Coinbuf

Lol, So some context to this great feat of mine.   I recently asked for the registry team to include a new Lincoln set that does not require the varieties to be included in it.   Nothing against those who like collecting the varieties but its just not my thing.  To my surprise today I noticed that NGC created the set that I had asked for!    So I jumped in and created the very first set and am sitting in the number one spot; I have no doubt that as soon as the big guns spot the new set they will leapfrog over me and I'll end up in the 6 or 7 spot as I am in most of the Lincoln sets.   But I can say that for once I have the top Lincoln set in one category no matter how short lived that claim ends up being.   I think I should be drinking a brandy in a sniffer glass with a big stogie, tomorrow its back to beer.  

I continue to work and getting better at taking my own coin photos and slowly am getting better.   But when I want some really good photos, like the kind I want for the coins in my three first place registry sets; I go to the professional Mark Goodman.   I have used three or four pro photographers in the past and a couple others were very good, but I have always felt that Mark was the very best of all those I have tried.   Anyway here are a couple of compilation photos of some of my registry coins that I wanted to have better photos of than I was able to produce.    All together I sent Mark 12 coins to image and as usual could not be happier with the results.   I'll add new entries to show each coin from this group and I plan to keep this going as I have plans to send Mark more coins in the first part of 2022.
Ok enough with the hype lets get to the coins.   First is a new addition this year to my 1st place 1940 year set, this is one beautiful walker if I say so myself.   Mark was able to bring out the subtle color and showcase the luster perfectly.   This MS67+ CAC green bean coin is really stunning and a great addition to my set.

Greetings all:
My 1940-1944 mint sets are all #1 in the NGC-only registry; while the 1940 and 1943 sets are #2 in the combined registry behind my worthy competitors Coinbuf and ChancyMS60+, respectively.
It's been a good year.
 
 
My lead for the 1943 set in the NGC-only registry increased after the judging for 2021 was over; it so happened that I just purchased a 1943-S steelie in the grade of NGC MS67+ CAC...
 

I continue to work and getting better at taking my own coin photos and slowly am getting better.   But when I want some really good photos, like the kind I want for the coins in my three first place registry sets; I go to the professional Mark Goodman.   I have used three or four pro photographers in the past and a couple others were very good, but I have always felt that Mark was the very best of all those I have tried.   Anyway here are a couple of compilation photos of some of my registry coins that I wanted to have better photos of than I was able to produce.    All together I sent Mark 12 coins to image and as usual could not be happier with the results.   I'll add new entries to show each coin from this group and I plan to keep this going as I have plans to send Mark more coins in the first part of 2022.
Ok enough with the hype lets get to the coins.   First is a new addition this year to my 1st place 1940 year set, this is one beautiful walker if I say so myself.   Mark was able to bring out the subtle color and showcase the luster perfectly.   This MS67+ CAC green bean coin is really stunning and a great addition to my set.

I continue to work and getting better at taking my own coin photos and slowly am getting better.   But when I want some really good photos, like the kind I want for the coins in my three first place registry sets; I go to the professional Mark Goodman.   I have used three or four pro photographers in the past and a couple others were very good, but I have always felt that Mark was the very best of all those I have tried.   Anyway here are a couple of compilation photos of some of my registry coins that I wanted to have better photos of than I was able to produce.    All together I sent Mark 12 coins to image and as usual could not be happier with the results.   I'll add new entries to show each coin from this group and I plan to keep this going as I have plans to send Mark more coins in the first part of 2022.
Ok enough with the hype lets get to the coins.   First is a new addition this year to my 1st place 1940 year set, this is one beautiful walker if I say so myself.   Mark was able to bring out the subtle color and showcase the luster perfectly.   This MS67+ CAC green bean coin is really stunning and a great addition to my set.

I continue to work and getting better at taking my own coin photos and slowly am getting better.   But when I want some really good photos, like the kind I want for the coins in my three first place registry sets; I go to the professional Mark Goodman.   I have used three or four pro photographers in the past and a couple others were very good, but I have always felt that Mark was the very best of all those I have tried.   Anyway here are a couple of compilation photos of some of my registry coins that I wanted to have better photos of than I was able to produce.    All together I sent Mark 12 coins to image and as usual could not be happier with the results.   I'll add new entries to show each coin from this group and I plan to keep this going as I have plans to send Mark more coins in the first part of 2022.
Ok enough with the hype lets get to the coins.   First is a new addition this year to my 1st place 1940 year set, this is one beautiful walker if I say so myself.   Mark was able to bring out the subtle color and showcase the luster perfectly.   This MS67+ CAC green bean coin is really stunning and a great addition to my set.

With submission turnaround times increasing by the day, it is often easy to focus on the bad while taking the good for granted. That said, I would like to share a recent positive experience with NGC customer service. I submitted a proof 1775 Irish Halfpenny in February of last year, but I did not find the time to inspect the coins until early last month. I know it is ridiculous that it took me that long to enjoy my coins, but I have very little time to kill. Now that things are starting to slow down with the end of the semester approaching, I have a few minutes to spare! On any note, the coin came back XF DETAILS as expected (edge damage); however, the original label omitted an important word (i.e., PROOF). Although it can often be complicated to distinguish between circulated proofs and business strike examples, this is an easy attribution to make in this case. As I explained in my email to NGC, the coin in question was struck on a thick flan with medal orientation (i.e., the essential characteristics only found on a specific proof variety). I also pointed out that the coin is perfectly round and that the denticles are contained within the rims. For those unfamiliar with this series, these are hallmarks that the coin was struck in a collar. According to Dyer and Gaspar (1980), striking coins in a collar was a practice used almost exclusively for proof strikes. It is likely safe to assume that this information is common knowledge for the world coin graders, so it seemed reasonable to conclude that the partially inaccurate label was nothing more than a clerical error. I wrote all this out in an email sent well after business hours.
I received NGC’s initial response early the next morning requesting images of the obverse, reverse, and label. I obliged, and within a couple of hours, I received an email from NGC with a prepaid UPS next day shipping label. I dropped the coin in the mail later that day, and it arrived at NGC the following morning. From here, things moved quickly. NGC logged it into the system on October 13th, and I had it back in hand by the 29th. Not only did NGC place the coin in a fresh holder and correct the label to include the proof designation, but they also added the extra information to denote it as the variety struck on a thick flan and in medal alignment. They corrected the error free of charge, which I assume cost more than the initial grading charges.
This is not the first time that NGC went out their way to help a small-time collector such as myself, and I think that speaks volumes about NGC's character.
So what positive NGC customer service experiences do you have to share?  

