Revenant

So I'm probably going to come off like a bit of a "super judger" (as my wife puts it) while also preaching to the choir a bit, but I wanted to post about the work I've been doing on my Half Cent set recently.
I said recently that my wife gave me a 1955 Rhodesian Half Cent, following up on the 1957 and 1958 she'd given me at Christmas, buying things I'd put on my watch list. 
Putting this coin in my set put it in the #1 spot in the category. And so, it was a #1 ranked set for me - with none of my own photos, just NGC photos, no set banner image, no set description and no coin descriptions.
This happened in large part because I hadn't been focusing on this - I'd been focusing on buying and working on coins for another set that I'm also researching at the moment and I'm going to build it out as a phase 3 to what I've done with Zimbabwe and Venezuela. But then this new set snuck up on me, going from 20% complete and rank 5 to 80% complete and rank 1, driven completely by my wife, who knew I liked them and had heard me talking about them.
But once it was #1, I really felt a need to table some of the other stuff for a while, get pictures of these, and build out a presentation for the set. Because - I really think, if you made a #1 ranked set, you should make it worth looking at and fun to look at if you're at all able too - no shade intended at those that can't get a good photo of a coin, perhaps just because they don't have the equipment. But it is just so much nicer to click on a #1 ranked, 100% complete set and see gorgeous, lustrous, detailed, close-up photos. And I love that NGC made it easy to pop-in their verification photos... but that's photos are just not as good as what many of us can produce and they often do not do a good job of showing off the coin. Those photos are produced in a quick, generic, assembly line kind of way and you're not going to get the best images of a particular coin unless you're taking your time with each coin - something NGC just can't afford to do unless you're paying them an extra fee for their high-end photos.
And so, that's what I've done and built and at this point the set presentation is more or less finished and built. I have at least 1 more coin description to get to, as I'm about to get to.
Getting the 1955 meant I only had one more coin - the 1956 - left to get to complete the set. So getting that coin moved up my priority list in a big way after the 14th of last month.
As I started looking into building a presentation for the set, one of the things I like to look at and reference is the mintage for each year.
And that brought something to my attention - the 1956, the only coin I hadn't acquired, the only coin I hadn't even really seen for sale, is also the lowest mintage year with only 480,000 made that year. The next lowest had 720,000 made - 50% more - and all the other years were in the 1-2.5 million range. 
And, coincidentally, as I was looking at all of this and figuring all this out, a seller I've bought several of these Rhodesian coins from listed a 1956 in MS65RB. For reference, there are no coins at MS66 or above presently, there's a single MS65RD graded by NGC and only about 3 MS65RBs. So, this was one of the better NGC-graded examples.
So I immediately wanted that coin, and I have some hobby money saved up and I was ready to bid aggressively to get it, since it was an auction. Because, I'm not sure how long I might have to wait to see another one this good - maybe not long, maybe quite a while.
Turns out I didn't need to worry - no one else bid and no one fought me for it. But the set is now complete. 
I won the coin last weekend, and it arrived on Wednesday. I took some time last night to get pictures taken and edited to go with the pictures I took of the others last week. And so, here it is. I just need to get that last description finished.

And so the next post will probably focus on what I've been working on now that this is done.

Well, I wasn't planning to submit this batch of coins until my membership renewed and I got my additional $150 credit on June 12th...
The problem with this is that not having coins graded that I can pop into a set and not having a public set I can actually build has proven ... demotivating... when it comes to my research and writing efforts.
It simply isn't as fun or as satisfying to work on a Word file with no pictures.
So I've found myself pulled in other directions recently. But I'm still confident I can probably get something good together before November. Probably.
Another problem I've been grappling with however is just getting some of the coins I've ordered.
I've ordered some coins for the Venezuela set and the Italian 500 Lire set from different dealers in Europe and both sets of coins have not arrived. I've had to put in "Item not received" tickets on these, getting my money back in one instance and not in another. So, this is probably going to force me to just leave a hole in the Venezuela set for now and to just go with what I have on the 500 Lire coins.
On an unrelated note, I've been experimenting with Miniature painting recently and Ben got into it with me a little. I'll resist the urge to spam pictures on this.
Much like with the coin collecting, I find that he unsurprisingly lacks my patience. He'll declare himself done with a miniature in 30-45 minutes but I'll work on one thing for more than one session, applying more than one coat of paint, and spend a couple of hours total on each mini.
But it's fun to work on these and like me he likes using the same magnifying lamp that's been seeing use as we pick coins for grading.




I still need to find / buy / pick out some additional coins to grade when that submission goes in just to round it out. Given that we're in mid-May I should probably get on that... probably.
Or I may just end up submitting what I have or just throwing some more random stuff in.

