Revenant

On 9/28/2023 at 5:55 AM, Fenntucky Mike said:

Good results if you ask me, 65-66 is pretty dang acceptable for coins that didn't come direct from the mint or that were broke out of a mint set. Coins in higher grades may not exist for some of these.

Yeah, and my wife agrees with you that I'm being dramatic.  I know a 66 at least is far from terrible... but... I wanted more 67s! 

That 63 on the 10 Austral kinda hurts though! 

And.... the more time goes on... I'd love to get something in the MS65+ range on that $10 and the $25 coins from Zimbabwe but I really question if they're out there to be found. I don't think these were heavily saved or preserved because I think the notes were already sucking all the air out of the room by the time these were actually released ~2008.

On 9/15/2023 at 10:51 AM, zadok said:

...im betting 3rd week of october at earliest....

By the end of the 1st week in October they'll have been in QC as long as they were in grading.

On 8/20/2023 at 3:02 PM, zadok said:

...maybe it was her that was tired from dealing with her children instead of the die?...but u r acquiring a nice bale of turtles....

Thanks! "A Bale of Turtles" is the name I gave my turtle note set on the PMG side and it'll probably be the name given to this coin set if I ever formalize it into a registry signature set.

No clue on the queen though. The coin is a 2017 issue. If it was from the mid or late 1990s I'd blame the kids. Lol 

On 7/27/2023 at 4:43 PM, The Neophyte Numismatist said:

First - Congrats to @Revenant!  I really enjoy reading your journals and your journey in coins, so I am glad your set it back on top.

 

Thanks! The posts are a but leaner these days because I've been busier at work and with other things lately, but maybe I'll have more to say soon if this submission gets moving.

I've wanted to get into the Argentine set more but it's hard to move on that one with no set to build in the registry and show to go.with the post and no pictures of my own.

On 7/27/2023 at 3:51 PM, Coinbuf said:

I'm happy for you that your set is back in the #1 spot, I cannot say that I'm all that excited with NGC doing away with the CAC points.   If you think about it the NGC registry system basically equates points to market values, so the bonus points were actually a reasonable adjustment to how the market values CAC approved coins.   But it's all just politics at this point.

And I do hear you on that - 100%. It did make sense on that basis which is one of the reasons I mostly just shrugged it off - not that I think my whining would have changed it before now anyway. 🤣 But, as you say - politics.

On 7/26/2023 at 4:46 PM, Fenntucky Mike said:

The real question is, do you agree, disagree, or are indifferent with the scoring change? 

Congrats on reclaiming the top spot! 

Thanks!

I've never really agreed with them getting extra points but it's something I've never wasted much thought on. This I think is the only set that has ever been impacted by the issue just because I've been focusing on sets of coins that are hardly ever graded and for which CAC stickers just are not a thing. So it's nice to have this one back, for now. We'll see how long it sticks - 15 straight years of winning something with that set. It still kind of amazes me that it has held up so well for so long.

On 7/9/2023 at 12:29 AM, Just Bob said:

Well, you have proven that you are no slouch when it comes to picking out nice coins to send in, so I will be surprised if they come back with low grades.

I mostly just pick the best of what I have after I get a bunch - which is partially where things like the MS65s come in. Sometimes I order 5-10 raw examples to look through and none of them are exceptional. However, I did submit 2 of one of the 6 Venezuelan denominations because Shandy and I really liked both of them. When we've done this in the past it has resulted in dual MS69s and MS68s. So I have especially high hopes for that slot turning out well.

On 7/9/2023 at 12:29 AM, Just Bob said:

Were the turtle coins Ben's idea?

No. They weren't his idea any more than the Zimbabwe and Rhodesian sets or the Elephant note signature set were Sam's ideas. But he still sleeps with his turtle lovie, I think the coins look interesting to him, and I hope that one day he appreciates the gesture.  

On 7/8/2023 at 11:37 PM, Just Bob said:

If you get high enough grades to win back the top spot, will you wait until the last minute to enter them into your set?

That thought has occurred to me at various points but it has never really been my style in practice. I'd usually rather just build out and display my set and do my thing and I generally just post up the coins.

But I'll probably only get these back about a month before the cut-off anyway. Which isn't going to leave a huge time gap for someone to react to the move anyway.

Of course, if the grades aren't all that then it just becomes moot.

On 6/1/2023 at 10:21 AM, dlopez8 said:

Hi, interesting article.

I'm argentine and live in Argentina. I'm not sure about some of the defaults/dates you mentioned but I'm not an expert in economy/history.

