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Revenant

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Journal Entries posted by Revenant

  1. Revenant
    From Texas to Florida in a weekend. Wow!
    Whenever I talk to people about registered mail I get this speech about "it's slower than other forms of mail because it's tracked so carefully but it's much more secure." I get that, but how slow is it really? My latest submission was given over to USPS at our local post office on Friday afternoon (3/20). I checked today and apparently NGC has received it! I did a double take when I saw that. Interestingly enough, this submission was received exactly 2 months after they received my last pair of invoices. Some of those coins are still with NGC waiting on one of the coins to be replaced.
    I really can't believe that a supposedly slow piece of mail made it to out to Florida that fast.
    I'm forced to wonder what NGC's receiving staff thought of that package when they opened it. It was a relatively small box, roughly 8x4x5. Inside it were the forms and, surrounded by packing paper, a smaller box. That box (which was itself completely sealed with packing tape) contained the 6 coins of the submission, surrounded by packing paper. 4 of the coins were in their original government cases. The other 2 were sent in the airtites I received them in. All of this was an attempt to make absolutely sure that the coins arrived in the condition I packed them in and that no one could easily tamper with the contents. While the coins in the shipment are all modern, some of them were quite expensive and would be very hard to replace. Half the coins in shipment had a total issuance of 4000 or less and I believe some will be the first of their kind put in an NGC holder. The six coin submission had an insured value of nearly $500, because that's about how much it took to buy them. I've never sent off a set of coins for which I feared damage so much.
    I really can't wait to see how they do in grading. I could use some good news. I got a test grade back today. It was the third lowest mid-term exam grade I've received in 8 semesters at this school, but the rest of the class did so bad I still get a B after the curve. I get another test back tomorrow and I take another one on Wednesday... whoopee!
  2. Revenant
    1 test down...
    Okay... So I said I wouldn't buy anything this week and I didn't. Whoop! I bid on something, but it doesn't end until Saturday evening so that doesn't count.
    Yes, the fact that I didn't acquire anything for 2 weeks doesn't really seem like a bit accomplishment (big display of self-control right?). Well, when what you want is cheap enough to be an "impulse buy," and you're trying to resist that impulse, that gets rough. Those coins can call with greater force than the sirens calling sailors to the rocks.
    To make things better, I woke up Saturday feeling ill. That got worse for a couple of days. Tuesday my fever hit 101 and stayed there most of the day. I finally started to beat it Wednesday though. I still ended up spending the entire week feeling sick and took an exam today which I hadn't felt up to studying for as much as I had intended. Predictably, that didn't go as well as I hoped.... Ah well, that A is pretty well dead... Time to ramp up for Monday, right?
    I spent most of the week just looking at this site and looking into new coins and new ideas for my sig set. The concept for that set keeps getting bigger. I keep finding more coins from more countries and (of course) I'd like to have them all. (Feeling miserable also makes you want to buy the nice shiny thing even more too.) If I wasn't sure that I'd never be able to complete this set before, I am now, but I'll have fun trying. I continue to struggle to define precisely what will or won't be included in the set. There are some coins that inhabit a bit of a gray area with regard to my goals for the set. I want to add them but I don't want to "open the door" on other coins I'm definitely not interested in. I'll probably continue making that decision coin by coin as I go along... In the interim I'll continue to look and learn... and drool... and laugh (have any of you heard about the 50th anniversary 1 ounce silver "Barbie" coins? They're PINK! O_o)
    It's going to be an interesting week... I have to study for 2 tests, survive the tests, pack my stuff up to go home for the summer, get some time critical work done for my job, and take care of a few other things. That sounds doable...
    Never fear though. I will be buying at least one coin to the sig set in the next couple of days. The set is getting pretty close to that psychologically significant landmark: 50 coins. There's already 53 slots, but only 47 of them are filled (I'm still working on those coins).
    As a bit of a random point, there's nothing quite so cool as a bird in flight... too bad we've all but removed the eagle from our coinage...

  3. Revenant
    Lots of Plans... Waiting for funding...
    I always seem to find myself in situations like this. I come up with these big ideas for what I want to do, blow through my funding (and then some) and then have to wait for a couple of weeks while my budget catches up with my ideas (which it never really seems to do). Just working on what I have planned for my signature set pretty effectively taxes my finances.
    About a week ago I went a bit overboard and now I'm (predictably) paying the price for it. My sig set purchases aren't terribly high ticket items so I usually can get away with fairly frequent purchases, as long as I don't go nuts and buy a whole bunch of stuff all at once. When I do that I have to wait several weeks and suffer withdrawal from this wonderful form of metallic crack that we all seem so stuck on.
    If I can show enough restraint and not buy anything for about a week I'll probably allow myself a small treat. Then in about 3 weeks I'll finally have enough cash to fund a couple of additions I've really been wanting. That basically means that I'll be happy for about 3 days and then I should be broke again. Well, it's probably not fair to say that I'm broke. I just have certain amounts of cash that I like to have in reserve just in case. Even college students don't like to be completely strapped. I'm not doing a very good job of maintaining that reserve though. My eyes are just too big for my wallet.
    I, like a few others, received a package from Australia a few days ago with some metal birds in it. The kookaburras are in sig set with some stand-in pictures for the time being. I've been telling myself repeatedly that Pandas would be a focus this semester. I've been all over the place though with Maple Leafs, Libertads, Britannias, and Kiwis (oh boy, was that a budget killer, but totally worth it). Maybe now I'll actually mean it and buy a few more pandas... maybe not. We'll see. The pandas are definitely fun but so are a few of the other coins I have my sites on.
    ... I need to learn to pace my purchases better, I really do...
    Well, I should have some help keeping my mind off my coin collection for the next couple of days. Now that projects and homework are over it's time to study for final exams. I also need to get some things taken care of at work. My job involves risk analysis and today was the research group meeting. The discussions around the table always get a little interesting at times like this. A group of safety engineers, process engineers, research scientists, and college students have a discussion about whether or not a disease is dangerous based on past data and probabilistic outcomes.
    I'm really hoping for a couple of solid exam grades in the next 10 days. This semester will largely determine whether or not I have a shot at graduating Magna Laude in December. Since I'm taking the required 15 hours I might be able to make Dean's list (finally! after averaging almost a 3.8 for 4 years).
    Ah! Darn it! I'm rambling again!
    (Random but fun pick provided showing bills I can never keep in my wallet)

  4. Revenant
    Continuing to work on the Mexican Libertads and a little more...
    Last week one of the other members on the forums was offering a fairly large amount of silver for sale. This is something he doesn't pretty consistantly. He always seems to have a lot of silver available that he wants to unload. Sometimes he moves material, other offerings get offered again in a couple of weeks and new material periodically enters.
    I saw that he was offering 37 1984 silver libertads a price much lower than I'd be able to get them for on eBay. The picture he had showing for an example looked nice. I've been looking for a good pre-1990 silver libertad to represent that type in my sig set so I decided to ask him if he'd pick out one or two of the nicer ones and sell those to me. Quality is very important for the set I'm building. He was willing to do so and just needed to know exactly how many I wanted.
    I had also noticed around this time that he had some of the 1979/1980 Mexican silver rounds. These are about 33.6 grams of 0.925 silver, so they have 1 ounce of 0.999 fine equivalent. I've said before that I wasn't sure if I'd be interested in these older pre-libertad rounds or not, but I've been making a few similar purchases for the set lately and I'd decided a while back that if I could find a nice one for a resonable price I'd buy it. Well, the price for these was, again, much lower than I'd ever get them for on eBay. I decided to buy 2 of the 1984s and 2 of the 1979/1980 rounds off of him. I'll need to find another coin or two to complete the submission, but I'll be sending those off for grading. (I hope that NGC will grade the older silver issues anyway, does anyone else know for sure?)
    The older silver reminds me of the old US assay rounds. They have a pair of scales on one side, state the fineness and weight of the coin and they're labeled as coming from the "Casa de Moneda de Mexico." These were only minted 3 years; 1949, 1979, and 1980. There was only a 1 year gap in 1981 before the Libertads began production in 1982. They seem to look back to a different period in the production and sale of silver bullion and they're the oldest coins I'm aware of that qualify to be a part of my set.

