Revenant

15 hours ago, Numismatic, A.A.S. said:

I think it boils down to this...do you want the higher registry points and a better looking coin? 

Or do you want a possible sweet set up for sale down the road...those old fatty's will show consistency in your collection and inspire someone to think about regrades or the history of them together? 

I personally would look down the road on this one...remember, there are alot of raw foreign coins not holdered with collectors retiring everyday...not saying your coin type isn't rare or anything, I would just think long term...or as stated above go for the Highest if you must...I understand your predicament... p.s. alot of people would love to be in your situation... 

Well, in this case anyway, like I said, I think the MS66 may be the better looking coin, looking just at the coin, based solely off the pictures (which is never a perfect thing with these online listings).

The prospect of re-grading / possibly upgrading them was one of the things that drew me to the fatty's I have in the first place and I just got a little lucky with picking up a few over time. I ended up with 3 of 6 coins in them so far and it became an almost accidental theme of the set. the 1884 is in an old fatty mostly just by chance. That's just simply the only one of those I've ever noticed come up for sale and it happened to be in an old fatty.

I agree with you on more old foreign coins getting graded on the time. I've been watching the census on these the last couple of years and the numbers are going up for sure.

And... Yup! A truly wonderful problem to have.

3 hours ago, gherrmann44 said:

Points should be the least of your concerns. 

At the end of the day you're right but I'm too competitive and numbers obsesses to completely ignore it. Lol I had hoped that the entry would sound more joking and make it clear that that wasn't the main or over-riding concern for me.

Even if it was more of a concern, the price and point value for most of these coins doesnt increase much from MS64 to MS66 - its not like, say, the roosevelt dimes. This category in the end favors the more complete sets and grades usually only come in as a tie-breaker, which is something I actually love about it.

On 11/9/2018 at 9:49 AM, gherrmann44 said:

Going forward my strategy will be sell one to get one! Revenant1 your plan is sound. Responsibility always comes before desires.

Sounds like time to get a side-hustle and get paid in cash on the QT. Lol 

Yeah. I just know that I'll come out ahead in the long run.

The wife wants / kind of needs to quit when the new baby comes so we don't get crushed by childcare costs, so paying off these loans is part of a broader plan to reduce our monthly recurring bills for the future.

On 11/8/2018 at 11:59 PM, jgenn said:

Good luck to you and take any opportunity to make sure the decision makers know how much you have contributed.  Your student loan payments are, of course, a high priority but pay off any high interest credit card debt, too.  Then you can reward yourself with a nice shiny present. 

If I actually had CC debt that I was paying ~28% interest on that would be public enemy #1 for sure. I charge everything I can to the CC and pay it off each month, even daycare, because I get 1-3% cashback rewards and pay no interest since I pay it off each month, so I make money off using the card. Fortunately the cars are on 0% interest notes, which has left the student loans as our highest interest debt, so I've been chasing that down as best I can. I was thrilled when they changed the policies and made it so that every extra dollar you pay automatically goes to the higher interest debt, so my extra payments all go to the 6.8% loan and not the 4.3% loan. Every little bit helps.

6 hours ago, gherrmann44 said:

Congratulations on the soon coming arrival of another baby to your family! I have no doubt that you are a very good father.

Thanks! I bluff my way through it in a reasonably convincing manner most days.

I was happy enough to have enough savings / emergency money that I never had to sell anything during some of the hard times we've been through. I have little tolerance for spending money that isn't there to be spent or taking on debt for non-essentials and coin collecting certainly fits that definition. I'm hoping to retire at least my student debts in the next 6-12 months and then start taking more of a stab at my wife's.

4 hours ago, ilLOminatus said:

Thanks for the share

My problem with coin photos has always been the reflection when it's a proof coin, any ideas?

Cheers

It's been a long time since I tried proofs. I'd have to play around with that some more.

7 hours ago, CBC said:

Personal preference, but I like the look of the old "no-line" holders better than any of the new versions.  More focus on the coin and less on extraneous stuff (graphics, logos, bar codes, etc.).