So I'm probably going to come off like a bit of a "super judger" (as my wife puts it) while also preaching to the choir a bit, but I wanted to post about the work I've been doing on my Half Cent set recently.
I said recently that my wife gave me a 1955 Rhodesian Half Cent, following up on the 1957 and 1958 she'd given me at Christmas, buying things I'd put on my watch list. 
Putting this coin in my set put it in the #1 spot in the category. And so, it was a #1 ranked set for me - with none of my own photos, just NGC photos, no set banner image, no set description and no coin descriptions.
This happened in large part because I hadn't been focusing on this - I'd been focusing on buying and working on coins for another set that I'm also researching at the moment and I'm going to build it out as a phase 3 to what I've done with Zimbabwe and Venezuela. But then this new set snuck up on me, going from 20% complete and rank 5 to 80% complete and rank 1, driven completely by my wife, who knew I liked them and had heard me talking about them.
But once it was #1, I really felt a need to table some of the other stuff for a while, get pictures of these, and build out a presentation for the set. Because - I really think, if you made a #1 ranked set, you should make it worth looking at and fun to look at if you're at all able too - no shade intended at those that can't get a good photo of a coin, perhaps just because they don't have the equipment. But it is just so much nicer to click on a #1 ranked, 100% complete set and see gorgeous, lustrous, detailed, close-up photos. And I love that NGC made it easy to pop-in their verification photos... but that's photos are just not as good as what many of us can produce and they often do not do a good job of showing off the coin. Those photos are produced in a quick, generic, assembly line kind of way and you're not going to get the best images of a particular coin unless you're taking your time with each coin - something NGC just can't afford to do unless you're paying them an extra fee for their high-end photos.
And so, that's what I've done and built and at this point the set presentation is more or less finished and built. I have at least 1 more coin description to get to, as I'm about to get to.
Getting the 1955 meant I only had one more coin - the 1956 - left to get to complete the set. So getting that coin moved up my priority list in a big way after the 14th of last month.
As I started looking into building a presentation for the set, one of the things I like to look at and reference is the mintage for each year.
And that brought something to my attention - the 1956, the only coin I hadn't acquired, the only coin I hadn't even really seen for sale, is also the lowest mintage year with only 480,000 made that year. The next lowest had 720,000 made - 50% more - and all the other years were in the 1-2.5 million range. 
And, coincidentally, as I was looking at all of this and figuring all this out, a seller I've bought several of these Rhodesian coins from listed a 1956 in MS65RB. For reference, there are no coins at MS66 or above presently, there's a single MS65RD graded by NGC and only about 3 MS65RBs. So, this was one of the better NGC-graded examples.
So I immediately wanted that coin, and I have some hobby money saved up and I was ready to bid aggressively to get it, since it was an auction. Because, I'm not sure how long I might have to wait to see another one this good - maybe not long, maybe quite a while.
Turns out I didn't need to worry - no one else bid and no one fought me for it. But the set is now complete. 
I won the coin last weekend, and it arrived on Wednesday. I took some time last night to get pictures taken and edited to go with the pictures I took of the others last week. And so, here it is. I just need to get that last description finished.

And so the next post will probably focus on what I've been working on now that this is done.

I thought I'd post an update on the recent journal on the 20 Bolivar coin.
I did ultimately decide to buy an MS65 1930 10 Bolivar coin to go with it and I got the coins imaged a while ago when I had them both in hand.
The nice thing about these two is that they slot into that Reform coinage type set that ends at 2005, along with my pre-BsF Venezuelan coins. So I didn't have to make separate sets for one or both of these like I have for so many other small European gold coins I've collected. Adding these also moved me from 25th place, briefly to 9th, before going down to 10th. So not quite as low there anymroe.
'

A feature of these that I find quite interesting is that they do not say 10 Bolivars or 20 Bolivars. They give the weight of the coin and the purity of the gold. This goes nicely in line with the theme and my thinking on this unofficial type set I've been building - these coins come from a time, barely a century ago, when gold was the one true currency of the world, and all other currencies where just different ways of expressing weights of gold / agw.
I've been told that an Argentinian type set that I asked for will be created soon, and I've been slowly working on building out a submission to send it that will hopefully lead to the first competitive sets in 2 Argentinian categories - one made for my request. And these two sets are going to form the two parts of my new project "Brought forth with pain," which are going to focus on the Argentinian battles with debt that have taken them through 8-9 defaults (depending on who you ask/what source you use) and about 5-6 currencies since about 1807. My collection and my project is going to focus on the last 2 of these currencies - the ones relevant to my lifespan and which are the easiest to collect - the Austral (1985-1991), Peso Convertible (1992-Date).
My rough plan for now is for the Austral set to discuss the three older periods of debt crisis / currency crisis, and for the Peso Convertible set to deal with just the more recent troubles including the debt crisis that started around 2001, which has continued with related ups and downs for the last 20 years.
Like with "Gradually, then Suddenly," there's a quote here that's going to be the theme of the set essentially -
“Debts are like children – begot with pleasure but brought forth with pain.” - Moliere
Argentina has, at least with what I've seen so far, generally been a country with a lot of resources and a lot going for it, but they'll get into debt in good times - begot in pleasure - and then the debt becomes supportable in bad times - when a war starts or when global commodity prices tank, or both.
It's also interesting to me that, while Argentina is a former Spanish colony, it is actually their interactions with the UK and the United States, as the holders of the global reserve currencies, and the banks in those countries, that have bedeviled the country the most.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I think it'll be an interesting story to read more about and find a way to write about and structure a narrative around the coins.
While there is absolutely not a 1:1 correlation, you can see how historically a debt crisis lead to an inflationary crisis that lead to the death of the currency and a new national currency. The Real survived the default in 1827. The Peso Moneda Nacional survived the defaults in 1890, 1951, and 1956. But you see the default in 1982 followed by a new currency in 1983 and 1985 and the default in 1989 helped crash the Austral, leading to the Peso Convertible, which, after 20 years of trouble, seems to be enterign a bit of a death spiral.
List of Defaults:
·       1827
·       1890
·       1951
·       1956
·       1982
·       1989
·       2001
·       2014
·       2019-23
List of Currencies:
·       Real (1813-1881)
·       Peso Moneda Nacional (1881-1969)
·       Peso Argentino (1983-1985)
·       Austral (1985-1991)
·       Peso Convertible (1992-Date)
 
I guess I need to stop using Venezuela going forward and make a new category for posts about Argentina. 

