Revenant

Work has had me crazy this week but I wanted to steal a few minutes and share something fun.
My Venezuela submission took a few more days than I normally see as typical to go from just "Received" to being able to see the list of the coins. When the coins did come up I saw some variety information that I hadn't had had been entered in.
Notably, one of the coins I sent in was the non-magnetic, non-steel, zinc-aluminum version (2001-2004) and not the steel version (2000-2002).
I had not even thought to check this or test this personally. All of the other coins that I had from that batch / date range from those lots I bought from my Ukranian dealer were dated 2004. So they were after the date range of the steel versions and they had to be zinc-aluminum. So, In that context, it makes perfect sense that the 2002 10Bs were also zinc-aluminum and not the steel version - where there was such a version. Interestingly, it doesn't look like the 50B version had a zinc version. Those appear to have been steel consistently. Same thing for the 100B coins from 2001-2004.
So I'm thinking the seeming delay might have been because they had to research these a little or look them up to see what and how to enter them in.

 
This might seem like an odd thing to say but I'm almost more excited about the Italian coins than the Venezuelan coins this time because the Italian coins will be mostly completing established sets and they won't be much work. On the other hand, I have a lot of buying, searching, submitting, and writing to do before I can honestly say the Venezuela set is complete and I just don't even know how it's going to happen. If you can find these things for sale in MS at all you don't see a lot of listings saying if the coin is magnetic or not. How am I going to try to hunt these varieties in the wild.
I'm more or less "on-hold" with building out that custom set for the Venezuela coins because, with how custom sets get built on the NGC side, it will be far easier for me to build the set if I just wait and enter the coins in as I build the slots. It really is jarring to me some days just how different things are for custom sets on the PMG vs NGC side. It was quite easy on the PMG side to build out empty slots for notes I didn't have yet but on the NGC side it feels quite awkward. I don't know if this is bias from being used to / accustomed to the PMG side or what.
Also, now I can't help but wonder: The Magnetic nickel-clad-steel 10B is 2.33 grams. The non-magnetic zinc aluminum 10B is 1.74 grams. So if they have a reasonably accurate scale they could have told the difference by weighing it, but I just have this visual in my head now of them touching a magnet to it (through the flip to not scratch it, of course) to see if the coin responded or not.

In some new, interesting developments, it looks like the 50 Lire category picked up 2 new sets in a day and I'm bumped to #3 for now. I think this happened just yesterday.
I kinda had a feeling this would happen and that that would be a 1-year win when I made the set but had no plans to heavily develop it thus year - opting instead to focus on the 500 Lire set.
I'm not ruling out building that 50 L set some more and giving the newcomers a bit of a fight. But the 500 Lire has always been the focus and flagship of this effort and my priority and it still is.
On that front, I'm hoping what I've done - which will soon build that set out to 11 coins in the 14 slots - will be enough to keep that set on top a while longer.
I'm still eyeing making it a complete 14/14 set.
On that front, I was doing a bit of shopping and found 1) a seller with a lot of coins that included a 1995 500 Lire that looked really solid in the photos and 2) a seller in Germany that was selling these by the date and had 1 2000 and 1 2001 listed for sale. The coins are shown in flips in the pictures and I'm hoping they'll be in good condition when they come.
I decided to spend ~$20 taking a shot in the dark. I bought all three.
With these 3 coins I will at least have a representative piece for each date / year that is currently included in that set category.
I may continue shopping and buying some things that look promising in the interim, but I think when my membership renews next year and I have $150 to spend I'll send in 1 per date ( the best of each that I find) and make that a full graded set of the non-comemmorative issues. 
Then maybe I'll slug it out with someone over 50 Lire coins.
 
Side note but a 14 coin set is an awkward number to display.
Am I bum if I get a really fancy case / display for my Zimbabwe birds but not this 500 L set for my wife?
 
2nd side note, but, as was pointed out to me on the PMG side, the RBZ has announced that they will be making 1/10th, 1/4th, and 1/2 oz versions of their "popular" new 1 oz gold coins and that those will be coming out in November. I think I will definitely be begging the wife for the 1/10rh and the 1/4th oz.
 

So here is the 2nd post about 1 submission, splitting off the 500L coins to give them their due, befitting a group of 7 coins (decent sized group in their own right by my submission standards) and a group of coins that represent their own, very important project.
And here are the results - Shandy and I picked the ones to send together when we had more than one of a certain date, but we didn't play “guess the grade” on these because we didn't have a big selection of graded coins in different grades to look at with Zimbabwe. We just had 2 coins - a MS67 and a MS68.

Hands down the big win here is the grade on the 1990 - the highest grade in the submission going to one of those two super important coins that they brought back from Italy nearly 30 years ago. And it is a legitimately good grade - not just the highest grade in a low scoring submission. 😅 An MS67 is dang good for something that spent 28 years in a bag. That 67, combined with the 1992 in MS67 and the ’82 and ’85 in MS68, gives the set a strong core.
The 1991, also crucial for the same reason, didn't do as well but it did good enough. An MS64 is high enough for it to not be too much of a liability to the set point / score-wise.
With both of those I thought they would grade well but you never know when a grader is going to feel there's a bit of wear that you didn't see and then you get an AU55/58 - like that 1875 10G I posted about seeing on eBay some time ago. These grades are going to help these coins stay in the set as the sentimental core of it while still keeping the set strong.
I had hoped the 1992 would match the MS67 I bought last year but it just missed at a MS66. However... I still feel like this coin is more attractive than the MS67. So, I think this is actually the coin I'll keep in the set for now unless I need points and adding back the MS67 could make a difference. 😅 But, the MS67 does look mighty fine in the images I got of it. We’ll see.
The result on the 1985, while not a bad grade IMO - I would have been pretty happy with straight 65s to fill out the set - basically confirms I made the right choice snapping up that MS68 from the same year.
As to the other 3 - two MS66s and a MS64. Again - solidly "good enough." Two of three hit the MS65 threshold I wanted for filling the set with gem uncirculated coins or better and two of them did 1 point better. The one that missed only missed by a little.
Now I just need to cut up those Franklin Mint sets and send in that '1983 and '1987... and find an '86, '95, 2000 and 2001...
 
Some other fun updates that are somewhat related:
The certificates arrived from NGC - I pulled them out of the mailbox the same day I posted about the Zimbabwe grades. It's possible they were sitting there for a while. Life was a bit crazy, and I wasn't checking the mail - almost late paying the water bill!

I told Shandy that, since I took a picture with the plaques, she needs to hold these.
For those that thought it would have been great if the Zimbabwe coin award had still had my little typo on it, you may be happy to know the distinction of immortalizing that goes to the "Best in Category" certificate, which are generated and printed automatically.

I've been working as hard as I can to get the descriptions for all 29 of these coins fleshed out and finished and uploaded into my registry, but not adding them to the sets that they're for. Once they arrive I'll pulse out full group of coins (the ones that made the cut anyway) into the main sets and then I just have to get good pictures of everything! 😅

In some new, interesting developments, it looks like the 50 Lire category picked up 2 new sets in a day and I'm bumped to #3 for now. I think this happened just yesterday.
I kinda had a feeling this would happen and that that would be a 1-year win when I made the set but had no plans to heavily develop it thus year - opting instead to focus on the 500 Lire set.
I'm not ruling out building that 50 L set some more and giving the newcomers a bit of a fight. But the 500 Lire has always been the focus and flagship of this effort and my priority and it still is.
On that front, I'm hoping what I've done - which will soon build that set out to 11 coins in the 14 slots - will be enough to keep that set on top a while longer.
I'm still eyeing making it a complete 14/14 set.
On that front, I was doing a bit of shopping and found 1) a seller with a lot of coins that included a 1995 500 Lire that looked really solid in the photos and 2) a seller in Germany that was selling these by the date and had 1 2000 and 1 2001 listed for sale. The coins are shown in flips in the pictures and I'm hoping they'll be in good condition when they come.
I decided to spend ~$20 taking a shot in the dark. I bought all three.
With these 3 coins I will at least have a representative piece for each date / year that is currently included in that set category.
I may continue shopping and buying some things that look promising in the interim, but I think when my membership renews next year and I have $150 to spend I'll send in 1 per date ( the best of each that I find) and make that a full graded set of the non-comemmorative issues. 
Then maybe I'll slug it out with someone over 50 Lire coins.
 
Side note but a 14 coin set is an awkward number to display.
Am I bum if I get a really fancy case / display for my Zimbabwe birds but not this 500 L set for my wife?
 
2nd side note, but, as was pointed out to me on the PMG side, the RBZ has announced that they will be making 1/10th, 1/4th, and 1/2 oz versions of their "popular" new 1 oz gold coins and that those will be coming out in November. I think I will definitely be begging the wife for the 1/10rh and the 1/4th oz.
 

Work has had me crazy this week but I wanted to steal a few minutes and share something fun.
My Venezuela submission took a few more days than I normally see as typical to go from just "Received" to being able to see the list of the coins. When the coins did come up I saw some variety information that I hadn't had had been entered in.
Notably, one of the coins I sent in was the non-magnetic, non-steel, zinc-aluminum version (2001-2004) and not the steel version (2000-2002).
I had not even thought to check this or test this personally. All of the other coins that I had from that batch / date range from those lots I bought from my Ukranian dealer were dated 2004. So they were after the date range of the steel versions and they had to be zinc-aluminum. So, In that context, it makes perfect sense that the 2002 10Bs were also zinc-aluminum and not the steel version - where there was such a version. Interestingly, it doesn't look like the 50B version had a zinc version. Those appear to have been steel consistently. Same thing for the 100B coins from 2001-2004.
So I'm thinking the seeming delay might have been because they had to research these a little or look them up to see what and how to enter them in.

 
This might seem like an odd thing to say but I'm almost more excited about the Italian coins than the Venezuelan coins this time because the Italian coins will be mostly completing established sets and they won't be much work. On the other hand, I have a lot of buying, searching, submitting, and writing to do before I can honestly say the Venezuela set is complete and I just don't even know how it's going to happen. If you can find these things for sale in MS at all you don't see a lot of listings saying if the coin is magnetic or not. How am I going to try to hunt these varieties in the wild.
I'm more or less "on-hold" with building out that custom set for the Venezuela coins because, with how custom sets get built on the NGC side, it will be far easier for me to build the set if I just wait and enter the coins in as I build the slots. It really is jarring to me some days just how different things are for custom sets on the PMG vs NGC side. It was quite easy on the PMG side to build out empty slots for notes I didn't have yet but on the NGC side it feels quite awkward. I don't know if this is bias from being used to / accustomed to the PMG side or what.
Also, now I can't help but wonder: The Magnetic nickel-clad-steel 10B is 2.33 grams. The non-magnetic zinc aluminum 10B is 1.74 grams. So if they have a reasonably accurate scale they could have told the difference by weighing it, but I just have this visual in my head now of them touching a magnet to it (through the flip to not scratch it, of course) to see if the coin responded or not.

Summer 2022 has ended with a couple of numismatic events that I thoroughly enjoyed. The first was the ANA summer show in Chicago. The other, just this week, was my coin club’s annual picnic. Both were significant and, for that matter, the year’s numismatic highlights. 
First, there is nothing like a major coin show for buying new coins, viewing educational displays, making new friends, and catching up with old friends. The annual ANA Worlds Fair of Money is one of the year’s best shows, and whenever it is in Chicago, I try to attend.
This year instead of driving to Chicago, I took the bus my coin club chartered. There is nothing like riding 2-plus hours with your club friends talking coins. Furthermore, riding to Chicago on the bus was much cheaper than driving. 
Once there, I took care of business first. I went to the US Mint area to buy the just-released Liberty silver medal. Desiring the ANA provenance, I took the medal to NGC with several other submissions for grading. Because the medal went on sale Thursday and I went to the show on Friday, I didn’t know if one would be available when I got to the show, so I ordered one online Thursday.
As an aside, I found the online ordering process with the US Mint much better than in the past. No hang-ups with the website and shipping that same day. It doesn’t get much better than that. Now, if I’m going to whine about how messed up the US Mint is for placing orders, I ought to let them know when things are working as they ought. Later that afternoon, I told the new US Mint director in person how pleased I was with the latest ordering experience. The smile on her face beamed from ear to ear.  
After window shopping dealer tables and viewing displays, I was tired and had to sit down. I eventually stopped by the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists table. Having introduced myself as a fellow PAN member, I had a pleasant conversation with W. Thomas Corey. We mainly talked about other PAN members and persons I thought he should know. I also attempted to visit ANA member World_Coin_Nut’s table, but he was away at the time. However, I had a brief but pleasant conversation with his wife. Overall, I had a nice afternoon and enjoyed chilling on the bus ride home. 
Currently, member dues for my coin club are $5 per year. Attending the club’s picnic means I get more from my annual dues than I paid. The club paid for subs, chips, and a cookie for my wife and me. Oh, and I paid for my drinks which amounted to two bottles of bottled water. I often wonder where my club gets the money for all the club activities I take advantage of. Then I remember that my club hosts two regional coin shows a year. 
One of the highlights of the annual picnic is the BINGO games we play for coin-related prizes donated by a generous local coin dealer. There were 8 games to be played by 30 people in attendance, with one grand prize. The grand prize this year and in past years has been a small gold coin, usually a 1/10 ounce gold eagle. As was pointed out by the member calling the game, there would be only 8 winners and 22 losers. My wife and I always brace for the worst. Last year we won NOTHING ☹. Still, we left with a smile on our faces having had a good time.  
Each game increases the odds for the losers since the winners are ineligible to play after they win. However, everyone plays the last game for the grand prize. As fate would have it, my wife finally won something this year. She won a 50 State Quarters Coin & Die Set. The set included a Kentucky State Quarter with the die that struck it and a COA with all the pertinent information about the die. The quarter has a considerable amount of residue on the coin’s surface. This all begs to question of how it got there. One clue is found in the COA, which states that the accompanying quarter is “one of the first acceptable production coins struck with this die.” I am guessing that the planchet wasn’t washed or something of that sort. 
That brings me to the final BINGO game for a 1996, 1/10-ounce, $5 gold coin. The game started very slowly for me. However, since it was a full card game, I had plenty of time to catch up. After about ¾ of the way through, I started hitting all the numbers on the card. Finally, I was down to one number, hoping nobody else would call BINGO. The following number was called, and I yelled BINGO! I had just won the gold coin! My wife and I beat the odds this year and brought two of eight prizes home. It seems as if it’s feast or famine for us! And that’s OK. It’s all about fun and fellowship anyway!
Ultimately, I realized that it’s more fun to yell BINGO than to take home a prize. To have to fill a full card was very satisfying. It made winning that much sweeter! Finally, if anyone wants to know the name of the generous dealer who donated the prizes, please send me a personal message. Otherwise, the $5 gold coin should cover next year’s dues! Gary

