Revenant

So, this will be long and perhaps rambling, but I have several things to touch on and I don't like making multiple posts too close together, so I just refuse to break this up.
At a different time in my life this probably would have been posted yesterday but you don't always get time to sit down and write with 2 kids under 5 around in the time of CoVID, and I had cube organizers to build. I snuck in some posting on the boards mostly on my phone, but I wanted to take my time with this more.
First and foremost, I need to thank NGC for the 3-peat on the Journal award and PMG for the “Best Presented Set” for my Zimbabwe signature set, “Gradually, then Suddenly.”
 
The journal award continues to be a great, and appreciated, compliment to these writings. I’m glad NGC likes them. I’m always glad to hear others say they enjoy what I write.
That note set has been a labor of love for 2 years now. I’m super-excited to, next month, when I have a bit more spending money again, buy some raw examples of some notes I need to fill some final gaps and send those in for grading. I may also buy some old fuel coupons, branch into that and add that to the set / display / story of that set. I will probably go into more details on this later in a journal entry on the PMG side.
I think that’s also going to mostly close the book on that note set for a while. I’m not going to be in any hurry to start any major upgrades on that set for now. I’ve been building it like a man possessed for 2 years now and I’m starting to just feel a little tired and ready to move on to some other project, and I have some other projects / initiatives coming up in my life that are going to demand more of my time for a while. And, given that credit, I want to fill those holes and leave that set feeling more or less “finished” and it a good place, and that credit will let me do that. But, Again, “Thank you” to PMG, both for this award and also the article highlighting my Venezuelan Bolivares Fuertes Set in December. The greatest praise that that set has received however are the other collectors here that have called it out, said it inspired them to start collecting that series / those series (depending on how you look at it) or who say they’ve used to teach their kids something. There have been a lot of kind words sent my way from members and PMG lately, both for my family and about my writing, and it is really appreciated. I was also touched to see the call out to / for Samuel in the awards announcement. Sam is going to be posing with another plaque this year.
Speaking of Sam… It has become apparent that his shunt was mostly blocked and he was experiencing some ill effects of elevated intracranial pressure for a while – probably 6 months to a year. We had no way of knowing this before the surgery and you make the best decisions you can with what you know then. But, now that the pressure is gone his eyes are crossing less, he’s speaking more, he’s picking up new words faster, he’s getting better at walking faster. He was a Rockstar according to his physical therapists before but he’s accelerating. He’s showing signs of headaches still but those can apparently continue for 2+ weeks after the surgery. The cut meanwhile is healing well and we’re almost done with the period of daily baths that it required to keep him clean.
I still haven’t mailed those coins in, though I admit that at this point I’m also being given pause by the long back-log of packages they seem to be dealing with and the crush of new 2021 coins they’re getting in bulk submissions now. I’ve been stressing about having the grading credit from 2019 expire, but, now, I may just let it expire and use the 2020 credit again – since my brief reading of the front matter suggests that they’re giving the Journal authors the $500 credit again this year. I really do want to get those 10G coins re-holdered so they’ll all match and be super pretty and I want to get a few other things graded but this winter (year!) has been rough and crazy.
My wife and I had a little wine together after the kids were in bed. In part because of this, in part because the cube organizer was finally done, and in part because wine is just good.
The anniversary is coming up and I have part of her present. We'll see if I get the other part before Friday. One of her students yesterday morning told her that her Boyfriend was a lucky guy. 😆 When she showed him the ring, he said that He had an awesome wife. I'll agree with both statements. 😆

So, this will be long and perhaps rambling, but I have several things to touch on and I don't like making multiple posts too close together, so I just refuse to break this up.
At a different time in my life this probably would have been posted yesterday but you don't always get time to sit down and write with 2 kids under 5 around in the time of CoVID, and I had cube organizers to build. I snuck in some posting on the boards mostly on my phone, but I wanted to take my time with this more.
First and foremost, I need to thank NGC for the 3-peat on the Journal award and PMG for the “Best Presented Set” for my Zimbabwe signature set, “Gradually, then Suddenly.”
 
The journal award continues to be a great, and appreciated, compliment to these writings. I’m glad NGC likes them. I’m always glad to hear others say they enjoy what I write.
That note set has been a labor of love for 2 years now. I’m super-excited to, next month, when I have a bit more spending money again, buy some raw examples of some notes I need to fill some final gaps and send those in for grading. I may also buy some old fuel coupons, branch into that and add that to the set / display / story of that set. I will probably go into more details on this later in a journal entry on the PMG side.
I think that’s also going to mostly close the book on that note set for a while. I’m not going to be in any hurry to start any major upgrades on that set for now. I’ve been building it like a man possessed for 2 years now and I’m starting to just feel a little tired and ready to move on to some other project, and I have some other projects / initiatives coming up in my life that are going to demand more of my time for a while. And, given that credit, I want to fill those holes and leave that set feeling more or less “finished” and it a good place, and that credit will let me do that. But, Again, “Thank you” to PMG, both for this award and also the article highlighting my Venezuelan Bolivares Fuertes Set in December. The greatest praise that that set has received however are the other collectors here that have called it out, said it inspired them to start collecting that series / those series (depending on how you look at it) or who say they’ve used to teach their kids something. There have been a lot of kind words sent my way from members and PMG lately, both for my family and about my writing, and it is really appreciated. I was also touched to see the call out to / for Samuel in the awards announcement. Sam is going to be posing with another plaque this year.
Speaking of Sam… It has become apparent that his shunt was mostly blocked and he was experiencing some ill effects of elevated intracranial pressure for a while – probably 6 months to a year. We had no way of knowing this before the surgery and you make the best decisions you can with what you know then. But, now that the pressure is gone his eyes are crossing less, he’s speaking more, he’s picking up new words faster, he’s getting better at walking faster. He was a Rockstar according to his physical therapists before but he’s accelerating. He’s showing signs of headaches still but those can apparently continue for 2+ weeks after the surgery. The cut meanwhile is healing well and we’re almost done with the period of daily baths that it required to keep him clean.
I still haven’t mailed those coins in, though I admit that at this point I’m also being given pause by the long back-log of packages they seem to be dealing with and the crush of new 2021 coins they’re getting in bulk submissions now. I’ve been stressing about having the grading credit from 2019 expire, but, now, I may just let it expire and use the 2020 credit again – since my brief reading of the front matter suggests that they’re giving the Journal authors the $500 credit again this year. I really do want to get those 10G coins re-holdered so they’ll all match and be super pretty and I want to get a few other things graded but this winter (year!) has been rough and crazy.
My wife and I had a little wine together after the kids were in bed. In part because of this, in part because the cube organizer was finally done, and in part because wine is just good.
The anniversary is coming up and I have part of her present. We'll see if I get the other part before Friday. One of her students yesterday morning told her that her Boyfriend was a lucky guy. 😆 When she showed him the ring, he said that He had an awesome wife. I'll agree with both statements. 😆

