Revenant

I've been talking and thinking about starting a set of the Innovation Dollars to show the boys as they get older and a seller on eBay gave me an offer for this after I watched it so I decided to bite. After shipping it cost me $20. At that price it just becomes fun impulse buy at a stressful time. I thought it was worth it to begin the journey of about 50 coins with this one. I think I will make a set of these, but in the near term I think my focus will be adding a few more presidents to that old set - I'm probably going to buy year sets of those for 2015 and/or 2016 soon.

In looking at this label though, with all that information and all that color... I just couldn't help but laugh. If you look at the labels for the old fatty holders they say hardly anything usually. Just something like S$1 and a year and mint mark. Done. And you have to think they couldn't put much more on that label if they wanted too. 6 lines of information a barcode and the "American Innovation" tagline.
I really like that gear / mechanical wheel graphic on the label though.
I still find it odd that they kicked off this series with this one-off coin that breaks the whole pattern. One coin in a year rather than 4 and about a person and not linked to / for a state or territory. Honoring the first patent is also interesting in the context of modern times and the use / abuse of patents to lock competition out of markets and crush by litigation.
That coin arrived in the Mail Monday at the old house. I didn't get a chance to get it out until this morning because we've been going so hard but I didn't want to risk it being forgotten in the mailbox. We really need to set up our mail forwarding. Anyway...
Also on Monday - the really big news - Shandy got a new job!!! It has been / was a crazy week because she was having to do remote interviews and skills tests while we were packing every day and night too.. super stressful and crazy but Monday made it all worth it with the big news! So she'll be using her new home office for that and no longer doing 5 AM English lessons. We'll have offices together on one side of the house with a small bathroom between us. It's going to be great I think. We'll spend more time in the morning together with the boys. It's gonna be fantastic!
The movers came today and after a lot of hours and a lot work in the heat of August almost all of our stuff is over here now. We're going back to the old place one last time tomorrow to finish getting the last of our stuff and cleaning up a bit. But tonight will be the first night in the new house. With a little child-care help from in-laws this house is and will continue to "come online" very quickly.
Saturday night we'd brought a bottle of bubbly wine and apple cider with champagne flutes to celebrate. After all the unpleasantness that wrecked that evening we never opened them - it didn't feel right. But we'll get everyone over soon and pop the corks in a proper celebration of the new house.
It's all coming together. One day at a time.
Tomorrow's priorities are building the crib, setting up my desk so I can work Thursday and generally unboxing things as able.

Yesterday Sam was finally feeling better – he is back at daycare today and we’re enjoying our 1 child-free work from home day of the week – so we got to go out with my in-laws so we could have a birthday celebration with them, and they could give me their present for me… and I finally got to find out what the big mystery was that my wife has been keeping.

I laughed so hard and this and got a real kick out of it. I’m normally not very effusive when getting gifts but they said they think this is the best response I’ve had to a gift in 7 years of knowing me.
So here is the story on this thing:
You all know I like Pawn Stars if you’ve read some prior entries. Yes, I know it isn’t real. It is still entertaining IMO.
I love the old man, as many people do / did. When I was growing up my mother always said I was like a grumpy, curmudgeonly old man and that I was “18 going on 80.” She’s called me her grumpy old man for nearly 20 years. To this day my wife points out that I “can be so curmudgeonly some days.” So, I enjoyed this man, always did.
Something made me think of these the other week and I went online to see what they were going for and the asking prices on eBay were insane. I screen-capped it and sent it to my wife and I was just like, I really like these, but I just can’t see ever paying that much for one.
My mother-in-law – who was given me proof silver eagles the last couple of years, one of which she bought at the mint in Philadelphia a few years back when she visited New York – wanted something new / different to give me and my wife suggested this. She then was able to find a way to buy it directly and get a much better price on it than what I was seeing – I don’t know what, but I’m assured they didn’t pay the $125+ prices I was seeing on eBay and that they stayed in their normal budget. So, I’ll believe her. 

I love that they got one of the ones in an NGC holder.
It makes a great gift for a birthday like 35 for someone born in October that’s a father of 2 sons. Lol

I think this is one of those things you have to be given as a gift. It works so much better than just buying it for yourself.
Forgot to mention this in my last entry but Ben is apparently convinced that my favorite color is gold and he thought I’d want gold-colored icing on my birthday cake this week. I don’t know why he thinks this. If you look at my office, you’d more likely come to the conclusion that my favorite color is cherry-colored wood. Other than my coins that actually are gold, my wedding ring and my class ring, I don’t think I own a single thing that is gold or gold-plated or anything like that and he doesn’t even see the actual gold coin except for very very rarely. Honestly, after him calling that small silver bar a gold bar I’m wondering if he even really knows what “gold” is and looks like or if he thinks silver is gold. I actually DO like silver and “gunmetal” / “gunmetal grey” on things.

Yesterday Sam was finally feeling better – he is back at daycare today and we’re enjoying our 1 child-free work from home day of the week – so we got to go out with my in-laws so we could have a birthday celebration with them, and they could give me their present for me… and I finally got to find out what the big mystery was that my wife has been keeping.

I laughed so hard and this and got a real kick out of it. I’m normally not very effusive when getting gifts but they said they think this is the best response I’ve had to a gift in 7 years of knowing me.
So here is the story on this thing:
You all know I like Pawn Stars if you’ve read some prior entries. Yes, I know it isn’t real. It is still entertaining IMO.
I love the old man, as many people do / did. When I was growing up my mother always said I was like a grumpy, curmudgeonly old man and that I was “18 going on 80.” She’s called me her grumpy old man for nearly 20 years. To this day my wife points out that I “can be so curmudgeonly some days.” So, I enjoyed this man, always did.
Something made me think of these the other week and I went online to see what they were going for and the asking prices on eBay were insane. I screen-capped it and sent it to my wife and I was just like, I really like these, but I just can’t see ever paying that much for one.
My mother-in-law – who was given me proof silver eagles the last couple of years, one of which she bought at the mint in Philadelphia a few years back when she visited New York – wanted something new / different to give me and my wife suggested this. She then was able to find a way to buy it directly and get a much better price on it than what I was seeing – I don’t know what, but I’m assured they didn’t pay the $125+ prices I was seeing on eBay and that they stayed in their normal budget. So, I’ll believe her. 

I love that they got one of the ones in an NGC holder.
It makes a great gift for a birthday like 35 for someone born in October that’s a father of 2 sons. Lol

I think this is one of those things you have to be given as a gift. It works so much better than just buying it for yourself.
Forgot to mention this in my last entry but Ben is apparently convinced that my favorite color is gold and he thought I’d want gold-colored icing on my birthday cake this week. I don’t know why he thinks this. If you look at my office, you’d more likely come to the conclusion that my favorite color is cherry-colored wood. Other than my coins that actually are gold, my wedding ring and my class ring, I don’t think I own a single thing that is gold or gold-plated or anything like that and he doesn’t even see the actual gold coin except for very very rarely. Honestly, after him calling that small silver bar a gold bar I’m wondering if he even really knows what “gold” is and looks like or if he thinks silver is gold. I actually DO like silver and “gunmetal” / “gunmetal grey” on things.

The Zimbabwe coin submission has arrived back from NGC.
So, you people trying to ninja my brain and make me fret can just chill out. (Lookin at you, Mike! ) That said, I have been having an internal dialogue on this and “declared value” along the lines of “I’m wondering if I’m doing this wrong, which may bear further discussion.
It is the last of the submissions mailed from the old house, the last of the submissions I had mailed back to my in-laws because of the move. So hopefully no more getting the attention of my father-in-law and having him snicker about me “spending money on money.” This also means I expect the planned 2022 Z coin submission to be the first one mailed from and shipped back to the new house.
The night my in-laws brought the box over after work unexpectedly was a night I had to work / have a professional meeting until 7:00 PM and so by the time we were done putting the kids down and getting ready for school the next day I was just going to put them in my office and open the box the next day, but Shandy poked me to go ahead and open them. She later admitted that, after hearing about these so much for so long, she wanted to be there and see me open them.
You know that scene from the office when they chant / sing, “Fashion Show. Fashion Show. Fashion Show at Lunch!” ? It was like that. They had to come out of the box one at a time, she had to get to look at each one in turn as I took them out and then they were set down next to the others. She and my mother are convinced that I’m pleased with this and the outcome… based on something…


I think it’s a charming looking group - making allowances for the lower than ideal grades of some of the coins . I’m glad that the MS65 10C coin I bought previously is in a newer-gen pronged holder, so it matches very well with its fellows well. Otherwise, I might have had to consider a re-holder down the road like I did for the 10G set. The physical presentation of these main / pet project sets for me is as important to me as the digital presentation in the group. I want to be able to lay them out and have them look good together and look good as a set – Even if I’m the only one that ever looks at them like that.

I’ve even rejected cheap sets of presidential dollars because the label didn’t match what I have for the rest of the set. I just know that would bug me… forever! Yes, yes, buy the coin, not the label, but that would drive me positively insane. 

Now that I have them it’ll be a high priority to get close-up, well-lit shots of my own and then photoshop those to complete the set banner image I’ve been trying to plan out for a while. I want to add the water buffalo, the sunrise and the flame lily wreath into the image. I did get a little time to play and try with a camera yesterday, and I did manage to get some nice shots of some of them but on some others I'm going to have to try again - and remember to wipe them down and have the slabs clean for the shot. They still had some stuff on them transferred from the shipping box last time and that severely uglied up some of my shots.




Small aside, but, NGC recently (a few weeks ago now?) announced they were switching from “Corporation” to “Company.” I’ve seen some posts from NGC recently showing prominent coins showing a label with “Company,” but my new slabs still say “Corporation.” I wouldn’t be surprised if the 2022 coins end up saying “Company,” introducing another, perhaps subtle, distinction between the two submissions / groups within the set, that would also make it easy to remember which coins were graded at what time.
I’ve been giving some thought to what I see the ultimate goal being here and I think I’m going to try to pick up one of the Volterra 24-coin cases with three 8-coin panels like what Coinbuf has for some of his year sets.

The full Zimbabwean type set (as of 2021) has 23 coins so that at 24-coin case is almost perfect for the job – I don’t think Zimbabwe will give me a $5 “bond coin” at this point and even if they did it wouldn’t be a bond coin anymore and wouldn’t say “Bond Coin” like these others do. If we get more coins, I think I’ll be dealing with a brand-new set / series of coins and a return-to-form with the “Zimbabwe bird” dominating the obverse. If that happens, they’d just have to go into something else.
Making it even better - the 16 pre-hyperinflation types can perfectly fill the first two panels with the first panel mostly being the original-from-1980, copper-nickel and brass types and the 2nd panel being the mostly steel-clad types with the mid-hyperinflation, 2003-dated, $10 and $25 issues. Then the 3rd panel is just the Bond Coins. Since there are 2 years of issue for the 50C and $1 Bond coins I could just have both of those years represented for one of those, but not both – probably the 50C at this point since, so far, I don’t have any 2016 $1 coins.