Shandy and I have picked (from amongst the coins I have so far) the ones we think are the best and these will be among the ones I send in a few months from now.
I am looking to make a couple more purchases of raw Zimbabwean coins between now and when these go out to NGC to try to get examples of the last few types I will need and maybe get better examples of some of these, so some of these may get bumped out of the submission if I find better – more on that in a couple of weeks probably.
The current crop includes:
1 Km-1a 1980 1C
1 Km-1b 1997 1C (rolling the dice for a MS66...).
2 Km-2 1997 5C (I’m hoping I might snag an MS64, MS65 or even an MS66 with these, but bumping that 1999 AU58 out is going to be easy with these).
2 Km-3a 1999 10C (These 1999s look very good and it could be cool to have a coin for that slot that I graded myself. I think these might have a shot at a 65-67)
1 Km-6b $1 (Might get another 63, but this one looks a bit nicer than the 63 I got back - fewer deeper scratches).
1 Km-12b $2 (This one looks… It may do a 63 or 64)
2 Km-13 $5 (It may do a 63 or 64)
2 Km-21 2017 $1 Bond Coins (These look great and should hopefully come back as a 66 or 67 like the other bond coins – hopefully 67).
2 Km-22 2018 $2 Bond Coins (These look great and should hopefully come back as a 66 or 67 like the other bond coins – hopefully 67).
The best of the 20C and 50C coins from the new batch basically look the same and seem like they would grade the same as the coins I just got back from grading so I’m not going to send any of the coins of those denominations from this batch in.
I may still add in that 2017 50C Bond Coin Shandy thought was the best of those to the above – I will get around to asking NGC to add slots for the $1 and $2 Bond coins in December probably, just to get ready.
I’m keeping the ones I’m planning to submit in flips, to make it easier to send them later and to separate them from the “rejects” / lesser examples, which are increasingly in 2x2s.In using both I find that I like different things about each and I find myself debating which I like more. I don't like the fact that the coins can slip / slide around in the flips a little if I'm not careful where the 2x2s hold them more snugly.

Every coin in this group so far has been picked with Shandy and I sitting together, looking at them in flips by lamplight, comparing them, and talking about which one looks the best. And that, without doubt, is the biggest victory of this whole undertaking. I have gotten to sit and look at coins with my wife, with her participation, talking, smiling, and laughing, enjoying the time together, and at the end she says she enjoys it and seems to mean it. No matter how the grades end up next year, there's the win – We’re finding more ways to bond over coin collecting together.
And I’m going to keep building on this. I’m already working on finding various ways to build on this – but more on that later too. I have no confidence in Zimbabwe coins alone to continue to hold her interest.
I think I did myself at least 1 big favor in that I broke it up. I didn't come at her all at once with 11 types and 60-75 coins to look at. I did this over 4 nights with nights in between and only brought 2-3 types and 10-18 coins at a time. I did some pre-screening in some cases to knock out coins I knew weren’t the winners. With something like this, especially early on, especially doing this at night when the kids are in bed and we're tired and winding down, you absolutely can't overstay or overtax your welcome.
When we’d picked through the last of them, very much to my surprise, Shandy asked if she was going to get “a link or something” to watch the Submission Tracker for updates herself when these go in. I don’t know how she could ever imagine these going in for grading and not getting constant, daily, yacking from me about it and watching for news. Utter madness.
Still, for so many reasons now, this set is well on its way to becoming something that will be near and dear to my heart for a long time.
We just celebrated our first Thanksgiving here. This will be our first Christmas in the new house. The tree is up. Time to start wrapping presents.

This is the last entry for the 2021 Registry Year, but there is much more to come. I’m both surprised at how much I was able to get done in the last couple of weeks in terms of upgrading my pictures and banners and disappointed that I didn’t get further – didn’t get to the Koalas, the cents, the statehood quarters or the mint state presidential dollars that I have. It will be a goal to continue this into 2022’s award cycle and try to improve the pictures on these and the other “Wright Family” mint sets to bring all of these sets in line with my new photo standards and make every set in my registry a set worth looking at and clicking through.
2022 may well not be an NCLT-focused year as I continue to look for ways to build on what I’ve started this year with Shandy and continue to emphasize projects and goals that we can experience and share together. I'm somewhat torn in that part of me wants to focus on building / finishing existing / old sets and not starting entirely new things, but I also think some new things sound more fun, more promising, and more easily shared with Her. Still TBD on that one.
Enjoy the journey.
 

When it comes to building out registry sets, I find that I'm very much one of those people that needs to "begin with the end in mind." I find that when I don't have a clear vision for a set and an idea of what the finished project will look like I have a hard time making anything I'm happy with and I have a hard time making progress or even really starting.
I've been wanting to build out the 1986 mint set for over a year and I just could never come up with an idea for how to build it out that actually excited me... and now I finally have! I'm going to build it out by talking about some of the things that happened that year and how many of them are relevant to my life or my wife's.
Things like Studio Ghibli releasing their first film in August of that year. The Phantom of the Opera debuting in London - my wife loves that story/ play. The first official discovery of Mad Cow disease. The launching of Mir, Challenger. And the Chernobyl disaster. An odd list - and all 1986 apparently.
My wife has looked at the work in progress on it and called it, "kind of a love note to us." I'm good with that - although, as love notes go, it’s an old one when a love note talks about the Challenger Disaster and Chernobyl, but, ya know… I’m an odd one.
Of course... the pictures I'm less than thrilled with, now that I look at them again. I wouldn't call them "bad"... but I don't know that I love them. I think I'd redo them and do them differently now. Funny thing is I remember being at least happy-ish when I re-imaged the set like ~2.6 years ago but... I guess my standards have changed/ gone up. A phone call to Choya later and he's going to try to meet me sometime this month and give them to me, even if it is just at Thanksgiving. Depending on when I get them, I may try to bust out new pictures and a new banner in rapid fashion to redress the set for Dec 1st. We'll see. Just for fun. Do I expect it to win anything? No. Not really. But personal pride has me wanting to put a shine on it and have it looking nice for the cut-off.
I don’t know to what extent this is just a natural outcome of the journal writing and / or the fact that the set is one of the oldest in the category, but that 1986 set has more views than any of the other sets in the category. Interestingly, of the 4 sets closest to it in view count, none have pictures, and the current #1 set has no pictures. So, maybe I can make that 1986 set something worth continuing to look at and deserving of that “most viewed” status.
Working on this got me looking on eBay. I took an opportunity to get a new 1986-D quarter in MS66, which improves on the MS65 we have (the weakest coin still in the main set) for only $19. I figured at that price I could just call it an impulse buy and it isn’t something I’m likely to regret too much later.
I'm also working on improving the visual presentation for some other sets and my wife is calling these set banner images one of my new obsessions - alongside buying lots of raw Zimbabwean coins like a crazy person. I'm not presently involved in researching Zimbabwean or Venezuelan banknotes and culture so... out comes the camera and the Photoshop!'
These new images are in part an effort on my part to leave the Collector's Society site, at least for the NGC side, and "live" in the new registry. For the PMG side, Collector's Society is still the only option and that seems unlikely to change... And if they make a new PMG feature and the Signature Sets don't cross over I am going to be crying because that 127 note signature set for Zimbabwe was... a lot of work.  













