Revenant

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.

My father's day gifts this year hit the PMG and NGC sides of my activities, with Shandy and Ben giving me a new green note storage box and a new display case for graded coins.
This follows up on a couple of previous posts in my journals.

These note storage boxes come in 4 colors and I'd gotten 3 of them a while back - black, blue and red, but not a green. Why? The others were $20 each and you couldn't get a green for under $30-35. No clue why, as I said at the time on the PMG side. But I guess green finally got back in stock and she was able to get one for a normal price. So now I have all the colors and a new box, just in time for a 15 note submission to come back from PMG net week. I'm super excited to get those back and I'll be reorganizing things to make better use of the new box / space.

Those checks and building registry sets will probably be a major focus for me once they get here. I'll probably be using that as my diversion while trying to get through the "house situation." From Sam's birth in 2019, that Zimbabwe collection is now in its 3rd year of being my preferred repository for nervous energy.
The display case for the coins looks fantastic in person - better than I'd expected really. I love cherry colored wood and this thing looks and feels great. I think I'm going to stock it with two French 20 Franc coins, my Sovereign, my Prussian 20 Mark and the Italian 20 Lire. I think that's going to be looking sweet and I'll have to find a spot for it in the new office.



I think the wife might be subtly calling me lazy for illustrating this post with the cell phone in bad lighting.
I could also love having one of these with a SLQ, a Walking Lib Half, a merc dime, a Peace Dollar, and a Morgan - maybe even the Morgan NGC just gave me the other month.
Shandy has said she may one day gift me a custom 10 or 11 note case that could house the entire 10G set and, even if this happens before I finish the set, it could just have a couple of empty place-holder spots for the 2-3 coins I still need.
I'm still undecided on if I even want to deal with the 1879/7 variety for that set. But honestly, if one ever comes up in a good grade at a reasonable price and I can afford it I will probably get it. If I can't just afford it will my coin budget, I'll probably beg and plead and see if I can get Shandy to cave.

My father's day gifts this year hit the PMG and NGC sides of my activities, with Shandy and Ben giving me a new green note storage box and a new display case for graded coins.
This follows up on a couple of previous posts in my journals.

These note storage boxes come in 4 colors and I'd gotten 3 of them a while back - black, blue and red, but not a green. Why? The others were $20 each and you couldn't get a green for under $30-35. No clue why, as I said at the time on the PMG side. But I guess green finally got back in stock and she was able to get one for a normal price. So now I have all the colors and a new box, just in time for a 15 note submission to come back from PMG net week. I'm super excited to get those back and I'll be reorganizing things to make better use of the new box / space.

Those checks and building registry sets will probably be a major focus for me once they get here. I'll probably be using that as my diversion while trying to get through the "house situation." From Sam's birth in 2019, that Zimbabwe collection is now in its 3rd year of being my preferred repository for nervous energy.
The display case for the coins looks fantastic in person - better than I'd expected really. I love cherry colored wood and this thing looks and feels great. I think I'm going to stock it with two French 20 Franc coins, my Sovereign, my Prussian 20 Mark and the Italian 20 Lire. I think that's going to be looking sweet and I'll have to find a spot for it in the new office.



I think the wife might be subtly calling me lazy for illustrating this post with the cell phone in bad lighting.
I could also love having one of these with a SLQ, a Walking Lib Half, a merc dime, a Peace Dollar, and a Morgan - maybe even the Morgan NGC just gave me the other month.
Shandy has said she may one day gift me a custom 10 or 11 note case that could house the entire 10G set and, even if this happens before I finish the set, it could just have a couple of empty place-holder spots for the 2-3 coins I still need.
I'm still undecided on if I even want to deal with the 1879/7 variety for that set. But honestly, if one ever comes up in a good grade at a reasonable price and I can afford it I will probably get it. If I can't just afford it will my coin budget, I'll probably beg and plead and see if I can get Shandy to cave.

Never would have expected this to happen but the people we bought a house from just 3.5 weeks ago asked today if we would let them buy it back. It was a hard pass, but I couldn’t even wrap my head around them actually asking us that question at this point.
Between agent fees, inspections, appraisals, insurance and escrow payments and everything else, that sale had $25,000 in costs. There’s already interest paid and accruing on that loan. The lender has already resold the loan to a new company to clear it off their books for the next deal. There would be penalties associated with selling it again this fast. They’d probably lose $30,000 just getting us out of it and making us whole, but we wouldn’t agree to that. They’d have to pay us an extra $25,000-50,000 to convince us to do it to compensate us for all the stress and aggravation and all the houses we could have gone for but missed out on because of this or the fact that interest rates are going back up and every 0.5% that interest goes up can cost $30,000-35,000 over the life of the loan. But I also don’t think they could even afford to give us enough to make it worth it for us to sell the house back - So I told our agent it is just a hard no.
Interestingly, our agent heard about this yesterday, because the wife insisted that their agent ask, and our agent didn’t even want to tell us about it. She said it would be “opening Pandora’s box” and it was a mistake to even ask. She only told us about it today because apparently the wife was pestering their agent wondering if the offer / question had really gone to us and we reached out to our agent today, because it’s been 3.5 weeks and we haven’t heard a peep on their progress and we wanted to know what kind of notice we could expect from them if they were leaving early so we could give timely notice to our landlady and not have a long period paying for 2 places. That sentence was a mouthful….
As we knew when we were looking, as they are finding out, this market is a nightmare, and they’re (at least the wife is) in panic mode trying to find something that they like that they can afford and they keep getting outbid and now they’re trying to get the house back and have us go back to having to deal with this market instead of them and we’re not letting them off for just making us whole.
On top of everything else we already ordered appliances for that house that are supposed to be delivered on August 2nd! We ordered a specific washer and dryer that’s basically the same as theirs because they put in a custom shelf in the utility room that is a quarter of an inch too low for LG washers and dryers so you have to go with front-loading Samsung appliances - or rip that blasted shelf out and repaint the whole room!
So, now, instead, we are gaming how we’ll deal with it if they try to stay past the end of the leaseback.
I remember when we were negotiating the purchase and they tried to get us to agree to a silly-low rental rate for the leaseback, and their agent was insisting that she was going to be able to get them to close by June 10. I was just looking at my wife like, “No way. Not in this market. I don’t believe it.” To make matters worse the husband is super picky about what they want, and I do not think they can afford to buy a house much more expensive than what they had - but the area they wanted to move to is more expensive than the one they’re leaving.
I had really thought the stressful part of this was over and we just had to endure waiting for them to find something and leave. Now, I don’t think I’ll relax again until we move and have keys and they’re out. Going into this they seemed like stand-up people that would keep their word and we wouldn’t have a problem. They may still be those people and honor the deal, but I’m far less confident of that now.
What a nightmare! The Friday before Father’s day, to have this dread dropped on us…
And Ben is puking, because he got a stomach bug, after we’ve all had colds all week… because that’s just how life goes… Sam was running 101.2 on Wednesday and now Ben is Spiking 100+ today.
I really hate this, because I have a tendency to want to engage in “retail therapy” and buy things - especially collectables - when I’m stressed, and I really keep telling myself to save and not spend money right now and I’m trying to get my eating and my diet under control so I will stop gaining some weight I’ve put on recently and I’m super stressed and I want to eat everything, and buy things I shouldn’t buy and make bad decisions right now…
/Rant
Edited to add: so the thing that is the icing on the cake of this day is that we may soon lose Shandy's income for 1.5 months because of regulatory changes in China. But... her income is only about 8-10% of our monthly net. So, if it happens, it will stink, but it's survivable.
All of this is survivable. We'll get through all of this and in the grand scheme and long run of our lives it'll probably amount to very little.
We were honestly in much worse shape in late 2017 when I'd been out of work for a year and in 2019 when Sam was born. In this moment we are probably in the strongest, best position we've been in in the nearly 6 years of our marriage.
But, in this moment, it sucks and I hate it!
 