So, this will be long and perhaps rambling, but I have several things to touch on and I don't like making multiple posts too close together, so I just refuse to break this up.
At a different time in my life this probably would have been posted yesterday but you don't always get time to sit down and write with 2 kids under 5 around in the time of CoVID, and I had cube organizers to build. I snuck in some posting on the boards mostly on my phone, but I wanted to take my time with this more.
First and foremost, I need to thank NGC for the 3-peat on the Journal award and PMG for the “Best Presented Set” for my Zimbabwe signature set, “Gradually, then Suddenly.”
 
The journal award continues to be a great, and appreciated, compliment to these writings. I’m glad NGC likes them. I’m always glad to hear others say they enjoy what I write.
That note set has been a labor of love for 2 years now. I’m super-excited to, next month, when I have a bit more spending money again, buy some raw examples of some notes I need to fill some final gaps and send those in for grading. I may also buy some old fuel coupons, branch into that and add that to the set / display / story of that set. I will probably go into more details on this later in a journal entry on the PMG side.
I think that’s also going to mostly close the book on that note set for a while. I’m not going to be in any hurry to start any major upgrades on that set for now. I’ve been building it like a man possessed for 2 years now and I’m starting to just feel a little tired and ready to move on to some other project, and I have some other projects / initiatives coming up in my life that are going to demand more of my time for a while. And, given that credit, I want to fill those holes and leave that set feeling more or less “finished” and it a good place, and that credit will let me do that. But, Again, “Thank you” to PMG, both for this award and also the article highlighting my Venezuelan Bolivares Fuertes Set in December. The greatest praise that that set has received however are the other collectors here that have called it out, said it inspired them to start collecting that series / those series (depending on how you look at it) or who say they’ve used to teach their kids something. There have been a lot of kind words sent my way from members and PMG lately, both for my family and about my writing, and it is really appreciated. I was also touched to see the call out to / for Samuel in the awards announcement. Sam is going to be posing with another plaque this year.
Speaking of Sam… It has become apparent that his shunt was mostly blocked and he was experiencing some ill effects of elevated intracranial pressure for a while – probably 6 months to a year. We had no way of knowing this before the surgery and you make the best decisions you can with what you know then. But, now that the pressure is gone his eyes are crossing less, he’s speaking more, he’s picking up new words faster, he’s getting better at walking faster. He was a Rockstar according to his physical therapists before but he’s accelerating. He’s showing signs of headaches still but those can apparently continue for 2+ weeks after the surgery. The cut meanwhile is healing well and we’re almost done with the period of daily baths that it required to keep him clean.
I still haven’t mailed those coins in, though I admit that at this point I’m also being given pause by the long back-log of packages they seem to be dealing with and the crush of new 2021 coins they’re getting in bulk submissions now. I’ve been stressing about having the grading credit from 2019 expire, but, now, I may just let it expire and use the 2020 credit again – since my brief reading of the front matter suggests that they’re giving the Journal authors the $500 credit again this year. I really do want to get those 10G coins re-holdered so they’ll all match and be super pretty and I want to get a few other things graded but this winter (year!) has been rough and crazy.
My wife and I had a little wine together after the kids were in bed. In part because of this, in part because the cube organizer was finally done, and in part because wine is just good.
The anniversary is coming up and I have part of her present. We'll see if I get the other part before Friday. One of her students yesterday morning told her that her Boyfriend was a lucky guy. 😆 When she showed him the ring, he said that He had an awesome wife. I'll agree with both statements. 😆

So, this will be long and perhaps rambling, but I have several things to touch on and I don't like making multiple posts too close together, so I just refuse to break this up.
At a different time in my life this probably would have been posted yesterday but you don't always get time to sit down and write with 2 kids under 5 around in the time of CoVID, and I had cube organizers to build. I snuck in some posting on the boards mostly on my phone, but I wanted to take my time with this more.
First and foremost, I need to thank NGC for the 3-peat on the Journal award and PMG for the “Best Presented Set” for my Zimbabwe signature set, “Gradually, then Suddenly.”
 