Some of those were quick and easy (1932, the Texas Commems). The Zimbabwe banner was a hideous amount of work that took 3 or 4 nights and over a dozen versions. I think it was worth it. I had a vision I needed to nail. All of the banners of the gold coins are made with brand new pictures, some of which are vast improvements on the old ones. I really like the simple Obverse / Reverse on the white background for most of the sets with only 1 design, but I like the collaged approach with the type set.
I feel like one of the biggest challenges with these images is accounting for the Rank ribbon and for the fact that the aspect ratio or the image and how the rank banner looks is different on my PC (1:1 square ratio) vs My phone (2:3 ratio).
Working on the pictures of my Presidential Dollars Proof set is probably a waste of time if viewed completely from a competitive standpoint, but that’s at least a gratifying waste of time with a set that is closed-ended, not growing by 5 or 10 coins a year anymore, and which is 60% complete, so it doesn’t just mock me with all its emptiness. Lol I’m considering just biting the bullet and getting PF70s on the 2012-2014 coins to finish out the set since the PF69s I’m seeing aren’t much cheaper. But I’m worried that if I do start down that road, I might be tempted to bump some of the others up to 70s later.
I’m wondering how far I’ll take this photo / banner upgrade drive and what the next victims will be. The 1986 Proof Set seems like it is ripe for a full re-image and a new banner. 
 
Edited on 11/27 to add: I've uploaded new photos to the 1986 set and posted a comment below with some new / old comparisons.

As some of you may know, I am a Ph.D. student. Graduate school often entails a mind-numbing amount of work on very short deadlines, which continue to escalate as you get closer to finishing your degree. Earlier this month, I defended my dissertation prospectus without changing my experimental design, which gave me the green light to start data collection. After finishing all the paperwork, I started collecting data the same day. So far, it is going way faster than I anticipated, and I am already well over halfway done. Of course, this is only part of the fun, as I still have plenty of work to do before I can defend my dissertation and earn my doctorate.
With my dissertation in full swing, I started seriously pursuing the job market, which has consumed what I consider an unhealthy amount of my time. For those of you unfamiliar, finding a job in academia requires what seems like an endless stream of documents. All of which need to be carefully tailored to each job as the requirements can vary wildly. With that in mind, I have spent countless hours writing cover letters, research statements, teaching philosophy statements, diversity statements, and tweaking my CV to highlight the skills the position requires. 
On top of those efforts, I also teach over 230 students across two upper-level courses at my university. It takes far more tie and energy than you would think to lecture, respond to student emails, and grade assignments. Luckily, I have two graduate teaching assistants who help with the grading, but it is still a lot to manage. I am also organizing a research conference for my department and actively serving on several committees while working on a handful of publications and managing a small team of undergraduate research assistants.
Typing it all out makes me wonder how I find time for it all, but I suppose when you have no other choice, you figure it out. It is a lot of work, but I am thankful for where I am in life and even more so for my amazing wife. Throughout all of this, she has been extremely supportive. My home life is the only escape that I have from the craziness of grad school. I made a deal with her and myself that if I finished enough work, I would take the entire week off during the break, and now I am enjoying the rewards of that labor. That said, please forgive my recent posting spree, as I am simply taking full advantage of the opportunity!
It seems weird not to post one, so please enjoy the pictures of my pets lounging out. They are my relaxation inspirations.

I hope everyone has a safe and restful holiday season!

Wow hard to believe that the registry cutoff is just a week away, this year has certainly gone by quickly.   As I look back I had no specific goals other than to try and add or upgrade to my existing sets in order to hold onto as many of my first place awards as possible.    Looking at my sets now it seems like I have actually lost some ground in that regard and will have fewer awards for 2021 than I did in 2020.   Partly because I spent some time and money adding some memorial and shield Lincoln coins which was (and is) not a major focus, yet still my OCD gets the better of me at times as I would really like to finish the full date/mm run from 1909 to current.   An insane number of coins that is currently at 293 coins and counting, absolute insanity to complete the entire run and a goal that I would abandon if I had any smarts.    I also spent more and upgraded more coins in my 1940 date set than I had planned to do, but the friendly competition from the former 1st place set; who wants to be back in 1st place; had me doing more to defend the set.    That is a good thing as I added some amazing coins to the set, but it also diverted some funds that I would have used to improve other sets.
I did lose ground on a few sets as it seems that a few gold bugs put together some sets in the early 20's year sets, well not really sets as most of those sets only have one two or three coins in them.   But those high grade $50K gold coins really rack up the points and it makes competing with them next to impossible as I do not have an unlimited budget.    That is unfortunate in a way as I now have to decide what to do with those coins, I could keep them and just leave the sets as they are.   Or should I sell those coins and move on to something else, tough call and I'm just not sure how I'll proceed just yet.
All in all it was another nice year and I am blessed to care and provide the stewardship of the coins I have in my collection.    Like many I am grateful that I have my health, too many have been lost to Covid and other diseases over the past year.   And whatever the next year brings I will continue to enjoy the friendships that I have made within the hobby and the coins in my collection.   For sure there is still much to be done in the way of better photos and descriptions for many of the coins in my collection and that will be a continuing focus each and every year.
Happy Thanksgiving and a joyous Christmas season to everyone here.

Wow hard to believe that the registry cutoff is just a week away, this year has certainly gone by quickly.   As I look back I had no specific goals other than to try and add or upgrade to my existing sets in order to hold onto as many of my first place awards as possible.    Looking at my sets now it seems like I have actually lost some ground in that regard and will have fewer awards for 2021 than I did in 2020.   Partly because I spent some time and money adding some memorial and shield Lincoln coins which was (and is) not a major focus, yet still my OCD gets the better of me at times as I would really like to finish the full date/mm run from 1909 to current.   An insane number of coins that is currently at 293 coins and counting, absolute insanity to complete the entire run and a goal that I would abandon if I had any smarts.    I also spent more and upgraded more coins in my 1940 date set than I had planned to do, but the friendly competition from the former 1st place set; who wants to be back in 1st place; had me doing more to defend the set.    That is a good thing as I added some amazing coins to the set, but it also diverted some funds that I would have used to improve other sets.
I did lose ground on a few sets as it seems that a few gold bugs put together some sets in the early 20's year sets, well not really sets as most of those sets only have one two or three coins in them.   But those high grade $50K gold coins really rack up the points and it makes competing with them next to impossible as I do not have an unlimited budget.    That is unfortunate in a way as I now have to decide what to do with those coins, I could keep them and just leave the sets as they are.   Or should I sell those coins and move on to something else, tough call and I'm just not sure how I'll proceed just yet.
All in all it was another nice year and I am blessed to care and provide the stewardship of the coins I have in my collection.    Like many I am grateful that I have my health, too many have been lost to Covid and other diseases over the past year.   And whatever the next year brings I will continue to enjoy the friendships that I have made within the hobby and the coins in my collection.   For sure there is still much to be done in the way of better photos and descriptions for many of the coins in my collection and that will be a continuing focus each and every year.
Happy Thanksgiving and a joyous Christmas season to everyone here.