I thought I'd post an update on the recent journal on the 20 Bolivar coin.
I did ultimately decide to buy an MS65 1930 10 Bolivar coin to go with it and I got the coins imaged a while ago when I had them both in hand.
The nice thing about these two is that they slot into that Reform coinage type set that ends at 2005, along with my pre-BsF Venezuelan coins. So I didn't have to make separate sets for one or both of these like I have for so many other small European gold coins I've collected. Adding these also moved me from 25th place, briefly to 9th, before going down to 10th. So not quite as low there anymroe.
'

A feature of these that I find quite interesting is that they do not say 10 Bolivars or 20 Bolivars. They give the weight of the coin and the purity of the gold. This goes nicely in line with the theme and my thinking on this unofficial type set I've been building - these coins come from a time, barely a century ago, when gold was the one true currency of the world, and all other currencies where just different ways of expressing weights of gold / agw.
I've been told that an Argentinian type set that I asked for will be created soon, and I've been slowly working on building out a submission to send it that will hopefully lead to the first competitive sets in 2 Argentinian categories - one made for my request. And these two sets are going to form the two parts of my new project "Brought forth with pain," which are going to focus on the Argentinian battles with debt that have taken them through 8-9 defaults (depending on who you ask/what source you use) and about 5-6 currencies since about 1807. My collection and my project is going to focus on the last 2 of these currencies - the ones relevant to my lifespan and which are the easiest to collect - the Austral (1985-1991), Peso Convertible (1992-Date).
My rough plan for now is for the Austral set to discuss the three older periods of debt crisis / currency crisis, and for the Peso Convertible set to deal with just the more recent troubles including the debt crisis that started around 2001, which has continued with related ups and downs for the last 20 years.
Like with "Gradually, then Suddenly," there's a quote here that's going to be the theme of the set essentially -
“Debts are like children – begot with pleasure but brought forth with pain.” - Moliere
Argentina has, at least with what I've seen so far, generally been a country with a lot of resources and a lot going for it, but they'll get into debt in good times - begot in pleasure - and then the debt becomes supportable in bad times - when a war starts or when global commodity prices tank, or both.
It's also interesting to me that, while Argentina is a former Spanish colony, it is actually their interactions with the UK and the United States, as the holders of the global reserve currencies, and the banks in those countries, that have bedeviled the country the most.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I think it'll be an interesting story to read more about and find a way to write about and structure a narrative around the coins.
While there is absolutely not a 1:1 correlation, you can see how historically a debt crisis lead to an inflationary crisis that lead to the death of the currency and a new national currency. The Real survived the default in 1827. The Peso Moneda Nacional survived the defaults in 1890, 1951, and 1956. But you see the default in 1982 followed by a new currency in 1983 and 1985 and the default in 1989 helped crash the Austral, leading to the Peso Convertible, which, after 20 years of trouble, seems to be enterign a bit of a death spiral.
List of Defaults:
·       1827
·       1890
·       1951
·       1956
·       1982
·       1989
·       2001
·       2014
·       2019-23
List of Currencies:
·       Real (1813-1881)
·       Peso Moneda Nacional (1881-1969)
·       Peso Argentino (1983-1985)
·       Austral (1985-1991)
·       Peso Convertible (1992-Date)
 
I guess I need to stop using Venezuela going forward and make a new category for posts about Argentina. 

I thought I'd post an update on the recent journal on the 20 Bolivar coin.
I did ultimately decide to buy an MS65 1930 10 Bolivar coin to go with it and I got the coins imaged a while ago when I had them both in hand.
The nice thing about these two is that they slot into that Reform coinage type set that ends at 2005, along with my pre-BsF Venezuelan coins. So I didn't have to make separate sets for one or both of these like I have for so many other small European gold coins I've collected. Adding these also moved me from 25th place, briefly to 9th, before going down to 10th. So not quite as low there anymroe.
'

A feature of these that I find quite interesting is that they do not say 10 Bolivars or 20 Bolivars. They give the weight of the coin and the purity of the gold. This goes nicely in line with the theme and my thinking on this unofficial type set I've been building - these coins come from a time, barely a century ago, when gold was the one true currency of the world, and all other currencies where just different ways of expressing weights of gold / agw.
I've been told that an Argentinian type set that I asked for will be created soon, and I've been slowly working on building out a submission to send it that will hopefully lead to the first competitive sets in 2 Argentinian categories - one made for my request. And these two sets are going to form the two parts of my new project "Brought forth with pain," which are going to focus on the Argentinian battles with debt that have taken them through 8-9 defaults (depending on who you ask/what source you use) and about 5-6 currencies since about 1807. My collection and my project is going to focus on the last 2 of these currencies - the ones relevant to my lifespan and which are the easiest to collect - the Austral (1985-1991), Peso Convertible (1992-Date).
My rough plan for now is for the Austral set to discuss the three older periods of debt crisis / currency crisis, and for the Peso Convertible set to deal with just the more recent troubles including the debt crisis that started around 2001, which has continued with related ups and downs for the last 20 years.
Like with "Gradually, then Suddenly," there's a quote here that's going to be the theme of the set essentially -
“Debts are like children – begot with pleasure but brought forth with pain.” - Moliere
Argentina has, at least with what I've seen so far, generally been a country with a lot of resources and a lot going for it, but they'll get into debt in good times - begot in pleasure - and then the debt becomes supportable in bad times - when a war starts or when global commodity prices tank, or both.
It's also interesting to me that, while Argentina is a former Spanish colony, it is actually their interactions with the UK and the United States, as the holders of the global reserve currencies, and the banks in those countries, that have bedeviled the country the most.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I think it'll be an interesting story to read more about and find a way to write about and structure a narrative around the coins.
While there is absolutely not a 1:1 correlation, you can see how historically a debt crisis lead to an inflationary crisis that lead to the death of the currency and a new national currency. The Real survived the default in 1827. The Peso Moneda Nacional survived the defaults in 1890, 1951, and 1956. But you see the default in 1982 followed by a new currency in 1983 and 1985 and the default in 1989 helped crash the Austral, leading to the Peso Convertible, which, after 20 years of trouble, seems to be enterign a bit of a death spiral.
List of Defaults:
·       1827
·       1890
·       1951
·       1956
·       1982
·       1989
·       2001
·       2014
·       2019-23
List of Currencies:
·       Real (1813-1881)
·       Peso Moneda Nacional (1881-1969)
·       Peso Argentino (1983-1985)
·       Austral (1985-1991)
·       Peso Convertible (1992-Date)
 
I guess I need to stop using Venezuela going forward and make a new category for posts about Argentina. 

