The Agony and Ecstasy look and not acquiring

I can?t even begin to tell you how many pictures of Early American Cents I?ve looked at in the last few weeks. Unfortunately, looking is all I?ve been able to do. Even in good condition all of the early coins have been out of my reach this month. Compounding the situation is I?m still not sure exactly at what I?m looking. The number of varieties is a bit overwhelming. Of course, that hasn?t deterred me from looking. I am beginning to develop a set of my own guide lines though. A worn Early American Cent is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, a worn coin can have quite a bit of eye appeal. Instead, I?ve started looking for damage or perhaps more accurately the lack of damage to the coins. My thinking here is that normal wear is part of the history of these coins so I?ll accept wear as long as the coin is not beat up. Either way, nice examples are still on the pricy side but I am determined and graded coins are almost untouchable for me. I did manage to get a critical tool for my hunt of Early American Cents. Actually it was my wife who got me a copy of Penny Whimsy by William Sheldon. I hate to admit it but the book is already starting to get quite the collection of yellow Post-it notes in it. I?m afraid it won?t be too much longer before I break out the highlighter. I still need to get my hands on Newcomb?s book for the later dates because Penny Whimsy specifically focuses on the early dates, 1793 to 1814. While I?d love to add some of these coins to my collection just looking at them is amazing.

Additions to my other sets have been thin so far this month as well. The lack of any additional funds and the bidding wars on some coins has driven prices well beyond my means. That doesn?t it?s been a dry month though. I have managed to get a few new additions to my sets. I finally broke the ice on my MS Eisenhower Set and picked up an absolutely beautiful MS67 1976S Ike. I cannot get over just how nice this coin is. It far surpassed the pictures of it while up for sale and I got it at a very nice discount to FMV. I really didn?t expect to pick up on my bid. The price of silver is still climbing and driving some very unreasonable prices by many bidders. If you couple that with the fact that the highest graded 1976S Silver Ike out there graded by either PCGS or NGC is only MS 68, picking the MS 67 up was a real coupe. I have scrutinized this coin under several different levels of magnification. I believe it may be very close to an actual MS 68. Either way, I am incredibly happy with the coin.

After a long drought of not picking up any PF70 Kennedy Half dollars (August of 2010), I did manage to get a couple just recently for well under $0.25 on the dollar of FMV. So as soon as they arrive, I?ll be adding a 2010S clad and 2005S clad to my registry set. I also managed to pick up a couple of Lincoln Cents for my MS set, an MS66 RD 1959 and an MS67 RD 2004D. The way I look at it, slow and steady wins the race. I managed to add a few more raw Barber dimes to my new album and fill a couple of holes in my Jefferson Nickel and Lincoln Cents albums as well. With the possible exception of my graded Eisenhower Sets, it is the raw albums that are my true love in this hobby. There is just something special about opening an album and paging through it to look at the coins. My find of the month was a 1943 P silver nickel in a roll I got from the bank. You just have to love going through rolls and finding that occasional treasure.

Anyway, today I will leave you with a photo of my new 1976S MS 67 Ike.

Dennis