Borrowing the title from that line in "Starship Troopers." Anyone else remember that movie? I hear it's 25 years old now?
Anyway...
I feel like I teased this concept months and months ago - probably close to a year ago now - but I never really delivered on it:

I feel like I very much survive on a kind of "one step at a time" incrementalism some days. I got the coins back, I got them in the set. I uploaded new descriptions a while after that. Got new pictures posted a couple months after that. put these in the case a month or so after that, and now I finally drag out all the notes and the plaques during nap time today and took this picture.
So there it is - my latest attempt at giving a "Best Presented" Registry set a physical presentation that lives up to the digital one. And I do look at it in person and in the picture with a lot of pride after about 3 years and a lot of effort to make it a reality.
Some of the coins have "company" and some have "corporation' on the labels for NGC's name I think but I very much view the visual match of the slabs as part of the physical presentation for the sets. I just think it makes the set look better in person - going back to my justification for my "sin" of killing those 25 year old fatty slabs that some of my 10G set was in before 2020.  
The title of the post comes from the fact that, as I was setting this up, I couldn't help but think, if this was set-up at a table at a coin show, with or without the awards, would seeing the coins and notes like this make you want to come up, check it out, and learn more about them?
The case has an extra (24th) slot in it that I'm currently using to let the case store both of the $2 bond coins that came back as MS69s from that submission.
I posted on the PMG side about the fact that Zimbabwe has announced they're coming out with new 1 ounce bullion coins to sell as inflation hedges. It breaks my heart that they're 1 ounce because I can't just casually throw down $1750-1900 for a coin, but I would have loved to have gotten one of those and used it to fill that 24th slot with something unique. Though alternatively I could buy and include one of these old 1989 silver rounds like the one Mike has recently posted an image of - assuming NGC would grade it. I don't know if they have ever graded one or if the "gradability" of those has been tested or confirmed. And it would need to be graded to work in this display.
 
About 3 weeks ago I said on the PMG side that I was drawing up the forms to (finally) make a submission of Venezuelan coins and Italian coins to further my 500L set and to get that Venezuelan hyperinflation coin set off the ground.
About 2 weeks after that I finally get the coins in flips with the right labels and bound them up and I'm working this weekend on finally boxing them up and printing a mailing label  Like I said, progress one very small step at a time!
The new submission is going to actually be very similar to the last one. The last one was 22 Zimbabwe coins with 7 Italian coins. This one is going to be 22 Venezuelan coins paired with 6 Italian coins - 3 500L hole-fillers and 3 1986 coins to help me build out that year set.
I think for now I'm going to hold off on grading another 2003 $10 Zimbabwe coin. The one I had looks better than the AU58 I have graded but I still think it would do MS62-63 at best and I think for now I just need to hold off and see if I can find better options for the $10 and $25 coins, letting those AU58s hold down the fort for now.
 
Edited to add:
I am aware that turn-around times on submissions have come down quite a bit in the last few months. But part of my concerns about getting this submission out and back stems from the desire to have time to get descriptions posted and pictures taken and uploaded. And that process sometimes takes a while or takes a while for me to find time to do it. So ideally I'd like to get the coins back well before December's deadline to have time to get the presentation on the registry sets up to snuff.

Borrowing the title from that line in "Starship Troopers." Anyone else remember that movie? I hear it's 25 years old now?
Anyway...
I feel like I teased this concept months and months ago - probably close to a year ago now - but I never really delivered on it:

I feel like I very much survive on a kind of "one step at a time" incrementalism some days. I got the coins back, I got them in the set. I uploaded new descriptions a while after that. Got new pictures posted a couple months after that. put these in the case a month or so after that, and now I finally drag out all the notes and the plaques during nap time today and took this picture.
So there it is - my latest attempt at giving a "Best Presented" Registry set a physical presentation that lives up to the digital one. And I do look at it in person and in the picture with a lot of pride after about 3 years and a lot of effort to make it a reality.
Some of the coins have "company" and some have "corporation' on the labels for NGC's name I think but I very much view the visual match of the slabs as part of the physical presentation for the sets. I just think it makes the set look better in person - going back to my justification for my "sin" of killing those 25 year old fatty slabs that some of my 10G set was in before 2020.  
The title of the post comes from the fact that, as I was setting this up, I couldn't help but think, if this was set-up at a table at a coin show, with or without the awards, would seeing the coins and notes like this make you want to come up, check it out, and learn more about them?
The case has an extra (24th) slot in it that I'm currently using to let the case store both of the $2 bond coins that came back as MS69s from that submission.
I posted on the PMG side about the fact that Zimbabwe has announced they're coming out with new 1 ounce bullion coins to sell as inflation hedges. It breaks my heart that they're 1 ounce because I can't just casually throw down $1750-1900 for a coin, but I would have loved to have gotten one of those and used it to fill that 24th slot with something unique. Though alternatively I could buy and include one of these old 1989 silver rounds like the one Mike has recently posted an image of - assuming NGC would grade it. I don't know if they have ever graded one or if the "gradability" of those has been tested or confirmed. And it would need to be graded to work in this display.
 
About 3 weeks ago I said on the PMG side that I was drawing up the forms to (finally) make a submission of Venezuelan coins and Italian coins to further my 500L set and to get that Venezuelan hyperinflation coin set off the ground.
About 2 weeks after that I finally get the coins in flips with the right labels and bound them up and I'm working this weekend on finally boxing them up and printing a mailing label  Like I said, progress one very small step at a time!
The new submission is going to actually be very similar to the last one. The last one was 22 Zimbabwe coins with 7 Italian coins. This one is going to be 22 Venezuelan coins paired with 6 Italian coins - 3 500L hole-fillers and 3 1986 coins to help me build out that year set.
I think for now I'm going to hold off on grading another 2003 $10 Zimbabwe coin. The one I had looks better than the AU58 I have graded but I still think it would do MS62-63 at best and I think for now I just need to hold off and see if I can find better options for the $10 and $25 coins, letting those AU58s hold down the fort for now.
 
Edited to add:
I am aware that turn-around times on submissions have come down quite a bit in the last few months. But part of my concerns about getting this submission out and back stems from the desire to have time to get descriptions posted and pictures taken and uploaded. And that process sometimes takes a while or takes a while for me to find time to do it. So ideally I'd like to get the coins back well before December's deadline to have time to get the presentation on the registry sets up to snuff.

Borrowing the title from that line in "Starship Troopers." Anyone else remember that movie? I hear it's 25 years old now?
Anyway...
I feel like I teased this concept months and months ago - probably close to a year ago now - but I never really delivered on it:

I feel like I very much survive on a kind of "one step at a time" incrementalism some days. I got the coins back, I got them in the set. I uploaded new descriptions a while after that. Got new pictures posted a couple months after that. put these in the case a month or so after that, and now I finally drag out all the notes and the plaques during nap time today and took this picture.
So there it is - my latest attempt at giving a "Best Presented" Registry set a physical presentation that lives up to the digital one. And I do look at it in person and in the picture with a lot of pride after about 3 years and a lot of effort to make it a reality.
Some of the coins have "company" and some have "corporation' on the labels for NGC's name I think but I very much view the visual match of the slabs as part of the physical presentation for the sets. I just think it makes the set look better in person - going back to my justification for my "sin" of killing those 25 year old fatty slabs that some of my 10G set was in before 2020.  
The title of the post comes from the fact that, as I was setting this up, I couldn't help but think, if this was set-up at a table at a coin show, with or without the awards, would seeing the coins and notes like this make you want to come up, check it out, and learn more about them?
The case has an extra (24th) slot in it that I'm currently using to let the case store both of the $2 bond coins that came back as MS69s from that submission.
I posted on the PMG side about the fact that Zimbabwe has announced they're coming out with new 1 ounce bullion coins to sell as inflation hedges. It breaks my heart that they're 1 ounce because I can't just casually throw down $1750-1900 for a coin, but I would have loved to have gotten one of those and used it to fill that 24th slot with something unique. Though alternatively I could buy and include one of these old 1989 silver rounds like the one Mike has recently posted an image of - assuming NGC would grade it. I don't know if they have ever graded one or if the "gradability" of those has been tested or confirmed. And it would need to be graded to work in this display.
 
About 3 weeks ago I said on the PMG side that I was drawing up the forms to (finally) make a submission of Venezuelan coins and Italian coins to further my 500L set and to get that Venezuelan hyperinflation coin set off the ground.
About 2 weeks after that I finally get the coins in flips with the right labels and bound them up and I'm working this weekend on finally boxing them up and printing a mailing label  Like I said, progress one very small step at a time!
The new submission is going to actually be very similar to the last one. The last one was 22 Zimbabwe coins with 7 Italian coins. This one is going to be 22 Venezuelan coins paired with 6 Italian coins - 3 500L hole-fillers and 3 1986 coins to help me build out that year set.
I think for now I'm going to hold off on grading another 2003 $10 Zimbabwe coin. The one I had looks better than the AU58 I have graded but I still think it would do MS62-63 at best and I think for now I just need to hold off and see if I can find better options for the $10 and $25 coins, letting those AU58s hold down the fort for now.
 
Edited to add:
I am aware that turn-around times on submissions have come down quite a bit in the last few months. But part of my concerns about getting this submission out and back stems from the desire to have time to get descriptions posted and pictures taken and uploaded. And that process sometimes takes a while or takes a while for me to find time to do it. So ideally I'd like to get the coins back well before December's deadline to have time to get the presentation on the registry sets up to snuff.

I finally took some time and got new pictures taken and uploaded for the Zimbabwe and 500L sets that are at least consistent across the board even if I don't necessarily think these are in every case the best images I've gotten of each coin:
Set Details | NGC Registry | NGC (ngccoin.com)

Set Details | NGC Registry | NGC (ngccoin.com)

Now that I have nice photos of the Zimbabwe bird in the yellow of the $2 coins I decided to use that to fill the gap in my banner image. I'd originally left that corner open to account for the banner, but the current system with the banner image moving depending on where you look creates a bit of a "darned no matter what you do situation. The old banner looks just fine... until the rank ribbon goes away and you have a winning set entry and now you just have a gap in the corner. 


The Zimbabwe set continues to be a living and growing thing as i recently found a snippet naming the type of tree depicted among the Great Zimbabwe ruins on the $1 coin so I added something about that type of tree.
Last weekend I used some quiet time on Father's day and I finally got done looking at the last of the Venezuelan coins I have to pick the best ones. That might have been a sign that I was getting close to submitting, but then Sam got Hand, Foot and Mouth and Shandy tested positive for Covid the same day, so we're all just trying to get through the day.
But I did, today, take advantage of sale on Memberships to upgrade my membership here, so I'll now have a $150 credit towards the submission I want to make... I just need to fill out the forms and mail it out...  

Borrowing the title from that line in "Starship Troopers." Anyone else remember that movie? I hear it's 25 years old now?
Anyway...
I feel like I teased this concept months and months ago - probably close to a year ago now - but I never really delivered on it:

I feel like I very much survive on a kind of "one step at a time" incrementalism some days. I got the coins back, I got them in the set. I uploaded new descriptions a while after that. Got new pictures posted a couple months after that. put these in the case a month or so after that, and now I finally drag out all the notes and the plaques during nap time today and took this picture.
So there it is - my latest attempt at giving a "Best Presented" Registry set a physical presentation that lives up to the digital one. And I do look at it in person and in the picture with a lot of pride after about 3 years and a lot of effort to make it a reality.
Some of the coins have "company" and some have "corporation' on the labels for NGC's name I think but I very much view the visual match of the slabs as part of the physical presentation for the sets. I just think it makes the set look better in person - going back to my justification for my "sin" of killing those 25 year old fatty slabs that some of my 10G set was in before 2020.  
The title of the post comes from the fact that, as I was setting this up, I couldn't help but think, if this was set-up at a table at a coin show, with or without the awards, would seeing the coins and notes like this make you want to come up, check it out, and learn more about them?
The case has an extra (24th) slot in it that I'm currently using to let the case store both of the $2 bond coins that came back as MS69s from that submission.
I posted on the PMG side about the fact that Zimbabwe has announced they're coming out with new 1 ounce bullion coins to sell as inflation hedges. It breaks my heart that they're 1 ounce because I can't just casually throw down $1750-1900 for a coin, but I would have loved to have gotten one of those and used it to fill that 24th slot with something unique. Though alternatively I could buy and include one of these old 1989 silver rounds like the one Mike has recently posted an image of - assuming NGC would grade it. I don't know if they have ever graded one or if the "gradability" of those has been tested or confirmed. And it would need to be graded to work in this display.
 
