Revenant

For Argentina, we currently have the following: Would it be possible to get "Type Set, 1992-Date, Circulation Issue?"

Back in October I mentioned that I was getting the green light to order another of my small Gold coins because of a mixture of money coming in from a bit of OT and a few other sources and I said at the time that I’d probably order a Venezuelan Gold 20 Bolivar from the early 20th century / pre-WWI era. Well… 5 months later, I finally ordered it. I was holding off for the longest time because we were simultaneously spending a fair bit of money on things we needed for the house, we were spending a lot on Christmas, and we also had some medical costs and upcoming Vacation costs. We got past most of that, and then my wife changed jobs and got a big raise, so I was finally feeling very happy with the finances as we came out the other side of all that spending… and then it was time for us to go on our vacation, and I didn’t want to order the coin in the run-up to the trip because I didn’t want an expensive coin arriving while we were on a trip. We just went on the trip and got back on the 5th. So… having waited a few more days, waiting for the billing cycle on the credit card to close and therefore locking the CC company into giving me a free 30 day loan, I pulled the trigger on the coin. Our personal finances and making sure that we always maintain very healthy cash levels was only part of it. I’m being honest the coin was a little more on the expensive side – usually I’m buying things more in the $550-600 range and this one was $675. So I had been hoping that maybe another seller would list a similar coin to the 1911 MS64 I was looking at for a better price. I’d also looked into other coins and other options, trying to see if there was something else I wanted in the form of a small world gold coin that I felt was priced somewhat more favorably. But… it had been 5 months, and the price hadn’t come down, no others had come up for sale at comparable grades from reputable / established sellers, and I hadn’t seen or come up with anything else I’d rather get… So I decided to pull the trigger on it. If I’m being honest, I decided it was time in at least in small part because my wife had turned it into a running gag whereby every time it came up she’d poke fun at me and imply that I was just going to waffle forever and talk about it forever and never actually buy the thing. When the wife is actively poking fun of and ridiculing your inaction, I guess it’s time to do something to shut her up. I sat down in bed with the laptop and ordered it right in front of her while she faked protests about how I was ruining the joke and now she’d have to find something new to tease me about. “Exactly! That’s the whole point!” In the course of looking for this, I had looked at and also seriously considered getting one of the 1930 Gold 10 Bolivar coins. I had considered getting that and one other small thing and having two smaller gold coins – maybe to pair with my Swiss 10 Franc – instead of 1 slightly larger one. But, clearly I decided against that. However, in the course of looking at that I was curious about the fact that I was ONLY seeing the 10 Bolivar from 1930 and I wasn’t seeing it from any other dates like I had the 20 Bolivar. After looking into it, the 10 Bolivar was a 1-year coin that was minted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Death of Simon Bolivar – his death, not his birth. It was a 1-year circulating commemorative of which only 500,000 were made and only 10% of these were released to the public. The other 450,000 were kept in the Central Bank’s Reserves and partially released to investors. However, because it was a “circulating commemorative” and not a “commemorative” or a bullion issue, and because mintage of the 20 Bolivar stopped in 1912 – before / at the start of the first World War – I think this makes the Gold 10 Bolivar the last gold coin that Venezuela struck for circulation. I stopped spending most of my hobby money and stopped looking at eBay for the most part around October or November because I didn’t want to spoil any surprises from my wife. I’m glad I did. However, this means I have been hoarding my collecting budget for several months and I have bit of a wad – which is more than enough to pick up a MS65 10 Bolivar to go with the 20 Bolivar, and I may well do just that. Where they exist (because they don’t for Zimbabwe, at least, not when it was called Zimbabwe), I like having these old gold coins to hold next to the more modern coins from the same country. This ties back to my interest in collections on Hyperinflation and currency debasement and devaluation. I think it’s very cool to be able to hold up an Italian Gold 20 Lire from 1885 and a Brass Italian 200 Lire from 1986 and think about how the currency, it’s value, and its representation changed it 100 years. It’s fun to be able to hold and look at a Venezuelan Gold 20 Bolivar or a 10 Bolivar from 1930 from 1911 next to a steel-core 10 Bolivar from 2004, just before the first redenomination (and the switch to the Bolivar Fuerte) in 2007. Pairing them together can just make for some awesome tangible expressions of the change and what was lost in that 100 years and I hope to be able to show and talk to Ben and Sam about these things in the years to come. In my recent silence I feel like a duck on the pond - you're not seeing much from me right now, but my feet are working under the surface. I hope to have more to share soon, but this entry is enough for today.