The journal award continues to be a great, and appreciated, compliment to these writings. I’m glad NGC likes them. I’m always glad to hear others say they enjoy what I write.
That note set has been a labor of love for 2 years now. I’m super-excited to, next month, when I have a bit more spending money again, buy some raw examples of some notes I need to fill some final gaps and send those in for grading. I may also buy some old fuel coupons, branch into that and add that to the set / display / story of that set. I will probably go into more details on this later in a journal entry on the PMG side.
I think that’s also going to mostly close the book on that note set for a while. I’m not going to be in any hurry to start any major upgrades on that set for now. I’ve been building it like a man possessed for 2 years now and I’m starting to just feel a little tired and ready to move on to some other project, and I have some other projects / initiatives coming up in my life that are going to demand more of my time for a while. And, given that credit, I want to fill those holes and leave that set feeling more or less “finished” and it a good place, and that credit will let me do that. But, Again, “Thank you” to PMG, both for this award and also the article highlighting my Venezuelan Bolivares Fuertes Set in December. The greatest praise that that set has received however are the other collectors here that have called it out, said it inspired them to start collecting that series / those series (depending on how you look at it) or who say they’ve used to teach their kids something. There have been a lot of kind words sent my way from members and PMG lately, both for my family and about my writing, and it is really appreciated. I was also touched to see the call out to / for Samuel in the awards announcement. Sam is going to be posing with another plaque this year.
Speaking of Sam… It has become apparent that his shunt was mostly blocked and he was experiencing some ill effects of elevated intracranial pressure for a while – probably 6 months to a year. We had no way of knowing this before the surgery and you make the best decisions you can with what you know then. But, now that the pressure is gone his eyes are crossing less, he’s speaking more, he’s picking up new words faster, he’s getting better at walking faster. He was a Rockstar according to his physical therapists before but he’s accelerating. He’s showing signs of headaches still but those can apparently continue for 2+ weeks after the surgery. The cut meanwhile is healing well and we’re almost done with the period of daily baths that it required to keep him clean.
I still haven’t mailed those coins in, though I admit that at this point I’m also being given pause by the long back-log of packages they seem to be dealing with and the crush of new 2021 coins they’re getting in bulk submissions now. I’ve been stressing about having the grading credit from 2019 expire, but, now, I may just let it expire and use the 2020 credit again – since my brief reading of the front matter suggests that they’re giving the Journal authors the $500 credit again this year. I really do want to get those 10G coins re-holdered so they’ll all match and be super pretty and I want to get a few other things graded but this winter (year!) has been rough and crazy.
My wife and I had a little wine together after the kids were in bed. In part because of this, in part because the cube organizer was finally done, and in part because wine is just good.
The anniversary is coming up and I have part of her present. We'll see if I get the other part before Friday. One of her students yesterday morning told her that her Boyfriend was a lucky guy. 😆 When she showed him the ring, he said that He had an awesome wife. I'll agree with both statements. 😆

So, this will be long and perhaps rambling, but I have several things to touch on and I don't like making multiple posts too close together, so I just refuse to break this up.
At a different time in my life this probably would have been posted yesterday but you don't always get time to sit down and write with 2 kids under 5 around in the time of CoVID, and I had cube organizers to build. I snuck in some posting on the boards mostly on my phone, but I wanted to take my time with this more.
First and foremost, I need to thank NGC for the 3-peat on the Journal award and PMG for the “Best Presented Set” for my Zimbabwe signature set, “Gradually, then Suddenly.”
 
The journal award continues to be a great, and appreciated, compliment to these writings. I’m glad NGC likes them. I’m always glad to hear others say they enjoy what I write.
That note set has been a labor of love for 2 years now. I’m super-excited to, next month, when I have a bit more spending money again, buy some raw examples of some notes I need to fill some final gaps and send those in for grading. I may also buy some old fuel coupons, branch into that and add that to the set / display / story of that set. I will probably go into more details on this later in a journal entry on the PMG side.
I think that’s also going to mostly close the book on that note set for a while. I’m not going to be in any hurry to start any major upgrades on that set for now. I’ve been building it like a man possessed for 2 years now and I’m starting to just feel a little tired and ready to move on to some other project, and I have some other projects / initiatives coming up in my life that are going to demand more of my time for a while. And, given that credit, I want to fill those holes and leave that set feeling more or less “finished” and it a good place, and that credit will let me do that. But, Again, “Thank you” to PMG, both for this award and also the article highlighting my Venezuelan Bolivares Fuertes Set in December. The greatest praise that that set has received however are the other collectors here that have called it out, said it inspired them to start collecting that series / those series (depending on how you look at it) or who say they’ve used to teach their kids something. There have been a lot of kind words sent my way from members and PMG lately, both for my family and about my writing, and it is really appreciated. I was also touched to see the call out to / for Samuel in the awards announcement. Sam is going to be posing with another plaque this year.
Speaking of Sam… It has become apparent that his shunt was mostly blocked and he was experiencing some ill effects of elevated intracranial pressure for a while – probably 6 months to a year. We had no way of knowing this before the surgery and you make the best decisions you can with what you know then. But, now that the pressure is gone his eyes are crossing less, he’s speaking more, he’s picking up new words faster, he’s getting better at walking faster. He was a Rockstar according to his physical therapists before but he’s accelerating. He’s showing signs of headaches still but those can apparently continue for 2+ weeks after the surgery. The cut meanwhile is healing well and we’re almost done with the period of daily baths that it required to keep him clean.
I still haven’t mailed those coins in, though I admit that at this point I’m also being given pause by the long back-log of packages they seem to be dealing with and the crush of new 2021 coins they’re getting in bulk submissions now. I’ve been stressing about having the grading credit from 2019 expire, but, now, I may just let it expire and use the 2020 credit again – since my brief reading of the front matter suggests that they’re giving the Journal authors the $500 credit again this year. I really do want to get those 10G coins re-holdered so they’ll all match and be super pretty and I want to get a few other things graded but this winter (year!) has been rough and crazy.
My wife and I had a little wine together after the kids were in bed. In part because of this, in part because the cube organizer was finally done, and in part because wine is just good.
The anniversary is coming up and I have part of her present. We'll see if I get the other part before Friday. One of her students yesterday morning told her that her Boyfriend was a lucky guy. 😆 When she showed him the ring, he said that He had an awesome wife. I'll agree with both statements. 😆