  5. Revenant
    I wonder if anyone else did this as a kid...
    For as long as I've been able to remember my mother kept an old piggy-bank in her room that was made to look like a mailbox. It didn't lock itself; instead it had a little tiny padlock with a tiny key that she kept hanging on the wall on a Marvin the Martian key chain (Marvin was her favorite Looney Toon). She'd put tons of change from her (massive) purse (which we always complained must literally have bricks in it.. but no, mostly coins...) into the mailbox. Every couple of months she'd take the mailbox, open it, roll up all the coins and deposit them at the bank. I used to watch her roll those coins, but she'd always pull out the old ones and put them to one side... those would not go to the bank (I had no clue why though).
    As I got just a little older and I was starting to learn how to count she let me start helping her. She taught me how to count them. You take 5 coins and make a little stack. Then you take 5 more, make another stack, and put that stack next to the first. When you have 8 stacks of quarters or nickels, or 10 stacks of pennies or dimes, you have a roll.
    She'd ask sometimes "Do you want to go get the mailbox and help me roll up the coins?" I would agree and run down the hall to get it. Even then this was great fun to me. I'd spend the next hour or so counting and rolling coins with her. I'd always need to check for wheaties or old coins and put them to one side. I'd sometimes ask, "why do we keep these?" The response was usually along the lines of "because they're old," "because they don't make those anymore," or "because they're special." Again, this goes back further than I can clearly remember. You don't have to be able to count very well to count to 10. That's all I needed to do, and I was helping Mom.
    As I got a little older the game expanded. We would have competitions to see who could roll faster or who could roll more. We would segregate all the coins and estimate, "so how many rolls do you think that is?" We would finish counting and she'd ask, "so how much do we got?" I'd count up all the rolls and all the loose remainders and tell her the amount. She'd do the same. We'd compare numbers and figure out who was right if we disagreed. As I got older (and her eyes got worse) she started to ask me "what's the date on this one?" ... "That's easy, Mom. Wow, your eyes must really stink." ... "Just tell me what the date is."
    When we were done we'd always put the coins in a money bag to take to the bank, my mother would thank me and then kiss me on the cheek.
    I never got tired of spending this time with my mother.
    A year or two ago I got really into getting $25 boxes of pennies from the bank and searching through them for old dates (and pulling out the odd Canadian cent as I went). The major goal was just to fill up some Whitman folders with all the memorial cents (and the odd wheatie I might find to fill a hole). I'd also sometimes build penny towers with them as I've said before. When I was done my mother would come and help me roll them up to take back to the bank. In a lot of ways it was like being a kid again.
    If I ever have kids I think it would be fun to continue this with them, but I probably won't be able to. The rise of mechanical coin counters will probably kill any chance of that.
    I still coin and roll coins the same way though.

  6. Revenant
    Oh what funny trees they must have in Canada?
    I normally don?t share stories about bidding wars but the end result of this is just too funny.
    A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough (I felt) to purchase a nice 2007 Canadian Maple Leaf in MS68. By the standards of these Canadian coins, an MS68 is pretty darn high. MS69s are fairly rare and MS70s are almost unheard of. Grades in the MS64 to MS67 range are much more common. I was happy to get the coin. It let me add a representative piece for that series to my signature set.
    Last weekend I noticed that a seller was offering 2 1989 MS68s, 1 1993 MS69, 1 2002 MS67 and 2 1999 MS69s. These were all NGC graded coins and he was starting the auctions at $0.99. The coins ended starting at 6:00PM today and the last coin ended around 6:35. The catch was that the seller does not combine shipping for multiple auctions and his shipping charges were $6.57 per coin. Those shipping charges were pretty repulsive, but I figured other people would think that too and at the right prices these coins could be great deals. I would have liked to win 1 of each of these dates but I had to set priorities. Most of my coin money is currently earmarked for other purchases and I don?t have enough available to have a good chance at winning 4 silver coins. I decided that at the end of the day I really wanted to have a 1989 and either the 1993 or one of the 1999s. These 2 coins would let me have representative pieces with the earlier portraits of Queen Elizabeth II for my collection. (Of course, if the coins stayed low, I wanted them all!). The coins were ending today, so tonight the fun began.
    Heading into the final day, every coin was at a bid below $10. Heading into the final hour, almost every coin was below $20. I set aside my school work for a little while and sat down to eat dinner in front of the computer. (It was a favorite meal of college students, frozen microwavable food, loaded with salt to cover up the fact that it should barely be considered edible.)
    I didn?t know how this would go. Would I get deals or would I be lucky to get 1 coin away from snipers? This is one of those times that you pray for luck and hope that the other interested parties are stuck in traffic or just forgot the time. I upped my bid on the first 1989 to $34.44 and waited. I was outbid on that coin and another bidder took it for $35.44+shipping. I shifted to the second 1989, bid much higher and waited for the other shoe to drop. No one else bid on this coin though and I took it for only $18.50+shipping. That felt great!
    Moving on to the 1993, I bid a humorous $44.44 for this coin. The same person that took the first 1989 sniped me again, taking it for $45.44. I wasn?t really all that interested in the MS67 2002 at much more than melt so I didn?t bid on it in the closing minutes. That coin went to the same opposing bidder (who apparently is less picky than I) for $22.50+shipping (remember what these shipping charges are).
    At this point, it was time for the 1999s. Having lost the 1993, I wanted to win one of these. The trend I?d been observing hadn?t been lost on me though. I knew that the other bidder would bid on the first coin. I also knew that his bid would likely be higher than mine. After the 1989, I also suspected that he would not bid on the second coin. I don?t know if he just wanted one of each and didn?t care about the other, or if he was using an absentee bidding program (Say what you want about those things, they can be rigid and lack the ability to adjust to the situation). I had the feeling that my advantage was with the second coin. I still don?t like to give up without a fight though so I bid $48.84 for the first one, knowing what the result would be. Predictably, the same person outbid me. I simply moved on to the other 1999 and bid the (I felt) ridiculously high sum of $63.44. Especially given the shipping charge I couldn?t believe anyone would outbid that for this coin. I bid that high because I really wanted to win this one. Well, it turns out that no one felt like trying to outbid me. No one else bid after I did and the coin sold to me for just $20.59+shipping.
    When it was all said and done I just had to sit in front of the computer and laugh for a while. Days like this make me seriously reconsider my definition of what it means to ?win? on eBay. Yes other bidder beat me out for every coin he bid on, but he?s paying a price for it. My coins cost me only $25.115 each after shipping, but he?ll be paying more for his 1999 than I did for both of my wins. Yes, he got the 1993 and the 2002, and I didn?t. I still got everything I wanted out of the situation though and I did it well under my allowed budget for these auctions. I call that mission accomplished. Even if I did lose 2/3rds of the auctions, I got what I wanted.
    I really do hope that the other person likes and enjoys those coins. It?s very clear that he was willing to pay a hefty price for them. Meanwhile, no one but the two of us bid more than $30 on any of these coins. If he was a dealer hoping to flip the coins later, I think the price of silver is going to have to rise a fair bit before they have a good chance of recovering their money.
    On a side note, I also won a nice 2006 MS69 Maple the other day. That coin also cost more than the 1989 and 1999 together and was part of the reason I had to moderate today. That coin will replace the 2007 MS68 in my signature set as I continue to try and make that set as nice as I reasonably can. The 2007 will still be in my competitive set, which will soon be in relatively good standing overall.

