• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Revenant

Member: Seasoned Veteran
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    3,597

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    15

 Content Type 

Journal Entries posted by Revenant

  1. Revenant

    "Bad Luck Pennies" / "Hard Times Pennies"

    By Revenant,


    Random Nonsense
    I had to run an errand today and I found a penny in the parking lot on the way to my car. I stopped and picked it up like I have always tended to do ever since I was a small child, as I was encouraged to do.
    I remember always being taught the rhyme, "Find a penny? Pick it up! And all the day you'll have good luck!"
    Some years ago now I had a supervisor at work whose husband took this rather seriously and got upset when he found out that their child had found a penny on the ground and later given it to someone else! "No! Don't do that! Those are your good luck pennies! Don't give away your good luck." She got quite a laugh at that. It seems to be a recurring theme of life - wives laughing at their husbands.
    Of course, when I was growing up some people always said that if the penny was "face-up" / obverse showing you should pick it up for good luck but if it was "face down" / reverse showing you should not pick it up because that was bad luck.
    Thinking about that got me thinking about 2020 and pennies from 2020. I looked - while new and shiny looking the penny I found was from 2013.
    I'm wondering if finding and picking up a penny from 2020 will somehow come to be seen as bad luck. If coins from 2020 could ever be seen as a bad omen from a bad time.
    It's all silly - I know - superstitious nonsense, the lot of it. But it was amusing think about for a minute as I climbed in the car, tossed that penny in the cup holder and took a pump of my hand-sanitizer. I don't really believe in luck. I believe in being careful and prepared. "Fortune favors the prepared" has been my approach to life for a long time now.
     
  2. Revenant
    Sam is obsessed with Goldfish, and shoving them in his mouth all day. He's started saying "Ga" for for Goldfish when he wants them. This means he's working on learning to say "gold," which is a lovely word if you like coins IMO.
    Meanwhile Ben has recently cropped up with "poins" and telling me he took my "poins." I had thought we'd gotten past this and he'd figured out "coins," but it has made a comeback recently. My wife doesn't want me correcting him too much because she thinks its adorable. I think in its origins is the word "points" and him having trouble with the t sound, but he is definitely using it to refer to coins.
    I had the thought again last night about trying to buy and submit some Zimbabwean bond coins to make a registry set of them to go with my notes. I had thought about this early in the year but got distracted by the pandemic. The thing that strikes me about it in my shopping is I can't easily find sellers selling sets of them in the US. The sellers I'm finding are in China, Bangladesh, Ukraine... I'm wondering if there aren't many collectors / people interested in these in the US.

    Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
  3. Revenant
    So Ben randomly pops up with the fact that he wants a "penny sorter," which my brain interprets to mean one of those automatic coin sorting and rolling machines.
    I hadn't thought of those in years probably but him saying this reminded me of the fact that I used to see those in Walgreens and other places as a kid. I always really wanted one and thought they would be so cool, but I could just never justify it (or talk my mom into it) and so I always just sorted, counted and rolled by hand. To this day I've never owned one. But the whole thing and the memories brought an immediate smile to my face.
    Ben wanted to use my phone's Amazon app to look at some/ shop for one, just like he likes to for toys so we looked together. It looks like they no longer make ones like the ones that I used to want as a kid - makes sense after 20-25 years that the designs have moved on / progressed.
    Before we started shopping for and laying down a lot of money from savings to buy the new house I probably would have talked to Shandy and maybe gotten one for $25 for a laugh. But, Ben has been acting more than slightly spoiled lately with his toy demands and the house purchase IS burning through a lot of money. So at this point I'm just not interested in buying something we 100% do not need and which is just going to sit around until I have to pack it up to move in 2 months.
    The other thing is this kid already has like 3 piggy banks / coin banks and he really just does NOT need another bank at home.
    In our increasingly cashless society I sometimes wonder how many kids still get piggy banks? But these things must still be common / popular enough if they're still being offered for sale in so many varieties.
  4. Revenant

    "Would you like to know more?"

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwean Coins and Currency
    Borrowing the title from that line in "Starship Troopers." Anyone else remember that movie? I hear it's 25 years old now?
    Anyway...
    I feel like I teased this concept months and months ago - probably close to a year ago now - but I never really delivered on it:

    I feel like I very much survive on a kind of "one step at a time" incrementalism some days. I got the coins back, I got them in the set. I uploaded new descriptions a while after that. Got new pictures posted a couple months after that. put these in the case a month or so after that, and now I finally drag out all the notes and the plaques during nap time today and took this picture.
    So there it is - my latest attempt at giving a "Best Presented" Registry set a physical presentation that lives up to the digital one. And I do look at it in person and in the picture with a lot of pride after about 3 years and a lot of effort to make it a reality.
    Some of the coins have "company" and some have "corporation' on the labels for NGC's name I think but I very much view the visual match of the slabs as part of the physical presentation for the sets. I just think it makes the set look better in person - going back to my justification for my "sin" of killing those 25 year old fatty slabs that some of my 10G set was in before 2020.  
    The title of the post comes from the fact that, as I was setting this up, I couldn't help but think, if this was set-up at a table at a coin show, with or without the awards, would seeing the coins and notes like this make you want to come up, check it out, and learn more about them?
    The case has an extra (24th) slot in it that I'm currently using to let the case store both of the $2 bond coins that came back as MS69s from that submission.
    I posted on the PMG side about the fact that Zimbabwe has announced they're coming out with new 1 ounce bullion coins to sell as inflation hedges. It breaks my heart that they're 1 ounce because I can't just casually throw down $1750-1900 for a coin, but I would have loved to have gotten one of those and used it to fill that 24th slot with something unique. Though alternatively I could buy and include one of these old 1989 silver rounds like the one Mike has recently posted an image of - assuming NGC would grade it. I don't know if they have ever graded one or if the "gradability" of those has been tested or confirmed. And it would need to be graded to work in this display.
     
    About 3 weeks ago I said on the PMG side that I was drawing up the forms to (finally) make a submission of Venezuelan coins and Italian coins to further my 500L set and to get that Venezuelan hyperinflation coin set off the ground.
    About 2 weeks after that I finally get the coins in flips with the right labels and bound them up and I'm working this weekend on finally boxing them up and printing a mailing label  Like I said, progress one very small step at a time!
    The new submission is going to actually be very similar to the last one. The last one was 22 Zimbabwe coins with 7 Italian coins. This one is going to be 22 Venezuelan coins paired with 6 Italian coins - 3 500L hole-fillers and 3 1986 coins to help me build out that year set.
    I think for now I'm going to hold off on grading another 2003 $10 Zimbabwe coin. The one I had looks better than the AU58 I have graded but I still think it would do MS62-63 at best and I think for now I just need to hold off and see if I can find better options for the $10 and $25 coins, letting those AU58s hold down the fort for now.
     
