Revenant

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.
 

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.

One aspect of monetary reform taken by almost all nations was to change the subdivision of a currency into units of 10 and 100.  The main benefit was to simplify calculations for accounting purposes and was often undertaken to align with trading partners.  Nations often changed the size and weight of their coins as part of monetary reforms and sometimes changed the name of their currency.  Typically, these changes allowed the issuing authorities to reduce the amount of precious metal without the commensurate change in official value. For world crowns in the 19th Century, many nations settled on 25 grams and 37 mm for their largest silver coins. An important standard was set in 1865 when France, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland formed the Latin Monetary Union.    Decimalization occurred in many of the former Spanish colonies in the Americas in the middle of the 19th century as these new nations moved away from the 27 gram 8 reales standard to 25 grams and several of these nations joined the Latin Monetary Union to facilitate trade with Europe.  In Venezuela, decimalization started with the peso in 1843 although no silver coins of that denomination were struck.  In 1872 the currency was renamed to the venezolano with the subdivision of 100 centavos.  The silver venezolano was issued for just one year in 1876.  Venezuela joined the Latin Monetary Union in 1879 and changed the currency to the bolivar, with the crown sized silver coin issued as 5 bolivares.   Here is my example of the short lived venezolano, the first silver crown of Venezuela.  25 grams, 37 mm and 90% silver.  Mintage of only 35,000 and struck at the Paris mint. ~jack

I thought it was worth an update to say, I got the email from NGC this week saying that they acknowledge the receipt of my 29 coin submission (22 Zimbabwe Coins, 7 Italian Coins).
So the timeline so far is:
1/14 - Package Mailed
1/26 - Package Delivered
2/22 - Receipt Acknowledged and Submission entered as received by NGC
2/23 - Payment Acknowledged
Looking at it, since I sent this box in, World Moderns have increased from the 71 business days they were at in January and are back up to 85 business days. So, 85 business days from 2/22 is Monday, 6/20, excluding Saturdays and Sundays. So, I'm thinking I might get grades back in the July to early August time frame, because I'm not going to get my hopes up for late June..

I thought it was worth an update to say, I got the email from NGC this week saying that they acknowledge the receipt of my 29 coin submission (22 Zimbabwe Coins, 7 Italian Coins).
So the timeline so far is:
1/14 - Package Mailed
1/26 - Package Delivered
2/22 - Receipt Acknowledged and Submission entered as received by NGC
2/23 - Payment Acknowledged
Looking at it, since I sent this box in, World Moderns have increased from the 71 business days they were at in January and are back up to 85 business days. So, 85 business days from 2/22 is Monday, 6/20, excluding Saturdays and Sundays. So, I'm thinking I might get grades back in the July to early August time frame, because I'm not going to get my hopes up for late June..

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 mailed out that submission to NGC on Jan 14th. It got to the Sarasota distribution center around midnight on Jan 20th, processed through there in about half and hour and was marked as in route to the destination facility. And then... Nothing.
Today is the 26th. It has not been scanned in 6 days and about 10 hours.
Starting Monday I started sending emails and trying to shake things out because if it isn't at NGC by COB on Monday the 31st the new pricing comes into effect and the cost of the box goes up $32.
Well, turns out it has been in a container for 6 days, between the Sarasota distribution hub and the local PO, and they have apparently a line of about 25 containers they're working on, and they've been having delays because of lack of personnel and lack of drivers and...
But.. 25 containers. Wow. Talk about bottlenecks.
It has been stuck in Sarasota, waiting to be sent to the final destination longer than it was in Transit from my local PO in Texas to the Sarasota distribution hub.
I would have thought that 17 days would have been PLENTY of time for something to get there. Normally it takes a week or less. Clearly in this case, absent this one bottleneck at this one leg of the trip, it would have been there in 7 calendar days.
Normally this would have been fine. But this isn't normal.
The very nice, polite woman at the Sarasota post office that called me (not being sarcastic at all here, she was very nice), was hopeful that it could come through today based on what she was seeing. So I'm just going to cross my fingers that they can make it happen and get it to NGC by Monday.
If not, using Registered mail might cost me not just the $13 for Registered, but $32 for the price increase, making that a fairly expensive safety measure.  But, if that happens, I'll just let it go.  At the end of the day, after all the work that went into those coins, if that box had gone missing I would have gladly given up $32 to get it back., and even if it costs me I still think it was the right choice. $32 won't break me this month.  Not even close.  
It is just very frustrating in the moment. 
 
