Revenant

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.

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.

I placed that order for the Venezuelan Coins from the Ukranian dealer about 2 weeks ago and hadn't heard a peep since. 
At this point I'd mostly written if off, thinking it increasingly unlikely that anything would come of it and just wishing the dealer well.
Today though, to my surprise, I got a shipment notice for 1 part of the order - the older 2002-2004 coins, but not the newer 2021 coins.
I'm happy to see a sign of life from the dealer. I'm glad to see something indicating that they're still alive out there.
I still don't know if I should have my hopes up for the coins making it out of the country. I also don't know if I'll be getting all of it (and they just only sent the tracking number on one item but it has all the coins) or just the older coins, if they do make it here.
I guess I'll see if I get any more tracking updates and / or another tracking number later.
 
Edited to update (3/30):
I got a shipping notification and tracking number for the 2nd part of the order today and something on tracking saying the first package is with the carrier.
I'm wondering if things are a bit safer around that area currently or if they just decided to go in and process orders. Hopefully this is a sign that they're feeling safe enough to conduct business in that area.
I suppose another possible explanation is that the war is making it harder to actually ship packages / give them to a carrier even when picked and ready.
It is amazing how much of what makes life function you get to take for granted in times of peace and how quickly that can be lost in war.
Hard to know much of anything really. But hopefully they make it through.
It is a great irony to me that the areas getting destroyed the most in this are the areas that most favored economic ties to Russia over the EU, and Russia is likely literally killing the friends they had in Ukraine. What's left of that country after this will likely never again see themselves as "one people" with Russia as Putin contends.
 
Edited again to add:
My Zimbabwe / Italy submission has made it to Grading / Quality Control Yay! I think based on this I might know grades in April sometime!

A few months ago I posted about a new set appearing in the Netherlands 10G set that had a coveted MS64 example of the 1879/7. This left me with a lot of questions and now they've just given me a lot more information and a lot to think about.
The member has added 5 more coins to the set, including all the rarer dates, including the 1885 and the 1886 I've long looked for... and they all have the same invoice number... numbered -001 to -005.
They almost certainly submitted these themselves. So they're almost certainly building this set from scratch. Which I think means they probably made that MS64 1879/7 themselves.
Which would mean this person has taken the path I have now long avoided taking to finish my set. They have subsequently upgraded/ replaced it but they had an 1887 coin that is a prime example of why I've been hesitant to buy raw and self-submit these - an Unc Details grade for cleaning.
I can't speak for them, but that would have hurt. That would have been a disappointment to me. A big one. I'm guessing it stung them too because they already swapped it for an MS66 top pop. 🤣
I'm thinking they must be buying these raw now - possibly through European sellers on MA Shops like I thought I'd have to do. I have to think if they were submitting a raw set they've had for years then the whole set would have shown up graded all at once. Or at a minimum submitting the 1879/7 solo would feel a bit odd. But I could be wrong there.
The more important question I feel this leaves me with is - what do I do about it? Because I have to think that with all the rarer dates accounted for now the rest of the set is coming and the pace of things definitely seems like they're gunning to win the category in 2022. And I'm going to have a hard time keeping the top spot if his set is 100% complete and mine is 72%.
I've won with that set for 6 years - every year that Ben has been alive so far, and I'm keen to defend that title if I can. But even if I throw down the cash and send in the coins I'm not guaranteed to hold onto the title - especially if this person has enough cash to throw at the problem fast enough. And I'm not sure I'm eager to throw down hundreds if not thousands of dollars over this and completely abandon / derail other projects. So, the more I think about it, the more I think the better path is to stay the course, stay patient, do nothing, and let them take it if they want it this year, and maybe for a few after that.
I've known for years there was a risk of a set showing up at the 11th hour in November and unseating my set. Props to this guy for doing his set building in the open early in the year and showing his hand.
Edited to add:
Speaking of Ben and 6 years. Today we celebrated Ben and 6 years of parenthood.

A few months ago I posted about a new set appearing in the Netherlands 10G set that had a coveted MS64 example of the 1879/7. This left me with a lot of questions and now they've just given me a lot more information and a lot to think about.
The member has added 5 more coins to the set, including all the rarer dates, including the 1885 and the 1886 I've long looked for... and they all have the same invoice number... numbered -001 to -005.
They almost certainly submitted these themselves. So they're almost certainly building this set from scratch. Which I think means they probably made that MS64 1879/7 themselves.
Which would mean this person has taken the path I have now long avoided taking to finish my set. They have subsequently upgraded/ replaced it but they had an 1887 coin that is a prime example of why I've been hesitant to buy raw and self-submit these - an Unc Details grade for cleaning.
I can't speak for them, but that would have hurt. That would have been a disappointment to me. A big one. I'm guessing it stung them too because they already swapped it for an MS66 top pop. 🤣
I'm thinking they must be buying these raw now - possibly through European sellers on MA Shops like I thought I'd have to do. I have to think if they were submitting a raw set they've had for years then the whole set would have shown up graded all at once. Or at a minimum submitting the 1879/7 solo would feel a bit odd. But I could be wrong there.
The more important question I feel this leaves me with is - what do I do about it? Because I have to think that with all the rarer dates accounted for now the rest of the set is coming and the pace of things definitely seems like they're gunning to win the category in 2022. And I'm going to have a hard time keeping the top spot if his set is 100% complete and mine is 72%.
I've won with that set for 6 years - every year that Ben has been alive so far, and I'm keen to defend that title if I can. But even if I throw down the cash and send in the coins I'm not guaranteed to hold onto the title - especially if this person has enough cash to throw at the problem fast enough. And I'm not sure I'm eager to throw down hundreds if not thousands of dollars over this and completely abandon / derail other projects. So, the more I think about it, the more I think the better path is to stay the course, stay patient, do nothing, and let them take it if they want it this year, and maybe for a few after that.
I've known for years there was a risk of a set showing up at the 11th hour in November and unseating my set. Props to this guy for doing his set building in the open early in the year and showing his hand.
Edited to add:
Speaking of Ben and 6 years. Today we celebrated Ben and 6 years of parenthood.