I have not been active in this society for a few years.  I have been slowly selling off my collection.
I have been battling a rare blood cancer.  I may only have only a couple more chemo treatments left, fingers crossed.  Prays are welcome!
I have lots of time on my hands and been forced to retire middle of last year.  I decided that once I am indeed in remission, full time retirement
is not really for me.
I have recently  started to submit coins to NGC once again.  I got my results back for the 400th Anniversary Silver Medal.
  2020 Silver Medal Mayflower Voyage 400th Anniversary RP 70   2020 Silver Medal Mayflower Voyage 400th Anniversary RP 70   2020 Silver Medal Mayflower Voyage 400th Anniversary RP 70   2020 Silver Medal Mayflower Voyage 400th Anniversary RP 70   2020 Silver Medal Mayflower Voyage 400th Anniversary RP 70   2020 Silver Medal Mayflower Voyage 400th Anniversary RP 70   A perfect submission!! Now waiting on my 2020 US Mint annual set.   Keith Stevens

Some of the 2x2s I ordered came in today and Ben wanted to play with them not really understanding what they were so I agreed to work with him with them when Sam was napping.
We sat down with the bag of coins from PawPaw and the staplers and tried to put some in the 2x2s. He lost interest quickly. He still struggles with the stapler. He's young. He doesn't get it fully. I'm easily more interested in these than he is, but maybe that'll change with time. He's four. I still need to remember that and I need to start him slow. I'll enlist his aid again to sort them by denomination and put them in pages when the pages get here.






I made more progress than he did but I still gave up well before it was done. There's a lot in the bag and I was growing increasingly frustrated by the fact that many of these are larger and need half-dollar sized flips, which haven't come in yet... probably because I didn't actually order them (now that I check) because I'm a dumdum.

I feel like I live in chaos... In the background you see my son's Bakugan (new obsession) in the piece of packing material from a new kitchen garbage can, which he claimed as his "Bakugan Field" and the gingerbread house kit I just bought, and ornaments from working on the tree and my laptop, with the living room TV remote... in the dining room... for reasons.

My wife and I are coming up on a pretty significant day for us and I've joked that it caps off a sequence of special Fridays.
12/25 - Christmas
1/1 - New Year's Day
1/8 - The NGC/PMG Awards announcement
1/15 - Our 5th Wedding Anniversary.
One of the things my wife has talked very fondly of the entire time I've known her is her memories of the time they spent in Italy when she was young.
I was finishing up putting her father's old coin bag in flips today (I'll have to work on labeling all of them later, but they're in flips now) and I couldn't help but smile at all of the Italian ones in particular because Italy always brings a smile to her face.
I got her a full set of Italian Crystal glassware for Christmas - Champagne flutes, wine glasses, highball glasses, double old fashioned glasses - all in the same pattern. She's been rather happy, using the Champagne flutes to make us Mimosas and using the new wine glasses for wine at dinner and after the kids are in bed. She's really excited to have the champagne flutes for NYE.
She really wants to make a trip there with me one of these days and so we'll have to make that happen one day.
A gold Italian 20 Lira from the 19th Century is high on the list of coins I want to add to my world gold collection for this same reason.

And I'm tired of writing, phew.    Now I do not consider myself a natural when it comes to writing, I don't live on facebook or any other social media platform nor do I do much writing for my job so it just is not easy or natural for me the way it is for some.  But I spent a great amount of time over the last month updating descriptions, writing new ones for both individual coins and for the sets themselves.  I am quite sure that none of that will go down as great works of writing art  but I'm very pleased with the results overall.  Time to take a break from all that and enjoy, soon it will be time to go back and refine what I have done and work on better photos.  Good thing I enjoy this hobby.  

Some of the 2x2s I ordered came in today and Ben wanted to play with them not really understanding what they were so I agreed to work with him with them when Sam was napping.
We sat down with the bag of coins from PawPaw and the staplers and tried to put some in the 2x2s. He lost interest quickly. He still struggles with the stapler. He's young. He doesn't get it fully. I'm easily more interested in these than he is, but maybe that'll change with time. He's four. I still need to remember that and I need to start him slow. I'll enlist his aid again to sort them by denomination and put them in pages when the pages get here.






I made more progress than he did but I still gave up well before it was done. There's a lot in the bag and I was growing increasingly frustrated by the fact that many of these are larger and need half-dollar sized flips, which haven't come in yet... probably because I didn't actually order them (now that I check) because I'm a dumdum.

I feel like I live in chaos... In the background you see my son's Bakugan (new obsession) in the piece of packing material from a new kitchen garbage can, which he claimed as his "Bakugan Field" and the gingerbread house kit I just bought, and ornaments from working on the tree and my laptop, with the living room TV remote... in the dining room... for reasons.

A couple of weeks ago now I received the award I'd referenced previously. In true 2020 fashion I got to receive a professional award in a Punisher tshirt and sweatpants.

Because the organization wanted good pictures with the newsletter we had to re-do this in a suit and I got the whole family in on it.