About 3 weeks ago I said on the PMG side that I was drawing up the forms to (finally) make a submission of Venezuelan coins and Italian coins to further my 500L set and to get that Venezuelan hyperinflation coin set off the ground.
About 2 weeks after that I finally get the coins in flips with the right labels and bound them up and I'm working this weekend on finally boxing them up and printing a mailing label  Like I said, progress one very small step at a time!
The new submission is going to actually be very similar to the last one. The last one was 22 Zimbabwe coins with 7 Italian coins. This one is going to be 22 Venezuelan coins paired with 6 Italian coins - 3 500L hole-fillers and 3 1986 coins to help me build out that year set.
I think for now I'm going to hold off on grading another 2003 $10 Zimbabwe coin. The one I had looks better than the AU58 I have graded but I still think it would do MS62-63 at best and I think for now I just need to hold off and see if I can find better options for the $10 and $25 coins, letting those AU58s hold down the fort for now.
 
Edited to add:
I am aware that turn-around times on submissions have come down quite a bit in the last few months. But part of my concerns about getting this submission out and back stems from the desire to have time to get descriptions posted and pictures taken and uploaded. And that process sometimes takes a while or takes a while for me to find time to do it. So ideally I'd like to get the coins back well before December's deadline to have time to get the presentation on the registry sets up to snuff.

Borrowing the title from that line in "Starship Troopers." Anyone else remember that movie? I hear it's 25 years old now?
Anyway...
I feel like I teased this concept months and months ago - probably close to a year ago now - but I never really delivered on it:

I feel like I very much survive on a kind of "one step at a time" incrementalism some days. I got the coins back, I got them in the set. I uploaded new descriptions a while after that. Got new pictures posted a couple months after that. put these in the case a month or so after that, and now I finally drag out all the notes and the plaques during nap time today and took this picture.
So there it is - my latest attempt at giving a "Best Presented" Registry set a physical presentation that lives up to the digital one. And I do look at it in person and in the picture with a lot of pride after about 3 years and a lot of effort to make it a reality.
Some of the coins have "company" and some have "corporation' on the labels for NGC's name I think but I very much view the visual match of the slabs as part of the physical presentation for the sets. I just think it makes the set look better in person - going back to my justification for my "sin" of killing those 25 year old fatty slabs that some of my 10G set was in before 2020.  
The title of the post comes from the fact that, as I was setting this up, I couldn't help but think, if this was set-up at a table at a coin show, with or without the awards, would seeing the coins and notes like this make you want to come up, check it out, and learn more about them?
The case has an extra (24th) slot in it that I'm currently using to let the case store both of the $2 bond coins that came back as MS69s from that submission.
I posted on the PMG side about the fact that Zimbabwe has announced they're coming out with new 1 ounce bullion coins to sell as inflation hedges. It breaks my heart that they're 1 ounce because I can't just casually throw down $1750-1900 for a coin, but I would have loved to have gotten one of those and used it to fill that 24th slot with something unique. Though alternatively I could buy and include one of these old 1989 silver rounds like the one Mike has recently posted an image of - assuming NGC would grade it. I don't know if they have ever graded one or if the "gradability" of those has been tested or confirmed. And it would need to be graded to work in this display.
 
About 3 weeks ago I said on the PMG side that I was drawing up the forms to (finally) make a submission of Venezuelan coins and Italian coins to further my 500L set and to get that Venezuelan hyperinflation coin set off the ground.
About 2 weeks after that I finally get the coins in flips with the right labels and bound them up and I'm working this weekend on finally boxing them up and printing a mailing label  Like I said, progress one very small step at a time!
The new submission is going to actually be very similar to the last one. The last one was 22 Zimbabwe coins with 7 Italian coins. This one is going to be 22 Venezuelan coins paired with 6 Italian coins - 3 500L hole-fillers and 3 1986 coins to help me build out that year set.
I think for now I'm going to hold off on grading another 2003 $10 Zimbabwe coin. The one I had looks better than the AU58 I have graded but I still think it would do MS62-63 at best and I think for now I just need to hold off and see if I can find better options for the $10 and $25 coins, letting those AU58s hold down the fort for now.
 
Edited to add:
I am aware that turn-around times on submissions have come down quite a bit in the last few months. But part of my concerns about getting this submission out and back stems from the desire to have time to get descriptions posted and pictures taken and uploaded. And that process sometimes takes a while or takes a while for me to find time to do it. So ideally I'd like to get the coins back well before December's deadline to have time to get the presentation on the registry sets up to snuff.

I finally took some time and got new pictures taken and uploaded for the Zimbabwe and 500L sets that are at least consistent across the board even if I don't necessarily think these are in every case the best images I've gotten of each coin:
Set Details | NGC Registry | NGC (ngccoin.com)

Set Details | NGC Registry | NGC (ngccoin.com)

Now that I have nice photos of the Zimbabwe bird in the yellow of the $2 coins I decided to use that to fill the gap in my banner image. I'd originally left that corner open to account for the banner, but the current system with the banner image moving depending on where you look creates a bit of a "darned no matter what you do situation. The old banner looks just fine... until the rank ribbon goes away and you have a winning set entry and now you just have a gap in the corner. 


The Zimbabwe set continues to be a living and growing thing as i recently found a snippet naming the type of tree depicted among the Great Zimbabwe ruins on the $1 coin so I added something about that type of tree.
Last weekend I used some quiet time on Father's day and I finally got done looking at the last of the Venezuelan coins I have to pick the best ones. That might have been a sign that I was getting close to submitting, but then Sam got Hand, Foot and Mouth and Shandy tested positive for Covid the same day, so we're all just trying to get through the day.
But I did, today, take advantage of sale on Memberships to upgrade my membership here, so I'll now have a $150 credit towards the submission I want to make... I just need to fill out the forms and mail it out...  

I finally took some time and got new pictures taken and uploaded for the Zimbabwe and 500L sets that are at least consistent across the board even if I don't necessarily think these are in every case the best images I've gotten of each coin:
Set Details | NGC Registry | NGC (ngccoin.com)

Set Details | NGC Registry | NGC (ngccoin.com)

Now that I have nice photos of the Zimbabwe bird in the yellow of the $2 coins I decided to use that to fill the gap in my banner image. I'd originally left that corner open to account for the banner, but the current system with the banner image moving depending on where you look creates a bit of a "darned no matter what you do situation. The old banner looks just fine... until the rank ribbon goes away and you have a winning set entry and now you just have a gap in the corner. 


The Zimbabwe set continues to be a living and growing thing as i recently found a snippet naming the type of tree depicted among the Great Zimbabwe ruins on the $1 coin so I added something about that type of tree.
Last weekend I used some quiet time on Father's day and I finally got done looking at the last of the Venezuelan coins I have to pick the best ones. That might have been a sign that I was getting close to submitting, but then Sam got Hand, Foot and Mouth and Shandy tested positive for Covid the same day, so we're all just trying to get through the day.
But I did, today, take advantage of sale on Memberships to upgrade my membership here, so I'll now have a $150 credit towards the submission I want to make... I just need to fill out the forms and mail it out...  

So yesterday there's a knock at the door and I see it's the mail carrier, and he has a small package. As I'm walking up I'm wondering what this is and thinking I'm not really expecting anything.
When he gives it to me it's the 2nd set of 2002-2004 Venezuela coins from Ukraine!
I had completely forgotten about these things. I've been busy and I hadn't thought about them or thought to check the tracking in weeks. The last tracking update I'd seen had them in Kiev on April 6th. Then, while I wasn't paying attention, they were scanned in New York... on May 4th... nearly a full month later.
So... here they are!


Funny thing being that I'd recently been through the older Venezuelan coins from the late 1980s and picked the ones of each of those 5 denoms / types that I like the best, but hadn't gotten past that. These 2002-2004 denominations were going to be the next ones I looked at. Now I can get these out and into flips and look at all the available coins together. 

So yesterday there's a knock at the door and I see it's the mail carrier, and he has a small package. As I'm walking up I'm wondering what this is and thinking I'm not really expecting anything.
When he gives it to me it's the 2nd set of 2002-2004 Venezuela coins from Ukraine!
I had completely forgotten about these things. I've been busy and I hadn't thought about them or thought to check the tracking in weeks. The last tracking update I'd seen had them in Kiev on April 6th. Then, while I wasn't paying attention, they were scanned in New York... on May 4th... nearly a full month later.
So... here they are!


Funny thing being that I'd recently been through the older Venezuelan coins from the late 1980s and picked the ones of each of those 5 denoms / types that I like the best, but hadn't gotten past that. These 2002-2004 denominations were going to be the next ones I looked at. Now I can get these out and into flips and look at all the available coins together. 

So, after many delays prompted by sickness and other things - in the 2nd half of this week is was my “turn” to be sick - and putting these on hold to look at 500 Lire coins, I’m finally starting to look at the Venezuelan coins to maybe pick out some for a submission and building out a registry set.
But the thing that normally makes all the difference for me in building these sets is building a narrative around the set. Building out these descriptions, the research and the writing often consumes more time than anything else and is what has consumed most of my collecting time. With some sets in the past, I’ve put a lot of emphasis on the designs of the coins and the cultural significance of what’s on them. In some sets I’ve put a lot of emphasis on the historical context and what was going on in the country at the time when that coin or bill was introduced. In some sets I’ve emphasized the hunt and the personal journey of building the set - or some mixture of these.
The Zimbabwe note set leans heavily on the historical context with some information on the cultural importance of the things featured - almost no emphasis on the chase because 100 iterations of “I bought this on eBay" seems a bit boring. The Venezuelan note set has a similar approach but there’s a different ratio / more emphasis is put on the cultural significance of the designs and portraits.
The Zimbabwe coin set leans roughly equally on the cultural significance of the designs and on the chase / the journey of building the set.
I’ve been thinking the last few months about what my approach with this set was going to be - how it was going to look, how am I going to present it. I find it’s always best to “Begin with the End in Mind.”
With these coins I feel like it’s going to be very hard to put much emphasis on the designs and the cultural aspect of what’s on it, for one very important reason. I’m going to quote the information card that came with the sets from the Franklin Mint:
“Venezuela may hold the present-day record for the sameness of the designs used on its circulation coins. Not only do all denominations bear a signed portrait of Simon Bolivar by Albert Desire Barre, Chief Engraver of the Paris Mint (1855-1878), it is the same portrait that has been used most years since the 1870s. This likewise holds true for the coat of arms.”
So, from a design standpoint, from coin to coin, there is very little (almost nothing) to talk about here. The dates and the denominations change with the size of the coin but that’s about it. This is actually a pretty stark contrast to what I ran into with the currency side on PMG with the Venezuela set because the bills featured a large number of endangered animals, national parks, and historical figures - until the people designing their bills kind of “gave up” around 2019 and started slapping the same design on everything in different colors.
So I think this set is going to be more focused on the coins, the historical context behind their introduction, and how what was going on in the country / the inflation made it’s impacts on the coinage.
I’ve been starting to research the coins more and I’ve been finding a few very interesting things.
For example, the 1989 coins I got from these Franklin Mint sets I bought were nickel-plated steel coins that were only issued for 2-3 years, and they are almost all using almost exactly the same design or the same design as pure nickel coins that were issued mostly in the 1970s and the earlier 1980s. And these were the last coins issued from the Fourth Republic of Venezuela before the constitutional change in 1999. There were no Venezuelan coins from 1991 to 1999.
This actually heavily mirrors what happened in Zimbabwe with coins being made out of better / more expensive metals in the 1980s, the switch to steel in the 1990s, a brief halt to production of coinage and then a later re-introduction of new, higher coin denominations. - Zimbabwe was just a lot quicker to abandon coins completely than Venezuela.
I’m also learning that some of these coins were struck at several different mints, and that in a couple of cases a coin was struck for 3 years and struck at a different mint every one of those three years. And I’m wondering if I’m going to be able to learn about if there was some other reason for that. But some of these coins, because of this, have different design / die pairings and varieties to look for.
Even more, I’m realizing that I need to take a magnet to some of these early 2000’s coins to figure out what I have - I’m learning that some of these coins were issued in two different compositions in the same years for a couple of years, with Magnetic steel coins and non-magnetic zinc aluminum coins having the same date with weights, diameters, and thicknesses that are also the same.
And so, this continues to become more complicated.
Among other things, I already knew there was a 2016 50 bolivar coin that I don’t have any examples of. But I’m also learning that there was a 2005-dated 1,000 bolivar coin that I hadn’t known about, and that was apparently the country’s first bimetallic, before the introduction of the 1 Bolivar Fuertes coin in 2007.
Shameless plug for the 500L set but remember what I’ve said before about that, in 1982, being the first circulating bi-metallic coin, with the idea being to use this on higher denomination coins to make them harder to counterfeit. So this has Venezuela introducing bimetallics 23 years after Italy pioneered it. Several of the other coins from this period Casa de la Moneda de Venezuela in Maracay, Venezuela (1999-date). This has me wondering if this one was also produced domestically or if they outsourced the production of a more complicated coin to one of the mints in the UK, Canada, and Germany that they’d used previously - or if those mints were even willing to take the order by 2005.

