Mohawk

Mike has earned some kind of "I told you so," as he made references back in, I think, October, about the Zimbabwean coin set winning "Best Presented" this year and I was like, "Nope. Nah. Not gonna happen."
I am, once again, very honored by the award and the recognition. 😃
I'm thrilled for Coinbuf, Lem E, deposito, jgenn and coin928 for their wins, many on sets that have been long labored and personal projects. It's a humbling thing sometimes to be listed next to such endeavors. But some of you guys really need to stop counting yourselves out and selling short your chances.
My wife and I popped a bottle of Champagne Friday night that was left over from New Year’s Eve. I’m not sure if this means we had a lame NYE party or if we bought too much booze. I guess it’s cool either way. She wanted a photo to go with this post and specifically dragged me back up to my desk to get the case from Father’s Day with the 5 gold coins in the background of the shot because she was feeling the need to be artsy I guess. Poor choice of subjects if you’re going to be artsy. Ick… 35… I’m getting older and these kids are sucking the life out of me and the hair off my head.  But the wife keeps insisting that I look Handsome... now where's that Meme of the Old Man saying he was lied too... 

The comments from the judges mention the set having 21 coins, and it does - 23 actually - but I only had 14 graded and in the set as of Dec 1. Which is the main reason I was convinced that set had not a chance - not a one - this year. But, the coins are ready, I've already started the online submission form, and I will be finishing it as soon as I can. Now that this has come through though I think I’m going to be tacking on some 500 Lire Italian coins at the end of the submission.
Shandy of course immediately joked, "so, you won, so now we're going to just drop that and move on to something else, right?" But, naturally she knows that isn't what we're doing and I think she'd kill me if I tried after all the shared effort looking at and picking coins.
This seems to be becoming a recurring theme for me - I win and then I spend the credits mostly on the set that won - which will not win again - rather than putting it (and the time and energy) towards something new that might win next year. I spent all of the PMG credits from the note set winning on that same collection. Fun collecting, but bad strategy I suppose. But, you can't just not finish something like that after putting so much into it.
My candidate for "Worst of the Best 2020" is now "Best Presented 2021" - just to continue to reference the past of this journal as we prepare to start a new cycle in earnest.
This is going to be one set where it’s going to be a lot of fun for me over time to see the progress of it in the archives over time - getting to see it as it was in 2020 with one coin and no banner, see it in 2021 with the banner, and, hopefully, maybe, see it as the #1 in 2022 with all the coins filled in / 100% complete, and then maybe see it again in 2023 with some coins upgraded. Snapshots in time as the set progressed - assuming it stays #1. I guess we’ll see if anyone wants to throw down in a crazy-off.


The 10G set is another one that I love being able to look back at how it has incrementally grown and improved over now 6 years of being #1, but I think I’ve said that before.
But this outcome has reinforced my decision to cull the submission down to 22 of the best coins from the original 33 and then move on to other things for now once the set is full in a graded state. And I do have at least two things I'm looking at that are in the pipeline, and which will probably now be 2022 projects instead of 2023 projects.
As far as the journal awards go, I'm not going to lie - I'm more than a little sad to see that go - and not just because this means I'll have to do more than just run at the mouth if I want to keep winning major awards and because this means I'll never catch up to Gary.
The Journal Awards had been given out every year since about 2004 or 2005 and, as such, they were one of the oldest and most consistent features in the awards. But participation has been dropping for years and I think it was down again this year vs last year. And I guess this year was the year NGC decided enough was enough and to pull the plug on them. I had thought we were at thus point 2 years ago when the journal awards weren't announced / listed for 2019 but instead they actually upped it by extending the $500 credit to the journal awards where it hadn't before. I guess the last two years were the last chance to see if it would rebound and it... didn't.
Now that they are officially axed, I don't expect the journal awards to ever return but I hope NGC will consider replacing them with something like the community awards that are given on the Comics side - something that can celebrate some of the people that make it worth it to keep visiting the chat boards and who come to share the joy of collecting and not to grind political axes and grumble.
But... while the journals awards are done, don't think you're rid of me yet. I posted in 2019 when I thought they were dead and in 2020. I expect to have more to say in 2022, though I expect inevitably, eventually, my time and efforts will likely go elsewhere for a while just like they did from 2010 to 2017 - because life is like that, and I can't always actively collect, and I don't post or have much to say when I don't actively collect.
But, right now, I'm collecting pretty darn actively. 😃

