And trying to wrap my brain around it!

Collecting on a tight (okay, very tight budget) means casting a wide net in search of those overlooked and under-priced coins that you CAN add to your set. You have to be patient and go with the ebb and flow of the market. When everyone is on the trail of the latest and greatest, you have to go the other way and get yesterday's hot coin. Of course compounding the difficulty of the search is crazy fluctuations of the metals market. When the market is burning up for silver and gold coins, I'm on the hunt for copper and nickel. When collectors are screaming for their ASE's, I hunt for Ike's and SBA's. Then when there is an all out feeding frenzy in general, I sit back and wait. January has definitely been a sit back and wait kind of month. I never rack up a bunch of EBucks in a quarter, rarely more than $20 but to give you an idea of how quiet it has been this month, my EBucks total sits at $1.60 and a big chunk of that came from a vintage casserole dish I bought for my wife.

Funny things happen when you have lots of extra time on your hands. With nothing to buy in a price range I consider acceptable, I read and do my homework. Nobody ever said this hobby was just about the acquisition of coins. I had been toying with idea of a MS Full Step Set of Jefferson Nickels but of late I've been rethinking that idea. My wife and I are both veracious readers. I tend to read more technical stuff but my wife loves history particularly Early American History. I dare saw she is considerably more informed on the subject matter than most if not all of the history teachers I know at school. Anyway, I love getting her observations, insight and opinions on the presidents and leaders of this country. I probably helps that she is also related to Millard Fillmore and Calvin Coolidge as well. (Her sister has a passion for genealogy so the Fillmore Presidential Dollar and First Lady Medal coin set that we sent her for Christmas was a huge treat for her and promptly went into the family archive.) But my wife hit me with something that has given me a new appreciation for the Presidential Dollars. (A coin that by all of my standards is BUTT UGLY!) The other day on the way to school my wife hits me with "Did you know that John Tyler still has grandsons that are alive?" Of course my reply was "What? Tyler was the 10th President." From there she went on to explain the circumstances. All of a sudden, I have an urge to collect the ugly prezzies. Yep, you heard it right. It's not the coin so much that fascinates me but the stories behind the people. My wife has even agreed to write the stories behind the coins for me for my registry sets once I get it started. I think this will be a whole lot of fun for both of us.

For the month, I really didn't add much to my collection. I popped a few PF69UC Jefferson Nickels into my registry set and a couple of MS67 Sacs but I did manage to pick up 3 very nice raw coins for my albums. I actually found a very nice and reasonably priced 1982D Kennedy Half (Probably about MS 62 or 63). Since the mint did not produce mint sets in 1982 and 1983 finding nice examples for those years can be a bit tough. I also filled the 1931D hole in my Lincoln Cent Album with a very nice XF coin. Finally, I started to plug the holes in my Indian Head Cent Album that I got for Christmas this year. I picked up a very nice 1909 coin with full liberty and 4 diamonds on the obverse and clearly separated lines on the shield on the reverse. I paid right around $10 for the coin which I consider very reasonable for the quality of the coin.

I suppose I would be remiss if I didn't weigh in on the recent NGC decision to exclude PCGS graded coins from the World Coin registry sets. As I don't have any graded world coins, the change doesn't directly affect me but I cannot say that it bodes well for all of us. I figure there are two paths NGC can follow from here. The 1st is the "New Coke" path and NGC reverses their decision somewhere down the road. The second and more ominous path is that NGC will exclude PCGS coins from all registry sets. Why they would do this is way beyond my scope of comprehension and I believe that action would drive a lot of collectors away from the registry sets but not from the hobby. Personally, I have no intention of crossing my PCGS coins over to NGC. I can't afford it, plain and simple. I don't see the need to do it either. I guess I would just have to keep track of my sets on my own. Let's face it, that's what I did before NGC or PCGS came along so why can't I do it if NGC has a mental meltdown. I think I'd stick around the Collectors Society, I really do like the interaction with the other collectors and I definitely like the ease of getting information about the coins. So here's hoping the NGC's World Coin Registry Set change goes the way of "New Coke". But alas, "Old School" collecting wasn't so bad was it?? We are all still here.

So I will leave you today with a picture of my new 1909 Indian Head Penny. It was definitely the high point of a slow month.

Dennis