A few months ago I posted about a new set appearing in the Netherlands 10G set that had a coveted MS64 example of the 1879/7. This left me with a lot of questions and now they've just given me a lot more information and a lot to think about.
The member has added 5 more coins to the set, including all the rarer dates, including the 1885 and the 1886 I've long looked for... and they all have the same invoice number... numbered -001 to -005.
They almost certainly submitted these themselves. So they're almost certainly building this set from scratch. Which I think means they probably made that MS64 1879/7 themselves.
Which would mean this person has taken the path I have now long avoided taking to finish my set. They have subsequently upgraded/ replaced it but they had an 1887 coin that is a prime example of why I've been hesitant to buy raw and self-submit these - an Unc Details grade for cleaning.
I can't speak for them, but that would have hurt. That would have been a disappointment to me. A big one. I'm guessing it stung them too because they already swapped it for an MS66 top pop. 🤣
I'm thinking they must be buying these raw now - possibly through European sellers on MA Shops like I thought I'd have to do. I have to think if they were submitting a raw set they've had for years then the whole set would have shown up graded all at once. Or at a minimum submitting the 1879/7 solo would feel a bit odd. But I could be wrong there.
The more important question I feel this leaves me with is - what do I do about it? Because I have to think that with all the rarer dates accounted for now the rest of the set is coming and the pace of things definitely seems like they're gunning to win the category in 2022. And I'm going to have a hard time keeping the top spot if his set is 100% complete and mine is 72%.
I've won with that set for 6 years - every year that Ben has been alive so far, and I'm keen to defend that title if I can. But even if I throw down the cash and send in the coins I'm not guaranteed to hold onto the title - especially if this person has enough cash to throw at the problem fast enough. And I'm not sure I'm eager to throw down hundreds if not thousands of dollars over this and completely abandon / derail other projects. So, the more I think about it, the more I think the better path is to stay the course, stay patient, do nothing, and let them take it if they want it this year, and maybe for a few after that.
I've known for years there was a risk of a set showing up at the 11th hour in November and unseating my set. Props to this guy for doing his set building in the open early in the year and showing his hand.
Edited to add:
Speaking of Ben and 6 years. Today we celebrated Ben and 6 years of parenthood.

I checked the mail Saturday, expecting to find something else and found a package from NGC that I immediately realized had to be the new award plaque. It turns out it included the coin too.

We were outside with the boys and I showed the package to Shandy and she initially, seeing NGC, thought it might be the Zimbabwe and Italian coins.. somehow.  I don't know why. She's seen the boxes from NGC before when coins come back and this padded envelope looked nothing like that, but, as she put it, the coins are just what she thinks about when she sees "NGC."
The package didn't get opened until late that night. If I look tired in the shot, it's because I was.  Saturday happened to be a very big Pokemon Go event - a game I started playing with Ben, Shandy and my mother in law a couple of months ago and that's been eating up a lot of my normal social media, writing and coin time.  I started playing it with Ben in part because I knew he'd need friends and allies to get the full game experience and It has also allowed me to learn the game and then teach those things to him to help him and my mother-in-law as she's gotten into it. It has turned into quite the bonding thing for all of us. Saturday turned into hours of trying to catch legendary Pokemon in group fights called "raids" and that turned into a teaching moment about community and teamwork and working together to do things no one could do alone.
But... I was tired when it was over.  
I couldn't help but chuckle at the coin choice this year - a 2021 MS70 ASE. This is exactly what I expected last year and then they really surprised me with the Morgan dollars. But, because of last year, I hadn't been expecting it necessarily this year. I was thinking it might be another Morgan.  
But, now that I have this, I have the twins - The two Zimbabwe plaques.  

Yup. Shirts changed. I didn't get the PMG plaque down from the office and take this one until the following night. Kids are exhausting.  
I have some things I need to post about when I can get a couple of hours to write one of these days / nights. I also need to stop trading with my wife at night and get us looking at those Venezuelan coins to get those lined up and ready.
As always, I'm very grateful to NGC (and PMG) for the awards and the recognition, and I am still very much excited about some new sets and new projects in the pipeline that I hope will prove worthy successors to this Zimbabwe project.