So, after many delays prompted by sickness and other things - in the 2nd half of this week is was my “turn” to be sick - and putting these on hold to look at 500 Lire coins, I’m finally starting to look at the Venezuelan coins to maybe pick out some for a submission and building out a registry set.
But the thing that normally makes all the difference for me in building these sets is building a narrative around the set. Building out these descriptions, the research and the writing often consumes more time than anything else and is what has consumed most of my collecting time. With some sets in the past, I’ve put a lot of emphasis on the designs of the coins and the cultural significance of what’s on them. In some sets I’ve put a lot of emphasis on the historical context and what was going on in the country at the time when that coin or bill was introduced. In some sets I’ve emphasized the hunt and the personal journey of building the set - or some mixture of these.
The Zimbabwe note set leans heavily on the historical context with some information on the cultural importance of the things featured - almost no emphasis on the chase because 100 iterations of “I bought this on eBay" seems a bit boring. The Venezuelan note set has a similar approach but there’s a different ratio / more emphasis is put on the cultural significance of the designs and portraits.
The Zimbabwe coin set leans roughly equally on the cultural significance of the designs and on the chase / the journey of building the set.
I’ve been thinking the last few months about what my approach with this set was going to be - how it was going to look, how am I going to present it. I find it’s always best to “Begin with the End in Mind.”
With these coins I feel like it’s going to be very hard to put much emphasis on the designs and the cultural aspect of what’s on it, for one very important reason. I’m going to quote the information card that came with the sets from the Franklin Mint:
“Venezuela may hold the present-day record for the sameness of the designs used on its circulation coins. Not only do all denominations bear a signed portrait of Simon Bolivar by Albert Desire Barre, Chief Engraver of the Paris Mint (1855-1878), it is the same portrait that has been used most years since the 1870s. This likewise holds true for the coat of arms.”
So, from a design standpoint, from coin to coin, there is very little (almost nothing) to talk about here. The dates and the denominations change with the size of the coin but that’s about it. This is actually a pretty stark contrast to what I ran into with the currency side on PMG with the Venezuela set because the bills featured a large number of endangered animals, national parks, and historical figures - until the people designing their bills kind of “gave up” around 2019 and started slapping the same design on everything in different colors.
So I think this set is going to be more focused on the coins, the historical context behind their introduction, and how what was going on in the country / the inflation made it’s impacts on the coinage.
I’ve been starting to research the coins more and I’ve been finding a few very interesting things.
For example, the 1989 coins I got from these Franklin Mint sets I bought were nickel-plated steel coins that were only issued for 2-3 years, and they are almost all using almost exactly the same design or the same design as pure nickel coins that were issued mostly in the 1970s and the earlier 1980s. And these were the last coins issued from the Fourth Republic of Venezuela before the constitutional change in 1999. There were no Venezuelan coins from 1991 to 1999.
This actually heavily mirrors what happened in Zimbabwe with coins being made out of better / more expensive metals in the 1980s, the switch to steel in the 1990s, a brief halt to production of coinage and then a later re-introduction of new, higher coin denominations. - Zimbabwe was just a lot quicker to abandon coins completely than Venezuela.
I’m also learning that some of these coins were struck at several different mints, and that in a couple of cases a coin was struck for 3 years and struck at a different mint every one of those three years. And I’m wondering if I’m going to be able to learn about if there was some other reason for that. But some of these coins, because of this, have different design / die pairings and varieties to look for.
Even more, I’m realizing that I need to take a magnet to some of these early 2000’s coins to figure out what I have - I’m learning that some of these coins were issued in two different compositions in the same years for a couple of years, with Magnetic steel coins and non-magnetic zinc aluminum coins having the same date with weights, diameters, and thicknesses that are also the same.
And so, this continues to become more complicated.
Among other things, I already knew there was a 2016 50 bolivar coin that I don’t have any examples of. But I’m also learning that there was a 2005-dated 1,000 bolivar coin that I hadn’t known about, and that was apparently the country’s first bimetallic, before the introduction of the 1 Bolivar Fuertes coin in 2007.
Shameless plug for the 500L set but remember what I’ve said before about that, in 1982, being the first circulating bi-metallic coin, with the idea being to use this on higher denomination coins to make them harder to counterfeit. So this has Venezuela introducing bimetallics 23 years after Italy pioneered it. Several of the other coins from this period Casa de la Moneda de Venezuela in Maracay, Venezuela (1999-date). This has me wondering if this one was also produced domestically or if they outsourced the production of a more complicated coin to one of the mints in the UK, Canada, and Germany that they’d used previously - or if those mints were even willing to take the order by 2005.

The other day over the weekend I decided to finally pull those 500 Lire coins I'd ordered out and look at them to see if I'd gotten anything good / promising. I'd been wanting to look at these for a while knowing it would be kind of shot-in-the-dark and I might have something good or I might have gotten nothing. I thought I'd sit down and look while Shandy napped with Sam and Ben watched TV.
But, somewhat to my surprise, Ben took notice and wanted to look at them with me and was asking if these were my gold coins and if they were "real gold." I told him, "No. They're an alloy that looks like gold in the middle." He saw a 200L in the same page and asked if that was gold - nope. Brass alloy. So since he seemed really interested in seeing the real gold ones I went and I got out the actual gold ones, which he claimed he thought were really cool. I showed him the 2016 and 2019 for their birthyears, which he seemed to think were neat, but when I asked if he thought there was one or two that were more interesting he couldn't / wouldn't pick one and he didn't want to ask about them even though I offered to talk about any of them he wanted.
He, of course, wanted one - he'd wanted a 500L coin before the gold ones came out and I'd let him have one that he picked from an old batch. That 500L coin is now on the couch or between the cushions or something. I was just like, "No. You're going to be a lot older before I let you have something like this. " "How old?" "Like at least 18." "No! Like 8 or 9!" "Not happening."
You can see the 500L he picked in his hands, still in his soccer jersey from the game that morning.


He made some comment about how the gold coins could "make a dollar" which makes me pretty sure he has no clue just how expensive those are and that 1 of those coins is about 2 years of his allowance. Of course, one of the first things he did was count to see how many there were - he can count to 100, as he finishes his Kindergarten year.
As you might imagine, I didn't get to actually look at the 500L coins well, or for very long. At the end of nap time I was feeling pretty disappointed with what I had seen because a few very nice ones I'd seen where for dates we already had well covered and I'd seen some that didn't look good at all. And I didn't get to look at these again for 2 more days, looking at them at night using a flash light to read the tiny little dates on them.
However, when I finally did get to look at them I felt a bit better about the outcome. We'd gotten 25 coins when I'd been expecting 24 - but one of those was a 1994 that was one of the circulating commemorative years that doesn't fit into the registry set I'm building. From the remaining 24 there was only 1 1987 and 2 1983s, and I don't think any of those are nicer than the 1983 and 1987 I got from the franklin mint sets. However, there were 3 1986-dated coins, and a couple of those actually look pretty nice. So that might be the big score from the purchase / lot.
I also got in those 2003, $10 Zimbabwe coins. I do think they are nicer than the AU58 I have but I think the seller calling them Gem Uncirc was a bit of a stretch. I think MS63 is more likely. I still might submit one with the 500L coins though just to try to improve that AU58.
I got a chance to take images of the new 500L coins recently. Shandy also noticed and pointed out that, while the pictures of the old coins are nice and while the new pictures of the new coins are nice, the color balance on the images / color tint doesn't quite match, and I'm not sure how to fix that. I think to get a perfectly consistent set of images that I'm happy with I'm going to have to just re-shoot the whole group at the same time just because I'm not that good at perfectly matching things up between shoots and the human eye can pick out some small and subtle things when they're right next to each other. This is the approach I've taken with the 10G set - shooting them all again all at once - and this is probably the approach I'll take with the Zimbabwe coins, But I don't want to go that route with the 500L set just yet because if I do that I'd like to wait to send in and get back these next 2-3 coins (1983, 1986, 1987) and have the set a little more complete for that kind of effort.
I would not have expected that it would be a month after getting the coins back and I wouldn't have taken shots of all the New Zimbabwe coins yet or popped them into that new case yet, but life has just been a little busy lately, including at work, and Sam and Ben have been home sick a lot lately - usually one and then the other and then the other again.

The other day over the weekend I decided to finally pull those 500 Lire coins I'd ordered out and look at them to see if I'd gotten anything good / promising. I'd been wanting to look at these for a while knowing it would be kind of shot-in-the-dark and I might have something good or I might have gotten nothing. I thought I'd sit down and look while Shandy napped with Sam and Ben watched TV.
But, somewhat to my surprise, Ben took notice and wanted to look at them with me and was asking if these were my gold coins and if they were "real gold." I told him, "No. They're an alloy that looks like gold in the middle." He saw a 200L in the same page and asked if that was gold - nope. Brass alloy. So since he seemed really interested in seeing the real gold ones I went and I got out the actual gold ones, which he claimed he thought were really cool. I showed him the 2016 and 2019 for their birthyears, which he seemed to think were neat, but when I asked if he thought there was one or two that were more interesting he couldn't / wouldn't pick one and he didn't want to ask about them even though I offered to talk about any of them he wanted.
He, of course, wanted one - he'd wanted a 500L coin before the gold ones came out and I'd let him have one that he picked from an old batch. That 500L coin is now on the couch or between the cushions or something. I was just like, "No. You're going to be a lot older before I let you have something like this. " "How old?" "Like at least 18." "No! Like 8 or 9!" "Not happening."
You can see the 500L he picked in his hands, still in his soccer jersey from the game that morning.


He made some comment about how the gold coins could "make a dollar" which makes me pretty sure he has no clue just how expensive those are and that 1 of those coins is about 2 years of his allowance. Of course, one of the first things he did was count to see how many there were - he can count to 100, as he finishes his Kindergarten year.
As you might imagine, I didn't get to actually look at the 500L coins well, or for very long. At the end of nap time I was feeling pretty disappointed with what I had seen because a few very nice ones I'd seen where for dates we already had well covered and I'd seen some that didn't look good at all. And I didn't get to look at these again for 2 more days, looking at them at night using a flash light to read the tiny little dates on them.
However, when I finally did get to look at them I felt a bit better about the outcome. We'd gotten 25 coins when I'd been expecting 24 - but one of those was a 1994 that was one of the circulating commemorative years that doesn't fit into the registry set I'm building. From the remaining 24 there was only 1 1987 and 2 1983s, and I don't think any of those are nicer than the 1983 and 1987 I got from the franklin mint sets. However, there were 3 1986-dated coins, and a couple of those actually look pretty nice. So that might be the big score from the purchase / lot.
I also got in those 2003, $10 Zimbabwe coins. I do think they are nicer than the AU58 I have but I think the seller calling them Gem Uncirc was a bit of a stretch. I think MS63 is more likely. I still might submit one with the 500L coins though just to try to improve that AU58.
I got a chance to take images of the new 500L coins recently. Shandy also noticed and pointed out that, while the pictures of the old coins are nice and while the new pictures of the new coins are nice, the color balance on the images / color tint doesn't quite match, and I'm not sure how to fix that. I think to get a perfectly consistent set of images that I'm happy with I'm going to have to just re-shoot the whole group at the same time just because I'm not that good at perfectly matching things up between shoots and the human eye can pick out some small and subtle things when they're right next to each other. This is the approach I've taken with the 10G set - shooting them all again all at once - and this is probably the approach I'll take with the Zimbabwe coins, But I don't want to go that route with the 500L set just yet because if I do that I'd like to wait to send in and get back these next 2-3 coins (1983, 1986, 1987) and have the set a little more complete for that kind of effort.
I would not have expected that it would be a month after getting the coins back and I wouldn't have taken shots of all the New Zimbabwe coins yet or popped them into that new case yet, but life has just been a little busy lately, including at work, and Sam and Ben have been home sick a lot lately - usually one and then the other and then the other again.

The other day over the weekend I decided to finally pull those 500 Lire coins I'd ordered out and look at them to see if I'd gotten anything good / promising. I'd been wanting to look at these for a while knowing it would be kind of shot-in-the-dark and I might have something good or I might have gotten nothing. I thought I'd sit down and look while Shandy napped with Sam and Ben watched TV.
But, somewhat to my surprise, Ben took notice and wanted to look at them with me and was asking if these were my gold coins and if they were "real gold." I told him, "No. They're an alloy that looks like gold in the middle." He saw a 200L in the same page and asked if that was gold - nope. Brass alloy. So since he seemed really interested in seeing the real gold ones I went and I got out the actual gold ones, which he claimed he thought were really cool. I showed him the 2016 and 2019 for their birthyears, which he seemed to think were neat, but when I asked if he thought there was one or two that were more interesting he couldn't / wouldn't pick one and he didn't want to ask about them even though I offered to talk about any of them he wanted.
He, of course, wanted one - he'd wanted a 500L coin before the gold ones came out and I'd let him have one that he picked from an old batch. That 500L coin is now on the couch or between the cushions or something. I was just like, "No. You're going to be a lot older before I let you have something like this. " "How old?" "Like at least 18." "No! Like 8 or 9!" "Not happening."
You can see the 500L he picked in his hands, still in his soccer jersey from the game that morning.