With what I have now and what I have planned / in-hand to submit in 2022 I could pretty well fill the 2nd and 3rd panels, but the 1st panel is a bit of a problem, just as those coins are proving to be a bit of a challenge for the type set itself. But I also don’t really see that case as a high-level priority – more a down the road dream for how I’d love to be able to show this set off, and I think I might actually be able to do that since it … won’t be super valuable, shall we say, if I’m right. Not like trying to display gold coins.
It would be funny to show up to a show with that to show off.
The nice thing about this is I feel like this set actually CAN be displayed in a physical form in a nice, appealing, approachable way. The note set… Can’t. It almost defeats itself with its size.
I had a brief exchange with someone on reddit some time ago where they said they wanted to get a collection of Zimbabwean banknotes – maybe even graded – and put them all up in a wall display. I told him I wasn’t sure how that was going to work out. Even without the extra area required for graded note holders, even if just displaying the 3rd dollars and not the whole thing from P-1 to P-98/105… that’s a lot of wall space… it could maybe even cover most of a wall.
That said, could you imagine a long room, like in a museum or something, with display cases lining the side and all 100+ notes of that series laid out from P-1 to P-105 and walking through and looking at it all as you walk along? An interesting thing to dream about. It’s a similar concept to what Texas A&M has done with their display of class rings from all the different 100+ class years at the Association of Former Students building – a very cool exhibit BTW, in part because their interior designers are more imaginative than I am.
In other news, Ben finally got a Red-Eyes Black Dragon, the one he wanted, not the “Metal” or “Malefic” versions, with the original art seen on the show – a 1st edition gold holo of it no less. I found someone offering it for a pretty reasonably price at long last. He’s pretty happy about this, I think.

Sam is... home sick again this week. I spent a fair bit of my birthday with him sleeping on me, but he's caught another virus that he's working through. We're still very much in that phase when he's going to daycare for the first time in his life after largely being isolated and kept away from other kids and their germs for a year so his immune system has some learning to do and needs to cut its teeth on some things. Fortunately, so far, I think he's beating this one on his own. 



But... Yeah. I'm now 35. I was ~20 when I joined the registry.
Edited to add: The census update this week didn't include any more new Zimbabwean coins... All silent at the moment.  More to come on what I'm planning to drop in 2022.

The Zimbabwe coin submission has arrived back from NGC.
So, you people trying to ninja my brain and make me fret can just chill out. (Lookin at you, Mike! ) That said, I have been having an internal dialogue on this and “declared value” along the lines of “I’m wondering if I’m doing this wrong, which may bear further discussion.
It is the last of the submissions mailed from the old house, the last of the submissions I had mailed back to my in-laws because of the move. So hopefully no more getting the attention of my father-in-law and having him snicker about me “spending money on money.” This also means I expect the planned 2022 Z coin submission to be the first one mailed from and shipped back to the new house.
The night my in-laws brought the box over after work unexpectedly was a night I had to work / have a professional meeting until 7:00 PM and so by the time we were done putting the kids down and getting ready for school the next day I was just going to put them in my office and open the box the next day, but Shandy poked me to go ahead and open them. She later admitted that, after hearing about these so much for so long, she wanted to be there and see me open them.
You know that scene from the office when they chant / sing, “Fashion Show. Fashion Show. Fashion Show at Lunch!” ? It was like that. They had to come out of the box one at a time, she had to get to look at each one in turn as I took them out and then they were set down next to the others. She and my mother are convinced that I’m pleased with this and the outcome… based on something…


I think it’s a charming looking group - making allowances for the lower than ideal grades of some of the coins . I’m glad that the MS65 10C coin I bought previously is in a newer-gen pronged holder, so it matches very well with its fellows well. Otherwise, I might have had to consider a re-holder down the road like I did for the 10G set. The physical presentation of these main / pet project sets for me is as important to me as the digital presentation in the group. I want to be able to lay them out and have them look good together and look good as a set – Even if I’m the only one that ever looks at them like that.

I’ve even rejected cheap sets of presidential dollars because the label didn’t match what I have for the rest of the set. I just know that would bug me… forever! Yes, yes, buy the coin, not the label, but that would drive me positively insane. 

Now that I have them it’ll be a high priority to get close-up, well-lit shots of my own and then photoshop those to complete the set banner image I’ve been trying to plan out for a while. I want to add the water buffalo, the sunrise and the flame lily wreath into the image. I did get a little time to play and try with a camera yesterday, and I did manage to get some nice shots of some of them but on some others I'm going to have to try again - and remember to wipe them down and have the slabs clean for the shot. They still had some stuff on them transferred from the shipping box last time and that severely uglied up some of my shots.




Small aside, but, NGC recently (a few weeks ago now?) announced they were switching from “Corporation” to “Company.” I’ve seen some posts from NGC recently showing prominent coins showing a label with “Company,” but my new slabs still say “Corporation.” I wouldn’t be surprised if the 2022 coins end up saying “Company,” introducing another, perhaps subtle, distinction between the two submissions / groups within the set, that would also make it easy to remember which coins were graded at what time.
I’ve been giving some thought to what I see the ultimate goal being here and I think I’m going to try to pick up one of the Volterra 24-coin cases with three 8-coin panels like what Coinbuf has for some of his year sets.

The full Zimbabwean type set (as of 2021) has 23 coins so that at 24-coin case is almost perfect for the job – I don’t think Zimbabwe will give me a $5 “bond coin” at this point and even if they did it wouldn’t be a bond coin anymore and wouldn’t say “Bond Coin” like these others do. If we get more coins, I think I’ll be dealing with a brand-new set / series of coins and a return-to-form with the “Zimbabwe bird” dominating the obverse. If that happens, they’d just have to go into something else.
Making it even better - the 16 pre-hyperinflation types can perfectly fill the first two panels with the first panel mostly being the original-from-1980, copper-nickel and brass types and the 2nd panel being the mostly steel-clad types with the mid-hyperinflation, 2003-dated, $10 and $25 issues. Then the 3rd panel is just the Bond Coins. Since there are 2 years of issue for the 50C and $1 Bond coins I could just have both of those years represented for one of those, but not both – probably the 50C at this point since, so far, I don’t have any 2016 $1 coins.

With what I have now and what I have planned / in-hand to submit in 2022 I could pretty well fill the 2nd and 3rd panels, but the 1st panel is a bit of a problem, just as those coins are proving to be a bit of a challenge for the type set itself. But I also don’t really see that case as a high-level priority – more a down the road dream for how I’d love to be able to show this set off, and I think I might actually be able to do that since it … won’t be super valuable, shall we say, if I’m right. Not like trying to display gold coins.
It would be funny to show up to a show with that to show off.
The nice thing about this is I feel like this set actually CAN be displayed in a physical form in a nice, appealing, approachable way. The note set… Can’t. It almost defeats itself with its size.
I had a brief exchange with someone on reddit some time ago where they said they wanted to get a collection of Zimbabwean banknotes – maybe even graded – and put them all up in a wall display. I told him I wasn’t sure how that was going to work out. Even without the extra area required for graded note holders, even if just displaying the 3rd dollars and not the whole thing from P-1 to P-98/105… that’s a lot of wall space… it could maybe even cover most of a wall.
That said, could you imagine a long room, like in a museum or something, with display cases lining the side and all 100+ notes of that series laid out from P-1 to P-105 and walking through and looking at it all as you walk along? An interesting thing to dream about. It’s a similar concept to what Texas A&M has done with their display of class rings from all the different 100+ class years at the Association of Former Students building – a very cool exhibit BTW, in part because their interior designers are more imaginative than I am.
In other news, Ben finally got a Red-Eyes Black Dragon, the one he wanted, not the “Metal” or “Malefic” versions, with the original art seen on the show – a 1st edition gold holo of it no less. I found someone offering it for a pretty reasonably price at long last. He’s pretty happy about this, I think.

Sam is... home sick again this week. I spent a fair bit of my birthday with him sleeping on me, but he's caught another virus that he's working through. We're still very much in that phase when he's going to daycare for the first time in his life after largely being isolated and kept away from other kids and their germs for a year so his immune system has some learning to do and needs to cut its teeth on some things. Fortunately, so far, I think he's beating this one on his own. 



But... Yeah. I'm now 35. I was ~20 when I joined the registry.
Edited to add: The census update this week didn't include any more new Zimbabwean coins... All silent at the moment.  More to come on what I'm planning to drop in 2022.

Xan Chamberlain must have gotten a box in the mail yesterday.

This set popped up last night with just one coin and now the other 7 coins from that submission that got added to the census about 2 weeks ago have been added. It also looks like he has a $2 coin that popped up in the census the following week when my coins were added.But I'm not seeing in his set (yet, anyway) a 1999 10C in MS64 or an older-type $1 coin that popped up in the census the same week as my coins and that $2 coin. What I'm seeing in our two sets only accounts for 22 of the 25-27 MS coins that I think have been added to the Zimbabwe census in about the last 6 months. And if I remember right, some of the others were $5 coins and it wouldn't really make sense to me for him to send in two of those in such a short span of time - again, not saying that he didn't. I don't have nearly all the facts. I'm just thinking with my gut here. Add in the fact that there were MS graded coins out there before April 2021 and someone submitted the MS65 10C that I have... there's someone else, out there, right?
So, I think there is still some mystery to dig into in that I think there's a third person getting these graded. It's either that, or Xan submitted another 2-coin submission a while back (or a submission with 2 Z coins) and then got 2-3 more graded about a week after this coin going group and those coins hit the census with mine, and then there was a 1 coin submission that hit the census on 10/5 with a single 1983 cent. I'm not saying it is impossible but it would be odd to me to see someone send in 3 small submissions in the space of a month and about 4 in about 6 months for the same country.
I guess I'll see if a 1999 10C coin, a 1983 Cent, or one of these other new-to-the census coins hit Xan's set in the next couple of weeks and if the census keeps going up.
So there is officially a little competition and a little life in that category now.