A month back I posted about starting to collect modern Venezuelan Coins and l.quintero shed some light / shared some information I didn't know including the fact that last year Venezuela released 3 coins and not 1, but the 1 Bolivar was the only one I'd seen get any press.
I've been finding it hard before and since to find anyone selling even the 1 Bolivar online - much less full sets of all three coins. The sellers offering the 1 coin have been demanding $6-9 each for them even when buying multiples
Earlier this weekend I posted about that dealer in Ukraine - from whom I've bought many of my Zimbabwean and Venezuelan coins from.
I went looking to see if they had anything I could place and order for - just because. I was thinking maybe 5 more sets of those 10 to 500 Bolivar Coins from 2002-2004 that they have that hardly anyone else does. The ones I got from my last order looked pretty nice. I haven't picked through to see if any of them are really strong yet, but they seem promising - so why not maybe pick up a few more and see what I get? (If I get it.)
When I looked though I found they were listing lots of 5 sets of the 3-coin sets with all the 2021-dated coins. They were asking about $45-50 for 15 coins, and that is higher than I prefer for these purchases - ~$3/coin when I like $1-2 - but still far more reasonable than what others were asking.
 

I don't know when they listed these, but I hadn't seen this when I looked the other week.
In normal times I would have ordered one of these 5 set lots for $48 ($40 + shipping) and been pretty thrilled. This is exactly what I've been looking for for weeks now, although I'd been hoping for more like $25-35 after shipping. But this seller offers the other Venezuelan coins and many others much cheaper, so they seem to know when the market rate for something is higher and when it isn't - they sell the 2002-2004 coins for $16 + shipping for a 25-coin lot - and they price accordingly.
After giving it some thought I ordered two of the 5 set lots and got the 5 sets of 2002-2004 coins I'd originally thought of. Meaning I'll have gotten 10 of each type of set from them, 10 of each type of coin, if these make it out of Ukraine.
It'll be fun to look through them all hopefully. With 10 of each I'll feel pretty confident I have a decent sample of what they have.

A month back I posted about starting to collect modern Venezuelan Coins and l.quintero shed some light / shared some information I didn't know including the fact that last year Venezuela released 3 coins and not 1, but the 1 Bolivar was the only one I'd seen get any press.
I've been finding it hard before and since to find anyone selling even the 1 Bolivar online - much less full sets of all three coins. The sellers offering the 1 coin have been demanding $6-9 each for them even when buying multiples
Earlier this weekend I posted about that dealer in Ukraine - from whom I've bought many of my Zimbabwean and Venezuelan coins from.
I went looking to see if they had anything I could place and order for - just because. I was thinking maybe 5 more sets of those 10 to 500 Bolivar Coins from 2002-2004 that they have that hardly anyone else does. The ones I got from my last order looked pretty nice. I haven't picked through to see if any of them are really strong yet, but they seem promising - so why not maybe pick up a few more and see what I get? (If I get it.)
When I looked though I found they were listing lots of 5 sets of the 3-coin sets with all the 2021-dated coins. They were asking about $45-50 for 15 coins, and that is higher than I prefer for these purchases - ~$3/coin when I like $1-2 - but still far more reasonable than what others were asking.
 

I don't know when they listed these, but I hadn't seen this when I looked the other week.
In normal times I would have ordered one of these 5 set lots for $48 ($40 + shipping) and been pretty thrilled. This is exactly what I've been looking for for weeks now, although I'd been hoping for more like $25-35 after shipping. But this seller offers the other Venezuelan coins and many others much cheaper, so they seem to know when the market rate for something is higher and when it isn't - they sell the 2002-2004 coins for $16 + shipping for a 25-coin lot - and they price accordingly.
After giving it some thought I ordered two of the 5 set lots and got the 5 sets of 2002-2004 coins I'd originally thought of. Meaning I'll have gotten 10 of each type of set from them, 10 of each type of coin, if these make it out of Ukraine.
It'll be fun to look through them all hopefully. With 10 of each I'll feel pretty confident I have a decent sample of what they have.

So, I thought about tacking this onto the other post, or about delaying the other post to another day and talking about this, but this is something I've been thinking about a lot lately... and I felt like it deserved its own post and not being tacked onto the other.
One of the dealers I've been using a lot, a dealer Mike and I have both liked using and discussed in the past, a dealer that has supplied several of the coins in my Zimbabwe coin set and has sold me many raw Venezuelan coins for that new projects... is in Ukraine!
I did some looking online and they list their location as Zaporizhia, Ukraine. I decided to Google where that was, hoping, for their sake, that it was in the Western half of the country.
It turns out they're almost directly North of Crimea and the Sea of Azov, Northwest of Mariupol - the area that has been getting shelled so bad, and South of Kharkiv - where I think that nuclear plant got shelled and taken over. So they're right in the middle of all of it, with conflict on 3 sides. It has me wondering how they're doing out there.

So, this entry is going to lack the length and the narrative of many of my more recent posts and just be little, “Look what I got.” But… I snagged a 1980 Zimbabwean proof set, in the original Royal Mint Packaging.