Edited to Add:
So... Only about 40 minutes after she called me the first time, the USPS worker I'd talked to called me back again and let me know that it had hit that location / come out of the container and that it would be continuing on today. So, YAY! it should easily get to NGC by Monday.
I had nervously run the tracking number a few times this morning and it must have just come out just a few minutes after we talked the first time or something.
She said she'd had a list of ones she was watching for / tracking because she apparently has a few people making inquiries that a freaking out or in a near panic. I can't say I don't sympathize with them but hearing that did make me laugh a little.  Misery loves company I suppose and it's nice to not be alone in your crazy. 
Side note but I am increasingly resigned to the fact that these coins are going to be away for... a... VERY. Long. Time.
 
I am just increasingly glad, as the reasons add up (the long turnaround times, the price increase, this shipping delay...) that I did not drag my feet and I just got that box out. I'm increasingly convinced that, if I want to make another submission this year, and have confidence in it getting here by December, then I need to make something happen more in the March / Early April time frame.
None of this is harshing NGC - I know they're working hard over there - just stating facts. Nothing is going to be fast this year; we're all going to have to have longer time horizons, and for some things, unless you're planning to pay extra for speed, the effective cut-off for the 2022 award season might be a lot earlier than some of us realize.
I wonder if there's ever been a case of someone paying for Walkthrough service on something cheap and/or modern just to get something back super-quick to win something in the Registry.  There could be a funny and amusing story out there.
 
Also: It's worth noting that, in discussing this with Shandy, she also very much shared my concerns over this box last night and referred to them as "our coins."  
 

For many years I have not only been following coins, and medals but also banknotes - and with a username of 'ColonialCoinsUK' it will come as no surprise that the focus of this was the banknotes of the British colonies. Congratulations to Alan Collection Malaysia for their Overall Acheivement Award in the 2021 PMG Registry Awards.
To date I have resisted the urge as I would like to collect everything but the British Empire and the Commonwealth covered many countries, and many years, and I just couldn't pick one area. I was also continually shocked by the prices of high grade examples so sets complimenting my coins of Australia, Canada, South/East/West Africa, Palestine, Hong Kong, Malaya, India and so on was an impossibility. Unforrtunately the prices obtained at the recent January auctions just emphasised this!
My interest in Napoleonic coinage meant that I have also become familiar with the banknotes of some of the other colonial powers e.g. France, Spain and Italy. Although these were typically more affordable than the British issues they still represented a significant challenge given the coins I would prefer to occupy the final slots in some key sets. I expect this is because I tend to be drawn to the more classical designs from the early 20th century rather than more modern issues.
@Revenant has made the jump to successfully collecting both coins and banknotes so it must be possible!
No doubt a Journal entry. or two, may appear over at PMG at some point as I have found what I think is an interesting area and I have even managed to put together a few banknotes to get started.
 

