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Thunaer

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Journal Entries posted by Thunaer

  1. Thunaer

    Butterfly's dream

    By Thunaer,

    Patience pays off in coin collecting.
    This is my first journal and I would like to say "hello" to all fellow coin collectors.
    For months I've been searching for a decent specimen of Polish 2001 2 Zlote Butterfly minted in Nordic Gold... with no success. But recently the fortune smiled at me, not only did I find decent specimen, I got one graded MS 65, best grade assigned to that coin by NGC so far. NGC has graded only 2 Butterfly's MS 65.
    As most times in coin collecting the patience paid off, it also serves as a reminder, of how great it feels to finally hold a coin one has sought for so long.

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  2. Thunaer

    Newest arrival 2 Zlote

    By Thunaer,

    Animals of the world series continues.
    My somewhat small collection of NGC graded 2Zlote Polish coins just received a newest addition, 1998 2z, Toad.
    I tried to keep this one brief but.. well see for Yourself.
    I hope You like it. Larger photo is available from set view (200KB limit there, 75KB here).
    In my last journal I have shown the 2001 2Zlote Butterfly, today a few words about the series.
    Since 1996 aside standard circulation 2Zlote coins, there are issued semi-circulation 2 Zlote coins minted in Nordic Gold (89% copper, 5% aluminum, 5% zinc, 1% tin). Why semi-circulation... in theory those are intended for circulation, in practice, many never make it into circulation.
    Within the NG 2PLN series, many sub-series or themes exist. Some of which are rulers of Poland, Polish castles, crests of states, and many more.
    Last but not least is the series of animals of the world, one of 4 original and my favorite series. There's one issue of this series annually. 15 issues to date.
    This here is 3rd coin of series, low mintage of 400 thousand, and as it was with butterfly, just handful made their way to NGC (31 pieces)
    In the first year NG's were issued, there were only 4 emissions and mintage was scarce (200 and 300 thousand pcs), to give better contrast, there was no emission of less than 1 million pcs in past 3 years. and for past 3 years there were about 20 issues per year...
    As it was with Butterfly and any other coin from that series, getting it graded by NGC (or PCGS) is a different story, one for another journal.
    Best wishes and happy collecting to You all,
    Thunaer

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  3. Thunaer

    NGC grading in Poland..

    By Thunaer,

    Recent new arrivals gave me a pause to think about the grading...
    Originally I wanted to cover both arrivals and grading issues in this journal, but let's take it one step at a time.
    Here, in Poland we have only one authorized dealer, and with about ten thousand miles of red tape involved with sending coins 50 or more years old abroad by private person (company/institution is not so much bound in red tape...) it makes it impractical to make direct submission...
    Most of You will probably close this journal as it may appear dull and boring... but bear with me for a while...
    Now the dealer being the only practical choice can set prices pretty much as high as he wants, and so he does...
    One latest arrival in particular made me realize how much overcharged we can get...
    Originally NGC's grading tiers are very precise, World/U.S. coins and other splits...
    With our dealer it's so much simplified
    coins valued 0-299$ - 30$+23% tax/piece
    300-2999$ - 45$+tax
    3000+$ - 55$
    That doesn't seem SO bad, but who sends a single coin to be graded, say You have 5 world, regular-issue coins struck after 1970 valued under 2000$,
    they can easily fall in world modern tier at 16,5$ each
    so 5x16,5 = 82,5$ but here they fall under second tier...
    5x 45$ = 225$ + TAX =>276,65$... not so pretty no more...
    Turnarounds here are another matter entirely, as posted on official NGC site, turnaround (est) for world modern and standard are 10 days, and current are about 20 work days
    (2-4 weeks) sounds bad... only till You hear that here turnaround is about 6-9 weeks, (in reality more like 9-12 weeks), mainly because they ship only once a month, whether or not they rearrange submissions to match lowest price tiers is beyond me, but it kind of makes You wonder huh?
    Drawing to a closure, one of most recent arrivals, Polish Second republic 2 Zlote from 1936 just begs for NCS... see photo (more detailed photo's available in the set view)
    Since it's the only coin I have that could benefit from conservation, the official price for conservation and regrading in this case is 5+15+35 = 55$ (minimal fees of NSC and standard world tier) BUT as I don't live in U.S. ...
    This particular coin is worth ~75$ in MS62, but FMV for MS65 is about 500$, so if it grades same ms62 after conservation, the process would cost 105$,if upon arrival it has higher grade than 62, the charge for the process will be.... 128$
    Well that's about it... more than a bit dull, but I hope it gives some perspective on grading from outside United States
    Happy collecting to all!
    EDIT: For some reason this one didn't made it to Chat Boards (too long/boring?), but if You have a thought to share on this, please send me PM ;]