  7. Revenant
    Completing a set of Texas Commemoratives
    I think it was about 9 months ago that my step father and I were both glancing over auctions on eBay while talking on the cell phones together. We were still very much involved with working on the birthyear mint sets that are now largely complete. We had just arranged to purchase the 1932-S quarter that now resides in the 1932 set. We needed something else though because the 1932-S was less than $1000 and we needed more than $1000 to avoid a sales tax charge.
    Well my step father noticed a really interesting half dollar. It was one of the 1934 Texas Centennial commemoratives. My step-father is a 5th generation Texan and he loves things related to the history of the state. I knew what the coin was and explained it to him. He decided he wanted it and we got it.
    When I showed him later that it was part of a larger set of 13 coins issued from 1934 to 1938, there was a certain interest in building a complete set of them. So over time we continued to snap up coins for the set when they appeared at pretty good prices.
    By the end of last year we had approximately half the set with all of the coins for 1934, 1935, and 1936. Then the other week he sent me an email about a 1937-S at a nice price. We got that coin, and then I noticed that some other sellers had listed 4 of the other coins that we needed. I talked to him about it and he was surprised. They must have just been listed because he hadn't seen them when he'd looked just one or two days prior. The coins were listed at fair prices and getting them would bring us just 1 coin away from a complete set. We ended up getting all of them and were left only needing the 1938 "P" (which is one of the set's key dates).
    I'll admit, this hadn't been a particularly exciting set up to this point. Almost all of the coins have been won by "Buy it Now" or auctions where no one else bid. There were no real "heart pounding," white-knuckle bidding wars. This isn't to say that building the set hadn't been fun. I love the look of the Texas commems and I enjoyed helping my step-father with the set... It just wasn't very thrilling... Oh yay! I clicked the button! *queue eye-roll*
    Then I found a 1938 coin selling in an auction just last week. This seemed kind of crazy to me. The idea of getting half the set in a 3 week period was just wacky, but my step-father said "Let's go for it." This coin did go for a pretty strong price and there were some tense moments towards the end where we didn't know if our bids would hold up, but they did and we won the coin on Wednesday night.
    It's now April 12. We're waiting on the coin to arrive in the mail. April 21 is the 173rd anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto. I didn't realize it at the time but my step-father considered it significant to complete the set near this date. I can't say I blame him. I think it's pretty cool too. I'm hoping we'll have the coin in hand so it can be added to the set on or before April 21st.
    I've really enjoyed these shared projects with my step-father. We've gone to coin shows together, spent hours looking at coins together before submissions, searched for coins together and share in each other's interests. Our hobbies have largely been the foundation on which we formed a relationship. We're still working on a couple of the mint sets that he wants and he's refering to another project or two. I'm not entirely sure what's going to come next now that this set is complete.
  8. Revenant

    A Slight Diversion

    By Revenant,

    A few coins that (*gasp!*) aren't made of silver.
    Ok, well, I've been really enjoying working on my signature set the last 2 months or so but I also have a few other projects that require a little attention from time to time. It occurred to me the other day that I still had not acquired the new William H. Harrison presidential dollars for my mint state set. I have all the 2007 and the 2008 dollars in MS66 FDI and I don't like to fall too far behind when making sets like this. I also naturally wanted to get the new coins in the same MS66 FDI grade/label. I managed to order just such a pair of coins, a P&D set, and managed to do so before the next coin gets released in May. For both of the first 2 years I didn't buy any of the new issues until the summer.
    I'm not complaining about the delays I normally make mind you. I never rush to buy a new mint release immediately after the first graded examples start becoming available. I like to wait for at least a month before I start to even look. Immediately after coins start to become available a frenzy atmosphare sets in and some crazy prices can be achieved. I've never been interested in taking part in that. It usually just takes a couple of weeks before people stop paying the crazy money and I'm usually more than willing to wait that long.

  9. Revenant
    Wow! That turned out great!
    Overall I'd say this submission went extremely well. The results were actually better than I had dared to hope for.
    Invoice: 2755950
    001 2006 SILVER NEWZEALAND NORTH ISLAND BROWN KIWI $1 MS69
    002 2005 SILVER NEWZEALAND KIWI $1 MS70
    003 2004 SILVER NEWZEALAND SPOTTED KIWI $1 MS70
    004 2006 CHINA PANDA S10Y MS70
    005 2008MO MEXICO S1ONZA MS65
    006 2008MO MEXICO S1ONZA MS69
    I can't even say how great the grades on the kiwis were. The 2004 and 2005 kiwis are extremely rare and extremely expensive. This submission was probably going to be my only shot at the top grade for those coins. That said, they both pulled through and got the top grade. With the 2008 coin I now have half of the (currently) 6 coin set in MS70. Since the 2006 is somewhat cheaper than the earlier 2 issues, I may try to find another one and take another shot at a MS70. I'd love to have a full MS70 set of them. Even if it never becomes a competitive set, I think it would be awesome to have a full 70 set that I mostly graded myself. At the moment though, it appears that those 3 coins are the first and only ones of their kind graded by NGC, and that's a distinction all on its own.
    I was, in some ways, more thrilled about the Panda than even the Kiwis. As I have said before, that coin was sent to me by the ever wonderful Jackson. It was one of a handful that he and his wife (who I'm sure is also wonderful) ordered directly from the issuing authority when they came out. He went digging in his "silver bin," found it, and went out of his way to let me have it. This coin will now have a permanent home in my signature set and a place of honor in my competitive panda set (though the set will probably never be "competitive").
    I'll admit that the MS65 Libertad was a disappointment. I would have thought both of the coins I sent it might go MS67+ or I never would have wasted the fees. I do understand NGCs decision though. The coin had 1 or 2 issues going on that I considered somewhat minor with respect to grade. NGC probably disagreed, but understandably so. That's why I sent 2 of those though. All I wanted was at least 1 MS69 out of the 2 and I got that. I may keep the MS65 coin for silver value or just sell it at a low price to partially recover costs.
    I'm thrilled with this result. I got everything I wanted and more out of this. My gamble paid off!
    With respect to my signature set, which all of these are for, this means 11 of the 45 coins I have or have on order will be MS70. That's not bad at all for a set that was initially going be an all-MS69 set. I've added a few 70s where the opportunity has existed and they are now nearly a full 4th of the set. At least 5 of the other coins in the set are Top Pop MS69s with no MS70s and a few others have only 10 or fewer MS70s which are nearly impossible to find and alarmingly expensive. Considering that, I've made a fairly high quality set in my opinion. The signature set is subdivided into 7 competitive sets and a group of non-competitive coins. Most of these competitive sets will still never win me an award but that's not what they're there for. They serve in other functions independent of the signature set.
    Now that I actually have a few of my own self-graded MS70s I may hijack gherrman's signature set idea for my own nefarious purposes. (ie. personal amusement!) Nah... I can remember this on my own!
    Well, I think I've written more than enough for one evening.
  10. Revenant
    Some things become possible.
    I've been sitting back and thinking about the way some of my sets have been built and how my projects have progressed. It hit me that there are some things I never could have done, or could not have done as easily, without the help of some people in this community. This seems to become particularly true of special sets and projects which involve uncommon or uncommonly graded coins. It therefore seems particularly true of signature sets.
    Because of deals I'm involved in at the moment my signature set is going to expand to approximately 45 coins within just a few weeks (I'm expecting to have long shipping times involved for some of these items). 14 of these coins, nearly a full 3rd of the set, will have been obtained directly or indirectly from other Collector's Society members. The best part? I've almost never initiated the sale. Other members, aware that I'm after a particular coin or group of coins, have simply come to me in private discussion and offered the coins. In every case, they have even gone the extra mile and offered me phenomenally favorable terms and sold the coins for far less than they probably could have achieved if they'd sold the coins elsewhere.
    I am and will remain very grateful to these collectors. Their help has allowed me to go further and faster in the developement of a set that I truely love working on.
  11. Revenant
    Changes in perceptions and attitude and the effects on our sets.
    Have you ever wished that you could take a set that you?ve put a lot of work into and compare what it looks like today to what it looked like a month or two ago? Wouldn?t it be nice to look at where you were and where you are and just consider what you?ve done and how you feel about it? I?ve been feeling that way lately about my signature set.
    I know I?ve been stuck on discussing this set for quite a while now, but as far as collecting goes, this set has been my world for 2 months. My perception of it and my feelings on it have changed quite a bit in that time. When I started it around August of ?08 I had such a grand concept of what it would be. The only problem was that it was a concept and it was too big too early. By the end of last year I had become considerably disillusioned with it. I was not making the progress I thought I would and it became clear that the project would take far longer and be far more expensive than I?d ever dreamed. The more open format of the signature set became a source of frustration. I almost felt like I had too many options. I had too many things I wanted to do but wasn?t sure how. By December and January I looked at the set some days and felt angry at myself. I felt I?d turned the project into an abject failure. I was considering simply deleting the set and writing it off as a horrid idea. I?d go back to just building a set of American Eagles, so I thought.
    Things finally started to turn around for me in January when I decided to go ahead and finish the Australian lunar dollars set. I have so few ?complete? sets and I was so close on that one. When I got the coins I also added them to the signature set just like I?d always planned, mostly out of habit, and it felt good! It was nice to see new coins go into that set, to see it grow. For the first time in a while I was finally able to feel good about the set again, but I still had a problem. The set was barely even a shell of what I wanted it to be. I?m not talking just about lack of coins. It completely lacked the descriptions, comments, and other ?fluff? that I felt it needed to really shine and I wasn?t even sure what direction to take it in. So I decided to go looking for help. The choice was pretty obvious; I sent Jackson a message. I don?t know if he picked up on it at the time, but looking at his set and swapping a few messages with him finally put me back on the right track to build the set the way it needed to be built; the way it deserved to be built. It occurs to me now that I?d never really embraced the project. I?d never fully committed myself to it or allowed myself to become fully invested in it. I finally understood that I had to stop feeling bad about what the set wasn?t and work hard to make it into something. It would never stop being a disappointment unless I finally committed to it.
    For just over 2 months now, I think I?ve worked on and tweaked the set in at least minor ways on almost a daily basis. I?ve certainly looked at it and thought about what I needed to do and how every day. Even when I?m working in the computer lab I keep a browser window open to the registry, just in case I need a break. I think if I could see what the set looked like in late January I?d barely recognize it. If I wouldn?t have imagined in late January what this set would look like today. The commentaries and descriptions have been completely re-worked or removed. I?m still working on doing the write-ups for some of them. The set has nearly doubled in just over 2 months. It had 22 coins in late January. It now has 32 coins with 5 more in for grading, 2 more in the mail, and I may win auctions for 4 more on Friday.
    The set is finally showing a bit of what I had always hoped it would be. I know I?ve discussed this at great length the last 2 months and I sure there are more than a few out there that are tired of hearing about it. All the same, I feel the need to talk about it and the need to share this work because for perhaps the first time I look at this set and I?m true proud of it.
    For a long time I?ve actually been more involved in and more interested in the journals than in the signature set. Had never been able to resolve how I wanted to structure the set in my mind. But, interestingly enough, when I started writing about and discussing the set, it finally started to form in my head in a way I?d never been able to get it to before. It?s as if the act of discussing the ideas allowed me to have them. So, this seemingly ceaseless train of journal entries that drone on and on with the same theme have been quite purposeful and extremely productive. I hope there are those of you out there that can still stand to read my babble and like hearing about my grandest project.
     