I took advantage of having the day off yesterday to box up the Zimbabwe coins and take them to the post office before Shandy and I went to lunch as a kind of pre-versary thing - today is the day. 6 years together.
We were supposed to attend a wedding today for a cousin that will now share our date, but our child care got sick and Sam is dealing with his latest ear infection, so we decided to call some quiet time alone today and a nice lunch good enough and we'll try to just enjoy some stolen moments at home this weekend.
I got some funny looks at the Post Office for wanting registered mail. And maybe it was a bit silly, but, while the value of the box is not great the value of the time invested into finding and picking those coins made it well worth an extra $10-15 to help make sure the box arrived okay. I sent a couple of submissions in last year via priority mail but those didn't have the significance or time invested that this one did or the association of having done it with her.
This won't be the last submission to involve the Zimbabwe coins or the 500 L coins because I'll need / want to upgrade the 2003 $10 and $25 coins at minimum and I'll want to try to get 500L coins for 1983, 1986, 1987 and 1995. So there will be more down the road and that'll probably take the form of another mixed submission of Italian and Zimbabwean coins - maybe later this year.
But, while I knew this wouldn't fully resolve the need I wanted to get this out and not start having me delay it with the idea of a few more coins. I feel it is more important to get what I have in the pipeline. I've also run afoul of just continuously putting things off a bit too long in the past and it cost me so I definitely don't want that again. 
The other possible consideration is that NGC is saying the $500 credit will show up "by the end of the month" - in contrast to prior years when they were usually saying 1 week after the announcement. I think this is another indication of how busy they continue to be. But, with them being 3-5 weeks behind in opening boxes, by the time my box gets there and they enter it in, the credit should be there. And I have a note about it on the form just in case.
If they arrive on Jan 19th, the current 71 business day turnaround puts them finishing around May 5th, so I think there's a good chance we'll have these Z coins and those 500 L coins in time to being looking at them on Shandy's birthday in Mid-June.
What was the Anniversary present this year? A P-46a Zimbabwe note in 68 EPQ. About the only 2nd dollar variety I still needed, echoing the purchase of the 68 EPQ 20T note three years ago that started me back down this road. But the mail carrier also brought me a new Venezuelan VEN 114 1 Million Bolivar note today in a bit of convenient timing. I still need that VEN104 though. Both are great additions to their respective note sets.


She got a sapphire bracelet this year that goes with the necklace from last year. And she seems happy to wear them together this weekend. 

I took advantage of having the day off yesterday to box up the Zimbabwe coins and take them to the post office before Shandy and I went to lunch as a kind of pre-versary thing - today is the day. 6 years together.
We were supposed to attend a wedding today for a cousin that will now share our date, but our child care got sick and Sam is dealing with his latest ear infection, so we decided to call some quiet time alone today and a nice lunch good enough and we'll try to just enjoy some stolen moments at home this weekend.
I got some funny looks at the Post Office for wanting registered mail. And maybe it was a bit silly, but, while the value of the box is not great the value of the time invested into finding and picking those coins made it well worth an extra $10-15 to help make sure the box arrived okay. I sent a couple of submissions in last year via priority mail but those didn't have the significance or time invested that this one did or the association of having done it with her.
This won't be the last submission to involve the Zimbabwe coins or the 500 L coins because I'll need / want to upgrade the 2003 $10 and $25 coins at minimum and I'll want to try to get 500L coins for 1983, 1986, 1987 and 1995. So there will be more down the road and that'll probably take the form of another mixed submission of Italian and Zimbabwean coins - maybe later this year.
But, while I knew this wouldn't fully resolve the need I wanted to get this out and not start having me delay it with the idea of a few more coins. I feel it is more important to get what I have in the pipeline. I've also run afoul of just continuously putting things off a bit too long in the past and it cost me so I definitely don't want that again. 
The other possible consideration is that NGC is saying the $500 credit will show up "by the end of the month" - in contrast to prior years when they were usually saying 1 week after the announcement. I think this is another indication of how busy they continue to be. But, with them being 3-5 weeks behind in opening boxes, by the time my box gets there and they enter it in, the credit should be there. And I have a note about it on the form just in case.
If they arrive on Jan 19th, the current 71 business day turnaround puts them finishing around May 5th, so I think there's a good chance we'll have these Z coins and those 500 L coins in time to being looking at them on Shandy's birthday in Mid-June.
What was the Anniversary present this year? A P-46a Zimbabwe note in 68 EPQ. About the only 2nd dollar variety I still needed, echoing the purchase of the 68 EPQ 20T note three years ago that started me back down this road. But the mail carrier also brought me a new Venezuelan VEN 114 1 Million Bolivar note today in a bit of convenient timing. I still need that VEN104 though. Both are great additions to their respective note sets.