When I have sent NGC-certified coins for re-holder, they came back in new plastic with the original cert numbers. Maybe they will also issue new numbers on request? 

Thanks. Good to know about the cert#s. That might actually be nice in it's own way because it preserves the history of the coin/leaves a record of the fact that it was graded a long time ago, so I might actually like that if it's an option. I thought it wouldn't be. I know it might seem odd to some to talk about the original cert# and the time-frame in which it was originally graded and encapsulated as history worth preserving but at the same time that's pretty much what this whole hobby is built on - the love of the history of the things, what they've seen and how they've come down to us.

I don't know that I have much of a preference on the new vs old holders so much as I like having all of them look the same with a set like this. I can't get the coins in newer holders put in old fat slabs because they don't make them anymore so if I want to harmonize the set I have to put them all in the newer slabs that are in use at the time.

You make a great point about the older slabs seeming less "busy"/"cluttered" in appearance and I can see how some would prefer that. At the same time, I love the way the new edge-view holders let you see the rim details of the coin and they feel like they give the coin more room to breathe in the holder.

1 hour ago, gherrmann44 said:

Coin photgraphy is a lot of trial and error. Lighting is key. My rig is centered around an f4 enlarger lens on a bellows. After many years of hard work, some coins still give me problems. My lighting is based on diffused LED bulbs. I don't know what I'd do without digital cameras. 

The last time I attempted this I think I just used a standard prime - probably a 50 or 85 mm - and a lamp. This time I'm going to take a dofferent approach: 105 mm macro lens + 2x teleconverter to let me get extremely tight shots of the coin while staying far enough away to not block my lights. Lighting will involve my YN560 mkIV speedlites and the softbox my step-father gave me for Christmas one year because he knew I had the macro lens and love macro shots. This set-up is usually my go-to for photos of things smaller than 3 inches tall/across when I'm not feeling lazy.

2 hours ago, Six Mile Rick said:

Nice addition to a SWEET set!!  That coin sure put some whopper points into an already rank #1 set.

When you want to add to that state quarter set MS67's --- give me a shout. I submitted around 300 state quarters in 2016 so I have plenty of extras.

Thanks for the offer but I don't really see myself revisiting the statehood quarters anytime soon. I just have a very limited amount of money that I can get away with putting towards my collecting right now and what I do have I'd much rather put towards other efforts at the moment. If I ever get freed up to spend more or other projects end I may change that but I don't see it happening soon.

Honestly, I think it's a #1 set that benefits from the fact that few registry members seem interested in getting more than a single type coin for - probably as part of some larger Netherlands or European gold type set. It does enjoy a commanding edge now because I'm the only one with a coin from the 1880s that isn't the more common 1889. If I can cross my 1875 and get an 1877 in MS66 like I'm hoping then the set really will be something to compete against - if anyone chooses too. Though personally I hope they don't - I like not having many people to bid against on eBay when these come up.

On 2/14/2018 at 8:23 AM, gherrmann44 said:

I checked out your set last night and it's coming along rather nicely. I can't wait to see your edits in the coming weeks and years. I for the most part consider my Wilhelmina set complete after a 7 year effort to get the coins I wanted.

Gary

 

Thanks. Honestly, I would hope you'd consider that one done at this point. You've filled every spot with high grade coins and you've dominated the category for years, now with a "Best Presented" to top it off apparently - Major congratulations on that one BTW. I'd love it if my Wilhelm III set could get a similar recognition one day but it needs some work before that can happen. I've often thought about getting some type coins for Wilhelmina, Wilhelm I and Wilhelm II, but I would never dream of touching what you've built with that Wilhelmina set. If I did I think my wife would kill me first.

I know mine doesn't. I know she enjoys watching me spaz out with excitement when I get something cool (and she enjoys laughing at me over it) but she doesn't care about what I'm talking about. It's all just numbers and gibberish to her.