    Edited to add:
    I am aware that turn-around times on submissions have come down quite a bit in the last few months. But part of my concerns about getting this submission out and back stems from the desire to have time to get descriptions posted and pictures taken and uploaded. And that process sometimes takes a while or takes a while for me to find time to do it. So ideally I'd like to get the coins back well before December's deadline to have time to get the presentation on the registry sets up to snuff.
  5. Revenant
    For about the last week or so Ben keeps saying that he needs things for his “collection.” He has a robot “collection.” His Legos are a “collection” now. His toys are a “collection.” He needs all my old dice for his “collection.”
    I’m not sure where this came from, but I really don’t think it was from me. I don’t think I use the word “collection” around him very often.
    I’m thinking he must have gotten this from one of his little shows he watches on Netflix – maybe even power rangers since I think there was a character / villain on that not too long ago that collected “goodies” in glass jars (kinda creepy).
    It's cute and all... now he just needs to stop taking all of my stuff!
  6. Revenant

    “Mega Ultimate Grand Supreme Uncirculated”

    By Revenant,


    Random Nonsense
    For a bit of relevant context, years ago when Ben was young, we used to watch some episodes of “Toddlers and Tiaras” on Hulu for stupid, white trash, entertainment while we were stuck at home being broke parents to a young kid. We used to make fun of the titles the girls would win like "Grand Supreme" and "Ultimate Grand Supreme," and "Mega Ultimate Grand Supreme."
    Years later we still joke about those titles and joke about "Mega Ultimate Grand Supreme [whatever]."
    In the course of looking at these coins with Shandy we got into a discussion of grades and the kinds of grades I'm hoping for with the graded set and that got me talking about how 60+ is "Uncirculated," and 63+ is "Choice Uncirculated," and 65+ is "Gem Uncirculated" and 67+ is "Superb Gem Uncirculated." I'm explaining this because I'm explaining that, ideally, I'd like this set to be 65+ or 67+, Gem or better. She hears that last one though and she cracks a joke about "Mega Ultimate Grand Supreme Uncirculated," and laughs. I just looked at her for a second like, "No. That's not cool.”

    I keep getting wandering eyes with the Italian coins recently - old and pre-euro modern, raw and graded. In many cases they're not even things I especially want or like - not like that flying liberty coin - but I do like collecting coins (hoarding pretty disks of metal). One example being raw examples of the 1000 Lire coin issued from 1997-2001, before the adoption of the Lire. I've seen some and they look interesting but they're not super pretty or anything - they're solidly okay. They're bi-metallic like the 500 Lire and look closely related to the 500 Lire, but they don't have the connection to Shandy because they didn't start issuing these until she'd already been out of the country 3-4 years.

    Shandy has been good at keeping me focused (in check). I show them to her and she's like, "It's nice, but I want to stay focused on our current set (the 500 L)," and so I let it go. It's almost like she has more discipline than I do or something... slightly annoying.
    Speaking of Shandy though - She's mentioned a couple of times recently that she misses looking at the coins and picking the best one and discussing the flaws of each. I haven't been doing much of that recently because before we were doing that to pick coins to submit, and I still have to tackle that Zimbabwe submission, and I don't want to get too far... ahead of myself / dig a hole I'll never get out of... but I do like the idea of continuing to buy more lots of cheap raw coins and looking at them.
    Who knows? At this rate this may be the new focus of my collecting efforts going forward. That could be fun. I may need to invest in more binders, pages, and flips, if it goes that way though. 🤔 Maybe a stronger book case too because those binders are heavy when they’re full.
    With the idea of keeping the fun going though, she’s agree to take on a challenge with me: Before we send off the Z coin submission we’re going to look at each coin again and write down what we think each one will grade - I will probably also use this as a chance to pick the best of some coins and dates where we have 2 of the same and lean down the submission a little. With those grade estimates written down, we’ll see how close we came when the grades come back. She’ll have her guesses and I’ll have mine. We’ll have the already graded ones nearby to look at to help us make good SWAGs. I may never live it down if she does better than me though.  (Edited to add: She confirms. I will not.)
    And, while I’ve been talking for months about that submission going out in January… it may not. I’m realizing we have something going on almost every weekend in January. One of my cousins is getting married on our Anniversary, so we’re going to share our anniversary with my cousin, and we’ll be at a wedding that evening. So I don’t see it happening that weekend. The weekend after that there’s a coin show in Conroe that I want to go to so I don’t see it happening then. The weekend after that we’re going to be busy again… So, unless I bust this out right after New Years or on the Weekend of the 7th, the odds of me getting the paperwork done and getting these boxed up to go out before February seems to be near zero.
  7. Revenant

    “PIF by Borrower”

    By Revenant,

    For months now I’ve been crossing my fingers hoping that I’d get a nice bonus and we’d be able to pay off my student loans and maybe finish paying for the cruise we’re wanting to take in October.
    I’m still waiting to find out about if I’ll get a bonus this year, but we just got a big surprise on our Taxes. Because we can claim an extra dependent this year and a couple of other things this year, instead of owing money we’re going to get some back and this is going to let us pay off my loans, pay off the cruise and have a little left over. We may be able to use that to eliminate one other debt and, if we can, that’d be three big bills / debts off our plate.
    I have to wait until the money comes in and we can’t file until we get one last form, but my student loans are as good as dead - 6 years early. My reward for paying 2.5 times the normal payment every month that I could afford it.
    “PIF by borrower” are wonderful words.
    … Now to start working harder on her student loans. That… will take a while and be fun.
    Hey, maybe, if I do get a bonus, I really will get to treat myself a little!
    As it happens, just in the last couple of days, an NGC graded 1880 10G coin has come up for sale in an old fatty holder with a 1959XX serial number. I’d be a perfect addition to my set but the seller’s asking price is a bit steep. If I get a good bonus, I may try to make an offer and see if they’ll take something more reasonable for it. If I don’t get a bonus and it’s still available in a few weeks I may just negotiate a deal with my wife, just like I did when I got the 1888 in early 2018.
    If it’s still available when I’m ready to buy, I’ll be really excited to get that coin. But getting rid of these bills will feel great.
    I do sometimes question if I’d be better served to have put even more towards the bills and less than I currently do to the coins and the hobbies, but this is my fun, this is how I treat myself, and there are worse ways I could do it.
    Yup... I'm probably going to have a hard time using most of that grading credit if I keep going for things that are already graded.
  8. Revenant