She got a sapphire bracelet this year that goes with the necklace from last year. And she seems happy to wear them together this weekend. 

I took advantage of having the day off yesterday to box up the Zimbabwe coins and take them to the post office before Shandy and I went to lunch as a kind of pre-versary thing - today is the day. 6 years together.
We were supposed to attend a wedding today for a cousin that will now share our date, but our child care got sick and Sam is dealing with his latest ear infection, so we decided to call some quiet time alone today and a nice lunch good enough and we'll try to just enjoy some stolen moments at home this weekend.
I got some funny looks at the Post Office for wanting registered mail. And maybe it was a bit silly, but, while the value of the box is not great the value of the time invested into finding and picking those coins made it well worth an extra $10-15 to help make sure the box arrived okay. I sent a couple of submissions in last year via priority mail but those didn't have the significance or time invested that this one did or the association of having done it with her.
This won't be the last submission to involve the Zimbabwe coins or the 500 L coins because I'll need / want to upgrade the 2003 $10 and $25 coins at minimum and I'll want to try to get 500L coins for 1983, 1986, 1987 and 1995. So there will be more down the road and that'll probably take the form of another mixed submission of Italian and Zimbabwean coins - maybe later this year.
But, while I knew this wouldn't fully resolve the need I wanted to get this out and not start having me delay it with the idea of a few more coins. I feel it is more important to get what I have in the pipeline. I've also run afoul of just continuously putting things off a bit too long in the past and it cost me so I definitely don't want that again. 
The other possible consideration is that NGC is saying the $500 credit will show up "by the end of the month" - in contrast to prior years when they were usually saying 1 week after the announcement. I think this is another indication of how busy they continue to be. But, with them being 3-5 weeks behind in opening boxes, by the time my box gets there and they enter it in, the credit should be there. And I have a note about it on the form just in case.
If they arrive on Jan 19th, the current 71 business day turnaround puts them finishing around May 5th, so I think there's a good chance we'll have these Z coins and those 500 L coins in time to being looking at them on Shandy's birthday in Mid-June.
What was the Anniversary present this year? A P-46a Zimbabwe note in 68 EPQ. About the only 2nd dollar variety I still needed, echoing the purchase of the 68 EPQ 20T note three years ago that started me back down this road. But the mail carrier also brought me a new Venezuelan VEN 114 1 Million Bolivar note today in a bit of convenient timing. I still need that VEN104 though. Both are great additions to their respective note sets.


She got a sapphire bracelet this year that goes with the necklace from last year. And she seems happy to wear them together this weekend. 

For the first time in years I actually had some time over the break and managed to sort through some coins. As I have mentioned a few times my original collection was British sixpences and, in particular Victorian ones (1864 to 1879) bearing die numbers in addition to the date.
In turns out I had nearly 100 such sixpences scattered through various boxes that I had not catalogued properly. Some of these appear to be duplicates, some upgrades, some are die numbers that I was missing, some are unrecorded varieties and a few are even suitable for grading!
I just need to deal with these now - the pile of other British and world coins still needs sorting out though. I hope I am not the only one behind with things.
 

I got an email today from Ali asking me if I really meant to use the word “Causalities” in the title of my set and not “Casualties.” She wanted to make sure I meant to do that before she sent the plaque in to be made with it printed like that.
I read that email and immediately wanted to bang my head on the desk.