So I'm probably going to come off like a bit of a "super judger" (as my wife puts it) while also preaching to the choir a bit, but I wanted to post about the work I've been doing on my Half Cent set recently.
I said recently that my wife gave me a 1955 Rhodesian Half Cent, following up on the 1957 and 1958 she'd given me at Christmas, buying things I'd put on my watch list. 
Putting this coin in my set put it in the #1 spot in the category. And so, it was a #1 ranked set for me - with none of my own photos, just NGC photos, no set banner image, no set description and no coin descriptions.
This happened in large part because I hadn't been focusing on this - I'd been focusing on buying and working on coins for another set that I'm also researching at the moment and I'm going to build it out as a phase 3 to what I've done with Zimbabwe and Venezuela. But then this new set snuck up on me, going from 20% complete and rank 5 to 80% complete and rank 1, driven completely by my wife, who knew I liked them and had heard me talking about them.
But once it was #1, I really felt a need to table some of the other stuff for a while, get pictures of these, and build out a presentation for the set. Because - I really think, if you made a #1 ranked set, you should make it worth looking at and fun to look at if you're at all able too - no shade intended at those that can't get a good photo of a coin, perhaps just because they don't have the equipment. But it is just so much nicer to click on a #1 ranked, 100% complete set and see gorgeous, lustrous, detailed, close-up photos. And I love that NGC made it easy to pop-in their verification photos... but that's photos are just not as good as what many of us can produce and they often do not do a good job of showing off the coin. Those photos are produced in a quick, generic, assembly line kind of way and you're not going to get the best images of a particular coin unless you're taking your time with each coin - something NGC just can't afford to do unless you're paying them an extra fee for their high-end photos.
And so, that's what I've done and built and at this point the set presentation is more or less finished and built. I have at least 1 more coin description to get to, as I'm about to get to.
Getting the 1955 meant I only had one more coin - the 1956 - left to get to complete the set. So getting that coin moved up my priority list in a big way after the 14th of last month.
As I started looking into building a presentation for the set, one of the things I like to look at and reference is the mintage for each year.
And that brought something to my attention - the 1956, the only coin I hadn't acquired, the only coin I hadn't even really seen for sale, is also the lowest mintage year with only 480,000 made that year. The next lowest had 720,000 made - 50% more - and all the other years were in the 1-2.5 million range. 
And, coincidentally, as I was looking at all of this and figuring all this out, a seller I've bought several of these Rhodesian coins from listed a 1956 in MS65RB. For reference, there are no coins at MS66 or above presently, there's a single MS65RD graded by NGC and only about 3 MS65RBs. So, this was one of the better NGC-graded examples.
So I immediately wanted that coin, and I have some hobby money saved up and I was ready to bid aggressively to get it, since it was an auction. Because, I'm not sure how long I might have to wait to see another one this good - maybe not long, maybe quite a while.
Turns out I didn't need to worry - no one else bid and no one fought me for it. But the set is now complete. 
I won the coin last weekend, and it arrived on Wednesday. I took some time last night to get pictures taken and edited to go with the pictures I took of the others last week. And so, here it is. I just need to get that last description finished.

And so the next post will probably focus on what I've been working on now that this is done.

So I'm probably going to come off like a bit of a "super judger" (as my wife puts it) while also preaching to the choir a bit, but I wanted to post about the work I've been doing on my Half Cent set recently.
I said recently that my wife gave me a 1955 Rhodesian Half Cent, following up on the 1957 and 1958 she'd given me at Christmas, buying things I'd put on my watch list. 
Putting this coin in my set put it in the #1 spot in the category. And so, it was a #1 ranked set for me - with none of my own photos, just NGC photos, no set banner image, no set description and no coin descriptions.
This happened in large part because I hadn't been focusing on this - I'd been focusing on buying and working on coins for another set that I'm also researching at the moment and I'm going to build it out as a phase 3 to what I've done with Zimbabwe and Venezuela. But then this new set snuck up on me, going from 20% complete and rank 5 to 80% complete and rank 1, driven completely by my wife, who knew I liked them and had heard me talking about them.
But once it was #1, I really felt a need to table some of the other stuff for a while, get pictures of these, and build out a presentation for the set. Because - I really think, if you made a #1 ranked set, you should make it worth looking at and fun to look at if you're at all able too - no shade intended at those that can't get a good photo of a coin, perhaps just because they don't have the equipment. But it is just so much nicer to click on a #1 ranked, 100% complete set and see gorgeous, lustrous, detailed, close-up photos. And I love that NGC made it easy to pop-in their verification photos... but that's photos are just not as good as what many of us can produce and they often do not do a good job of showing off the coin. Those photos are produced in a quick, generic, assembly line kind of way and you're not going to get the best images of a particular coin unless you're taking your time with each coin - something NGC just can't afford to do unless you're paying them an extra fee for their high-end photos.
And so, that's what I've done and built and at this point the set presentation is more or less finished and built. I have at least 1 more coin description to get to, as I'm about to get to.
Getting the 1955 meant I only had one more coin - the 1956 - left to get to complete the set. So getting that coin moved up my priority list in a big way after the 14th of last month.
As I started looking into building a presentation for the set, one of the things I like to look at and reference is the mintage for each year.
And that brought something to my attention - the 1956, the only coin I hadn't acquired, the only coin I hadn't even really seen for sale, is also the lowest mintage year with only 480,000 made that year. The next lowest had 720,000 made - 50% more - and all the other years were in the 1-2.5 million range. 
And, coincidentally, as I was looking at all of this and figuring all this out, a seller I've bought several of these Rhodesian coins from listed a 1956 in MS65RB. For reference, there are no coins at MS66 or above presently, there's a single MS65RD graded by NGC and only about 3 MS65RBs. So, this was one of the better NGC-graded examples.
So I immediately wanted that coin, and I have some hobby money saved up and I was ready to bid aggressively to get it, since it was an auction. Because, I'm not sure how long I might have to wait to see another one this good - maybe not long, maybe quite a while.
Turns out I didn't need to worry - no one else bid and no one fought me for it. But the set is now complete. 
I won the coin last weekend, and it arrived on Wednesday. I took some time last night to get pictures taken and edited to go with the pictures I took of the others last week. And so, here it is. I just need to get that last description finished.

