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dadams

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Journal Entries posted by dadams

  1. dadams
    It's been roughly a year since I started collecting and the tally is 114 graded/slabbed coins worth 35,097 points.
    I am most pleased with the progress I've made on my 1971 Mint Set -- lacking 2 coins for 100% and needing to upgrade the 1971D Lincoln Cent from 66RD to 67RD. My 1971D MS67FT Roosevelt Dime came to me through a purchase from our very own TD Henson. It was this coin and Todd's encouragement for that I joined the Collector's Society. I have learned so much through studying Todd's Roosevelt sets and am somewhat sad he has decided to move away from them, but am certainly looking forward to following whichever new endeavour he decides to undertake. Thank you Todd!
    In addition to the 1971 set, I had plans to focus on 1967 and 2007 Mint Sets for my wife and child. Of course, I soon found this was not enough and started a 20th C. Type Set, 1967 SMS set, Jefferson Nickel set, and (beginning with a most generous gift) an Eisenhower Dollar set.
    All the while I've been reading and learning - "The Red Book", most all of the Whitman "A Guide Book of" series, Coin World Monthly, and all of the great Journals and posts on the Chat Boards. I have taken to visiting the Houston Numismatic Exchange on a regular, weekly basis during my lunch hour away from work and everyone there has been helpful and encouraging, but most all of their coins are raw which spawned another quest - the 7070 US Type Set. I feel as if I have learned quite a bit over the last year, yet understand I have much more to learn, and realize I will spend a lifetime collecting, buying, selling, filling holes, upgrading, trading, making mistakes, and making "scores". Honestly, I have not figured out exactly what series it is I want to collect, as I like them all, but I do know I will finish my 1967, 1971, and 2007 mint sets and the 7070 will someday be complete, but probably never finished.
    TD Henson, Six Mile Rick, and VUMC409 deserve special attention for making me feel at home among you all and I want for all of you to know that I read every Journal and almost every board posting in US Coins, Numismatic General, and Hey buddy, can you spare a grade?. Whether you guys & gals realize it or not you all impart a tremenous amount of knowlede and I for one have been lucky to have absorbed a bit of it this last year!
    -Doug

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  2. dadams
    I've always had an interest in coins, but never persued the desire . . . 'till now. I'm not big on writing in journals, on blogs, etc., yet thought it may be nice to record the development of a coin collector from scratch. And so, herewith, I begin.
    I've this old black case I've had since I was a kid with a mish-mash of old foreign coins that my step-dad gave me. I remember going through them trying to figure out where they all were from, what denominations they were, putting them in plastic cases and arranging and sorting them out. It was fun. Gradually, the black case went into the closet, then the attic, then I gave it to my nephew, then he gave it back - not interested. I neither was too interested in the old foreign coins and so the black case went back in the closet. Got married - had a kid - moved a couple times - work, work.
    I found my old black case recently and started poking through the coins and it seemed to rekindle that old interest. I bought a few silly little things I thought I might like - A 1971 Brown Ike, couple of sample slabs w/1964 coinage, a TPG'd 1971-D MS66RD Lincoln Cent.
    Then one day I ran across this: "1971 D Roosevelt Dime - NGC certified MS 67 FT Gem!! ** RARE **". Intrigued I Google'd a few of the terms in the title listing to research and learn more about what made this coin "RARE". The Search results returned a link to Member Journal Entry: 1971 D NGC MS 67 FT Roosevelt Dime By: TD Henson ( http://www.collectors-society.com/JournalDetail.aspx?JournalEntryID=10692 ). I bought the coin and on TD Henson's advise became an Associate Member of Collector's Society.
    Since I bought Mr. Henson's Roosevelt Dime I've decided to focus on the years 1964, 1971, and 2007 - the bith years of my wife, myself and child respectively. By becoming a member of Collector's Society I have gained access to a wealth of information. I read everyone's Journal entries, peruse the Boards, study NGC's Census Reports, and have started building my own sets. I've learned I am partial to Circulation Issues, I've learned what grades I want to populate my sets with, and I've learned that some of what I want can be expensive.
    I bought Mr. Henson's coin on 22 FEB 2012, bought quite a few other things since to add to my sets, and now I'm going to settle back and learn a bit more, take my time and maybe write a journal entry every now and then to let you all know how it goes.