In fairness to NGC I feel the need to correct myself, the 2021 Eagle was an MS70.

"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.

Started with the 2020 awards like Mike said (which were sent in early 2021). The 2020 awards came with a S-mint Morgan from the 1880s in MS64. The 2021 awards had a 2021 American Silver Eagle in MS69 (IIRC, haven't looked at it recently but I don't think it was an MS70). And now the 2022 awards had a Common-Date Peace Dollar in MS64.

I told my wife today, “You know, it’s really kind of amazing: You combine antibiotics, with steroids, NSAID pain relievers, expectorants, nasal decongestants, and antihistamines, and a few hours later you feel a lot more comfortable!” I’ve had a sinus infection kicking my butt more and more for a week and a half and I finally went to the doctor today to get help being it. Drugs! Am I right? Yeah… Now that you’re all convinced I’m a pill head… I was walking out the front door to go to the pharmacy to get my meds when the FedEx guy got out of the truck and handed me the envelope with this and a 1923, MS64 Peace Dollar – it’ll go great with the Morgan from 2020 and the American Eagle from 2021. So, in the last few years I’ve brought you: “Gradually, Then Suddenly” (PMG Best Presented Note Set – some of you may not be much aware of this one) “The First Casualties (Causalities?) of Hyperinflation” And: “Turning Pain into Suffering” I think I can now announce my latest melodramatic working title: “Brought Forth with Pain.” We return to our roots with “Gradually, then Suddenly,” in that this is a clip from a quote that will be at the core of what I hope the Theme of the new set will be: “Debts are like children – begot with pleasure but brought forth with pain.” – Moliere I think this will be a two-parter, as I’m going to be looking at two currencies that, based on what I’m seeing, will probably be split in the registry into two competitive categories – one of these sets / groups has a competitive category already. One doesn’t seem to, yet – but I’m going to ask for one soon!

The joy is in the research and the reading, the sharing of a story, and cuddling up in bed and looking at coins with my wife to pick the best one. When a set wins after that it is very nice though.

Congrats! I got mine today as well. The Peace dollar will be really nice with the Morgan from 2 years ago.

I don't actually have one of these graded yet 🤣 - though I am planning to submit one of each in the coming months to finish that set.

This is less about having a new slot added and more about having a slot edited. The Venezuelan type set for the 2007-Date coinage has separate slots for the 2010 and 2011 25 Centimos and labels both "Independence Anniversary" Reform Coinage, Type Set, 2007-Date, Circulation Issue Sets | NGC Registry | NGC (ngccoin.com) The text on the 2010 coin is listed as "Dawn of Independence" where the 2011 is "Signing of the Independence Act." The reason I ask about this is looking at this you might not be blamed for thinking this should be 1 slot in a type set but the coins are actually a little different:

I always thought of the half cent as something of the distant past. The United States didn’t produce any after 1857. However, I’m increasingly aware of the fact that other countries have made half cents and half pennies of and on until relatively recently. I have a set of Rhodesian pennies and half pennies from the 1950s and 1960s. Finding out that these half pennies existed was surprising but when I think about it I can understand it. For a long time there the UK pound was worth at least or about twice as much as the US dollar. It looks like in the 1950s it might have been about 3:1. So having a 3 gram bronze coin that was worth maybe a little more than a US cent makes a fair bit of sense. And this same logic can probably be applied equally to the later Rhodesian half cents of the 1970s that came after the UDI - same weight overall but smaller, and without the hole. What I still can’t wrap my head around are things like the Argentinian half cents of 1985, released with the issuance of a new currency after their latest debt and currency crisis at the time. They only made them for 1 year, but, still, they made them – a half centavo. That 1985 date almost brings them into my lifetime. I’m not sure what the newest / last example of a half cent or half penny to be made was – and we may yet see new ones in the future but it would appear that I was long wrong to view them as relics of the past, now gone. I’ve been thinking about this and wanting to post about it for a while, but then my wife surprised me with my Valentine’s Day present a little bit early and she shocked me with an MS67RD 1955 Rhodesian Half Penny. A coin I was really happy to get as it leaves me needing just the 1956 for both the penny and the half penny sets from the Federation period. This also has me tempted to continue / expand into the 1970s post-UDI copper and keep building out a solid, more complete set of Rhodesian copper. I was really thrilled to get this as it opens up making that half penny set competitive for the top spot this year, maybe joining the penny set and the Zimbabwea type set in winning this year?? Maybe? It does definitely nix the idea of grading that raw 1955 I showed pictures of in my last post. That other one looks nice but it is not an MS67RD and i cannot compete with this one. This one is gorgeous.