    I always like to end these things with a picture for "eye candy" so here's the sellers image of a 1989 that arrived at my permanent address today. I'll have to make my own picture later when I'm home again. It's not a huge or close-up image but you get the idea.

  12. Revenant

    Fun Weekend

    By Revenant,

    Spending time at a non-coin convention
    I've spent most of this weekend at a local gaming/anime convention that is held at my university every year. Before I started college, lost most of my free time and found coin collecting I was a gamer. This is great fun to me even if I don't get to indulge in it often. Ours is the largest and oldest student run convention in the country. This was the 40th year. Those of us that know what it is are quite proud of it.
    We like discussing coin auctions here on this site. AggieCon (the name of our event) has a charity auction to benefit a local charity for abused children and an art auction (that one isn't for charity but it's still very fun). One occurs immediately after the other and it almost comes off as one continuous event. It's always funny to have an auction towards the end of a convention where about 80% of the participants are college students. I'm not going to say it's like trying to get blood out of a stone, more like a small rodent. It's possible, but don't expect much. It's funny to see items start as low as $4 in a live auction with the bidding increments sometimes as low as $1. The phrases "only on a college campus" and "poor college student" are used frequently, but laughter is plentiful, the behavior is outrageous, and great fun is had by all.
    AggieCon is one of those times where you really see that everyone is just a little "unique" in their own way and we're all "characters" (or maybe it's just Texans?). It's great to see how the "normal" people that are just in the area respond to the con-goers.
    Personally, I love the art show and the art auction. I think I've purchased at least 1 signed and numbered print at every (non-coin) convention that I've attended. I talk to and get to know the artists. There's an "Iron Artist" event where the guest artists have 45 minutes to make a picture with a mystery medium. Con-goers get to watch them draw and the pictures are sold at the charity auction. As I've commented before it's my love of art that makes me love the coins so much.
    This weekend I also arranged the purchase of a 1989 NGC MS69 Panda. It's the first of the silver panda series to have been struck in 0.999 silver and weigh 1 ounce. I'll be very happy to be adding this coin to my sets when it arrives. The pandas have a high degree of prestige among modern coins; evidenced by the fact that the #1 ranked Panda set (one-per-date) has also been named a "Best Modern" set in 2 of the last 3 years. The pandas have really evolved over the years, changing incrementally. They make for a great set to collect and look at. I meant it earlier when I said "it's panda time." I will be pushing to expand my panda set over the next couple of months.
    I'm attaching a picture of a 1990 Panda (another recent order which I hope to have in hand soon). The new holders are gradually starting to enter some of my sets. It's amazing to see these 38-40 mm silver coins in the new pronged holders. They clearly strain the limits of the holder design. The coin just can't get much bigger and still have room left for the prongs.

  13. Revenant
    ... and the other NGC staff members. I don't know what I'd do without some of this site's features.
    I was working on adding a slot to my sig set earlier and it just hit me: I have no idea what I would do without the ability to quickly and easily change the slot order in that set. I'm constantly adding new slots that I want inserted into the middle of the set and I recently completely re-arranged the set to make it more organized. The feature that lets you modify the slot order lets me do these things in just minutes or seconds. Without it, this could take hours with a large set and could become exceedingly frustrating. So I just have to say "Thank You" to all the people who help make this site so blissfully user friendly. There are still some things I'd like to see as I've discussed on the forums, but as it is the registry works remarkably well.
    The slot that prompted this thought was for the 1989 Panda. A dealer was willing to accept my offer of 80% of their ask and so I got the coin. NGC MS69.
    I had been sheltering the insane hope that I might have Kiwi grades to report before the weekend but the odds were pretty low from the start. There's always tomorrow but I doubt I'll get them before next week. As soon as the grades are finalized those cert#s are going directly into their slots.
  14. Revenant

    With Days Like This...

