jgenn

See my recent link for the answer

1560 thalers from anywhere are scarce so I'm just hoping for a replacement at any grade.

An underrated feature of custom sets is the ability to include coins that you don't own.  I switched the 1560 Mansfeld thaler in my Silver Dollars of '60 set from "owned" to "want" and will keep the pictures and description until I find another one.

Good luck to you and take any opportunity to make sure the decision makers know how much you have contributed.  Your student loan payments are, of course, a high priority but pay off any high interest credit card debt, too.  Then you can reward yourself with a nice shiny present. 

I second the recommendation for having a caliper in your numismatic toolkit.  Today you can get an inexpensive one with a digital readout.  They are, of course, useful for measuring the diameter but you can also use them for measuring the thickness.  With those two measurements you can calculate the volume, then with the weight you can calculate the specific gravity. Many counterfeits can be detected by having an incorrect SG.

Thanks Ram for all the good advice!

Hey the old journals have finally been added to the new journals! 

I think it's a natural progression to build a collection, have a collection and pass on a collection.  I'm in the "have a collection" stage now and foresee my, not too distance, retirement years as those when I will pass on my collection.  My "coin time" is now focused on learning more about the coins I have collected and less about planning for the next acquisition.  I admit, the thrill of the hunt was quite a rush and was rather addicting, however, I have stuck with my boundaries and successfully avoided collecting "everything".  Ram, I hope you find your current stage to be as enjoyable as your earlier ones

~jack.

"LOYALTY, DEVOTION, FORGIVENESS, HUMOR."  sort of conveys my feeling about numismatics, although I do need to work on forgiving myself for a few coin buying blunders.  Placing pets into loving homes is a great endeavor. Thanks for the heartwarming story.

Thanks for your comment.  Part II is all I have planned for now and it will be something quite different.

I apologize for slowing down the NGC Journals forum with my post that has all the links to my older journal posts.  The site moderators had to revert my links to plain HTML because the link previews were not being handled in an efficient manner.  Web devs take note: the link preview doesn't need to be dynamically generated for every page hit -- they can easily be cached.  In fact, once the original post can no longer be edited, the link preview will never change.

FYI:  you can filter the NGC Journals (old format) section to show only topics that you started by using the "Sort By" button and selecting "Custom". Then, in the "Filter" drop-down, choose "Topics I started".

I may submit it now that I've done my research on the raw coin.  As I understand the NGC policy, they will slab it if the counterstamp is deemed to be authentic.  I think the reasoning is that as long as the counterstamp was official the coin became legal five shilling currency regardless of the host coin status.  I've seen an obvious counterfeit of a 1772 portrait 8 reales with an oval counterstamp in an NGC slab as a graded GB dollar.

Yes, it's very important to catch those errors otherwise that's what will show up on your slab.  I once let one go through on purpose to see if it would be caught in quality control.  Nope.  You are the quality control when it comes to spotting mistakes on the NGC form.  I will say that any errors that I reported were quickly fixed.

It's great that you have stepped out of the shadows and started posting here!  Best of luck with your submission.

Thanks for your kind comment Gary!

It is special to me -- just try finding a nice 1560 silver crown.  I just wonder if it would be more special to someone else and I could be convinced to trade it if, for instance, it was needed for numismatic research or a link to someone's genealogy.

Hi Rick, I think it's really admirable that you trade to help others improve their sets.  That is numismatic goal that we all should strive for.

An earlier appearance of the wildman in literature is the character of Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 2100 BCE).

Here's one on a thaler from the 16th century -- from the reign of Julius,  Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and ruling Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

Thanks for your comment, Rick! 

Participation in the forums and especially the journals certainly has fallen off a cliff.

~jack

Dear Mike,

It must be difficult to discuss your health concerns with others and I hope that sharing in this venue, with like minded souls that share your enthusiasm for coin collection, brings you some measure of consolation.  I sincerely wish that you have the time to bring all your affairs to a satisfying conclusion, of which the disposition of your impressive collection will be just one.  You may want to talk to NGC about how to get your pedigree onto the labels for your collection.  Wouldn't that be a great way to commemorate your special participation in this hobby?

With heartfelt sympathy,

Jack

I am so sorry to hear about your health issues.  As you say, it's something that we all have or will have to experience. 

Selling from your collection will be difficult for you and I hope you can find the best way to do this.  My only experience with selling has been when someone uses the "Buy from Owner" option at Heritage Auctions for one of my coins (four sold so far).  Today, our hobby makes it so easy to buy coins but I think it mostly hides how hard it is to sell for a reasonable price.  I think it would be a very valuable to hear from you on how your process works out.

Best wishes,

Jack

P.S.  I misunderstood your post and now understand that it is your health that is failing.  I sincerely hope you have the time to settle the disbursement of your collection to your satisfaction.

If well told coin stories can interest YNs I think that's a fabulous way to expand our hobby.   Regarding posting, I can recommend cointalk.com and coincommunity.com as very receptive forums.

Gary, lol, and that's a real shame for such an outstanding and exceptional history of journaling at NGC.  It still bothers me that journals from 2016 and before are disconnected.  I believe many new readers will not be able to find your informative entries from previous years.  I don't visit the ANA site very much but I know you have posted in their blogs section.  Have you been continuing that?

Congratulation to 2017's journal award winners.  I hope you get a nice icon.

Maybe they will get around to linking up our old posts, like they promised.