Revenant

On 5/16/2022 at 2:06 AM, ColonialCoinsUK said:

Glad they made it - hope you can all agree on the potential grades

We haven't been guessing on grades at this point but so far we're seeing a lot of coins that we like in the 1989 denominations (5 denoms) and the 2002-2004 denominations (also 5 denominations). I'll probably have a new post about some of those soon.

On 5/16/2022 at 2:06 AM, ColonialCoinsUK said:

It doesn't seem to matter where in the world things are coming from delivery seems +/- 3 months or so

I can usually get things from Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Hong Kong in just 2, maybe 3 weeks. Not months. Not sure what you're dealing with. 

On 5/7/2022 at 5:55 PM, ColonialCoinsUK said:

Sounds like a real challenge!

UK coinage doesn't seem to change its design very often either and for the most recent issues it turned out that they too have many varieties and people have only just started to document these, starting with the £1 coins. Is there an actual catalog for Venezuelan coins or is it just the online versions such as Numista? and do you think these are complete or close?

I'm mostly going on Numista for now. I haven't seen enough of these to comment on their completeness. 

On 4/18/2022 at 4:45 PM, Fenntucky Mike said:

Sounds great. The coin budget just doubled.  Pretty soon you'll be the one reigning her in. 

In an unrelated move my coin budget was increased 50% recently. But she's been letting.me get away with a series of "one offs" beyond my budget for 6 months... so... no complaints.

On 4/14/2022 at 10:22 AM, Just Bob said:

One other thing: you need to crop, print, and frame that picture of her pointing at the coin. That look that she is giving you is cuter than a basket full of puppies.

I think I'd actually go for the first one in that group where she's smiling all happy to print and frame but I'll keep that in mind.

On 4/13/2022 at 10:50 PM, Coinbuf said:

Looks like you both had an awesome time and that is the best part of this journey you are now both on.

Yeah. Too bad it's a relatively short set. I may need to start getting creative with new placed to take it. But I think including the circulating commemorative years that aren't part of that registry set - 1993, 1996. 1997 - might be the first step when the time comes. But, for now, I still have some gaps to address.

On 4/13/2022 at 7:48 PM, Just Bob said:

It is great that you two can share this love of collecting. Don't ever take it for granted.

Just like i can't ever take her for granted.

On 4/8/2022 at 2:12 PM, Coinbuf said:

Congrats on your grades!!

Thanks! Hopefully they're enough to help keep some competition away. 😅🤞

On 4/8/2022 at 4:37 PM, Fenntucky Mike said:

Nice! And good job Shandy! 

I think it helps to have graded coins as an established baseline for comparison  - the lack of that is one of the reasons we didn't try this at all with the 500L. We just picked what we liked the best, sent it off and hoped for the best. But she did do well. We both laughed every time we said the same grade though - and we did hit the nail on the head together in a couple.

4/6 Update.

Apparently the 2nd group of coins I got a tracking number for - the 2021 coins - have made it to New York.

The first set were last scanned a few days ago in Kiev, of all places. These coins will have come from a literal war zone.

Unfortunately I'd say the odds are small that these people or their would-be customers will ever see this. I also think the odds of these sellers caring is zero. They know what they're doing. They have no shame.

3/31/2022 update: The Zimbabwe / Italy sub has moved from Grading / QC to Grading / Encapsulation/ Imaging. At this point I can't help but hope I might see official grades as early as tomorrow (4/1). 
However, there has been a big step up in the Zimbabwe population in the census and I can't help but wonder if these are my coins. I've been fooled by the before with Xan's submission last year but some of what I'm seeing lines up very well with my coins and this would be VERY good news for me if these are mine (and very bad if they're someone else's).

I submitted a single 2017 $1 bond coin and 2 2018 $2 bond coins. The census now shows a $1 BC in MS68 and 2 $2 BCs - both in MS69!!!! If those are mine I'm about to be freaking thrilled. Pop reports also show a new $2 1997 in MS64, which would be solid and easily dethrone that XF45 as a top pop - whoever owns it.

Shandy and Sam are both home sick today and so I can't do a full deep dive to try to divine grades from the pop report but this is very encouraging! A quick scan suggests some good MS64-66 grades could be coming back on the older coins,, which would be a big win for me.. Shandy encouraged me to go ahead and send both the 2018 $2 coins because they both just looked perfect and we could not choose between them.