He made some comment about how the gold coins could "make a dollar" which makes me pretty sure he has no clue just how expensive those are and that 1 of those coins is about 2 years of his allowance. Of course, one of the first things he did was count to see how many there were - he can count to 100, as he finishes his Kindergarten year.
As you might imagine, I didn't get to actually look at the 500L coins well, or for very long. At the end of nap time I was feeling pretty disappointed with what I had seen because a few very nice ones I'd seen where for dates we already had well covered and I'd seen some that didn't look good at all. And I didn't get to look at these again for 2 more days, looking at them at night using a flash light to read the tiny little dates on them.
However, when I finally did get to look at them I felt a bit better about the outcome. We'd gotten 25 coins when I'd been expecting 24 - but one of those was a 1994 that was one of the circulating commemorative years that doesn't fit into the registry set I'm building. From the remaining 24 there was only 1 1987 and 2 1983s, and I don't think any of those are nicer than the 1983 and 1987 I got from the franklin mint sets. However, there were 3 1986-dated coins, and a couple of those actually look pretty nice. So that might be the big score from the purchase / lot.
I also got in those 2003, $10 Zimbabwe coins. I do think they are nicer than the AU58 I have but I think the seller calling them Gem Uncirc was a bit of a stretch. I think MS63 is more likely. I still might submit one with the 500L coins though just to try to improve that AU58.
I got a chance to take images of the new 500L coins recently. Shandy also noticed and pointed out that, while the pictures of the old coins are nice and while the new pictures of the new coins are nice, the color balance on the images / color tint doesn't quite match, and I'm not sure how to fix that. I think to get a perfectly consistent set of images that I'm happy with I'm going to have to just re-shoot the whole group at the same time just because I'm not that good at perfectly matching things up between shoots and the human eye can pick out some small and subtle things when they're right next to each other. This is the approach I've taken with the 10G set - shooting them all again all at once - and this is probably the approach I'll take with the Zimbabwe coins, But I don't want to go that route with the 500L set just yet because if I do that I'd like to wait to send in and get back these next 2-3 coins (1983, 1986, 1987) and have the set a little more complete for that kind of effort.
I would not have expected that it would be a month after getting the coins back and I wouldn't have taken shots of all the New Zimbabwe coins yet or popped them into that new case yet, but life has just been a little busy lately, including at work, and Sam and Ben have been home sick a lot lately - usually one and then the other and then the other again.

So here's kind of a funny thing from the other day.
I sent Shandy a message saying, "Hey, you care if I just go ahead and order these Italian sets?" and for me it's more, "do you care if I spend the money on this?"
She's okay with it but she wants to know if she can look at the pictures first to see if she thinks it's a good one - generic pictures though so we aren't going to be able to make a quality judgement on individual coins like that, so just go ahead and we'll see.
But after that I basically explained, most of these things that I find online that don't have generic pictures are pug-ugly or way over-priced. So I basically have three options right now: 1) Either buy more Franklin mint sets that have 1983s in them (and some other things that might be useful later like for a 50L set) or 2) buy more lots mixed date lots of 500 L coins from this one person I've ordered from and hope for good things - nice 1983 and 1986 and 1995 coins. The last time I ordered from this person we got the 1984 that just came back as an MS66. We also got a 1987 that was kinda "Meh." So we might get more good things. We might not. Option 3 is I just watch listings and wait.
She favored getting more lots of 500 Lire coins and seeing what we get. So that's what I did - we'll be getting 24 more 500 Lire to look through soon.
But, I just couldn't help but find it interesting that she is now sufficiently invested in this set that she wants input on purchasing decisions. 

TL:DR – The coins did great and I’m thrilled and freaking out a bit about some of these! XD So “Thank you, NGC” on the hard work and the much faster than expected turnaround.
 
I need to give major props to NGC, who have pulled off a major turnaround, brought turnaround times down and delivered me grades on these months sooner than I was thinking. It was only about 5-6 weeks ago that I was saying I might not have grades for another 4 months from now.
I’m hoping this also means that they’ve succeeded in expanding capacity and their 60-hour weeks are also a thing of the past.
 
Since there are 29 coins in this submission, and 22 from Zimbabwe, I’m just going to talk about the Zimbabwe coins here and talk about the results on the 500L in a separate post. Even then, I’m not going to go into has much detail and discussion on each of these things as I might with a 5-coin submission. I’m just going to hit on some of the high notes (if I can stop myself).
Here are the results, with my guesses and Shandy’s so you can see how we did. We both like to be deliberately conservative in our guesses to try to not get our hopes too high. So, we tended to be low when we missed, but it also makes the ones where we got lower than we guessed just a touch more disappointing.
Shandy had made it clear that she’d never let me hear the end of it if she beat me, so I’ll gladly take a narrow win that still leaves both of us with our dignity. I think she’s learned a lot, and quickly, and she’s quickly gotten very picky about which ones she thinks are good enough.

I’m really thrilled with these results. Only 3 coins are in the “disappointing” column – there were 4 MS64s but I don’t consider the 1997 $2 a disappointment because that grade was in-line with expectations. The same could be argued of the 2002 dime for that matter, which, if anything, beat expectations / did better than we’d guessed and hoped. The 2002 $1 also came back with the grade I guessed – just below the guess Shandy made. So maybe only 1 of 22 can fairly be called a disappointment – that 1988 cent I’d had such high hopes for.
The 1997 $2 is worth calling out. At MS64 it easily beats the XF45 that is the only other NGC graded example eligible for that slot. It also beat Mike’s guess that it would get at least an MS63. I’d initially hoped it might do better but… It is still by far the best I’ve seen. Most of the 1997 dated $2 I’ve been able to find are just… so… ugly. I’m very grateful to Mike for this coin. I’m not going to be in a rush to try to upgrade this one and I doubt it would be all that easy.
I don’t know if it’s better or worse that 3 out of 4 of these MS64s are still better than anything else I have for the slot. Meaning 3 of these 4 still earn a spot in the top set. Meaning 3 of 4 clearly weren’t a “waste” / complete misfire – they still improve the top line set and in so doing achieve what I’d hoped for in sending them in. We got several MS66 and MS67 grades, including some on some key coins, but those weren’t on coins that could fully paper over these sub-Gem coins.
Having said all that though, I had really hoped for an MS68 on that 1997 5C, and, while I got an MS67 on the 1980, that MS65 on the 5C is not what I’d been hoping for there. So maybe that’s disappointing too, even though the 1980 makes up for it.
The 1980 10C getting an MS66 feels like a big win and vindication on sending it in. It did, in fact, beat the MS65 I already have. This can be bitter-sweet as it knocks out the first coin bought for the set, but it also means the top type set will be 100% self-submitted – no bought-pre-graded coins. The thing that makes this even better is the fact that the 1980 5C got an MS67 – a staggering, fantastic victory in its own rights to me - and the 1980 50C and $1 got MS66, meaning that I have 2/3rd of a 1980 year set in MS66 or better now – but that just means I’m now having dreams in my head of adding an MS66 1980 cent and 20C.
The MS67 on the 2002 $5 coin just feels so great and cleansing after the disappointment of those nasty examples from the now long-ago first purchase of 10-coin sets. The same is true, albeit to an obvious lesser extent, with the MS66 on the 2002 $2.
It might seem strange to some that I just feel so happy about MS65, MS66, and MS67 grades on modern coins when the prevailing wisdom with moderns tends to be that you need MS68s for it to be worth it/ to be competitive, but I’ve long felt like I would be thrilled / happy to have the set mostly comprised of MS65 (Gem) coins or better and to be complete. It is now complete, with mostly MS65 or better coins. I’m happy. And these results are 1) consistent roughly with my guesses, and 2) far better than what I got when I tried self-submitting with my stepfather the first time 14 years ago. Suggesting that I might have actually learned a LITTLE in that time, in addition to taking damage to my corneas. Lol
I’m blown away by the results on the Bond coins. I can’t believe how well the $2 coins bond coins did – coins I got from that seller in the Ukraine, small aside. I am suddenly extremely happy that I went ahead and sent in both of those. EXTREMELY happy. I don’t know what I’ll do with the 2nd MS69. When I was looking at the pop reports / census for clues and saw 2 MS69s I had to pick my jaw up off the floor realizing those might be mine and I might have scored a HUGE win. I was thinking I’d be happy if I got MS67s that matched most of the rest of the Bond Coin sets. I just could not get myself to hope for MS68s or MS69s even though they looked darn near perfect because I’ve never gotten grades that high on circulation strike coins. To get those 69s on both $2 BCs and a 68 on the $1… Mind Blown. So happy on these. My first self-made circulation strike MS68s and MS69s.
Overall, this is going to leave me with a very solid type set that I think will be well positioned to defend its title for a while, though it will certainly be possible for anyone with the funds, the time and the determination to overtake this set. The overall strength this gives to the set and to the bond coins, however, does re-emphasize the fact that at some point I will need to address the weakness of the $10 and $25 coins to bring them more in line with the rest of the set.
The overall strength of the Bond Coins is also going to make me feel more pressure to one day get the 50C bond coin up to a MS67+ to match the standard set by the others in that group / sub-set. With 7 bond coins I do think that sub-set could make for a nice set / category on its own and there are plenty of categories out there with only 6-8 slots – just look at some of the mint sets. But I think there will have to be more collector interest in those before NGC agrees to that. I feel lucky enough to have the type set category to put these in, given how thinly they’re collected in graded form (Mostly just me and my crazy).
I’m very excited to get to upload some descriptions I’ve already been working on for these. As with the last set, each coin will have some general information on the design / landmark it depicts followed by a narrative on how that coin came to be in the set. These descriptions will heavily copy each other and borrow some of the narrative from my journals about all of these. I’ve worked carefully to keep track of what group of coins / sets / dealers each coin came from so I could build that into the narrative for each coin and have these descriptions emphasize the journey and the hunt of a 100% self-submitted set that I’ve made by looking at the coins with my wife. I think that’s part of what won this set an award from NGC and I think it’s very core to the charm and the appeal of the set as I’ve made it. I’m also really excited about taking good photos of all of these in the holders when they come in.
The case Shandy got me for these has been sitting in the closet in the packaging, waiting for me to be able to properly fill it. I’m very excited by the prospect of being able to pull that out, put all the coins in, and lay it out. I think I’ll need to put up pictures of that in future entry – Maybe include the plaque for the set in the image.
Can you tell that I’m excited about this? XD
So, in summation - I’m thrilled. I consider this a big win. But it also leaves a few things unresolved and opens a few more thoughts / dreams. I think I’ll be on pause with this for a while, but I’ll likely have to circle back later to tie up some of those loose ends – the 2003 $10, the 2003 $25, the 1980 1C.

The first of the packages of Venezuelan Coins from the Ukrainian dealer arrived. The box that came was the 2nd one shipped, containing the 2021 Digital Bolivar Coins. The first package is still showing it was last seen in Kiev. I guess we'll see on that one – but I’m mostly considering that one a lost cause after over a week with no updates. I’ll just be pleasantly surprised if I’m wrong. But at least I already had some of those from a prior order and dollarwise what I got this weekend was the bulk of the order.
For a package that started its journey by leaving a war zone, the “last mile” to my house seems to have been almost more dramatic, at least with regard to the tracking history. It was supposed to be delivered a week ago on Saturday, then USPS didn’t actually attempt and said it would be delivered on Monday. Then they scanned it as being at the post office and didn’t try to deliver on Monday. When the NGC box came on Tuesday I was expecting that knock to be about the Ukrainian package, but, nope. Then, finally, on Wednesday, when I was about to just file a missing package report, it finally got delivered – but by then it had kind of had its thunder thoroughly stolen for the moment by the certificates and the graded coins coming back.

I had also ordered some more 7-coin sets of the Bolivar Fuertes coins from a dealer in Utah I got Zimbabwe coins from. I'd bought 5 sets of these from a dealer in Turkey before I saw that this Utah dealer also had them - and at a lower price if buying several sets. I decided to order more just to have some from another dealer / source.
The coins from the Utah dealer are very nice and may well be better than the others from Turkey. I have all the coins labeled with what dealer they came from. It will be interesting if all the "Best" ones we pick are from the new sets when we finally go through these.
I've been holding off on going through these with Shandy in part because I wanted to have them all together first - or as close to it as possible. But I've felt the desire and need to start moving on these growing as the Zimbabwe submission moved closer to being done and home - time to fire off the next round, right? And that this point I really have almost every thing I wanted and needed and I don’t feel like holding things up for that 2nd Ukranian package that may never come. So if it ever does I’ll just do what I did with the many, many waves of Zimbabwe coins – pick the best of each group and compare the best of each group against each other until I arrive at 1 coin to submit.
I’m yet to find someone offering either just the 50 Bolivar Fuertes coins or sets that include the 50 Bolivar Fuertes coin at a price I consider reasonable for these. The jury is still out on what to do about that and I may just proceed without them for now, just like I initially proceeded without the $2 and $5 coins with Zimbabwe, and proceeded the 2nd time with Zimbabwe without a new / better $10 and $25 coin. Sometimes you just have to make progress where you can and wait for better opportunities on other things.
This may be one of the more egregious cases of “scope explosion” I’ve ever pulled on myself. What started as getting 1 of the new 2021 Digital Bolivar coins has turned into:
-          5 Denominations of the Original Bolivar from the 1980s.
-          5 higher denominations of the original bolivar from the early 2000s.
-          7 denominations of the Bolivar Fuertes coins from ~2007
-          3 later denominations of the Bolivar Fuertes added ~2016
-          2 denominations of the Bolivar Soberano
-          3 denominations of the “Digital” Bolivar
25 denominations spanning 3 redenominations and 4 currencies over about 40 years… Yeah… So much for one little coin… I’m a lunatic, but you knew that already.