I do not think I will ever ever know how many times I have looked at that and not seen that, but, props to Ali, she caught it. I missed it. Shandy missed it. I have to assume Mike never noticed it in all the times we’ve talked about this in DMs.
One of those glorious times where you flip two letters and autocorrect / spellcheck says nothing because it is technically a properly spelled English word, just not the right one.
She was great to flag this up to me and nice enough to email me about it but I’ll just ruin her discretion because I just feel like a catch like that deserves some thanks and public praise. She wasn’t going through and copying & pasting. She actually caught a subtle typo that so many have missed and then took the time to flag it up to me and I appreciate that so much, because now they’re also going to try to fix it in the announcement and in the archives and I don’t have to have that typo taunting me every time I look at that plaque.
Oh jeeze… I’m going to be laughing about this for days.
So, Thank you, again, so much, for that that, Ali. The correction and the laugh.
 
As a small aside on this, perhaps as another indication that I hadn’t really seen that set as being "in the running" and saw it more as a work in progress and not a finished product, on the $1 coin in the set I just had a throw-away line saying that the reverse showed an old stone fort at the “Great Zimbabwe” ruins. I went back in last night and added more information on what exactly the Great Zimbabwe Ruins are but the more I look at it / think about it I still have some more work to do, adding some more information - like the fact that the ruins are a National Monument area and a UNESCO site, and the “Great Zimbabwe” civilization is where the name of the modern country came from, these ruins / this civilization is why they changed it from “Rhodesia” to “Zimbabwe” in 1980. (Probably, by the time you read this, I’ll have updated it.)
One of the things I’ve tried to do as I picked and compared and swapped out coins from different batches from 5-7 different dealers / sources is keep a record of where / what batch each coin that’s about to be submitted came from, so I could continue to incorporate that information and the story of the chase / how the set was built into the descriptions for each coin. And I’m starting to write some of that out and explain it without being too long-winded and boring in the process.   
I’ve finished picking the seven 500 L coins that will go with the 22 Zimbabwe coins, filling out the paperwork and putting the labels in with the flips. About the only thing left is to pack them up and mail them, and the only thing holding that up is hoping for an answer from NGC on an approach to packing that I’m considering.

In the past I’ve just had short stacks of coins and rubber-banded them together. This time I’m considering leaving them in a BCW page, accordion folding it and then rubberbanding that, and maybe wrapping a little bubble wrap around that. Anyone ever tried this? Have any thoughts?
I’m trying to get these out to get them “in line” With turnaround times currently at 71 business days for World Modern I’m thinking we’re looking at May or June before the grades and the coins come back, even if I get them mailed off next week. This also has some implications for something else I want to try to do / accomplish this year that is a plan I'll talk about soon. But this has me realizing that, if I want the coins back before December, I probably need to try to get them out by April or May and dragging my feet and sending them out in June like I did last year might not end well for me.
 

Mike has earned some kind of "I told you so," as he made references back in, I think, October, about the Zimbabwean coin set winning "Best Presented" this year and I was like, "Nope. Nah. Not gonna happen."
I am, once again, very honored by the award and the recognition. 😃
I'm thrilled for Coinbuf, Lem E, deposito, jgenn and coin928 for their wins, many on sets that have been long labored and personal projects. It's a humbling thing sometimes to be listed next to such endeavors. But some of you guys really need to stop counting yourselves out and selling short your chances.
My wife and I popped a bottle of Champagne Friday night that was left over from New Year’s Eve. I’m not sure if this means we had a lame NYE party or if we bought too much booze. I guess it’s cool either way. She wanted a photo to go with this post and specifically dragged me back up to my desk to get the case from Father’s Day with the 5 gold coins in the background of the shot because she was feeling the need to be artsy I guess. Poor choice of subjects if you’re going to be artsy. Ick… 35… I’m getting older and these kids are sucking the life out of me and the hair off my head.  But the wife keeps insisting that I look Handsome... now where's that Meme of the Old Man saying he was lied too... 