Wow hard to believe that the registry cutoff is just a week away, this year has certainly gone by quickly.   As I look back I had no specific goals other than to try and add or upgrade to my existing sets in order to hold onto as many of my first place awards as possible.    Looking at my sets now it seems like I have actually lost some ground in that regard and will have fewer awards for 2021 than I did in 2020.   Partly because I spent some time and money adding some memorial and shield Lincoln coins which was (and is) not a major focus, yet still my OCD gets the better of me at times as I would really like to finish the full date/mm run from 1909 to current.   An insane number of coins that is currently at 293 coins and counting, absolute insanity to complete the entire run and a goal that I would abandon if I had any smarts.    I also spent more and upgraded more coins in my 1940 date set than I had planned to do, but the friendly competition from the former 1st place set; who wants to be back in 1st place; had me doing more to defend the set.    That is a good thing as I added some amazing coins to the set, but it also diverted some funds that I would have used to improve other sets.
I did lose ground on a few sets as it seems that a few gold bugs put together some sets in the early 20's year sets, well not really sets as most of those sets only have one two or three coins in them.   But those high grade $50K gold coins really rack up the points and it makes competing with them next to impossible as I do not have an unlimited budget.    That is unfortunate in a way as I now have to decide what to do with those coins, I could keep them and just leave the sets as they are.   Or should I sell those coins and move on to something else, tough call and I'm just not sure how I'll proceed just yet.
All in all it was another nice year and I am blessed to care and provide the stewardship of the coins I have in my collection.    Like many I am grateful that I have my health, too many have been lost to Covid and other diseases over the past year.   And whatever the next year brings I will continue to enjoy the friendships that I have made within the hobby and the coins in my collection.   For sure there is still much to be done in the way of better photos and descriptions for many of the coins in my collection and that will be a continuing focus each and every year.
Happy Thanksgiving and a joyous Christmas season to everyone here.

Wow hard to believe that the registry cutoff is just a week away, this year has certainly gone by quickly.   As I look back I had no specific goals other than to try and add or upgrade to my existing sets in order to hold onto as many of my first place awards as possible.    Looking at my sets now it seems like I have actually lost some ground in that regard and will have fewer awards for 2021 than I did in 2020.   Partly because I spent some time and money adding some memorial and shield Lincoln coins which was (and is) not a major focus, yet still my OCD gets the better of me at times as I would really like to finish the full date/mm run from 1909 to current.   An insane number of coins that is currently at 293 coins and counting, absolute insanity to complete the entire run and a goal that I would abandon if I had any smarts.    I also spent more and upgraded more coins in my 1940 date set than I had planned to do, but the friendly competition from the former 1st place set; who wants to be back in 1st place; had me doing more to defend the set.    That is a good thing as I added some amazing coins to the set, but it also diverted some funds that I would have used to improve other sets.
I did lose ground on a few sets as it seems that a few gold bugs put together some sets in the early 20's year sets, well not really sets as most of those sets only have one two or three coins in them.   But those high grade $50K gold coins really rack up the points and it makes competing with them next to impossible as I do not have an unlimited budget.    That is unfortunate in a way as I now have to decide what to do with those coins, I could keep them and just leave the sets as they are.   Or should I sell those coins and move on to something else, tough call and I'm just not sure how I'll proceed just yet.
All in all it was another nice year and I am blessed to care and provide the stewardship of the coins I have in my collection.    Like many I am grateful that I have my health, too many have been lost to Covid and other diseases over the past year.   And whatever the next year brings I will continue to enjoy the friendships that I have made within the hobby and the coins in my collection.   For sure there is still much to be done in the way of better photos and descriptions for many of the coins in my collection and that will be a continuing focus each and every year.
Happy Thanksgiving and a joyous Christmas season to everyone here.

About a month ago I was surprised to see that all the coins in my Presidential dollar set had been removed from the set and the score had gone to Zero.
When I looked into it, I saw that there was a new category for "First Day of Issue" dollars and my coins weren't eligible for the set / category they had been in before. I also saw there was a lot of screaming and bemoaning the unfairness of it all. For me, it was no big deal - I deleted the old set and started a new one. That set had never won anything and it wasn't that big a deal anyway. All it really did was reset my view count to 0. But... that and another recent journal got me wondering if I need to go back and have a look at some other sets.
When I made my Lunar dollar set some 14 years ago - I think - the set / category didn't include varieties. Then they were added. So, my 17-coin set was only about 17% complete - which was miserable and demoralizing. However, at some point - no clue when - NGC made a new category that included only the series 1 & 2 coins in mint state with no varieties. Which is pretty much perfect for me. I deleted the old set, made a new one, and got the exact same score. I went from being 17% complete to 68% complete with less than 10 holes to fill in a close-ended set. That is something I like a lot more and something I might actually want to (and be able to) finish.

The Lunar coins are now also among the latest beneficiaries of my efforts to improve the pictures in some of my older sets and give them banners to improve the overall presentation in my registry.

I've also re-imaged my Chinese Panda's and other NCLT rounds. (Shandy called this one cute!  )

In (kinda) related news, my wife encouraged me to get a new Kookaburra for the first time in like 12 years. She said she has been thinking I might need something new to work on soon - I've mostly wrapped up my Zimbabwe note and coin sets except for sending them off to grade and the Venezuelan note set Is also mostly done - and this is her way of "voting" for the kookaburra set, which I already have a solid foundation on, and she seems to like.

Adding that coin got my set to exactly 50% with 16 of 32 slots filled. That means I’m eligible, right? That’s totally what that means, right? I mean, it’ll actually win a major award when pigs fly but I can dream about it really loud.

I like these but I'm not sure they're going to “win” and be the next thing I work on finishing - even with her vote. I'm also really tempted to try to build out the Lunars, the Koala, or the Kiwi sets. Or I could end up doing none of the above. I've been away from the Silver NCLT for quite a while but going back and looking at them and taking pictures of them again has gotten me remembering why I like them. Any or all of those 4 sets could be fun to work on again and it could be fun to make most or all of 2022 a NCLT focused year. After she encouraged me to get this I went out and accepted an offer on a 2012 Koala. I guess that’s my protest vote / way of showing I’m not 100% sold on the Kookaburra’s as my next focus.