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  3. dadams

    Major Slab Problem

    By dadams,

    How tough is an NGC Slab?
    Did you ever wonder just how tough an NGC Slab is? I found out the hard way - my 2 month old Border Collie found a couple of excellent chew toys.
    I am glad she decided to go after a couple of the inexpensive varieties. I suppose now the Morgan will be a crack-out whereas poor Mr. Lincoln will never recover.
    All in all I'm impressed with the toughness of an NGC slab!! They survived a decent chewing and an overnight stay in the back yard. I'd say pretty damn tough!

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  4. dadams

    and the ecstasy

    By dadams,

    Nice score on an NGC (28/0)
    So that I don't go hog wild buying coins that I like and admire (all of them!) I had limited myself to building mint sets for the birth year of myself, my wife, and child. Quickly, I found limiting myself to 3 years worth of coins stagnated my looking at other years and coin types.
    In remedy I started a 20th Century Type Set, exclusive of proofs and gold. Without regard to rankings, I'm seeking nice affordable (for me) examples of each coin for the set. My sole limitation being that the coins selected have to be either first or last year of issue.
    About a month ago I started looking for an MS 67 Delaware Statehood Quarter which was the first issued quarter in the series. Back on about June 17th I came across an NGC multi-holder set of Mint State 1999 Quarters. I personally do not like the multi-holder and shy away from them for the most part but imagine my surprise when I saw the Delaware Quarter graded MS 68.
    In a pure, no reseve auction with the starting bid at 9.95 I waited until the last three remaining seconds to place a very modest bid and knocked it down for roughly 14.25% of the set FMV.
    Coin Ecstasy!
    -D
    1999-D 25C Delaware MS68 NGC.
    NGC Census: (28/0). PCGS Population (1/0)

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  5. dadams

    The agony

    By dadams,

    My 1st Submission
    My 1st Submission
    I've been working on assembling top ranked mint sets for the years 1971 and 1967. The '71 set has come along nicely and quickly except now I've come to the point where I'm looking at shelling out big bucks for the coins I'd like to have. Circulation strikes of Lincoln cents in these years tend to be rather expensive in MS 67 RD.
    Over the last couple months I have bought quite a few raw '71 and '67 Lincon Cents and figured that since I was a Collector's Society member I might as well take advantage of direct submission privileges - that way I'd save money by having these Lincoln Cents "Self-Made". Of course I'm new to collecting and don't know shinola about grading, and up to this point, I admit, probably have bought the holder and not the coin as some like to say.
    NGC received my six coins for grading on 6/11/12. -- A G O N Y -- and a week later the results:
    Coins for NGC Invoice Number 2581230
    001 1943 1C ALTERED SURFACE
    002 1971 S 1C MS 66 RB
    003 1971 S 1C MS 65 RD
    004 1971 1C UNC DETAILS OBVERSE WHEEL MARK
    005 1967 1C MS 65 RB
    006 1971 D 1C MS 65 RD
     
    I was disapointed with the results, but now in hindsight, and with the coins back in hand I can see the grades are proper. From the coins I had accumulated I esentially looked at each and pulled the ones that to my eyes had the least amount of blemishes, and the best appeal. I knew the '67 Cent wouldn't come back RD as I liked this one for its purplish toning. I thought all the '71s were RD. The '43 I threw in as an afterthought and was a coin I've had since I was a kid. I have not seen many MS Steelies and I truly thought this was a beautiful no-problem coin. My first so-called "Body Bag".
    So, as I said, I understand and am not dissapointed at all since I learned quite a bit through this submission, the results have prodded me to aquire more knowledge in grading (just finished "A Guide Book of Lincoln Cents" by Bowers and can recommend his "Grading Coins by Photographs" as well), and certainly plan upon another submission in the near future.
    Wish me luck!
    -D

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  6. dadams
    16 Cents / 1 Nickel / 1 Dime / $3.50 in Quarters and 2 One Dollar Bills
    The list above is the contents of my Uncle's pockets on the day he passed away a little over a week ago. Amongst the Lincoln Cents was this old worn out Wheat Cent. I think I'll just hang on to it.

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