And so the next post will probably focus on what I've been working on now that this is done.

I told my wife today, “You know, it’s really kind of amazing: You combine antibiotics, with steroids, NSAID pain relievers, expectorants, nasal decongestants, and antihistamines, and a few hours later you feel a lot more comfortable!”
I’ve had a sinus infection kicking my butt more and more for a week and a half and I finally went to the doctor today to get help being it.
Drugs! Am I right?
Yeah… Now that you’re all convinced I’m a pill head…
I was walking out the front door to go to the pharmacy to get my meds when the FedEx guy got out of the truck and handed me the envelope with this and a 1923, MS64 Peace Dollar – it’ll go great with the Morgan from 2020 and the American Eagle from 2021.

So, in the last few years I’ve brought you:
“Gradually, Then Suddenly” (PMG Best Presented Note Set – some of you may not be much aware of this one)
“The First Casualties (Causalities?) of Hyperinflation”
And:
“Turning Pain into Suffering”
 
I think I can now announce my latest melodramatic working title:
“Brought Forth with Pain.”
We return to our roots with “Gradually, then Suddenly,” in that this is a clip from a quote that will be at the core of what I hope the Theme of the new set will be:
“Debts are like children – begot with pleasure but brought forth with pain.” – Moliere
 
I think this will be a two-parter, as I’m going to be looking at two currencies that, based on what I’m seeing, will probably be split in the registry into two competitive categories – one of these sets / groups has a competitive category already. One doesn’t seem to, yet – but I’m going to ask for one soon!
 

So I'm probably going to come off like a bit of a "super judger" (as my wife puts it) while also preaching to the choir a bit, but I wanted to post about the work I've been doing on my Half Cent set recently.
I said recently that my wife gave me a 1955 Rhodesian Half Cent, following up on the 1957 and 1958 she'd given me at Christmas, buying things I'd put on my watch list. 
Putting this coin in my set put it in the #1 spot in the category. And so, it was a #1 ranked set for me - with none of my own photos, just NGC photos, no set banner image, no set description and no coin descriptions.
This happened in large part because I hadn't been focusing on this - I'd been focusing on buying and working on coins for another set that I'm also researching at the moment and I'm going to build it out as a phase 3 to what I've done with Zimbabwe and Venezuela. But then this new set snuck up on me, going from 20% complete and rank 5 to 80% complete and rank 1, driven completely by my wife, who knew I liked them and had heard me talking about them.
But once it was #1, I really felt a need to table some of the other stuff for a while, get pictures of these, and build out a presentation for the set. Because - I really think, if you made a #1 ranked set, you should make it worth looking at and fun to look at if you're at all able too - no shade intended at those that can't get a good photo of a coin, perhaps just because they don't have the equipment. But it is just so much nicer to click on a #1 ranked, 100% complete set and see gorgeous, lustrous, detailed, close-up photos. And I love that NGC made it easy to pop-in their verification photos... but that's photos are just not as good as what many of us can produce and they often do not do a good job of showing off the coin. Those photos are produced in a quick, generic, assembly line kind of way and you're not going to get the best images of a particular coin unless you're taking your time with each coin - something NGC just can't afford to do unless you're paying them an extra fee for their high-end photos.
And so, that's what I've done and built and at this point the set presentation is more or less finished and built. I have at least 1 more coin description to get to, as I'm about to get to.
Getting the 1955 meant I only had one more coin - the 1956 - left to get to complete the set. So getting that coin moved up my priority list in a big way after the 14th of last month.
As I started looking into building a presentation for the set, one of the things I like to look at and reference is the mintage for each year.
And that brought something to my attention - the 1956, the only coin I hadn't acquired, the only coin I hadn't even really seen for sale, is also the lowest mintage year with only 480,000 made that year. The next lowest had 720,000 made - 50% more - and all the other years were in the 1-2.5 million range. 
And, coincidentally, as I was looking at all of this and figuring all this out, a seller I've bought several of these Rhodesian coins from listed a 1956 in MS65RB. For reference, there are no coins at MS66 or above presently, there's a single MS65RD graded by NGC and only about 3 MS65RBs. So, this was one of the better NGC-graded examples.
So I immediately wanted that coin, and I have some hobby money saved up and I was ready to bid aggressively to get it, since it was an auction. Because, I'm not sure how long I might have to wait to see another one this good - maybe not long, maybe quite a while.
Turns out I didn't need to worry - no one else bid and no one fought me for it. But the set is now complete. 
I won the coin last weekend, and it arrived on Wednesday. I took some time last night to get pictures taken and edited to go with the pictures I took of the others last week. And so, here it is. I just need to get that last description finished.

And so the next post will probably focus on what I've been working on now that this is done.

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

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

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

I told my wife today, “You know, it’s really kind of amazing: You combine antibiotics, with steroids, NSAID pain relievers, expectorants, nasal decongestants, and antihistamines, and a few hours later you feel a lot more comfortable!”
I’ve had a sinus infection kicking my butt more and more for a week and a half and I finally went to the doctor today to get help being it.
Drugs! Am I right?
Yeah… Now that you’re all convinced I’m a pill head…
I was walking out the front door to go to the pharmacy to get my meds when the FedEx guy got out of the truck and handed me the envelope with this and a 1923, MS64 Peace Dollar – it’ll go great with the Morgan from 2020 and the American Eagle from 2021.