 
Mike had asked me a few months back if I’d considered getting into proof coins as I was getting the first round of grades back and ramping up my purchases of raw mint state coins.
I’d initially just shrugged and said “Nah,” because I was focusing on the mint state / circulation strike examples, which seemed more appropriate for a hyperinflation themed set, and because I assumed the proof coins would be hard to find.
They’re not.
If you're interested in the 1980 sets anyway, they're quite easy to come by. Several sellers have had them listed on eBay for a while in the range of $40-45. Which isn’t terrible honestly, but also it felt a bit steep.
This set popped up and looked in good shape and after shipping it was only going to be $22 if no one bid against me on it - it was an auction and not a BIN like the $40-45 listings. But no one bid against me, so I brought it home for $22, which is a price I’m very happy with. $20 is good for a zero-guilt impulse purchase that doesn’t have to live up to anything or become anything.
I’m a little undecided on if this is going to stay in the original packaging or if I might send it in for grading one day to expand the work I’m doing in the Zimbabwean Registry - to have a proof set to go with the mint state type set. If I do break it out to submit, I may try to get another set to keep in the mint packaging. I'm also thinking I'd be tempted to get a 2nd set and submit two complete sets on different - but closely numbered - invoices and so I could cobble together the best set of the two and have them all numbered -001 to -006, like what I did with my Traveler's Cheque submission(s) on the PMG side. I like the look / feel of having the cert numbers go from -001 to -006 in a set. Although I suppose there could be a "Two, Four, Six, Eight..." joke in there...  So... Yeah. Maybe I need 3?  I'm not a hoarder though. I don't buy more for the sake of more.  Stop looking at me in that tone of voice.  
One thing that does give me pause on turning this into a registry project for now is that NGC has only one type of Zimbabwean proof set that includes the 1997 proof coins (only 2 years they made proof sets) and the S$10 NCLT coins from 1996.
I haven’t been able to find any 1997 proof sets - I would very much like to - and I don’t really want to get into those Silver NCLT coins, which people like to demand frankly silly prices for in most instances.
I’d probably be more inclined to submit a set for grading and making a registry set if I could have a complete set with just the 1980 proof set.  I’d probably be more inclined to submit if I could get a 1997 proof set or 3.
The current approach / category feels too cobbled together and the set feels like it’s trying to include too much and do too much - and too much of what it’s trying to do is stuff I can’t do!
I’m in no rush there though. For now, I saw something I wanted that fits with my current collecting interests at an attractive price and a got it. I'm also giving some thought to branching into Pre-1980, Rhodesian coins. But, unlike Zimbabwean coins, the older Rhodesian coins can get rather... expensive. 

I have stated to fellow coin collectors and on the forums that I never want to buy a "bad" coin.  I have even gone so far as to say I try my best to buy "great" coins.  But, I failed to define "bad" or "great".  This has lead to some collecting friends being a little hurt (my word not theirs), as I assume that they look upon the "bad" coin that I am considering buying to be a nicer example than the one held in their collection.  My true feelings about coins: There are no bad coins, only bad holders.  
Example:
A chocolate brown half cent in MS65BN is a trophy for nearly any collector.  However, the same coin becomes a "bad coin" if it is in a 67+RD holder.  At this grade, the coin becomes a bad deal.  The premium is significant for the holder, and the grade will come under serious scrutiny when it comes time to sell.  An MS63 that looks-to-grade MS65 is a "MUCH better" coin from an economic perspective.  It's a better coin at a better price, simple.
In the end... I will either look at my coin a say "Wow" or I will say "Darn".  Had I bought that 67+RD coin, I would feel a mild tinge of regret every time I looked at it.  I would know I was holding a misrepresented coin, and paid-up to do it.  That would be a mistake in my collecting strategy, and that makes the 67+RD a "bad" coin for me.
Here is what I do NOT mean when I say great or bad:
I do not mean that the over-graded coin that I am considering makes one's circulated example worse.  A bad MS64 will have zero impact on a "great" VF35.  I am not trying to compare MS and Circulated examples of a coin as bad/good.  They are completely different animals in my mind I do not mean that coins have to be in "Top Registry Sets" to be great coins.  A type set in P01 would be very interesting, challenging and affordable. To sum it all up... to me a great coin is the "right" coin that fits into the theme/grade/aesthetic/budget of my collection.  Everyone is entitled to their own definition of greatness based on his/her own criteria for their collection.  In the end... we look at our collections and say "wow" or "darn" based on that definition.  
I apologize to anyone I have offended in my opinions regarding "great" vs "bad" coins. 

I checked the mail Saturday, expecting to find something else and found a package from NGC that I immediately realized had to be the new award plaque. It turns out it included the coin too.

We were outside with the boys and I showed the package to Shandy and she initially, seeing NGC, thought it might be the Zimbabwe and Italian coins.. somehow.  I don't know why. She's seen the boxes from NGC before when coins come back and this padded envelope looked nothing like that, but, as she put it, the coins are just what she thinks about when she sees "NGC."
The package didn't get opened until late that night. If I look tired in the shot, it's because I was.  Saturday happened to be a very big Pokemon Go event - a game I started playing with Ben, Shandy and my mother in law a couple of months ago and that's been eating up a lot of my normal social media, writing and coin time.  I started playing it with Ben in part because I knew he'd need friends and allies to get the full game experience and It has also allowed me to learn the game and then teach those things to him to help him and my mother-in-law as she's gotten into it. It has turned into quite the bonding thing for all of us. Saturday turned into hours of trying to catch legendary Pokemon in group fights called "raids" and that turned into a teaching moment about community and teamwork and working together to do things no one could do alone.
But... I was tired when it was over.  
I couldn't help but chuckle at the coin choice this year - a 2021 MS70 ASE. This is exactly what I expected last year and then they really surprised me with the Morgan dollars. But, because of last year, I hadn't been expecting it necessarily this year. I was thinking it might be another Morgan.  
But, now that I have this, I have the twins - The two Zimbabwe plaques.  

