Revenant

Sam’s intensive therapy is over. Yay! His last day was actually the Thursday I posted about getting the plaque in the mail. Three weeks of stress and crying and having a generally unhappy 2-year-old can end – but it was for his own good, and he did great. He’s supposed to continue to wear a cast and restrict his left hand one day a week and one meal a day to continue the development of motor skills with his right hand, but that hopefully won’t be as contentious. Shandy and I both got the first CoVID shot (both Moderna) in March and we’re getting the 2nd dose on 4/20 and 5/1 respectively. So, we’ll be fully vaccinated by mid-May and we’re looking forward to getting to go out to eat again soon and to actually do something fun for her birthday in mid-June. We’re also hoping that we’ll really get to go on a cruise this year, unlike last year. I will still have missed two local coin shows that happened in January or March but… such is life. Last year I’d attended a show in the Woodlands area in January and talked to a dealer about seeing them again at a show in March to see if they’d found any of the key-date 10G coins I needed in their inventory. I never got to go to that show in March because of CoVID and now I’ve had to miss the January and March shows this year. And… this is why we get contact info, people! Stupid virus… The European pocket change from PawPaw is now fully mixed in with the coins I’ve had for years from my grandfather and others. I managed to not need another binder after all. I vaguely remember thinking maybe I made a mistake by getting such a large / thick binder in the first place. I don’t feel that way now! That binder is heavy though! Also: 2x2s Forevah! Flips only for submissions as to not make NGC annoyed. But… What I feel like the big news is is that we’ll probably be moving much sooner than expected now. Shandy poked me to ask out landlady what terms / requirements she’d put on letting us out of our lease early (11 months early) and I did. We fully expected her to hold us to the terms of the lease and we wouldn’t be able to leave early, but she’d like to sell and she’s willing to let us vacate pretty much as soon as we want with 1 month of notice so she can list the house, get it ready and flip it. So… It looks like we may be leaving this house in May – next freaking month. OMG! The reason she pressured me and the reason why we’re looking to move now rather than later is so that we don’t have to move during Ben’s Kindergarten year. She wants to minimize the disruption to him, which I completely understand. It also has implications for Sam’s timing of entry into pre-school in early 2022. So… yeah. That escalated very fast… this afternoon! I texted the landlady in the late morning and she called me back at 12:15 PM and we were pre-approved for a loan by 1:30-ish. Is it horrible that I just keep mentally going back to the implications this has for the return shipping / timing on my current and planned NGC and PMG submissions? Is that horrible? That that is a major thing in my head as all of this is going on? This is the only home Ben has ever known. He does not remember the place before this, the place we brought him home to and left when he was 18 months old. Now we’re looking to leave here when Sam is just a little older than that, and it is funny to think that Sam likely won’t remember this place. I think this is the 5th home I've had since starting this journal and the next one will be number 6. … Time to buy some moving boxes I guess. Also: As of this morning, this journal has surpassed 10,000 views. Wow. That feels like a lot. I wonder how much of that is me?

Yeah. Totally. At this point I think my notes are just going to all ship together in a small flat rate box and I'm going to call it good there. Same thing for the next coin submission probably.

As always - Thanks, that means a lot. Now that I think of it, I may do some background work and make this a PMG journal about this later but a great thing (to me) about that set is that it's actually not that hard to build or that expensive to build. I think at the time I won I'd spent $2,000-3,000 on it (I wasn't keeping close tabs in the end as I made my final push in the 2nd half of last year). Which is only 4-6 times the value of the grading credit you win and not much at all compared to what some people spend on just one note for some sets. That set stands completely on the presentation and the message of it and, having won, it undermines that narrative that money and deep pockets trumps everything in the registry awards. Good luck with yours. Take your time with it and enjoy it. I've been enjoying taking a bit of a step back after the win but I'm finally moving again to use some of these credits, get some things to fill in holes and bolt on a coin set to what has been a note-based affair. I need that break but I'm increasingly excited again to get some of these things done and... maybe... pick the next big project. I have several ideas. I just need to decide what my focus going forward is going to be.

