Just what is really disliked ? a long post

For those of you that may have looked at my custom set you know that my total collection contains well less than 200 items which includes ancient, medieval, world and U.S. coins as well as medals, tokens and jetons (so really not much of any specific collectable area). I have started selling off my collection to supplement my retirement. Anyway with well less than 200 items in my collection it must be considered small. However it does contain a couple of coins that I simply could not replace. Let?s face it the last thing a collector wants is a collection that can?t be viewed because it is locked away. Thus I am thankful to NGC for its Registry in that it allows me to store my coins at my bank while at the same time providing me the opportunity to view my collection anytime I want. This is the best of all worlds, total protection of my collection while at the same time having unlimited access to my collection.

Also the registry allows me and other collectors to share their collection with the numismatic community. I can not be the only one who checks out other registry sets. Maybe in hopes of viewing items I could only dream of owning or for ideas of what I might want to add to my own collection. Since my interest is in effect the entire numismatic universe I am not limited in what I chose to look at.

As happy as I am with the NGC Registry I will at the same time admit I am totally disappointed by it. I guess my major problem is that based on what I have viewed or better yet not viewed when I ?tour? through the registry sets. Basically I have no idea why in the world most of you use the registry. It definitely is not to share your collection with the rest of the collecting community.

The following data is based on the first page of listing for custom sets in early April. (Yes I have been composing this post for some time.)

Number of sets = 98 (I think there are 100 per page so I missed two)

Number of sets with no items in them = 21 with an average view of 257 per empty set

Number with at least 1 but no more than 5 items = 31

- At 0 to 5 coins we have already covered more than 50% of the 98 sets

Number with at least 6 but no more than 10 items = 13

Number with at least 11 but no more than 25 items = 22

Number with at least 26 but no more than 50 items = 7

Number with at least 51 but no more than 100 items = 4

Average number of items per set = 15

Number of the 77 sets having at least one item with an attached photo = 40

I can not say how representative the above numbers are of NGC Registry sets in general but out of 30 competitive sets titled ?US Colonial Issues, Complete? 10% had ?0? items in the set and another 14 sets out the remaining 27 sets have so few items in them they are shown as being 0% complete. Thus more than 50% of the sets are shown as 0% complete. In addition out of 30 listed sets there are a grand total of just 63 photos? There are some phenomenal coins listed in some of these sets and all we get is just 63 photos out of 30 sets. FYI this set of ?US Colonial Issues, Complete? is a large registry set. (Again these data are from early April.)

So just what the heck are you collectors doing here? Let?s face it, many if not most of these ?sets? are just taking up NGC computer space and with the dearth of photos no meaning info is being shared with the collecting community. Looking at most of these sets is like going to an art museum only to find empty frames on the walls along with a little card providing the title of the picture and name of the artist that would be there if the museum ever decided to take the picture out of the vault. No one can find this enjoyable, interesting or enlightening.

Maybe the old saying that goes something like, ?the road to hell is paved with good intentions? is applicable here. Maybe many of the collectors actually intended to build on their initial listings and eventually provide a ?set? listing but got disappointed when they saw what they were up against. Or maybe some were just proud of a truly rare specimen they have and are using a Registry Set Listing to allow the collecting universe to also enjoy that one item. I am sure there are numerous reasons why we have so many registry sets with virtually no contents and no photos. But isn?t it time we do some house cleaning of the sets we listed? It is only reasonable to recognize that those presenting "registry points? only sets" have no reason to post photos since photos don?t add to registry points also I must therefore assume that photos of the coins in these points only sets would not provide enjoyment or enlightenment to the rest of us collectors. But come on, custom sets get no registry points so why no photos?

I would like to make the following suggestion to NGC.

NGC should create of a Registry Photo Gallery to supplement the galleries NGC already offers. However in the Registry Photo Gallery I am recommending the photos would be posted by the members of NGC?s Registry and not NGC. Here NGC members could up load photos of NGC certified numismatically significant coins. These would be coins that are truly rare in any grade and/or coins that are in superior grades (when it comes to superior grades I personally would exclude modern issues where MS-70 is not unusual). The gallery post should require a short discussion of the significance of the coin posted to the gallery. Look it, we all know there are some phenomenal coins sitting out there in NGC holders. I would love to be able to look at these coins and it just is not happening through the registry. Also I would request that those posting the photos really do a close up of the coin. We don?t need to see the entire holder, the holder is unimportant. All the text on the holder label could be automatically uploaded via the NGC data base much as is done now with the registry sets. In addition NGC should show the registry points earned by the coin being presented in photo as well as where it is within the census. I would allow only one photo to be posted for any specific item (defined by date/mm/type/variety/etc.) with the criteria being the item being shown is the one with the highest grade actually posted to the photo gallery (higher NGC grades may exist but the owner has not posted the photo) I don?t really know if this would possible because it would require that the software be able be accepted to a new post over an old post of a lower grade. For ?coppers? each date would have a posting for brown, red-brown and red. Proofs and mint state coins would have their own listings.

My goal here is two fold. First I will support anything that adds to my enjoyment of this hobby. Second for those who want to share such material with fellow collectors this would eliminate the need to create of a registry set just to share one or two coins with the collecting community.