... Giving NGC the Business!

Coin Journal for the week of 03/26/2012 through 04/01/2012Well, what a week it has been. Many of the auction items I won have been flowing in, and going right back out to NGC for grading. These are the raw coins that I picked out as nice coins at great prices. Most will be flipped to support the sets I am working on... every dollar counts! Pouring everything into this process, I hope to be able to afford the more expensive coins I need to complete more #1 sets this year. The first new set I will complete this year will be the 21st Century Proof Type Set... I lack only one coin to make it #1, and I have my sights set on it already (hopefully I will have it by the next journal!)The second set I am working on is a 1907 Mint set as a memorial to my Grandma Alice, who started my in coin collecting. Keeping an eye out for 1907 coins has proven to be a tougher task than I first thought. The few 1907 coins that pop up on the auction sites are either poor quality of insanely expensive. I decided to build the set from scratch by judiciously picking raw coins and getting them slabbed myself. The first I purchased was a pretty nice AU Indian Head. This one was in between some 'nicer' looking coins, but I suspected that those had been cleaned. Luckily (for me), all the bidders concentrated on those, and let me have the 'ugly duckling' for next to nothing. The second one that caught my eye was a XF/AU 1907 quarter that I had to fight for, but it was one of those that just caught my fancy. I also received the 2012 Birth Year sets, which were sent in to NGC immediately. I was actually surprised when NGC called me to discuss how I wanted these encapsulated. They will be putting 'Birth Year Set' on the label, showing that these proofs came out before the actual proof set, which is cool. I don't know if there will be a separate slot for these, tho. If so, then having them will be important, and hard to get since I don't think that many are being sent in for grading (based on sales figures). I'm eager to see how these grade out, and I'll share when I get the info. I was also told that the BYS designation would only be done until the standard proof set comes out... oh, and mine will also have the 'First Release' designation.Have to cut this journal a bit short this week... have some more work to do. I'd like to leave you with a picture of another coin I grabbed during the auction that the 1886 dime came form. It is a sweet looking 1883 Shield 5c in what I think to be an MS64. Enjoy!Thanks for reading, and I will see you fellow coin warriors in the trenches!To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.