It took me nearly six months to decide what to send, but I have finally convinced myself to submit a few of my better raw pieces for grading. This submission is a bit complex as it spans seven invoices and requires a few special requests. Luckily, my contact at NGC was more than willing to help. As many of you know, I have a fair number of Soho pieces that have retained their original shells. When possible, I have made an effort always to have the shells encapsulated alongside the coin in a multi-coin holder. Doing so allows me to ensure that the shells are less likely to be separated from the coin. After all, it would indeed be a shame to lose such a unique piece of Soho history that has been carefully curated over the last two centuries. In total I am only sending in 17 pieces for grading, but there are 43 items listed on the submission forms when including the shells. On any note, I wanted to share the pieces I am sending in (at least the ones I have pictures of). 
1.       1799 Great Britain proof Farthing with shells

2.       1791 Jean Jacques Rousseau medal – proof with shells

3.       1800(11) Westminster Fire Office Medal – proof with shells

4.       1804 Bombay Presidency Pice – Multicoin Reholder - As can be seen in the picture - this slab looks like a game used NHL hockey puck 

5.       1803 Madras Presidency 10 Cash - Multicoin Reholder - Another hockey puck holder

6.       1808 Madras Presidency 10 Cash - Multicoin Reholder - And yet another hockey puck holder

7.       1805 Ireland proof Penny with shells

8.       1793 Board of Agriculture Medal – proof with shells

9.       1800 George III Preserved from Assassination Medal –Proof with shells

10.   1803 Boydell's National Edition of Shakespeare's Works - with shells

11.   1802 Peace of Amiens Medal – with shells
12.   1793 Death of Gustavus III – proof with shells

13.   1793 Execution of Louis XVI of France – Final farewell – proof with shells

14.   1805 Bank of England $1 obverse die trial – proof
15.   1753 England ½ Penny
16.   1754 England Farthing
17.   1917 Costa Rica 10 Centavos
Thank goodness for the $500 grading credit from the NGC registry awards last year. That combined with the account credit for my membership will help, but I will still have a relatively substantial bill coming my way once it is all done. I will be sure to post updates as they become available. 
Feel free to do a GTG if you feel so inclined.

So, if it seems like I am more quiet lately know that it is only because Fenntucky Mike and like 5 other people on the PMG side have gotten to witness a lot of manic babbling about near-worthless hyperinflation novelties - feel free to check that out to be as bored as my dear wife.  
So, I got grade results back yesterday evening. No stand-out wins and some minor disappointments.
On the CWTs I had expected like 55-58 but part of me had hoped for a 61-62. I got an XF45 and a AU 55 BN. The 45 is disappointing but not crazy. It is nice to have the F numbers for one of these that I didn't before though. 
 

On the Tobacco Dove I got a 69. The hope here when submitting was, obviously, a 70 - while expecting a 69. After the residue report I was afraid of a 67 or 68 coming back, which would have killed its value and turned sending it in into a bit of a disaster (albeit good to have removed the residue before anything worse happened). The 69 after cleaning is a good save / recovery. It was worth it to let them clean off the residue.
 

Of course, the big news here is my golden babies are coming home! The 10Gs are returning in pretty, new, scratch resistant holders, which is going to make that a very charming set. Now that they're finalized you can see images of them in the new holders on the cert look-up tool. Most of these things were previously graded so long ago (25+ years) that there were no images for them. I love that the old cert#s are preserved in the new holders, preserving the history that many of these were graded a long time ago, around the same time, I think around 1993, possibly by the same person. That bit of history and mystery will always make me wonder with these... who submitted these back in the day?. But I think I will be trying to do my own pictures once they come.

My wife recently referred to my Zimbabwe dollar collection as my “pride and joy” to Ben. I do not know that she’s wrong, but I think they have to share that title with the 10G set… and my wonderful, beautiful sons… clearly. Naturally. My two sons that I do not get frustrated with when they start thumping my 100 trillion note on their knee…
But then, the REALLY big news... We closed on the house today! And are now homeowners! ... and... thanks to the leaseback... landlords! For 2 months! While still being renters!?! … Life is strange some days...
I am very happy to know those coins are coming back now and will be with me even if we move sooner than expected. I will be very happy to have my 10Gs back home.
I am also glad because I'm about to send it the Zimbabwe coins and had kind of wanted to have these shipped home first - I don't even know why. It was just giving me pause to mail off another box when these were not done, even knowing they would probably come back as soon as the Dove cleared NCS which I knew would probably be only 1-2 more weeks. If I had mailed the Zimbabwe coins last week and NGC had shipped these next week like I had expected I probably would have still had the 10Gs before the Z coins were taken out of the box. But I feel like I've been a bit weird about having those 10G coins away from me ever since I had this idea about a year ago.
I will be trying to get the Z coins mailed within the next few days.

With regard to timing, I feel NGC did good. I mailed the coins on 3/30 if I remember right and they arrived at NGC around 4/6. They showed in the system on 4/21 and were shipped back on 5/25. I think they would have shipped home 2 weeks ago but everything has been waiting on the Dove. NCS did quite well. Their turnaround times have been about 22 working days. It has only been 22 calendar days and 16 working days since they sent me the letter about it needing work. Overall, with them coming back about 7 weeks after I mailed them and 6 weeks after they got them - about 30-35 working days for NGC - I would say they held to their turnaround time estimates and did very solid - even with the Dove causing a delay. I am quite pleased.
I also could have had my other coins back faster if I had not asked NGC to hold them and ship them all back together, which they did, saving me a chunk of cash since the other 3 basically got to hitch back with the 10Gs for free - after having hitched on the way over with the 10Gs for no extra cost.

So, if it seems like I am more quiet lately know that it is only because Fenntucky Mike and like 5 other people on the PMG side have gotten to witness a lot of manic babbling about near-worthless hyperinflation novelties - feel free to check that out to be as bored as my dear wife.  
So, I got grade results back yesterday evening. No stand-out wins and some minor disappointments.
On the CWTs I had expected like 55-58 but part of me had hoped for a 61-62. I got an XF45 and a AU 55 BN. The 45 is disappointing but not crazy. It is nice to have the F numbers for one of these that I didn't before though. 
 

On the Tobacco Dove I got a 69. The hope here when submitting was, obviously, a 70 - while expecting a 69. After the residue report I was afraid of a 67 or 68 coming back, which would have killed its value and turned sending it in into a bit of a disaster (albeit good to have removed the residue before anything worse happened). The 69 after cleaning is a good save / recovery. It was worth it to let them clean off the residue.
 

Of course, the big news here is my golden babies are coming home! The 10Gs are returning in pretty, new, scratch resistant holders, which is going to make that a very charming set. Now that they're finalized you can see images of them in the new holders on the cert look-up tool. Most of these things were previously graded so long ago (25+ years) that there were no images for them. I love that the old cert#s are preserved in the new holders, preserving the history that many of these were graded a long time ago, around the same time, I think around 1993, possibly by the same person. That bit of history and mystery will always make me wonder with these... who submitted these back in the day?. But I think I will be trying to do my own pictures once they come.

My wife recently referred to my Zimbabwe dollar collection as my “pride and joy” to Ben. I do not know that she’s wrong, but I think they have to share that title with the 10G set… and my wonderful, beautiful sons… clearly. Naturally. My two sons that I do not get frustrated with when they start thumping my 100 trillion note on their knee…
But then, the REALLY big news... We closed on the house today! And are now homeowners! ... and... thanks to the leaseback... landlords! For 2 months! While still being renters!?! … Life is strange some days...
I am very happy to know those coins are coming back now and will be with me even if we move sooner than expected. I will be very happy to have my 10Gs back home.
I am also glad because I'm about to send it the Zimbabwe coins and had kind of wanted to have these shipped home first - I don't even know why. It was just giving me pause to mail off another box when these were not done, even knowing they would probably come back as soon as the Dove cleared NCS which I knew would probably be only 1-2 more weeks. If I had mailed the Zimbabwe coins last week and NGC had shipped these next week like I had expected I probably would have still had the 10Gs before the Z coins were taken out of the box. But I feel like I've been a bit weird about having those 10G coins away from me ever since I had this idea about a year ago.
I will be trying to get the Z coins mailed within the next few days.

With regard to timing, I feel NGC did good. I mailed the coins on 3/30 if I remember right and they arrived at NGC around 4/6. They showed in the system on 4/21 and were shipped back on 5/25. I think they would have shipped home 2 weeks ago but everything has been waiting on the Dove. NCS did quite well. Their turnaround times have been about 22 working days. It has only been 22 calendar days and 16 working days since they sent me the letter about it needing work. Overall, with them coming back about 7 weeks after I mailed them and 6 weeks after they got them - about 30-35 working days for NGC - I would say they held to their turnaround time estimates and did very solid - even with the Dove causing a delay. I am quite pleased.
I also could have had my other coins back faster if I had not asked NGC to hold them and ship them all back together, which they did, saving me a chunk of cash since the other 3 basically got to hitch back with the 10Gs for free - after having hitched on the way over with the 10Gs for no extra cost.