On 3/29/2022 at 9:03 PM, zadok said:

remember what ricky bobby's dad said..."if u ain't first ur'e last"....

Don't you put that evil on me!!

I'll just cry with my collection of gold coins while I quietly remember how fortunate I am.

On 3/29/2022 at 7:59 AM, The 12th Denticle said:

There will always be someone out there with just as much determination as you and perhaps, deeper pockets.

Yeah. Whenever someone comes out very strong with lots of (to me) expensive coins in a short span of time, that is a strong indicator that they're willing to outstanding me - willing to, not necessarily able to. I've seen plenty of examples over time of people debt financing hobbies. Which I'd never be willing to do. 

On 3/12/2022 at 8:27 AM, Fenntucky Mike said:

I agree the proof registry set is a jumble, and they should separate some of those. NGC/PMG are usually very accommodating with set suggestions as long as you have the coins/notes and aren't being completely ridiculous.

I agree with you that there's a good chance they'd accommodate me and adjust the set / make a new one, but I'm not even going to ask until I'm ready to submit coins and I actually have skin in the game. I'm not going to bother them and then not follow up and leave the set they made for me empty.

On 3/12/2022 at 8:17 AM, Fenntucky Mike said:

but I decided to make a purchase from them a few days ago, knowing full well that there is pretty much a zero chance that I will see the item.

There's a couple of dealers in Russia that I have bought pre-painted scaled minis from before for some fun macro photos and just goofing around. I'd been wanting to place an order for a couple of things to go with something else I had but I dragged my feet and then this broke out and I just looked at Shandy and was like, "Well, that's dead." But there's another seller in Lviv Ukraine that sells similar things and they may get the order / money instead.

I may take a look later and see if there's something I can order off Lemberg.

On 3/11/2022 at 6:27 PM, tj96 said:

Weakness invites aggression...  

They also say "Strength invites challenge." 

On 3/11/2022 at 4:01 PM, coinsbygary said:

I hate to get political here, but this whole mess has me so peeved that I am beside myself.

I'm not sure that saying war in Europe or war in general is bad counts as a terribly controversial or political statement.

But the whole situation is a disaster. It isn't a crisis. It's a disaster, from start to finish, and it should have never have gotten to this point.

On 3/8/2022 at 5:08 AM, Fenntucky Mike said:

 

I'll probably have a small submission of gold coins ready to go in the next few weeks, I'm still debating on whether or not to send some silver though. 

This is making me more hopeful about getting a Venezuela + Italian Lire finisher submission in, and also making me feel less pressured / less rushed at the same time.  I think I'd pass on submitting Modern Silver unless you feel like it just really needs to be in a slab.  Old silver is kewl.

World modern turnaround times are now down to 56 business days. 

Depends on how you define it. "Great Zimbabwe" was the name of the culture that existed mostly from the 12th to 15th century and collapsed well before the arrival of the British in the late 19th century. "Great Zimbabwe" is where the name of the modern country came from after ZANU-PF took power in 1980.

Supporting Zadok's comment, World modern times have turned back down to only 62 days, which might put the coins / grades back in May. 

On 2/28/2022 at 5:47 PM, Coinbuf said:

Congrats, I was surprised that the awards showed up this early, was expecting another month or so from what I had read in past years.

Didn't think about this before but I take it you got yours? Congrats to you and I wish you luck for 2022!

On 2/28/2022 at 5:47 PM, Coinbuf said:

Congrats, I was surprised that the awards showed up this early, was expecting another month or so from what I had read in past years.

They seem to just be getting faster and better over time. I waited much longer in 2008 / 2011 if I remember right and they were sending out fewer awards back then.

On 2/28/2022 at 9:29 AM, coinsbygary said:

Congratulations! Your plaques and coin represent quite an achievement especially across two separate branches of NGC. Oh, is the ASE a Type 1 or 2?

Type 2. The new one.

On 2/25/2022 at 2:02 PM, zadok said:

update...3 more of those submissions completed n shipped back all the rest in grading now or grading qual control, so im thinking ur turn around be faster than u expect...

I hope that's true just because I'd love for the turnaround times for everyone to come down, and for NGC to finally get room to breathe and end the 60 hour weeks they're pulling.