So... Saw this... Just wanted to share and laugh and have this to remember this later for the lawls... I was looking for a nice 1956 Rhodesian Half Penny... It's the last date I'd need to have a complete set of the Giraffe design from the 1950s and 1960s during the pre-UDI, Federation period (assuming I get the raw 1955 I bought graded). I see a new listing that shows a raw coin and says in the title "Collectable Grade." And then I look at the pictures... And... O.M.G... That is... special. Nope... Sorry. Throw it to the smelter. Just for fun... here is the 1955 I bought recently... On the fence on sending it in to fill the hole in the registry set or not. Marketed as UNC with bad pics and bought on a lark for $6 (cheaper than the shipping cost alone of the coin above). I need to take good pictures of the three graded ones I have now, both to improve the look of that registry set and to get nice shots as a basis for comparing to this and other raw examples I might get. At this point I have a 65RB, 66RD, and 67RD, which would be the foundation for a grading set, and a scale to compare against. On a random note: Shandy accepted a new role in her current company today. And it is going to come with a nice pay bump, and so we might soon be giving our spending money budgets a bump up... which might be more money for my misadventures... What it really means, more seriously, though is we'll probably be getting very aggressive about paying down her student loans... assuming the government decides it's going to get things in order and start asking for payment again.

The problem with collecting modern coins in type sets with many countries is that the coins look rather the same across the board. South Africa for example: Russia (I think this is Russian coinage anyway... if I remember right) Uruguay: Mexico: Others: Interestingly, when I've posted images in the past of the Zimbabwean Bond Coins and had people point out that they look like arcade tokens or make similar disparaging remarks, I've pointed out that the rest of the world (the US included) doesn't seem to be doing much better these days. I also find it interesting in that the Franklin mint sets (and my own writings) have called out the relative lack of variety in the designs of Venezuelan coinage, but, other countries have also allowed their coinage to become extremely homogenized in the last few decades. Poland is an interesting example with their coins from the 1990s looking basically the same as their coins from 2017. The problem I feel this creates is that, if you want to look to create a story and weave a narrative around the set in a registry presentation, you need to look beyond the coinage and the designs and what's featured on them. With the Venezuelan note set I actually got to have a lot of fun researching the people and the animals and places on the notes... at least until they stopped changing the designs or putting in any effort on them. But when all the coins are essentially identical, if you want to tell a story, you have to start trying to put the coins into a historical narrative. And, while someone looking for a country with really pretty, artistic, varied modern coinage might have a hard time in that pursuit, someone looking to study economic and societal collapse through the lens of coinage and coin collecting seems to have their pick of options these days... In addition to Zimbabwe and Venezuela, which I have now looked at and written on extensively, we also have extreme and growing economic and social stress in Argentina, Turkey, Cuba, Sri Lanka, Peru, and a few other places. Although, I couldn't help but think the other day that it could be interesting to do a large, multi-country set looking at Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Armenia, and the other post-soviet states. Possibly looking at that to examine the growing tensions in the area as we enter a kind of post-Russia era with Armenia and Azerbaijan's fragile peace (previously held together by Russian peace-keepers) starting to fall apart as Moscow's influence fades. At this point I'm petty sure what my next big project is going to be - I have an order in with one of the dealers that was big help in putting together the Venezuela set and now they're going to be my primary source for coins from a new country. My wife commented the other day about the amount of reading, research and writing - the amount of time and effort that goes into building out one of these projects - as I begin to think about ramping up for a new one. And... yeah. It's a lot, but it's a lot of fun and learning.

