December starts with flurry of sweet acquisitions.

It?s probably not the best time to be forking out extra money to add to my collection especially in the heart of the holiday shopping season but I learned a long time ago you have move quickly when an opportunity presents itself. December is proving to be a month of opportunity so far. Just since Thanksgiving my sets have grown with some very nice acquisitions. I?ve added a couple of nice Lincoln Cents including a top pop 1976S PR69RDU and a PR70UC LP4, a couple of PR70UC State Quarters including a Silver 1999S Pennsylvania, and I finally broke the ice and picked up my first graded Eisenhower Dollars, two actually so far. Yes, the budget is shot but I am still holding to my guns and did not chase these coins. My average purchase price was just under $0.25 of FMV for all of them including the Pennsylvania State Quarter. I guess I kind of blew through that 10,000 point mark I wrote about approaching a few weeks ago.

Honestly, I was extremely surprised to pick up the 1999S PF70UC Silver Pennsylvania Quarter. Let?s face it, as a small time collector, a coin with a $550 FMV price tag just doesn?t fall into the realm of highly likely. In fact, about the cheapest I?ve seen them on any of the auction boards has been $0.35-$0.40 on the dollar of FMV. I feel like I stole the coin and why I got it so inexpensively I cannot say. Perhaps, the internet was overloaded with all of the holiday cyber-shoppers or perhaps everyone had spent their money on holiday gifts but for whatever reason, Christmas came early for me. Despite the excitement of getting the quarter, I am most excited about finally starting my Eisenhower Dollar graded sets. With all the fervor of silver prices going through the roof and the perennial popularity and adoration of the Morgan Dollar which for some reason I do not share, Eisenhower Dollars are hands down one of my very favorite of the dollar coins. Yet, even these I will not chase as a rule. Finally though, after what seems like too many long and agonizing months, I am starting to populate the set at a price I find acceptable.

Naturally, the Christmas Season has overtaken my house like so many others and yes there will most likely be coins for me under the tree. I suspect I will get my 2010 Mint and Proof sets and if I know my kids I will probably see several rolls of circulated coins, mostly pennies. (It?s a family joke about me and my rolls of pennies or should I say ?Dad and his Damn Pennies? as my kids say ? .) While my kids amuse themselves on Christmas Day playing their new video games or partaking of other such diversions of the day, I will sit at the dinning room table meticulously examining each and every coin in those rolls. If I get my new penny albums, I will transfer my raw set. (I?ve wanted a new raw album for some time now as mine is a few decades old and starting to literally fall apart.) I think I will have company at the table this year though. My 24 year old son will be getting some new currency (actually, it?s old currency but new to him) for his collection and a latest addition of the Guide to US Currencies. Fortunately, no one else in my family has enough of a knowledge base to buy me graded coins so I can still scour the internet for deals without fear of ruining someone?s Christmas present for me. With any luck I will even be able to update the pictures and descriptions for my registry set. I have been a bit slack about that of late but as I do not have a top competitive set, I did not feel any pressure to get everything caught up for the registry awards. I will also sit and review my current collecting goals. (It seems that the pending New Year always stirs the need for reflection in me.) Having just recently blown through the 10,000 registry point mark, I guess 20,000 will be the next milestone, maybe 25,000 points. (Just for the record, the number registry points I reach is never a goal I set. It is just sort of a growth milestone.)

Well, there is still some holiday exterior illumination to be completed, some general cleaning around the house, I suppose some additional shopping and I promised my son I would log some of his recent currency additions into the database for him so I will leave with a wish for all the joy and happiness of the season and a photo of my first graded IKE.

Dennis