No. 13. I'm drawing closer to my goal of a Top 10 set with a minimum of 8000 points (I'm really shooting for 10000 pts). I've added some very decent coins to the set in the last 2 weeks. Some of them have not arrived yet so no pictures for those as of this writing, but let me assure you they are mint red. They are:

1962 D NGC MS66RD Only 7 are graded higher by NGC at MS67

1963 D NGC MS66RD Only 2 are graded higher by NGC at MS67

1975 P NGC MS67RD NGC Top Pop with only 28 graded

1976 P PCGS MS67RD NGC Top Pop with only 53 graded. Yea, I know its in the wrong slab but look at the coin! Isn't pretty?

My Late Wheat set has also moved up recently, thanks in part to the 1947 MS67RD that I raved about in my last journal. Since then I've added another MS67RD. I've decided to acquire as many MS67 coins as I can afford and go for a Top 15 set. I'm up to #49 now with only 16 coins in the set. The recent additon is:

1954 S NGC MS67RD NGC Top Pop

I even made a decision about how to attack my much neglected Early Wheat set and added a coin there. I thought about this set extensively and despite my true desire to build a top set, I finally realized there is NO way I can afford the coins needed to compete for a top set. I compromised with myself and concluded I would try to complete the set in MS64 coins of some color, red if possible though. I'm hoping this will some day put me in the Top 25. We'll see. My acquisition for this set was:

1930 P NGC MS64RD Definitely not top pop, but still a nice coin

I sent an invoice and 5 coins to NGC for grading today. They were all coins from my personal raw collections. In about three weeks we'll see how those turn out. Here is a list of those:

1865 IHC - I purchased this one years ago for about $100 before I ever had a clue about cleaning or whizzing or anything of that nature. It will either be BB'd or come back as at least an MS64RD with some very nice points attached to it.

1896 IHC - I'm guessing MS64BN.

1903 IHC - This one WAS (emphasis on WAS) in an ANACS MS63RB slab. Curious to see what NGC says.

1906 IHC - I'd guess MS64BN on this one too.

1931 S Lincoln Wheat - I purchased this one raw for just a couple of bucks under $200 about a year ago. I'm hoping for an MS64RB at the worst and begging for an MS65RB.

Anyway, thanks for reading and check out my sets if you get a chance.

Michael