Revenant

So, slightly random, I was thinking about making a separate rant post about this and some of this will be touched on later when I post about this shopping / these purchases, but my favorite pet peeve at the moment is sellers of raw coins / lots saying, "I'm not a grader! Use the pictures and grade for yourself! What you see is what you get!" Except what you see is low res photos of a group / pile of coins from which no meaningful grade / wear judgement can be made on individual coins and you're taking a wild shot in the dark.

Just remind them that NGC says the guarantee on that grade is void after 10 years!

Funny that you say that in that I have a group of Lincoln cents and I find that RDs, that come as RD and look bright RD, tend to stay RD, where RBs tend to continue turning. I have a 1927 RB that at this point is pretty much a BN with some red around the rim.

It doesn't usually get a lot of attention but a female peacock (male peafowl) is a brown bird called a peahen.

The world seems so "small" and interconnected now, but it's funny to think about how, in the 19th century, you had such different things going on in different parts of the world that influenced why some countries did or didn't get involved in other world events. Reading this makes me think of a YouTube Video I saw a while back that ran through the real, more practical, reasons why most of the European powers ultimately chose not to become involved in the US Civil War in the 1860s. Stuff like this makes me wish that we (I) got more World History in school and less US History and Texas History.

It always seems like what we say we're going to do isn't what we end up doing, to the point where I sometimes wonder why we bother making these plans if not just to laugh at ourselves after the fact. I really thought I was just going to tie up loose ends on my Zimbabwe set early this year and then move on to other things, but I think I spent over half of this year still focused on that note set - and then I got far more focused on the coins than I thought. Those were supposed to be a quick throw-away project to tag onto the notes. Now they're going to be continuing into next year with another submission and they've become quite an undertaking. All that to say... we make plans and the world laughs - but most of all, our wives.

Don't count yourself out completely. You never know on the work you've done so far - they could decide its enough even if you don't think so -and if they give the Journal award this year (Never sure since they don't list it but they've given it the last two years without announcing it and I think participation is actually up this year) you'd be one of my picks.

Just in time for the cut-off! Huzzah! You were generally very close. Good job on the grading.

Here's a fun one for those of us old enough to remember when phones looked like this: a phone (booth?) token.

Edited... Sometimes I forget about that helpful little block at the top of the control panel. https://coins.www.collectors-society.com

Okay. That just seems... really odd. Did the RAM only make one coin 1 year out of a 12 year series? If so... what were they smoking? I think it would be better to have one slot for the year / design and make both coins eligible for the one slot unless they also look different and aren't just separated by a mint mark. I don't like the inconsistency of having two slots for that one. Just expressing my 2 cents - I know you folks have to do your thing. 🤷‍♂️

Custom sets can and do win major awards though. They just don't "score" "points," and you have to go for major awards - not "Best in Category." So, yeah, it's more work, but I'd argue there's more bragging rights afterwards. And I'd argue that the points don't really matter all that much. Just my two cents. 🤷‍♂️

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!

I haven't checked the slot but it's possible that that is the first such coin added and they haven't populated the slot with scores yet. If that is the case, you'll probably see it added automatically by the admins within a day or two

For the Series 1 and 2 Mint State category, is there supposed to be a slot for a 2017 Rooster and a 2017P Rooster? Silver Dollars, Series One and Two, 1999-2019, Mint State Sets | NGC Registry | NGC (ngccoin.com)

You'll probably move to Scheduled in the next week or two. I know it's frustrating and it's hard not to gripe, but, it could be worse. 45 days isn't that bad compared to 85.