    By Revenant,

    I'm glad I have a hobby.
    I came back to college yesterday to start the new semester. I found out that the Hall staff had taken my 50ft 12-gauge extension cord as contraband. I then had to deal with (hopefully) the only senior on this campus that doesn't know how to pronounce the word "confiscated." (I'm sorry, but no. It's not "con-fist-i-cated.") Then, today, while buying school supplies someone backs into my car and breaks the cover piece to my break light. And of course he didn't have his insurance card with him... and then I had to deal with the university bookstore overcharging me for a textbook and if you know what they charge for those, it is so much more than just the principle of the matter... *grumbling and muttering* (If I seem crabby, that is why...)
    So far I've kept my promise to myself to not buy any more coins for a couple of weeks though I'm chomping at the bit to make a few new purchases (That doesn't really help the grump-factor either). I did place an order for a new coin book though. I've arranged to have it delivered to my college PO box and I think I'll probably enjoy that a lot more than my new textbooks, which were each 3 or 4 times as expensive. The book is the "Standard Catalogue of United States Tokens (1700-1900)," 4th edition. I suspect that they might be releasing the 5th edition by the end of the year, but I don't want to wait that long for it. I also like having more than one edition of a book and seeing how it changes over time. When the 5th edition comes out I will certainly pick it up as soon as possible. I'm hoping that having that book to look at will give me something fun to do other than looking at more coins that I want to buy.
    I've added a new signature set for Civil War tokens and I'm hoping that in a couple of years it will be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the more impressive token sets on the registry. As it is, it has only one coin, but I'm laying out the framework for the set right now. I hope that a couple of additional coins will be coming in about 3 or 4 weeks (I still have to keep that promise... I keep telling myself). I've also started to try to overhaul and improve my signature set for modern world silver bullion coins. If that set lives up to my vision, it will probably end up being very large and (hopefully) very impressive to everyone that looks at it. I also suspect that it will be very heavy. Every coin does afterall weigh 1 Troy ounce plus the weight of the slab.
    Finally, I'm happy to say that those 4 1965 SMS coins that went missing after the Hurricane were found today. I'm not going to say how or where they were found as it's just too embarrassing. It should not have taken this long for them to be noticed. Anyway, it's great to know that they're not gone for good afterall.
  15. Revenant
    and additional rambling...
    Well, just the other day I finished taking new pictures of all the coins in my signature set (save one, long story), and I uploaded the cropped images (I think) yesterday. It gets a little hard to keep track of days when I'm not going to class. I was thrilled to see that I managed to capture most of the details in the images this time. It can be so hard with these coins because almost every one of them combines brilliant and matte/burnished surfaces. I had to do this under low lighting though and even with a long exposure time (0.5 seconds) the pictures still came out darker than I wanted. I'll probably end up cheating, use photoediting software to brighten them up a bit and then re-upload them. I am fairly happy with the new images though. Of the countless attempts that I've made, I think these images show the design of the coins the best. I hope some of you check them out when you get a chance and let me know what you think. I'm not likely to try another round of pictures for a while but you never know and I keep trying to get better.
    Later on this evening I'm going to try and finally get that submission boxed up and sent off to NGC so I can get my Kiwis and some more Libertads showing in my sig set. I want to include the text from the original packaging in the coin commentary for each of the kiwis but I'm not sure if I should. On one hand, the original write-ups help emphasize the origins of this set as a means to raise awareness of the plight of the kiwi and raise support for conservation efforts. On the other hand, I don't want to come off like I'm trying to get people to "help save the kiwi" through my set. I like the coins and I like sharing and discussing the origins and the purpose of various sets. However, I don't believe in injecting political, economic, or environmental advocacy into my hobbies. I feel like it poisons the sense of community and kills the fun. It's one of the main reasons I cringe whenever discussions turn towards the economy or "investment advice." ... I could lead the commentary with a disclaimer, but that might be tacky... As always, I remain open to outside input if it is offered.
    My stepfather and I located another nice coin for the set of Texas Independence Centennial Commems that he wants, the 1937-S in MS65. He's a 5th generation Texan and he really loves things related to the history of the state. We're over half way to a complete set that I think looks pretty darn nice. It's going to be all MS65 or MS66, mostly non-toners. Depending on what he decides, we may acquire most of the remaining 5 coins in the next day or two. A pretty good opportunity is presenting itself.
    I haven't made any new purchases for myself in the last week or so but I'm strongly considering one or two things. I'll let all of you know how that goes. All of my buying is currently directed at my Sig set right now. I'm amazed at how well I've managed to stay focused on developing that set for the last month or so. I'll have to think about getting the new presidents for 2009 soon but other than that it's modern government-issued silver bullion all the way right now. Hopefully you guys won't get tired of hearing about it before I get tired of talking about it for a while.
    I'm attaching an image of the 2009 Britannia reverse. Like I said, the new pictures are a little dark but they give you a nice idea of what the coin is like. Beautiful coin. I'm really hoping to be able to acquire the rest of the set in the not-too-distant future.
    Strike when the deals are good. Have the strength to pass when the price is bad and the coin is ugly. Never buy anything you won't want next year. Happy Hunting.

  16. Revenant
    Collecting the New Zealand Kiwi Bullion Series
    Well, a few people messaged me and accurately identified the bird pictured in my last post as a Kiwi. It's kind of a funny looking bird isn't it? A wingless, nocturnal, grub eating bird that lives in the brush. They're proof that there needs to be predators in this world. A few thousand years without a legitimate threat and nature creates something adorable but completely defenseless... which is a big part of why they're going extinct. Some had thought it might be a kookaburra. They?re from the same part of the world but I?d much rather meet a kiwi than a kookaburra. Sure, the kookaburra looks cute, it but eats the babies of other birds and kills prey by beating them senseless with its beak. Not cuddly.
    Anyway... in 2004 the New Zealand mint started selling these bullion coins, apparently to help raise awareness of the danger the kiwi is in. The first 5 coins in the series (which are apparently considered a set unto themselves) honored the 5 different kiwi species. Now in 2009 they're going to start the "Icons of New Zealand" set which will include 3 coins and each coin will also have a kiwi on it. The coins have a mintage limit of only 10,000 per year for the BU coins but for reasons I haven't figured out yet, that limit wasn't reached in any year until 2009! This year they sold out in 2 months! The 2004-2008 coins on the other hand have estimated issuances of only 2500-4000! Wrap your head around that one for a minute.
    The popularity of the Kiwis is starting to really pick up and the price per coin is pretty high when compared to most of the other bullion series (the early Pandas are still higher though... for now). About 2 weeks ago I picked up a pre-graded 2008 kiwi from a seller. I had been having trouble getting information on them and couldn't figure out when the series had started or why. After I bought the 2008 I finally started to find more info and almost fell out of my chair when I saw the mintages. I liked the designs on these coins and wanted the set but with those mintage numbers I started to worry about being able to build a set. Only a few 2008s have been graded, none of the other years have been graded by NGC based on the pop reports; so I'd have to send them in for grading personally. Since almost none are graded and few here collect them, I'm also not expecting these to get a competitive set or earn me any points any time soon... unless NGC decides to smile upon this poor, simple, college collector. (Think I have a prayer? ... Nah, they have more important sets to make I'm sure.)
    Right after I ordered the 2008 I noticed that someone was auctioning off a complete set as individual items on eBay. I decided that that was too good of a chance to pass up and participated in the bidding. I had hoped to get the 2004-2007 and complete the 5 coin kiwi species set in one sweep. Unfortunately the prices on the early coins are pretty extreme (by my standards) and I didn't want to hurt my pocket book too badly. I had to decide to give up the 2007 so I could bid higher and get the lower mintage and harder to find 2004-2006 issues. I did win those 3 though and I'm going to be sending them in to NGC for grading this week. I can't wait to see how they do. I would love it if they could all get MS70s to go with the 2008 coin. They're too expensive to buy a bunch of them and submit several of each though so I'm probably just going to take what I can get (fingers crossed that they come back at least as MS69). Even just buying those 3, I completely trashed my coin budget. The wallet was screaming? silently. The 3 raw coins actually arrived at my house before the pre-graded 2008.
    There?s another 2007 at auction that?s ending next week. I?m really tempted to go after it but I was going to use that money to get another Panda... I suppose I could just get both... I really want the 2007 kookaburra... But I really wanted that NGC MS69 1990 Panda and I?ve been looking at it for weeks... Choices... eh... Help?
    For everyone's viewing (pleasure?), I've attached a picture of the 2004 (top left), 2005 (top right), 2006 (bottom left), and 2008 (bottom right) bullion Kiwis. I am every happy to have gotten these coins. I think they'll make a great and fairly unique addition to my signature set...
    I'm not obsessed with that set... just very enthusiastic in its pursuit... yeah... enthusiastic... we'll go with that... that sounds better.

  17. Revenant
    And this terrible week is getting close to being over.
    Well guys, I took my "Kinetics and Reactor Design" mid-term this morning... all I can say is "Yuck." Maybe everyone else failed and it won't be so bad... At this point I just have to study all day tomorrow survive my test in "Mass Transfer Operations." It's times like this when I get awfully tempted to buy a coin or two that I want just to feel better about the beating that my GPA is about to take... Friday is payday though... so you never know...
    I'll have to do some academic related activities during the vacation but I decided weeks ago that I was going to have some coin related fun next week. I'll finally be sending in that submission of coins for my signature set and I plan on re-imaging that set so it'll look more consistent and (hopefully) better.
    It looks like I'm again going to be looking at a period with relatively few purchases. About a week ago I completely blew the budget getting a few great new additions. I'll be happy to add those to my sets as soon as they come back from grading, probably some time in April. In the interim I have been and continue to endeavor in many of the same areas that Jackson recently referred to (when I have the time to spare anyway). I read the journals and research my coins. I'm constantly attempting to refine the presentations of certain sets. My pictures aren?t always the greatest, but they?re all digital photos. I don?t use a scanner. That technology base will never reward me with the kinds of images that I want so I don?t even bother with it anymore (though I used to, especially with images not intended for the registry). I?d rather keep trying, failing, and learning with the camera in the hopes of one day getting it ?right? than give up and settle for a lesser outcome.
    In a recent discussion with him, Jackson referred to this as "the free parts" of the hobby. At the time I thought that it was a rather interesting statement. After all, while imaging, researching, reading, and writing about the coins doesn't cost money, that is where most of the value is to be found in the hobby (at least for me). It's reading and studying the coins and then sharing what you learn that makes them worth the money to me. I don't think I'd be willing to lay down nearly $100 or more for a coin if I didn't also think they were interesting enough to look into further (and that I could tell you guys all about it afterwards). I think the sense of community is the single most important factor in the end. I don?t think I would have been in this hobby very long if I hadn?t found others to discuss it with (my Engineering friends look at me like I?m a little bit ?special? when I try to talk about my coin collection with them).
    I remain open to input and commentary on all my sets, but most especially the signature set. I?m always trying to find out about the symbolism, origins, and history of each of the series in that collection. If I?ve gotten something wrong, or I?m leaving out something important, I?d certainly like to know. Anything that improves my knowledge and understanding of the set or coins is welcomed? and if you just want to say ?good job? or ?that?s cool,? well, that?s fine too.
    The picture is a lead-in to something I'm hoping to talk about in a couple of days. Anyone know what it is?