    “Samuel Likes Money”

    By Revenant,

    Well, this was drafted and supposed to be queued up before everything went crazy on Tuesday so it may make less sense chronologically than it previously would have but here it is anyway I think it's a sweet and funny story.
    So, I have this “Heads or Tails” round that I got over 10 years ago as a joke. It has a nude woman on both sides so the “Head” and “Tails” should be self-explanatory from there. It’s the kind of thing that seems hysterical when you’re 22.
    Of course, my toddler finds it… He has no context for understanding it. It’s just another “daddy’s money.”
    I wasn’t home when he found it. This happened on a day recently when I was gone from before the sun came up until after the sun sets - this has been happening almost once a week lately. He likes to go into my home office (“daddy’s room”), mess with my stuff and look for me. I don’t necessarily blame him for this. I have a lot of stuff in there that a little boy would love including little robot toys… but I digress…
    So, he finds this thing and decides that the woman on the coin is Mommy. Why? Apparently when you’re two and you see a woman and she has long hair like mommy and looks even remotely close to mommy, it’s mommy. I have a couple of framed lithographs by Larry Elmore (“Ancient Powers” and his “Betty Paige” inspired work). He thinks both of those are Mommy too.
    I have to go by what my wife said since I wasn’t home.
    Ben likes to kiss her belly and tickle her stomach to tickle “sammy-el.” He also likes to try to reach into her belly button to try to get the baby out (Actually says, “I get baby out.”)  – with predictable levels of success. I guess my wife’s stomach is like a room for the baby to him and the belly-button is the doorway to this room.
    As a logical (to him) extension of this behavior, he decided that he wanted to give this particular “money” to Samuel. He attempted to do so by pulling up her shirt and trying to press the round into her belly-button while giggling and saying “Sammy-el likes money.”
    My wife was laughing while explaining all of this. I’m a bit bummed that I missed it. It sounds like it would have been hysterical to watch.
    My wife has joked, in the aftermath of this, that I should get similarly inappropriate silver sounds for both boys and give the rounds to them on their 18th birthdays as a kind of “dad joke gift.” I think the idea has some potential, if only to see their eyes roll back in their heads.
  9. Revenant

    100%

    By Revenant,

    The joy of completion...
    As of today I have received all the coins and my Silver American Eagle set is complete! Finally I have a complete registry set! A coin for my 21st Century type set is also on the way which will bring that set and that goal 1 coin from being complete until '09. I'm also waiting on a few new coins to help move my project with my stepfather forward. This week has been very productive for my coin collecting.
  10. Revenant
    Given by a friend of the family.
    Well, apparently there was some kind of dig or excavation and a few Bulgarian Coins from the time when that country was ruled by a Monarch were found. It seems they had a few extra ones and the the curator at a museum (I don't know which one) gave 2 of them to a friend of my mother who is from that country. Well, she knew that I collect coins including some foriegn coins I've found over time and so she gave them to my mother to give to me.
    The coins are black as coal but they still have a fair bit of detail and I believe the surfaces are original and uncleaned (I've been looking at them under 5x and I'm not seeing anything that suggests cleaning to me). I've placed them in cardboard 2x2s for the moment but I'm not sure what should be done for these contemporaries to the Morgan dollar. I'll include an image of one of them but my efforts to image them are less than a brilliant success so far. (The white specks and lines aren't on the coin)

  11. Revenant
    I got my new 20 Franc coin in the mail just the other day.

    I’ve been watching a bunch of these late 19th century French 20 Franc coins on eBay through November, December and January. I’ve mostly been looking at examples in MS63 and MS64. The MS63s were more in the price range I was hoping for, but I was really hoping to get an MS64 – I like to stay in the MS64+ range with these purchases. Most of the sellers have been wanting $440-500 for an MS64, depending on the date. After having a relatively easy time picking up the 10G coins in MS65 for $300, this left me with a little sticker shock – a feeling I’m familiar with from looking at US gold on occasion. I knew I was going to pay more for this coin that I have for the 10Gs recently in all likelihood, but I was still hoping to get it for more in the range of $370.

    I’ve seen cases where the sellers had taken offers for $350-360 depending on the date, but these purchases were from late 2016 and the recent rise in the price of gold seems to have made them more resistant to taking those prices for them. At the same time, the fact that they’ve been listing these coins for 2-3 years and haven’t sold them also served as an indication that I’m not the only one resistant to these prices at the current price levels for gold.

    I’d been thinking it could be fun to get an 1877 example just to have that link to the 1877 10G, but I wasn’t able to convince a seller to take less than about $425 for one of those in MS64, in spite of attempts – The 1877 seems to be one of the higher priced and desirable dates of this series, but I don’t know enough about the series right now to know why. I knew I could probably get an 1895 or 1898 for a little less but I was hoping to get a date that was a little more significant or “fun.”

    Wednesday night, after having my offers for 1877s rebuffed, I found an 1886 in MS64 in an auction ending late on Friday. 1886 is also a pseudo-significant date for me because it’s 100 years before my birth year and so I have a little extra affinity for coins from that year. It was going for $260 with an unknown reserve price set. I decided to watch, wait and maybe go for it. The seller is an NGC / PCGS dealer, a PNG member and an ANA member with 100% positive feedback and a score of over 2,800, so it seemed like a safe merchant to go through – something I always like to have some confidence in.

    Friday arrives and the coin hasn’t gotten any more bids and it’s still going for $260 with about 90 minutes left before it ends. I decide to start bidding up in about $25 increments to try to figure out what the reserve is, hoping it would be about $300-325. It turned out to be $349.99. I put in a final bid of about $375 and decide that I’ll either win it for that or less or I’ll just wait a little longer to get one – no one else bids and I take the coin for $349.99 + free shipping.

    I have some mixed feelings about the outcome. I got the coin, in a date and grade that I wanted, for the low end of the price range I was hoping to originally get it for. Overall, that makes me happy with the outcome. However, the fact that no one else bid more than $260 (which is only about $10 higher than the current melt value of the coin) makes me wonder if you can really call this an auction. This was basically the seller setting / determining the price with the reserve and the final sale price was not determined organically through the bidding. It may just be hat the audience for that coin just didn’t show up that day / week, but it does make me wonder about the state of the market for these coins – fortunately, I don’t look at these as investments, and I was happy enough with that price for the grade and I think that’s bottom line on the issue. But I am glad I resisted paying $400+ for one long enough to find this one.

    And, with that, I have officially “blown my wad” (such as it was), for now. Unless things work out very well with the raise / bonus situation and with the pregnancy in such a way that I can’ use part of my bonus for collecting, that will be the last major purchase for a while and my next endeavors will be less capital intensive. In the last 3 months I’ve knocked out two coins I’ve wanted for a while.