In looking at the description for my Venezuelan set again it occurred to me that I never really closed the loop and brought it all back the coins and the set, so I ended up adding a paragraph towards the end that brought my discussion back to that set. But the whole thing got me thinking about an old routine from Ron White, when he stops, seemingingly in the middle of the joke, with no punchline to wrap things up. It just stopped and he said, "Joke not funny! Need Punchline." It was a bit funny making that change, however, to a set that just won an award, and it made me think of a recent conversation where someone asked me if I still work on and add to these sets. And the answer was, of course! The Zimbabwean note set has probably had about 20-25 notes added to it since it won an award in 2020. The Zimbabwean coin set was only about 14-15 coins at the time when it got its award in 2021 and it still needed several additions to bring it up to a complete 23-coin set. As I continued to find more information on them, I also continued to build out my descriptions on both those sets. The Venezuelan set is only about 66% complete and I need to add several coins - most of which I already own in raw form - to make it complete, And I want to make it complete. I don't know that I'd say I'll always consider these "open." I remain open to upgrading the Zimbabwean coin and note sets in the future if coins and notes come up, but I consider both to be pretty idle and not really active projects anymore. At a minimum I'd say both are on a firm hold until I get an itch to try to improve the few lingering weak points in the coin set or go on a massive overall to push the average grade on the Note set up. But I definitely don't just drop these things once they win something. I think where that becomes a problem for the person asking me about this is they were wondering if I'd ever consider publishing these things and the writing and research in a physical form, and to do that I think I'd have to reach some kind of final state beyond which further additions and alterations are unlikely. Although I suppose you could open up the idea of editions. Edited to add: I guess I should visit the main page more often. I just saw the announcement about DW Lange passing. That... is a bummer. He always seemed to have a great sense of humor about things when he posted on the boards and it was always nice that he took the time.

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. 🤣

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.

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.