I'm thinking I’ll try to get these out with some 500L coins in May - if I can convince Shandy to let me get away with it. We cracked open a couple of Italian Franklin Mint sets the other day for a 1983 and 1987 500L for that set. The 1987 looked great once I got it out but the 1983 looked a little disappointing once we got to see it bare. So now I’m looking into a couple of options on trying to get another, hopefully better, 1983.
I also found a seller offering what they described as “Gem Uncirc” $10 Zimbabwe coins for the first time. So, I ordered a few of those, which should be arriving any day now and I’m hoping for good things. If those look good I’ll probably add that to the Italian coins and the Venezuela coins if and when those go out to resolve one of the last major weaknesses of the Zimbabwe set.

The first of the packages of Venezuelan Coins from the Ukrainian dealer arrived. The box that came was the 2nd one shipped, containing the 2021 Digital Bolivar Coins. The first package is still showing it was last seen in Kiev. I guess we'll see on that one – but I’m mostly considering that one a lost cause after over a week with no updates. I’ll just be pleasantly surprised if I’m wrong. But at least I already had some of those from a prior order and dollarwise what I got this weekend was the bulk of the order.
For a package that started its journey by leaving a war zone, the “last mile” to my house seems to have been almost more dramatic, at least with regard to the tracking history. It was supposed to be delivered a week ago on Saturday, then USPS didn’t actually attempt and said it would be delivered on Monday. Then they scanned it as being at the post office and didn’t try to deliver on Monday. When the NGC box came on Tuesday I was expecting that knock to be about the Ukrainian package, but, nope. Then, finally, on Wednesday, when I was about to just file a missing package report, it finally got delivered – but by then it had kind of had its thunder thoroughly stolen for the moment by the certificates and the graded coins coming back.

I had also ordered some more 7-coin sets of the Bolivar Fuertes coins from a dealer in Utah I got Zimbabwe coins from. I'd bought 5 sets of these from a dealer in Turkey before I saw that this Utah dealer also had them - and at a lower price if buying several sets. I decided to order more just to have some from another dealer / source.
The coins from the Utah dealer are very nice and may well be better than the others from Turkey. I have all the coins labeled with what dealer they came from. It will be interesting if all the "Best" ones we pick are from the new sets when we finally go through these.
I've been holding off on going through these with Shandy in part because I wanted to have them all together first - or as close to it as possible. But I've felt the desire and need to start moving on these growing as the Zimbabwe submission moved closer to being done and home - time to fire off the next round, right? And that this point I really have almost every thing I wanted and needed and I don’t feel like holding things up for that 2nd Ukranian package that may never come. So if it ever does I’ll just do what I did with the many, many waves of Zimbabwe coins – pick the best of each group and compare the best of each group against each other until I arrive at 1 coin to submit.
I’m yet to find someone offering either just the 50 Bolivar Fuertes coins or sets that include the 50 Bolivar Fuertes coin at a price I consider reasonable for these. The jury is still out on what to do about that and I may just proceed without them for now, just like I initially proceeded without the $2 and $5 coins with Zimbabwe, and proceeded the 2nd time with Zimbabwe without a new / better $10 and $25 coin. Sometimes you just have to make progress where you can and wait for better opportunities on other things.
This may be one of the more egregious cases of “scope explosion” I’ve ever pulled on myself. What started as getting 1 of the new 2021 Digital Bolivar coins has turned into:
-          5 Denominations of the Original Bolivar from the 1980s.
-          5 higher denominations of the original bolivar from the early 2000s.
-          7 denominations of the Bolivar Fuertes coins from ~2007
-          3 later denominations of the Bolivar Fuertes added ~2016
-          2 denominations of the Bolivar Soberano
-          3 denominations of the “Digital” Bolivar
25 denominations spanning 3 redenominations and 4 currencies over about 40 years… Yeah… So much for one little coin… I’m a lunatic, but you knew that already.

I'm thinking I’ll try to get these out with some 500L coins in May - if I can convince Shandy to let me get away with it. We cracked open a couple of Italian Franklin Mint sets the other day for a 1983 and 1987 500L for that set. The 1987 looked great once I got it out but the 1983 looked a little disappointing once we got to see it bare. So now I’m looking into a couple of options on trying to get another, hopefully better, 1983.
I also found a seller offering what they described as “Gem Uncirc” $10 Zimbabwe coins for the first time. So, I ordered a few of those, which should be arriving any day now and I’m hoping for good things. If those look good I’ll probably add that to the Italian coins and the Venezuela coins if and when those go out to resolve one of the last major weaknesses of the Zimbabwe set.

So here is the 2nd post about 1 submission, splitting off the 500L coins to give them their due, befitting a group of 7 coins (decent sized group in their own right by my submission standards) and a group of coins that represent their own, very important project.
And here are the results - Shandy and I picked the ones to send together when we had more than one of a certain date, but we didn't play “guess the grade” on these because we didn't have a big selection of graded coins in different grades to look at with Zimbabwe. We just had 2 coins - a MS67 and a MS68.

Hands down the big win here is the grade on the 1990 - the highest grade in the submission going to one of those two super important coins that they brought back from Italy nearly 30 years ago. And it is a legitimately good grade - not just the highest grade in a low scoring submission. 😅 An MS67 is dang good for something that spent 28 years in a bag. That 67, combined with the 1992 in MS67 and the ’82 and ’85 in MS68, gives the set a strong core.
The 1991, also crucial for the same reason, didn't do as well but it did good enough. An MS64 is high enough for it to not be too much of a liability to the set point / score-wise.
With both of those I thought they would grade well but you never know when a grader is going to feel there's a bit of wear that you didn't see and then you get an AU55/58 - like that 1875 10G I posted about seeing on eBay some time ago. These grades are going to help these coins stay in the set as the sentimental core of it while still keeping the set strong.
I had hoped the 1992 would match the MS67 I bought last year but it just missed at a MS66. However... I still feel like this coin is more attractive than the MS67. So, I think this is actually the coin I'll keep in the set for now unless I need points and adding back the MS67 could make a difference. 😅 But, the MS67 does look mighty fine in the images I got of it. We’ll see.
The result on the 1985, while not a bad grade IMO - I would have been pretty happy with straight 65s to fill out the set - basically confirms I made the right choice snapping up that MS68 from the same year.
As to the other 3 - two MS66s and a MS64. Again - solidly "good enough." Two of three hit the MS65 threshold I wanted for filling the set with gem uncirculated coins or better and two of them did 1 point better. The one that missed only missed by a little.
Now I just need to cut up those Franklin Mint sets and send in that '1983 and '1987... and find an '86, '95, 2000 and 2001...
 
Some other fun updates that are somewhat related:
The certificates arrived from NGC - I pulled them out of the mailbox the same day I posted about the Zimbabwe grades. It's possible they were sitting there for a while. Life was a bit crazy, and I wasn't checking the mail - almost late paying the water bill!

I told Shandy that, since I took a picture with the plaques, she needs to hold these.
For those that thought it would have been great if the Zimbabwe coin award had still had my little typo on it, you may be happy to know the distinction of immortalizing that goes to the "Best in Category" certificate, which are generated and printed automatically.

I've been working as hard as I can to get the descriptions for all 29 of these coins fleshed out and finished and uploaded into my registry, but not adding them to the sets that they're for. Once they arrive I'll pulse out full group of coins (the ones that made the cut anyway) into the main sets and then I just have to get good pictures of everything! 😅

The box came with the Zimbabwe and Italian coins yesterday. With the kids in bed and the chores handled we sat down together to take them out of the box.


She joked about me and my hoard and how pleased I was, but I was surprised by how quickly the 500 L coins were pulled away and how happy she was to get to handle them and look at those.

I went at one point and got the other 500L coins, the previous submission of Zimbabwe coins and a couple of empty boxes I have. I gave one of the boxes to her and she was thrilled to realize she was getting her own box for her group of 10 coins - but, seriously, 10 coins is a decent number and a lot to handle as loose slabs. So it made sense, but it also made her really happy.
When I handed her the box she actually perked up more, smiled and said, excitedly, "I get my own box?!?"

I also had to pull out all the old coins, lay the out, order them, and there ya go: the largest collection of NGC Graded Zimbabwean coins in the world - because no one else has been crazy enough yet.

After we were done looking I got on my phone and popped all the cert numbers into the sets at last. Shandy called me crazy because of all the "TOP POP" coins, but most are top mostly because there are so few graded, and her newly expanded set isn't short on Top Pops for now, for similar reasons. But she may have a point that the Zimbabwe set is now complete (but very much working on the 500L set) and that set now presents just a wall of "Top Pop" only broken at one place for now.  My "cute, dopey, derpy set of (well-presented) Top-Pops" fullfilled!
     
She spent the rest of the night referencing "my" (her) coin collection and pointing out, "I think you love me." 
I did good. She's happy. Her with the 1990 that her family brought back, that is now in an NGC holder as an MS67.

So, there you have an "unboxing" story, that is really more about the moment than the coins.

The box came with the Zimbabwe and Italian coins yesterday. With the kids in bed and the chores handled we sat down together to take them out of the box.


She joked about me and my hoard and how pleased I was, but I was surprised by how quickly the 500 L coins were pulled away and how happy she was to get to handle them and look at those.

I went at one point and got the other 500L coins, the previous submission of Zimbabwe coins and a couple of empty boxes I have. I gave one of the boxes to her and she was thrilled to realize she was getting her own box for her group of 10 coins - but, seriously, 10 coins is a decent number and a lot to handle as loose slabs. So it made sense, but it also made her really happy.
When I handed her the box she actually perked up more, smiled and said, excitedly, "I get my own box?!?"

I also had to pull out all the old coins, lay the out, order them, and there ya go: the largest collection of NGC Graded Zimbabwean coins in the world - because no one else has been crazy enough yet.

After we were done looking I got on my phone and popped all the cert numbers into the sets at last. Shandy called me crazy because of all the "TOP POP" coins, but most are top mostly because there are so few graded, and her newly expanded set isn't short on Top Pops for now, for similar reasons. But she may have a point that the Zimbabwe set is now complete (but very much working on the 500L set) and that set now presents just a wall of "Top Pop" only broken at one place for now.  My "cute, dopey, derpy set of (well-presented) Top-Pops" fullfilled!
     
She spent the rest of the night referencing "my" (her) coin collection and pointing out, "I think you love me." 
I did good. She's happy. Her with the 1990 that her family brought back, that is now in an NGC holder as an MS67.

So, there you have an "unboxing" story, that is really more about the moment than the coins.

The box came with the Zimbabwe and Italian coins yesterday. With the kids in bed and the chores handled we sat down together to take them out of the box.


She joked about me and my hoard and how pleased I was, but I was surprised by how quickly the 500 L coins were pulled away and how happy she was to get to handle them and look at those.

I went at one point and got the other 500L coins, the previous submission of Zimbabwe coins and a couple of empty boxes I have. I gave one of the boxes to her and she was thrilled to realize she was getting her own box for her group of 10 coins - but, seriously, 10 coins is a decent number and a lot to handle as loose slabs. So it made sense, but it also made her really happy.
When I handed her the box she actually perked up more, smiled and said, excitedly, "I get my own box?!?"

I also had to pull out all the old coins, lay the out, order them, and there ya go: the largest collection of NGC Graded Zimbabwean coins in the world - because no one else has been crazy enough yet.

After we were done looking I got on my phone and popped all the cert numbers into the sets at last. Shandy called me crazy because of all the "TOP POP" coins, but most are top mostly because there are so few graded, and her newly expanded set isn't short on Top Pops for now, for similar reasons. But she may have a point that the Zimbabwe set is now complete (but very much working on the 500L set) and that set now presents just a wall of "Top Pop" only broken at one place for now.  My "cute, dopey, derpy set of (well-presented) Top-Pops" fullfilled!
     
She spent the rest of the night referencing "my" (her) coin collection and pointing out, "I think you love me." 
I did good. She's happy. Her with the 1990 that her family brought back, that is now in an NGC holder as an MS67.

So, there you have an "unboxing" story, that is really more about the moment than the coins.

So here is the 2nd post about 1 submission, splitting off the 500L coins to give them their due, befitting a group of 7 coins (decent sized group in their own right by my submission standards) and a group of coins that represent their own, very important project.
And here are the results - Shandy and I picked the ones to send together when we had more than one of a certain date, but we didn't play “guess the grade” on these because we didn't have a big selection of graded coins in different grades to look at with Zimbabwe. We just had 2 coins - a MS67 and a MS68.