So, in the last few years I’ve brought you:
“Gradually, Then Suddenly” (PMG Best Presented Note Set – some of you may not be much aware of this one)
“The First Casualties (Causalities?) of Hyperinflation”
And:
“Turning Pain into Suffering”
 
I think I can now announce my latest melodramatic working title:
“Brought Forth with Pain.”
We return to our roots with “Gradually, then Suddenly,” in that this is a clip from a quote that will be at the core of what I hope the Theme of the new set will be:
“Debts are like children – begot with pleasure but brought forth with pain.” – Moliere
 
I think this will be a two-parter, as I’m going to be looking at two currencies that, based on what I’m seeing, will probably be split in the registry into two competitive categories – one of these sets / groups has a competitive category already. One doesn’t seem to, yet – but I’m going to ask for one soon!
 

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

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

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

Of course, building either of those sets in the way that I want would depend on finding large quantities of their coins in good conditions at reasonable prices so I could do what I’ve done with the last 2 sets. So far, with Turkey, it has not been looking good / promising.
But then, the other question becomes, do I want to stick to theme or go with something else? Is now the time that I decide to build elephant or turtle thematic custom sets for one or both of my boys?
But if I do that I wonder if I’d be better going for turtles over elephants as a focus.
The Zimbabwe set (Notes and Coins, making it collectively HUGE) is so strongly linked to Samuel. The Rhodesian Pennies with the association to Zimbabwe and the elephant theme also have a strong link to Sam. If I keep pounding projects like that, I might risk a day in the future when Ben is going to look at me a bit sideways… Even though he is my namesake “William” and therefore the 10G set is something I mentally have going to him one day.
So maybe it’s time to build a Turtle set?
The main problem there is I’d be starting from Zero pretty much, and I’m time-limited on getting a group of coins together and ready while the credit is still good.
In the meantime, I think I'm going to see if I can get some more raw examples of the 1995, 2000, and 2001 500 Lire coins. I have examples of each, but I know they're not going to get super-high grades. So I think I'm going to try to find some better alternatives while I have some time to shop.

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

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

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

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

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

So I made my post a few weeks ago about picking up that 1981 200 Lire and I talked about wanting to get a 1980 because of the design of that coin and how fitting I thought it was for a tribute set to my wife.

At the time I was hitting up eBay to see if I could find any of the 1981 graded by NGC - most likely from this same seller because this seller seems to be about the only one offering modern Italian issues graded by NGC. But I didn't find any.
So that had me looking for raw examples to maybe grade myself for this set because, I really liked that design, my wife liked it, and I wanted to get it.
Sadly... no luck! These things do not seem to age well if they get handled at all. I don't think they do that well wit oxidation and oils from hands and handling. Anyway....
 
I'd about given up for the time and I was feeling a bit bummed about it, thinking this might just be something that'd require time and patience... and then...!
I found this:

I've joked with others that this is one of those moments that gets the paranoid part of your brain going, wondering if the dealers watch the registry and what you post and what the holes in your set are and then the coins you need magically appear! 
But, then you take a closer look, see the cert#, realize this coin is from the same invoice as the 1981 I bought before, realize that this coin was graded before I ever talked about it.
My fantasies and delusions of my own influence aside, this had nothing to do with me. The seller is just submitting and grading things and offering them for sale, as always. They just happen to be coins I want.
So then, why did these magically appear after my post? Well, they probably didn't. They were probably listed and for sale the entire time.
Why then, did I not see them?
Well... likely through a copy and paste issue, the seller had them listed as 1000 Lire coins. And this is totally on the seller - NGC correctly labeled them as 200 Lire, and Italy didn't introduce 500 Lire coins until 1982 and 1000 Lire coins until about 1995. There are no 1980 dated 1000 Lire coins that I'm aware of.
I just got lucky finding these because I did a broad look for "NGC Italy," just to see if anything interesting popped up.
Since it was around Black Friday, everyone was marking things down, and the seller takes offers, I put in an offer for about 80% of their ask and they accepted.
I'm going to cross my fingers and hope these folks keep making my life easy for me on this set:

I gotta say though, the pictures the seller takes of these coins are so unflattering. They look so much shinier and more lustrous and pretty in hand than they do in the seller's images.
As often seems to be the case with me, I'm finding these type sets with different designs more fun to build than long-run date sets that all have the same design. So, while I had thought that I might try making a play to retake the top in the 50 Lire set, this 200 Lire type set seems to be becoming my secondary Italian focus, having mostly built a solid 500 Lire date set. Although I'm very much also interested in a 500 Lire type set that includes the circulating commemorative years. 

While I was shopping for these, I was surprised to find that there are 1980-dated coins that use the more "standard," non-circulating commemorative design. So they issued two different 200 Lire designs in 1980. And this has me wondering waht other years this is true for.

 
In other slightly funny news... You know how, back in May, I talked about how someone came along 15 minutes before an auction ended and sniped a 1983 500 Lire out from under me... 
Well, today, I looked at the one other 500 Lire type set in the registry...  and it has one coin... a 1983... in MS65... that was added in May... right around when I lost that auction to the sniper ...

But... I guess that means it probably wasn't a shill...
There will be no mercy. 

So I made my post a few weeks ago about picking up that 1981 200 Lire and I talked about wanting to get a 1980 because of the design of that coin and how fitting I thought it was for a tribute set to my wife.

At the time I was hitting up eBay to see if I could find any of the 1981 graded by NGC - most likely from this same seller because this seller seems to be about the only one offering modern Italian issues graded by NGC. But I didn't find any.
So that had me looking for raw examples to maybe grade myself for this set because, I really liked that design, my wife liked it, and I wanted to get it.
Sadly... no luck! These things do not seem to age well if they get handled at all. I don't think they do that well wit oxidation and oils from hands and handling. Anyway....
 