What I'm sure is that you missed one currency: Peso Ley 18188 (1970-1983)

Another fact that can be interesting is that before 1881 the country was a confederation of provinces, and several of them had their own currency (e.g. Buenos Aires, Córdoba, La Rioja, etc.).

Some / a lot of what I have is from stuff on articles in places like Bloomberg and Reuters, but depending on what source you check the list of default years (and the absolute number of defaults) seems to be a bit different, and I think it might partially come down to some sites/sources counting partial defaults vs total defaults. It's really something I've only just barely started looking into and I need to read a lot more about it I think.

Yeah. Totally forgot to list the Peso ley when I was typing that out and you can see the gap in the dates in my list.

That confederation of provinces sounds a lot like the US for a while there with state banks and state currencies, not long before that same period (early 1800s for the US).

On 5/18/2023 at 4:54 PM, Fenntucky Mike said:

I like Ben's paint job better, looks like his has seen some action and stomped on some other mechs. 

 You may be dead to me for this opinion. 

On 4/12/2023 at 7:51 AM, CBC said:

Here’s another twist on that statement.  Should a set that “(Includes varieties)” actually include at least some of the recognized varieties?

My statement was more focused on the idea of having good pictures/ the best pictures of the coins you can make and generally investing effort in the presentation that reflects, essentially, "pride of place."

If you wanted to go further - a set that is 90% complete except for 1 or 2 rare coins losing to a set that is 25% complete that has that rare coin(s) and others in high grade?

The points system of the registry, for better or worse, privileges key dates and high grades by design because this helps encourage/ drive demand for high grades and top pops. That's inevitably going to lead to some outcomes that some of us consider not ideal. I just hope and wish that the 25% complete set gives us good pictures of those high grade coins - sadly, they usually don't. 

On 4/6/2023 at 5:00 PM, coinsbygary said:

Your pictures are looking good to match your set!

Thanks! Hopefully it'll prove difficult to challenge for a couple of years. 

On 3/18/2023 at 4:25 PM, ColonialCoinsUK said:

Congratulations on completing the Set

Lots of these 'modern' Sets from the start of the 20th century until ~1970's are surprising difficult to complete and even more so in high grade. I seem to have given up and am settling for typesets

Some 16 years into this journey I find that I do far far better with type sets and mint/year sets where-in every coin is different than with date sets where every coin is more or less the same. Where I have had success with date sets it is with series with short runs - 15 years seems to be about my limit.

My Zimbawe and Venezuelan sets - my main claims to fame this decade - are both type sets. These Rhodesian sets are manageable for me at only 5-7 issues.

"Overall Achievement" is given to the collector and when they win all of their sets get that "Overall Achievement" ribbon / tag.

If you're looking to win for a particular set (which I totally think you could do with something like this), I think you're aiming for a "Best Presented," as I don't think you'd win a "Best US" or "Best World" or "Best Modern" or anything like that with a label collecting set (totally not dinging the set, just a commentary on the types of sets that normally get those awards). 

However, if you end up collecting enough of these odd-ball sets, NGC might give you an "Overall Achievement" as a collector for all of them / all of your projects / collecting accomplishments - completely subject to the judges' tastes and feelings. 

I agree with you though in that it's about doing what you want and having fun - I've joked that my Zimbabwe Type set may forever be #1 just because I'm probably the only one crazy enough to "waste" over $1000 and hundreds of hours building it. Same thing for my 500 Lire set and maybe my Venezuelan coin set now. But I agree with the others that anything linked to NGC registry points is always a risky gamble because points change all the time - sometimes because people request it, sometimes because NGC reviews them on their own periodically, sometimes because NGC has a policy change and something that was 0 points or non-competitive isn't anymore.  

On 1/9/2023 at 9:58 AM, coinsbygary said:

That said, you are correct, the signature set is an archaic and cumbersome format. Years ago, NGC promised to udate the signature set website after completing the last major upgrade to the competative registry. I'm still waiting. I also noticed that the PMG website is still waithing for the same upgrade when I entered the first note I submitted for grading in August.

It gets one step worse in that the system is different for signature / custom sets on NGC / PMG. I built my award-winning, 130-note Zimbabwe set on the PMG side as a custom set. And I'm used to dealing with it... then I come over to NGC... and it's different... and somehow even worse... and I just don't want to deal with it.

The Venezuela set that just won was supposed to be a signature set that included some additional, earlier coins. Then I just nope'd out on dealing with that. 🤣

On 1/8/2023 at 8:05 PM, Fenntucky Mike said:

I like to collect "thin" areas, where I can stretch my legs, and I think you have similar tastes. That being said I'll PM you some of the areas that I think you might find interesting,  but I think you'd still be miles ahead if you could find "common ground" with the kiddos and get them "invested". Some of my personal favs are island countries.