No, I'm not talking about this year which I can only call another strange year, but rather, the year 1860.  In trying to broaden my Silver Dollars of '60 custom set, I researched the silver dollar-like coins issued from European nations in 1860 and I believe there are only two.  By this time, thalers had shrunk to 33mm and 18.52g so they no longer fit my definition of silver dollar size!  Having already acquired a nice 20 reales of Spain (38mm, 26.291g), I was stuck with finding the 5 lire of the Kingdom of Sardinia (37mm, 25g), a coin with a mintage of only 5,044.  That is one hard year!   But, why such a small mintage?  In 1859 the Kingdom of Sardinia, also known as Piedmont-Sardinia had launched an effort to reunify the Italian states and successfully concluded several military campaigns with their French ally against Austria.  In 1860 the Kingdom proceeded to gain support from other Northern Italian States through plebiscite and achieved decisive military victories against the papal army and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.  Warfare is expensive so my guess is that silver stocks were depleted leading to the low mintage of coins for general circulation.   The political and military successes of 1860 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy with the King of Sardinia, Vittorio Emanuele II, it's first ruler of a united Italy since the 6th century.  Clearly, for those that benefited from a unified Italy, 1860 was a great year.   I finally tracked down an example of the silver dollar-like coin from the Kingdom of Sardinia, dated 1860.  This coin was minted in the principle city of Piedmont, Turin, as denoted by the eagle head mintmark.  Turin was the capital of the Kingdom of Italy until 1865.   ~jack

Yesterday Sam was finally feeling better – he is back at daycare today and we’re enjoying our 1 child-free work from home day of the week – so we got to go out with my in-laws so we could have a birthday celebration with them, and they could give me their present for me… and I finally got to find out what the big mystery was that my wife has been keeping.

I laughed so hard and this and got a real kick out of it. I’m normally not very effusive when getting gifts but they said they think this is the best response I’ve had to a gift in 7 years of knowing me.
So here is the story on this thing:
You all know I like Pawn Stars if you’ve read some prior entries. Yes, I know it isn’t real. It is still entertaining IMO.
I love the old man, as many people do / did. When I was growing up my mother always said I was like a grumpy, curmudgeonly old man and that I was “18 going on 80.” She’s called me her grumpy old man for nearly 20 years. To this day my wife points out that I “can be so curmudgeonly some days.” So, I enjoyed this man, always did.
Something made me think of these the other week and I went online to see what they were going for and the asking prices on eBay were insane. I screen-capped it and sent it to my wife and I was just like, I really like these, but I just can’t see ever paying that much for one.
My mother-in-law – who was given me proof silver eagles the last couple of years, one of which she bought at the mint in Philadelphia a few years back when she visited New York – wanted something new / different to give me and my wife suggested this. She then was able to find a way to buy it directly and get a much better price on it than what I was seeing – I don’t know what, but I’m assured they didn’t pay the $125+ prices I was seeing on eBay and that they stayed in their normal budget. So, I’ll believe her. 

I love that they got one of the ones in an NGC holder.
It makes a great gift for a birthday like 35 for someone born in October that’s a father of 2 sons. Lol

I think this is one of those things you have to be given as a gift. It works so much better than just buying it for yourself.
Forgot to mention this in my last entry but Ben is apparently convinced that my favorite color is gold and he thought I’d want gold-colored icing on my birthday cake this week. I don’t know why he thinks this. If you look at my office, you’d more likely come to the conclusion that my favorite color is cherry-colored wood. Other than my coins that actually are gold, my wedding ring and my class ring, I don’t think I own a single thing that is gold or gold-plated or anything like that and he doesn’t even see the actual gold coin except for very very rarely. Honestly, after him calling that small silver bar a gold bar I’m wondering if he even really knows what “gold” is and looks like or if he thinks silver is gold. I actually DO like silver and “gunmetal” / “gunmetal grey” on things.

Xan Chamberlain must have gotten a box in the mail yesterday.