Most of my coin photos these days are done with a D600 and a 105 mm VR macro lens. It's heftier than the Z-5 but I like DSLRs.

Congrats to you again. I'm sure you'll have more coming your way in the future.:) I am a little curious as to why you say that. Is it appreciation for the set that its linked to, do you like PMG / notes collecting more these days? Interestingly, I think the PMG plaque (PMG plaques in general and the PMG Best Presented more so) are rarer / fewer in absolute number than most NGC awards just because PMG gives so many fewer, but I think there are more of them per registered user on the PMG side because the PMG user base is so much smaller. Thanks and congrats to you. It'll be great to see your Ukrainian note set recognized with a "Best Presented" or similar honor - and I see that as being inevitable unless they just stop giving them out in the next couple of years. You're on track to build that into one of the great sets on the PMG side.

The camera is an Argus C3. I'm a photo nerd so in addition to coins and other things I collect vintage and antique cameras- sorry if those words wound you 🤣. Get on eBay and search Argus C3. If you want one you can have it probably for $40-50. Trivia here but Collin Creevy (sp?) Uses an Argus C3 with the flash in the Harry Potter film series.

I don't know... if it was a smaller coin - like a Sovereign or something nickel ish in size or smaller I think you could get 4 stickers using a 4 corners approach without hiding the coin. The 5th might be tricky. It would be ridiculous as all hell to see but you could probably pull it off. Now, a Morgan? Nah. No chance. You're covering the coin or the label in some major way.

I don't know if they've ever announced this early in the year before but with NGC it has always been the same time of year - early Dec. So you kinda know when it will be before they even announce plus or minus a week. PMG used to move theirs around more.

It is also one of the most graded and most collected series and popular in the Registry. How many categories can claim registered sets in the THOUSANDS?

You seem to have a lot of strong feelings over a mintmark on NCLT.

Honestly, the sheer number that they had to give away - and the unstated expectation that everyone would be getting the same / mostly the same thing - is the main reason I was REALLY expecting the coin to be 2020 NCLT, just because those would fit because of the year and would be easy to get in an arbitrarily large number in the same basic grade / condition (69/70). They really surprised me with this one, managing to give 50+ people MS64 Morgans from San Francisco from just a couple of years, but, as Gary said, they are more common dates. Even then, I really wonder if it was at all "interesting" to round them up and how they went about it - Did they go into the market for RAW coins until they had enough MS64s? Did they buy some of their previously graded MS64's on the market? A little of both?