    In other news, my wife got the refund on the note she got me for our anniversary and so we ordered something new to replace it on the same night that I won this 20 franc coin. We sat down together after Ben was in bed, looked at some things I’d been looking at the last couple of weeks and picked out what we’d order together. Since we received a full refund and not just cashback my wife had raised the prospect of going for a coin instead. I decided against that. Her original idea and gift had been a note for the Zimbabwe set. I wanted to swap it out with something that held to the spirit of that idea. To avoid boring those who don’t care about a discussion of Zimbabwe notes, I explained it in a separate entry in the PMG journals: https://www.pmgnotes.com/boards/blogs/entry/1197-picking-out-the-alternate-anniversary-present/



  12. Revenant
    6/12/07 to 8/12/07
    Well I've been on the registry for 2 months now. I've gone from having 1 set for 5 certified SAE's to having 11 sets, 21 certified coins, 6 more certified coins on the way and constantly building up. I initially thought I'd just sit back and watch but I ended up being rather vocal (in a written sense) in the journals and the forums.
    Thanks guys for building a great online community which I'm happy to now be a part of.
    Since I joined the registry has grown by about 100 additional members; on average more than 1 person joins the registry every day.
  13. Revenant

    22 Mercury Dimes

    By Revenant,

    Looking back to 14 months ago.
    I found this old entry in another online journal I keep and thought it was worth revisiting. This was written only about 2 weeks after I started collecting, about 14 months ago, and the intended readers were non-collectors.
    "22 Mercury Dimes:
    Well, I still can't believe it. I was in a gas station convenience store and the guy in front of me paid for his 2 beers with 22 Mercury (1916-1945) dimes and 6 old Roosevelt dimes from the 40's and 50's. Now, what's the importance of this you ask? The Mercury Dimes, and the older Roosevelts are all 90% Silver, 10% Copper. They are honest to god SILVER dimes, at least 62 years old in the case of the Mercury's. The guy left the dimes and left before the clerk even looked at them. The clerk was shocked; she didn't even know what they were. I stepped up and told her that if she'd give me the 28 old dimes and 2 more from the register then I'd give her 3 1 dollar bills. This meant that she didn't have to explain these "strange" coins to her boss so she was more than agreeable. Now, what do I get out of this? I promise you those coins are worth more than 10 cents for 1 thing. For another, I just love old coins. win-win.
    It occured to me about 5 minutes after I obtained them that these may have been stolen from some collector. Again, that's a strong maybe. It does emphasize an sad truth to coin collecting. People steal old coin collections, don't know what they have and the coins are spent just like "normal" money, without regard to the age or relative value of the coins. The other, legal, end of this equation is that people inherit old coin collections or hoards and, unlike the deceased family member, they don't attach meaning or value to them; so the coins are just spent.
    Either way, it just kinda makes you sad."
    2 weeks prior to this I would have been just as confused as the clerk as to what these coins were. The previous week my grandmother had pulled out and shown me Granddad's old stuff and there were about a dozen mercs. I decided to research what those strange dimes were. That's the only reason I knew what I was looking at at the gas station.
  14. Revenant
    As long as there's more than 3 competitors.
    As a small addendum to my previous post, I found out that my team was awarded 3rd place in the competition between the 10 senior plant design teams. We will supposedly receive a small monetary award that will be divided among the 4 members of the team. I might get $60 out of it but that's not really the point to me. I am just very proud that three industry representatives felt that my team did better than 7 groups of our peers. That's pretty good in my book.
    I've been thinking that it would be fun to get a "Graduation coin" to mark 1) the third place win, 2) graduating magna laude (which I should) and 3) the fact that it's finally over... Thank God.
    I'm not entirely sure what that coin should be. I'd want it to be good/special without completely breaking my bank (account). I'm open to suggestions if the rest of you guys have any ideas. I had initially been thinking along the lines of Pre-1933 US gold in low mint-state (MS61-MS63), hopefully something near melt value.
    Just for fun I'm trying to see if I can pick up a nice Civil War Token for a low price. You remember the civil war tokens? The things I initially thought were going to be a major focus for my collecting this last year? Yeah... I don't know what happened there either.
    -William
    Masquerading as a man with a reason
    My charade is the event of the season
    And if I claim to be a wise man but
    It surely means that I don't know
    On a stormy sea of moving emotion
    Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean
    I set a course for winds of fortune
    But I hear the voices say
    Carry on my wayward son
    There'll be peace when you are done
    Lay your weary head to rest
    Don't you cry no more,
    Carry on, you will always remember
    Carry on, nothing equals the splendor
    Now your life's no longer empty
    Surely heaven waits for you
    -Kansas, 1977
  15. Revenant

    5 Years

    By Revenant,


    Family
    So yesterday was our 5th anniversary - we are over 6 years into the relationship.
    The 5th anniversary is supposed to be “Wood” so my wife had considered getting me a challenge coin / coin holder make of wood with the idea of putting a coin that relates to us / our relationship in it, but I don’t really have a coin that fits that bill - the closest I had was that Standing Liberty half she got me as an anniversary present last year, and, since it is in a slab, it wouldn’t have worked for this. And I did not want to crack it out.
    We’ve been to England together and she lived there for several years as a child. She also lived in Italy for several years as a kid and wants to go back there with me one day. Maybe one of these days we can put together a display with a British Sovereign and an Italian 20 Lira coin. Maybe in one of those display boxes that holds two graded coins… That would look nice, I think. 😊
    After some back-and-forth discussion she decided to get me this: A 2016 $5 GAE in MS70.

    I’d tried to go in the favor of a 2014 coin - the year we met - and avoid 2016 - which also happens to be Ben’s Birthyear, but she wanted to go with 2016 and I understand that. It’s a $5 face value coin as a 5th anniversary present. Not a bad parallel / coincidence.
    Before gold prices went up so much in the last year I probably would have tried to stretch for or toss in some of my coin budget to get a 1/4th oz coin, even though I already have one I’m holding to give to Ben one day. This one would be mine to keep! I may try to go for a 1986 coin or another 1/4th oz coin in a few months in the unlikely event that I get a bonus this year - we were profitable in 2020, which is nice, but I don’t know if we were profitable enough for everyone to get a bonus. Of course, I may go for that 20 Lira coin instead if I do… choices… so many options…
    I still have not decided when exactly that 2016 gold coin is going to transfer to Ben’s possession but it’s going to be after I’m convinced that he’s old enough to make good decisions with it.
    One of these days, when I win the lotto, I’ll get a 1 oz for 1986 (birth year for both of us) and 2016… and some 1920 and 1924 double eagles. Lol Anyway… I’ll dream more later… I’m good at dreaming.
    The 5th anniversary can also be marked with Sapphires so that was the direction I went in - blue sapphire necklace and earrings set in sterling silver. The necklace was here in time, but the earrings haven’t shipped yet (supposedly I’ll get them around the 26th).
     