I wonder if he used part of his 2020 grading credit to do this just like I did.
Especially given the timing, I wonder if he got the idea for this from me and I'm wondering if he'll read this...
It's always funny to think about.
I wonder if he'll chime in or drop me a line / a message and shed some light on it for me.
He collects some older Rhodesian Coins but I don't see that he participates on the PMG side with the notes. 
I wonder what brings him into it and why he decided to go down this road. I wonder if there could be some fun chats about it.
But, I think the same thing about Adrian123456, and he seems to prefer to watch in silence too.
Adrian has a fantastic, nearly complete variety set of the 2003 Emergency Bearer Checks (P-21 to P-23) that I think is one of the more impressive sets in the PMG Zimbabwe Registry - getting all of those varieties is not easy and he's had to compromise on grade on some of the type-a's even though the notes themselves still look quite nice in his scans - or maybe he uses PMG's scans. I'm not sure there.
I wonder if Adrian could be submitter #3, but I think he'd list / register his if he were... 
You guys should talk to me. This could be fun. Just talk to Mike. He can attest - I'm not crazy!  

Xan Chamberlain must have gotten a box in the mail yesterday.

This set popped up last night with just one coin and now the other 7 coins from that submission that got added to the census about 2 weeks ago have been added. It also looks like he has a $2 coin that popped up in the census the following week when my coins were added.But I'm not seeing in his set (yet, anyway) a 1999 10C in MS64 or an older-type $1 coin that popped up in the census the same week as my coins and that $2 coin. What I'm seeing in our two sets only accounts for 22 of the 25-27 MS coins that I think have been added to the Zimbabwe census in about the last 6 months. And if I remember right, some of the others were $5 coins and it wouldn't really make sense to me for him to send in two of those in such a short span of time - again, not saying that he didn't. I don't have nearly all the facts. I'm just thinking with my gut here. Add in the fact that there were MS graded coins out there before April 2021 and someone submitted the MS65 10C that I have... there's someone else, out there, right?
So, I think there is still some mystery to dig into in that I think there's a third person getting these graded. It's either that, or Xan submitted another 2-coin submission a while back (or a submission with 2 Z coins) and then got 2-3 more graded about a week after this coin going group and those coins hit the census with mine, and then there was a 1 coin submission that hit the census on 10/5 with a single 1983 cent. I'm not saying it is impossible but it would be odd to me to see someone send in 3 small submissions in the space of a month and about 4 in about 6 months for the same country.
I guess I'll see if a 1999 10C coin, a 1983 Cent, or one of these other new-to-the census coins hit Xan's set in the next couple of weeks and if the census keeps going up.
So there is officially a little competition and a little life in that category now.

I wonder if he used part of his 2020 grading credit to do this just like I did.
Especially given the timing, I wonder if he got the idea for this from me and I'm wondering if he'll read this...
It's always funny to think about.
I wonder if he'll chime in or drop me a line / a message and shed some light on it for me.
He collects some older Rhodesian Coins but I don't see that he participates on the PMG side with the notes. 
I wonder what brings him into it and why he decided to go down this road. I wonder if there could be some fun chats about it.
But, I think the same thing about Adrian123456, and he seems to prefer to watch in silence too.
Adrian has a fantastic, nearly complete variety set of the 2003 Emergency Bearer Checks (P-21 to P-23) that I think is one of the more impressive sets in the PMG Zimbabwe Registry - getting all of those varieties is not easy and he's had to compromise on grade on some of the type-a's even though the notes themselves still look quite nice in his scans - or maybe he uses PMG's scans. I'm not sure there.
I wonder if Adrian could be submitter #3, but I think he'd list / register his if he were... 
You guys should talk to me. This could be fun. Just talk to Mike. He can attest - I'm not crazy!  

Xan Chamberlain must have gotten a box in the mail yesterday.

This set popped up last night with just one coin and now the other 7 coins from that submission that got added to the census about 2 weeks ago have been added. It also looks like he has a $2 coin that popped up in the census the following week when my coins were added.But I'm not seeing in his set (yet, anyway) a 1999 10C in MS64 or an older-type $1 coin that popped up in the census the same week as my coins and that $2 coin. What I'm seeing in our two sets only accounts for 22 of the 25-27 MS coins that I think have been added to the Zimbabwe census in about the last 6 months. And if I remember right, some of the others were $5 coins and it wouldn't really make sense to me for him to send in two of those in such a short span of time - again, not saying that he didn't. I don't have nearly all the facts. I'm just thinking with my gut here. Add in the fact that there were MS graded coins out there before April 2021 and someone submitted the MS65 10C that I have... there's someone else, out there, right?
So, I think there is still some mystery to dig into in that I think there's a third person getting these graded. It's either that, or Xan submitted another 2-coin submission a while back (or a submission with 2 Z coins) and then got 2-3 more graded about a week after this coin going group and those coins hit the census with mine, and then there was a 1 coin submission that hit the census on 10/5 with a single 1983 cent. I'm not saying it is impossible but it would be odd to me to see someone send in 3 small submissions in the space of a month and about 4 in about 6 months for the same country.
I guess I'll see if a 1999 10C coin, a 1983 Cent, or one of these other new-to-the census coins hit Xan's set in the next couple of weeks and if the census keeps going up.
So there is officially a little competition and a little life in that category now.

I wonder if he used part of his 2020 grading credit to do this just like I did.
Especially given the timing, I wonder if he got the idea for this from me and I'm wondering if he'll read this...
It's always funny to think about.
I wonder if he'll chime in or drop me a line / a message and shed some light on it for me.
He collects some older Rhodesian Coins but I don't see that he participates on the PMG side with the notes. 
I wonder what brings him into it and why he decided to go down this road. I wonder if there could be some fun chats about it.
But, I think the same thing about Adrian123456, and he seems to prefer to watch in silence too.
Adrian has a fantastic, nearly complete variety set of the 2003 Emergency Bearer Checks (P-21 to P-23) that I think is one of the more impressive sets in the PMG Zimbabwe Registry - getting all of those varieties is not easy and he's had to compromise on grade on some of the type-a's even though the notes themselves still look quite nice in his scans - or maybe he uses PMG's scans. I'm not sure there.
I wonder if Adrian could be submitter #3, but I think he'd list / register his if he were... 
You guys should talk to me. This could be fun. Just talk to Mike. He can attest - I'm not crazy!  

I was checking last night, and these still showed as being in quality control.
This afternoon I opened my laptop, and the submission tracker page was open in a tab I left open last night when I shut the laptop. It auto updated / refreshed, and I saw “shipped” flash across my field of view as I was closing the tab, and then I frantically re-loaded the page, wondering if I had finally gone crazy.
I’m guessing this is the result of some back-office people in the shipping department working on the weekends and working long hours to get things out faster. That being the case, they have my thanks for that. I have whined… and vented… at length, but I know they’re working hard, and they have my Thanks for this one.
So here are the grades, at long last (I was totally right about the grades... the 2nd time...):
 
2863257-001; 1997 1C
MS65RD (Top Pop, Pop of 3 with 2 in grade)
2863257-002; 1999 5C
AU58 (Top Pop, only one of this year graded, but there are Mint State examples from other years as of a week or two ago.)
2863257-003; 2001 10C
MS61 (Top Pop, only one from this year graded, but there are better mint state examples from other years as of the other week.)
2863257-004; 2002 20C
MS62 (Top Pop, 2 in grade now / for now)
2863257-005; 2002 50C
MS63 (Top Pop, w 2 in grade I think).
2863257-006; 2002 $1
MS63 (Top Pop, but there are better mint state - MS64 - examples from other years now)
2863257-007; 2003 $10
AU58 (Top Pop. Solo Finest. Total Pop 3, 2 others in AU55)
2863257-008; 2003 S25
AU58 (The only coin in the set not considered a Top Pop, because there are mint state examples in this year.lol)
2863257-009; 2014 1C
MS67RD (Top Pop, Pop of 1)
2863257-010; 2014 5C
MS67 (Top Pop, Pop of 1)
2863257-011; 2014 10C
MS67 (Top Pop, Pop of 1)
2863257-012; 2014 25C
MS67 (Top Pop, Pop of 1)
2863257-013; 2014 50C
MS66 (Top Pop, Pop of 1)
13 of 14 are considered TOP POPs, even though some feel like technicalities. My prediction / post about "A cute, dopey, derpy, set of top pop coins" is made manifest - for now.
 
While, yeah, you always hope for mint states, I can’t really call the AU58s a disappointment. I knew those were very unlikely to grade well and there was a good chance they could come back with AU50-55 grades. So in that respect the AU58 is a “coulda been worse.” All three of those probably wouldn’t have been graded were it not for the fact that I just had some credit and I decided to just roll the dice with what I had - a shot in the dark hoping for a 61 or 62 - and fill in some gaps. If nothing else they fill in some holes for this year and, if I can find some better examples soon, I’ll get upgrades / new coins in those slots later. The 10C coin was also in this category but that “shot in the dark” paid off with a MS61 - but obviously I’ll still be looking to improve on that later. 
As funny as it is, two of the 3 AU58s are still considered top pops in spite of the grade because there are no other coins of that type from that year graded. There are higher graded 5C coins but not from this year, and the $10 coin narrowly beat a couple of AU55s to claim the honor (for now) of sole Top Pop.
As hoped / expected, the Bond coins come out like rock stars (IMO anyway) with 4 of 5 scoring MS67 grades that I am very happy with, and the laggard still scored a 66.  Some might only be celebrating if they got 68s, but, seriously, I’m thrilled that they did this well. Not even one 65 or lower from that group. As horrible as this may sound, the last time I sent in a group of coins with my step-father with high hopes in 2009 I was shocked by how bad they did, so this was a nice change - lots of 63s and 64s.. Maybe I’ve learned a little. The fact that I was also right in my feelings about those AU58s supports this too. 
I’m also thrilled with the MS65 on the 1997 cent , tying the other MS65 that had been graded before and beating the MS64 that someone graded that popped up last week in the census.
As far as the others, its about the same - they did about as well as I’d expected, mostly with 62/63 grades. I knew these weren’t gems, but I don’t know how easy it will be to find gems, they’re the best I have for now, and I’ll build from this base as I’m able. 
You've endured enough of my complaints about this submission. You will hear no more. The set will soon "go live" with all the descriptions I've been researching and writing for 3 months. I’ll use NGC’s images - which they graciously auto-insert into the set in the new registry - until I can take my own. I have to wait for NGC to populate scores for the Bond coins as those slots haven’t been fully built out yet. Once the whole set can be entered I’ll paste in my descriptions from my word file.
I hope it's worth the wait. I hope those that follow this enjoy the latest arm of my now 3-year effort to build and present one of the better and most complete Zimbabwean coin and currency collections. Try to be kind.
I am still very curious about the other person grading these. I wonder if the other person grading these is going to make a set. I wonder if we'll see it soon or if a new set is going to pop up around 11/30, just before the cut-off.
Someone out there has a bunch of proofs graded that they don't list in the registry, but, somehow, I doubt this is the same person. The timing feels too suspect. Whoever has those proofs has had them for a while and hasn't listed them. But, if it is the same person, we'll probably never see those coins registered and never know who it was / is.
I’m still wondering who originally graded the MS65 1980 I bought a year ago was and were the rest of that submission went since my coin is a -004.
I'm going to just have to hope that my 13-coin submission and my 14-coin set holds up against what they bring this year if they do, and bolster it next year with my next submission (or two). For this year I'm just already out of time. Never thought I'd say that at this time of the year, but there's no dealer stock to snap up, and anything sent in after about late July isn't going to be finished in time to be used for this year's competition.
I wonder what this other person might have in the pipeline already ... I have a feeling I'll be watching and waiting nervously for the next ~60 days. Especially after what happened to the 1932 set last year.
But I'm going to post my set, display it proudly and hopefully let it shine. I'm not going to hide my hand.
It will be both funny and mildly infuriating  if, after all this, again, I can't hold onto or reclaim the top spot against someone that I might have inspired to build a set in the first place. But, if I did encourage the participation of someone else, that is its own victory and compliment. 
Since there is now more than one registered coin, and the scores of everything might actually matter, if they don’t do so automatically when adding the Bond Coins, I will see if NGC will look at and update the scores on everything before the deadline / score freeze. I don’t care about the absolute point values, but it doesn’t make sense to me that an AU58 $25 coin gets 67 points and a 1980 MS65 10C gets 16, especially given that older pre-switch-to-steel-clad coins are much harder to find. That 67 points doesn’t make sense when a 1997 1C in MS65RD only gets 28 points. I have not run across anything that would make me think that the $25 coin is that much more desirable or rare than the lower denominations.
If I do pick up a last-minute competitor, I think I’ll feel better if I lose if the scoring feels reasonably fair and consistent. And… this $25 coin having an out-sized point value would be very bad for me if the MS62 graded a week before mine lands and snags 94 points. Lol That coin / slot is one of two coins (with the 5C) where the other submitter got a much better grade / coin than I did (3-4 grades better) and having that on the coin with the highest scores in the set is potentially very damaging for me. 
Sorry this entry ended up being so long. Thanks for hanging with me if you did.
Thank you, NGC! I’ll shut up for now… at least about this submission. I’m just getting started talking about this series / this set.
 