So, unlike with the PMG plaque, which arrived on 2/27 - much to my shock – I can’t really call this one a surprise in the mail. I’d seen other’s posting about getting theirs on Monday and Tuesday, so I knew the arrival of this package was probably imminent. Still, it was great to get it. My home office and my windows sit almost directly above the front door to the house, so I heard the carrier scanning the barcodes and the beeping as it was dropped off and I wondered in that moment if that’s what it was because I wasn’t expecting anything else in the mail today. I didn’t open it right away. I took it upstairs and stuck it in the bedroom to wait until after the kids were asleep. I will likely repeat what I did last year and try to get a shot of the two boys together this year holding the two plaques for this year now that I have both, but I wanted to get a minute and just enjoy opening this and looking at it in peace myself. I opened the PMG plaque with Sam around and it took a while before he let me have it back. So, here’s the coin: A MS64 1881-S Morgan, which will be quite a partner / buddy for my MS64 1882-S Morgan. I'm now ranked in the top 1,700 for Morgan sets in the registry. It's straight to the top now! #1 set, 2021 awards! I had guessed that the coin would be a 1 or 2 ounce graded silver NCLT from 2020. I was wrong and very pleasantly surprised. Fenntucky Mike posted an image of his full slab and (unsurprisingly) looks like all these Award Winner coins have the same 7-digit invoice number and they’re numbered 001 through… 50? I think? He got number -008 and I have -022. Gary appears to have -034.I wonder who got -001? Who got the last / highest number. I'm sure it was all random but it is funny to think about. (Edited to add this bit, which I'd said as a comment elsewhere) Honestly, the sheer number of coins they had to give away - and the unstated expectation that everyone would be getting the same / mostly the same thing - is the main reason I was REALLY expecting the coin to be 2020 NCLT, just because those would fit because of the year and would be easy to get in an arbitrarily large number in the same basic grade / condition (69/70).They really surprised me with this one, managing to give 50+ people MS64 Morgans from San Francisco from just a couple of years, but, as Gary said, they are more common dates. Even then, I really wonder if it was at all "interesting" to round them up and how they went about it - Did they go into the market for RAW coins until they had enough MS64s? Did they buy some of their previously graded MS64's on the market? A little of both? When the PMG plaque arrived I posted a shot of the 5 together and Fenntucky Mike said something along the lines of I’d need another or a bigger shelf soon. I shifted some things around, cleaned up my desk, and popped over to Michael’s to buy another stand last month, so here is my proof. I made it work (for now). If NGC or PMG are nice enough to give me something next year I'll cross that bridge and deal with that “problem” when the time comes. I also got the new certificates in the mail over the weekend. So far, I’ve managed to keep track of all the certificates I’ve gotten since 2016 – including now 5 certificates for the 10G set for all the years since my marriage and Ben's birth.. Thanks again to NGC! Thanks again for those who read these and say they like it / what I write. The version of myself that Joined the registry in 2007, the version of myself that started this journal as a 20 year old, did not, and would not have imagined this. Not what’s sitting on my desk hutch now, not my life as it is now, not my wife or my sons, not this past year. I’m not done yet! More to come! Side note, but one of Shandy’s current obsessions is our next housing situation. With our current lease up on 3/31/2022 she’s looking to move us closer to her parents for more access to free baby-sitting and more date nights. So there’s a good chance that, if I win anything next year – be it plaques or certificates – they’ll be delivered to the new address / the new home or subject to mail forwarding. But we’re hoping that will be the last home – for the foreseeable future anyway. She was looking at this last night even! I think Ben’s Beyblade collection now numbers 19 – with three more seemingly lost forever in some magical void that only children can access in some 1-way capacity. I’m pretty committed to not buying more but he does get a weekly allowance now so what ne does with his allowance is his business!

Well, you'd pretty much have to catch them posting a picture of it elsewhere or otherwise evidencing possession of it. Good luck otherwise I would think.

The thing about Michael's is they don't have a section for coin stuff - at least not here - where Hobby Lobby does so you can't buy flips and albums there. But I like the stands I get there. They have other ones of course but I like the clear plastic ones I get - partially because they're like bigger versions of my coin stands, which will help make a nice display. But I'm an art nerd that loves floating mount frames. They have a 5" and 8" version. I use the 5" version. I'm up to 6 total - 5 NGC (4 Journal, 1 Best Presented), and 1 PMG (Best Presented). The side-eye from the wife has increased drastically since #5 arrived I find. My joke about going for the tri-fecta and winnign something in the Comics Registry was ... not well received. Side note on Micheal's: Remember that they do 40% of 1 regular price item a lot. Always check and print that coupon before going if you go!

It seems to very much depend on the coin / set / category. If you go with something fairly popular like the French Roosters, the "Angels," British Soveriegns or anything decently popular or know then you're likely to have at least 1 or 3 strong competitors. It didn't used to be this way but there's 20 ranked sets in the Willem III 10G category! 20! Back in the day (13 years ago?) I think I was one of 3 or 4 sets.