So, if it seems like I am more quiet lately know that it is only because Fenntucky Mike and like 5 other people on the PMG side have gotten to witness a lot of manic babbling about near-worthless hyperinflation novelties - feel free to check that out to be as bored as my dear wife.  
So, I got grade results back yesterday evening. No stand-out wins and some minor disappointments.
On the CWTs I had expected like 55-58 but part of me had hoped for a 61-62. I got an XF45 and a AU 55 BN. The 45 is disappointing but not crazy. It is nice to have the F numbers for one of these that I didn't before though. 
 

On the Tobacco Dove I got a 69. The hope here when submitting was, obviously, a 70 - while expecting a 69. After the residue report I was afraid of a 67 or 68 coming back, which would have killed its value and turned sending it in into a bit of a disaster (albeit good to have removed the residue before anything worse happened). The 69 after cleaning is a good save / recovery. It was worth it to let them clean off the residue.
 

Of course, the big news here is my golden babies are coming home! The 10Gs are returning in pretty, new, scratch resistant holders, which is going to make that a very charming set. Now that they're finalized you can see images of them in the new holders on the cert look-up tool. Most of these things were previously graded so long ago (25+ years) that there were no images for them. I love that the old cert#s are preserved in the new holders, preserving the history that many of these were graded a long time ago, around the same time, I think around 1993, possibly by the same person. That bit of history and mystery will always make me wonder with these... who submitted these back in the day?. But I think I will be trying to do my own pictures once they come.

My wife recently referred to my Zimbabwe dollar collection as my “pride and joy” to Ben. I do not know that she’s wrong, but I think they have to share that title with the 10G set… and my wonderful, beautiful sons… clearly. Naturally. My two sons that I do not get frustrated with when they start thumping my 100 trillion note on their knee…
But then, the REALLY big news... We closed on the house today! And are now homeowners! ... and... thanks to the leaseback... landlords! For 2 months! While still being renters!?! … Life is strange some days...
I am very happy to know those coins are coming back now and will be with me even if we move sooner than expected. I will be very happy to have my 10Gs back home.
I am also glad because I'm about to send it the Zimbabwe coins and had kind of wanted to have these shipped home first - I don't even know why. It was just giving me pause to mail off another box when these were not done, even knowing they would probably come back as soon as the Dove cleared NCS which I knew would probably be only 1-2 more weeks. If I had mailed the Zimbabwe coins last week and NGC had shipped these next week like I had expected I probably would have still had the 10Gs before the Z coins were taken out of the box. But I feel like I've been a bit weird about having those 10G coins away from me ever since I had this idea about a year ago.
I will be trying to get the Z coins mailed within the next few days.

With regard to timing, I feel NGC did good. I mailed the coins on 3/30 if I remember right and they arrived at NGC around 4/6. They showed in the system on 4/21 and were shipped back on 5/25. I think they would have shipped home 2 weeks ago but everything has been waiting on the Dove. NCS did quite well. Their turnaround times have been about 22 working days. It has only been 22 calendar days and 16 working days since they sent me the letter about it needing work. Overall, with them coming back about 7 weeks after I mailed them and 6 weeks after they got them - about 30-35 working days for NGC - I would say they held to their turnaround time estimates and did very solid - even with the Dove causing a delay. I am quite pleased.
I also could have had my other coins back faster if I had not asked NGC to hold them and ship them all back together, which they did, saving me a chunk of cash since the other 3 basically got to hitch back with the 10Gs for free - after having hitched on the way over with the 10Gs for no extra cost.

When I first started collecting Irish copper, I set a goal to complete a “type set” of the coinage struck at the Soho Mint. This set would only consist of three coins (i.e., an 1805 penny, 1805 halfpenny, and 1806 farthing). I limited myself to the business strike examples as I thought they would be more attainable given my budget. Within a year, I had a solid set built, and I have since been upgrading to nicer examples as they come up for sale. For instance, I recently upgraded the farthing from an MS-64 to an MS-66 example. Although the assigned grade is generally of little importance to me, in this case the 66 example was drastically superior to the 64. Likewise, I recently upgraded my penny from a brown (BN) to a red-brown (RB). I purchased both of these pennies raw and had them graded, and I am stoked that it is currently the only RB example graded at either NGC or PCGS. In both of these instances, a future upgrade is highly unlikely. I am still hunting for a suitable upgrade for the halfpenny, but I am in no hurry.

With that set complete, my attention was then drawn to the proofs. My goal was simple, replicate the type set but with all proof examples. I decided to forgo adding gilt specimens as they are often much more expensive, and I generally do not find them particularly interesting. I had already acquired several very nice examples of the 1806 proof farthing by complete happenstance, so I only needed to track down the halfpenny and penny. The halfpenny proved to be a bit more challenging than I initially thought it would be. Most of the examples that came up for sale were gilt proofs, and the handful of non-gilt examples that were available were not very eye appealing. Eventually, a nice raw example came up for auction, and I did not hesitate to pull the trigger. As I often do, I had the coin graded mostly to protect it in the NGC slab and be able to display it in my custom registry sets. I was delighted when it came back with the cameo designation, but I regret not requesting NGC’s photo services as the toning paired with the cameo contrast make this coin a nightmare to photograph. Nonetheless, I have included my less-than-stellar photos here so you all can get a general idea of what it looks like.
I now only lacked the 1805 proof penny, which would prove a sore topic for me until recently. The proof pennies tend to come up for sale much more frequently than either the farthings of halfpennies, which in part made me pickier about adding an example to the collection. I watched several very nice examples pass through various auction houses without placing a bid, mainly because these coins seemed to be selling for very strong prices. I did not want to pay an exorbitant price for a relatively common coin just to complete a set, but I was willing to pay more for an exceptional coin. I told myself that I would go all-in for a nice cameo piece (either graded or raw) or a nice example with the original shells. After a little over a year of searching, I stumbled upon my newest addition, an 1805 proof Irish Penny with the original silver-lined brass shells (pictured below)!

It took me a bit longer than I initially expected, but I am happy to say that both of these type sets are complete! It is also worth noting that this is currently the only Irish piece in my collection that has retained its original shells. As some of you may know, I have a bit of a weakness when it comes to these pieces. For now, I am very excited to have this goal complete, but I may end up building another set in the near future. Maybe this time, I will include the gilt pieces.

So we (finally) got an appraisal back on the house. It was supposed to be delivered Tuesday and we were assured it always comes in on or before the due date and... the appraiser missed due date... This ends a 3-week saga that led us to leave the lender we'd been planning to use for someone else local because they were not getting the appraisal scheduled, weren't interested in doing anything to move the process forward and we were in danger of missing our closing date over it.
We'd been all over everything, getting everything resolved as quickly as possible. The appraisal was the last thing we needed. If not for that we probably would have closed early... but that lender just wouldn't push to find someone and get it done. We were 3 weeks into the process and they didn’t have an appraisal scheduled, couldn’t tell us when they could get one scheduled, couldn’t promise us we would close on time and couldn’t give us the name of the person on the “escalation team” that we’d supposedly been escalated too. Interestingly - within hours of telling the unhelpful person that we were done with him and going somewhere else my wife and I were finally contacted by two other people in the company about the issue… too late!
Because we acted we'll still get to close on time - still a couple days early maybe I think, by some miracle. Somewhat in the “silver lining” category, this may also end up saving us a few hundred dollars by switching.
My submission of Traveller's Checks and Bearer checks have reached PMG - at least, they’re at the PO waiting for pick-up. I'm reasonably confident that those will come home before the move since PMG seems less swamped than NGC. But I think that will be the last submission to be set to come to this address.
I have picked out the Z coins I want to send in to NGC - a 12-14 coin submission that I think will bolster that set nicely, but more on that later hopefully - and I'm planning a new submission to PMG - which should include a P-3 note or two to close a final hole in my 1st dollar set and some gas ration coupons I want to add to my larger set. PMG seems to think they'll be willing to grade them, so, since I'll be sending them with the P-3s, I'll chance it. I think I'll set up the paperwork to have those shipped back to my in-laws address though.