Then her brother unexpectedly gave me a gift card as a belated birthday present and I used that to buy a 2014 Kookaburra. So that’s 2 new Kooks and a Koala. But I would need 15 more Kooks to get my set fully up to date and 8 more Koalas…  … but only 4 more kiwis…  Choices… 

I guess we’ll see if that 2014 makes it here in time for the 1st and some last-minute pictures.
Whenever I'm not heavily focused on one thing I do seem to go through these periods where I pick up a lot of random odds and ends, but, at least right now, I'm mostly getting things that add to old / existing sets and I'm not picking up random things that are going to sit alone in "sets" that go nowhere. I'm trying to avoid that.
But these sets do 1 problem that does give me pause. I'm not a fan of the problem with coins spotting post-encapsulation, which is sometimes a problem with these series too. Here's an image of one of my Philharmonics, a coin that did a lot to sour me on these Silver NCLT rounds for a while because it showcases just how bad the post-encapsulation spotting can be and just how bad of a job the various mints do at cleaning these blanks before annealing and striking in some cases. If I do decide to buy a few more of these coins I’m likely to restrict my purchases to 2016 and before, just so I have a higher degree of confidence that any spotting / hazing they’re likely to do has already occurred and that I’m not going to get too many more ugly surprises like these.

Just to end on a slightly more positive note, here are some new shots of my Chinese Unicorn and Peacock rounds, which are still some of the prettiest, most interesting and unique rounds in my Silver NCLT collection.



… and here are some pictures… some from a recent family photo session with the boys and some from some shots I took later that day of Shandy in a new evening dress she bought for a wedding we’ll need to go to in a couple of months.


Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

While I don't have a must do or list of things that I feel are must do items for my numismatic journey, I have some goals for my collection.   One such goal has been to include an uber high grade classic coin to the collection.   This has never been a high priority or something that I felt I "had" to do just a want list item that I figured I would find someday that would not only fit this minor goal but be very nice upgrade to one set or the other.   I think that I always expected that would be a new coin for my Lincoln set, given that it is a very large, long set I guess that it seemed the most likely set to find one that was within financial reach.  There are tons of MS68 and MS69 graded modern Lincoln coins but the most available MS68 classic coins in that series are the steel cents and they still sell for right around 1K on average, doable but not really the coin that I was motivated to go after at those prices.
However recently on GC I saw an auction for a 1940-D Mercury dime in MS68FB, not only is this a great classic design coin but it was also a numerical upgrade for several sets.   So I did as usual and threw in a $20 bid to place the coin on my watchlist, I check recent auction results for this grade and figured that it would likely sell for more than I was prepared to go.   A couple of days before the end of the auction I checked on the status and was surprised to see the price still rather low.  Ok that does happen sometimes and then a flurry of action in the last hour pushes the prices up near or beyond average.   So I decided what I was willing to go, which was below the recent averages; and place my final bid fully expecting to be out bid in those last hours.   I checked my emails after the auction deadline and low and behold I had won for just under my high bid!
I thought that is great, and then the doubts start to creep in.   Why did I win for less that recent average sales; did I miss something that others saw?   Did I just buy a dog coin, what did I just do!   Well nothing to do but wait for the package to arrive and see the coin in hand.   Fast forward to yesterday when the package came, I can now say that I very happy with my new coin, not a dog at least in my opinion.  I suspect that because this coin is blast white played some part in the lower than average selling price, had it been toned I expect it would have been much more expensive.  Also the lack of a CAC bean may have been a factor to some buyers at this grade level, not a deal breaker for me.
So there it is, a minor bucket list item checked off with what I find to be a very beautiful coin with one of the most attractive classic designs.  The only photos I have are the GC one's for now.

I don't know if other collectors give this much thought, perhaps it is a concern for aging collectors more so than younger collectors.   But I often wonder when will the constant back and forth buying that happens between the dealer middle men drive the prices so far up that average collectors are left by the wayside.   After all each time a coin trades hands from dealer A to dealer B, then from dealer B to dealer C, and then back to the beginning from dealer C to dealer A the price has to be marked up a bit on each of those transactions.
This thought occurred to me after reading stories from other collectors who describe the actions on dealer day; and from my own experiences at coins shows both local and larger shows.   I cannot recall a time at any show I have attended that I have not witnessed this almost constant back and forth between the dealers.   I even setup as a local show once and saw first hand this action between the dealers.
So the question I am always left with is at what point am I going to be priced out because all the meat that was on the bone has been picked clean because all the middlemen transactions which push the prices higher and higher until the golden goose is plucked.
Maybe I'm just getting old.  

Lol, So some context to this great feat of mine.   I recently asked for the registry team to include a new Lincoln set that does not require the varieties to be included in it.   Nothing against those who like collecting the varieties but its just not my thing.  To my surprise today I noticed that NGC created the set that I had asked for!    So I jumped in and created the very first set and am sitting in the number one spot; I have no doubt that as soon as the big guns spot the new set they will leapfrog over me and I'll end up in the 6 or 7 spot as I am in most of the Lincoln sets.   But I can say that for once I have the top Lincoln set in one category no matter how short lived that claim ends up being.   I think I should be drinking a brandy in a sniffer glass with a big stogie, tomorrow its back to beer.  

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!  

Lately, there has been much criticism and suspicion about the length of time it takes to get your coins graded. And my recent submission is no different. Like me, at the end of the day, when all your coins have been returned, you will probably ask yourself if it has been worth it? In the end, I weighed my worth against the grades I got, the price I paid, and the wait I had to endure.
On April 22, 2021, I mailed a 13-coin submission to NGC. On August 10, I received the last of my coins back in the mail. In that one mailing, I had four separate submissions graded in the following order. The first two were Christa McAuliffe commemorative coins graded under the US-modern tier. The next was a silver 5-ounce Tuskegee Airmen Quarter in an oversize holder. The largest was an 8-coin submission under the world-economy tier. Finally, the last two coins I received back were two coins under the world-modern tier.
In the end, the cost was never going to be an issue because of last year’s award as one of three awarded journalists. This only left me with two considerations which were in a manner of speaking linked together. The wait was worth it if I liked the grades, and if I didn’t like them, it wasn’t.
Most of the coins were related to my 1868-70 Spanish Provisional Government set and my 1933-38 Second Spanish Republic set. The others were new purchases and a few that had been lying around in flips.
Having all those grading credits tempted me to send in coins that I otherwise might not of. However, I had a duplicate raw coin that I considered sending in with the submission to sell. In the end, I determined not to send it because I thought it might get a details grade. Why waste the credit if I didn’t need to? Instead, I’ll save it for my 2021 Morgan and Peace Dollar.
This turned out to be a good decision because, in 13 coins, I had no detailed grades and three top-pops, of which two were 70’s. Most of the other grades were reasonably expected, with only a few exceptions. The following is a chart detailing my hope, my expectation, and the final grade:
Coin
Hope
Expected
Final Grade
2021 UNC Christa McAuliffe
70
69
69
2021 PRF Christa McAuliffe
70
69
69
2021 SP Oversize Tuskegee Airmen
70
69
70
1947-S Philippine MacArthur Peso
65
64
63
1870(70) SNM Spanish Provisional 50C
20
15
12
1870(70) SNM Spanish Provisional Peseta
VF
VF
25
1870(73) DEM Spanish
Provisional Peseta
58
AU
55 (Top-Pop)
1934 2nd Spanish Republic 25C
65
64
64
1937 2nd Spanish Republic 5c
65
64
63
1937 Menorca 25C (Spanish Civil War)
64
63
63
1938 2nd Spanish Republic 25C
67
66
63
2019PM B.V. Islands Silver $1 Una and the Lion
69
69
68 (rev proof)
2020 France 2E Proof Medical Research
70
69
70
 
Overall, my expectations were met with a minimum of disappointments and three top-pops! Was this worth the wait? Determine for yourselves, but as for me, I think this was worth the wait. Gary.


