The following is my response to the thread, Last Straw, by SPHanson.

I too was a little disappointed when my Wilhelmina set made of up of the best coins available to me didnt win an award for best world. After all I poured my heart into this set to make it the best I could complete with photos, upgrade history, and great coin descriptions. When I looked at the winning sets to see what I could possibly do to take my set to the next level, I found four of the five sets without full descriptions and pictures! What was common about these sets though was that they were all made up of magnificently rare and valuable coins assembled into great sets that I enjoyed perusing.

I then realized that the judges couldnt pass up those sets. Lets face it a lot of awards go to people with deep pockets, but I go back to my saying that magnificent coins belong in great sets and that makes me glad there are people who have the means to bring rare coins together into sets.

There was nothing then that I could have done to make my set a winning set this year since NGC recently started the world competitive set award a few years back. In other words, they have to work their way through a lot of great sets before they get to mine.

Scott, in my opinion your set is worthy of an award and I can see your point. Mike, your set is testament to the fact that great sets dont have to be the top registry sets. This was evidenced to me when my 20th Century Type set won the best presented award in 2009 while being the 15th ranked set.

Therefore, there is nothing that I will do to change my set in preparation for next year with the exception of a timely update. Furthermore, I will put up my set in light of the 1,981 views it has that it IS a great set made up of magnificent coins.

Gary

To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.