Yup. Shirts changed. I didn't get the PMG plaque down from the office and take this one until the following night. Kids are exhausting.  
I have some things I need to post about when I can get a couple of hours to write one of these days / nights. I also need to stop trading with my wife at night and get us looking at those Venezuelan coins to get those lined up and ready.
As always, I'm very grateful to NGC (and PMG) for the awards and the recognition, and I am still very much excited about some new sets and new projects in the pipeline that I hope will prove worthy successors to this Zimbabwe project.

I thought I'd take a minute and belatedly share some progress on the 500 Lire set.
A few weeks ago I won (unopposed) an auction for an MS68 1985. It is the only one in the grade currently with none finer. The seller chose to highlight and play this up in a somewhat over-the-top way that gave Mike and I a laugh. This is the same seller that I got the 1982 MS68 from, but there is an MS69 1982, and 1982s are far more heavily graded and in high grade than the later years.

Just something about that visual of the globe behind the coin...
Somehow I doubt that in all the world there isn't another one of these that would grade MS68 at NGC. They just haven't been sent in yet - probably just because the owners don't feel the need or see enough market demand for these things in certified high grade to make it worth the risk and grading fees.
I think if anyone else believed otherwise I wouldn't have scored this for under $50.
Grabbing this did have me thinking about the future look and make-up of the set. I'd thought the set would be mostly self-graded but if the coins come on the market in higher grades than what I have I think I will buy them. I even have a 1985 500L at NGC right now, waiting to be graded, but I know enough to know that coin isn't going to get an MS68. Only the 1990 and 1991 are really "safe" to me in terms of wanting to keep those special coins that they brought back with them in the set.
Of course, I do have other coins for other years that I didn't send in for grading - I think from the 1980s. But those coins are so clearly circulated and so clearly won't grade well that I just can't bring myself to grade those. It would cost too much and I would like this set to be reasonably nice and competitive long term and those coins just aren't really. They're far better left in a raw state.
Speaking of the 1990, when I started down this road the set did not have a slot for the 1990, which had me concerned that I might not get to add that coin to the competitive set at all. But I put in a request to Ali and the Team and they added the slot for me.
So I guess that's one slot filled and one slot added.
While working on this I also put in some orders for a few Italian Franklin mint sets, getting 3 total for about $9 each. I think 2 have 1983 500L and 1 has a 1987... or the other way around... Anyway...
Those 500L coins look great and at some point two of those three sets will probably be broken up so I can have a good 1983 and 1987 to plug some holes with another submission down the road.
I have not had the same luck finding sets with or individual 1986 coins that look good, and that is really frustrating given that 1986 is "our year."
 

The area in south central Africa now bordered by Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa went through several reincarnations and amalgamations of territories before becoming Zimbabwe in 1980 - apparently they have inflation problems. I have a number of coins, almost all ungraded, from an earlier period, 1923 to 1953, when the area was called Southern Rhodesia and it was under British control.
My original target was to complete a full date run for all of the denominations but after 20 years or so this is still not finished and my excuse is that life just got in the way. One of the great things about collecting coins is that you can start, stop and start again at any time and a few years ago I decided on the smaller goal of trying to put together a graded typeset for Southern Rhodesia for both George V and George VI.
So far my Registry sets for these are still looking a bit sparse although I recently acquired a graded 1939 shilling (PCGS MS62) to make a little progress. As this year has the lowest mintage at 420,000 it is the key date shilling for George VI and at MS62 it is also the highest grade recorded at both PCGS and NGC (when I last looked) so I am very happy with this addition. I should sort through my other coins as some are certainly worth grading, particularly some of the sixpences and threepences and this would start to make the sets a bit more respectable.
That Great Zimbabwe bird seems to get around quite a bit so it must be able to fly as it can't be sat down all the time!.
 

It is often the case that I have a few Gold coins with BIN listings in my Watch List on eBay. These are usually examples of the next type coins I want to add to my type-set of late-19th and early 20th century gold coins from different nations - what I call my Golden Nickels. This is a particular point of interest to me around this time of year when I'm hoping a Bonus or a good tax return will convince Shandy to let me buy one.
One thing I'd been looking at for a long time was a MS64+ 20 Kroner from 1916 - 1916 being one of the higher mintage years for this coin. The NGC population includes about 120 coins with about 22 MS63s, about 25 MS64s, this one MS64+, 56 being MS65, and 1 being MS66.
So this coin was close to the middle of the population, but the population is crushed at the top with all the coins above it (currently) only being marginally above it (MS64+ vs MS65) and only one in existence currently graded over 65 by NGC.
The seller had it listed at $615, which I honestly thought was pretty reasonable in its own right, I just wasn't ready to pull the trigger. Then, Monday night, the seller sends me an offer - for $550. I screen capped this and sent it to Shandy like, "I'm not going to lie, that seems like a good price to me." - the coin has about 0.25 toz of gold in it and it had a melt value right around $474, so that price was only about $75 over melt, about 16% over melt, for a coin that is graded and almost got a Gem Uncirc grade.
To my surprise, Shandy also thought it was a good price, and she likes the look of the coin, so she encouraged me to just go ahead and go for it - we had the cash, even if I don't end up getting a bonus or we don't get a great return.
So I slept on it, then sat down while things were quiet and slow, I looked at the pictures, looked at the seller's feedback, did the Cert# verification and looked at the NGC picks vs the seller's images. Everything looked good, right down to the copper spot near the 2 on the reverse, and I decided to take it.
Yeah, I probably could have gotten an MS65 if I'd waited, but I think the premium would have been higher, I like the look of this coin, and I liked the price, and I think I'm unlikely to regret getting this down the road.



