Revenant

51 minutes ago, Quintus Arrius said:

I would like to mothball,  decommission, or have my  #1 set Registry of French 20-franc gold roosters retired for no other reason than to cede the top spot to the 2d place holder whose collection at PCGS I regard as superior to my own made at great personal sacrifice and expense

No. I haven't considered that and I wouldn't want to for several reasons.

1) I've only held the top spot for 4 years so far, the same length of time as the person I took it from. It's not like I've had it locked up for a decade. It's not like I'm a whale / heavy hitter and win a lot of categories here - I win 2 categories with two sets that I've put a lot of time, effort and love into..

2) My set has twice as many coins as the #2 - which is under 50% complete. My set has the two key dates of the series. This isn't even a close competition.

3) The #2 hasn't been modified in over 8 years and has no set or coin descriptions.

The 1879, which #2 doesn't have, is not rare. He could have easily gotten an NGC graded example in the last 8 years if he wanted one. The other coins in the set - the 1880, the 1885, etc - while they are less common and can be harder to get pre-graded by NGC - are common enough if you shop in the right places. The biggest problem I have with those coins is I don't want to pay a ton of money to have an unseen coin shipped to me from Europe just to have it show up looking cleaned, dipped or just straight-up ugly. If Mozin really wanted to compete with me or give me a run for my money I think he could. I passed him up 4 years ago and he hasn't tried to fight me for it. So I can't think he's too broken up over it or that he's desperately working to unseat me from the #1 spot.

10 hours ago, Just Bob said:

 "Work" will always be there. Your children will not.

The current situation with work from home has changed the dynamics of things quite a bit. I watch Ben most days for a couple of hours in the afternoon while Shandy and the baby nap. Ben actually will come up and close my laptop sometimes when he wants to play and tell me "work is done. No more work." If I don't have a pressing deadline I'll let him get away with it. It was harder at the start of the lockdown because I had just recently started a 2 month long, $84,000 project that had me grinding away during working hours.

6 hours ago, Iceman said:

That was a very moving journal you wrote and there was many things that I can relate to from having papers published to being a workaholic as well as spending a great deal of time on my collections. I always wonder ,,like the plaque you mentioned in your journal will my collections of things and awards be dumbed in some dumpster or disregarded as anything of any value or worth to anyone....and I don't mean monetary worth but a value that is based upon me as a individual,,,, a person of worthiness?       

I think you're looking at, at most, 1 generation of relevance unless its something big. If your ancestor won the Nobel prize or the medal of honor then there will be interest in keeping that in a lot of cases as significant family history. I would have been interested in getting my grandfather's diploma and Tau Beta Pi certificate because 1) I was named for him, 2) he was an engineer like me, and 3) we were both in that honor society. With other things? Your children or grand children might want it if they had a connection with you relevant to that thing, but I don't see it going past that. For example, if you worked closely with a child or grandchild to build a set and that set won an award here, I would expect that award to have interest to that grandchild, but i wouldn't expect that plaque to have meaning or value to a grandchild that had no connection to your coin collecting or that set, and I would expect that plaque to get passed down to the trashcan in the fullness of time.

11 hours ago, Zebo said:

There's always the 1/10th ounce gold coins (joking). How about a book - lots of good ones out there.

I wouldn't mind getting 1/10th ounce coins for 2016 and 2019, but they just aren't really a priority for me with my cash right now - I've been taking the hit on a new generator, a new vacuum, a new TV... Boring but necessary for the most part.

She has gotten me books before but not on coins.

41 minutes ago, deposito said:

Check out the prices on some unopened LEGO sets from the 80s and 90s on Ebay and elsewhere; I remember seeing some of those Pirate ships at KMart as a kid and could not get them, and, apparently can never get them now either

I never would have thought this would happen but there seems to be a mini bubble in collecting LEGO sets. I imagine at some point it will pop - just like all collectable bubbles do. But I just buy what's available in the stores now. Right now I'm mostly buying duplos anyway. They're safer and more age appropriate for my boys.

5 hours ago, coin928 said:

 I sincerely hope they don't make that change since the vast majority of my collection has been acquired through eBay.  I've had a few disappointing purchases, but there have been many more winners than losers.

I don't think it'll happen. I think it was just some people reading into a rule change. But I suppose it is possible.

Just now, Quintus Arrius said:

I don't have a problem with eBay.  I don't think I will ever have a problem with eBay.  The majority of complaints I have heard concern PayPal. (There is an unwritten rule somewhere that states PayPal is indispensible and above reproach and criticism. Nonsense!)

If eBay implements that proposed rule change, like you, I would have to consider any other available options.

