Henri Charriere

I'll make the call and my Roosters are all I have. Besides, they personally guarantee it. Excelsior! Ever Upward! 🤣

(Note: Held for review by Moderation.) There's no telling when the Great Zadok will show up, so I will keep this short. My views on decapsulations are well-known: what God joined together, no man shall tear asunder. (Does this mean severing the connection between two continents at the Isthmus with the Panama Canal was wrong? Yes, but the principals paid the price.) The only time decapitation, pardon, decapsulation is proper is when one TPGS will not accept a coin certified by another for inclusion in their Set Registry. Anything else reeks of ingratitude--or greed. If a bona-fide hobbyist expresses displeasure with the assigned grade, he has an option: re-submit for re-consideration.

I would have appreciated a fifth option: Not experienced enough to know.

How 'bout Acapulco -- after it's all fixed up, of course.

No, a former administrator of the DEA and CBP and one-time governor of Arkansas. Unfortunately, he did not speak up at the debates and is a relative unknown, but I figure his experience qualifies him to deal with drug cartels and migrants at the Southern border.

My father flew well into his Nineties. It's essential you periodically get up in-flight and walk periodically to avoid the build-up of blood clots. (To my knowledge, my father never called in sick to work, was never hospitalized, avoided all medicines, prescribed or not, including things as simple as aspirin.) Senior Federal judges (appointed, as you know, for life) rarely retire preferring to assume reduced case loads instead. It's time for you to take it easy...

The gentleman, having not been formally Mirandized and failing to state he wished to exercise his right to remain silent, folded under questioning and quite readily admitted to deflowering the encapsulation. The TPGS would not detect evidence of a crime having been committed if the coin(s)were submitted raw. However, with one's signature one may authorize the vandalism when accompanied by the appropriate fee. I would prefer to think all coins are received with an open mind but only the grade finalizer's barber would know for sure. Three important things I learned in kindergarten from which I graduated Magnum C-m Laudanum: 1. Do not plagiarize another's work and misrepresent it as your own; 2. Do not defile a cinemaphotograher's black-and-white film with colorization; and most important: 3. Resist the urge to vandalize a Grading Finalizer's judgment. 🤣

There's little point in going if Coinbuf won't be there. 🤣 Seriously, if I got word from someone -- anyone, suggesting they heard an unconfirmed rumor I'd be able to find a 1910 or 1913 or 1914 French 20-franc gold rooster graded MS-67 there, I would leave my wife to fend for herself, and be out of New York City on the first thing smoking. Unfortunately, Baltimore, or so I have been led to believe, is USA all the way. Chanukah gelt, anyone?

I did look it up! But maybe I'm dyslexic. I got "Movement for the Liberation of Angola" and quickly concluded the member who prides himself on being a "conservative's conservative" probably wasn't involved. I only regret the uninitiated and those who haven't been here long enough to appreciate the depth of your greatness.

I took the quiz... and somehow feel disappointed. In fact, cheated! If you're going to go through all the trouble of re-issuing the 1909 VDB, why wouldn't you include the S.F. mintmark? Some designs already enjoy current use. I have nothing against S.L. Walkers, but aren't they already being accommodated in bullion? Some really interesting greatly appreciated but seldom seen examples are lost in the sauce while the Kennedy Half is promoted as one pick. Why aren't the ones being minted now being distributed for circulation? When's the last time someone even got one in change? I'll not say anything more, but if you talk classic coins the first thing that comes to mind are "obsolete" coins which have long been withdrawn from circulation. Whole categories of wonderful series were overlooked. It's supposed to be a tribute to the 250th anniversary of the U.S. and instead of re-introducing the Two-Cent piece, the first to feature the motto IGWT, we've got apparatchniks shoving wild-haired coppers down our collective throats. I am going to write the BEP and push for re-issuance of the "Educational Series" of notes. Thank you @Lem E for the sneak preview!

Blast from the Past! 🐓: I think you ought to pay closer attention to what @World Colonialhas to say. H.C.: I do but I'm in too deep to get out gracefully now. He sees the Big Picture. I am fixated on acquiring one more Gold Rooster. After that I don't care what happens. I'll be In Like Flint and the ten moderators monitoring my every move can get back to doing something more important like addressing the backlog and shortening turn-around times.