As the corresponding (and surviving) author, both plaques were sent to me and its my task to mail the other plaque(s) to the other author(s), or, in my case, to his family.
While that is something I definitely don't class as "happy" I'm going to try to make something a little more positive come out of this and use the trip to the post office to mail off a coin submission while I'm at it. Because, yes, that thing I came up with the plan to do in July, which I said I'd do in mid-October, is still not done. However! Using this as motivation, I did get myself to fill out the first of the invoices I need to do today. I did the one for reholdering the 10G coins. I need / want to make out a couple more for some Civil War tokens and a gold coin I want to submit.
This has me thinking about how I want to ship them. Part of me thinks it silly to worry about proper shipping / packing when they'll be cracked out and reholdered on arrival but I'm also going to be sending some other things in the same box... but then... maybe that's a bad idea. Maybe I should just bite the bullet on shipping and ship the tokens and raw gold separately...
Of course... literally as I write this I'm finding out in the near term that this is academic for now. Apparently there's a chance my nephew has Covid (we'll know in a week) and my wife saw him just a few days before he started showing signs... So... as I write this, I realize I'm probably not going to get to do much or go anywhere for a few days... She saw him just a little before the contagious window was supposed to start if it is Covid but we have nowhere to go now and no one to see regardless. Everyone else in our circle is going to be quarantining now.
Joy. No more small private birthday party or bouncy house for the boys this weekend... Ben is going to be very disappointed... He isn't going to get to see his cousins now.
 
 

A couple of weeks ago now I received the award I'd referenced previously. In true 2020 fashion I got to receive a professional award in a Punisher tshirt and sweatpants.

Because the organization wanted good pictures with the newsletter we had to re-do this in a suit and I got the whole family in on it.

As the corresponding (and surviving) author, both plaques were sent to me and its my task to mail the other plaque(s) to the other author(s), or, in my case, to his family.
While that is something I definitely don't class as "happy" I'm going to try to make something a little more positive come out of this and use the trip to the post office to mail off a coin submission while I'm at it. Because, yes, that thing I came up with the plan to do in July, which I said I'd do in mid-October, is still not done. However! Using this as motivation, I did get myself to fill out the first of the invoices I need to do today. I did the one for reholdering the 10G coins. I need / want to make out a couple more for some Civil War tokens and a gold coin I want to submit.
This has me thinking about how I want to ship them. Part of me thinks it silly to worry about proper shipping / packing when they'll be cracked out and reholdered on arrival but I'm also going to be sending some other things in the same box... but then... maybe that's a bad idea. Maybe I should just bite the bullet on shipping and ship the tokens and raw gold separately...
Of course... literally as I write this I'm finding out in the near term that this is academic for now. Apparently there's a chance my nephew has Covid (we'll know in a week) and my wife saw him just a few days before he started showing signs... So... as I write this, I realize I'm probably not going to get to do much or go anywhere for a few days... She saw him just a little before the contagious window was supposed to start if it is Covid but we have nowhere to go now and no one to see regardless. Everyone else in our circle is going to be quarantining now.
Joy. No more small private birthday party or bouncy house for the boys this weekend... Ben is going to be very disappointed... He isn't going to get to see his cousins now.
 
 

Yesterday was the Bday. I finally found out what Ben's present for me was and it was swords... a set of 6 foam swords. Which he has had great fun running around with and playing with, including with his mother while I'm working. I'm so glad that those are mine. Clearly. They don't hurt when you get hit with them though so I guess that is a form of gift. A form of one...
My in-laws gifted me an Uncirc 2020 SAE, which is nice - after some recent discussions here though and current silver prices I'm almost afraid of what the mint charged for it. It has been a few years since I shopped these at the mint.
I posted about what Shandy got me on the PMG side - a P-89 for my Zimbabwe set in 68 EPQ, which is going to strengthen my standing in a few categories there.

Leading into our trip / vacation in the hill country my in-laws gave us a couple of bags - one of old currency and one of old coins. These apparently come from when my father-in-law was traveling and he'd always try to come home with a few of the coins and notes for each of his three kids. They decided to give these to us if we wanted them. I don't know if this is more for Shandy / the boys, because they know I collect this stuff or just because they no longer wanted to keep it. But these coins and notes are very much in the same spirit as the coins that came down to me from my grandfather and the coins I brought home from Scotland in 2017. Some of this is pre-Euro obsolete European coinage. At some point, when I have the time, I'm going to probably put a bunch of these in cardboard flips and I'll hold onto them and one day they'll got to the boys. I think when it's all said and done they'll get pages and pages of old coins in flips in a binder (or 3). None of it will be valuable but hopefully they'll enjoy them.


My in-laws, knowing that I have old cameras (and that Ben likes to borrow them and play with them) also gave us an old Kodak Brownie and an old video camera that was bought by Shandy's grandparents around the time my father-in-law was born. It is dirty and showing its age a bit but with a little cleaning and TLC it would look quite nice I think.
I guess I just like old things.
Edited to add: I spent some time last night picking through the coin bag and was finding a fun mix of things including Greek coins, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, German, and some Kroner. A few British coins too. Fun stuff. I'd never seen anything from Spain, Italy Greece or Turkey.

I finally found an acceptable 1860 P $5 half eagle to add to my 1860 mint set.  Oddly the 1860 D (Georgia) issue if far more available.  By mintage figures for the two issues, ~20k vs.~15k, are comparable.  The Charlotte is in the 15K range and rarely seen while the San Francisco is at 21k specimens minted and a tough find.  Here is my new addition...

John

A while back there was something going around that eBay, after this year I think, wouldn't allow coins, currency and bullion to be sold on the site.
I remember saying or thinking at the time that, if they made that rule change, I'd probably be done with eBay just because that's literally all I shop for there and I just wouldn't see a point in looking or shopping there most of the time if that happened.
Well, this week, as part of their 25th anniversary celebration, eBay sent me an email summarizing my activity / history on the site and it included this graphic.

I think the electronics purchase was a control unit for a car's AC system, but... yeah. 95% Collectables and Art. Take that away and I haven't used eBay for much in the last 15 years.
One track mind? One trick pony? I don't know... 
Actually I think I used eBay years ago to buy a cheaper used camera body to have a back-up / secondary body for my canon lenses years ago... so maybe there's that too for electronics. Or maybe the AC control unit was the "other."  