No... I disagree there. There are plenty in the US that hate Paypal, which is why, i think, we now have Square, Venmo, Zelle, and a few others. I only really us PayPal for eBay and one or two other things and increasingly use Zelle and Venmo.

4 hours ago, Iceman said:

I will try to post pictures but its rather hard right now since my right arm is in a sling from a surgery I just had.

Sorry to hear you're hurt! Hope you heal up okay.

2 hours ago, Greenstang said:

The word up here is that the US liked the idea so much, they thought they would copy the idea and issue a coin for each of the 50 states.

Now, who would imagine, much less accuse, the US government of stealing so blatantly and shamelessly? Lol 

I honestly never heard of the 1992 program or these commemoratives, but I don't go that far North much and don't normally collect Canadian coins except for what I pull in change down here in Texas.

2 hours ago, Just Bob said:

It's amazing -  the stuff of science-fiction movies of my youth will be his normal.

He completely takes for granted things that never existed when I was a kid

One of the funnier examples: He's so used to Netflix and Hulu and streaming services that live TV confuses the out of him. He doesn't understand the idea of it being on when it's on and there being a TV "schedule" and they what the channel is playing is just what's on. We're cable cutters and have pretty much only had Netflix and Hulu all his life and haven't had a digital antenna, so the concept of live TV is just completely foreign to him.

18 minutes ago, Iceman said:

I'm going to apologize ahead of time ....I'm sorry...But that is to funny... I'm glad I don't use Alexa because I have two grandkids that are always on the brawl and they are all ways getting in to some kind of mischief.. 

I mean, it has had some major cute moments. When he was younger he used to ask Alexa what time it was (still can't read a clock) and he couldn't say the name right so he would be trying to activate it by saying, "Lexa! Time is it!?!?" There really is some cuteness but I was not thrilled when I got a 1 month Amazon Music membership.

21 minutes ago, Just Bob said:

I don't have Alexa, so I know nothing about it. Is there no safeguard against unauthorized users?

It is so unsecure, IMO, my wife can say "Alexa," and then I can give the order - in a completely different voice - and it will take the command. It makes no distinction between an order from me and an order from my 4 year old. If there is a way to make it do this, I'm not aware of it. About a year ago there was a story about a small child shouting "Batman" a bunch of times and Alexa ordered and $80, SquareEnix collectable batman figure on the parent's accounts. It's a really convenient thing at times but if he gets any better at using it I'm going to just have to unplug the damn thing.

1 minute ago, Coinbuf said:

Having different slabs and slab types just doesn't bother me in the least, I value old slabs because I know the coins are stable and have not been doctored.  In fact when I see coins in brand new slabs the first thought is has this coin been recently worked over and how much do I have to worried about the coin turning in the holder, especially for copper and gold.  I know you have not been improving them but its a definite concern for copper collectors like myself

NGC's decision to have the guarantee expire after 10 years puts copper collector's in an awkward spot though - if these coins in my set in the old fatties from 1993 were copper then they wouldn't have been eligible for the grade guarantee for the last 17 years - nearly 2/3rds the time they've been in the holder.

2 hours ago, Coinbuf said:

Good news that your son is showing improvement and progress.    It will be a shame to lose the historical holders, I very much like the old fatty holders and gen 3 holders are getting harder to find.

Thanks.  Yeah. I feel your pain on the loss of the old holders (even though I don't prefer them to the new ones) but I do think the presentation of the set as a whole would be better if they all matched. And I really don't  think I'm likely to find an 1888 in an old fatty to harmonize the set around the fatties.

On 7/21/2020 at 11:24 PM, Just Bob said:

Sam's looking good!

(The coins are nice, too)

Thanks! I just can't help but think that would be one dang nice looking set if the slabs matched.

It really is hard for me to believe some days that I bought that PCGS graded MS67 11 years ago in mid-2009.

21 hours ago, deposito said:

geez I didn't know it was so recent.  I always hear about it, I never looked it up.

It was gong on just as I was getting back into coin collecting and buying / investing in silver in 2006 and 2007 as a young adult. Reading up on it and reading about the German event in the 1920s really captured my imagination and that period is what ultimately lead me here - And now I have my massive, 95-note signature set, which is my great tribute to the greatest hyperinflation of my lifetime so far. But that coincidence of timing is what's made this collection so near and dear to me that I've put such time and effort into this.

42 minutes ago, CBC said:

Also great to see Sam is continuingto make progress. Our preemie granddaughter has some of the same issues, and PT is helping tremendously.  She also has the same toys! 

A lot of that used to be Ben's. Children's toys are one of the few things that don't get updated every year these days and there's also a healthy used market for it all.