  4. Thunaer

    One voice counts!

    By Thunaer,

    Sometimes, when we are faced with a corporation, we tend to wonder, "I'm just one man, does my opinion matter to them?".
    For NGC that's certainly the case!
    Recent acquisition of mine, as seen in the picture below,
    had some issues with database and that's how it began...
    4 (working)days ago I requested the data to be repaired, and added to it's appropriate set "Republic of Poland, 2 Zlote, 1994-Date, Complete Set".
    Somewhere along the line it hit me... those coins come in 2 types, Commemorative nordic gold (some seen in my previous journals), and regular circulation strikes seen below.
    Jerica Garcia and Max Spiegel were the ones handling my request. I made a suggestion to them to remove the circulation strikes from Complete set, rename it to commemoratives, and to create a dedicated set for regular strikes.
    At this point I thought it wasn't likely to happen, I'm just one collector, but it wouldn't hurt to ask. Imagine my surprise seeing the reply that the suggestion will be given thought, followed by information that this request was accepted.
    Yesterday the set was split in two and today fine-tuned, as well as the data was repaired.
    In 4 days Jerica Garcia and Max Spiegel not only shown me how dedicated the NGC's staff is, but also how quickly they operate, and special thanks go to them for making my wish come true.
    I think the message for collectors is clear:
    YOUR VOICE COUNTS
    Happy collecting to You all

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  5. Thunaer
    Many of us have copper coinage, and it is easy to see, that despite copper's rating as low to moderate chemical activity, most old copper coins are BN or RB, and RD ones are much sought for.
    With gold or silver coinage, professional conservation can do miracles, that's why we can see specimens looking like they left mint just hours ago and not 100-150 years ago.
    With copper NCS can surely remove all contaminants but can't reverse the flow of time, and if the coin is brown, it will remain so, furthermore, even NGC can't guaranty RD will remain RD in 10 years. Well maybe in some Years NGC will offer special service to encapsulate these coins in 100% hermetic slabs with protective atmosphere of xenon inside...otherwise even today's best cared fore RD's will turn BN in time...
    How does it have anything to do with zinc? Zinc is bluish-white metal, far more reactive, and tarnishes much quicker than copper.
    Now-days pennies in U.S are minted from plated zinc, which makes them more durable, but what about the pure zinc coins?
    In the years 1941-44 German occupation forces introduced coinage in Poland, with the same design as original Second Republic, but made entirely out of zinc. They were introduced in denominations of 1G, 5G, dated 1939, 10G and 20G dated 1923, and 50G dated 1938, but 50G was struck in iron and nickel plated iron.
    If one tried to compare RD, RB, BN applicable for copper it would be rd - bluish-white, metallic, RB - bluish black and finally BN - black.
    I have yet to see a coin from that period that is fully metallic, most (98+%) of them are black, in fact some years ago, NGC wouldn't even certify them, and return as "corroded". now-days it's still hard to get a zinc certified, bit it happens (see the pic below, upper tier, that's NGC MS61).
    Those that would fall under bluish-black with majority of bluish metallic are extremely rare, but oddly not much sought for.
    I have been fortunate to acquire one of those rarities, and it is in bottom tier of pic, bit out of focus...
    I'm not yet sure if I'll submit this beauty for grading by NGC due to high costs as well as ridiculously long waiting times in Poland...but this little picture below is a great reminder of what NGC's saying:
    "Buy The coin, not the holder"
    Happy collecting! cheers,
    Thunaer