    She also got a new blue wrap dress to go with it the necklace and earrings. She seems to like all three (or will like the earrings when they get here based on responses to pictures).
    My shenanigans with all of this "coins" and "currency" and "photography" stuff all predates the marriage so she can't say she didn't know what she agreed to! But she's the real MS70.
    I'll have to get a full body shot of her out at the park in some sunlight to do her justice in the dress.

     
  16. Revenant
    6 months on the registry!
    Well, I've been here sharing my craziness with the rest of you for 6 months now. Today also happens to be the last official day of finals. My semester at college is over and I'll get to go home this weekend. Woohoo!
    To celebrate being here for 6 months and the end of what has been a very good semester grade-wise I added two new coins to my SAE set today. The SAEs were my first registry set so it seemed appropriate to build that set up some more today. It now has 17 coins and is 68% complete. I'm determined that it'll be the first registry set that I complete.
    I also hit a new all time high in the rankings, 2017. When some new purchases arrive I'll be over 6100 points and I hope to be in the top 2000.
  17. Revenant

    A (dirty?) 1980 Z Cent

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwean Coins and Currency
    So, it's a Sunday, morning at the time. Ben has had a friend over all weekend and the bickering has been constant all morning and we're both just short of the point of sending the kid home to just get some peace because they're driving us insane and we're tired.
    About a week prior I'd seen a 1980 Zimbabwean cent up for auction in "Mint State" with a $2.99 starting bid with $1.50 shipping. The seller's pictures weren't the best, but it looked promising at first glance.
    1980-1989 cents from before they went steel-clad are harder to get and you mostly see 1997-1999. So, this had me curious.
    But looking at the pictures closer, it looked like there might be some unappealing junk on one half the coin - both faces.

    So, at that point I ruled it out - I unwatched it on eBay and wasn’t going to bid - but I had still been thinking about it...
    I got a push notification on my phone about it when it was 15 min from ending and I looked at my phone and saw it with 3 minutes to go an no bids on it. At that point, just on an impulse, I bid $2.99.
    I just decided I'd put $4.50 down to see it in person. I can easily afford the loss if it was a dog. I was even telling Shandy I'd be open to maybe paying NCS $15-20 to clean it if I couldn't find nicer pre-1990 examples – and so far I haven’t.
    I was grumpy and tired from harassment… bad ideas are born in this way.
    This may seem silly - the idea of maybe paying for conservation on one of these - but this set is 100% a losing venture. It being a good investment is a complete non-issue. The whole escapade is a complete waste of money in the name of fun, and I honestly think that's one of the best things about it as a focus in a hobby. It means I just don't have to care much as long as I'm not just willfully getting myself fleeced paying $15 for coins, I could get for $1. I feel like I maybe sound like I’m contradicting myself with this but what I’m getting at here is, I don’t mind that this whole set is a waste, but I want to pay close to market-bearing prices for things and not over-inflated prices based on false hype.
    And it's a 1980 - first year of issue. I'm not saying that's a goal, but it could be cool to have a full 1980 set. I already have the 10C in MS65...
    So now I have it... In person it is a very pretty coin IMO but there is something on it. The darker spots I was seeing in their pictures that concerned me appear to actually be gaps in this film / covering material where the metal surface is showing through:
    Here are my shots.

    The coin looks very pretty in hand, and it has solid luster all over, but the pattern of those spots and the bits of dirt elsewhere has me wondering if someone tried to clean this and I’m more than a little afraid of what NGC will think if I send it in, as pretty as it looks. I’m trying to decide if I’m willing to put $18-30 into finding out and then maybe seeing what NCS would make of it.
    In any case, I own one now, even if it isn’t graded, and, for the cost of $4.50, it’s an option I have the freedom to explore later.
    I think I will indeed be sweating things out with the Tuesday morning census updates and watching for new sets or additions by Xan for most of the next ~49 days to see if my set holds on to the top spot for this year.
  18. Revenant

    A 1980 Zimbabwe Proof Set

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwean Coins and Currency
    So, this entry is going to lack the length and the narrative of many of my more recent posts and just be little, “Look what I got.” But… I snagged a 1980 Zimbabwean proof set, in the original Royal Mint Packaging.

     
    Mike had asked me a few months back if I’d considered getting into proof coins as I was getting the first round of grades back and ramping up my purchases of raw mint state coins.
    I’d initially just shrugged and said “Nah,” because I was focusing on the mint state / circulation strike examples, which seemed more appropriate for a hyperinflation themed set, and because I assumed the proof coins would be hard to find.
    They’re not.
    If you're interested in the 1980 sets anyway, they're quite easy to come by. Several sellers have had them listed on eBay for a while in the range of $40-45. Which isn’t terrible honestly, but also it felt a bit steep.
    This set popped up and looked in good shape and after shipping it was only going to be $22 if no one bid against me on it - it was an auction and not a BIN like the $40-45 listings. But no one bid against me, so I brought it home for $22, which is a price I’m very happy with. $20 is good for a zero-guilt impulse purchase that doesn’t have to live up to anything or become anything.
    I’m a little undecided on if this is going to stay in the original packaging or if I might send it in for grading one day to expand the work I’m doing in the Zimbabwean Registry - to have a proof set to go with the mint state type set. If I do break it out to submit, I may try to get another set to keep in the mint packaging. I'm also thinking I'd be tempted to get a 2nd set and submit two complete sets on different - but closely numbered - invoices and so I could cobble together the best set of the two and have them all numbered -001 to -006, like what I did with my Traveler's Cheque submission(s) on the PMG side. I like the look / feel of having the cert numbers go from -001 to -006 in a set. Although I suppose there could be a "Two, Four, Six, Eight..." joke in there...  So... Yeah. Maybe I need 3?  I'm not a hoarder though. I don't buy more for the sake of more.  Stop looking at me in that tone of voice.  
    One thing that does give me pause on turning this into a registry project for now is that NGC has only one type of Zimbabwean proof set that includes the 1997 proof coins (only 2 years they made proof sets) and the S$10 NCLT coins from 1996.
    I haven’t been able to find any 1997 proof sets - I would very much like to - and I don’t really want to get into those Silver NCLT coins, which people like to demand frankly silly prices for in most instances.
    I’d probably be more inclined to submit a set for grading and making a registry set if I could have a complete set with just the 1980 proof set.  I’d probably be more inclined to submit if I could get a 1997 proof set or 3.
    The current approach / category feels too cobbled together and the set feels like it’s trying to include too much and do too much - and too much of what it’s trying to do is stuff I can’t do!
    I’m in no rush there though. For now, I saw something I wanted that fits with my current collecting interests at an attractive price and a got it. I'm also giving some thought to branching into Pre-1980, Rhodesian coins. But, unlike Zimbabwean coins, the older Rhodesian coins can get rather... expensive. 
  19. Revenant
    I thought I'd take a minute and belatedly share some progress on the 500 Lire set.
    A few weeks ago I won (unopposed) an auction for an MS68 1985. It is the only one in the grade currently with none finer. The seller chose to highlight and play this up in a somewhat over-the-top way that gave Mike and I a laugh. This is the same seller that I got the 1982 MS68 from, but there is an MS69 1982, and 1982s are far more heavily graded and in high grade than the later years.

