2013 has been a very good year for my collection. In 2014, I plan more of the same with the exception that I will have to scale back my new purchases significantly.

2013 has been a phenomenal year of upgrades to my Netherlands eleven-coin Queen Wilhelmina 10 Gulden set. In comparison to other years, 2013 has also been the best year for upgrades since starting this set in 2009. I began 2013 with three coins below my target grade of MS-65 and now there is only one MS-64 left to upgrade. At the end of 2012, four of the seven coins were NGC top graded coins and today that number is seven of eleven! Thats right, all three of my upgrades in 2013 coins were on top of NGCs population report meeting my secondary goal of buying the best coins available. Naturally, these types of goals carry over from year to year since it is impossible to predict when buying opportunities will occur. Thus in 2014, I will make upgrades to this set as new coins become available.

In 2013, I started a new custom set entitled, The Use of Seated Imagery in Numismatics. I am very proud of this set and aggressively purchased new coins, tokens, and medals for it in 2013. Today that set has 49 coins with accompanying owner comments for most of the pieces. In 2014, I plan to scale back my new purchases somewhat and complete the owner comments. As an aside, I sent an email with a link of my set to the editor of the E-Gobrecht, the monthly newsletter of the Liberty Seated Collectors Club and he may feature my set in his newsletter soon.

My Morgan Dollar and Inspirational Ladies sets were slow goes in 2013. However, a few of the pieces I added, I had been searching a long time to obtain. My goals for both of these sets in 2014 will be more of the same, except that Id like to be a little more aggressive in completing my Morgan Dollar set.

No getting around it, domestic purchases will trump coin purchases in 2014. I put off too many things for too long to ignore them any longer. I was brutally reminded of this when my 18-year-old dryer broke down a few days ago. Consequently, my wife and I promptly went to the Best Buy store to purchase a new washer and dryer set. As far as the house goes, Im still paying off a loan to repair the flooding in my basement from a year ago. Furthermore, this coming year I plan to add new gutters. Mind you, these are only a few of the things I will need to do for the house in 2014.

At any rate, upgrading coin photos with my new macro rig purchased in 2013 and owner comments are free activities that will keep me connected to my collection in 2014. However, to end 2013 with a bang and begin 2014 with austerity, I added a rare and expensive coin to my seated set that will become the cornerstone of that set. Please enjoy this photo of a recently graded MS-62 Bavarian 2-Taler coin commemorating the completion of Ludwig's canal (my rare and expensive cornerstone). May you all have a healthy and prosperous 2014.

Gary

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