  18. Revenant
    ? the 1994 Silver Chinese Unicorn
    I?m hoping this coin will be arriving at my permanent address in the next couple of days. I?ll get to see it in person in about 11 days when I go home for Spring Break. (That?s assuming I don?t shoot myself before then with the way my workload looks for the next week?)
    The Chinese Unicorns had a short 4 year run from 1994 to 1997. The mintages on these issues are on the low side. Based on what I?ve read, the 1994 mint state coin had a mintage limit of only 50,000. That may seem like a lot but relative to other modern issues it?s tiny. By way of comparison, the US mint at one point estimated that 47,000 of the ?Reverse of 2007? Silver Eagle errors had been produced. The error that everyone went so crazy over had a mintage almost as large as this coin?s production limit. Only 15 have been graded by NGC, all of which were given the grade MS69. The Chinese coins from the 1990s seem to make it into the high 60s pretty consistently, but 70s are very rarely seen.
    The prices on the one ounce Unicorns have managed to stay fairly low as the demand for them isn?t as strong as with other series. I?m not sure that most people even know about them. I posted a picture of the 1997 in the forums when I bought it a few weeks ago. Several of the other forum members expressed their surprise upon seeing the pictures. Even other coin collectors had not known about the coin previously. As a set, they?re largely overshadowed by the vastly more popular Panda series.
    It?s a happy coincidence that several of the animals on these bullion coins are popular with girls. Even college age girls seem to think that koalas, kookaburras, pandas, and unicorns are cool? This of course has no impact on my personal interest in the set.
    The Unicorns have wonderful artwork and they?re fun to look at. I particularly like the reverse side of the 1994. It?s oddly difficult for me to put into words exactly what it is I like about these coin designs. They just impress me on a very fundamental level. I?m ultimately forced to rely on pictures and hope that some of you agree.
    On a side note, I?ve arranged to purchase a PCGS MS69 2009 Silver Britannia. That coin will also be entering my signature set when it arrives. The Britannias, like the Maple Leafs and the Libertads, can be very hard to get in MS69. Not many of them are graded at all. The majority leave the mint with scrapes and scuffs across the cheek and other high points because of the way they?re packaged. I?m happy to be getting this coin for my set. It is currently one of only 3 graded this high by PCGS. NGC does not currently have any census data available for 2009 Britannias. I don?t know if that means they haven?t graded any yet or they haven?t updated the census recently enough. I don?t know what the trend is for PCGS since they don?t make their population reports widely known, but NGC, in most cases, graded fewer than 50 Britannias from each year across all grades. Unlike with the American Eagles, if you want one graded, the odds are that you?ll have to hunt down a superior looking raw one and submit it yourself.
    I've attached a picture of my wonderful new Unicorn coin. I can't wait to hold it in my hands and get a better look at it.

  19. Revenant

    It's Panda Time!

    By Revenant,

    and other news and teasers of what's to come.
    I find that I tend to get sidetracked rather easily. My registry is somewhat representative of this; 46 sets. I started a few projects mostly just for fun. Then I left them standing when I couldn't support every set and I moved back to one of my core projects. My Chinese Panda set has been a really acute example of this. About 10 months ago I bought the 2008 Panda and made a registry set for it. I was just starting to think about building my signature set and I was forming an idea of what it would include. The Pandas were always going to be a part of it, at least, as much a part of it as I can afford. Sadly some of the early Pandas are extremely expensive (by my standards) and will likely never make it into my set(s). The problem was, I still had a ways to go on the silver Eagles and the Lunar series, and I still have some on going projects like the mint state presidential dollars. I couldn't support all of these and the Pandas, and last year those other projects were more important. So that one coin sat alone in its competitive "set" for 10 months. (Can 1 coin ever really be called a "set?") Ah well, it had company in the signature set, right?
    Now? I've basically finished my Eagles and the lunar series (and I?m sure everyone is eager for me to stop talking about those sets). I still need to add the 2009 issues and I'm waiting on 6 of my other Eagles to come back from an appearance review (well, only 5 of them are coming back, NGC has elected to replace one of them). As I look to continue expanding my set, the Pandas come to the forefront at last. I'm also still working on the Libertads but that's not really going to make for easy progress. I want a parallel path of development. It?ll help keep my frustration levels down. The Pandas just seem like the obvious choice.
    So, about a week ago I purchased my 2nd and 3rd Pandas. They're a 1995 "Large Twig" and a 1996 "Small Date," both in MS69. They're actually some of the few coins I've purchased of late that earn points. These additions pushed me close to a landmark value I've been nearing for a while, 50,000 total points (it was actually the re-valuation of the Franklins that pushed me over the top just a few hours after I added the Pandas). I?m hoping to add several more Pandas to my registry in the next couple of weeks. They truly are a wonderful series. Some of the dates I?m hoping to acquire in the near future include the 1989, 1990, 2001, 2005, and 2009. Some sellers I trust have them available at good prices, I just have to make funds available (sometimes easier said than done). The series also meshes well with some other additions I?m working on, like the short-lived (4-year) Unicorn series and some other single-year Chinese issues.
    In some other news, my step-father located a MS67FT 1958-D 10C for a pretty nice price. He made me aware of it and I?ve arranged the purchase. It?ll be a great new addition to the 1958 year set that he wants to build (I think that?s the one for his brother?s birth year). It?s a bright, white, glowing coin in one of the ?intermediate? holders, the ones with the new label but no prongs. It has a pretty substantial point value associated with it as all high grade MSFT Roosevelt dimes do. This is one series that I?d like to see lowered a bit, but for reasons that probably aren?t immediately apparent.
    Since I received my refund check from the IRS this week, I elected to use the bulk of it to buy a special new coin. Yes, it?s for the signature set. No, it?s not a Panda. It?s a truly wonderful and special coin (IMO) and I?ll be showing it off later. We?ll see then if the rest of you agree with me. It has a relatively limited mintage by modern standards, only 50000, and only 15 have been graded by NGC according to the census. (Have I teased you with it enough yet? ? perhaps.)
    The picture is the 1995 Panda ?Large Twig.?

  20. Revenant

    Raising Dust Part II

    By Revenant,

    There's a little bit more too this than I had initially thought.
    Someone on the chatboards with a little bit more knowledge on this subject than I gave me some additional information on the Mexican Libertad series. It looks like there's a few more varieties than just the 2 that I thought I needed to chase down. The breakdown he provided looks a bit more like:
    1982-1989: Small Diameter; Lettered Edge
    1990: Small Diameter; Reeded Edge
    1991-1995: Small Diameter; Low Relief
    1996-1999: Large Diameter; Large Eagle Obverse
    2000-Present: Large Diameter; Millenium Obverse
    He also pointed out that there's another design struck in 1949, 1979, and 1980 that was only 0.925 but heavier overall. Personally, I'm don't think I'm going to be interested in those. My intent has been to collect only 0.999+ fine silver issues (and there's more than enough of those to keep me busy for a while). This also leaves me with a few issues regarding the earliest Chinese Pandas which range from 0.900 to 0.925.
    My confusion mostly came from not having seen many of the coins in hand. Many of the changes are subtle and include changes to the rim, changes to the diameter (which don't show well unless 2 coins are photed together) or changes to lettering. Only the major design change in 1996 had stuck out at me.
    Well, more fun to be had; more slots to fill. I decided to go ahead and add the slots for the libertads, even if I won't be able to fill them for a while. I think having a few empty slots is nice for showing that the set isn't finished and is still growing with a purpose and a direction.
    I'm attaching a picture of a new 2008 Libertad that I got in the mail just Friday. I'm really excited about this coin. I think it (or the other 2008 that I bought) might have a real shot at an MS69 when they go in for grading. There's a seller on eBay that has some already graded PCGS MS69s, but he wants a silly price for them and they're graded by PCGS. The set is currently 100% NGC and I plan to keep it that way. I don't mind having PCGS coins in my registry, but I do not want them in this set.