    Just something about that visual of the globe behind the coin...
    Somehow I doubt that in all the world there isn't another one of these that would grade MS68 at NGC. They just haven't been sent in yet - probably just because the owners don't feel the need or see enough market demand for these things in certified high grade to make it worth the risk and grading fees.
    I think if anyone else believed otherwise I wouldn't have scored this for under $50.
    Grabbing this did have me thinking about the future look and make-up of the set. I'd thought the set would be mostly self-graded but if the coins come on the market in higher grades than what I have I think I will buy them. I even have a 1985 500L at NGC right now, waiting to be graded, but I know enough to know that coin isn't going to get an MS68. Only the 1990 and 1991 are really "safe" to me in terms of wanting to keep those special coins that they brought back with them in the set.
    Of course, I do have other coins for other years that I didn't send in for grading - I think from the 1980s. But those coins are so clearly circulated and so clearly won't grade well that I just can't bring myself to grade those. It would cost too much and I would like this set to be reasonably nice and competitive long term and those coins just aren't really. They're far better left in a raw state.
    Speaking of the 1990, when I started down this road the set did not have a slot for the 1990, which had me concerned that I might not get to add that coin to the competitive set at all. But I put in a request to Ali and the Team and they added the slot for me.
    So I guess that's one slot filled and one slot added.
    While working on this I also put in some orders for a few Italian Franklin mint sets, getting 3 total for about $9 each. I think 2 have 1983 500L and 1 has a 1987... or the other way around... Anyway...
    Those 500L coins look great and at some point two of those three sets will probably be broken up so I can have a good 1983 and 1987 to plug some holes with another submission down the road.
    I have not had the same luck finding sets with or individual 1986 coins that look good, and that is really frustrating given that 1986 is "our year."
     
  20. Revenant

    A bit of family history emerges.

    By Revenant,


    Argentinian Coin Sets
    A couple of weeks ago I reached out to my Mom to ask her about the date ranges for the time when they were in Argentina, where they were, etc.
    I wanted to have a little more information so I could incorporate this into the set description for my Austral set:

    The coins I had gotten came mostly from my grandmother, giving me coins my grandfather had kept.
    However, apparently, not long after I reached out to my mother, my sister found this in a bunch of papers and other things my mother had given her:

    Inside she found these:

    My mother had her 14th birthday about a month after they got into Argentina, and her classmates had given her 1 Peso coins, which she put in this tin, and those coins have been in this tin for 50 years I guess. You can see "Birthday $" written on it.
    My sister returned the tin to my mother.
    Last night we were getting together to celebrate some birthdays - mine and my nephews. My mother had the tin. She gave each of her 4 grandchildren one of the pesos and then gave the tin and the rest of them to me.
    The coins are obviously circulated, but, more interestingly, they're about a 50/50 mix between the 1810-1960 1-year issue 150-years after the May Revolution coin (KM58) and the KM57 1 peso coin. But the coins are all from 1957, 1958, and 1960... Nothing from the later 1960s... and my mother got these in the 2nd half of 1970. And it didn't make sense for that to be a coincidence.


    It turns out, after a bit of looking, that Argentina last produced KM57 in 1962 and didn't produce 1 peso coins again until 1974 - years after they'd left the country. So, at the time my mother was in the country, the newest 1 peso coins that had been made were 8 years old.
    Odd to think about.
    I think I'll probably keep these in the tin for now. I could take them out and put them in flips but... The tin feels like part of the story for these.
     
  21. Revenant

    A Bouquet of Flame Lilies

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwean Coins and Currency
    I had mentioned recently that I’d ordered a Rhodesian 3 Pence (1 1957 in MS66) to go with the Rhodesian Federation 6 pence my wife gave me for my Birthday.
    Shortly thereafter I saw that I seller I’ve used for a lot of my Rhodesian Federation coinage had a 1955 and a 1964 in MS66, so I put in some offers, which they accepted.
    After the coins spent a week in the Post Office, after the substitute carrier once again just put a slip of paper in the mailbox and didn’t come to the door, ring the doorbell, or see if I was actually home or not (or claimed to, since this time they didn’t even put the slip in our box and I had to print the tracking information of the website to take with me, but I’m digressing..) I was able to finally get out and get them picked up.
    I still need to image the coins, but, as promised in another recent entry, here we get “A Bouquet of Flame Lilies.”
    As my prior posts and my naming conventions for these tend to indicate, I tend to view all of these Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland sets as 1 project in multiple parts and I’ve taken advantage of the different short-run denominational sets to break it into smaller, easier to tackle chunks that I’ve mostly taken on one at a time.

    At least for now, unlike the penny and half penny sets, this one is not a #1 ranked set. There’s a 100% complete set in the category, and that’s hard to overcome with a 50% complete set. The other problem I’m going to face here is that the 1956 is a key-date from a points perspective. That coin is worth considerably more than most of the other dates in the set in similar grades so it’s going to be hard to take the top spot in the category without getting one of those.
    There currently are no pictures that are up to my normal standards for these coins and sets, but one thing that you might be able to notice from looking at NGC’s pictures of the coins in the slabs is that these 3 pence coins in particular are quite small. At 16.3 mm in diameter, they are a fair bit smaller than even a Roosevelt dime, which clocks in at 17.9 mm. The 6 pence coins come in a little larger than a US penny, with a diameter of 19.4 mm. I have to wonder a little WHY did they make these so small given that they’re not silver – they’re copper-nickel – so it wouldn’t have been an issue of keeping the silver value / melt value down.

  22. Revenant

    A charming looking group of coins, I think.