I'd about given up for the time and I was feeling a bit bummed about it, thinking this might just be something that'd require time and patience... and then...!
I found this:

I've joked with others that this is one of those moments that gets the paranoid part of your brain going, wondering if the dealers watch the registry and what you post and what the holes in your set are and then the coins you need magically appear! 
But, then you take a closer look, see the cert#, realize this coin is from the same invoice as the 1981 I bought before, realize that this coin was graded before I ever talked about it.
My fantasies and delusions of my own influence aside, this had nothing to do with me. The seller is just submitting and grading things and offering them for sale, as always. They just happen to be coins I want.
So then, why did these magically appear after my post? Well, they probably didn't. They were probably listed and for sale the entire time.
Why then, did I not see them?
Well... likely through a copy and paste issue, the seller had them listed as 1000 Lire coins. And this is totally on the seller - NGC correctly labeled them as 200 Lire, and Italy didn't introduce 500 Lire coins until 1982 and 1000 Lire coins until about 1995. There are no 1980 dated 1000 Lire coins that I'm aware of.
I just got lucky finding these because I did a broad look for "NGC Italy," just to see if anything interesting popped up.
Since it was around Black Friday, everyone was marking things down, and the seller takes offers, I put in an offer for about 80% of their ask and they accepted.
I'm going to cross my fingers and hope these folks keep making my life easy for me on this set:

I gotta say though, the pictures the seller takes of these coins are so unflattering. They look so much shinier and more lustrous and pretty in hand than they do in the seller's images.
As often seems to be the case with me, I'm finding these type sets with different designs more fun to build than long-run date sets that all have the same design. So, while I had thought that I might try making a play to retake the top in the 50 Lire set, this 200 Lire type set seems to be becoming my secondary Italian focus, having mostly built a solid 500 Lire date set. Although I'm very much also interested in a 500 Lire type set that includes the circulating commemorative years. 

While I was shopping for these, I was surprised to find that there are 1980-dated coins that use the more "standard," non-circulating commemorative design. So they issued two different 200 Lire designs in 1980. And this has me wondering waht other years this is true for.

 
In other slightly funny news... You know how, back in May, I talked about how someone came along 15 minutes before an auction ended and sniped a 1983 500 Lire out from under me... 
Well, today, I looked at the one other 500 Lire type set in the registry...  and it has one coin... a 1983... in MS65... that was added in May... right around when I lost that auction to the sniper ...

But... I guess that means it probably wasn't a shill...
There will be no mercy. 

So I made my post a few weeks ago about picking up that 1981 200 Lire and I talked about wanting to get a 1980 because of the design of that coin and how fitting I thought it was for a tribute set to my wife.

At the time I was hitting up eBay to see if I could find any of the 1981 graded by NGC - most likely from this same seller because this seller seems to be about the only one offering modern Italian issues graded by NGC. But I didn't find any.
So that had me looking for raw examples to maybe grade myself for this set because, I really liked that design, my wife liked it, and I wanted to get it.
Sadly... no luck! These things do not seem to age well if they get handled at all. I don't think they do that well wit oxidation and oils from hands and handling. Anyway....
 
I'd about given up for the time and I was feeling a bit bummed about it, thinking this might just be something that'd require time and patience... and then...!
I found this:

I've joked with others that this is one of those moments that gets the paranoid part of your brain going, wondering if the dealers watch the registry and what you post and what the holes in your set are and then the coins you need magically appear! 
But, then you take a closer look, see the cert#, realize this coin is from the same invoice as the 1981 I bought before, realize that this coin was graded before I ever talked about it.
My fantasies and delusions of my own influence aside, this had nothing to do with me. The seller is just submitting and grading things and offering them for sale, as always. They just happen to be coins I want.
So then, why did these magically appear after my post? Well, they probably didn't. They were probably listed and for sale the entire time.
Why then, did I not see them?
Well... likely through a copy and paste issue, the seller had them listed as 1000 Lire coins. And this is totally on the seller - NGC correctly labeled them as 200 Lire, and Italy didn't introduce 500 Lire coins until 1982 and 1000 Lire coins until about 1995. There are no 1980 dated 1000 Lire coins that I'm aware of.
I just got lucky finding these because I did a broad look for "NGC Italy," just to see if anything interesting popped up.
Since it was around Black Friday, everyone was marking things down, and the seller takes offers, I put in an offer for about 80% of their ask and they accepted.
I'm going to cross my fingers and hope these folks keep making my life easy for me on this set:

I gotta say though, the pictures the seller takes of these coins are so unflattering. They look so much shinier and more lustrous and pretty in hand than they do in the seller's images.
As often seems to be the case with me, I'm finding these type sets with different designs more fun to build than long-run date sets that all have the same design. So, while I had thought that I might try making a play to retake the top in the 50 Lire set, this 200 Lire type set seems to be becoming my secondary Italian focus, having mostly built a solid 500 Lire date set. Although I'm very much also interested in a 500 Lire type set that includes the circulating commemorative years. 

While I was shopping for these, I was surprised to find that there are 1980-dated coins that use the more "standard," non-circulating commemorative design. So they issued two different 200 Lire designs in 1980. And this has me wondering waht other years this is true for.

 
In other slightly funny news... You know how, back in May, I talked about how someone came along 15 minutes before an auction ended and sniped a 1983 500 Lire out from under me... 
Well, today, I looked at the one other 500 Lire type set in the registry...  and it has one coin... a 1983... in MS65... that was added in May... right around when I lost that auction to the sniper ...

But... I guess that means it probably wasn't a shill...
There will be no mercy. 

One of my wife's favorite reasons to laugh and roll her eyes at me (other than my nerdy coin-collecting ways) is that she thinks I'm far too polite to people that come to the door trying to sell solar panels and telemarketers... It's how I was raised.
I try to be nice and civil and give people soft but firm nos. I try to respect the fact that they're just trying to earn a paycheck and a living, and I try never to abuse or be rude to them. And yet, lately, I find these people testing my patience.
Around the time Sam got out of the hospital someone must have sold their contact list, including my number, because I have been getting absurd numbers of calls from coin and bullion companies trying to sell me things and these people are obnoxiously pushy. I'm not going to buy from them.
1) I don't buy from cold calls for companies I haven't done business with.
2) I'm not buying bullion right now.
3) anyone trying to sell me PCGS coins doesn't know me as a collector.
4) even to the extent that I'm buying numismatics right now I'm making myself happy in an extremely niche world modern area that they are not going to be equipped to sell to.
And yet... all the pushy BS and aggressive, borderline condescending responses... I've been just hanging up on them more and more. Increasingly, once I've told them I'm not interested politely, I've met the standard of civility. If they choose not to respect that at that point, and try some aggressive pitch, then they're the one in breach of social norms and I'm good to just let them hear a "click." But these salespeople are just so obnoxious.
These are the calls I answer out of concern that its work or kid related. My phone is also getting flooded with calls flagged as "Scam Likely" that I just don't even answer.
I wish I knew who gave them the number. I'd probably never buy from them again.
 