  21. Revenant
    Getting Mexican Libertads for my signature set.
    When I made the decision to start working towards my signature set, there was at least 1 coin that I knew was bound to be a miserable pain to acquire. That coin was, naturally, the early design of the Mexican Libertad series. It was redesigned around 1996. For a nice example of the new design all you have to do is buy some of the most recent year at close to melt. The old design is a slightly bigger problem. A really nice, good looking example of a Pre-1996 Libertad is pretty hard to find. When I say ?really nice? I?m talking in the MS66-MS67 range. The MS69s that have been the standard for most of the other coins are pretty unheard of. These coins are also rarely sent in for grading, so if I wanted a graded example, I?d probably have to buy raw and submit it myself. Even so, I knew that this coin ultimately had to join my set and so I would have to reconcile the problem one day. Well, in my spare time (what exists of it the last 2 weeks), I?ve been trying to finally acquire the coin(s).
    I ordered a 1986 Libertad for a seller on eBay. The picture he had up was of a really pristine looking coin and he described the coins he had in glowing terms. I thought that this might finally be an opportunity. I bought the coin at a low enough price so that even if it was butt-ugly it still wouldn?t be a bad deal on the basis of the silver value (just in case). Well, shortly after I won that auction I did some checking and (of course) it turns out that those pictures are just a stock image that he uses and he sells one every week. He uses the same pictures and description every time. And just my luck, the coin I get in the mail has a wonderful reverse, but the obverse has no less than 5 significant dings and scratches. The coin would probably get about an MS63. It remains a wonderful piece to carry around with me in its airtite and show off to friends, but it?s not good enough to send in to NGC for my signature set.
    Undeterred, since I also need a few nice examples of the newer design, I decided to order 2 of the 2008s (from 2 other sellers) after making myself very clear that I was only interested in nice, clean, undamaged examples. I?m still waiting for those to arrive in the mail, hopefully sometime later this week. Hopefully they?ll pass my standards. Again, I?m not necessarily after MS69s, but I ultimately want the coin in my set to be no lower than MS68 for that slot.
    I have subsequently been trying to track down a new, good, early example. I?ve been asking around in the marketplace forums of the NGC chatboards and I?ve been emailing every seller willing to sell the coins at a reasonable price if they could give me what I?m looking for. It hasn?t been an easy process. Some say they don?t have what I?m looking for, some don?t want to give me the time of day to check, and some just don?t respond. Sunday night I finally got a response back for a seller who seems willing to work with me. He was coming back from vacation the next day and said he would check to see if he had anything that would fit the bill. I haven?t heard back from him yet but I?ll give it another day or two before I follow up.
    If I can get some coins that look good enough to hazard at NGC then I?ll send them in with a 2006 Chinese Panda that a society member generously provided (You?re great by the way, Jackson) when I go home for Spring Break. Yes, I know, everyone else gets drunk and buck-wild and I?m looking forward to submitting some coins. There must be something wrong with this 22 year old.
    I?ve attached a picture of the obverse of my Libertad. The reverse is just the Mexican coat of arms. If you?ve seen their flag, you?ve seen it. The Obverse features the ?Angel of Independence? with the 2 volcanoes Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuati in the background. Popocatepetl (the Smoking Mountain) and Iztaccihuatl (the White Lady) are volcanoes at the south end of the Valley of Mexico. According to Aztec myths, the two volcanoes were lovers that could not bear to be separated. Some claim that the figure on the coin is the ?Winged Victory.? That explanation doesn?t seem to hold much water to me. Overall, it is a lovely design.
    If anyone has a few stunning examples of a 1983-1995 Libertad that you'd be willing to sell, let me know.

  22. Revenant
    The story of a set from start to ?Finish?
    About a year ago I was still deeply involved in trying to build my set of silver American Eagles. I was feeling temporarily burnt out on the set. Some will consider that heresy but it?s true. I like a little bit of variety in my purchases. That?s one of the reasons that I usually have multiple projects going at the same time. While I was having this apathetic feeling towards (what was) my main project, I happened upon a listing on eBay for a coin like none I?d seen before. It was an Australian lunar horse (2002). It looked awesome; I loved it. I purchased the coin and it was like a breath of fresh air, a nice break from getting ?another? silver eagle. It was still very early in most of my collecting projects though. I had not yet learned about most of the non-US silver bullion series and had not yet decided to build my signature set for them. That would come much later.
    Shortly after buying the horse I renewed my efforts with the silver eagles and a couple of other projects. The Horse sat alone in my lunar dollars set. I had found pictures of the other coins and liked them. I wanted the set and decided to collect the rest of it after I finished the set of Eagles. They would have to wait because I could only go after a few projects at a time financially. About 2 months later though I received a very generous offer from one of the other collector?s here to sell me 6 of the coins in MS69 (the same grade as the horse and my Eagles) for just a little over the spot price of silver at the time. That was a little too good to pass up, so I accepted the offer and suddenly this set was over half finished! True to my priorities though, the set made no more progress until after the Eagle set was complete. When the Eagles were finished though (around May 2008), this set became one of my new priorities and the first seeds for the idea of my signature set had begun to grow in my mind. I decided to try and finish the set by the end of 2008.
    At first I made good progress. I obtained one or two of the coins I needed to finish the first set and bought the first coin of the second set. The plan was to finish the set in MS69 just like with the eagles; but then I ran into a problem. After acquiring all the other coins, the MS69 rabbit and dragon could not be found at a reasonable price. Looking at the prices, with what most sellers wanted for a MS69, I could almost buy a MS70. That in itself was a problem. I like matched sets and prefer it when all the coins in a set like this are the same grade. That just feels right to me. I worried that having a mixed MS69/70 set would compel me to start upgrading the whole set to MS70. It has happened before, just look at my mint state presidential dollars. I couldn?t decide what to do, so in November the set just stalled out. I would not complete the set buy the end of the year.
    In early January, about 1 year after buying the first coin, the future of the set seemed in doubt. I just couldn?t overcome this internal battle over how to finish the set and the frustration was sapping the fun out of it. Finally though, I decided to go ahead and order a MS70 rabbit from a seller on eBay and finally try to finish the set. A few hours before I made this decision though, someone else had purchased the coin, and my frustrations deepened. Again, the set was very much in doubt. About 2 weeks later, as if it was a sign, I saw a MS70 rabbit get listed with a low starting bid. I made up my mind to bid in the auction and win the coin. This was the chance; this was the time to push forward with the set again.
    The ending day arrived after about a week of waiting and I did indeed win the coin, for about $40 less than what it would have cost to get the other one. I was so thrilled that I went ahead and bid on a MS70 snake for the same seller and won it to. There was already the Snake in MS69 in my set. This was an upgrade. Was I setting a dangerous precedent? It didn?t really matter much though. I was too happy to have the rabbit. A couple of days later I couldn?t stand having the set so close to completion. I had to have the dragon. After a bit of negotiating, I purchased an MS70 dragon at a price that still made it more than twice as expensive as any other coin in the set. I didn?t really care though; I had finally done it. The first lunar set was complete at long last. I still need the new 2009 Ox but that too shall come.
    I now have the 3 earliest coins in MS70 and the rest in MS69. When I acquire the 2009 ox, it will most likely be a MS70. What then do I do about the set? Do I start upgrading the other MS69s like I did the snake? Or leave it alone? Some of the coins have very low populations in MS70. Completing the upgrade could be difficult, if I could accomplish it at all. In the end, what does having the MS70 set really gain me? A little bit of bragging rights and a certificate at the end of the year. Little else. Is that worth the time effort and money required to complete the upgrade? I haven?t really decided yet. For now, I?m just happy to have finally finished the first set, even if it was about a month past my original goal date.
    Starting this set, alongside the Eagles, set me down the path toward my signature set. I?m happy that I made the decision to buy the Horse back in early January of 2008. Now, even though I?ve filled all the holes in this set, I?m only getting started on a much grander project.
    (If you read this entire post, either I?m a better author than I thought or you have the patience of a saint. Probably the latter. Congratualtions on that.)