Going back to a conversation with Mike not long ago in discussing MS65 and MS66 coins that have marks that just happen to be in very unappealing locations, I think if that copper spot near the 2 on the reverse was in the middle of the coin or on Christian's cheek I probably wouldn't like it. With it off in the legend by the two, I actually kind of like it for the character it gives the coin from being 106 years old. I think the coin holds up very well under these fairly high magnifications and I'm looking forward to seeing it in hand soon.
Going back to the idea of getting this coin vs an MS65, I suspect there are many MS65 graded examples out there of those ~56 that I'd find less attractive and less appealing than I find this one.
 

I checked the mail Saturday, expecting to find something else and found a package from NGC that I immediately realized had to be the new award plaque. It turns out it included the coin too.

We were outside with the boys and I showed the package to Shandy and she initially, seeing NGC, thought it might be the Zimbabwe and Italian coins.. somehow.  I don't know why. She's seen the boxes from NGC before when coins come back and this padded envelope looked nothing like that, but, as she put it, the coins are just what she thinks about when she sees "NGC."
The package didn't get opened until late that night. If I look tired in the shot, it's because I was.  Saturday happened to be a very big Pokemon Go event - a game I started playing with Ben, Shandy and my mother in law a couple of months ago and that's been eating up a lot of my normal social media, writing and coin time.  I started playing it with Ben in part because I knew he'd need friends and allies to get the full game experience and It has also allowed me to learn the game and then teach those things to him to help him and my mother-in-law as she's gotten into it. It has turned into quite the bonding thing for all of us. Saturday turned into hours of trying to catch legendary Pokemon in group fights called "raids" and that turned into a teaching moment about community and teamwork and working together to do things no one could do alone.
But... I was tired when it was over.  
I couldn't help but chuckle at the coin choice this year - a 2021 MS70 ASE. This is exactly what I expected last year and then they really surprised me with the Morgan dollars. But, because of last year, I hadn't been expecting it necessarily this year. I was thinking it might be another Morgan.  
But, now that I have this, I have the twins - The two Zimbabwe plaques.  

Yup. Shirts changed. I didn't get the PMG plaque down from the office and take this one until the following night. Kids are exhausting.  
I have some things I need to post about when I can get a couple of hours to write one of these days / nights. I also need to stop trading with my wife at night and get us looking at those Venezuelan coins to get those lined up and ready.
As always, I'm very grateful to NGC (and PMG) for the awards and the recognition, and I am still very much excited about some new sets and new projects in the pipeline that I hope will prove worthy successors to this Zimbabwe project.

I checked the mail Saturday, expecting to find something else and found a package from NGC that I immediately realized had to be the new award plaque. It turns out it included the coin too.

We were outside with the boys and I showed the package to Shandy and she initially, seeing NGC, thought it might be the Zimbabwe and Italian coins.. somehow.  I don't know why. She's seen the boxes from NGC before when coins come back and this padded envelope looked nothing like that, but, as she put it, the coins are just what she thinks about when she sees "NGC."
The package didn't get opened until late that night. If I look tired in the shot, it's because I was.  Saturday happened to be a very big Pokemon Go event - a game I started playing with Ben, Shandy and my mother in law a couple of months ago and that's been eating up a lot of my normal social media, writing and coin time.  I started playing it with Ben in part because I knew he'd need friends and allies to get the full game experience and It has also allowed me to learn the game and then teach those things to him to help him and my mother-in-law as she's gotten into it. It has turned into quite the bonding thing for all of us. Saturday turned into hours of trying to catch legendary Pokemon in group fights called "raids" and that turned into a teaching moment about community and teamwork and working together to do things no one could do alone.
But... I was tired when it was over.  
I couldn't help but chuckle at the coin choice this year - a 2021 MS70 ASE. This is exactly what I expected last year and then they really surprised me with the Morgan dollars. But, because of last year, I hadn't been expecting it necessarily this year. I was thinking it might be another Morgan.  
But, now that I have this, I have the twins - The two Zimbabwe plaques.  

Yup. Shirts changed. I didn't get the PMG plaque down from the office and take this one until the following night. Kids are exhausting.  
I have some things I need to post about when I can get a couple of hours to write one of these days / nights. I also need to stop trading with my wife at night and get us looking at those Venezuelan coins to get those lined up and ready.
As always, I'm very grateful to NGC (and PMG) for the awards and the recognition, and I am still very much excited about some new sets and new projects in the pipeline that I hope will prove worthy successors to this Zimbabwe project.