I prefer the look of the edge view holders. I have a set that is mostly old fatties but the 1888 - the key date - is in a new style holder and I don't feel like my odds of finding one in an old fatty are good - NGC has only graded about 20-25 of them total.

1 hour ago, gherrmann44 said:

Finally, you have a mighty fine looking set there and I'm happy to hear that Sam is making great progress!

Thanks. It's the Willem III compliment to your Wilhelmina set.

We have gotten take-out once in 4 months - but we've been more extreme to protect the baby.

My company was kicking in the 20% to the furloughed people to keep them at 100% pay.

3 hours ago, ColonialCoinsUK said:

Extra money seems to have been a US thing? Having said that the UK has rent/mortgage holidays so people feel like they have more money available even though the back rent/mortgage will still need to be paid at some point.

I'm sure you're still seeing some impact from not going out to eat as much and not traveling as much. All the guys I work with are in Aberdeen and they've canceled trips and none of them are eating out and we're all spending less on gas.

Since my wife stayed home with the kids before this there also hasn't really been any unusual uptick in our home electric use beyond the normal summer increase.

25 minutes ago, Just Bob said:

What do you think is driving the market right now?

I think part of the thing driving the market right now is that everyone got $1200+ checks. Because we have 2 kids my wife and I got $3,400! - in addition to our tax return!

Coin collectors - especially people that collect higher end, older coins - tend to be people of means (white collar) and retirees. These are the people who are probably the least adversely effected by the current difficulties and lay-offs vs the minimum wage crowd - who I don't think generally collect 100+ year old European coins. With everyone staying home more you also have less money going to other things. Before all of this my wife and I tended to spend $150-200 per month on gas. The last four months we usually spend less than $50. Before all this my wife and I tended to spend $150-200 a month on eating out. The last 4 months that's been a big, fat $0. You also have the forbearance on all student loan interest and payments until the end of September - so anyone that has student loan debt has "extra money" in their budget right now - and people are stuck at home and bored and they are spending!

15 hours ago, ColonialCoinsUK said:

My worry would be getting a mixture of 69's and 70's and then not having a matched set, which would mean I would then have to find more coins and then the labels wouldn't match either!

Yeah, we're quite the obsessive bunch, aren't we? My Lunar 1 and partial Lunar 2 set are a mix of 69s and 70s. Mostly 69s but I picked up a couple of 70s along the way when it meant something to me or I caught a deal. I don't let such things bug me in part because I like 70s when I can get them but I'm just not willing to pay much of a premium for it usually.

24 minutes ago, Iceman said:

They would look totally awesomeif you did ...it gives you the sense of the set  being more spectacular even if they are already..... 

Yup. I've made the comment to my wife several times in years past that I'd love to get the whole set re-holdered to match each other as a complete set. The only things that had me on the fence with it are that 1) several of them are in old fatty holders, and, to some, that ups the value, and 2) I'm still missing 2 coins / dates. If I get this done now I'm not guaranteed to have the last two coins in the same holder, but that would still be way more consistent in appearance than what I have now.

BTW, on the nerf guns, what is that line from Game of Thrones? "I wish you luck in the wars that are to come."  

4 hours ago, Iceman said:

I have been thinking of sending my best coins in my set to have them in all matching slabs and labels... it just makes them all look better ..In my opinion.  

I completely agree. Because of some of your recent posts I'm considering using some of the $500 credit I got to get my whole 10G set (8 coins) put in scratch resistant holders. I think that would be awesome.

23 hours ago, Iceman said:

Nice score on the coins....Congrat's. My grandson must have a dozen or so nerf guns from small pistols to canon looking things....if there is ever a war fought with nerf's he sure will be the winner.

Thanks! When I first started looking there were no MS70 NGC graded Pigs out there, then this seller came out with some and they were Early Releases on top of it all, and I like ER labels for my premie.

We have quite a collection now too with three big drum / clip loaders, two single-shot rifles and two little one-shot pistols. I was hoping to get at least 1 more big gun and some revolving barrel handguns.

4 hours ago, deposito said:

How many years between these, which seem to be mid 90's, and the hyper-inflation trillion dollar notes we've seen?  

What a shame that it's so easy to make very attractive colorful banknotes, but another thing entirely to back up their value

The first several are from 1994-1997.

The $500 and $1,000 ones are from 2001-2004.

The 4 notes denominated from $10 trillion to $100 Trillion hit around Dec 2008 or Jan 2009. I'm not sure exactly when they hit the street in Harare. 

So... I guess to answer your actual question, 14 years for the oldest ones?