  23. Revenant
    ? of the United States Postal Service
    Most of you who have been around and reading these posts for a while already know that I have precious little faith left in the US Postal ?Service? (if it can be so called). Well? here we go again.
    I ordered a coin from a seller late on Friday. The seller is a great guy and apparently he got the coin shipped out on that Saturday. Most people here know what the ?tracking? is like with USPS, but I was thrilled this morning when I saw that the coin had been processed out of the ?North Houston? facility at just after 1:00 AM. Usually if the package leaves North Houston by 5:00 AM then the chances are good that my package will be delivered at my home (about 45 minutes out of downtown) that afternoon. I normally have to call my sister to get news on deliveries while I?m at college. Today, my sister was trying to call me. I returned the call and when she said ?You?re going to be pissed,? I immediately knew that something was wrong with the coin. I had to send the seller the following message:
    The envelope you shipped the coin in arrived today. I choose this wording because the envelope is stamped "Received Unsealed," and has been ripped open. The coin had been removed. I guess whoever tampered with the package decided to be nice enough to leave the invoice in the envelope (whoopee). The mail carrier delivered the package to my mailbox apparently without comment. They did not ring the doorbell or try to explain the condition of the package to one of the family members who was at home. I'm still waiting for any updates to the tracking site to see if USPS considers this miserable performance to be a delivery.
    I'm at college right now so I'm going to find it very difficult to complain to my local post office directly.
    I would appreciate your thoughts on this.
    (As it turns out, the Postal Service DOES consider this miserable performance to be a delivery.)
    I really didn?t know what to expect from the seller. It?s important for you to know at this point that this is the same seller that sent me the wrong coin by mistake and then sent me the right coin without asking for the return the first coin and without charging me any more money. Most sellers, now with 2 problem transactions in 4 months on low dollar items, would probably just decide that it?s not worth it to deal with me and tell me to go away. I would kind of understand the feeling. Dealing with me must be becoming a real pain in the butt for the poor guy. He ships out thousands of coins a year and he probably has more profitable uses for his time. Here?s the response I got back just hours after I contacted him (He always gets back to me in less than 24 hours no matter when I contact him):
    Wow.... I've shipped over 30,000 coins in the past three years, and that is the first case of just ripping open the envelope that's been reported. About one out of every 3,000 or so just disappears and is never delivered.
    I am happy to accept your account of the empty envelope without any additional evidence. I will send another replacement coin at no additional cost. Hopefully this one will come in the same condition I send it out.
    At that point, I was the one left thinking, ?Wow.? I?ll continue to do business with this seller if he?s willing to deal with me. We?re currently debating whether or not he put the word ?coin? on the envelope (and therefore a sign that says, ?Steal me?). He says that he uses his name, not the name of the business on shipments. I have an envelope that says the name of his business on it including the word ?coins.? I don?t believe in plugging dealers in the journals but if any of you would like to know who the dealer is then you?re welcome to message me. He deals mostly in modern material though so don?t expect to go hunting early American copper.
    I think I?m going to provide the tracking information to the Post Office through their 1-800 number. They say that they?ll investigate and try to find out what happened but I seriously doubt that anything will come of it. I just think that a complaint needs to be made in this case. A machine could not have hiccupped and magically opened a padded envelope in that way. I have to study probability theory for quantitative risk assessment. I don?t buy that possibility for a minute. It?s too consistent with someone opening the package with their hands and fingers.
    I try not to judge the entire organization based on one or two incidents, but this keeps happening. Something stinks.
    I had intended to make a different post today but I?ll just delay that one for a few days?
  24. Revenant

    Knowing When to Stop.

    By Revenant,

    ? Sometimes that?s the hardest lesson.
    I'm not sure I've ever discussed this here, but before I started collecting coins there were 2 subjects that I had truly loved over the course of my life. They both contributed to me becoming a coin collector. The first was history and the second was art. Art taught me a lot of things over the course of the years. Patience is certainly one of them. It?s hard for some people to comprehend spending hundreds of hours over the course of long months working on a single project. You take as long as it takes - until the job is done.
    One of the things that I think every traditional artist (an artist that works with non-digital media) learns given time is that you have to know when to stop working on something. No artist I?ve ever known (that was any good) looked at a work and said ?it?s finished and I?m completely happy with it.? In most cases it was more like, ?I?m not very happy with it but I can?t do anything more about it.? What you envision is never what gets produced by your hands. What's more, every change in traditional art comes at a price. Every mark with a pencil or sweep of the eraser wears away at the paper, ruining it by increments. All changes are permanent. There is no undo button. Once you erase something or paint over it, it?s gone. If you don?t like what you replaced it with? Too bad. You?re stuck with it anyway (much like dings, scratches, and bad cleaning jobs on coins). No matter how hard you try you?ll never paint, draw, or sculpt something exactly the same way twice. Ultimately, you reach a point where you know that the work isn?t perfect, but the risk of trying to ?fix it? is simply too great. If you change even one more thing then you might as well fold the picture up and put it in the trash. It?ll be permanently ruined anyway. I?ve seen more than one work get completely abandoned and left half finished because the artist could not come to terms with the flaws in the work, but knew that they couldn?t be fixed. All that work, and we just toss it aside. It's depressing really.
    I?ve been thinking that I might need to revisit that lesson these last few days. I?ve been working on a particular registry set, and I?ve been tweaking and changing things on a daily basis. In many cases I keep changing the same things over and over again trying to get it ?just right.? The only problem is (the lessons of art again), it will almost certainly never be ?just right.? So at what point do I just make myself say, ?It?s good enough. Stop changing it.? I begin to wonder if I?m actually improving the presentation of the set, or just changing it. But that question is so subjective that there is no answer. Fortunately though, the presentation of a registry set is a completely digital project and I will always be able to undo a change that I don?t like. So maybe, in this case, that old lesson doesn?t really apply. I?m not entirely sure.
    I would encourage every coin collector that has never done so, to try traditional art. Trying and experiencing for yourself the acts of drawing, sculpting, painting, etching and engraving will teach you an entirely new appreciation for the works of art that we adore so on these little pieces of metal. I have always been in awe of the precision, exactness, and commitment to excellence of the engravers at the BEP. I would never match them in a thousand years of trying.
    On a bit of a side note, on the second to last day of the month, I added the first new coin to my bullion signature set for the new year. I've also added two additional new slots. One is for a coin that I just placed an order for, the other is for a coin I'm really hoping that I can win at auction tomorrow. Thank you to anyone who's following its progress or just glancing at the set. The view count is gradually rising higher so I know someone must be out there.
  25. Revenant
    I didn't think that this could happen!
    I've been doing a fair bit of work recently to improve my signature set for 1 Oz silver bullion coins. One of the things I did was to go back and replace the images of the Australian lunar silver dollars that I had. Some of them hadn't been imaged at all. The ones that had been imaged all looked pink. It was a combination of lighting and a color balance problem. I had uploaded the images anyway because I had nothing better at the time. The new images had better white balance and looked nicer IMO.
    Well, because this is easier to do, I went into the "Edit Gallery" tab for my competitive lunar dollars set and changed out the pictures there. I never bothered to actually check the gallery of the signature set, just the competitive set. I assumed that they'd be the same. Well... apparently not! I decided to look at the signature set gallery today just for fun and behold! I see pink!
    I couldn't understand this at all. I thought maybe it was just an old thumbnail image that was still cached because I knew I had changed the pictures! But no! To make sure I wasn't crazy I immediately went to check the competitive set and see how it looked (had I really forgotten?). There were no pink pictures to be found. Only the new ones. My thoughts were along the lines of: "What the hell! I really am going crazy!"
    Well, as it turns out, the coins that had no pictures before were fine; the pictures went on the coin for both sets and they're the same for both sets. The ones that already had pictures still have the pink pictures showing on the signature set. The website didn't replace them for the sig set when it did so for the competitive set (silly me for assuming it would). As it stands, most of my lunar dollars actually have 2 sets of pictures assigned to them. If you reach the "coin details" page through the competitive set then you see the new, better images. If you reach the "coin details" page from the signature set then you get the older, pinker pictures. I'm going to leave it like this for a few days just so everyone can check to see that I'm not lying. The effected coins include the horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig, and ox.
    I'm stunned. I never thought that this could happen.
    Let's see if I can get some direct linking to work:
    Lunar pig (from the competitive set):
    http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/registry/coins/CoinDetail.aspx?PeopleCoinID=396079
    Lunar pig (from the signature set):
    http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/registry/coins/UserCoinDetail.aspx?UserCoinID=31643