Edited to add:
NGC is on it today with the coin queue and the Bond Coins are in the set now:

So there it is - the dopey set of 13 Top Pops. It is nice to be able to hide the empty slots and focus on the  coins I do have.  

I was checking last night, and these still showed as being in quality control.
This afternoon I opened my laptop, and the submission tracker page was open in a tab I left open last night when I shut the laptop. It auto updated / refreshed, and I saw “shipped” flash across my field of view as I was closing the tab, and then I frantically re-loaded the page, wondering if I had finally gone crazy.
I’m guessing this is the result of some back-office people in the shipping department working on the weekends and working long hours to get things out faster. That being the case, they have my thanks for that. I have whined… and vented… at length, but I know they’re working hard, and they have my Thanks for this one.
So here are the grades, at long last (I was totally right about the grades... the 2nd time...):
 
2863257-001; 1997 1C
MS65RD (Top Pop, Pop of 3 with 2 in grade)
2863257-002; 1999 5C
AU58 (Top Pop, only one of this year graded, but there are Mint State examples from other years as of a week or two ago.)
2863257-003; 2001 10C
MS61 (Top Pop, only one from this year graded, but there are better mint state examples from other years as of the other week.)
2863257-004; 2002 20C
MS62 (Top Pop, 2 in grade now / for now)
2863257-005; 2002 50C
MS63 (Top Pop, w 2 in grade I think).
2863257-006; 2002 $1
MS63 (Top Pop, but there are better mint state - MS64 - examples from other years now)
2863257-007; 2003 $10
AU58 (Top Pop. Solo Finest. Total Pop 3, 2 others in AU55)
2863257-008; 2003 S25
AU58 (The only coin in the set not considered a Top Pop, because there are mint state examples in this year.lol)
2863257-009; 2014 1C
MS67RD (Top Pop, Pop of 1)
2863257-010; 2014 5C
MS67 (Top Pop, Pop of 1)
2863257-011; 2014 10C
MS67 (Top Pop, Pop of 1)
2863257-012; 2014 25C
MS67 (Top Pop, Pop of 1)
2863257-013; 2014 50C
MS66 (Top Pop, Pop of 1)
13 of 14 are considered TOP POPs, even though some feel like technicalities. My prediction / post about "A cute, dopey, derpy, set of top pop coins" is made manifest - for now.
 
While, yeah, you always hope for mint states, I can’t really call the AU58s a disappointment. I knew those were very unlikely to grade well and there was a good chance they could come back with AU50-55 grades. So in that respect the AU58 is a “coulda been worse.” All three of those probably wouldn’t have been graded were it not for the fact that I just had some credit and I decided to just roll the dice with what I had - a shot in the dark hoping for a 61 or 62 - and fill in some gaps. If nothing else they fill in some holes for this year and, if I can find some better examples soon, I’ll get upgrades / new coins in those slots later. The 10C coin was also in this category but that “shot in the dark” paid off with a MS61 - but obviously I’ll still be looking to improve on that later. 
As funny as it is, two of the 3 AU58s are still considered top pops in spite of the grade because there are no other coins of that type from that year graded. There are higher graded 5C coins but not from this year, and the $10 coin narrowly beat a couple of AU55s to claim the honor (for now) of sole Top Pop.
As hoped / expected, the Bond coins come out like rock stars (IMO anyway) with 4 of 5 scoring MS67 grades that I am very happy with, and the laggard still scored a 66.  Some might only be celebrating if they got 68s, but, seriously, I’m thrilled that they did this well. Not even one 65 or lower from that group. As horrible as this may sound, the last time I sent in a group of coins with my step-father with high hopes in 2009 I was shocked by how bad they did, so this was a nice change - lots of 63s and 64s.. Maybe I’ve learned a little. The fact that I was also right in my feelings about those AU58s supports this too. 
I’m also thrilled with the MS65 on the 1997 cent , tying the other MS65 that had been graded before and beating the MS64 that someone graded that popped up last week in the census.
As far as the others, its about the same - they did about as well as I’d expected, mostly with 62/63 grades. I knew these weren’t gems, but I don’t know how easy it will be to find gems, they’re the best I have for now, and I’ll build from this base as I’m able. 
You've endured enough of my complaints about this submission. You will hear no more. The set will soon "go live" with all the descriptions I've been researching and writing for 3 months. I’ll use NGC’s images - which they graciously auto-insert into the set in the new registry - until I can take my own. I have to wait for NGC to populate scores for the Bond coins as those slots haven’t been fully built out yet. Once the whole set can be entered I’ll paste in my descriptions from my word file.
I hope it's worth the wait. I hope those that follow this enjoy the latest arm of my now 3-year effort to build and present one of the better and most complete Zimbabwean coin and currency collections. Try to be kind.
I am still very curious about the other person grading these. I wonder if the other person grading these is going to make a set. I wonder if we'll see it soon or if a new set is going to pop up around 11/30, just before the cut-off.
Someone out there has a bunch of proofs graded that they don't list in the registry, but, somehow, I doubt this is the same person. The timing feels too suspect. Whoever has those proofs has had them for a while and hasn't listed them. But, if it is the same person, we'll probably never see those coins registered and never know who it was / is.
I’m still wondering who originally graded the MS65 1980 I bought a year ago was and were the rest of that submission went since my coin is a -004.
I'm going to just have to hope that my 13-coin submission and my 14-coin set holds up against what they bring this year if they do, and bolster it next year with my next submission (or two). For this year I'm just already out of time. Never thought I'd say that at this time of the year, but there's no dealer stock to snap up, and anything sent in after about late July isn't going to be finished in time to be used for this year's competition.
I wonder what this other person might have in the pipeline already ... I have a feeling I'll be watching and waiting nervously for the next ~60 days. Especially after what happened to the 1932 set last year.
But I'm going to post my set, display it proudly and hopefully let it shine. I'm not going to hide my hand.
It will be both funny and mildly infuriating  if, after all this, again, I can't hold onto or reclaim the top spot against someone that I might have inspired to build a set in the first place. But, if I did encourage the participation of someone else, that is its own victory and compliment. 
Since there is now more than one registered coin, and the scores of everything might actually matter, if they don’t do so automatically when adding the Bond Coins, I will see if NGC will look at and update the scores on everything before the deadline / score freeze. I don’t care about the absolute point values, but it doesn’t make sense to me that an AU58 $25 coin gets 67 points and a 1980 MS65 10C gets 16, especially given that older pre-switch-to-steel-clad coins are much harder to find. That 67 points doesn’t make sense when a 1997 1C in MS65RD only gets 28 points. I have not run across anything that would make me think that the $25 coin is that much more desirable or rare than the lower denominations.
If I do pick up a last-minute competitor, I think I’ll feel better if I lose if the scoring feels reasonably fair and consistent. And… this $25 coin having an out-sized point value would be very bad for me if the MS62 graded a week before mine lands and snags 94 points. Lol That coin / slot is one of two coins (with the 5C) where the other submitter got a much better grade / coin than I did (3-4 grades better) and having that on the coin with the highest scores in the set is potentially very damaging for me. 
Sorry this entry ended up being so long. Thanks for hanging with me if you did.
Thank you, NGC! I’ll shut up for now… at least about this submission. I’m just getting started talking about this series / this set.
 
Edited to add:
NGC is on it today with the coin queue and the Bond Coins are in the set now:

So there it is - the dopey set of 13 Top Pops. It is nice to be able to hide the empty slots and focus on the  coins I do have.  