 

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...  
 

I think I have officially hit the point where I can no longer justify the expense of new additions. There have been some stellar coins offered for sale already this year, but more often than not, these pieces realize prices that are just a bit out of my comfort zone. Consequently, I have only added four new noteworthy pieces to my collection, which pales compared to last year. On any note, I am delighted with my latest purchase which brings back memories of a much simpler time. A time before COVID, before insane auctions prices, and before I was thoroughly infected with the bug of collecting Soho pieces.

We can probably all think back to the first piece that eventually became the foundation of a new collecting pursuit. For me, this took the form of a 1788 Great Britain pattern Halfpenny (P-945) struck at the Soho Mint (pictured above). I remember being sucked into the history and immense conflict between Jean Pierre Droz (the engraver of this coin) and the founder of the Soho Mint, Matthew Boulton. Fast forward several years and that research has dramatically expanded and now represents almost all of my numismatic pursuits. There is just so much fascinating history left to be discovered! The original piece holds a special place in my collection, and I am ecstatic to add a second similar example alongside it.
My newest purchase is the “1788” Great Britain pattern Halfpenny (P-1003) pictured below. Although this piece is dated 1788, it was likely struck nearly a century later. Peck classifies this variety as a restrike, meaning that it was struck using Soho dies sometime after the demise of the Soho Mint. I provide more detail about restrikes in the introduction of my registry set, so if you are looking for more information about restrikes, it can be found there. On any note, this piece was likely struck in the 1880s by Taylor after he acquired the dies from Matthew Pier Watt Boulton, the grandson of Matthew Boulton. Often dubbed “Taylor restrikes”, these pieces make the proper attribution of English coinage struck at the Soho Mint far more complicated, as he often intentionally created new varieties to sell to unsuspecting collectors. When considering the sheer number of restrike varieties paired with the frequency with which some of these come up for sale, it appears that this was a relatively successful operation. For instance, we know that 10 of these pieces, along with 794 other restrikes of different varieties and types, were part of a consignment from W. J. Taylor’s workshop on June 29th, 1880 (Peck, 1964). This was a single consignment, and it stands to reason that multiple of this caliber were likely placed over the careers of Taylor and his two sons. As such, it would be nearly impossible to ascertain how many of each variety were produced. Peck (1964) specifically notes that this variety (i.e., P-1003) was created with the sole intent of creating something new to trick unsuspecting collectors.

Although Peck (1964) notes this coin as rare, it appears to be much more common than other similarly rated varieties, with nearly 60 examples coming up for sale over the last five decades. This estimate only includes the examples attributed by TPGs and numerous auction houses. It makes no effort to include those not directly attributed, so the actual number of market appearances is likely higher. However, this example is somewhat more unique because both the obverse and reverse are double struck, the reverse being far more dramatic than the obverse. From my estimates, it appears the obverse is double struck with about a 3-degree rotation between strikes. The reverse, however, is double struck with about 21 degrees of rotation between strikes. The result is a coin that looks as though it has been circulated, but the flat areas are where the strikes overlapped. This is abundantly apparent when examining the bust of King George III and the outer portion of Britannia’s shield. In contrast, examining the inner portion of the shield demonstrates the conflicting design details. It will be interesting to see how NGC grades this piece, given its odd nature.
So what got you started in your current collecting pursuits? Has it come full circle as it has for me? 

While I don't have a must do or list of things that I feel are must do items for my numismatic journey, I have some goals for my collection.   One such goal has been to include an uber high grade classic coin to the collection.   This has never been a high priority or something that I felt I "had" to do just a want list item that I figured I would find someday that would not only fit this minor goal but be very nice upgrade to one set or the other.   I think that I always expected that would be a new coin for my Lincoln set, given that it is a very large, long set I guess that it seemed the most likely set to find one that was within financial reach.  There are tons of MS68 and MS69 graded modern Lincoln coins but the most available MS68 classic coins in that series are the steel cents and they still sell for right around 1K on average, doable but not really the coin that I was motivated to go after at those prices.
However recently on GC I saw an auction for a 1940-D Mercury dime in MS68FB, not only is this a great classic design coin but it was also a numerical upgrade for several sets.   So I did as usual and threw in a $20 bid to place the coin on my watchlist, I check recent auction results for this grade and figured that it would likely sell for more than I was prepared to go.   A couple of days before the end of the auction I checked on the status and was surprised to see the price still rather low.  Ok that does happen sometimes and then a flurry of action in the last hour pushes the prices up near or beyond average.   So I decided what I was willing to go, which was below the recent averages; and place my final bid fully expecting to be out bid in those last hours.   I checked my emails after the auction deadline and low and behold I had won for just under my high bid!
I thought that is great, and then the doubts start to creep in.   Why did I win for less that recent average sales; did I miss something that others saw?   Did I just buy a dog coin, what did I just do!   Well nothing to do but wait for the package to arrive and see the coin in hand.   Fast forward to yesterday when the package came, I can now say that I very happy with my new coin, not a dog at least in my opinion.  I suspect that because this coin is blast white played some part in the lower than average selling price, had it been toned I expect it would have been much more expensive.  Also the lack of a CAC bean may have been a factor to some buyers at this grade level, not a deal breaker for me.
So there it is, a minor bucket list item checked off with what I find to be a very beautiful coin with one of the most attractive classic designs.  The only photos I have are the GC one's for now.

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.