So, I’ve received the new 10-coin sets of Zimbabwean coins and I’m torn between being very happy and more than a little frustrated. I haven’t closely examined all of these yet, but these new 10-coin sets are just significantly better than what I got last time buying from the other dealer. The 5C, 10C, $2, and even the $5 coins are vastly better even at first glance – Shandy even commented on how stark the contrast is. The ones from the new sets in some cases just straight up make the ones from the first dealer look sick. One or two of these “lightly circulated” $5 coins I think are uncirculated and will get MS63-MS65 grades, and I think they even look better than some other $5 coins I bought for about $7 a piece (after I was so disgusted by what I got in the original sets). Just for fun, here’s a comparison of my shots of the AU58 1999 recently returned from NGC, under very high and unflattering magnification, vs the new 1997s from these sets. I feel it is worth saying that the AU58 1999 is a nice-looking coin in hand IMO but with this magnification and in this lighting it does look rough. The “lightly circulated” $10 and $25 coins are basically on-par with what I got from the last dealer, but that’s okay - I knew what I was being offered this time. Though there is maybe one $10 coin that might be nicer than the others and might get a mint state grade - maybe a MS63/64 I think. I am glad I have been snapping up 1980-dated Z cents though because all 5 of the coins I got in this group are 1997 dated. There’s something about 1997 for these 1 C coins. I’ve gotten eight 1C coins and they’re all 1997. I’ve seen multiple eBay auctions for 1997 cents and very little else. I’ve even seen someone offering a bag of 100 uncirculated Zimbabwe cents – but they’re all 1997. There is something about 1997… maybe one day I’ll figure out what that is! Lol But 1980 seems common enough too for one reason or another – I’ve seen 2 dealers now offering lots of 25 uncirculated 1980s for $15-25 ($0.60-1.00 each). I’m guessing 1980s were hoarded back in the day for being the first year of issue for coins from a new country / currency. The 1997s seem stranger – they were not the last year of issue. 1999 was – but maybe they weren’t producing many by that point after producing a ton in 1997. Zimbabwe did not produce every denomination every year and only made cents in about 12 of 20 years. But that’s 1980 and 1997. I’ve seen some from 1983 and 1988. Getting coins from 1986? 1989? 1991? 1994? 1999? Good luck… I have not seen them. The 1C coins are otherwise similar to what I’ve gotten before - there are a couple of 1Cs that I think could do about as well as the MS65 I just got back from the first set. I don’t know if I’ll take the shot and see how the best of these can do in grading. Maybe, maybe not – depends on how much over budget I’m running at the time, I guess. There was one sad coin that had a nice reverse, and then I flipped it over to see a huge, ugly scratch. Oof! … Sad times. Sad Times. “’Tis but a scratch.” “’A scratch?’ Your arm’s off.” “Just a flesh wound.” Where things are a little extra interesting - the 10C coins I got are from 1999, the last year of the Km-3a, before the switch to clad. So, these coins would be competition for the MS65 1980 coin I have, not the 2001 MS61 that is the coin I’d really want to upgrade, but I may submit the nicest of these anyway to add a 1999 to a possible future custom set with more coins & dates. More interesting stuff (to me) - The fact that all of these were 1999 10Cs and all of the 5Cs were from 1997 and all the 1Cs were 1997 - which matches the dates of the coins that were part of a certain submission that went through NGC recently - has me wondering if this seller is also where someone else bought their coins. Am I once again sourcing my material from the same places as my main competition? The 20C, 50C and $1 coins are a bit more mixed. Some of them have promise in the choice-but-not-gem-uncirculated range. I’ll look at these more closely later alongside the graded ones and decide if I feel strongly enough that these could do better to try sending 1 or 2 to NGC next year. Looking at these, it’s hard to not feel a little like getting the others and then not just returning them and looking elsewhere was a mistake. But I don’t know that I can call it a complete misfire. I did get the MS65RD cent out of it. And it was a start, and a reasonable start at that. And I do still feel good about the way the grades largely lined up with what I’d expected in sending them in, suggesting that I am learning some things, even as my eyes have gotten worse with age and corneal scarring. All of this buying of different lots is also giving me an increasing variety of dates, which may come into play later if I go beyond just a type set, and, I’ve just been enjoying getting to buy all these and put them in flips. I’ve enjoyed looking at all of them, and showing them to Shandy, and talking about them with her. I’ve gotten to enjoy the hunt and the chase with these in a way that I haven’t in a while and which you don’t get to have or enjoy in the same way when just buying pre-graded coins. I ran out of flips while trying to take these out of the shipping container, forcing me to double up some of them in the flips – this was even after I had some coins I knew I didn’t want to submit (AU-looking $10 and $25 coins) skip the “flip” stage and go right into stapled 2x2s for long term storage in the binder. I’ve ordered more flips and I should get them soon. When each coin is in its own flip, I’ll try to sit down with Shandy to try to pick the best ones for sending in, hopefully with her help, input and buy-in. My moment of Zen: I think she caught me grinning. So maybe that’s the sign that the joy is winning out over the frustration.

I was pretty stoked a while back for the 300th entry in my 14 year old journal.

Putting Window dressing on my lonely libertad. Edited to add, and my one graded Shawnee coin, that I'm waiting the slot scores to be populated for. I've had the coin for years. Only recently realized they added a competitive category for it!

Another one up: Maybe one of these days I'll have them all.

Pre covid it was pretty easy to get sub 10% premium over spot. Now it's crazy.

I feel like this one could be a journal all to itself. I love these coins, and I'm proud of this little set, but these coins are hard to image.

In fairness, with it being November 10th and with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up I wouldn't have too much hope for getting a submission mailed to them today back before 2022 under normal conditions.

My latest one, since I couldn't stop myself from trying to set up the camera and bust out shots of 5 coins really quick at the end of the afternoon today: Continuing to tweak it some as I look at it more:

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.