Aw, c'mon man! Spell it out! Don't let him get away with this @MM! He's the only member who's got unconditional immunity likely due to his diversified portfolio and popularity. I looked it up, just like Oldhoop counseled, and surprise, surprise. There ain't no MPALS! Spell it out! What have you to fear?

Pretty soon you'll have me talking like former sec'y of DoD Don Rumsfeld what with his knowns and unknowns... I don't know. You have to look for patterns of high-quality acquisitions, their progressions and refusal to fill the last slot until Godzilla shows up. The first two sets on NGC's S/R are incomplete. They are crocs in waiting for the perfect wildebeest to show up before they lunge. I cheat and look up their Set Histories. I surmise # 1 here is a dealer. Much like D.L. Hansen, he's prolific in his acquisitions. He's in the market for a high quality 1900. The Holy Grail. There are only two finer than mine ATS; ditto here. Most of them are incommunicado. It's not like I can pick up my cell, introduce myself and inquire as to what their intentions are. I am only one e-mail from landing my humongous swordfish, and resting on my laurels. I got this. Now Back on Track.

(Exquisite photos courtesy of Sandon.)

The prongs on this holder appear to be a vast improvement over those currently in use by GENI, a TPGS in Europe. Can you tell be what concern holdered this dime? Thanks!

Few would know this, but you heard it here first: That number, 67.313, the "current finest possible set rating," was 67.219 for some time. But neither number makes sense unless the two gold roosters certified and graded MS-68 were added to the Set Registry -- and they never were. Instead, they flew the coop and were cross-graded, successfully, at NGC -- and, again, not added to any Set Registry. The Great Zadok took especial delight in proclaiming I would never see them in my lifetime. True, others have disagreed with him, but no one has contradicted him or proven him wrong. All this may seem like an obsession of sorts to you, but it's as second nature to me as your pursuits are to you.

Asa Hutchinson won't be on the ballot but that won't stop me from writing him in.

I am painfully aware of that but has no one heard of an audit? What's the point of maintaining a tabulation apparently started in the previous century if it fails to serve a specific purpose. It's gotten to the point where members have to rely on another individual's instinct or institutional memory. This isn't rocket science. The technology is there. It's the will that's lacking.

What's with the dismissiveness? On mine, the current finest possible set rating is 67.313. That has never been attained. I come in at 65.906, with the # 1 ranked set. The guy breathing down my neck -- who, incidentally, has not made an addition in 10 years, comes in at 63.788. If he finds something interesting, the "Rooster Roster" gets taken down by the four-letter folks. I'll be all washed up, a has-been, and my army of ignorers will have a hearty chuckle at my expense. 🤣 All that time and effort and expense for bupkis.

I believe you are taking advantage of the fact that I am new to the hobby having been involved in coin collecting only fifty years, or half as many as you have. Am I to believe NGC, or any of its acronymical affiliates "grade" coins without authenticating or encapsulating them? When EC requested PCGS certify his '33 minus formal certification and all it implies, the departure from S.O.P was noteworthy enough to merit a mention in numismatic circles from coast-to-coast. I want to go on record as stating, nay, insisting, that no formal grading takes place in the absence of formal submission and payment of fees and in the highly unlikely chance I am sadly mistaken or misinformed, will surrender my Rising Star -- and resign my commission, forthwith. My apologies to the OP for -- hold on, I AM THE OP! 🤣

There are an awful lot of those double-eagle collectors. Have you taken a look at the set registries? Now that guy who's got a stone coin from Yap -- that right there is highly unusual and exceptional! Talk about having it submitted and granted a platinum bean? A class in itself.

Not a matter of manual dexterity. I believe the collector is satisfied to view his proofs in their original mint-issued holders.

Maybe they ought to try Las Vegas. Have any coin shows ever been held there lately?

When you have your closest associates testifying against you [primarily for their own gain] you're a dead man walking. Billions of dollars were squandered and he was unable to provide simple answers to basic questions. If he had not taken the stand, the jury, by law, could not hold that against him, but by taking the stand and squirming on just about everything asked of him, he only confirmed what the jury already suspected. As always, retained defense counsel came out smelling like a rose. They get paid no matter what. Now if Sam can provide a little something for the assets and forfeiture folks, he may be able to pare that likely substantial prison sentence down some. I guess I don't understand crypto, and never will.

No, see the very first post above for the particulars. Thank you for your interest. You have a very lovely coin!