I posted on 1/12/2019 about winning the 2018 Journal award and mentioned that, pretty much at the same time as I found out about that, that I'd gotten a paper accepted for publication. I didn't really go into this at the time but it was a paper co-authored with my graduate advisor - who passed away on September 11, 2018. He's the person I decided to name Sam after. I didn't know it at the time but I posted that entry exactly 1 month before Sam's surprise early birth - the "first published" date on the paper is 1 Feb 2019, just 11 days before his birthday.
I found out last week that the paper is going to win a "Best In-Practice Paper" award. I'll be getting a plaque for it in the mail in about a month to a month and a half. Normally these would be given at a dinner meeting but that can't happen this year - all the meetings are canceled because of COVID-19. So I'll be getting dressed up for a suit for one of the very few times this year and taking a picture with it. I'm also going to be taking a picture with it and Sam and a picture of Sam holding it much like I did the 2019 Journal Award plaque this year - I expect Sam to try to eat the plaque again.
Finding out that I won it and that this is going to be happening in the near future is necessarily a little bittersweet, thinking about the passing of my teacher 2 years ago, every thing that was going on with Shandy's health at the time I wrote that January 2019 entry and all the things that would later follow and it has me thinking about things this week.
There will also be a plaque provided for him and I've reached out to his wife about mailing it to her but I can't help but acknowledge that it would mean a very different thing to her than to me and she honestly might not want another award for the man to keep in a box somewhere to eventually be tossed out by the grandkids.
My advisor was a bit of a workaholic, as great men sometimes tend to be - and he had a wall / office full of awards to show for it. But I think that had some negative impacts on his marriage based on things I've heard and observed. I've often thought that I don't think I could or that I'd want to ever really be like him or achieve the kinds of things that he achieved in his professional life because it would require me to put in so much time and effort into my career that it would kill my relationship with my wife and make me miss too much of my sons' childhoods. I don't want to be that guy that's in the office at 8 AM on a Saturday every weekend. There's a joke in the oil and gas industry about being on your 3rd marriage or being divorced mostly because you're pulling 60+ hour weeks all the time and you're never home. I'd rather not be an especially high-achiever and not be a VP somewhere if it means I have something resembling a work-life balance. I always want to still be that person that works to live and doesn't live to work.
While I don't want to be a workaholic and I don't want to "die at my desk" - certainly not at 63, I want to achieve, and I want my sons to see me achieve - both professionally and personally in my hobbies. I want them to see me be more than just be a parent and I want to keep that part of myself that is for me. I want my sons to see me still working for and doing things that I want that I want for me. I want to still be collecting and going to coin shows. I want to still have my cameras and be shooting. I want neither my work nor my role as a parent to become the whole of my identify and sense of self.
I will grant, collecting and researching coins and currency isn't everyone's cup of tea and coin shows don't sound fun at all to a great many - you can count my wife among these - but it's interesting, fun, and mentally stimulating, and I enjoy writing about it too, if my Zimbabwe note collection and this journal are any indication.
Sam is becoming increasingly verbal and he's starting to say things like "All Done" when he's done eating and "bye bye." He still isn't walking but we think it might be more of a courage issue than one of ability. He's standing while using his hands and grabbing things with increasing confidence. We're just having trouble convincing him to let go and take steps away from things he's cruising on. He feels more aggressive in his exploration than Ben though - he doesn't just try to mess with electrical outlets; he tries to rip the entire wall plate out of the wall, outlets and all.

I posted on 1/12/2019 about winning the 2018 Journal award and mentioned that, pretty much at the same time as I found out about that, that I'd gotten a paper accepted for publication. I didn't really go into this at the time but it was a paper co-authored with my graduate advisor - who passed away on September 11, 2018. He's the person I decided to name Sam after. I didn't know it at the time but I posted that entry exactly 1 month before Sam's surprise early birth - the "first published" date on the paper is 1 Feb 2019, just 11 days before his birthday.
I found out last week that the paper is going to win a "Best In-Practice Paper" award. I'll be getting a plaque for it in the mail in about a month to a month and a half. Normally these would be given at a dinner meeting but that can't happen this year - all the meetings are canceled because of COVID-19. So I'll be getting dressed up for a suit for one of the very few times this year and taking a picture with it. I'm also going to be taking a picture with it and Sam and a picture of Sam holding it much like I did the 2019 Journal Award plaque this year - I expect Sam to try to eat the plaque again.
Finding out that I won it and that this is going to be happening in the near future is necessarily a little bittersweet, thinking about the passing of my teacher 2 years ago, every thing that was going on with Shandy's health at the time I wrote that January 2019 entry and all the things that would later follow and it has me thinking about things this week.
There will also be a plaque provided for him and I've reached out to his wife about mailing it to her but I can't help but acknowledge that it would mean a very different thing to her than to me and she honestly might not want another award for the man to keep in a box somewhere to eventually be tossed out by the grandkids.
My advisor was a bit of a workaholic, as great men sometimes tend to be - and he had a wall / office full of awards to show for it. But I think that had some negative impacts on his marriage based on things I've heard and observed. I've often thought that I don't think I could or that I'd want to ever really be like him or achieve the kinds of things that he achieved in his professional life because it would require me to put in so much time and effort into my career that it would kill my relationship with my wife and make me miss too much of my sons' childhoods. I don't want to be that guy that's in the office at 8 AM on a Saturday every weekend. There's a joke in the oil and gas industry about being on your 3rd marriage or being divorced mostly because you're pulling 60+ hour weeks all the time and you're never home. I'd rather not be an especially high-achiever and not be a VP somewhere if it means I have something resembling a work-life balance. I always want to still be that person that works to live and doesn't live to work.
While I don't want to be a workaholic and I don't want to "die at my desk" - certainly not at 63, I want to achieve, and I want my sons to see me achieve - both professionally and personally in my hobbies. I want them to see me be more than just be a parent and I want to keep that part of myself that is for me. I want my sons to see me still working for and doing things that I want that I want for me. I want to still be collecting and going to coin shows. I want to still have my cameras and be shooting. I want neither my work nor my role as a parent to become the whole of my identify and sense of self.
I will grant, collecting and researching coins and currency isn't everyone's cup of tea and coin shows don't sound fun at all to a great many - you can count my wife among these - but it's interesting, fun, and mentally stimulating, and I enjoy writing about it too, if my Zimbabwe note collection and this journal are any indication.
Sam is becoming increasingly verbal and he's starting to say things like "All Done" when he's done eating and "bye bye." He still isn't walking but we think it might be more of a courage issue than one of ability. He's standing while using his hands and grabbing things with increasing confidence. We're just having trouble convincing him to let go and take steps away from things he's cruising on. He feels more aggressive in his exploration than Ben though - he doesn't just try to mess with electrical outlets; he tries to rip the entire wall plate out of the wall, outlets and all.