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwean Coins and Currency
    The Zimbabwe coin submission has arrived back from NGC.
    So, you people trying to ninja my brain and make me fret can just chill out. (Lookin at you, Mike! ) That said, I have been having an internal dialogue on this and “declared value” along the lines of “I’m wondering if I’m doing this wrong, which may bear further discussion.
    It is the last of the submissions mailed from the old house, the last of the submissions I had mailed back to my in-laws because of the move. So hopefully no more getting the attention of my father-in-law and having him snicker about me “spending money on money.” This also means I expect the planned 2022 Z coin submission to be the first one mailed from and shipped back to the new house.
    The night my in-laws brought the box over after work unexpectedly was a night I had to work / have a professional meeting until 7:00 PM and so by the time we were done putting the kids down and getting ready for school the next day I was just going to put them in my office and open the box the next day, but Shandy poked me to go ahead and open them. She later admitted that, after hearing about these so much for so long, she wanted to be there and see me open them.
    You know that scene from the office when they chant / sing, “Fashion Show. Fashion Show. Fashion Show at Lunch!” ? It was like that. They had to come out of the box one at a time, she had to get to look at each one in turn as I took them out and then they were set down next to the others. She and my mother are convinced that I’m pleased with this and the outcome… based on something…


    I think it’s a charming looking group - making allowances for the lower than ideal grades of some of the coins . I’m glad that the MS65 10C coin I bought previously is in a newer-gen pronged holder, so it matches very well with its fellows well. Otherwise, I might have had to consider a re-holder down the road like I did for the 10G set. The physical presentation of these main / pet project sets for me is as important to me as the digital presentation in the group. I want to be able to lay them out and have them look good together and look good as a set – Even if I’m the only one that ever looks at them like that.

    I’ve even rejected cheap sets of presidential dollars because the label didn’t match what I have for the rest of the set. I just know that would bug me… forever! Yes, yes, buy the coin, not the label, but that would drive me positively insane. 

    Now that I have them it’ll be a high priority to get close-up, well-lit shots of my own and then photoshop those to complete the set banner image I’ve been trying to plan out for a while. I want to add the water buffalo, the sunrise and the flame lily wreath into the image. I did get a little time to play and try with a camera yesterday, and I did manage to get some nice shots of some of them but on some others I'm going to have to try again - and remember to wipe them down and have the slabs clean for the shot. They still had some stuff on them transferred from the shipping box last time and that severely uglied up some of my shots.




    Small aside, but, NGC recently (a few weeks ago now?) announced they were switching from “Corporation” to “Company.” I’ve seen some posts from NGC recently showing prominent coins showing a label with “Company,” but my new slabs still say “Corporation.” I wouldn’t be surprised if the 2022 coins end up saying “Company,” introducing another, perhaps subtle, distinction between the two submissions / groups within the set, that would also make it easy to remember which coins were graded at what time.
    I’ve been giving some thought to what I see the ultimate goal being here and I think I’m going to try to pick up one of the Volterra 24-coin cases with three 8-coin panels like what Coinbuf has for some of his year sets.

    The full Zimbabwean type set (as of 2021) has 23 coins so that at 24-coin case is almost perfect for the job – I don’t think Zimbabwe will give me a $5 “bond coin” at this point and even if they did it wouldn’t be a bond coin anymore and wouldn’t say “Bond Coin” like these others do. If we get more coins, I think I’ll be dealing with a brand-new set / series of coins and a return-to-form with the “Zimbabwe bird” dominating the obverse. If that happens, they’d just have to go into something else.
    Making it even better - the 16 pre-hyperinflation types can perfectly fill the first two panels with the first panel mostly being the original-from-1980, copper-nickel and brass types and the 2nd panel being the mostly steel-clad types with the mid-hyperinflation, 2003-dated, $10 and $25 issues. Then the 3rd panel is just the Bond Coins. Since there are 2 years of issue for the 50C and $1 Bond coins I could just have both of those years represented for one of those, but not both – probably the 50C at this point since, so far, I don’t have any 2016 $1 coins.

    With what I have now and what I have planned / in-hand to submit in 2022 I could pretty well fill the 2nd and 3rd panels, but the 1st panel is a bit of a problem, just as those coins are proving to be a bit of a challenge for the type set itself. But I also don’t really see that case as a high-level priority – more a down the road dream for how I’d love to be able to show this set off, and I think I might actually be able to do that since it … won’t be super valuable, shall we say, if I’m right. Not like trying to display gold coins.
    It would be funny to show up to a show with that to show off.
    The nice thing about this is I feel like this set actually CAN be displayed in a physical form in a nice, appealing, approachable way. The note set… Can’t. It almost defeats itself with its size.
    I had a brief exchange with someone on reddit some time ago where they said they wanted to get a collection of Zimbabwean banknotes – maybe even graded – and put them all up in a wall display. I told him I wasn’t sure how that was going to work out. Even without the extra area required for graded note holders, even if just displaying the 3rd dollars and not the whole thing from P-1 to P-98/105… that’s a lot of wall space… it could maybe even cover most of a wall.
    That said, could you imagine a long room, like in a museum or something, with display cases lining the side and all 100+ notes of that series laid out from P-1 to P-105 and walking through and looking at it all as you walk along? An interesting thing to dream about. It’s a similar concept to what Texas A&M has done with their display of class rings from all the different 100+ class years at the Association of Former Students building – a very cool exhibit BTW, in part because their interior designers are more imaginative than I am.
    In other news, Ben finally got a Red-Eyes Black Dragon, the one he wanted, not the “Metal” or “Malefic” versions, with the original art seen on the show – a 1st edition gold holo of it no less. I found someone offering it for a pretty reasonably price at long last. He’s pretty happy about this, I think.

    Sam is... home sick again this week. I spent a fair bit of my birthday with him sleeping on me, but he's caught another virus that he's working through. We're still very much in that phase when he's going to daycare for the first time in his life after largely being isolated and kept away from other kids and their germs for a year so his immune system has some learning to do and needs to cut its teeth on some things. Fortunately, so far, I think he's beating this one on his own. 



    But... Yeah. I'm now 35. I was ~20 when I joined the registry.
    Edited to add: The census update this week didn't include any more new Zimbabwean coins... All silent at the moment.  More to come on what I'm planning to drop in 2022.
  23. Revenant
    I got my big surprise that my wife and her mother have been sitting on for about a month and a half yesterday.

    It would seem that, while in Pennsylvania for work, her mother stopped at the Philadelphia mint, too the tour and these things.
    The Silver Eagle and the birthday set were for me, the coin explorer book was for Ben and the birth year set was for Sam.
    She also got a bag from the mint that’s also pretty cool.