This set popped up last night with just one coin and now the other 7 coins from that submission that got added to the census about 2 weeks ago have been added. It also looks like he has a $2 coin that popped up in the census the following week when my coins were added.But I'm not seeing in his set (yet, anyway) a 1999 10C in MS64 or an older-type $1 coin that popped up in the census the same week as my coins and that $2 coin. What I'm seeing in our two sets only accounts for 22 of the 25-27 MS coins that I think have been added to the Zimbabwe census in about the last 6 months. And if I remember right, some of the others were $5 coins and it wouldn't really make sense to me for him to send in two of those in such a short span of time - again, not saying that he didn't. I don't have nearly all the facts. I'm just thinking with my gut here. Add in the fact that there were MS graded coins out there before April 2021 and someone submitted the MS65 10C that I have... there's someone else, out there, right?
So, I think there is still some mystery to dig into in that I think there's a third person getting these graded. It's either that, or Xan submitted another 2-coin submission a while back (or a submission with 2 Z coins) and then got 2-3 more graded about a week after this coin going group and those coins hit the census with mine, and then there was a 1 coin submission that hit the census on 10/5 with a single 1983 cent. I'm not saying it is impossible but it would be odd to me to see someone send in 3 small submissions in the space of a month and about 4 in about 6 months for the same country.
I guess I'll see if a 1999 10C coin, a 1983 Cent, or one of these other new-to-the census coins hit Xan's set in the next couple of weeks and if the census keeps going up.
So there is officially a little competition and a little life in that category now.

I wonder if he used part of his 2020 grading credit to do this just like I did.
Especially given the timing, I wonder if he got the idea for this from me and I'm wondering if he'll read this...
It's always funny to think about.
I wonder if he'll chime in or drop me a line / a message and shed some light on it for me.
He collects some older Rhodesian Coins but I don't see that he participates on the PMG side with the notes. 
I wonder what brings him into it and why he decided to go down this road. I wonder if there could be some fun chats about it.
But, I think the same thing about Adrian123456, and he seems to prefer to watch in silence too.
Adrian has a fantastic, nearly complete variety set of the 2003 Emergency Bearer Checks (P-21 to P-23) that I think is one of the more impressive sets in the PMG Zimbabwe Registry - getting all of those varieties is not easy and he's had to compromise on grade on some of the type-a's even though the notes themselves still look quite nice in his scans - or maybe he uses PMG's scans. I'm not sure there.
I wonder if Adrian could be submitter #3, but I think he'd list / register his if he were... 
You guys should talk to me. This could be fun. Just talk to Mike. He can attest - I'm not crazy!  

The time has come to retire!
I Have decided to place my ENTIRE NGC REGISTRY COLLECTION of Morgan, Peace, Silver Eagles & Modern Gold & other specialties for sale with Great Collections. 
I can't say that I will not miss collecting some of the finest coins, all of which are NGC certified coins, because I will.  I have always liked what the NGC holders made my coins look like: Absolutely Awesome!
Many of you have inquired over the years about buying a coin or two that you have seen here at the registry. Now is your chance!
And I want to wish a heartfelt thank you to NGC for providing the Registry. The NGC Registry was a forum to show the world what I have collected. Thank you NGC!
Randy Prefer

Well, I'd really thought that after my Z coins hit grading on Tuesday of last week I'd get grades this week almost for sure and I'd be getting to post about the results. Sadly, this was not the case - I'm still waiting. But hopefully they'll finish soon. But I won't see grades before Tuesday now with Labor Day coming up.
Gosh... I'm really wanting to know the results and hoping to not be massively disappointed. This is dragging on and turning into a nail-biter!
In the mean time, I thought I'd take a minute and share some artsy nonsense with everyone.
Most of the time when we're taking coin photos we're trying to capture the whole coin with good focus, luster and detail or trying to take pictures with a microscope to see variety identifiers. Sometimes though I like to get shots that are more meant to approach the subject more artistically and wanted to share some of those just for fun:
I feel like you see a lot of similar stuff come out of NGC sometimes - when they want something to grab attention for some article or announcement.'
It's fun stuff to play around with when you're bored or just want to run from life's responsibilities...  
 