Off-topic but...
Some days it begins to feel like a game of "What has my 4 year old managed to get me charged for this time?"
A couple of months ago he managed to get us signed up to Amazon Music for a month.
Last month he managed to upgrade my Netflix account to "Premium" - so now we can have 3 screens going at once instead of 2 - and it costs me $3 more a month.
I was just looking at one of the credit card bills, seeing a 5 dollar charge and thinking, "Oh no... What did he tell Alexa this time?" - Turns out it wasn't that it was just a tip for the grocery delivery driver.
Why can't these kids do something useful? Like get into my eBay watch list on my Phone's App and buy somethings while giving me deniability???  I could at least enjoy that!

Off-topic but...
Some days it begins to feel like a game of "What has my 4 year old managed to get me charged for this time?"
A couple of months ago he managed to get us signed up to Amazon Music for a month.
Last month he managed to upgrade my Netflix account to "Premium" - so now we can have 3 screens going at once instead of 2 - and it costs me $3 more a month.
I was just looking at one of the credit card bills, seeing a 5 dollar charge and thinking, "Oh no... What did he tell Alexa this time?" - Turns out it wasn't that it was just a tip for the grocery delivery driver.
Why can't these kids do something useful? Like get into my eBay watch list on my Phone's App and buy somethings while giving me deniability???  I could at least enjoy that!

I got a little time today where Shandy had both the kids occupied and I decided to get that ring light out and go for it to get some proof of concept shots. I decided to snap some quick shots of something I’ve taken pictures of recently so I can compare the shots I get this way to some recently taken shots done the way I’ve been doing them lately (camera on the floor with an LED on a speedlight). So, I grabbed my 1880 10G.
Old photos taken the old way:

New Photos taken with the Ring Light:

I hate to say it but I think I like my old way better. The photos with the ring light look like they're sharper and show some of the details better but the old photos pop better and show off the luster better. I may have to try this again with a proof coin and see if this approach makes that any easier because the approach I've been using usually doesn't work with proof coins and the mirrored surfaces.
While the photos turned out well I don’t think I’ll be making frequent use of this and I’ll probably only try this if I can have a fair bit of time and take a bunch of photos all at once. This is a lot more effort to set up than what I’ve been doing lately with the need to get the light out and set up on a light stand, getting a tripod out and getting the camera set up on the tripod, properly oriented / situated with the light and the stand for the coin, and getting the coin positioned at right height (fancy way of saying “stacking books”). It’s just a lot more work and I’m not sure it’d be worth it to take a few quick shots of one coin or note.
I gotta say, I’m shocked by how ungrateful the wife was through the whole process. Here I am, checking her equipment to make sure the new light works and that it’s compatible with my old light stands and the light stand for her first light and taking some test shots – showing that I can use this to make a set-up to take some really nice beauty shots – of her, of course, using the coins as a proxy – and while I’m doing all this I hear her talking to her mom on the phone, accusing me of “playing with coins.” Sheesh! How ungrateful! (Yup. She reads these. Yes. I will die soon.)

For about the last week or so Ben keeps saying that he needs things for his “collection.” He has a robot “collection.” His Legos are a “collection” now. His toys are a “collection.” He needs all my old dice for his “collection.”
I’m not sure where this came from, but I really don’t think it was from me. I don’t think I use the word “collection” around him very often.
I’m thinking he must have gotten this from one of his little shows he watches on Netflix – maybe even power rangers since I think there was a character / villain on that not too long ago that collected “goodies” in glass jars (kinda creepy).
It's cute and all... now he just needs to stop taking all of my stuff!

For about the last week or so Ben keeps saying that he needs things for his “collection.” He has a robot “collection.” His Legos are a “collection” now. His toys are a “collection.” He needs all my old dice for his “collection.”
I’m not sure where this came from, but I really don’t think it was from me. I don’t think I use the word “collection” around him very often.
I’m thinking he must have gotten this from one of his little shows he watches on Netflix – maybe even power rangers since I think there was a character / villain on that not too long ago that collected “goodies” in glass jars (kinda creepy).
It's cute and all... now he just needs to stop taking all of my stuff!

Earlier this week I had an opportunity to pick up a number of interesting Republic of the Philippines Mint Error coins in Heritage Auctions Weekly On Line World Coin Auction.  The most interesting of the group is a 1964 5 Centavos with an Elliptical Clip Mint Error.  The Elliptical Clip gives the Planchet a distinctive "Football shape". This is the first time that I have seen this type of Mint Error in a Philippine coin. The coin is graded ANACS MS62. I will need to send it to NGC with my next batch of submissions so that I can add it to my Philippine Mint Errors Custom Registry Set. https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/CoinCustomSetView.aspx?s=27874


  

Around the start of our self-isolation my hair had been getting really long and my wife convinced me to just let her and Ben use the trimmer on me and make it short - finally lean into the hair loss that has been eating into my temples for 10 years. At the time I’d shaved my beard.