I have been collecting since I was 8 years old and turn 61 in 2 weeks.  I had the usual starts and stops but for the most part my collecting was always there for me.  I got more serious about a few series in 2013 when I got a new job and needed to escape to my coins.  By way of back ground I am a Trauma Surgeon and have seen suffering, death and dying on a daily basis.  Coins have ben my escape, my safe place, after God it is were I go for peace (this sounds weak and whiny but it is what it is.)  My first passion is as a type collector of pre-1964 US coins.  My set is not number 1 nor will it be but respectable at number 4 currently (https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/90973/).  I got interested in putting together a set of nice Liberty Standing Quarters (SLQ) in an album, and did, but along the way picked up certified coins that I broke out for the album and the some that I just could not break out... Thus started my SLQ registry set (https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/138325/) at a less respectable #12.  With this set I have sought eye appeal and full heads (holder designated or not) over grade numbers and points.  i.e. my 1919-D is a 58 FH that I replaced a 64 flat head with.  And I love the 20 Cent series, short and sweet.  I spent 7 years chasing my 1877 with cameo appearance, now #3 (https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/185444/).
My point is that the registry Mark Salzberg and the great staff of the NGC registry have reenabled my passion of albums, both the cardboard and the virtual (registry.)   The NGC Registry is like a virtual Dansco or Whitman or Intercept Shield album.  I find that for me the coin is only fully in the NGC Virtual album (registry) once I have photographed it and placed a cropped photo in the set on which I am working.  The decision to again accept PCGS in addition to NGC makes NGC in general and Mark Salzberg in particular the bigger and better grading company, registry and man/collector.  My main point is that with 53 years of collecting NGC has been instrumental in helping me to keep collecting and my wits about me. Thank you.
Thank You Mark ,Thank You Registry staff and Thank You NGC for being inclusive (not PCG exclusive) and fostering our great hobby.
How did I get to # 7, very slowly with no goal to get there.
 
John
 
 
 


 

As part of the planning our home purchase my wife asked me what the value of my coin collection was. I have rarely heard such shock in her voice or seen disbelief on her face when I 1) gave her an honest answer and 2) backed it up with hard numbers. The main driver of it is, of course, one small box of coins that I've recently referenced in another entry.   
I had to remind Shandy that she let me purchase 2 new gold coins, which added about $1,100 to it, just a month or two ago. And she's seen it all and she's seen me buy a lot of it so I don't know why it shocked her but I guess it has just crept up on her with time and the recent increase in the value of gold and silver.
Somewhat to my surprise, my one gold coin has gone to QC at NGC already. The 10G coins went to QC first / faster but they're being re-holdered, not graded. The two CW tokens are still just "Scheduled." The entry on one of the tokens in the submission tracker has me scratching my chin and wondering if I'm going to get a nasty or unpleasant surprise. I guess we'll see. 
I'm still waiting to get a sale / the deal I want on some Zimbabwe coin sets. My bond coins have arrived yesterday but I haven't even gotten to open them yet because this week has been a bit nuts.

Having joined the Collector's Society and started this Journal in mid-2007 I definitely feel like I've witnessed the site and the journal feature of the site "evolve" over time but I've been enjoying 1 new feature lately now that I'm gaining an understanding of how it works... the new Category feature.
When I first rejoined / became active again around 2016/2017 I had to get used to the new system but I very much remember being disappointed by the fact that the new system only let me have 1 journal - I wanted to have one specially about the 10G set and one for other things. The category feature actually fixes this. Now I can have a "Gold" category and a "Family" category and, my favorite, my "Random Nonsense" category and I click and see just my posts in that category.
I loved this so much I went back a while ago and added category labels to a bunch of old posts that didn't have them as far back as I could.
Another feature I've become aware of over time - it seems that after 1 year you can no longer go back and edit entries, just hide them. This one us a bit bittersweet as I has typos!!! So many typos. When I see them I will often try to fix them. Now, past the one year threshold, I see that is quite impossible. Sadness...
I've known for a while that I couldn't edit the legacy journals from. The old system for a while now but hadn't realized the old ones locked up after a year.
Of course, in my ignorance of the categories and how they work I've made quite a mess for myself on my PMG journal which I will now need to try to fix at some point while I still can... but, fortunately, that one is much smaller than this one.

We put in an offer on a house on 4/20!

We started negotiating on 4/19 but the seller didn't accept until 4/20 and that's when we put in the bid contract - which is the only thing that matters under Texas law.
We're still waiting on confirmation that they have signed it to put the house under contract after most of yesterday was lost to hashing out a minor issue in the draft of the contract we signed and submitted on 4/20, so we re-signed and resubmitted yesterday and... fingers crossed. We found out at like 10 PM last night that the seller agent was blaming the delay on a new assistant and even the sellers were texting her repeatedly wanting to know where the papers were.
It's a great house. We're getting a great deal on it given the state of the market. The catch is they want a leaseback that extends up to potentially 7/31. So even if we close in May we may not be living there until August - which might not be the worst thing for my submissions?
It is on the higher end of our range though, so I expect the coin and currency budget to take a hit for the rest of the year. I may not do much other than these planned low-cost submissions with the grading credits. We’ll see. Life has surprised me before, even recently.
I got the confirmation from NGC late last night that my coins are in the system. I can now stop worrying in a paranoid fashion that my coins went to the wrong box and disappeared into the ether. That feels good. My flat rate boxes arrived so I hope to send in my checks to PMG soon and my bond coins are on their way from Europe! Huzzah! Still waiting on a sale to go back and get the older issues. I expect that to pop up some time next month. In the mean time I got some cotton gloves for handling the when they arrive.
But, it feels like there’s a lot of waiting to do right now… waiting on others on the house, on the submission, on the bond coins to arrive, waiting and holding out for a sale…

I'm continuing to try to sell some old collectable miniatures I've had since I was in high school. I'm being spurred on by the desire to get rid of these before an up-coming move and I'd like to use the cash to maybe fund some possible coin and note buys, or maybe just do something else more fun than looking at these sit and collect dust in my house.
I'm increasingly running into people that want to buy them for $10 after shipping when it costs $4-8 just to ship them - to say nothing of the cost of boxes, packing material, tape, or printing mailing labels. I've just had to tell people, "Sorry, but I'm not here to just make work for USPS." If I can't make money on this I'd rather just let Ben play with them until they break or put them to the curb. I don't need the money that bad.
The really funny ones are those that will say "I can get it for $10 on eBay." "Then why are you bothering me? Go get it there!"
But I really just don't know how those eBay sellers are making any money - especially after you add in fees. It just isn't worth it to pocket a buck after all that time and effort. But maybe some are harder up for cash than I am?
Edited to add: They signed and the house is under contract now, and it looks like our upfront costs and payments will be lower than expected/ feared because of some tax credits we didn't know about (homestead).

We put in an offer on a house on 4/20!

We started negotiating on 4/19 but the seller didn't accept until 4/20 and that's when we put in the bid contract - which is the only thing that matters under Texas law.
We're still waiting on confirmation that they have signed it to put the house under contract after most of yesterday was lost to hashing out a minor issue in the draft of the contract we signed and submitted on 4/20, so we re-signed and resubmitted yesterday and... fingers crossed. We found out at like 10 PM last night that the seller agent was blaming the delay on a new assistant and even the sellers were texting her repeatedly wanting to know where the papers were.
It's a great house. We're getting a great deal on it given the state of the market. The catch is they want a leaseback that extends up to potentially 7/31. So even if we close in May we may not be living there until August - which might not be the worst thing for my submissions?
It is on the higher end of our range though, so I expect the coin and currency budget to take a hit for the rest of the year. I may not do much other than these planned low-cost submissions with the grading credits. We’ll see. Life has surprised me before, even recently.
I got the confirmation from NGC late last night that my coins are in the system. I can now stop worrying in a paranoid fashion that my coins went to the wrong box and disappeared into the ether. That feels good. My flat rate boxes arrived so I hope to send in my checks to PMG soon and my bond coins are on their way from Europe! Huzzah! Still waiting on a sale to go back and get the older issues. I expect that to pop up some time next month. In the mean time I got some cotton gloves for handling the when they arrive.
But, it feels like there’s a lot of waiting to do right now… waiting on others on the house, on the submission, on the bond coins to arrive, waiting and holding out for a sale…

I'm continuing to try to sell some old collectable miniatures I've had since I was in high school. I'm being spurred on by the desire to get rid of these before an up-coming move and I'd like to use the cash to maybe fund some possible coin and note buys, or maybe just do something else more fun than looking at these sit and collect dust in my house.
I'm increasingly running into people that want to buy them for $10 after shipping when it costs $4-8 just to ship them - to say nothing of the cost of boxes, packing material, tape, or printing mailing labels. I've just had to tell people, "Sorry, but I'm not here to just make work for USPS." If I can't make money on this I'd rather just let Ben play with them until they break or put them to the curb. I don't need the money that bad.
The really funny ones are those that will say "I can get it for $10 on eBay." "Then why are you bothering me? Go get it there!"
But I really just don't know how those eBay sellers are making any money - especially after you add in fees. It just isn't worth it to pocket a buck after all that time and effort. But maybe some are harder up for cash than I am?
Edited to add: They signed and the house is under contract now, and it looks like our upfront costs and payments will be lower than expected/ feared because of some tax credits we didn't know about (homestead).