So today saw another census update and another big increase in the Zcoin population.
Last week we saw an increase from 33 to 41. Today we saw an increase to 57. At the start of the year I think it was only 29 total - including 12 NCLT S$10 coins.
The MS population increased from 9, to 17, to, now, 33.
Interestingly, looking again, I actually don’t think the update last week included my coins like I thought and I think this week's update does - especially based on the dates and the fact that this update includes some bond coins.
That’s what I get for trying to get information by trying to interpret the bones and the tea-leaves of the census. However, based on what I’m seeing today I think my Bond Coins did pretty darn good overall. I think I pulled an MS67RD, 3 MS67s and an MS66. I THINK. I think I think I think… still nothing official and this morning is teaching me the error of assuming I’m the only one crazy enough to grade these is me so an increase in the pop reports has to be mine.
That said, if I’m correct this time, the grades aren’t that different. They’re mostly the same. A coin I thought was a 64 might be a 65, a coin I thought was a 64 based on last week might be a 63. A coin I thought was an AU55 may have gotten an AU58. The big loss if I’m right is two coins that I thought last week might have gotten MS62/MS63 might both be AU58s… Which, honestly, makes a lot more sense. I was worried about those, really suspicious that they’d come back as AU when I sent them in but sent them in because I had grading credits and for the heck of it. I was a bit shocked / surprised by MS grades on those and the AUs just make more sense. - Assuming any of these are mine, but, surely there aren’t 3 people submitting all of these right now?? Surely. SURELY. What would be the odds of that?!?
Still…. There is something VERY interesting in this.
In order for those to have ticked the pop reports higher just last week, that suggests that someone else must have submitted some of these for grading within a week or two of me sending mine in, right around the time I was writing a bunch of journals about doing this. That is a very interesting coincidence of timing.
On the PMG side there’s someone that’s been smacking me upside the head in almost every category from P-1 to P-105 for about 10 months now and I’m about 95-99% confident this person reads my journals over there at a minimum and I did reference expanding into coinage in those journals too.
I’m really wondering if there’s another type set of Zimbabwe coins that is about to pop up and if it is going to belong to this person… I am REALLY curious about this.
Should I be offended or flattered if this person really is just determined to come for my scalp in every area they can for some reason?
A saner, smarter, person might look at this and wonder if they should shut up and keep their plans to themselves… but I’m not that person! Come at me, Bro! This whole thing just got soooo much more interesting. I think I’m actually more excited now.
A couple of months ago I’d written a set description for my Z coin set saying that set would have 70% of the NGC Graded MS coins in the world in it. At the time, if I’d been the only one grading, I’d have been right. Now, it’s going to be about 45%. Still rather high if we’re being honest,
This also puts my joking post about a cute, dopey, derpy set of top pops in a fair bit of peril. It may still happen just because some of the coins that I submitted have different dates than the coins this other person submitted. So they may still be marked as TOP POP for now even though there is another, higher graded coin of that type.
 
Can't close this out without saying, Sam is doing sooo much better now. Talking again more. Walking around again more. Smiling, playing, bein happy again. He woke up smiling and happy today and we didn't have to give him Tylenol and wait for him to come back alive again. He's doing well. He's going to be home all week and he needs to test negative for Covid before he can go back to daycare. I'm taking him to the pediatrician today for a post-hospital follow-up. 

Well, I'd really thought that after my Z coins hit grading on Tuesday of last week I'd get grades this week almost for sure and I'd be getting to post about the results. Sadly, this was not the case - I'm still waiting. But hopefully they'll finish soon. But I won't see grades before Tuesday now with Labor Day coming up.
Gosh... I'm really wanting to know the results and hoping to not be massively disappointed. This is dragging on and turning into a nail-biter!
In the mean time, I thought I'd take a minute and share some artsy nonsense with everyone.
Most of the time when we're taking coin photos we're trying to capture the whole coin with good focus, luster and detail or trying to take pictures with a microscope to see variety identifiers. Sometimes though I like to get shots that are more meant to approach the subject more artistically and wanted to share some of those just for fun:
I feel like you see a lot of similar stuff come out of NGC sometimes - when they want something to grab attention for some article or announcement.'
It's fun stuff to play around with when you're bored or just want to run from life's responsibilities...  
 

Lately, there has been much criticism and suspicion about the length of time it takes to get your coins graded. And my recent submission is no different. Like me, at the end of the day, when all your coins have been returned, you will probably ask yourself if it has been worth it? In the end, I weighed my worth against the grades I got, the price I paid, and the wait I had to endure.
On April 22, 2021, I mailed a 13-coin submission to NGC. On August 10, I received the last of my coins back in the mail. In that one mailing, I had four separate submissions graded in the following order. The first two were Christa McAuliffe commemorative coins graded under the US-modern tier. The next was a silver 5-ounce Tuskegee Airmen Quarter in an oversize holder. The largest was an 8-coin submission under the world-economy tier. Finally, the last two coins I received back were two coins under the world-modern tier.
In the end, the cost was never going to be an issue because of last year’s award as one of three awarded journalists. This only left me with two considerations which were in a manner of speaking linked together. The wait was worth it if I liked the grades, and if I didn’t like them, it wasn’t.
Most of the coins were related to my 1868-70 Spanish Provisional Government set and my 1933-38 Second Spanish Republic set. The others were new purchases and a few that had been lying around in flips.
Having all those grading credits tempted me to send in coins that I otherwise might not of. However, I had a duplicate raw coin that I considered sending in with the submission to sell. In the end, I determined not to send it because I thought it might get a details grade. Why waste the credit if I didn’t need to? Instead, I’ll save it for my 2021 Morgan and Peace Dollar.
This turned out to be a good decision because, in 13 coins, I had no detailed grades and three top-pops, of which two were 70’s. Most of the other grades were reasonably expected, with only a few exceptions. The following is a chart detailing my hope, my expectation, and the final grade:
Coin
Hope
Expected
Final Grade
2021 UNC Christa McAuliffe
70
69
69
2021 PRF Christa McAuliffe
70
69
69
2021 SP Oversize Tuskegee Airmen
70
69
70
1947-S Philippine MacArthur Peso
65
64
63
1870(70) SNM Spanish Provisional 50C
20
15
12
1870(70) SNM Spanish Provisional Peseta
VF
VF
25
1870(73) DEM Spanish
Provisional Peseta
58
AU
55 (Top-Pop)
1934 2nd Spanish Republic 25C
65
64
64
1937 2nd Spanish Republic 5c
65
64
63
1937 Menorca 25C (Spanish Civil War)
64
63
63
1938 2nd Spanish Republic 25C
67
66
63
2019PM B.V. Islands Silver $1 Una and the Lion
69
69
68 (rev proof)
2020 France 2E Proof Medical Research
70
69
70
 
Overall, my expectations were met with a minimum of disappointments and three top-pops! Was this worth the wait? Determine for yourselves, but as for me, I think this was worth the wait. Gary.


 

Well, I'd really thought that after my Z coins hit grading on Tuesday of last week I'd get grades this week almost for sure and I'd be getting to post about the results. Sadly, this was not the case - I'm still waiting. But hopefully they'll finish soon. But I won't see grades before Tuesday now with Labor Day coming up.
Gosh... I'm really wanting to know the results and hoping to not be massively disappointed. This is dragging on and turning into a nail-biter!
In the mean time, I thought I'd take a minute and share some artsy nonsense with everyone.
Most of the time when we're taking coin photos we're trying to capture the whole coin with good focus, luster and detail or trying to take pictures with a microscope to see variety identifiers. Sometimes though I like to get shots that are more meant to approach the subject more artistically and wanted to share some of those just for fun:
I feel like you see a lot of similar stuff come out of NGC sometimes - when they want something to grab attention for some article or announcement.'
It's fun stuff to play around with when you're bored or just want to run from life's responsibilities...  
 

Well, I'd really thought that after my Z coins hit grading on Tuesday of last week I'd get grades this week almost for sure and I'd be getting to post about the results. Sadly, this was not the case - I'm still waiting. But hopefully they'll finish soon. But I won't see grades before Tuesday now with Labor Day coming up.
Gosh... I'm really wanting to know the results and hoping to not be massively disappointed. This is dragging on and turning into a nail-biter!
In the mean time, I thought I'd take a minute and share some artsy nonsense with everyone.
Most of the time when we're taking coin photos we're trying to capture the whole coin with good focus, luster and detail or trying to take pictures with a microscope to see variety identifiers. Sometimes though I like to get shots that are more meant to approach the subject more artistically and wanted to share some of those just for fun:
I feel like you see a lot of similar stuff come out of NGC sometimes - when they want something to grab attention for some article or announcement.'
It's fun stuff to play around with when you're bored or just want to run from life's responsibilities...  
 

I agree with everyone that prices, and certainly those in my areas of interest, seem to be going forever upwards - I think I was a bit in shock watching my selected lots go through at the MDC Monaco auction, the Paramount Collection and the latest Heritage and Stacks sales, needless to say I didn't get anything!! As a result I have bought very little lately, although I did pick up some more Napoleonic medals - in copper/bronze as the more elusive silver strikes are now achieving prices in the thousands!

My lack of recent Journal entries is a result of my focus being elsewhere following a life-changing diagnosis rather than the lack of new acquisitions (I did try). Although I am functioning again and back at work for now it looks like I am going to get the time to finally sort out, and research, my collection properly, albeit earlier than expected.

Always have a hobby you can do at your own pace whilst sitting down - numismatics seems a good choice! 

So, I was still feeling salty about those $2 and $5 bi-metallics and decided to leave a bad review on them a while ago - I left good reviews on two raw notes I'd bought that both graded well.
A few days later they reply to the 5-star reviews thanking me, but I see nothing on the 2-star... The 5 stars are showing on the website, but the 2 star isn't.
Three days later I finally see a reply come through saying that they tried to reach out to me but got no response... the 2-star review still isn't showing on their website even though they responded to it...
As I pointed out to them, I get and see tons of emails from them - I'd gotten 4 emails that day about their flash sale. I get their emails asking for reviews on what I've bought previously. I got the emails responding to the other reviews. And yet... somehow... they claim I missed and didn't respond to the one email I've really wanted from them?? I see everything else, and nothing goes to spam - I'm sure in part because Gmail knows I actually open a lot of them - but - somehow - I didn't get that one message.
They responded back saying they sent the message on the day before the other comments came back. I checked to see - not in my trash. Not in spam. Not there. I think they need to check their "drafts" folder. But I don't think they sent anything.
But I do suddenly understand how - and why - those coin sets had only three 5-star reviews when I got such shabby coins and why there's never anything other than 5-star reviews on that site on anything.
They must be blocking / filtering out anything that isn't 5 stars. It's a testimonial feed masquerading as a rating / review system. So, I'm never going to bother leaving a review on that site again. No one will ever read it.
I did send images of those 6 coins, just because - I'm right and what they sent for those 2 denominations looks nowhere near as nice as what their website images show.
It didn't really go anywhere because it was past their 30 day return window.
I didn't expect anything good to come out of it, but the complaint deserved to be made. If I'd wanted a refund, I would have chosen to contact them within 30 days and instead I chose to pick what seemed worthwhile and make a smaller submission - there really aren't tons of sellers offering these coins / sets in uncirculated condition. But they promised mint and that isn't what they delivered and that deserved to be called out.
Maybe I'm unfair in some of my griping here but I don't think I'm going to be buying from them anymore. I've had success buying from them in the past and had good service in the past but since 2020 every time I interact with their customer service it tends to be a disaster and they've jacked up their order minimums so much that you can't just make a small, fun purchase anymore - other dealers are just treating me better at this point - and delivering what they advertise.
On a more positive note, the coins I submitted hit Grading/Encapsulation today. So maybe in another week I’ll finally know how good or bad the coins I didn’t hate did, along with the Bond Coins, which I’m very optimistic on.
Seeing this helped spur me on to work a little more on my descriptions and comments for these Zimbabwean coins. I’m hoping to polish them off with comments on how well they do individually and post them up as soon as I get them - hopefully with some nice looking photos.