I checked the mail Saturday, expecting to find something else and found a package from NGC that I immediately realized had to be the new award plaque. It turns out it included the coin too.

We were outside with the boys and I showed the package to Shandy and she initially, seeing NGC, thought it might be the Zimbabwe and Italian coins.. somehow.  I don't know why. She's seen the boxes from NGC before when coins come back and this padded envelope looked nothing like that, but, as she put it, the coins are just what she thinks about when she sees "NGC."
The package didn't get opened until late that night. If I look tired in the shot, it's because I was.  Saturday happened to be a very big Pokemon Go event - a game I started playing with Ben, Shandy and my mother in law a couple of months ago and that's been eating up a lot of my normal social media, writing and coin time.  I started playing it with Ben in part because I knew he'd need friends and allies to get the full game experience and It has also allowed me to learn the game and then teach those things to him to help him and my mother-in-law as she's gotten into it. It has turned into quite the bonding thing for all of us. Saturday turned into hours of trying to catch legendary Pokemon in group fights called "raids" and that turned into a teaching moment about community and teamwork and working together to do things no one could do alone.
But... I was tired when it was over.  
I couldn't help but chuckle at the coin choice this year - a 2021 MS70 ASE. This is exactly what I expected last year and then they really surprised me with the Morgan dollars. But, because of last year, I hadn't been expecting it necessarily this year. I was thinking it might be another Morgan.  
But, now that I have this, I have the twins - The two Zimbabwe plaques.  

Yup. Shirts changed. I didn't get the PMG plaque down from the office and take this one until the following night. Kids are exhausting.  
I have some things I need to post about when I can get a couple of hours to write one of these days / nights. I also need to stop trading with my wife at night and get us looking at those Venezuelan coins to get those lined up and ready.
As always, I'm very grateful to NGC (and PMG) for the awards and the recognition, and I am still very much excited about some new sets and new projects in the pipeline that I hope will prove worthy successors to this Zimbabwe project.

I checked the mail Saturday, expecting to find something else and found a package from NGC that I immediately realized had to be the new award plaque. It turns out it included the coin too.

We were outside with the boys and I showed the package to Shandy and she initially, seeing NGC, thought it might be the Zimbabwe and Italian coins.. somehow.  I don't know why. She's seen the boxes from NGC before when coins come back and this padded envelope looked nothing like that, but, as she put it, the coins are just what she thinks about when she sees "NGC."
The package didn't get opened until late that night. If I look tired in the shot, it's because I was.  Saturday happened to be a very big Pokemon Go event - a game I started playing with Ben, Shandy and my mother in law a couple of months ago and that's been eating up a lot of my normal social media, writing and coin time.  I started playing it with Ben in part because I knew he'd need friends and allies to get the full game experience and It has also allowed me to learn the game and then teach those things to him to help him and my mother-in-law as she's gotten into it. It has turned into quite the bonding thing for all of us. Saturday turned into hours of trying to catch legendary Pokemon in group fights called "raids" and that turned into a teaching moment about community and teamwork and working together to do things no one could do alone.
But... I was tired when it was over.  
I couldn't help but chuckle at the coin choice this year - a 2021 MS70 ASE. This is exactly what I expected last year and then they really surprised me with the Morgan dollars. But, because of last year, I hadn't been expecting it necessarily this year. I was thinking it might be another Morgan.  
But, now that I have this, I have the twins - The two Zimbabwe plaques.  

Yup. Shirts changed. I didn't get the PMG plaque down from the office and take this one until the following night. Kids are exhausting.  
I have some things I need to post about when I can get a couple of hours to write one of these days / nights. I also need to stop trading with my wife at night and get us looking at those Venezuelan coins to get those lined up and ready.
As always, I'm very grateful to NGC (and PMG) for the awards and the recognition, and I am still very much excited about some new sets and new projects in the pipeline that I hope will prove worthy successors to this Zimbabwe project.

I checked the mail Saturday, expecting to find something else and found a package from NGC that I immediately realized had to be the new award plaque. It turns out it included the coin too.

We were outside with the boys and I showed the package to Shandy and she initially, seeing NGC, thought it might be the Zimbabwe and Italian coins.. somehow.  I don't know why. She's seen the boxes from NGC before when coins come back and this padded envelope looked nothing like that, but, as she put it, the coins are just what she thinks about when she sees "NGC."
The package didn't get opened until late that night. If I look tired in the shot, it's because I was.  Saturday happened to be a very big Pokemon Go event - a game I started playing with Ben, Shandy and my mother in law a couple of months ago and that's been eating up a lot of my normal social media, writing and coin time.  I started playing it with Ben in part because I knew he'd need friends and allies to get the full game experience and It has also allowed me to learn the game and then teach those things to him to help him and my mother-in-law as she's gotten into it. It has turned into quite the bonding thing for all of us. Saturday turned into hours of trying to catch legendary Pokemon in group fights called "raids" and that turned into a teaching moment about community and teamwork and working together to do things no one could do alone.
But... I was tired when it was over.  
I couldn't help but chuckle at the coin choice this year - a 2021 MS70 ASE. This is exactly what I expected last year and then they really surprised me with the Morgan dollars. But, because of last year, I hadn't been expecting it necessarily this year. I was thinking it might be another Morgan.  
But, now that I have this, I have the twins - The two Zimbabwe plaques.  