While I don't have a must do or list of things that I feel are must do items for my numismatic journey, I have some goals for my collection.   One such goal has been to include an uber high grade classic coin to the collection.   This has never been a high priority or something that I felt I "had" to do just a want list item that I figured I would find someday that would not only fit this minor goal but be very nice upgrade to one set or the other.   I think that I always expected that would be a new coin for my Lincoln set, given that it is a very large, long set I guess that it seemed the most likely set to find one that was within financial reach.  There are tons of MS68 and MS69 graded modern Lincoln coins but the most available MS68 classic coins in that series are the steel cents and they still sell for right around 1K on average, doable but not really the coin that I was motivated to go after at those prices.
However recently on GC I saw an auction for a 1940-D Mercury dime in MS68FB, not only is this a great classic design coin but it was also a numerical upgrade for several sets.   So I did as usual and threw in a $20 bid to place the coin on my watchlist, I check recent auction results for this grade and figured that it would likely sell for more than I was prepared to go.   A couple of days before the end of the auction I checked on the status and was surprised to see the price still rather low.  Ok that does happen sometimes and then a flurry of action in the last hour pushes the prices up near or beyond average.   So I decided what I was willing to go, which was below the recent averages; and place my final bid fully expecting to be out bid in those last hours.   I checked my emails after the auction deadline and low and behold I had won for just under my high bid!
I thought that is great, and then the doubts start to creep in.   Why did I win for less that recent average sales; did I miss something that others saw?   Did I just buy a dog coin, what did I just do!   Well nothing to do but wait for the package to arrive and see the coin in hand.   Fast forward to yesterday when the package came, I can now say that I very happy with my new coin, not a dog at least in my opinion.  I suspect that because this coin is blast white played some part in the lower than average selling price, had it been toned I expect it would have been much more expensive.  Also the lack of a CAC bean may have been a factor to some buyers at this grade level, not a deal breaker for me.
So there it is, a minor bucket list item checked off with what I find to be a very beautiful coin with one of the most attractive classic designs.  The only photos I have are the GC one's for now.

While I don't have a must do or list of things that I feel are must do items for my numismatic journey, I have some goals for my collection.   One such goal has been to include an uber high grade classic coin to the collection.   This has never been a high priority or something that I felt I "had" to do just a want list item that I figured I would find someday that would not only fit this minor goal but be very nice upgrade to one set or the other.   I think that I always expected that would be a new coin for my Lincoln set, given that it is a very large, long set I guess that it seemed the most likely set to find one that was within financial reach.  There are tons of MS68 and MS69 graded modern Lincoln coins but the most available MS68 classic coins in that series are the steel cents and they still sell for right around 1K on average, doable but not really the coin that I was motivated to go after at those prices.
However recently on GC I saw an auction for a 1940-D Mercury dime in MS68FB, not only is this a great classic design coin but it was also a numerical upgrade for several sets.   So I did as usual and threw in a $20 bid to place the coin on my watchlist, I check recent auction results for this grade and figured that it would likely sell for more than I was prepared to go.   A couple of days before the end of the auction I checked on the status and was surprised to see the price still rather low.  Ok that does happen sometimes and then a flurry of action in the last hour pushes the prices up near or beyond average.   So I decided what I was willing to go, which was below the recent averages; and place my final bid fully expecting to be out bid in those last hours.   I checked my emails after the auction deadline and low and behold I had won for just under my high bid!
I thought that is great, and then the doubts start to creep in.   Why did I win for less that recent average sales; did I miss something that others saw?   Did I just buy a dog coin, what did I just do!   Well nothing to do but wait for the package to arrive and see the coin in hand.   Fast forward to yesterday when the package came, I can now say that I very happy with my new coin, not a dog at least in my opinion.  I suspect that because this coin is blast white played some part in the lower than average selling price, had it been toned I expect it would have been much more expensive.  Also the lack of a CAC bean may have been a factor to some buyers at this grade level, not a deal breaker for me.
So there it is, a minor bucket list item checked off with what I find to be a very beautiful coin with one of the most attractive classic designs.  The only photos I have are the GC one's for now.

While I don't have a must do or list of things that I feel are must do items for my numismatic journey, I have some goals for my collection.   One such goal has been to include an uber high grade classic coin to the collection.   This has never been a high priority or something that I felt I "had" to do just a want list item that I figured I would find someday that would not only fit this minor goal but be very nice upgrade to one set or the other.   I think that I always expected that would be a new coin for my Lincoln set, given that it is a very large, long set I guess that it seemed the most likely set to find one that was within financial reach.  There are tons of MS68 and MS69 graded modern Lincoln coins but the most available MS68 classic coins in that series are the steel cents and they still sell for right around 1K on average, doable but not really the coin that I was motivated to go after at those prices.
However recently on GC I saw an auction for a 1940-D Mercury dime in MS68FB, not only is this a great classic design coin but it was also a numerical upgrade for several sets.   So I did as usual and threw in a $20 bid to place the coin on my watchlist, I check recent auction results for this grade and figured that it would likely sell for more than I was prepared to go.   A couple of days before the end of the auction I checked on the status and was surprised to see the price still rather low.  Ok that does happen sometimes and then a flurry of action in the last hour pushes the prices up near or beyond average.   So I decided what I was willing to go, which was below the recent averages; and place my final bid fully expecting to be out bid in those last hours.   I checked my emails after the auction deadline and low and behold I had won for just under my high bid!
I thought that is great, and then the doubts start to creep in.   Why did I win for less that recent average sales; did I miss something that others saw?   Did I just buy a dog coin, what did I just do!   Well nothing to do but wait for the package to arrive and see the coin in hand.   Fast forward to yesterday when the package came, I can now say that I very happy with my new coin, not a dog at least in my opinion.  I suspect that because this coin is blast white played some part in the lower than average selling price, had it been toned I expect it would have been much more expensive.  Also the lack of a CAC bean may have been a factor to some buyers at this grade level, not a deal breaker for me.
So there it is, a minor bucket list item checked off with what I find to be a very beautiful coin with one of the most attractive classic designs.  The only photos I have are the GC one's for now.

While I don't have a must do or list of things that I feel are must do items for my numismatic journey, I have some goals for my collection.   One such goal has been to include an uber high grade classic coin to the collection.   This has never been a high priority or something that I felt I "had" to do just a want list item that I figured I would find someday that would not only fit this minor goal but be very nice upgrade to one set or the other.   I think that I always expected that would be a new coin for my Lincoln set, given that it is a very large, long set I guess that it seemed the most likely set to find one that was within financial reach.  There are tons of MS68 and MS69 graded modern Lincoln coins but the most available MS68 classic coins in that series are the steel cents and they still sell for right around 1K on average, doable but not really the coin that I was motivated to go after at those prices.
However recently on GC I saw an auction for a 1940-D Mercury dime in MS68FB, not only is this a great classic design coin but it was also a numerical upgrade for several sets.   So I did as usual and threw in a $20 bid to place the coin on my watchlist, I check recent auction results for this grade and figured that it would likely sell for more than I was prepared to go.   A couple of days before the end of the auction I checked on the status and was surprised to see the price still rather low.  Ok that does happen sometimes and then a flurry of action in the last hour pushes the prices up near or beyond average.   So I decided what I was willing to go, which was below the recent averages; and place my final bid fully expecting to be out bid in those last hours.   I checked my emails after the auction deadline and low and behold I had won for just under my high bid!
I thought that is great, and then the doubts start to creep in.   Why did I win for less that recent average sales; did I miss something that others saw?   Did I just buy a dog coin, what did I just do!   Well nothing to do but wait for the package to arrive and see the coin in hand.   Fast forward to yesterday when the package came, I can now say that I very happy with my new coin, not a dog at least in my opinion.  I suspect that because this coin is blast white played some part in the lower than average selling price, had it been toned I expect it would have been much more expensive.  Also the lack of a CAC bean may have been a factor to some buyers at this grade level, not a deal breaker for me.
So there it is, a minor bucket list item checked off with what I find to be a very beautiful coin with one of the most attractive classic designs.  The only photos I have are the GC one's for now.