The comments from the judges mention the set having 21 coins, and it does - 23 actually - but I only had 14 graded and in the set as of Dec 1. Which is the main reason I was convinced that set had not a chance - not a one - this year. But, the coins are ready, I've already started the online submission form, and I will be finishing it as soon as I can. Now that this has come through though I think I’m going to be tacking on some 500 Lire Italian coins at the end of the submission.
Shandy of course immediately joked, "so, you won, so now we're going to just drop that and move on to something else, right?" But, naturally she knows that isn't what we're doing and I think she'd kill me if I tried after all the shared effort looking at and picking coins.
This seems to be becoming a recurring theme for me - I win and then I spend the credits mostly on the set that won - which will not win again - rather than putting it (and the time and energy) towards something new that might win next year. I spent all of the PMG credits from the note set winning on that same collection. Fun collecting, but bad strategy I suppose. But, you can't just not finish something like that after putting so much into it.
My candidate for "Worst of the Best 2020" is now "Best Presented 2021" - just to continue to reference the past of this journal as we prepare to start a new cycle in earnest.
This is going to be one set where it’s going to be a lot of fun for me over time to see the progress of it in the archives over time - getting to see it as it was in 2020 with one coin and no banner, see it in 2021 with the banner, and, hopefully, maybe, see it as the #1 in 2022 with all the coins filled in / 100% complete, and then maybe see it again in 2023 with some coins upgraded. Snapshots in time as the set progressed - assuming it stays #1. I guess we’ll see if anyone wants to throw down in a crazy-off.


The 10G set is another one that I love being able to look back at how it has incrementally grown and improved over now 6 years of being #1, but I think I’ve said that before.
But this outcome has reinforced my decision to cull the submission down to 22 of the best coins from the original 33 and then move on to other things for now once the set is full in a graded state. And I do have at least two things I'm looking at that are in the pipeline, and which will probably now be 2022 projects instead of 2023 projects.
As far as the journal awards go, I'm not going to lie - I'm more than a little sad to see that go - and not just because this means I'll have to do more than just run at the mouth if I want to keep winning major awards and because this means I'll never catch up to Gary.
The Journal Awards had been given out every year since about 2004 or 2005 and, as such, they were one of the oldest and most consistent features in the awards. But participation has been dropping for years and I think it was down again this year vs last year. And I guess this year was the year NGC decided enough was enough and to pull the plug on them. I had thought we were at thus point 2 years ago when the journal awards weren't announced / listed for 2019 but instead they actually upped it by extending the $500 credit to the journal awards where it hadn't before. I guess the last two years were the last chance to see if it would rebound and it... didn't.
Now that they are officially axed, I don't expect the journal awards to ever return but I hope NGC will consider replacing them with something like the community awards that are given on the Comics side - something that can celebrate some of the people that make it worth it to keep visiting the chat boards and who come to share the joy of collecting and not to grind political axes and grumble.
But... while the journals awards are done, don't think you're rid of me yet. I posted in 2019 when I thought they were dead and in 2020. I expect to have more to say in 2022, though I expect inevitably, eventually, my time and efforts will likely go elsewhere for a while just like they did from 2010 to 2017 - because life is like that, and I can't always actively collect, and I don't post or have much to say when I don't actively collect.
But, right now, I'm collecting pretty darn actively. 😃

Mike has earned some kind of "I told you so," as he made references back in, I think, October, about the Zimbabwean coin set winning "Best Presented" this year and I was like, "Nope. Nah. Not gonna happen."
I am, once again, very honored by the award and the recognition. 😃
I'm thrilled for Coinbuf, Lem E, deposito, jgenn and coin928 for their wins, many on sets that have been long labored and personal projects. It's a humbling thing sometimes to be listed next to such endeavors. But some of you guys really need to stop counting yourselves out and selling short your chances.
My wife and I popped a bottle of Champagne Friday night that was left over from New Year’s Eve. I’m not sure if this means we had a lame NYE party or if we bought too much booze. I guess it’s cool either way. She wanted a photo to go with this post and specifically dragged me back up to my desk to get the case from Father’s Day with the 5 gold coins in the background of the shot because she was feeling the need to be artsy I guess. Poor choice of subjects if you’re going to be artsy. Ick… 35… I’m getting older and these kids are sucking the life out of me and the hair off my head.  But the wife keeps insisting that I look Handsome... now where's that Meme of the Old Man saying he was lied too... 