So, I was still feeling salty about those $2 and $5 bi-metallics and decided to leave a bad review on them a while ago - I left good reviews on two raw notes I'd bought that both graded well.
A few days later they reply to the 5-star reviews thanking me, but I see nothing on the 2-star... The 5 stars are showing on the website, but the 2 star isn't.
Three days later I finally see a reply come through saying that they tried to reach out to me but got no response... the 2-star review still isn't showing on their website even though they responded to it...
As I pointed out to them, I get and see tons of emails from them - I'd gotten 4 emails that day about their flash sale. I get their emails asking for reviews on what I've bought previously. I got the emails responding to the other reviews. And yet... somehow... they claim I missed and didn't respond to the one email I've really wanted from them?? I see everything else, and nothing goes to spam - I'm sure in part because Gmail knows I actually open a lot of them - but - somehow - I didn't get that one message.
They responded back saying they sent the message on the day before the other comments came back. I checked to see - not in my trash. Not in spam. Not there. I think they need to check their "drafts" folder. But I don't think they sent anything.
But I do suddenly understand how - and why - those coin sets had only three 5-star reviews when I got such shabby coins and why there's never anything other than 5-star reviews on that site on anything.
They must be blocking / filtering out anything that isn't 5 stars. It's a testimonial feed masquerading as a rating / review system. So, I'm never going to bother leaving a review on that site again. No one will ever read it.
I did send images of those 6 coins, just because - I'm right and what they sent for those 2 denominations looks nowhere near as nice as what their website images show.
It didn't really go anywhere because it was past their 30 day return window.
I didn't expect anything good to come out of it, but the complaint deserved to be made. If I'd wanted a refund, I would have chosen to contact them within 30 days and instead I chose to pick what seemed worthwhile and make a smaller submission - there really aren't tons of sellers offering these coins / sets in uncirculated condition. But they promised mint and that isn't what they delivered and that deserved to be called out.
Maybe I'm unfair in some of my griping here but I don't think I'm going to be buying from them anymore. I've had success buying from them in the past and had good service in the past but since 2020 every time I interact with their customer service it tends to be a disaster and they've jacked up their order minimums so much that you can't just make a small, fun purchase anymore - other dealers are just treating me better at this point - and delivering what they advertise.
On a more positive note, the coins I submitted hit Grading/Encapsulation today. So maybe in another week I’ll finally know how good or bad the coins I didn’t hate did, along with the Bond Coins, which I’m very optimistic on.
Seeing this helped spur me on to work a little more on my descriptions and comments for these Zimbabwean coins. I’m hoping to polish them off with comments on how well they do individually and post them up as soon as I get them - hopefully with some nice looking photos.

While I don't have a must do or list of things that I feel are must do items for my numismatic journey, I have some goals for my collection.   One such goal has been to include an uber high grade classic coin to the collection.   This has never been a high priority or something that I felt I "had" to do just a want list item that I figured I would find someday that would not only fit this minor goal but be very nice upgrade to one set or the other.   I think that I always expected that would be a new coin for my Lincoln set, given that it is a very large, long set I guess that it seemed the most likely set to find one that was within financial reach.  There are tons of MS68 and MS69 graded modern Lincoln coins but the most available MS68 classic coins in that series are the steel cents and they still sell for right around 1K on average, doable but not really the coin that I was motivated to go after at those prices.
However recently on GC I saw an auction for a 1940-D Mercury dime in MS68FB, not only is this a great classic design coin but it was also a numerical upgrade for several sets.   So I did as usual and threw in a $20 bid to place the coin on my watchlist, I check recent auction results for this grade and figured that it would likely sell for more than I was prepared to go.   A couple of days before the end of the auction I checked on the status and was surprised to see the price still rather low.  Ok that does happen sometimes and then a flurry of action in the last hour pushes the prices up near or beyond average.   So I decided what I was willing to go, which was below the recent averages; and place my final bid fully expecting to be out bid in those last hours.   I checked my emails after the auction deadline and low and behold I had won for just under my high bid!
I thought that is great, and then the doubts start to creep in.   Why did I win for less that recent average sales; did I miss something that others saw?   Did I just buy a dog coin, what did I just do!   Well nothing to do but wait for the package to arrive and see the coin in hand.   Fast forward to yesterday when the package came, I can now say that I very happy with my new coin, not a dog at least in my opinion.  I suspect that because this coin is blast white played some part in the lower than average selling price, had it been toned I expect it would have been much more expensive.  Also the lack of a CAC bean may have been a factor to some buyers at this grade level, not a deal breaker for me.
So there it is, a minor bucket list item checked off with what I find to be a very beautiful coin with one of the most attractive classic designs.  The only photos I have are the GC one's for now.

Following up on my last post, just  for fun.
I'd left the 2018 American Innovation coin on my dresser. I picked it up and was going to take it to join the other coins.
Sam was in the room and it caught his eye and he demanded that I hand it over. He proceeded to walk around with it, wave it around and look at it.
I think this is one of those times when you just have to say "what the heck," and let them have it. Worst case scenario is he manages to break something I couldn't break with a hammer and I'm out about $19.

I've been talking and thinking about starting a set of the Innovation Dollars to show the boys as they get older and a seller on eBay gave me an offer for this after I watched it so I decided to bite. After shipping it cost me $20. At that price it just becomes fun impulse buy at a stressful time. I thought it was worth it to begin the journey of about 50 coins with this one. I think I will make a set of these, but in the near term I think my focus will be adding a few more presidents to that old set - I'm probably going to buy year sets of those for 2015 and/or 2016 soon.

In looking at this label though, with all that information and all that color... I just couldn't help but laugh. If you look at the labels for the old fatty holders they say hardly anything usually. Just something like S$1 and a year and mint mark. Done. And you have to think they couldn't put much more on that label if they wanted too. 6 lines of information a barcode and the "American Innovation" tagline.
I really like that gear / mechanical wheel graphic on the label though.
I still find it odd that they kicked off this series with this one-off coin that breaks the whole pattern. One coin in a year rather than 4 and about a person and not linked to / for a state or territory. Honoring the first patent is also interesting in the context of modern times and the use / abuse of patents to lock competition out of markets and crush by litigation.
That coin arrived in the Mail Monday at the old house. I didn't get a chance to get it out until this morning because we've been going so hard but I didn't want to risk it being forgotten in the mailbox. We really need to set up our mail forwarding. Anyway...
Also on Monday - the really big news - Shandy got a new job!!! It has been / was a crazy week because she was having to do remote interviews and skills tests while we were packing every day and night too.. super stressful and crazy but Monday made it all worth it with the big news! So she'll be using her new home office for that and no longer doing 5 AM English lessons. We'll have offices together on one side of the house with a small bathroom between us. It's going to be great I think. We'll spend more time in the morning together with the boys. It's gonna be fantastic!
The movers came today and after a lot of hours and a lot work in the heat of August almost all of our stuff is over here now. We're going back to the old place one last time tomorrow to finish getting the last of our stuff and cleaning up a bit. But tonight will be the first night in the new house. With a little child-care help from in-laws this house is and will continue to "come online" very quickly.
Saturday night we'd brought a bottle of bubbly wine and apple cider with champagne flutes to celebrate. After all the unpleasantness that wrecked that evening we never opened them - it didn't feel right. But we'll get everyone over soon and pop the corks in a proper celebration of the new house.
It's all coming together. One day at a time.
Tomorrow's priorities are building the crib, setting up my desk so I can work Thursday and generally unboxing things as able.

I took Ben to that game store today while Shandy and the baby were napping to kill some time while we were waiting for the sellers to finally vacate the new house - it was the last day of the leaseback and they were clearly unprepared and determined to drag things out all day. We didn't get the keys until 8:30 PM after telling us 5PM and cussed me out and left the house dirty when I challenged him on it, but we won't dwell there. I don't want this to be about that.
Anyway... There was a bin of cards in there that they had for 25 cents a piece - the card equivalent to the junk bin. After Ben got done asking for $40-100 figures and art pieces that I was not going to buy I started digging in the junk bin.
Much to my surprise there were several nice cards in there that featured prominently in the show and I started pulling those out and showing them to Ben and me and the owner were talking about the show and Magic Cards and anime.
It has probably been close to 15 year since I've gotten to just hang out and chat in a cards store while digging and searching - between undergrad, grad school and now parenthood. I was having a lot of fun and could have spent another hour or two happily digging and talking... but that's not how things work with a 5 year old.
But that is our happy place, right? Digging for gems / gold in the junk bin and chatting about our hobbies?
Ben by that point had gotten it in his head to buy a booster pack with a blue eyes dragon on it in the hope of getting a blue eyes- because he doesn't yet get how collectable card games really work. The best / worst part is that the cards in those packs are the Japanese cards and they aren't in English and he knows this because he got one with his mother.
So sensing that my time was up I picked 16 cheap cards for $4 and bought his pack for $3 (7 cards).
We barely got home and he was wanting to take like a 4th of my cards for himself or to "trade" for them. His mother woke up and he starts telling her about the ones I got. - He did get a really nice card in his pack... but it is in Japanese.
I just laughed. I knew I had the good stuff. I pretty much knew exactly how it was going to go down. I knew going with cards he'd recognize from the show was the way to go, but he wanted the pack too. But dad knows where it's at.
I may try to go back with him one more time and dig for more gems in that box before we get fully moved out and over. Just for fun. At 25 cents a piece that's a very fun, cheap, reasonable way to get him some fun cards he'll recognize and enjoy.
I'll keep working on sharing a love of coins, but I collected pokemon cards some too and I turned out okay, and he enjoys these a lot.

Friends,
 I have been here for over 15 years. At one point 10 years ago I started buying graded coins from members and submitting many coins to NGC as well.My goal was to obtain as close to $100,000 in NGC value at no cost out of pocket. I did end up with a great set of dimes which I will be keeping as a momentum but the rest is going to Great Collections over the next few months.
 My dimes have $0 of cost (Rank #1 Clad NGC only) as I have sold so many dimes over the years that they actually floated costs on other invested coins.
 First off the chart will be all the Lincoln coins I have listed in my collection manager. I will send them in one month. NGC list value = $12,158. My cost to date on the group of 94 coins is $1,763 It took a lot of sales to get those costs so low and a good sale on those will bring my total cost to date down closer to $0 invested total.
 I will add to this journal over the next few months to let you know where I land.
Enjoy Collecting!!! 