    The book for Ben is pretty neat to look at. I hope he finds interesting later on.

    The 2019 Proof SAE is an interesting addition. I have one from 1986, 2006, and 2007. I had plans at one point to build a set of them in the original mint packaging but I never have enough budget for all of my projects so it didn’t have much in the way of legs 12 years ago. Now that I have a 2019 I’ll definitely be looking to pick up a 2016 for Ben at minimum.

    I love that she got Sam the Birthyear set. If I’d realized they made those at the time I would have bought one for Ben. Apparently when she was there they had them for 2017, 2018, and 2019 but were out of 2016. I went on eBay and they had them for 2014, 2015, and 2017-2019. Of course, no 2016. I made a saved search on my account, just in case one pops up. I’d love to have one for both of them, but, either way, I’ll make sure they both have plenty of things from their birthyear.

    After dinner I was holding Sam and told him, “Your grandma claims she gave you a present. In truth, she has gifted you with a few hours of boredom about 10 or 15 years from now when you have to hear me drone on and on about these things.”
    I was quite pleased. I'd say my mother-in-law hit it out of the park with this.
    The new 2nd dollar sets (except for the P-48a, which just made it through customs in New York) are in the 2nd dollar set on my registry now. The set is now 75% complete.
    I’m headed out of town tomorrow. I’ll be back over the weekend and then flying out again on another week-long trip. So I won’t be imaging the new notes and getting those pictures uploaded immediately, but that’s something I’ll be looking forward too.
    Of course, celebrations don’t last, and it’s never dull: Ben spiked a 103 degree fever today, so that’s had us pretty busy, taking care of him and keeping him separated from Sam.

  24. Revenant

    A Complete STEEL ...

    By Revenant,

    ... cent set that is.
    Well, this weekend one of my hopes has been to get the last coin I needed for a complete 3 coin steel cent set from 1943. Part of my problem has been that I wanted nice looking MS67s. I didn't want MS66s and I didn't want coins that looked like they had "gunk" on them (I know, really specific aren't I?).
    Well, this weekend there were 2 such coins ending at auction and 1 with a Buy it Now. The buy it now was somewhat higher than I wanted to pay (though it did have a Best Offer option). I decided to bid in the auctions. I lost both auctions naturally (winning one would have been too simple). I then decided "what the heck" and put in an 80% offer on the BIN/BO coin (which put it in my "reasonable" range) and about 30 minutes later the seller accepted. The coin had been on the listings for months. He was probably happy to finally move the coin. Hopefully I'll get the coin by the end of the week and get it registered. I still don't have my 1952-S yet.
    That completes my MS67 Steel cent set. Getting this set has had me thinking though. There are a number of people who have 1943 mint sets, late wheat cent sets, wheat cent sets, and lincoln cent (1909-present) sets just so they can show their steel cent(s). I don't blame them. They're cool old coins. However, maybe NGC could make a special set just for the 3 steel cents? Like what was done for the 3 Bicentennial coins. Or maybe a 4 year short set for the steels and the 3 "shell-casing" years (1944-1946)? OR they could make a "WWII" set with those penny years and the silver war nickels? Eh? Wouldn't that be cool?
    I've edited the post to add the sellers picture of the 1943-S I just bought. Sadly, zinc coated steel just doesn't shine the same way Silver does.

  25. Revenant

    A cute, dopey, derpy set full of TOP POP coins?

    By Revenant,


    Zimbabwean Coins and Currency
    My submission of Zimbabwe coins, as of yesterday, is officially “received” at NGC, but it’s that weird new kind of “received” where you cannot click on the invoice number and can’t see any of the line items. They just took them out of the box and put the invoice number in to say, “See! We got it! Now go away and stop bugging us about your box!” Joking! Said with love, folks!
    Anyway… I have been thinking about my MS65 10C coin, and the fact that it’s a TOP POP - that I got for $21 after it sat unsold for months - because it is literally the only one of those that has been graded. It got me thinking and got me to look at the pop reports… and the population of NGC graded Zimbabwean coins is… insanely small!
    There are 28 Zimbabwean coins that have been graded by NGC. 28! That is it!
    Twelve (12) of those 28 - nearly half of them - are S$10, 1996 Wildlife series issues that I’m thinking are NCLT.
    Seven (7) of those, from what I can see, are proof and proof pattern strikes from 1980.
    Only Seven (7) that I can see, are circulation strikes - only 25% of that tiny group.
    There are 2 that are listed in the pop report denomination summary that I can’t find in the detailed breakdown for some reason.
    Still, only 7-9 NGC graded circulation strike coins. Under 10. And I already own one of those.
    Of the 13 coins in that submission, 10 are going to be the first and only circulation strike coin of that type that NGC has graded, including all of the 5 2014 Bond Coins I’m submitting. So, assuming no details grades, all 10 of those will automatically be TOP POP as soon as they are in the population just by grace of having no competition, unless someone else has their own coins ahead of mine in line in the pipeline! So, barring that, the set will have AT LEAST 11 TOP POP coins - no matter how terrible those grades come back!
    The other three coins, the 1C Km-1b, the $10 Km-14 and the $25 Km-15 are all up against 1 graded MS competitor that they have to beat. The $10 coin wins as long as it comes back MS like the seller advertised - it has to beat an AU55. The $25 coin wins as long as it comes back as Choice Uncirc (MS63) or better - it has to beat a MS62. The 1C coin has the hardest job - going against a MS65RD. I think it will get a RD. We’ll see on the 65.
     
    It'll be interesting to have a set with such a high concentration of top pops, even if it is mostly a technicality, just because I don't generally own a lot of top pop coins and notes. Most of what I buy is already graded and I'm usually just not willing to pay the incremental premium for a top pop. Many of the top pops I do have are things I graded myself and lucked into - like three Zimbabwe checks I have coming back. My 10G set - one of the prides of my registry - doesn't contain a single top pop coin.
    This is going to feel like the NGC Registry equivalent of congratulating my 3 year old on his participation trophy in soccer - after I had to force him to put on his cleats and go out for almost every game.
    Winning by default, folks. That’s how you do it!
    The whole thing, just looking at and seeing those numbers, just really explains why searching on eBay for NGC graded Z coins always turned up NOTHING, and it honestly makes lucking into that 1 dime in some ways all the more shocking than it was.
    It really drives home that the only way this set was ever going to get made was if I did the grading myself.
    Now just to wait to find out the grades. I'm very hopeful for the bond coins and maybe some of the others… I think the non-bond 1C, 20C, and 50C at least will do decently well and grade in the MS range. I’m more worried about the 5C, 10C, $1, $10, and $25.