I find that sticking to agreed budgets goes a long way in securing and keeping support and goodwill. Give it time. As they increase in number she'll probably roll her eyes more. It's even better when they tease you for how you win awards for how you write about how much of a nerd you are. I pick up my stands at Michael's. They have a nice, simple clear plastic one that's a really good size for these plaques and I've been able to have them all on the same exact stands over the years even though I've needed to add more stands over a span of years now. Where do you go for yours? Congrats on two awards in two years - quite an accomplishment there!

Congrats on the award again and on a very pretty coin. It looks like USPS just dropped mine off but I'm probably not going to get to do anything with it until I'm no longer on the clock and my kids are in bed.

You had to be a paid / premium member to submit in 2008.

Absent a prior bad experience I think I'd be the same but that bad experience combined with how important those 10G coins are to me makes problems for my risk-management, loss-prevention-focused brain. I had once though the Bahamas coin would be the 20th graded gold coin that filled tbe gold box but now it's going to be the 23rd I think. This dragged on for me that long. Lol

You never know! There's someone on the PMG side that beats me in Zimbabwe notes now but I still have some #1 sets because they don't compete / list in every category. Of course, PMG doesn't do certs or ribbons, so there is that major difference.

I like the comments section on the back of a PMG holder, for when they have something they want to include there. Might not be bad with a smaller hologram with NGC... but I don't like the stickers. 1 is enough. 2.would be quite annoying and distracting.

Hopefully you could still see the coin...

That sounds great! I hope she loves it and I hope you win again next year.

When I shipped my box of 10G coins (and a few others) last week I was pretty happy/ content to fork over an extra $26 for Registered mail. The box in question was worth about $5,000-6,000 dollars and contained 12 years of a collecting journey. I would have a hard time finding another 1880, 1887 and 1888 in Gem or near gem grades. I do not want to lose those. However, I'm hoping to queue up 2 more submissions soon - one to NGC and one to PMG, both related to my Zimbabwe collection, that are going to have a total value of $20-50 each. It's hard to justify paying an extra $26 to protect against the loss of things that are so casually replaceable. Increasingly find that I don't even really consider insurance much once the cost of the insurance starts to exceed about 10% of the cost of the item - including and especially these service / warranty plans that Amazon keeps trying to sell me on electronics. Anyway, it's just a funny thing to think about - for me anyway. I'm hoping to belt out these next couple of submissions within the next couple of months - I'm hoping I don't let it drag into another 8 month ordeal of trying to convince myself to deal with it. With the 10Gs just the idea of how best to package and pad them was a very big deal for me, but I can tell already I'm just going to be a lot less worried about a Z-coin submission on a bunch of levels. But I guess that makes sense when the value and effort involved is 0.5-1.0% that of the first box. With the last box I ended up stealing some of my wife's more sad-looking hair-ties because I couldn't find rubber bands. Well... "stealing..." I did ask her if it was okay first... For the first one anyway. The big things that are going to hold these up for now is that I need to order the coins from a domestic dealer that actually has and sells them - it has been surprisingly hard to find US-based sellers for the Zimbabwe coin sets - and included in that coin order will be a couple more notes I need for filling holes. I don't think I want to make my notes / traveller check submission and then have to submit these other notes (like a P-40 and P-45) separately. I'd like to just knock them all out together. Side note but tracking says the box with the 10G coins was delivered today. It got to Sarasota on Monday. For all the noise that gets made about Registered Mail slowing things down a lot - and with even USPS saying it can slow shipping by 6-10 days - that got to Florida pretty quickly - even with the supposed high package volume that is supposedly slowing USPS down. The box also contains a 1975 Bahama's gold coin - the only raw gold coin that I own - that I decided to get graded because... why not? And a couple of old raw civil war tokens. I wanted to add those to the 4 graded ones I have and maybe one of these days I'll get back into collecting those more seriously again. The ones I have are some of my favorite diversions in my collection / collecting. I really enjoy this history of them. but then, I really enjoy the history of a lot of coins, including my growing set of "golden nickels."

I got my certificates on 4/3, this last weekend.