I said in a recent post that I’d be looking to buy some Zimbabwe coins from a dealer in the US that I’ve used a lot and get those submitted. Then, to my surprise, when I went to order, I found that they’d upped their prices and upped their minimum order from $50 to $100. Yeah, they offer free shipping, but, sheesh. Let me have the option to pay the shipping for a smaller order. I wanted to order 2 sets of coins and some notes for about $55. I had not wanted to or planned to spend $100 and buy 3-4 sets… So, I just didn’t.
Having looked into this more, I’m finding that I may not be able to get those 10-coin sets in uncirc. condition anywhere else for less than about $25/set, where with that dealer I can get them for about $20/set - $18 if I wait for one of their frequent sales. Also, I increasingly like the idea of getting 3 sets, getting one graded and keep 2 raw – one for each boy.
So, I might just hold my nose and put in a larger order soon. And now I feel a bit silly for getting such a stick up my butt about it, but it didn’t feel right at the time and so I’ll stand by that choice.
While I’m changing up my plans and waiting on a sale – probably a few weeks, Mother’s day and Father’s day will probably shake out something – I decided to grab a bunch of the 2014 bond coins. I’m going to try to submit these all together and have a bunch of them labeled -001 to -015 on the same invoice – an idea I’m stealing from Fenntucky Mike’s comment on my Traveler Check plans. I found a seller offering 5 sets of 5 Bond Coins for $28 so I ordered that and used my eBay bucks – 25 coins for about $23.50 after my bucks. Not bad. I’ll keep 4 sets Raw probably and organize 1 10-coin set and 2 5-coin Bond coin sets into a 20-coin album page and one day Ben and Sam will each get one, I think.
Even if I pull that off though I don’t think they’ll be listed from -001 to -015 in the set just because of the… slightly odd? way NGC lists / orders the slots and includes the bond coins and the fact that there’s a couple of varieties / designs of some denominations… It would make more sense to me to have the Bond Coins listed together at the end. This may be worth chasing up with NGC to see if they’d re-order the slots.

Maybe I need to try to just get them all together first… but I need to get moving on placing that order and getting these soon, I think. Getting lower tier things through seems to be taking a while lately and I’d ideally like to have more than one coin in my Zimbabwe coin set for 2021. That dime did the heavy lifting for 2020 but that’s an awfully lonely looking coin.
I think that would help make for a cool set. My working title for the coin set is going to be “The Early Victims of Hyperinflation,” or “Extinct Due to Hyperinflation” a reference to the fact that Zimbabwean coins went the way of the Dodo a lot sooner / faster than their notes did, as coins always do.
I’ve gone ahead and done the paperwork to submit the Zimbabwe traveler’s checks (P-15 to P-20) – without waiting on P-40 and P-45 – because I just don’t want to keep holding these up. I’m going to ship them in large BCW top loaders for protection and I’ve requested / ordered some small flat rate USPS boxes, which I think should be pretty much the perfect size for this job and the small coin submissions I’m hoping to do soon. I’m submitting all 12 checks but doing each set of P-15 to P-20 on separate forms so they’ll be two sets numbered -001 to -006 and I’ll get to fill two competitive sets with them. The best of each will go in the “Gradually, Then Suddenly” and I might make a signature set will all ~13 I’ll have at that point.
Between getting some orders placed, having flips to put coins in already and having shipping supplies coming it feels good to be rapidly making several material steps towards getting these things done and actually using the 2020 grading credits, unlike the 2019 one. But… 2020 was just rough. But I do also feel it was a personal failure to let that drag on for months while my anxiety over putting those coins in the mail quietly got the better of me.
The box with the 10G coins was delivered to NGC on 4/5 and their latest update says they’re opening the mail from 4/1 and 4/2 presently. So I’m hoping they’ll show in the system soon.

So, unlike with the PMG plaque, which arrived on 2/27 - much to my shock – I can’t really call this one a surprise in the mail. I’d seen other’s posting about getting theirs on Monday and Tuesday, so I knew the arrival of this package was probably imminent. Still, it was great to get it.
My home office and my windows sit almost directly above the front door to the house, so I heard the carrier scanning the barcodes and the beeping as it was dropped off and I wondered in that moment if that’s what it was because I wasn’t expecting anything else in the mail today.
I didn’t open it right away. I took it upstairs and stuck it in the bedroom to wait until after the kids were asleep. I will likely repeat what I did last year and try to get a shot of the two boys together this year holding the two plaques for this year now that I have both, but I wanted to get a minute and just enjoy opening this and looking at it in peace myself. I opened the PMG plaque with Sam around and it took a while before he let me have it back.


So, here’s the coin:

A MS64 1881-S Morgan, which will be quite a partner / buddy for my MS64 1882-S Morgan.  I'm now ranked in the top 1,700 for Morgan sets in the registry. It's straight to the top now! #1 set, 2021 awards!
I had guessed that the coin would be a 1 or 2 ounce graded silver NCLT from 2020. I was wrong and very pleasantly surprised. Fenntucky Mike posted an image of his full slab and (unsurprisingly) looks like all these Award Winner coins have the same 7-digit invoice number and they’re numbered 001 through… 50? I think? He got number -008 and I have -022. Gary appears to have -034.I wonder who got -001? Who got the last / highest number. I'm sure it was all random but it is funny to think about.
(Edited to add this bit, which I'd said as a comment elsewhere) Honestly, the sheer number of coins they had to give away - and the unstated expectation that everyone would be getting the same / mostly the same thing - is the main reason I was REALLY expecting the coin to be 2020 NCLT, just because those would fit because of the year and would be easy to get in an arbitrarily large number in the same basic grade / condition (69/70).They really surprised me with this one, managing to give 50+ people MS64 Morgans from San Francisco from just a couple of years, but, as Gary said, they are more common dates. Even then, I really wonder if it was at all "interesting" to round them up and how they went about it - Did they go into the market for RAW coins until they had enough MS64s? Did they buy some of their previously graded MS64's on the market? A little of both?
When the PMG plaque arrived I posted a shot of the 5 together and Fenntucky Mike said something along the lines of I’d need another or a bigger shelf soon. I shifted some things around, cleaned up my desk, and popped over to Michael’s to buy another stand last month, so here is my proof. I made it work (for now). If NGC or PMG are nice enough to give me something next year I'll cross that bridge and deal with that “problem” when the time comes.

I also got the new certificates in the mail over the weekend. So far, I’ve managed to keep track of all the certificates I’ve gotten since 2016 – including now 5 certificates for the 10G set for all the years since my marriage and Ben's birth.. 
Thanks again to NGC! Thanks again for those who read these and say they like it / what I write.
The version of myself that Joined the registry in 2007, the version of myself that started this journal as a 20 year old, did not, and would not have imagined this. Not what’s sitting on my desk hutch now, not my life as it is now, not my wife or my sons, not this past year.
I’m not done yet! More to come!
Side note, but one of Shandy’s current obsessions is our next housing situation. With our current lease up on 3/31/2022 she’s looking to move us closer to her parents for more access to free baby-sitting and more date nights. So there’s a good chance that, if I win anything next year – be it plaques or certificates – they’ll be delivered to the new address / the new home or subject to mail forwarding. But we’re hoping that will be the last home – for the foreseeable future anyway. She was looking at this last night even!
I think Ben’s Beyblade collection now numbers 19 – with three more seemingly lost forever in some magical void that only children can access in some 1-way capacity. I’m pretty committed to not buying more but he does get a weekly allowance now so what ne does with his allowance is his business!