In more positive news, after I got those 2010 25C 200th Independence Anniversary coins that I liked the condition of, I saw the same seller had some of the 50C coins made to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the BCV (Central Bank of Venezuela), so I picked up a bunch of those and I've been similarly pleased with the coins I got. So now I have everything except the 2011 25C commemorative, and I'm well set up to send in some coins in 2023 that will pretty much finish that Venezuelan type set.

It has been about a month since my wife greenlit a new gold coin purchase and, while I have something in mind, I haven't pulled the trigger because I've been waiting to see the fall-out from the hospital stay and a minor car fender-bender to play out before making any large, unnecessary purchases, no matter how secure I'm felling overall. But I have gotten her anniversary present ordered... Now I just have to figure out a Christmas present for her. She already has the kids pretty well planned out and taken care of.

One of my wife's favorite reasons to laugh and roll her eyes at me (other than my nerdy coin-collecting ways) is that she thinks I'm far too polite to people that come to the door trying to sell solar panels and telemarketers... It's how I was raised.
I try to be nice and civil and give people soft but firm nos. I try to respect the fact that they're just trying to earn a paycheck and a living, and I try never to abuse or be rude to them. And yet, lately, I find these people testing my patience.
Around the time Sam got out of the hospital someone must have sold their contact list, including my number, because I have been getting absurd numbers of calls from coin and bullion companies trying to sell me things and these people are obnoxiously pushy. I'm not going to buy from them.
1) I don't buy from cold calls for companies I haven't done business with.
2) I'm not buying bullion right now.
3) anyone trying to sell me PCGS coins doesn't know me as a collector.
4) even to the extent that I'm buying numismatics right now I'm making myself happy in an extremely niche world modern area that they are not going to be equipped to sell to.
And yet... all the pushy BS and aggressive, borderline condescending responses... I've been just hanging up on them more and more. Increasingly, once I've told them I'm not interested politely, I've met the standard of civility. If they choose not to respect that at that point, and try some aggressive pitch, then they're the one in breach of social norms and I'm good to just let them hear a "click." But these salespeople are just so obnoxious.
These are the calls I answer out of concern that its work or kid related. My phone is also getting flooded with calls flagged as "Scam Likely" that I just don't even answer.
I wish I knew who gave them the number. I'd probably never buy from them again.
 
In more positive news, after I got those 2010 25C 200th Independence Anniversary coins that I liked the condition of, I saw the same seller had some of the 50C coins made to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the BCV (Central Bank of Venezuela), so I picked up a bunch of those and I've been similarly pleased with the coins I got. So now I have everything except the 2011 25C commemorative, and I'm well set up to send in some coins in 2023 that will pretty much finish that Venezuelan type set.

It has been about a month since my wife greenlit a new gold coin purchase and, while I have something in mind, I haven't pulled the trigger because I've been waiting to see the fall-out from the hospital stay and a minor car fender-bender to play out before making any large, unnecessary purchases, no matter how secure I'm felling overall. But I have gotten her anniversary present ordered... Now I just have to figure out a Christmas present for her. She already has the kids pretty well planned out and taken care of.

One of my wife's favorite reasons to laugh and roll her eyes at me (other than my nerdy coin-collecting ways) is that she thinks I'm far too polite to people that come to the door trying to sell solar panels and telemarketers... It's how I was raised.
I try to be nice and civil and give people soft but firm nos. I try to respect the fact that they're just trying to earn a paycheck and a living, and I try never to abuse or be rude to them. And yet, lately, I find these people testing my patience.
Around the time Sam got out of the hospital someone must have sold their contact list, including my number, because I have been getting absurd numbers of calls from coin and bullion companies trying to sell me things and these people are obnoxiously pushy. I'm not going to buy from them.
1) I don't buy from cold calls for companies I haven't done business with.
2) I'm not buying bullion right now.
3) anyone trying to sell me PCGS coins doesn't know me as a collector.
4) even to the extent that I'm buying numismatics right now I'm making myself happy in an extremely niche world modern area that they are not going to be equipped to sell to.
And yet... all the pushy BS and aggressive, borderline condescending responses... I've been just hanging up on them more and more. Increasingly, once I've told them I'm not interested politely, I've met the standard of civility. If they choose not to respect that at that point, and try some aggressive pitch, then they're the one in breach of social norms and I'm good to just let them hear a "click." But these salespeople are just so obnoxious.
These are the calls I answer out of concern that its work or kid related. My phone is also getting flooded with calls flagged as "Scam Likely" that I just don't even answer.
I wish I knew who gave them the number. I'd probably never buy from them again.
 
In more positive news, after I got those 2010 25C 200th Independence Anniversary coins that I liked the condition of, I saw the same seller had some of the 50C coins made to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the BCV (Central Bank of Venezuela), so I picked up a bunch of those and I've been similarly pleased with the coins I got. So now I have everything except the 2011 25C commemorative, and I'm well set up to send in some coins in 2023 that will pretty much finish that Venezuelan type set.

It has been about a month since my wife greenlit a new gold coin purchase and, while I have something in mind, I haven't pulled the trigger because I've been waiting to see the fall-out from the hospital stay and a minor car fender-bender to play out before making any large, unnecessary purchases, no matter how secure I'm felling overall. But I have gotten her anniversary present ordered... Now I just have to figure out a Christmas present for her. She already has the kids pretty well planned out and taken care of.