My first year as a member of Collectors Society

Many of us have heard the clich? ?what a difference a year makes.? This saying, though a clich?, has a lot of truth to it and my first anniversary on May 31, 2009 as a member of ?Collectors Society? is no exception. A year ago, I joined Collectors Society with the express purpose of directly submitting my raw gold coins to NGC for grading. Now a year later, my collection resembles nothing of what it once was.

I have been a coin collector for about 35 years. In that time I focused mainly on US type set collecting. Having a large number of raw coins, I wanted to enhance my collection by certifying my coins. In the past, I had ignorantly submitted my coins to lower tier grading companies. Having done a little homework I found that NGC and PCGS were the only legitimate choices I had. Trying PCGS before without renewing, I decided to try NGC.

I remember my first submission, three out of the five coins in my free submission, returned as PFUC-70?s. To say I was delighted was an understatement. As a percentage of coins in a submission grading 70, this submission stands as my best. Now a year later, I have 11 coins that grade either PFUC-70 or MS-70. These coins reside in a special signature set called ?Gary?s 70?s.? Though I have purchased many 70 graded coins, ?Gary?s 70?s? is only for submissions.

For my first two to three months in the society, all I concerned myself with were submissions. Then towards the fall of 2008, because of my fascination in the beauty and imagery of ?Lady Liberty? I started a signature set called ?female images on coinage from around the world.? At that time, my set concentrated solely on designs. As I began to research and compile the history of my coins, my collection started to focus more on allegories and the persons commemorated in history. This is when I changed the name and focus of my set to ?Inspirational Ladies.? Since then NGC has honored me by naming ?Inspirational Ladies? the ?most creative? set of 2008. The beauty of this set is that it is still growing, and now has over 50 coins. From this set, I have spun off a number of registry sets, namely ?Gary?s Britannia?s? and ?Gary?s Golden Wilhelmina Guldens.? Other signature sets include a bird themed set called ?For the Birds? and a set commemorating famous African-Americans called ?Prominent African Americans.?

One of the features I enjoy about Collectors Society is the journals. I enjoy reading about others who share their passion for collecting coins. Many of the tips and insights I read about, I have integrated into my own collection. Because of the contributions of others within the Society and my love of writing, I started to share my own experiences with the Society through journaling. Since January 2009, I have made 27 of my own journal posts. My hope is that as I receive enjoyment and insight from other journals within the Society, that others experience the same from my journal posts.

As I stated earlier, I had many of the coins in my type sets graded by lower tier grading companies. To be included in my NGC registry sets, I had to get them crossover graded. Unfortunately, many of those coins turned out to be problem coins. Now I find myself having to purchase new coins to replace my problem ones. The silver lining in this is that though expensive, I will eventually have a type set populated with quality coins.

I think the greatest benefit of the past year for me is that membership in Collectors Society has helped me to organize and catalog my collection. Registry sets provide the benefits of both organization and fun competing with other collectors.

I do not know what the next year holds for me in terms of coin collecting, but renewing my membership for another year, I am going to find out. Happy collecting all!

Gary