Sam’s intensive therapy is over. Yay! His last day was actually the Thursday I posted about getting the plaque in the mail. Three weeks of stress and crying and having a generally unhappy 2-year-old can end – but it was for his own good, and he did great. He’s supposed to continue to wear a cast and restrict his left hand one day a week and one meal a day to continue the development of motor skills with his right hand, but that hopefully won’t be as contentious.
Shandy and I both got the first CoVID shot (both Moderna) in March and we’re getting the 2nd dose on 4/20 and 5/1 respectively. So, we’ll be fully vaccinated by mid-May and we’re looking forward to getting to go out to eat again soon and to actually do something fun for her birthday in mid-June. We’re also hoping that we’ll really get to go on a cruise this year, unlike last year. I will still have missed two local coin shows that happened in January or March but… such is life.
Last year I’d attended a show in the Woodlands area in January and talked to a dealer about seeing them again at a show in March to see if they’d found any of the key-date 10G coins I needed in their inventory. I never got to go to that show in March because of CoVID and now I’ve had to miss the January and March shows this year. And… this is why we get contact info, people! Stupid virus…
The European pocket change from PawPaw is now fully mixed in with the coins I’ve had for years from my grandfather and others. I managed to not need another binder after all.  I vaguely remember thinking maybe I made a mistake by getting such a large / thick binder in the first place. I don’t feel that way now! That binder is heavy though!

Also: 2x2s Forevah! Flips only for submissions as to not make NGC annoyed.
But… What I feel like the big news is is that we’ll probably be moving much sooner than expected now.
Shandy poked me to ask out landlady what terms / requirements she’d put on letting us out of our lease early (11 months early) and I did. We fully expected her to hold us to the terms of the lease and we wouldn’t be able to leave early, but she’d like to sell and she’s willing to let us vacate pretty much as soon as we want with 1 month of notice so she can list the house, get it ready and flip it.
So… It looks like we may be leaving this house in May – next freaking month. OMG! The reason she pressured me and the reason why we’re looking to move now rather than later is so that we don’t have to move during Ben’s Kindergarten year. She wants to minimize the disruption to him, which I completely understand. It also has implications for Sam’s timing of entry into pre-school in early 2022.
So… yeah. That escalated very fast… this afternoon! I texted the landlady in the late morning and she called me back at 12:15 PM and we were pre-approved for a loan by 1:30-ish.

Is it horrible that I just keep mentally going back to the implications this has for the return shipping / timing on my current and planned NGC and PMG submissions? Is that horrible? That that is a major thing in my head as all of this is going on?
This is the only home Ben has ever known. He does not remember the place before this, the place we brought him home to and left when he was 18 months old. Now we’re looking to leave here when Sam is just a little older than that, and it is funny to think that Sam likely won’t remember this place. I think this is the 5th home I've had since starting this journal and the next one will be number 6.
… Time to buy some moving boxes I guess.
Also: As of this morning, this journal has surpassed 10,000 views. Wow. That feels like a lot. I wonder how much of that is me?
 

Sam’s intensive therapy is over. Yay! His last day was actually the Thursday I posted about getting the plaque in the mail. Three weeks of stress and crying and having a generally unhappy 2-year-old can end – but it was for his own good, and he did great. He’s supposed to continue to wear a cast and restrict his left hand one day a week and one meal a day to continue the development of motor skills with his right hand, but that hopefully won’t be as contentious.
Shandy and I both got the first CoVID shot (both Moderna) in March and we’re getting the 2nd dose on 4/20 and 5/1 respectively. So, we’ll be fully vaccinated by mid-May and we’re looking forward to getting to go out to eat again soon and to actually do something fun for her birthday in mid-June. We’re also hoping that we’ll really get to go on a cruise this year, unlike last year. I will still have missed two local coin shows that happened in January or March but… such is life.
Last year I’d attended a show in the Woodlands area in January and talked to a dealer about seeing them again at a show in March to see if they’d found any of the key-date 10G coins I needed in their inventory. I never got to go to that show in March because of CoVID and now I’ve had to miss the January and March shows this year. And… this is why we get contact info, people! Stupid virus…
The European pocket change from PawPaw is now fully mixed in with the coins I’ve had for years from my grandfather and others. I managed to not need another binder after all.  I vaguely remember thinking maybe I made a mistake by getting such a large / thick binder in the first place. I don’t feel that way now! That binder is heavy though!

Also: 2x2s Forevah! Flips only for submissions as to not make NGC annoyed.
But… What I feel like the big news is is that we’ll probably be moving much sooner than expected now.
Shandy poked me to ask out landlady what terms / requirements she’d put on letting us out of our lease early (11 months early) and I did. We fully expected her to hold us to the terms of the lease and we wouldn’t be able to leave early, but she’d like to sell and she’s willing to let us vacate pretty much as soon as we want with 1 month of notice so she can list the house, get it ready and flip it.
So… It looks like we may be leaving this house in May – next freaking month. OMG! The reason she pressured me and the reason why we’re looking to move now rather than later is so that we don’t have to move during Ben’s Kindergarten year. She wants to minimize the disruption to him, which I completely understand. It also has implications for Sam’s timing of entry into pre-school in early 2022.
So… yeah. That escalated very fast… this afternoon! I texted the landlady in the late morning and she called me back at 12:15 PM and we were pre-approved for a loan by 1:30-ish.

Is it horrible that I just keep mentally going back to the implications this has for the return shipping / timing on my current and planned NGC and PMG submissions? Is that horrible? That that is a major thing in my head as all of this is going on?
This is the only home Ben has ever known. He does not remember the place before this, the place we brought him home to and left when he was 18 months old. Now we’re looking to leave here when Sam is just a little older than that, and it is funny to think that Sam likely won’t remember this place. I think this is the 5th home I've had since starting this journal and the next one will be number 6.
… Time to buy some moving boxes I guess.
Also: As of this morning, this journal has surpassed 10,000 views. Wow. That feels like a lot. I wonder how much of that is me?
 

So, unlike with the PMG plaque, which arrived on 2/27 - much to my shock – I can’t really call this one a surprise in the mail. I’d seen other’s posting about getting theirs on Monday and Tuesday, so I knew the arrival of this package was probably imminent. Still, it was great to get it.
My home office and my windows sit almost directly above the front door to the house, so I heard the carrier scanning the barcodes and the beeping as it was dropped off and I wondered in that moment if that’s what it was because I wasn’t expecting anything else in the mail today.
I didn’t open it right away. I took it upstairs and stuck it in the bedroom to wait until after the kids were asleep. I will likely repeat what I did last year and try to get a shot of the two boys together this year holding the two plaques for this year now that I have both, but I wanted to get a minute and just enjoy opening this and looking at it in peace myself. I opened the PMG plaque with Sam around and it took a while before he let me have it back.


So, here’s the coin:

A MS64 1881-S Morgan, which will be quite a partner / buddy for my MS64 1882-S Morgan.  I'm now ranked in the top 1,700 for Morgan sets in the registry. It's straight to the top now! #1 set, 2021 awards!
I had guessed that the coin would be a 1 or 2 ounce graded silver NCLT from 2020. I was wrong and very pleasantly surprised. Fenntucky Mike posted an image of his full slab and (unsurprisingly) looks like all these Award Winner coins have the same 7-digit invoice number and they’re numbered 001 through… 50? I think? He got number -008 and I have -022. Gary appears to have -034.I wonder who got -001? Who got the last / highest number. I'm sure it was all random but it is funny to think about.
(Edited to add this bit, which I'd said as a comment elsewhere) Honestly, the sheer number of coins they had to give away - and the unstated expectation that everyone would be getting the same / mostly the same thing - is the main reason I was REALLY expecting the coin to be 2020 NCLT, just because those would fit because of the year and would be easy to get in an arbitrarily large number in the same basic grade / condition (69/70).They really surprised me with this one, managing to give 50+ people MS64 Morgans from San Francisco from just a couple of years, but, as Gary said, they are more common dates. Even then, I really wonder if it was at all "interesting" to round them up and how they went about it - Did they go into the market for RAW coins until they had enough MS64s? Did they buy some of their previously graded MS64's on the market? A little of both?
When the PMG plaque arrived I posted a shot of the 5 together and Fenntucky Mike said something along the lines of I’d need another or a bigger shelf soon. I shifted some things around, cleaned up my desk, and popped over to Michael’s to buy another stand last month, so here is my proof. I made it work (for now). If NGC or PMG are nice enough to give me something next year I'll cross that bridge and deal with that “problem” when the time comes.

