Building a top rated registry set is more difficult than I had anticipated.

One of the most intriguing registry sets in my collection is the current First Spouse gold coins. Two features about this series captivate me. The first being, since the coins feature our nation?s First Ladies, they fit nicely into my ?Inspirational Ladies? signature set. The second is that they contain ? oz. of pure gold. Moreover, there is something appealing to me about that yellow metal. To say I have gold fever is an understatement.

I originally intended to collect the First Spouse coins that featured the allegorical ?Lady Liberty?. Then I started purchasing other coins in the series because I liked the designs. Finally, seeing this as an opportunity to methodically add gold coins into my collection, I decided to collect them all despite them being so expensive.

Now, since I am collecting this series, I thought I might like to have a top rated registry set. Nevertheless, to compete in this registry, my set must consist entirely of PFUC-70 coins, since there is a fair supply of PFUC-70 coins in the marketplace. With this in mind, I began to develop strategies for obtaining PFUC-70?s to populate my set. My strategy includes purchasing raw coins from the mint and submitting them to NGC, purchasing already certified coins, and playing the gold market to sell my 69?s and purchase 70?s.

The first thing I did was purchase a 2007 PFUC-70 Jefferson?s Liberty to replace a 69 I already owned. Because of this coin?s mintage and the fact that it was issued when gold was much cheaper, I could acquire this coin for a reasonable price. To free up funds to purchase the 70, I sold the 69. Since I did not own the Martha Washington or the Abigail Adams coins, I purchased them raw and submitted them to NGC for grading. Martha Washington returned with a 70, and I added her to a PFUC-70 Dolley Madison already residing in my collection. Mintage figures on these coins also made them relatively inexpensive. Later, I purchased a PFUC-70 Abigail Adams for a reasonable price and I intend to sell the 69 soon. While this worked well with the 2007?s, the 2008?s are quite another story.

Currently, I have two remaining PFUC-69?s in my collection, Jackson?s Liberty and Louisa Adams. Both coins I purchased directly from the mint. The problem I have with these coins that I did not have with the others is that the price of gold is much higher, making these coins much more expensive. Secondly, the mintage numbers on these coins make them scarcer, adding to their value. Another problem that I did not anticipate is the disparity in value between 69 and 70. Where this disparity is $100 or less, there is no big deal, but with Louisa Adams, the disparity is $500.00. Now follow me through this scenario and you will find like me that it is insane. Purchase coin from mint, $629.00, Submit to NGC, $15.00 plus postage, upgrade to 70, $1100.00, sell 69 at something less than cost. For the cost of upgrading, I could just about buy another coin from the mint, hoping to hit the 70 jackpot! The truth is, now I am in the big leagues, and I cannot keep up. To be a 70?s slave, I cannot afford.

For now, I will wait and see what happens as I focus on my other more inexpensive sets. As time passes, the values will likely settle down and make upgrading to a 70 reasonable again. It is amazing that I can even keep up with this set at all. Regardless, I currently own a fine set with nice coins, and as I buy more coins from the mint, I am sure to hit more 70?s along the way. Oh and by the way, I ordered Anna Harrison before the mint raised her price. I think I like the mint's new pricing scheme.

Happy collecting to all!

Gary