For the first time in about 2 years, I’ve received a grading credit from NGC, and I’m actually faced with thinking about how I wanted to use it. A couple of years ago I knew I wanted to reholder the 10G set and I immediately saw that credit as a chance to build a graded set of Zimbabwe coins for a registry set. Last year I knew before I even finished the Zimbabwe set that the next thing I wanted to do was Venezuela – and I even went out-of-pocket on most of that because I’d already used the credit finishing Zimbabwe. This year, though, I was thinking it’d probably be a smaller, lower-key year, of just using the $150 credit from the membership to try to fill out most of the rest of the Venezuela 2007-Date set and the last three coins of the 500 Lire set. $150 - $10 for an invoice fee leaves you with $140 which will pay for about 7.5 coins, which then just leaves you paying like $12 + Shipping for 8 coins, and 8 coins would have finished the 500 Lire set and left me with only 1 hole (a coin I still don’t have even in a raw state) for the Venezuela set. 1) VEN 2010 25 CENTIMOS - INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY 2) VEN 2010 50 CENTIMOS - BANCO CENTRAL - 70TH ANNIVERSARY 3) VEN 2016 10 BOLIVARES 4) VEN 2016 50 BOLIVARES 5) VEN 2016 100 BOLIVARES 6) ITALY 1995 500 Lire 7) ITALY 2000 500 Lire 8) ITALY 2001 500 Lire But when you add in the $500 credit it starts to look more like this… 1) VEN 2010 25 CENTIMOS - INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY 2) VEN 2010 50 CENTIMOS - BANCO CENTRAL - 70TH ANNIVERSARY 3) VEN 2016 10 BOLIVARES 4) VEN 2016 50 BOLIVARES 5) VEN 2016 100 BOLIVARES 6) ITALY 1995 500 Lire 7) ITALY 2000 500 Lire 8) ITALY 2001 500 Lire 9) ZIM 2003 $10 (If I can find one that seems worth sending in…) 10) ZIM 2003 $25 (If I can find one that seems worth sending in…) 11) VEN 2011 25 CENTIMOS - INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY (If I can find a good one, which I think I can) 12) … 25) And with the $150 credit… 26) … 33) There was this Raw / ungraded 1955 Rhodesian Half Penny that looked good for $6 on eBay and I’d been considering buying it and sending it in to get to 4/5 (80%) on that Half Penny Set. If it graded well, it could even put me in the running fort the top spot in the category. I’d been looking at that and when I found out about winning the award I just went online and got it. I hadn’t considered at the time but because it is from the mid-1950s and not mid-1960s it would have to go in under economy ($23) and incur its own $10 invoice fee, so the incremental cost of that coin would be $33 and not $19, but it could still be worth it if the coin looks like it would grade well when it comes in. So that could eliminate basically 2 of the blank spots above – if it looks good enough – but that doesn’t really solve “the problem” of those potentially 22-25 blank spots in that list. Now, don’t get me wrong – this is a fantastic “problem” to have, but for the first time in 2 years, I’m going to have to think about how I want to use this. Before the announcement was made and the question became “real,” I’d toyed with the idea of looking through some of the Italian coins I have in my binder and see if there are some 5 Lire, 10 Lire, 50 Lire, 100 Lire and / or 200 Lire coins I could send in and possibly add those two and strengthen those Lire sets. But the more I think about it the more I’m not sure that idea appeals to me. The reason being that I don’t think I’ll get much of the normal “fun” I get out of these sets by doing this. The best part of these sets for me usually is researching them, researching the design elements and the history of the different coins and designs and the historical context and building the presentation of what have now become 2 “Best Presented” sets. As you might imagine, I think the reason why those sets “work” is that I have really enjoyed making them and building them out on the registry and that part is usually what I get the most personal “value” from in spending my hobby money. And I think that’s an area where the 5, 10, 50 and 100 lire sets fail – because they’re 50 year runs of the same design. So, there’s not nearly as much there to look into and a lot of that work is ready done and built into those sets. So, I don’t think there’s enough meat on those bones for me to sink my teeth into. Those side sets work as fun side projects to buy some new coins for here and there where they come up but I’m not convinced they’d hold my interest and keep me happy as a main focus for a year or two like the Zimbabwe and Venezuelan Sets have. The 500 Lire and 200 Lire circulating commemorative sets hold a little more promise in this regard with some fun designs to research and comment on, but these things do not hold up well and trying to find them in high grade, looking good, for not much money, can be a bit of a difficult thing. But… the other thing about those sets is, if I’m being honest, I’m hoping that certain dealers will continue to enable my laziness on those. The other thing about that is that we’re talking about 22-25 coins. The first Zimbabwe submission – the one that won the award – was only 14 coins. The Venezuelan submission – that didn’t even fully feed into the 2007-date set – was only about 26 coins. A submission of that size just calls out to me to use it to build “the next set” - the next big research project, the next great adventure of buying hundreds of raw coins and filling another binder with pages and flips… But… what set is that going to be? An obvious standout for me has been Turkey – they’ve been going through a pretty major long term inflationary crisis that has gotten much worse in the last few years and it could be a great new project, continuing my theme from the last two. Another one that could be a great continuation of my recent theme is Argentina… There could be some fun here with just snickering about the gap between the official inflation rate and what the apparent actual inflation rate is. Of course, building either of those sets in the way that I want would depend on finding large quantities of their coins in good conditions at reasonable prices so I could do what I’ve done with the last 2 sets. So far, with Turkey, it has not been looking good / promising. But then, the other question becomes, do I want to stick to theme or go with something else? Is now the time that I decide to build elephant or turtle thematic custom sets for one or both of my boys? But if I do that I wonder if I’d be better going for turtles over elephants as a focus. The Zimbabwe set (Notes and Coins, making it collectively HUGE) is so strongly linked to Samuel. The Rhodesian Pennies with the association to Zimbabwe and the elephant theme also have a strong link to Sam. If I keep pounding projects like that, I might risk a day in the future when Ben is going to look at me a bit sideways… Even though he is my namesake “William” and therefore the 10G set is something I mentally have going to him one day. So maybe it’s time to build a Turtle set? The main problem there is I’d be starting from Zero pretty much, and I’m time-limited on getting a group of coins together and ready while the credit is still good. In the meantime, I think I'm going to see if I can get some more raw examples of the 1995, 2000, and 2001 500 Lire coins. I have examples of each, but I know they're not going to get super-high grades. So I think I'm going to try to find some better alternatives while I have some time to shop.