It's a balance I'd say. It's a lot easier to stand out on a budget when there aren't 2,000 other sets like with Morgan Dollars. But the other side of that is you have to be able to find and obtain the coins at reasonable prices, so dealers have to believe there's a market, so people have to at least kinda have awareness of it (or it helps).

Right now Ben only seems to care about the Switch, and Roblox, and Kirby and Super Smash Bros... The gold coins do seem to spark something for him but i think thats mostly because he knows they're valuable. 🤣 I'm not sure there's a coin set to build with him there. Maybe i need to talk to him about it more but I worry about him running his mouth at achool.

Sam just cognitively isn't there yet and I don't know when he will be. So for now I think I'm on my own.

On 1/8/2023 at 4:23 PM, Fenntucky Mike said:

A turtle themed Sig set could be interesting and LARGE, I can't think of an individual series of coins with turtles. It's a tough question but you've got some time to think about it. Maybe a theme that the boys would be actively invested in, toys, cards, etc.. 

The fact that it would be a signature set and that I'd have to build it in that archaic system is probably the main reason I'd have for not wanting to do it. 🤣😭🤣

I would love to fully build out my "Golden Nickel" world gold coin set but I just hate that system so much... 😖

Anyway... if I did the turtle set I think I'd want to focus on coins struck for circulation. I wouldn't want it to be just modern NCLT. And modern NCLT is most of what I see. Feel free to let me know anything you come across. I can start taking notes regardless. 

Congrats to you as well! 🎉

On 1/6/2023 at 5:26 PM, Fenntucky Mike said:

Meh,  but now I think the 500L set is really poised for 2023. 

Honestly this outcome makes me a lot less confident on that. The judges just don't seem to respond as well to the personally themed projects like the 10G set and now those Italian sets. I seem to win awards for the sets that are more focused on the coins and the historical context of the coins. Which makes sense but Im not sure it portends good things for that undertaking. I guess we'll see. 🤷‍♂️ 

In either case, some of that $500 credit is going to go towards filling the last 3 slots in that set with the best examples I can find. I'll be proud to bring that to 100%.

I can ALMOST bring the Venezuela set to 100% now like I did Zimbabwe last year but there's still 1 more coin I'd need.

I guess more on that later.

On 1/6/2023 at 3:55 PM, Coinbuf said:

Congrats!!

Thanks!

Anything new and big you're working on for down the road or are you continuing to focus mostly on the penny set that won last year?

On 1/6/2023 at 2:52 PM, coinsbygary said:

My congratulations to you on your awards and the others you named, especially Mike. I've seen his name on a number of my journal post replies! BTW, I hope your kids are are doing better now. Gary.

Thanks! You should check out his Ukrainian note set on the PMG side.

Ben is a healthy kid and just shrugs things off like you'd expect a kid to. Sam continues to be more complicated, but we managed to stay out of the hospital this time, albeit with the help of steroids, inhalers and a whole bunch of drugs and support.  I'm not going to be surprised if he ends up with an asthma diagnosis and he just generally does not seem to deal with respiratory infections at all well.

On 12/11/2022 at 3:01 AM, ColonialCoinsUK said:

'There will be no mercy.  '  I am sure you will be victorious

So far they show little inclination to mounting a serious challenge in that set, but we'll see. They could always change their minds. 🤣😅

Well, I think that's $250 face value. With them being mint sealed rolls you might get a premium ($30-40?) Selling them individually or the right person that wants it might give you $350-$400, but presidential dollars didn't catch on with collectors or the population like the State Quarters did or like the mint hoped, so they haven't seemed to hold up in value over the years - quite the opposite. I mostly see the values way way down.

On 11/27/2022 at 3:11 PM, ColonialCoinsUK said:

@Revenant Great pics - one of the first coins I bought as I expanded my British coins to British colonial - cost 20p at the time! Seems to be the only date I had

Nice shot of a pretty coin. Save for that one spot on the A that would probably grade very very well.

On 11/7/2022 at 10:45 AM, Fenntucky Mike said:

Totally makes sense from that perspective. My dealings were more along the lines of picking up a few low cost world coins in high grades for gifts or just because I liked the design, etc.,

Yeah. I actually have a specific interest in these sets and series. I wouldn't be paying these prices for something as an impulse or a "Oh, well that's a little neat." kind of thing.