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  6. Thunaer

    Green Lizard

    By Thunaer,

    This one came in just yesterday.
    In one of my previous Journals I have said that 2Z commemorative strikes have "Animals of the World" series.
    Silver 20Z have the same series which is parallel, same subject, not always same design.
    This one's my first of that series graded by NGC, enjoy!
    Happy collecting!
    Thunaer

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  7. Thunaer
    NGC's angle on collectors market has always been it's community side.
    Yesterday they tore down the image that was worked on hard and long....
    When You look at it, PCGS's coins removal from sets has been announced, and what happened? It was protested, ppl spoke out against it, and finally it was utterly ignored...
    But potential harm... oh man, I mean, ppl (my wretched self influded) started to think not only about NGC's policy, but "what's the point" of grading itself. Sorry folks, but corporations don't want their customers thinking, they want them buying, and this time they blew it they made ppl think, instead of buying....
    Jackson wrote
    "Oh well, I have no doubt that NGC will profit well from this decision and that the few dozen of us who will now be quitting the world coin registry, well we will not matter much in the big financial picture."
    Well it kinda looks that way but... look from other side, Yu have Your small timers (that's us, face it, most of ppl here buy their coins graded, and submit relatively few to be graded, and there are those big behemoths the bulk submission coin dealers.
    If You think of it it might seem oh I spend like 300$ and those dealers deal in 10-s of thousands of revenue for ngc so what am I.... well You are all that matters.
    Those big dealers spend BIG, but we are many, and bulk of profit doesn't come from couple hundred thousand coins submitted by dealers, the bulk profit is in millions of coins graded by those spending 50-1000$ year.
    So here's the bottom line, aggressive targeting of small submitters.
    Now, back to community side... the PCGS's community although exists it seems lot less lively, how much it is caused by them not allowing NGC's graded coins there, i dare not speculate, although it did send clear message to NGC's community, collect coins, and not slabs, whereas now it says don't attach yrself to coins, but to slabs.
    And creme de la creme... open question, how many coins in Your collection (in %) value 120$+? manymany journals introducing coins, present great deals, some under 10$, hellloooo, that's less than our retail grading cost.
    Now how many of Your coins value at 20-40$? that's right..... U see the picture now. so when You think of it... what % of value of Your collection is the price of that fancy plastic and super ultra limited label? 10-20%... more?
    That my fellow collectiors is the real question, the question they never wanted You to ask, and the question they just pushed You to ask of Yourself.
    Have a great day everyone!
  8. Thunaer
    The controversy over PCGS coins removal from World sets caused some delay in posting this Journal. But in the end NGC/PCGS/ICG/Anacs etc or simply raw coin as it was minted, the coin make core of a hobby.
    So, here's the core of my interests lately, German occupation coinage, a small set, total of 6 coins: 4 zinc (mentioned in one of previous journals), 1 pure steel/iron and one, nickel plated iron coin - the first 2012's graded arrival.
    This coin Is NGC MS 61, 50 groszy german occupation, Krause Y-38.
    Although the grade is of little consequence for me here, I'd probably not buy one not slabbed, and here's why.
    It's sister coin, non played Y-38a is extremely hard to get as iron tends to corrode and well, it's not like with copper or zinc where tarnishing is surface deep, for iron coin not to corrode it has to be stored in near perfect conditions, and well it was war....
    Nickel plated one is easier to get but the nickel plating leaves much to be desired on most coins, and although much more resistant to oxidation than it's non plated sister, it still requires some special handling as to not damage it.
    So, in the end, I've seen MS62's and 63's being sold for 2-4 times what I paid for this one, but truly, I would not have traded this one, not even 1 for 1 for any other I've seen come up for sale so far.
    Happy collecting!
    Thunaer