Recently they did another pass to keep it short and I saw a picture of myself…

Then I looked at the coins I collect, and I thought a little…

Then I went to Google and Bing for photos…

That’s not fair! That ain’t right! When I started building this set, I was 22 and I had hair on my temples! Curse you, male pattern baldness! Curse you!

My wife says I have the hair but not the nose!  
Anyway... I hope that was good for a laugh for someone!
Stay safe. Stay healthy. Today was day 43 of self-isolation for us.
 
 

Around the start of our self-isolation my hair had been getting really long and my wife convinced me to just let her and Ben use the trimmer on me and make it short - finally lean into the hair loss that has been eating into my temples for 10 years. At the time I’d shaved my beard.

Recently they did another pass to keep it short and I saw a picture of myself…

Then I looked at the coins I collect, and I thought a little…

Then I went to Google and Bing for photos…

That’s not fair! That ain’t right! When I started building this set, I was 22 and I had hair on my temples! Curse you, male pattern baldness! Curse you!

My wife says I have the hair but not the nose!  
Anyway... I hope that was good for a laugh for someone!
Stay safe. Stay healthy. Today was day 43 of self-isolation for us.
 
 

Ben came into my office the other day and found the 1986 Silver Eagle I have that’s in the original mint packaging. He’s always coming into my office wanting to take things from there or from my desk. Apparently, I just have all the best… everything! And he just wants to play with and take all of it.
So, he decides that he needs to take it downstairs and show it to momma. Of course, he trips on the tile in the kitchen and drops it and breaks a chip off the mint capsule for the coin… Great!
And, of course, he’s always taking my old miniatures - “the robot toys” - and I’ve lost count of how many of those have lost arms, been snapped at the waist or just smashed into oblivion.
Maybe I shouldn’t complain too much - he breaks plenty of his stuff too. And his brother’s toys. And a few of my wife’s things… and sometimes I can put thing things back together and there’s always super glue for some things.
I ordered a batch of 5 or 6 empty mint capsules off eBay for about $10 after shipping and taxes. I was hoping I could just take off the broken lid / top to the mint capsule and pop on a new one but the body of the capsule has cracks running along the sides too. So, I’ll have to replace the whole capsule. That thing’s card is punched.

I am so grateful for the fact that, as he and I recently showed / demonstrated, the slabs for the graded coins don’t break as easy as those mint capsules apparently do.
It’s going to be hard some days balancing sharing what I enjoy with him and having him not… wreck my stuff.
It just seems like it’s a little bit worse with us being home. All. The. Time.
Today was day 25.
Yup... You're all getting treated to more of my ranting and rambling because of Covid-19. I hope you enjoy!

Ben came into my office the other day and found the 1986 Silver Eagle I have that’s in the original mint packaging. He’s always coming into my office wanting to take things from there or from my desk. Apparently, I just have all the best… everything! And he just wants to play with and take all of it.
So, he decides that he needs to take it downstairs and show it to momma. Of course, he trips on the tile in the kitchen and drops it and breaks a chip off the mint capsule for the coin… Great!
And, of course, he’s always taking my old miniatures - “the robot toys” - and I’ve lost count of how many of those have lost arms, been snapped at the waist or just smashed into oblivion.
Maybe I shouldn’t complain too much - he breaks plenty of his stuff too. And his brother’s toys. And a few of my wife’s things… and sometimes I can put thing things back together and there’s always super glue for some things.
I ordered a batch of 5 or 6 empty mint capsules off eBay for about $10 after shipping and taxes. I was hoping I could just take off the broken lid / top to the mint capsule and pop on a new one but the body of the capsule has cracks running along the sides too. So, I’ll have to replace the whole capsule. That thing’s card is punched.

I am so grateful for the fact that, as he and I recently showed / demonstrated, the slabs for the graded coins don’t break as easy as those mint capsules apparently do.
It’s going to be hard some days balancing sharing what I enjoy with him and having him not… wreck my stuff.
It just seems like it’s a little bit worse with us being home. All. The. Time.
Today was day 25.
Yup... You're all getting treated to more of my ranting and rambling because of Covid-19. I hope you enjoy!

Ben came into my office the other day and found the 1986 Silver Eagle I have that’s in the original mint packaging. He’s always coming into my office wanting to take things from there or from my desk. Apparently, I just have all the best… everything! And he just wants to play with and take all of it.
So, he decides that he needs to take it downstairs and show it to momma. Of course, he trips on the tile in the kitchen and drops it and breaks a chip off the mint capsule for the coin… Great!
And, of course, he’s always taking my old miniatures - “the robot toys” - and I’ve lost count of how many of those have lost arms, been snapped at the waist or just smashed into oblivion.
Maybe I shouldn’t complain too much - he breaks plenty of his stuff too. And his brother’s toys. And a few of my wife’s things… and sometimes I can put thing things back together and there’s always super glue for some things.
I ordered a batch of 5 or 6 empty mint capsules off eBay for about $10 after shipping and taxes. I was hoping I could just take off the broken lid / top to the mint capsule and pop on a new one but the body of the capsule has cracks running along the sides too. So, I’ll have to replace the whole capsule. That thing’s card is punched.

I am so grateful for the fact that, as he and I recently showed / demonstrated, the slabs for the graded coins don’t break as easy as those mint capsules apparently do.
It’s going to be hard some days balancing sharing what I enjoy with him and having him not… wreck my stuff.
It just seems like it’s a little bit worse with us being home. All. The. Time.
Today was day 25.
Yup... You're all getting treated to more of my ranting and rambling because of Covid-19. I hope you enjoy!