Congrats to you as well! 🎉

Thank you! To you as well! Like I said, the first was 11 years ago, so you could be forgiven for having forgotten. 🤣🤣

This was also my 3rd - 2nd in 2 years but the first one was 11 years ago now, which is crazy to think about in it's own way. I think getting 1 is pretty prestigious... 🤣 It might be worth looking into what % of the user base even has 1. In the history of the awards I think NGC has only awarded about 600 major awards and a lot of those are concentrated with several of us having more than one and a small elite few like Gary having ~10. So I think it's only in the range of 200-300 users (out of ~13,000) that have one of the Major awards. Granted, most of that 13,000 has few coins and may not even have eligible sets, but it's still a small percentage.

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.

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?

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.

Well, NGC and PMG announced the awards today around lunch time. Let me first say Congrats to Mike. I was happy to see so many familiar names, but I was most happy to see his name pop up on both the NGC and PMG side. Also congrats to many of the others I've often seen on the forums: The Welsh Dragon, ChrisInJesup, Physics-fan3.14, libertad1998, lehigh96, Ray USMC,... Hopefully I'm not missing anyone there but, gosh, it is a long list these days. NGC is increasingly generous on that front. But, in saying that, please don't think I'm marginalizing the accomplishment - there's like 13,000 users and they give out about 45-50 plaques a year and I think only 1-2% of users have ever gotten a major award in the ~20 year history of the awards. So, Congrats! It's a cool thing. I am very happy to get a New Best Presented Award for my Venezuela set! I really was not thinking that would get a Best Presented this year. I thought If I got a Best Presented it might be for the 500 Lire set. I thought if that Venezuela set would get something it would be a Best New Set. - Don't ever think I have a crystal ball, I'm often wrong. However, the 500 Lire set did not win this year, so Mike's crystal ball also clearly is not perfect either, at least this year. And, now, instead of waiting until my membership renews in June, I need to get on getting the rest of the coins for that set ready to go in. Or... I might end up waiting until June anyway and spending the Reward Credit and the Membership Renewal Credit at the same time. Time to finish that set and have a set so nice and dominant it sits on the top spot for the next 10 years, right? The judges got me chuckling a bit this year with the comment about "Revenant documents the circuitous ways in which he built his collection." I mean, admittedly, I do drone on about how these sets were built in the coin descriptions. I do often wonder if I drone on and belabor this a bit too much and it might lead to audience tune-out . At the same time, the lengths that I have gone through to build these sets (Zimbabwe and Venezuela) are the main reason why I think they might not have a serious challenger for the top spot in the category for a long time - at least on the NGC side. On the PMG side, thanks to certain specific dealers, there's enough graded material to make those much more approachable. But, on the coins side, if you want to build these sets out, you can't just open your wallet. You have to do the work - at least for now. This may change in the future. You haven't heard from me much lately because December was full of, among other things, kids being home sick all day with colds and such. But, I'm also shifting to a lower gear for now on the coin and note collecting side. Part of this is just because I've mostly finished most of my main projects for now - I just need to send in some coins to fill some holes in the 500 Lire and Venezuela sets. But, I don't know that I'm going to have a lot to talk about until and unless I find some cool new thing to build out in some epic way and add written and photographic flourishes to. I do have a few ideas... Shandy did surprise me on the 25th however with 2 new Rhodesian Half Pennies. That's a nice little set to build but emphasis is on little - it's only 5 dates / 5 coins and I now have 3 of them. But I may be emphasizing trying to get the last 3 coins to finish a half penny and a penny set from that last period where Zimbabwe was still part of the Commonwealth of Nations. I'm also considering messing around with ~1970s era Rhodesian cents from the Civil War era - the civil war lasted like 15 years... which sounds... hideous. Another contender might be spinning off from those Dancing Elephants (Rhodesian Pennies) and building an Elephant themed set. I recently rain across a 1941 Liberian Cent design with an elephant on it. From what I was seeing (haven't confirmed) I think it might have been struck in the US, at the PA mint, which immediately made me think Coin928's set / collection.