I really need to get a life...other than Franklin halves & silver bars.

Greetings Collectors,

There is nothing like working in the yard all afternoon and then coming in and winning a coin you have been searching for years for. Lately I have had a couple of good sources for FBL Franklins and actually the ones pictured here are from a source I bought around a dozen coins from over a 10 day period. All were auction buys and I have never seen such an abundance of ultra high quality NGC FBL coins in one place in all of my years. This seller evidently bought an entire collection from an indivigual who he or she had sent off all at one time because of the "pre-fix" NGC numbers on the slab are all the same. To have this many different dates and all being such high quality, it smells of original bank rolls put away years ago and then "cherry picked" for the finest of them for submission. Anyway, that's my guess. This ebayer still has coins up every week from the same "batch" but all that I see leftover from this, of what apparently was a "large submission" is MS 64 FBL's and some regular MS 65's (non FBL). I wish there were more 65 FBL coins but there does not appear to be any more coming.

These three brilliant gems are absolutely awesome coins and unless the grade goes to 66, (which very rarely happens) these are some of the finest I have ever seen. Brilliant white coins are in-between scarce and rare and probably more the latter than the former. But the coin I have been waiting several years on, exposed itself a week ago and I came in at 5:15 this afternoon to "snipe" it out from underneath someone. I feel kinda bad doing it that way but "what the heck" I really have been needing this coin for some time and today was the day. I finally filled the 1951-P slot with a PCGS MS-65 and yes, it had FBL's. I moved a very nice 64 FBL to my #2 set. Now all I have to do is wait about three days and it will be here. Now I am waiting on three coins to arrive, a 1959-D NGC 65-FBL, this 1951-P PCGS 65-FBL and a really sweet 1951-S PCGS 65 non-fbl. Once they arrive I will be able to take some photos to add to the description I have already done.

Slowly but surely I am chipping away at finishing this set with all 65's and full bell lines. I now lack some really tough ones which are the 1949-D, 1952-S, 1960-D, 1961, 1961-D, 1962, 1962-D & the 1963. All of the dates in the sixties are super rare because when the "master die" was reworked for the 1960 year minting, the first time this had been done since the series started in 1948, the detail was enhanced greatly everywhere "BUT" the bell lines. So everyone of those dates just mentioned are very hard to find for decent money. Only the first few coins struck from a new "working die" would strike up in the bell line area and then if the coin started out GEM, those dam "coin counting" machines would "do them in". So much for "modern Technology". Oh well, the hunt will continue but the purchases will be very few and far between because of the $ needed to aquire what I have left to get.

So I just wanted to share these three little "Denver Beauties" with you along with some of the rarest silver bars on the planet. These three are from "Consolodated Mines and Metals". I have these and a 10.23 ounce example and I have not seen any before I got these or since purchasing them. They are very very scarce. If any of you ever see one, you owe it to yourself to try and pick it up. Of course you may be betting against me when you do. So now it's "mailman watching" time for the three Franklins and also my 2008-W Unc. 4-coin Gold Eagle coin set that was "finalized, imaged & shipped" this last Friday. I still don't "peek" at the grades even though they are available for viewing. It always seems more fun to wait and open that "sturdy rectangular cardboard box" when it arrives from S. Florida.

I trust everyone had a good weekend with their moms and here's hoping that this week the metals market continues with these "legs" it has grown. Happy Collecting!

WKF