I also got the new certificates in the mail over the weekend. So far, I’ve managed to keep track of all the certificates I’ve gotten since 2016 – including now 5 certificates for the 10G set for all the years since my marriage and Ben's birth.. 
Thanks again to NGC! Thanks again for those who read these and say they like it / what I write.
The version of myself that Joined the registry in 2007, the version of myself that started this journal as a 20 year old, did not, and would not have imagined this. Not what’s sitting on my desk hutch now, not my life as it is now, not my wife or my sons, not this past year.
I’m not done yet! More to come!
Side note, but one of Shandy’s current obsessions is our next housing situation. With our current lease up on 3/31/2022 she’s looking to move us closer to her parents for more access to free baby-sitting and more date nights. So there’s a good chance that, if I win anything next year – be it plaques or certificates – they’ll be delivered to the new address / the new home or subject to mail forwarding. But we’re hoping that will be the last home – for the foreseeable future anyway. She was looking at this last night even!
I think Ben’s Beyblade collection now numbers 19 – with three more seemingly lost forever in some magical void that only children can access in some 1-way capacity. I’m pretty committed to not buying more but he does get a weekly allowance now so what ne does with his allowance is his business!

So, unlike with the PMG plaque, which arrived on 2/27 - much to my shock – I can’t really call this one a surprise in the mail. I’d seen other’s posting about getting theirs on Monday and Tuesday, so I knew the arrival of this package was probably imminent. Still, it was great to get it.
My home office and my windows sit almost directly above the front door to the house, so I heard the carrier scanning the barcodes and the beeping as it was dropped off and I wondered in that moment if that’s what it was because I wasn’t expecting anything else in the mail today.
I didn’t open it right away. I took it upstairs and stuck it in the bedroom to wait until after the kids were asleep. I will likely repeat what I did last year and try to get a shot of the two boys together this year holding the two plaques for this year now that I have both, but I wanted to get a minute and just enjoy opening this and looking at it in peace myself. I opened the PMG plaque with Sam around and it took a while before he let me have it back.


So, here’s the coin:

A MS64 1881-S Morgan, which will be quite a partner / buddy for my MS64 1882-S Morgan.  I'm now ranked in the top 1,700 for Morgan sets in the registry. It's straight to the top now! #1 set, 2021 awards!
I had guessed that the coin would be a 1 or 2 ounce graded silver NCLT from 2020. I was wrong and very pleasantly surprised. Fenntucky Mike posted an image of his full slab and (unsurprisingly) looks like all these Award Winner coins have the same 7-digit invoice number and they’re numbered 001 through… 50? I think? He got number -008 and I have -022. Gary appears to have -034.I wonder who got -001? Who got the last / highest number. I'm sure it was all random but it is funny to think about.
(Edited to add this bit, which I'd said as a comment elsewhere) Honestly, the sheer number of coins they had to give away - and the unstated expectation that everyone would be getting the same / mostly the same thing - is the main reason I was REALLY expecting the coin to be 2020 NCLT, just because those would fit because of the year and would be easy to get in an arbitrarily large number in the same basic grade / condition (69/70).They really surprised me with this one, managing to give 50+ people MS64 Morgans from San Francisco from just a couple of years, but, as Gary said, they are more common dates. Even then, I really wonder if it was at all "interesting" to round them up and how they went about it - Did they go into the market for RAW coins until they had enough MS64s? Did they buy some of their previously graded MS64's on the market? A little of both?
When the PMG plaque arrived I posted a shot of the 5 together and Fenntucky Mike said something along the lines of I’d need another or a bigger shelf soon. I shifted some things around, cleaned up my desk, and popped over to Michael’s to buy another stand last month, so here is my proof. I made it work (for now). If NGC or PMG are nice enough to give me something next year I'll cross that bridge and deal with that “problem” when the time comes.

I also got the new certificates in the mail over the weekend. So far, I’ve managed to keep track of all the certificates I’ve gotten since 2016 – including now 5 certificates for the 10G set for all the years since my marriage and Ben's birth.. 
Thanks again to NGC! Thanks again for those who read these and say they like it / what I write.
The version of myself that Joined the registry in 2007, the version of myself that started this journal as a 20 year old, did not, and would not have imagined this. Not what’s sitting on my desk hutch now, not my life as it is now, not my wife or my sons, not this past year.
I’m not done yet! More to come!
Side note, but one of Shandy’s current obsessions is our next housing situation. With our current lease up on 3/31/2022 she’s looking to move us closer to her parents for more access to free baby-sitting and more date nights. So there’s a good chance that, if I win anything next year – be it plaques or certificates – they’ll be delivered to the new address / the new home or subject to mail forwarding. But we’re hoping that will be the last home – for the foreseeable future anyway. She was looking at this last night even!
I think Ben’s Beyblade collection now numbers 19 – with three more seemingly lost forever in some magical void that only children can access in some 1-way capacity. I’m pretty committed to not buying more but he does get a weekly allowance now so what ne does with his allowance is his business!

I very much enjoy a nice cold coin especially many of the early designs, but even some of the modern designs are very nice and present well.   As the price of gold has jumped up significantly I have curtailed most of my buying on the hope that what goes up must come down, at least that is what I am hopping for anyway.  However a couple of nice opportunities did present themselves over the past year and I did pull the trigger on a nice XF $3 gold piece and just a week ago on an AU $1 Liberty Head coin.  As a side note I cannot fathom what anyone was thinking by coining such a tiny coin, I see no way in the world that these could have circulated without being lost constantly.   The $3 coin is graded by PCGS and on a whim I sent it in to CAC with a group of coins where it was blessed with a green bean.   The most recent $1 coin was bought raw to place in my raw AU gold type set, I actually have a PCGS holdered example but just couldn't bring myself to break it out of the old green label holder to put in the raw set.  So now I need just three coins to complete the set; an Indian head $1 (which again I have one in an old holder just not willing to break it out), an Indian head $10 coin, and a double eagle.
But two of those are rather expensive at current levels and prices would drop quite alot if the spot price continues to slide down as it has been doing recently and were to approach the levels we were at a year or two ago.   So what are your thoughts, are you buying at current levels or are you like me and for the most part taking a wait and see stance on buying gold coins.

So, unlike with the PMG plaque, which arrived on 2/27 - much to my shock – I can’t really call this one a surprise in the mail. I’d seen other’s posting about getting theirs on Monday and Tuesday, so I knew the arrival of this package was probably imminent. Still, it was great to get it.
My home office and my windows sit almost directly above the front door to the house, so I heard the carrier scanning the barcodes and the beeping as it was dropped off and I wondered in that moment if that’s what it was because I wasn’t expecting anything else in the mail today.
I didn’t open it right away. I took it upstairs and stuck it in the bedroom to wait until after the kids were asleep. I will likely repeat what I did last year and try to get a shot of the two boys together this year holding the two plaques for this year now that I have both, but I wanted to get a minute and just enjoy opening this and looking at it in peace myself. I opened the PMG plaque with Sam around and it took a while before he let me have it back.


So, here’s the coin:

A MS64 1881-S Morgan, which will be quite a partner / buddy for my MS64 1882-S Morgan.  I'm now ranked in the top 1,700 for Morgan sets in the registry. It's straight to the top now! #1 set, 2021 awards!
I had guessed that the coin would be a 1 or 2 ounce graded silver NCLT from 2020. I was wrong and very pleasantly surprised. Fenntucky Mike posted an image of his full slab and (unsurprisingly) looks like all these Award Winner coins have the same 7-digit invoice number and they’re numbered 001 through… 50? I think? He got number -008 and I have -022. Gary appears to have -034.I wonder who got -001? Who got the last / highest number. I'm sure it was all random but it is funny to think about.
(Edited to add this bit, which I'd said as a comment elsewhere) Honestly, the sheer number of coins they had to give away - and the unstated expectation that everyone would be getting the same / mostly the same thing - is the main reason I was REALLY expecting the coin to be 2020 NCLT, just because those would fit because of the year and would be easy to get in an arbitrarily large number in the same basic grade / condition (69/70).They really surprised me with this one, managing to give 50+ people MS64 Morgans from San Francisco from just a couple of years, but, as Gary said, they are more common dates. Even then, I really wonder if it was at all "interesting" to round them up and how they went about it - Did they go into the market for RAW coins until they had enough MS64s? Did they buy some of their previously graded MS64's on the market? A little of both?
When the PMG plaque arrived I posted a shot of the 5 together and Fenntucky Mike said something along the lines of I’d need another or a bigger shelf soon. I shifted some things around, cleaned up my desk, and popped over to Michael’s to buy another stand last month, so here is my proof. I made it work (for now). If NGC or PMG are nice enough to give me something next year I'll cross that bridge and deal with that “problem” when the time comes.