While I don't have a must do or list of things that I feel are must do items for my numismatic journey, I have some goals for my collection.   One such goal has been to include an uber high grade classic coin to the collection.   This has never been a high priority or something that I felt I "had" to do just a want list item that I figured I would find someday that would not only fit this minor goal but be very nice upgrade to one set or the other.   I think that I always expected that would be a new coin for my Lincoln set, given that it is a very large, long set I guess that it seemed the most likely set to find one that was within financial reach.  There are tons of MS68 and MS69 graded modern Lincoln coins but the most available MS68 classic coins in that series are the steel cents and they still sell for right around 1K on average, doable but not really the coin that I was motivated to go after at those prices.
However recently on GC I saw an auction for a 1940-D Mercury dime in MS68FB, not only is this a great classic design coin but it was also a numerical upgrade for several sets.   So I did as usual and threw in a $20 bid to place the coin on my watchlist, I check recent auction results for this grade and figured that it would likely sell for more than I was prepared to go.   A couple of days before the end of the auction I checked on the status and was surprised to see the price still rather low.  Ok that does happen sometimes and then a flurry of action in the last hour pushes the prices up near or beyond average.   So I decided what I was willing to go, which was below the recent averages; and place my final bid fully expecting to be out bid in those last hours.   I checked my emails after the auction deadline and low and behold I had won for just under my high bid!
I thought that is great, and then the doubts start to creep in.   Why did I win for less that recent average sales; did I miss something that others saw?   Did I just buy a dog coin, what did I just do!   Well nothing to do but wait for the package to arrive and see the coin in hand.   Fast forward to yesterday when the package came, I can now say that I very happy with my new coin, not a dog at least in my opinion.  I suspect that because this coin is blast white played some part in the lower than average selling price, had it been toned I expect it would have been much more expensive.  Also the lack of a CAC bean may have been a factor to some buyers at this grade level, not a deal breaker for me.
So there it is, a minor bucket list item checked off with what I find to be a very beautiful coin with one of the most attractive classic designs.  The only photos I have are the GC one's for now.

Lol, So some context to this great feat of mine.   I recently asked for the registry team to include a new Lincoln set that does not require the varieties to be included in it.   Nothing against those who like collecting the varieties but its just not my thing.  To my surprise today I noticed that NGC created the set that I had asked for!    So I jumped in and created the very first set and am sitting in the number one spot; I have no doubt that as soon as the big guns spot the new set they will leapfrog over me and I'll end up in the 6 or 7 spot as I am in most of the Lincoln sets.   But I can say that for once I have the top Lincoln set in one category no matter how short lived that claim ends up being.   I think I should be drinking a brandy in a sniffer glass with a big stogie, tomorrow its back to beer.  

Lol, So some context to this great feat of mine.   I recently asked for the registry team to include a new Lincoln set that does not require the varieties to be included in it.   Nothing against those who like collecting the varieties but its just not my thing.  To my surprise today I noticed that NGC created the set that I had asked for!    So I jumped in and created the very first set and am sitting in the number one spot; I have no doubt that as soon as the big guns spot the new set they will leapfrog over me and I'll end up in the 6 or 7 spot as I am in most of the Lincoln sets.   But I can say that for once I have the top Lincoln set in one category no matter how short lived that claim ends up being.   I think I should be drinking a brandy in a sniffer glass with a big stogie, tomorrow its back to beer.  

Lol, So some context to this great feat of mine.   I recently asked for the registry team to include a new Lincoln set that does not require the varieties to be included in it.   Nothing against those who like collecting the varieties but its just not my thing.  To my surprise today I noticed that NGC created the set that I had asked for!    So I jumped in and created the very first set and am sitting in the number one spot; I have no doubt that as soon as the big guns spot the new set they will leapfrog over me and I'll end up in the 6 or 7 spot as I am in most of the Lincoln sets.   But I can say that for once I have the top Lincoln set in one category no matter how short lived that claim ends up being.   I think I should be drinking a brandy in a sniffer glass with a big stogie, tomorrow its back to beer.  

Lol, So some context to this great feat of mine.   I recently asked for the registry team to include a new Lincoln set that does not require the varieties to be included in it.   Nothing against those who like collecting the varieties but its just not my thing.  To my surprise today I noticed that NGC created the set that I had asked for!    So I jumped in and created the very first set and am sitting in the number one spot; I have no doubt that as soon as the big guns spot the new set they will leapfrog over me and I'll end up in the 6 or 7 spot as I am in most of the Lincoln sets.   But I can say that for once I have the top Lincoln set in one category no matter how short lived that claim ends up being.   I think I should be drinking a brandy in a sniffer glass with a big stogie, tomorrow its back to beer.  

Lol, So some context to this great feat of mine.   I recently asked for the registry team to include a new Lincoln set that does not require the varieties to be included in it.   Nothing against those who like collecting the varieties but its just not my thing.  To my surprise today I noticed that NGC created the set that I had asked for!    So I jumped in and created the very first set and am sitting in the number one spot; I have no doubt that as soon as the big guns spot the new set they will leapfrog over me and I'll end up in the 6 or 7 spot as I am in most of the Lincoln sets.   But I can say that for once I have the top Lincoln set in one category no matter how short lived that claim ends up being.   I think I should be drinking a brandy in a sniffer glass with a big stogie, tomorrow its back to beer.  

Lol, So some context to this great feat of mine.   I recently asked for the registry team to include a new Lincoln set that does not require the varieties to be included in it.   Nothing against those who like collecting the varieties but its just not my thing.  To my surprise today I noticed that NGC created the set that I had asked for!    So I jumped in and created the very first set and am sitting in the number one spot; I have no doubt that as soon as the big guns spot the new set they will leapfrog over me and I'll end up in the 6 or 7 spot as I am in most of the Lincoln sets.   But I can say that for once I have the top Lincoln set in one category no matter how short lived that claim ends up being.   I think I should be drinking a brandy in a sniffer glass with a big stogie, tomorrow its back to beer.