Hands down the big win here is the grade on the 1990 - the highest grade in the submission going to one of those two super important coins that they brought back from Italy nearly 30 years ago. And it is a legitimately good grade - not just the highest grade in a low scoring submission. 😅 An MS67 is dang good for something that spent 28 years in a bag. That 67, combined with the 1992 in MS67 and the ’82 and ’85 in MS68, gives the set a strong core.
The 1991, also crucial for the same reason, didn't do as well but it did good enough. An MS64 is high enough for it to not be too much of a liability to the set point / score-wise.
With both of those I thought they would grade well but you never know when a grader is going to feel there's a bit of wear that you didn't see and then you get an AU55/58 - like that 1875 10G I posted about seeing on eBay some time ago. These grades are going to help these coins stay in the set as the sentimental core of it while still keeping the set strong.
I had hoped the 1992 would match the MS67 I bought last year but it just missed at a MS66. However... I still feel like this coin is more attractive than the MS67. So, I think this is actually the coin I'll keep in the set for now unless I need points and adding back the MS67 could make a difference. 😅 But, the MS67 does look mighty fine in the images I got of it. We’ll see.
The result on the 1985, while not a bad grade IMO - I would have been pretty happy with straight 65s to fill out the set - basically confirms I made the right choice snapping up that MS68 from the same year.
As to the other 3 - two MS66s and a MS64. Again - solidly "good enough." Two of three hit the MS65 threshold I wanted for filling the set with gem uncirculated coins or better and two of them did 1 point better. The one that missed only missed by a little.
Now I just need to cut up those Franklin Mint sets and send in that '1983 and '1987... and find an '86, '95, 2000 and 2001...
 
Some other fun updates that are somewhat related:
The certificates arrived from NGC - I pulled them out of the mailbox the same day I posted about the Zimbabwe grades. It's possible they were sitting there for a while. Life was a bit crazy, and I wasn't checking the mail - almost late paying the water bill!

I told Shandy that, since I took a picture with the plaques, she needs to hold these.
For those that thought it would have been great if the Zimbabwe coin award had still had my little typo on it, you may be happy to know the distinction of immortalizing that goes to the "Best in Category" certificate, which are generated and printed automatically.

I've been working as hard as I can to get the descriptions for all 29 of these coins fleshed out and finished and uploaded into my registry, but not adding them to the sets that they're for. Once they arrive I'll pulse out full group of coins (the ones that made the cut anyway) into the main sets and then I just have to get good pictures of everything! 😅

So here is the 2nd post about 1 submission, splitting off the 500L coins to give them their due, befitting a group of 7 coins (decent sized group in their own right by my submission standards) and a group of coins that represent their own, very important project.
And here are the results - Shandy and I picked the ones to send together when we had more than one of a certain date, but we didn't play “guess the grade” on these because we didn't have a big selection of graded coins in different grades to look at with Zimbabwe. We just had 2 coins - a MS67 and a MS68.

Hands down the big win here is the grade on the 1990 - the highest grade in the submission going to one of those two super important coins that they brought back from Italy nearly 30 years ago. And it is a legitimately good grade - not just the highest grade in a low scoring submission. 😅 An MS67 is dang good for something that spent 28 years in a bag. That 67, combined with the 1992 in MS67 and the ’82 and ’85 in MS68, gives the set a strong core.
The 1991, also crucial for the same reason, didn't do as well but it did good enough. An MS64 is high enough for it to not be too much of a liability to the set point / score-wise.
With both of those I thought they would grade well but you never know when a grader is going to feel there's a bit of wear that you didn't see and then you get an AU55/58 - like that 1875 10G I posted about seeing on eBay some time ago. These grades are going to help these coins stay in the set as the sentimental core of it while still keeping the set strong.
I had hoped the 1992 would match the MS67 I bought last year but it just missed at a MS66. However... I still feel like this coin is more attractive than the MS67. So, I think this is actually the coin I'll keep in the set for now unless I need points and adding back the MS67 could make a difference. 😅 But, the MS67 does look mighty fine in the images I got of it. We’ll see.
The result on the 1985, while not a bad grade IMO - I would have been pretty happy with straight 65s to fill out the set - basically confirms I made the right choice snapping up that MS68 from the same year.
As to the other 3 - two MS66s and a MS64. Again - solidly "good enough." Two of three hit the MS65 threshold I wanted for filling the set with gem uncirculated coins or better and two of them did 1 point better. The one that missed only missed by a little.
Now I just need to cut up those Franklin Mint sets and send in that '1983 and '1987... and find an '86, '95, 2000 and 2001...
 
Some other fun updates that are somewhat related:
The certificates arrived from NGC - I pulled them out of the mailbox the same day I posted about the Zimbabwe grades. It's possible they were sitting there for a while. Life was a bit crazy, and I wasn't checking the mail - almost late paying the water bill!

I told Shandy that, since I took a picture with the plaques, she needs to hold these.
For those that thought it would have been great if the Zimbabwe coin award had still had my little typo on it, you may be happy to know the distinction of immortalizing that goes to the "Best in Category" certificate, which are generated and printed automatically.

I've been working as hard as I can to get the descriptions for all 29 of these coins fleshed out and finished and uploaded into my registry, but not adding them to the sets that they're for. Once they arrive I'll pulse out full group of coins (the ones that made the cut anyway) into the main sets and then I just have to get good pictures of everything! 😅

TL:DR – The coins did great and I’m thrilled and freaking out a bit about some of these! XD So “Thank you, NGC” on the hard work and the much faster than expected turnaround.
 
I need to give major props to NGC, who have pulled off a major turnaround, brought turnaround times down and delivered me grades on these months sooner than I was thinking. It was only about 5-6 weeks ago that I was saying I might not have grades for another 4 months from now.
I’m hoping this also means that they’ve succeeded in expanding capacity and their 60-hour weeks are also a thing of the past.
 
Since there are 29 coins in this submission, and 22 from Zimbabwe, I’m just going to talk about the Zimbabwe coins here and talk about the results on the 500L in a separate post. Even then, I’m not going to go into has much detail and discussion on each of these things as I might with a 5-coin submission. I’m just going to hit on some of the high notes (if I can stop myself).
Here are the results, with my guesses and Shandy’s so you can see how we did. We both like to be deliberately conservative in our guesses to try to not get our hopes too high. So, we tended to be low when we missed, but it also makes the ones where we got lower than we guessed just a touch more disappointing.
Shandy had made it clear that she’d never let me hear the end of it if she beat me, so I’ll gladly take a narrow win that still leaves both of us with our dignity. I think she’s learned a lot, and quickly, and she’s quickly gotten very picky about which ones she thinks are good enough.

I’m really thrilled with these results. Only 3 coins are in the “disappointing” column – there were 4 MS64s but I don’t consider the 1997 $2 a disappointment because that grade was in-line with expectations. The same could be argued of the 2002 dime for that matter, which, if anything, beat expectations / did better than we’d guessed and hoped. The 2002 $1 also came back with the grade I guessed – just below the guess Shandy made. So maybe only 1 of 22 can fairly be called a disappointment – that 1988 cent I’d had such high hopes for.
The 1997 $2 is worth calling out. At MS64 it easily beats the XF45 that is the only other NGC graded example eligible for that slot. It also beat Mike’s guess that it would get at least an MS63. I’d initially hoped it might do better but… It is still by far the best I’ve seen. Most of the 1997 dated $2 I’ve been able to find are just… so… ugly. I’m very grateful to Mike for this coin. I’m not going to be in a rush to try to upgrade this one and I doubt it would be all that easy.
I don’t know if it’s better or worse that 3 out of 4 of these MS64s are still better than anything else I have for the slot. Meaning 3 of these 4 still earn a spot in the top set. Meaning 3 of 4 clearly weren’t a “waste” / complete misfire – they still improve the top line set and in so doing achieve what I’d hoped for in sending them in. We got several MS66 and MS67 grades, including some on some key coins, but those weren’t on coins that could fully paper over these sub-Gem coins.
Having said all that though, I had really hoped for an MS68 on that 1997 5C, and, while I got an MS67 on the 1980, that MS65 on the 5C is not what I’d been hoping for there. So maybe that’s disappointing too, even though the 1980 makes up for it.
The 1980 10C getting an MS66 feels like a big win and vindication on sending it in. It did, in fact, beat the MS65 I already have. This can be bitter-sweet as it knocks out the first coin bought for the set, but it also means the top type set will be 100% self-submitted – no bought-pre-graded coins. The thing that makes this even better is the fact that the 1980 5C got an MS67 – a staggering, fantastic victory in its own rights to me - and the 1980 50C and $1 got MS66, meaning that I have 2/3rd of a 1980 year set in MS66 or better now – but that just means I’m now having dreams in my head of adding an MS66 1980 cent and 20C.
The MS67 on the 2002 $5 coin just feels so great and cleansing after the disappointment of those nasty examples from the now long-ago first purchase of 10-coin sets. The same is true, albeit to an obvious lesser extent, with the MS66 on the 2002 $2.
It might seem strange to some that I just feel so happy about MS65, MS66, and MS67 grades on modern coins when the prevailing wisdom with moderns tends to be that you need MS68s for it to be worth it/ to be competitive, but I’ve long felt like I would be thrilled / happy to have the set mostly comprised of MS65 (Gem) coins or better and to be complete. It is now complete, with mostly MS65 or better coins. I’m happy. And these results are 1) consistent roughly with my guesses, and 2) far better than what I got when I tried self-submitting with my stepfather the first time 14 years ago. Suggesting that I might have actually learned a LITTLE in that time, in addition to taking damage to my corneas. Lol
I’m blown away by the results on the Bond coins. I can’t believe how well the $2 coins bond coins did – coins I got from that seller in the Ukraine, small aside. I am suddenly extremely happy that I went ahead and sent in both of those. EXTREMELY happy. I don’t know what I’ll do with the 2nd MS69. When I was looking at the pop reports / census for clues and saw 2 MS69s I had to pick my jaw up off the floor realizing those might be mine and I might have scored a HUGE win. I was thinking I’d be happy if I got MS67s that matched most of the rest of the Bond Coin sets. I just could not get myself to hope for MS68s or MS69s even though they looked darn near perfect because I’ve never gotten grades that high on circulation strike coins. To get those 69s on both $2 BCs and a 68 on the $1… Mind Blown. So happy on these. My first self-made circulation strike MS68s and MS69s.
Overall, this is going to leave me with a very solid type set that I think will be well positioned to defend its title for a while, though it will certainly be possible for anyone with the funds, the time and the determination to overtake this set. The overall strength this gives to the set and to the bond coins, however, does re-emphasize the fact that at some point I will need to address the weakness of the $10 and $25 coins to bring them more in line with the rest of the set.
The overall strength of the Bond Coins is also going to make me feel more pressure to one day get the 50C bond coin up to a MS67+ to match the standard set by the others in that group / sub-set. With 7 bond coins I do think that sub-set could make for a nice set / category on its own and there are plenty of categories out there with only 6-8 slots – just look at some of the mint sets. But I think there will have to be more collector interest in those before NGC agrees to that. I feel lucky enough to have the type set category to put these in, given how thinly they’re collected in graded form (Mostly just me and my crazy).
I’m very excited to get to upload some descriptions I’ve already been working on for these. As with the last set, each coin will have some general information on the design / landmark it depicts followed by a narrative on how that coin came to be in the set. These descriptions will heavily copy each other and borrow some of the narrative from my journals about all of these. I’ve worked carefully to keep track of what group of coins / sets / dealers each coin came from so I could build that into the narrative for each coin and have these descriptions emphasize the journey and the hunt of a 100% self-submitted set that I’ve made by looking at the coins with my wife. I think that’s part of what won this set an award from NGC and I think it’s very core to the charm and the appeal of the set as I’ve made it. I’m also really excited about taking good photos of all of these in the holders when they come in.
The case Shandy got me for these has been sitting in the closet in the packaging, waiting for me to be able to properly fill it. I’m very excited by the prospect of being able to pull that out, put all the coins in, and lay it out. I think I’ll need to put up pictures of that in future entry – Maybe include the plaque for the set in the image.
Can you tell that I’m excited about this? XD
So, in summation - I’m thrilled. I consider this a big win. But it also leaves a few things unresolved and opens a few more thoughts / dreams. I think I’ll be on pause with this for a while, but I’ll likely have to circle back later to tie up some of those loose ends – the 2003 $10, the 2003 $25, the 1980 1C.

TL:DR – The coins did great and I’m thrilled and freaking out a bit about some of these! XD So “Thank you, NGC” on the hard work and the much faster than expected turnaround.
 
I need to give major props to NGC, who have pulled off a major turnaround, brought turnaround times down and delivered me grades on these months sooner than I was thinking. It was only about 5-6 weeks ago that I was saying I might not have grades for another 4 months from now.
I’m hoping this also means that they’ve succeeded in expanding capacity and their 60-hour weeks are also a thing of the past.
 
Since there are 29 coins in this submission, and 22 from Zimbabwe, I’m just going to talk about the Zimbabwe coins here and talk about the results on the 500L in a separate post. Even then, I’m not going to go into has much detail and discussion on each of these things as I might with a 5-coin submission. I’m just going to hit on some of the high notes (if I can stop myself).
Here are the results, with my guesses and Shandy’s so you can see how we did. We both like to be deliberately conservative in our guesses to try to not get our hopes too high. So, we tended to be low when we missed, but it also makes the ones where we got lower than we guessed just a touch more disappointing.
Shandy had made it clear that she’d never let me hear the end of it if she beat me, so I’ll gladly take a narrow win that still leaves both of us with our dignity. I think she’s learned a lot, and quickly, and she’s quickly gotten very picky about which ones she thinks are good enough.

