I am a member for "Coin Submissions" mostly...

Greetings Collectors,

I'm in my mid 50's and really don't like change, even more so when I think the change is not an improvement. The change here along with the "So Called" "Change you can believe in" we all had to swallow a little over a year and a half ago are not changes I like. In fact I will go so far to say I "dislike" both, one a whole lot more than the other. But having said all that, the change at NGC here, I am going to save "strong comment" on 'til I've had a chance to use it a few days/weeks. I will say I tried unsuccessfully several times yesterday well after the 5:30 time in which it was supposed to be up and running as I had photos of new coins to get into my galleries. Just now I've found that when I added the two pics of my 1853-O gold dollar, one photo was smaller than the other in the "thumbnails". Both were taken at the same time and were very close to the same size (file wise) along with being "cropped" the same. Yet the two look like two different size postage stamps. I don't want to even think that I have to learn some new, strange, weird way of taking the shots. Why hell, I have just gotten use to taking pictures, and was just starting to feel comfortable and relaxed. So much for my saving comment on this new site. I will say this for the NGC CS in that we get to be here for free as far as I'm concerned. I am sure the vast majority who submit coins and could be here, "are not". To sum all things up, I just hate change, period. Even if it's an improvement. But I am not in authority at NGC and what they say goes. I am fairly certain that they do care, to a certain extent, as to what we think. But at the end of the day, it's their call.

I have several other things on my mind and they are that I want to learn more about what NGC &PCGS see in a coin to label it "Improperly Cleaned". I would think every coin used in commerce has been cleaned in its lifetime. I can't begin to count how many times I have washed clothes with change in the pockets. If I were to send any of those off, would they come back with that "purple label" I just mentioned? To go one further, I have what appears to be an AU-58 "North Georgia D-mint $5 gold" that resides in a purple slab like the one I just mentioned. The strike on this coin/mint and the Charlotte mint all appear to be graded taking that "always weak strike" into consideration. I have seen coins from these two "southern branch mints" that looked no better that EF-40-45 and definately no better than AU-50 sitting in AU-58 slabs with a CAC sticker attached. Still don't know why? I am thinking about getting this piece of $5 gold, then cracking it out, and then keeping it my pocket as a "pocket piece". This is a coin that compared to other "C & D" mint gold in AU-58 slabs,is a coin that may make MS-60. Then after keeping it in that enviorment, over a period of months-a year, would it then have those, being "faintly cleaned" traces absent? I mean I'm talking about a coin worth close to 5 thousand in high AU. This one can be had for a little over 1/5th of that figure. I, of course would not have it banging around with a bunch of clad/copper/nickel change while it was riding in my front left pocket, but would this negate the effects of that very slight wipe that the coin supposedly shows? Just a thought.

In the last few months I have started on a quest similar to the one I have done with my silver eagles. I have a mint roll of each date. I started with the 1996 back in '96 which I thought I was robbed when I paid $6 per coin when silver was $3. My thoughts have been for quite some time, to be able to always "make-up" 20 choice complete sets of raw coins to sell in the future. I have now been on the same quest with my Franklin halves. The roll you see here was an eBay buy from the same seller that has a great deal of mostly "original" rolls of not only these Franklin halves, but has many Morgan & Peace date solid "gem-BU" rolls as well. It looks like 80% of the coins in the roll pictured here are "full bell line" pieces. This is my 7th roll of different dates of the 35 different rolls total I would need to have a roll from each. (I seem to create another "monster" on a weekly basis) Right now along with this roll of 1961-D's, I have the following as well: 1954-D, '55, '56, '62-D, '63, & the 1963-D. As with most of my current close to a "zillion" goals, this one is a long way from completion. The justification is that I'm buying "coin silver bullion". Like I really need a reason. The real reason is that "I'm nuts"!

I leave you with a pic showing that latest roll along with my 1853-O $1 gold that came on the same day.

Happy Collecting!

WKF