I got the new Zimbabwean $5 coins I ordered in a few days ago and... they look a lot more shiny and nice this time. They actually look shiny and nice this time - there are no dark spots or mint green areas of obvious environmental damage.
Unfortunately - no pictures for now. They got packed away a few days ago along with all the other raw coins in 2x2s in the binder.
We are now 8 days out from when we're supposed to get the keys to the new place and all non-essentials are rapidly getting packed away.
Tomorrow the last PMG-graded note I expect to receive in the mail at this house is going to be delivered. I'm hoping I get a chance to scan that in and get that in my Zimbabwe note set before the move but... it's almost immediately going into one of my note boxes with all its buddies and then those boxes and the NGC display boxes are going to get packed up soon for a trip - the first time most of them have moved in a while because they don't get out much.
The $2 Bond coins I ordered from a seller in Ukraine recently hit New York. Those will probably arrive in time to have them put in a box - unopened, in their mailer - and they probably won't be looked at good until I'm in the new house.
I'm hoping to snag up a $1 Bond coin and some other raw hole filler and maybe have a nice 2nd submission shape up for early 2022, maybe / hopefully getting that Zimbabwe coin collection into proper fighting shape. My descriptions are already drafted up and saved in a word file in my cloud storage. I'm really excited to roll out that set display and extend the Zimbabwe set back into the NGC side, coming back over here with it and coming full circle with it a bit. I always thought building a set of these coins to go with the notes and really complete the collection would be more of a "some day" thing but I think I'm going to be really happy with how this comes together - even if it takes me a while to fill in the last few slots.
Speaking of the NGC note boxes - I finally ordered more of them for the first time probably in 10-12 years. I over bought back in the day and had a couple of extras / empty ones and I've finally filled up what spare space I had a little at a time. I'll be getting 5 new boxes soon. One of which will be dedicated just to the new Zimbabwe set when it gets back from grading.

After the recent purchase of that 2011 set the Presidential proof coins are filling one box perfectly - I'm thinking and hoping that another of the new boxes is going to go towards more of those and maybe some innovation series dollars which I think I will build a set of as I'm able and inclined.
I'm going to keep trying with Ben. I hope he looks at all these things with the same wonder that I had when I looked at Grandpa's old silver dollars, but I'll also be showing him mercury dimes, standing liberty quarters, walking liberty halfs...
... and my wife is reminding me that, as and if I do this, we're also going to have to talk to him about the fact that he's not allowed to tell other people about them...
I love her, but she's kind of a buzz-kill some days.  But she's right. The kid runs his mouth and repeats everything.  
In all seriousness though, that's one of the reasons I like this place. The people that "really know me" and who I see face to face I don't talk to about this stuff with and I never have. Shandy has more than once made the comment that she didn't realize at the time how big of a deal it was when we were dating and I allowed her to see all this stuff.  
Edited to add: Some emerging drama got me to get the Binder out so here's shots:
 

Well, after (finally) putting the time and the energy and cash / credit behind getting them all reholdered I had thought that a picture of the group of coins all in their matching slabs would make a good banner image for my 10G set in the new registry.
While I do think the group of coins look good and I'm still happy I got them reholdered, and while I do think the images looked good, I have to admit that they fell a bit flat as banner images.


I think they look great in person though and I think one day they'll look very charming in a display case together - maybe with 2 (or 3) more coins to complete the set, if I can ever get those.
But for the banner image I've adopted something akin to Coinbuf's approach:

I think Mike's approach works well for Silver - especially given the color scheme of the registry - but it seems a bit over-the-top and gaudy for gold - with the below as just a quick and dirty example
I took new images of every coin in the new holders and I was aiming for showing off luster but I think expanding gold color out would work better with more flat lighting..

Of course, I did re-image the whole set in the new pronged holders... So now I just need to decide if I'm going to post the cropped photos straight or go with the blacked out versions...

I've always tended to favor the images showing the prongs / holder because the goal of registry images is documentation of the set and the image with the prongs is a more accurate representation of the coin as it is in person but the blacked-out image has a certain cleanness to it and I can understand why it appeals to many.
 

So far, most of the medals I have presented have been the work of one of Soho's most prolific engravers, Conrad Heinrich Küchler. Luckily, a lot of the original correspondence relating to those pieces has been detailed in numerous publications and online databases, which has served to further my investigation. The same cannot be said for this medal, as it was engraved by a less well-known yet still influential Soho engraver, John Phillip. Given the lack of digitalized contemporary documents and nearly no mention of the piece in published works, I decided to focus my efforts on a different tool, auction catalogs. Scouring auction archives and dealer inventories that I have at my disposal led to an interesting discovery. Across these sources, no less than three different engravers were credited for the obverse and reverse dies! The gentleman I purchased the medal from indicated that it was the work of G.F. Pidgeon, but a well-respected auction house suggested Lewis Pingo. Yet, another stated the engraver was I. P. with no further elaboration. It appears, however, that all but perhaps the last, which is due entirely to lack of elaboration, is incorrect. Tungate (2020) details the chronological order of the numerous coins, tokens, and medals struck at the Soho Mint. She often reports known mintages and engravers. In this instance, she credits John Phillips for the Westminster Fire Office piece, but she classifies it as a token and notes that the piece is dated 1803 but was struck in 1811. I find this somewhat odd, as the piece does not imply any exchange of goods or services upon surrender, suggesting it is not a token but, in fact, a medal. Furthermore, the current piece and all of those I have since examined are not dated 1803. Nonetheless, I gave her suggestion that John Phillip engraved the die full consideration, as I did with all the others. The piece is signed "I. P." on both sides, which I soon discovered was, in fact, the initials used by John Phillips to mark his work. This is evident when examining other pieces engraved by him and produced at the Soho mint. With that mystery solved, one is only left to ponder the date provided for their manufacture, 1811. This point is significant as it relates to the silver-lined brass shells, but I will save that tidbit of information for the "notes" section below. 
Historical Context: This medal was purchased well before my intent to create this set, but the simplicity of its design paired with the silver-lined-brass shells, original wrapper, and the provenance linking it to the James Watt Jr. Collection made this piece irresistible. I had no idea what the Westminster Fire Office was, much less why they commissioned medals to be struck the Soho Mint. As with every other piece in this collection, I sought to understand its history and why it came into existence. A quick internet search was all but a flop, but it did lead me to an interesting book published in 1952 by E. A. Davies, which detailed the formation of the Westminster Fire Office. Most of the information obtained and subsequently shared here originated from this book. I aim only to hit the highlights, but copies of the book can occasionally be found online if you find yourself intrigued.
Founded in 1717, the Westminster Fire Office is one of the oldest and most distinguished English intuitions that offered fire insurance to building owners. As Davies (1952) argues, the Great Fire of London in 1666 brought about a wave of destruction that left countless people with virtually nothing. The wounds inflicted by this horrible event were still felt some 50 years later, and the current system to provide aid was insufficient. At the time, the King would authorize small amounts of aid, deemed "King's Briefs", which were under the control of local clergy and parish councils. The process was slow and rarely approved, making this antiquated system all but useless. To address the growing issue, several organizations came about in the 1680s that essentially offered insurance to those in need who could afford the initial costs.
Our story begins with the Hand-in-Hand Office, which held its first meeting at Tom's Coffee House on November 12th, 1696 (Davies, 1952). Members operated the Hand-in-Hand Office for the sole purpose of protecting themselves from undue damage in the event of a catastrophic fire. The office was founded by roughly a hundred members from both Westminster and the City of London. The general membership appointed directors for two-year terms, and although they ran most of the day-to-day operations, their power was always in check by larger group membership which held a meeting twice a year. By January of 1699, Tom's Coffee House, located in Westminster, became the Hand-in-Hand Office's official headquarters, and all general meetings were initially held there until 1701 (Davies, 1952). As membership continued to increase, the original location was not deemed appropriate, and a larger venue in Westminster was adopted for a short period. Unappeased by the move, those who resided in London pushed for the meetings to be held in the city, but this would exclude those who resided in Westminster. A compromise was reached, allowing the general meetings to occur in London from Christmas to Midsummer and Westminster for the remaining portion of the year. This did little to appease the members from the city, and eventually, a new office was established in London. This would prove to be the demise of the importance of the Westminster office, and it was effectively closed by February of 1714. The new office would serve as the official meeting location. This placed a significant burden on those from Westminster, resulting in their loss of influence as they could not attend as many meetings. Seemingly betrayed, several members of the Hand-in-Hand Office set to correct the issue and met to establish the Westminster Fire Office at Tom's Coffee House in 1717.
The founders wasted no time establishing the new organization, and by June of 1717, they were soliciting subscribers. The members agreed that the Westminster Fire Office would come to exist if they could raise enough subscriptions to seed the company with no less than £2000, which they had little trouble securing (Davies, 1952). Several documents were drafted detailing the general structure, policies, services offered, and all other inner workings of the Westminster Fire Office. As detailed in those documents, insurance policies were only to cover buildings, not their contents. Furthermore, homes made of timber were twice as expensive to insure relative to those made of stone or brick. Coverage was offered in seven-year terms, at a rate of 12 Shillings per £100 of building value, as assessed by the appointed surveyor. Those seeking membership were required to pay their dues upfront, which consisted of the above-mentioned cost dependent upon the building's value, a small few for the Office badge affixed to their building, and the necessary processing fees imparted by the government. Once paid, they were required to sign a Deed of Covenant that bound them to their membership. The Westminster Fire Office was designed to split any financial loss due to fire damage across members. This was done by reducing the dividend afforded to members at the end of their seven-year contract. To this extent, a membership could have little direct risk to the individual but came with a great deal of protection. These terms seem to have been very agreeable as, by the end of June, there were roughly 150 subscribers paying dues totaling £2,860 (Davies, 1952). The founders once again met at Tom's Coffee House on July 30th, 1717, to draft the Deed of Settlement to officially establish the Westminster Fire Office.
The first general meeting of the newly established Westminster Fire Office took place just three weeks later. During this meeting, the first directors and "inferior officers" were appointed, and it was established that general meetings should occur in April and October of each year. The directors, however, were expected to meet weekly and perform a host of additional duties with an annual salary. These coveted positions often went to men of significant influence and wealth, which was likely for the best as the exceedingly meager salary was unlikely to attract anyone else. Directors could serve a maximum of two consecutive years, and new directors were appointed in the general meetings held in October of each year, during which no more than four were eligible for reelection. Upon serving, they were not eligible to run again until two years had passed. This process would be closely adhered to for nearly two hundred years. It interesting to note that a directorship was a position of honor, with little compensation and an enormous responsibility. For instance, directors were required to assess any fire damage done to insured buildings, no less than three were required to inspect a building requiring more than £1000 in coverage (this required a vote at the general meetings), and they were required to be present at all fires to direct the fire brigade. All of this, of course, is on top of the administrative duties of their office but afforded them no additional pay. In other words, being a director required a lot of dedication but offered little in return beyond prestige.
The one duty that stuck out in my mind required that directors be present at every fire within the area, even if the Westminster Fire Office did not insure the building in distress. This might seem odd at first, but at the time, no public fire department existed in the area. Instead, fire brigades were established by the different Fire Offices and were conducted entirely by each respective organization (Davies, 1952). When a fire broke out, the brigades from all companies were dispatched, and they often worked together to put out fires. This practice ensured that damage was kept to a minimum and further secured the safety of the other uninflected buildings insured. Although some of these organizations were driven by pure profit, they all provided a much-needed public service. Serving on one of these brigades as a waterman or foreman also afforded many advantages. Perhaps the greatest of which was being immune to forced military service (i.e., press-gangs), granted by the Act of 1707 (Davies, 1952). Each organization was required to register the members with the Office of Admiralty, and this, paired with their distinctive uniforms and office badge, would render them immune to press-gangs.
The Westminster Fire Office adopted its badge on September 3rd, 1717. The design by Roger Askew, one of the early directors, was relatively simple. The portcullis was adopted from the coat of arms of the City of Westminster, while the feathers were a tribute to the Prince of Whales (i.e., King George II). Davies (1952) notes that the soon-to-be King expressed great support for the Westminster Fire Office and even insured six of his properties within the first year of their establishment. Proud of the newly established office badge, members ensured it was used at nearly every possibility. Large cast lead renditions were made and numbered to denote the houses under the protection of the office, but perhaps the essential function it served was to distinguish the members of the company's fire brigade. Although the names of the waterman were registered with the Office of Admiralty, the badge served as an immediate symbol to denote their immunity to forced conscription. Furthermore, the badge allowed the waterman to identify the director on the scene charged with commanding them. As time went on and the success of the Westminster Fire Office afforded several expansions of the Fire Brigade, directors were no longer required to be on the scene of every fire. Nonetheless, the organization steeped in tradition continued to issue badges to directors. By the early nineteenth century, the Westminster Fire Office started issuing gold medals to directors as a token of appreciation for the level of dedication required to perform the duties of their position, especially in consideration of their minimal compensation.
In the end, the Westminster Fire Office was exceptionally successful, and by 1757 they secured over 20,000 policies totaling more than £7,000,000 worth of insured property (Davies, 1952). This is even more impressive when one considers the limited scope of their operation at the time. As the organization continued to grow, there was an obvious need to make a few changes to the original charter. These changes were voted upon within the general meetings and, if adopted, were put in place somewhat informally. It wouldn't be until 1805 that the Deed of Settlement was amended to formalize previous changes, allow for the appointment of up to 24 directors, and extended the range of eligibility to all of England, Scotland, and Wales (Davies, 1952). As time went on and social services become more centralized, the Westminster Fire Office found themselves no longer in need of their fire brigade. After over 115 years of dedicated service, the Westminster Fire Office Brigade was dissolved in 1833. The changes enacted in 1805 eventually gave rise to field offices across England, Scotland, and Wales. For instance, A Westminster Fire Office branch was operating in Birmingham by 1886 (Davies, 1952). Eventually, the smaller organizations such as the Hand-in-Hand Society and the Westminster Fire Office found themselves outmatched in a world full of corporate conglomerates and were subsequently absorbed by the latter. In the case of the Westminster Fire Office, they were offered a generous buyout by the Alliance Insurance Company Limited. Although many longstanding members objected on the grounds of tradition, they gave in to reason, and the Westminster Fire Office was incorporated on March 12th, 1906 (Davies, 1952). Part of the terms put forth allowed the Westminster Fire Office to continue operations much like before, but under the constitution drafted by its new parent company. It appears that the organization was still running at the time of publication, as a list of directors for the year 1952 is provided early on in the book. The Author, A. E. Davies, is listed as the Manager and Secretary.  
 