I’m really thrilled with these results. Only 3 coins are in the “disappointing” column – there were 4 MS64s but I don’t consider the 1997 $2 a disappointment because that grade was in-line with expectations. The same could be argued of the 2002 dime for that matter, which, if anything, beat expectations / did better than we’d guessed and hoped. The 2002 $1 also came back with the grade I guessed – just below the guess Shandy made. So maybe only 1 of 22 can fairly be called a disappointment – that 1988 cent I’d had such high hopes for.
The 1997 $2 is worth calling out. At MS64 it easily beats the XF45 that is the only other NGC graded example eligible for that slot. It also beat Mike’s guess that it would get at least an MS63. I’d initially hoped it might do better but… It is still by far the best I’ve seen. Most of the 1997 dated $2 I’ve been able to find are just… so… ugly. I’m very grateful to Mike for this coin. I’m not going to be in a rush to try to upgrade this one and I doubt it would be all that easy.
I don’t know if it’s better or worse that 3 out of 4 of these MS64s are still better than anything else I have for the slot. Meaning 3 of these 4 still earn a spot in the top set. Meaning 3 of 4 clearly weren’t a “waste” / complete misfire – they still improve the top line set and in so doing achieve what I’d hoped for in sending them in. We got several MS66 and MS67 grades, including some on some key coins, but those weren’t on coins that could fully paper over these sub-Gem coins.
Having said all that though, I had really hoped for an MS68 on that 1997 5C, and, while I got an MS67 on the 1980, that MS65 on the 5C is not what I’d been hoping for there. So maybe that’s disappointing too, even though the 1980 makes up for it.
The 1980 10C getting an MS66 feels like a big win and vindication on sending it in. It did, in fact, beat the MS65 I already have. This can be bitter-sweet as it knocks out the first coin bought for the set, but it also means the top type set will be 100% self-submitted – no bought-pre-graded coins. The thing that makes this even better is the fact that the 1980 5C got an MS67 – a staggering, fantastic victory in its own rights to me - and the 1980 50C and $1 got MS66, meaning that I have 2/3rd of a 1980 year set in MS66 or better now – but that just means I’m now having dreams in my head of adding an MS66 1980 cent and 20C.
The MS67 on the 2002 $5 coin just feels so great and cleansing after the disappointment of those nasty examples from the now long-ago first purchase of 10-coin sets. The same is true, albeit to an obvious lesser extent, with the MS66 on the 2002 $2.
It might seem strange to some that I just feel so happy about MS65, MS66, and MS67 grades on modern coins when the prevailing wisdom with moderns tends to be that you need MS68s for it to be worth it/ to be competitive, but I’ve long felt like I would be thrilled / happy to have the set mostly comprised of MS65 (Gem) coins or better and to be complete. It is now complete, with mostly MS65 or better coins. I’m happy. And these results are 1) consistent roughly with my guesses, and 2) far better than what I got when I tried self-submitting with my stepfather the first time 14 years ago. Suggesting that I might have actually learned a LITTLE in that time, in addition to taking damage to my corneas. Lol
I’m blown away by the results on the Bond coins. I can’t believe how well the $2 coins bond coins did – coins I got from that seller in the Ukraine, small aside. I am suddenly extremely happy that I went ahead and sent in both of those. EXTREMELY happy. I don’t know what I’ll do with the 2nd MS69. When I was looking at the pop reports / census for clues and saw 2 MS69s I had to pick my jaw up off the floor realizing those might be mine and I might have scored a HUGE win. I was thinking I’d be happy if I got MS67s that matched most of the rest of the Bond Coin sets. I just could not get myself to hope for MS68s or MS69s even though they looked darn near perfect because I’ve never gotten grades that high on circulation strike coins. To get those 69s on both $2 BCs and a 68 on the $1… Mind Blown. So happy on these. My first self-made circulation strike MS68s and MS69s.
Overall, this is going to leave me with a very solid type set that I think will be well positioned to defend its title for a while, though it will certainly be possible for anyone with the funds, the time and the determination to overtake this set. The overall strength this gives to the set and to the bond coins, however, does re-emphasize the fact that at some point I will need to address the weakness of the $10 and $25 coins to bring them more in line with the rest of the set.
The overall strength of the Bond Coins is also going to make me feel more pressure to one day get the 50C bond coin up to a MS67+ to match the standard set by the others in that group / sub-set. With 7 bond coins I do think that sub-set could make for a nice set / category on its own and there are plenty of categories out there with only 6-8 slots – just look at some of the mint sets. But I think there will have to be more collector interest in those before NGC agrees to that. I feel lucky enough to have the type set category to put these in, given how thinly they’re collected in graded form (Mostly just me and my crazy).
I’m very excited to get to upload some descriptions I’ve already been working on for these. As with the last set, each coin will have some general information on the design / landmark it depicts followed by a narrative on how that coin came to be in the set. These descriptions will heavily copy each other and borrow some of the narrative from my journals about all of these. I’ve worked carefully to keep track of what group of coins / sets / dealers each coin came from so I could build that into the narrative for each coin and have these descriptions emphasize the journey and the hunt of a 100% self-submitted set that I’ve made by looking at the coins with my wife. I think that’s part of what won this set an award from NGC and I think it’s very core to the charm and the appeal of the set as I’ve made it. I’m also really excited about taking good photos of all of these in the holders when they come in.
The case Shandy got me for these has been sitting in the closet in the packaging, waiting for me to be able to properly fill it. I’m very excited by the prospect of being able to pull that out, put all the coins in, and lay it out. I think I’ll need to put up pictures of that in future entry – Maybe include the plaque for the set in the image.
Can you tell that I’m excited about this? XD
So, in summation - I’m thrilled. I consider this a big win. But it also leaves a few things unresolved and opens a few more thoughts / dreams. I think I’ll be on pause with this for a while, but I’ll likely have to circle back later to tie up some of those loose ends – the 2003 $10, the 2003 $25, the 1980 1C.

TL:DR – The coins did great and I’m thrilled and freaking out a bit about some of these! XD So “Thank you, NGC” on the hard work and the much faster than expected turnaround.
 
I need to give major props to NGC, who have pulled off a major turnaround, brought turnaround times down and delivered me grades on these months sooner than I was thinking. It was only about 5-6 weeks ago that I was saying I might not have grades for another 4 months from now.
I’m hoping this also means that they’ve succeeded in expanding capacity and their 60-hour weeks are also a thing of the past.
 
Since there are 29 coins in this submission, and 22 from Zimbabwe, I’m just going to talk about the Zimbabwe coins here and talk about the results on the 500L in a separate post. Even then, I’m not going to go into has much detail and discussion on each of these things as I might with a 5-coin submission. I’m just going to hit on some of the high notes (if I can stop myself).
Here are the results, with my guesses and Shandy’s so you can see how we did. We both like to be deliberately conservative in our guesses to try to not get our hopes too high. So, we tended to be low when we missed, but it also makes the ones where we got lower than we guessed just a touch more disappointing.
Shandy had made it clear that she’d never let me hear the end of it if she beat me, so I’ll gladly take a narrow win that still leaves both of us with our dignity. I think she’s learned a lot, and quickly, and she’s quickly gotten very picky about which ones she thinks are good enough.

I’m really thrilled with these results. Only 3 coins are in the “disappointing” column – there were 4 MS64s but I don’t consider the 1997 $2 a disappointment because that grade was in-line with expectations. The same could be argued of the 2002 dime for that matter, which, if anything, beat expectations / did better than we’d guessed and hoped. The 2002 $1 also came back with the grade I guessed – just below the guess Shandy made. So maybe only 1 of 22 can fairly be called a disappointment – that 1988 cent I’d had such high hopes for.
The 1997 $2 is worth calling out. At MS64 it easily beats the XF45 that is the only other NGC graded example eligible for that slot. It also beat Mike’s guess that it would get at least an MS63. I’d initially hoped it might do better but… It is still by far the best I’ve seen. Most of the 1997 dated $2 I’ve been able to find are just… so… ugly. I’m very grateful to Mike for this coin. I’m not going to be in a rush to try to upgrade this one and I doubt it would be all that easy.
I don’t know if it’s better or worse that 3 out of 4 of these MS64s are still better than anything else I have for the slot. Meaning 3 of these 4 still earn a spot in the top set. Meaning 3 of 4 clearly weren’t a “waste” / complete misfire – they still improve the top line set and in so doing achieve what I’d hoped for in sending them in. We got several MS66 and MS67 grades, including some on some key coins, but those weren’t on coins that could fully paper over these sub-Gem coins.
Having said all that though, I had really hoped for an MS68 on that 1997 5C, and, while I got an MS67 on the 1980, that MS65 on the 5C is not what I’d been hoping for there. So maybe that’s disappointing too, even though the 1980 makes up for it.
The 1980 10C getting an MS66 feels like a big win and vindication on sending it in. It did, in fact, beat the MS65 I already have. This can be bitter-sweet as it knocks out the first coin bought for the set, but it also means the top type set will be 100% self-submitted – no bought-pre-graded coins. The thing that makes this even better is the fact that the 1980 5C got an MS67 – a staggering, fantastic victory in its own rights to me - and the 1980 50C and $1 got MS66, meaning that I have 2/3rd of a 1980 year set in MS66 or better now – but that just means I’m now having dreams in my head of adding an MS66 1980 cent and 20C.
The MS67 on the 2002 $5 coin just feels so great and cleansing after the disappointment of those nasty examples from the now long-ago first purchase of 10-coin sets. The same is true, albeit to an obvious lesser extent, with the MS66 on the 2002 $2.
It might seem strange to some that I just feel so happy about MS65, MS66, and MS67 grades on modern coins when the prevailing wisdom with moderns tends to be that you need MS68s for it to be worth it/ to be competitive, but I’ve long felt like I would be thrilled / happy to have the set mostly comprised of MS65 (Gem) coins or better and to be complete. It is now complete, with mostly MS65 or better coins. I’m happy. And these results are 1) consistent roughly with my guesses, and 2) far better than what I got when I tried self-submitting with my stepfather the first time 14 years ago. Suggesting that I might have actually learned a LITTLE in that time, in addition to taking damage to my corneas. Lol
I’m blown away by the results on the Bond coins. I can’t believe how well the $2 coins bond coins did – coins I got from that seller in the Ukraine, small aside. I am suddenly extremely happy that I went ahead and sent in both of those. EXTREMELY happy. I don’t know what I’ll do with the 2nd MS69. When I was looking at the pop reports / census for clues and saw 2 MS69s I had to pick my jaw up off the floor realizing those might be mine and I might have scored a HUGE win. I was thinking I’d be happy if I got MS67s that matched most of the rest of the Bond Coin sets. I just could not get myself to hope for MS68s or MS69s even though they looked darn near perfect because I’ve never gotten grades that high on circulation strike coins. To get those 69s on both $2 BCs and a 68 on the $1… Mind Blown. So happy on these. My first self-made circulation strike MS68s and MS69s.
Overall, this is going to leave me with a very solid type set that I think will be well positioned to defend its title for a while, though it will certainly be possible for anyone with the funds, the time and the determination to overtake this set. The overall strength this gives to the set and to the bond coins, however, does re-emphasize the fact that at some point I will need to address the weakness of the $10 and $25 coins to bring them more in line with the rest of the set.
The overall strength of the Bond Coins is also going to make me feel more pressure to one day get the 50C bond coin up to a MS67+ to match the standard set by the others in that group / sub-set. With 7 bond coins I do think that sub-set could make for a nice set / category on its own and there are plenty of categories out there with only 6-8 slots – just look at some of the mint sets. But I think there will have to be more collector interest in those before NGC agrees to that. I feel lucky enough to have the type set category to put these in, given how thinly they’re collected in graded form (Mostly just me and my crazy).
I’m very excited to get to upload some descriptions I’ve already been working on for these. As with the last set, each coin will have some general information on the design / landmark it depicts followed by a narrative on how that coin came to be in the set. These descriptions will heavily copy each other and borrow some of the narrative from my journals about all of these. I’ve worked carefully to keep track of what group of coins / sets / dealers each coin came from so I could build that into the narrative for each coin and have these descriptions emphasize the journey and the hunt of a 100% self-submitted set that I’ve made by looking at the coins with my wife. I think that’s part of what won this set an award from NGC and I think it’s very core to the charm and the appeal of the set as I’ve made it. I’m also really excited about taking good photos of all of these in the holders when they come in.
The case Shandy got me for these has been sitting in the closet in the packaging, waiting for me to be able to properly fill it. I’m very excited by the prospect of being able to pull that out, put all the coins in, and lay it out. I think I’ll need to put up pictures of that in future entry – Maybe include the plaque for the set in the image.
Can you tell that I’m excited about this? XD
So, in summation - I’m thrilled. I consider this a big win. But it also leaves a few things unresolved and opens a few more thoughts / dreams. I think I’ll be on pause with this for a while, but I’ll likely have to circle back later to tie up some of those loose ends – the 2003 $10, the 2003 $25, the 1980 1C.