So, I was still feeling salty about those $2 and $5 bi-metallics and decided to leave a bad review on them a while ago - I left good reviews on two raw notes I'd bought that both graded well.
A few days later they reply to the 5-star reviews thanking me, but I see nothing on the 2-star... The 5 stars are showing on the website, but the 2 star isn't.
Three days later I finally see a reply come through saying that they tried to reach out to me but got no response... the 2-star review still isn't showing on their website even though they responded to it...
As I pointed out to them, I get and see tons of emails from them - I'd gotten 4 emails that day about their flash sale. I get their emails asking for reviews on what I've bought previously. I got the emails responding to the other reviews. And yet... somehow... they claim I missed and didn't respond to the one email I've really wanted from them?? I see everything else, and nothing goes to spam - I'm sure in part because Gmail knows I actually open a lot of them - but - somehow - I didn't get that one message.
They responded back saying they sent the message on the day before the other comments came back. I checked to see - not in my trash. Not in spam. Not there. I think they need to check their "drafts" folder. But I don't think they sent anything.
But I do suddenly understand how - and why - those coin sets had only three 5-star reviews when I got such shabby coins and why there's never anything other than 5-star reviews on that site on anything.
They must be blocking / filtering out anything that isn't 5 stars. It's a testimonial feed masquerading as a rating / review system. So, I'm never going to bother leaving a review on that site again. No one will ever read it.
I did send images of those 6 coins, just because - I'm right and what they sent for those 2 denominations looks nowhere near as nice as what their website images show.
It didn't really go anywhere because it was past their 30 day return window.
I didn't expect anything good to come out of it, but the complaint deserved to be made. If I'd wanted a refund, I would have chosen to contact them within 30 days and instead I chose to pick what seemed worthwhile and make a smaller submission - there really aren't tons of sellers offering these coins / sets in uncirculated condition. But they promised mint and that isn't what they delivered and that deserved to be called out.
Maybe I'm unfair in some of my griping here but I don't think I'm going to be buying from them anymore. I've had success buying from them in the past and had good service in the past but since 2020 every time I interact with their customer service it tends to be a disaster and they've jacked up their order minimums so much that you can't just make a small, fun purchase anymore - other dealers are just treating me better at this point - and delivering what they advertise.
On a more positive note, the coins I submitted hit Grading/Encapsulation today. So maybe in another week I’ll finally know how good or bad the coins I didn’t hate did, along with the Bond Coins, which I’m very optimistic on.
Seeing this helped spur me on to work a little more on my descriptions and comments for these Zimbabwean coins. I’m hoping to polish them off with comments on how well they do individually and post them up as soon as I get them - hopefully with some nice looking photos.

We've been to the zoo a couple more times and gotten Ben a couple of new pennies. This almost immediately brought forward the idea of how do we help him not lose them and keep track of all of them? So I decided to see what I could get on Amazon. I was able to find some "Penny Passport" books for a good price. A seller was offering 1 for about $7.80 and a set of 3 for $15 so I just bought a group of three. I figured, one for him, one for me, and one for Sam and we'll all do it together over time. Each album holds 36 pennies so I'll just get more as needed. They each come with 1 random elongated cent. I let Ben decide which one each one of us got. I have a feeling in a few years Ben might have some regrets when he realizes that he gave Sam the one for Roswell, New Mexico with the flying saucer on it, but he took the one from the San Antonio zoo for himself.

Recently Ben has been a bit spoiled by both his grandparents and us and almost every day he looks to see if there's a package that's been delivered with a "surprise" for him. This is partially my fault because for a few days we were getting several packages with things like water guns that he's finally old enough to start playing with. Expectations will have to be recalibrated but I'll deal with that later. But all of this meant we had to "find" the package on the porch (even though I'd gotten it from the mailbox earlier) and open it together.

All and all I'd say he was excited.

Later on, at bed time, he wanted to take it to bed with him. The next day, when they were getting ready to go to the children's museum, he wanted to take it with him to that.
I'll have to see if I can convince my wife to let me sneak a few extra the next time we go so I can catch up with him in the books / collection. (the wife: "It's not a competition." … "It totally is.")
I have 3 old elongated cents from my child hood from Moody Gardens, the San Jacinto Monument, and the Battleship Texas. I'd considered putting those in this new album. But, when I found them, I found that my younger self hadn't done a very good job with handling and storage and they all look a bit green. I'm considering excluding those, especially given their condition and just starting fresh, doing this with Ben and Sam.