Obverse: The Westminster Fire Office was steeped in tradition. In fact, tradition was the only reason why these medals were commissioned. As such, it seems fitting to adhere to the general practice of using their badge on nearly all things officially associated with them. The obverse of this medal depicts the portcullis in the center, with sharply pointed spearheads on the ends. In keeping with the simple but elegant design style of the Soho Mint, the engraver John Phillips delicately balanced the need for simplicity with perhaps unnecessary detail. For instance, individual rivets are incorporated in the design of the portcullis at every naturally occurring joint. On either side, the portcullis is attached to a draw chain intersected by a mount with additional excess chain falling freely to either the outer side. As noted in the introduction, the portcullis was adopted from the arms of the City of Westminster. Immediately above and centered is an ornate crown with three large feathers protruding from the center. The feathers were supposedly a nod to the would-be King George II, who expressed interest in promoting the newly formed Westminster Fire Office. The lower pointed tips of the portcullis rest upon a platform with the word "ESTABLISHED" inscribed at the center. The date "MDCCXVII" appears below and supersedes the engraver's initials "I P.". The obverse legend appears at the inner portion of the innermost rim and is dived by the primary device, with "WESTMINSTER" appearing on the left and "FIRE OFFICE" on the right. The slightly raised inner rim that contains the legend is restricted within a wider rim of greater relief.
Reverse: An oak wreath is depicted on the reverse consisting of two oak branches tied in the middle by a ribbon with a single loop and two loose ends. The loose end on the left drops down and is wrapped around the end of the right branch, while the right loose end flows down and then behind the end of the left branch. The engraver's initials "I · P ." appear below between the two loose ends. Fifteen oak leaves and eighteen acorns (two of which are incomplete) appear on the left branch, while sixteen leaves and seventeen acorns (two of which are incomplete) appear on the right branch. Although most of the leaves are detailed enough to include the veins, several appear devoid of detail, suggesting the die was lapped. The second cluster of leaves from the bottom on the left is an excellent example of this. The center of the medal is left intentionally blank to allow the name of the recipient to be engraved. This particular medal is not engraved, which supports the idea that it was never meant to be issued. Like the obverse, all of this is contained within a slightly raised inner rim, superseded by a substantially wider rim of greater relief.
Edge: Plain
Size:  40mm
Notes: Researching this medal provided some beneficial information pertaining to the Silver-lined brass shells produced at the Soho Mint. Initially, it was thought the death medals issued by Matthew Robinson Boulton in memory of his father in 1819 were the first recorded pieces with the shells. I recently discovered a Westminster Fire Office Medal, struck in gold and issued to Henry Robins Esquire, who served as a director in 1816 and 1817. This particular medal is described as retaining the original red leather case of issue and the fitted copper shells. This medal was likely produced well before 1819 and therefore brings to question the time frame initially applied to the silver-lined brass shells. Of course, there is no way of directly proving this without examining either a receipt of the order placed by the Westminster Fire Office or the Soho archives in Birmingham. Both are not available online, and I doubt I will have the time and funds needed to cross the pond to investigate the issue within the foreseeable future.
Another interesting point that should be made details the fate of the dies used to strike these medals once the Soho Mint was dismantled and sold at auction in 1850. Vice (1995) mentions that several dies used to strike medals were returned to the original entity that commissioned their production. In this case, it appears that one pair of dies for the Westminster Fire Office Medal were returned to them. I have yet to find any source that details what happened to the dies after that point. It is, however, worth noting that the current specimen is struck in copper and bronzed. To the best of my knowledge, no other bronzed specimen exists.
Given that this piece is seemingly unique in that regard, I assume this was likely produced at the Soho Mint under the careful direction of James Watt Jr., who was an avid collector. It is no secret that he would sometimes use old dies to produce a piece or two that was missing from his collection of Soho Mint wares. Given that this medal was not struck in gold, it seems unlikely that it was ever meant to be issued, suggesting that it might have been a one-off to fill a hole in the otherwise remarkable collection of James Watt Jr, who was the Mint Director at the time. Morton and Eden auctioned off this piece and the rest of the Watt Jr. Collection in November 2002. It is recorded in their catalog as lot number 265 and realized a whopping £225. If only I had a time machine! In full transparency, a bronze example of a slightly different version of the Westminster Fire Office Medal resides in the British Museum (MG.1321); however, this piece at best seems to be derivative of the piece struck at the Soho Mint. I have included the link to this piece in the "interesting links" section.
References:
Davies, E. A. (1952). An Account of the Formation and Early Years of the Westminster Fire Office. Glasgow: Robert MacLehose & Co. Ltd.
Tungate, S. (2020) Matthew Boulton and The Soho Mint: copper to customer. Worcestershire: Brewin Books.
Vice, D. (1995). A fresh insight into Soho Mint restrikes & those responsible for their manufacture. Format Coins, Birmingham, 3-14.
Interesting links:
https://coins.ha.com/itm/great-britain/world-coins/great-britain-westminster-fire-office-gold-proof-medal-1717-1817-pr63andnbsp-deep-cameo-pcgs-/a/3051-30817.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_MG-1321

On Tuesday evening, June 22, 2021, the Madison County Coin Club of Huntsville, Alabama rose Phoenix-like from the ashes of COVID shutdowns. For now, it has a new home, and for the retro-members, a “newish” meeting night. “Funny, you don’t LOOK newish.” The meeting place had been firmly established only 7 days prior. The club now meets in the same building as the Huntsville Gem & Mineral Society, on the site of the former Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom Middle School at 7901 Bailey Cove Road SE in Huntsville. Fear not, Grissom fans; he has a new school named for him. 
 
Huntsville is the fastest growing town in the Gulf south, and will soon surpass both Mobile and Montgomery in population. Even Birmingham’s #1 in Alabama position is not safe. 
 
Any time a club resumes operation, there is trepidation. Did folks get the email? Was the website updated correctly? Have people lost interest? The answers are a resounding yes, yes, and no. The room was full. I grabbed a chair along a wall. It was my first meeting. I only moved to northern Alabama this past December. The club graciously accepted my application. 
 
The club’s meeting pattern is a) business meeting, b) show and tell, c) informational program, and d) member auction. Only the last segment was missing for this initial meeting. It may take a little longer to get auction material in the pipeline. Next month, the club will hear a presentation from its founder, who has since moved to Georgia.