I also got the new certificates in the mail over the weekend. So far, I’ve managed to keep track of all the certificates I’ve gotten since 2016 – including now 5 certificates for the 10G set for all the years since my marriage and Ben's birth.. 
Thanks again to NGC! Thanks again for those who read these and say they like it / what I write.
The version of myself that Joined the registry in 2007, the version of myself that started this journal as a 20 year old, did not, and would not have imagined this. Not what’s sitting on my desk hutch now, not my life as it is now, not my wife or my sons, not this past year.
I’m not done yet! More to come!
Side note, but one of Shandy’s current obsessions is our next housing situation. With our current lease up on 3/31/2022 she’s looking to move us closer to her parents for more access to free baby-sitting and more date nights. So there’s a good chance that, if I win anything next year – be it plaques or certificates – they’ll be delivered to the new address / the new home or subject to mail forwarding. But we’re hoping that will be the last home – for the foreseeable future anyway. She was looking at this last night even!
I think Ben’s Beyblade collection now numbers 19 – with three more seemingly lost forever in some magical void that only children can access in some 1-way capacity. I’m pretty committed to not buying more but he does get a weekly allowance now so what ne does with his allowance is his business!

So, unlike with the PMG plaque, which arrived on 2/27 - much to my shock – I can’t really call this one a surprise in the mail. I’d seen other’s posting about getting theirs on Monday and Tuesday, so I knew the arrival of this package was probably imminent. Still, it was great to get it.
My home office and my windows sit almost directly above the front door to the house, so I heard the carrier scanning the barcodes and the beeping as it was dropped off and I wondered in that moment if that’s what it was because I wasn’t expecting anything else in the mail today.
I didn’t open it right away. I took it upstairs and stuck it in the bedroom to wait until after the kids were asleep. I will likely repeat what I did last year and try to get a shot of the two boys together this year holding the two plaques for this year now that I have both, but I wanted to get a minute and just enjoy opening this and looking at it in peace myself. I opened the PMG plaque with Sam around and it took a while before he let me have it back.


So, here’s the coin:

A MS64 1881-S Morgan, which will be quite a partner / buddy for my MS64 1882-S Morgan.  I'm now ranked in the top 1,700 for Morgan sets in the registry. It's straight to the top now! #1 set, 2021 awards!
I had guessed that the coin would be a 1 or 2 ounce graded silver NCLT from 2020. I was wrong and very pleasantly surprised. Fenntucky Mike posted an image of his full slab and (unsurprisingly) looks like all these Award Winner coins have the same 7-digit invoice number and they’re numbered 001 through… 50? I think? He got number -008 and I have -022. Gary appears to have -034.I wonder who got -001? Who got the last / highest number. I'm sure it was all random but it is funny to think about.
(Edited to add this bit, which I'd said as a comment elsewhere) Honestly, the sheer number of coins they had to give away - and the unstated expectation that everyone would be getting the same / mostly the same thing - is the main reason I was REALLY expecting the coin to be 2020 NCLT, just because those would fit because of the year and would be easy to get in an arbitrarily large number in the same basic grade / condition (69/70).They really surprised me with this one, managing to give 50+ people MS64 Morgans from San Francisco from just a couple of years, but, as Gary said, they are more common dates. Even then, I really wonder if it was at all "interesting" to round them up and how they went about it - Did they go into the market for RAW coins until they had enough MS64s? Did they buy some of their previously graded MS64's on the market? A little of both?
When the PMG plaque arrived I posted a shot of the 5 together and Fenntucky Mike said something along the lines of I’d need another or a bigger shelf soon. I shifted some things around, cleaned up my desk, and popped over to Michael’s to buy another stand last month, so here is my proof. I made it work (for now). If NGC or PMG are nice enough to give me something next year I'll cross that bridge and deal with that “problem” when the time comes.

I also got the new certificates in the mail over the weekend. So far, I’ve managed to keep track of all the certificates I’ve gotten since 2016 – including now 5 certificates for the 10G set for all the years since my marriage and Ben's birth.. 
Thanks again to NGC! Thanks again for those who read these and say they like it / what I write.
The version of myself that Joined the registry in 2007, the version of myself that started this journal as a 20 year old, did not, and would not have imagined this. Not what’s sitting on my desk hutch now, not my life as it is now, not my wife or my sons, not this past year.
I’m not done yet! More to come!
Side note, but one of Shandy’s current obsessions is our next housing situation. With our current lease up on 3/31/2022 she’s looking to move us closer to her parents for more access to free baby-sitting and more date nights. So there’s a good chance that, if I win anything next year – be it plaques or certificates – they’ll be delivered to the new address / the new home or subject to mail forwarding. But we’re hoping that will be the last home – for the foreseeable future anyway. She was looking at this last night even!
I think Ben’s Beyblade collection now numbers 19 – with three more seemingly lost forever in some magical void that only children can access in some 1-way capacity. I’m pretty committed to not buying more but he does get a weekly allowance now so what ne does with his allowance is his business!

So, unlike with the PMG plaque, which arrived on 2/27 - much to my shock – I can’t really call this one a surprise in the mail. I’d seen other’s posting about getting theirs on Monday and Tuesday, so I knew the arrival of this package was probably imminent. Still, it was great to get it.
My home office and my windows sit almost directly above the front door to the house, so I heard the carrier scanning the barcodes and the beeping as it was dropped off and I wondered in that moment if that’s what it was because I wasn’t expecting anything else in the mail today.
I didn’t open it right away. I took it upstairs and stuck it in the bedroom to wait until after the kids were asleep. I will likely repeat what I did last year and try to get a shot of the two boys together this year holding the two plaques for this year now that I have both, but I wanted to get a minute and just enjoy opening this and looking at it in peace myself. I opened the PMG plaque with Sam around and it took a while before he let me have it back.


So, here’s the coin:

A MS64 1881-S Morgan, which will be quite a partner / buddy for my MS64 1882-S Morgan.  I'm now ranked in the top 1,700 for Morgan sets in the registry. It's straight to the top now! #1 set, 2021 awards!
I had guessed that the coin would be a 1 or 2 ounce graded silver NCLT from 2020. I was wrong and very pleasantly surprised. Fenntucky Mike posted an image of his full slab and (unsurprisingly) looks like all these Award Winner coins have the same 7-digit invoice number and they’re numbered 001 through… 50? I think? He got number -008 and I have -022. Gary appears to have -034.I wonder who got -001? Who got the last / highest number. I'm sure it was all random but it is funny to think about.
(Edited to add this bit, which I'd said as a comment elsewhere) Honestly, the sheer number of coins they had to give away - and the unstated expectation that everyone would be getting the same / mostly the same thing - is the main reason I was REALLY expecting the coin to be 2020 NCLT, just because those would fit because of the year and would be easy to get in an arbitrarily large number in the same basic grade / condition (69/70).They really surprised me with this one, managing to give 50+ people MS64 Morgans from San Francisco from just a couple of years, but, as Gary said, they are more common dates. Even then, I really wonder if it was at all "interesting" to round them up and how they went about it - Did they go into the market for RAW coins until they had enough MS64s? Did they buy some of their previously graded MS64's on the market? A little of both?
When the PMG plaque arrived I posted a shot of the 5 together and Fenntucky Mike said something along the lines of I’d need another or a bigger shelf soon. I shifted some things around, cleaned up my desk, and popped over to Michael’s to buy another stand last month, so here is my proof. I made it work (for now). If NGC or PMG are nice enough to give me something next year I'll cross that bridge and deal with that “problem” when the time comes.

I also got the new certificates in the mail over the weekend. So far, I’ve managed to keep track of all the certificates I’ve gotten since 2016 – including now 5 certificates for the 10G set for all the years since my marriage and Ben's birth.. 
Thanks again to NGC! Thanks again for those who read these and say they like it / what I write.
The version of myself that Joined the registry in 2007, the version of myself that started this journal as a 20 year old, did not, and would not have imagined this. Not what’s sitting on my desk hutch now, not my life as it is now, not my wife or my sons, not this past year.
I’m not done yet! More to come!
Side note, but one of Shandy’s current obsessions is our next housing situation. With our current lease up on 3/31/2022 she’s looking to move us closer to her parents for more access to free baby-sitting and more date nights. So there’s a good chance that, if I win anything next year – be it plaques or certificates – they’ll be delivered to the new address / the new home or subject to mail forwarding. But we’re hoping that will be the last home – for the foreseeable future anyway. She was looking at this last night even!
I think Ben’s Beyblade collection now numbers 19 – with three more seemingly lost forever in some magical void that only children can access in some 1-way capacity. I’m pretty committed to not buying more but he does get a weekly allowance now so what ne does with his allowance is his business!