Yup. Shirts changed. I didn't get the PMG plaque down from the office and take this one until the following night. Kids are exhausting.  
I have some things I need to post about when I can get a couple of hours to write one of these days / nights. I also need to stop trading with my wife at night and get us looking at those Venezuelan coins to get those lined up and ready.
As always, I'm very grateful to NGC (and PMG) for the awards and the recognition, and I am still very much excited about some new sets and new projects in the pipeline that I hope will prove worthy successors to this Zimbabwe project.

I checked the mail Saturday, expecting to find something else and found a package from NGC that I immediately realized had to be the new award plaque. It turns out it included the coin too.

We were outside with the boys and I showed the package to Shandy and she initially, seeing NGC, thought it might be the Zimbabwe and Italian coins.. somehow.  I don't know why. She's seen the boxes from NGC before when coins come back and this padded envelope looked nothing like that, but, as she put it, the coins are just what she thinks about when she sees "NGC."
The package didn't get opened until late that night. If I look tired in the shot, it's because I was.  Saturday happened to be a very big Pokemon Go event - a game I started playing with Ben, Shandy and my mother in law a couple of months ago and that's been eating up a lot of my normal social media, writing and coin time.  I started playing it with Ben in part because I knew he'd need friends and allies to get the full game experience and It has also allowed me to learn the game and then teach those things to him to help him and my mother-in-law as she's gotten into it. It has turned into quite the bonding thing for all of us. Saturday turned into hours of trying to catch legendary Pokemon in group fights called "raids" and that turned into a teaching moment about community and teamwork and working together to do things no one could do alone.
But... I was tired when it was over.  
I couldn't help but chuckle at the coin choice this year - a 2021 MS70 ASE. This is exactly what I expected last year and then they really surprised me with the Morgan dollars. But, because of last year, I hadn't been expecting it necessarily this year. I was thinking it might be another Morgan.  
But, now that I have this, I have the twins - The two Zimbabwe plaques.  

Yup. Shirts changed. I didn't get the PMG plaque down from the office and take this one until the following night. Kids are exhausting.  
I have some things I need to post about when I can get a couple of hours to write one of these days / nights. I also need to stop trading with my wife at night and get us looking at those Venezuelan coins to get those lined up and ready.
As always, I'm very grateful to NGC (and PMG) for the awards and the recognition, and I am still very much excited about some new sets and new projects in the pipeline that I hope will prove worthy successors to this Zimbabwe project.

It is often the case that I have a few Gold coins with BIN listings in my Watch List on eBay. These are usually examples of the next type coins I want to add to my type-set of late-19th and early 20th century gold coins from different nations - what I call my Golden Nickels. This is a particular point of interest to me around this time of year when I'm hoping a Bonus or a good tax return will convince Shandy to let me buy one.
One thing I'd been looking at for a long time was a MS64+ 20 Kroner from 1916 - 1916 being one of the higher mintage years for this coin. The NGC population includes about 120 coins with about 22 MS63s, about 25 MS64s, this one MS64+, 56 being MS65, and 1 being MS66.
So this coin was close to the middle of the population, but the population is crushed at the top with all the coins above it (currently) only being marginally above it (MS64+ vs MS65) and only one in existence currently graded over 65 by NGC.
The seller had it listed at $615, which I honestly thought was pretty reasonable in its own right, I just wasn't ready to pull the trigger. Then, Monday night, the seller sends me an offer - for $550. I screen capped this and sent it to Shandy like, "I'm not going to lie, that seems like a good price to me." - the coin has about 0.25 toz of gold in it and it had a melt value right around $474, so that price was only about $75 over melt, about 16% over melt, for a coin that is graded and almost got a Gem Uncirc grade.
To my surprise, Shandy also thought it was a good price, and she likes the look of the coin, so she encouraged me to just go ahead and go for it - we had the cash, even if I don't end up getting a bonus or we don't get a great return.
So I slept on it, then sat down while things were quiet and slow, I looked at the pictures, looked at the seller's feedback, did the Cert# verification and looked at the NGC picks vs the seller's images. Everything looked good, right down to the copper spot near the 2 on the reverse, and I decided to take it.
Yeah, I probably could have gotten an MS65 if I'd waited, but I think the premium would have been higher, I like the look of this coin, and I liked the price, and I think I'm unlikely to regret getting this down the road.



Going back to a conversation with Mike not long ago in discussing MS65 and MS66 coins that have marks that just happen to be in very unappealing locations, I think if that copper spot near the 2 on the reverse was in the middle of the coin or on Christian's cheek I probably wouldn't like it. With it off in the legend by the two, I actually kind of like it for the character it gives the coin from being 106 years old. I think the coin holds up very well under these fairly high magnifications and I'm looking forward to seeing it in hand soon.
Going back to the idea of getting this coin vs an MS65, I suspect there are many MS65 graded examples out there of those ~56 that I'd find less attractive and less appealing than I find this one.