The comments from the judges mention the set having 21 coins, and it does - 23 actually - but I only had 14 graded and in the set as of Dec 1. Which is the main reason I was convinced that set had not a chance - not a one - this year. But, the coins are ready, I've already started the online submission form, and I will be finishing it as soon as I can. Now that this has come through though I think I’m going to be tacking on some 500 Lire Italian coins at the end of the submission.
Shandy of course immediately joked, "so, you won, so now we're going to just drop that and move on to something else, right?" But, naturally she knows that isn't what we're doing and I think she'd kill me if I tried after all the shared effort looking at and picking coins.
This seems to be becoming a recurring theme for me - I win and then I spend the credits mostly on the set that won - which will not win again - rather than putting it (and the time and energy) towards something new that might win next year. I spent all of the PMG credits from the note set winning on that same collection. Fun collecting, but bad strategy I suppose. But, you can't just not finish something like that after putting so much into it.
My candidate for "Worst of the Best 2020" is now "Best Presented 2021" - just to continue to reference the past of this journal as we prepare to start a new cycle in earnest.
This is going to be one set where it’s going to be a lot of fun for me over time to see the progress of it in the archives over time - getting to see it as it was in 2020 with one coin and no banner, see it in 2021 with the banner, and, hopefully, maybe, see it as the #1 in 2022 with all the coins filled in / 100% complete, and then maybe see it again in 2023 with some coins upgraded. Snapshots in time as the set progressed - assuming it stays #1. I guess we’ll see if anyone wants to throw down in a crazy-off.


The 10G set is another one that I love being able to look back at how it has incrementally grown and improved over now 6 years of being #1, but I think I’ve said that before.
But this outcome has reinforced my decision to cull the submission down to 22 of the best coins from the original 33 and then move on to other things for now once the set is full in a graded state. And I do have at least two things I'm looking at that are in the pipeline, and which will probably now be 2022 projects instead of 2023 projects.
As far as the journal awards go, I'm not going to lie - I'm more than a little sad to see that go - and not just because this means I'll have to do more than just run at the mouth if I want to keep winning major awards and because this means I'll never catch up to Gary.
The Journal Awards had been given out every year since about 2004 or 2005 and, as such, they were one of the oldest and most consistent features in the awards. But participation has been dropping for years and I think it was down again this year vs last year. And I guess this year was the year NGC decided enough was enough and to pull the plug on them. I had thought we were at thus point 2 years ago when the journal awards weren't announced / listed for 2019 but instead they actually upped it by extending the $500 credit to the journal awards where it hadn't before. I guess the last two years were the last chance to see if it would rebound and it... didn't.
Now that they are officially axed, I don't expect the journal awards to ever return but I hope NGC will consider replacing them with something like the community awards that are given on the Comics side - something that can celebrate some of the people that make it worth it to keep visiting the chat boards and who come to share the joy of collecting and not to grind political axes and grumble.
But... while the journals awards are done, don't think you're rid of me yet. I posted in 2019 when I thought they were dead and in 2020. I expect to have more to say in 2022, though I expect inevitably, eventually, my time and efforts will likely go elsewhere for a while just like they did from 2010 to 2017 - because life is like that, and I can't always actively collect, and I don't post or have much to say when I don't actively collect.
But, right now, I'm collecting pretty darn actively. 😃

Mike has earned some kind of "I told you so," as he made references back in, I think, October, about the Zimbabwean coin set winning "Best Presented" this year and I was like, "Nope. Nah. Not gonna happen."
I am, once again, very honored by the award and the recognition. 😃
I'm thrilled for Coinbuf, Lem E, deposito, jgenn and coin928 for their wins, many on sets that have been long labored and personal projects. It's a humbling thing sometimes to be listed next to such endeavors. But some of you guys really need to stop counting yourselves out and selling short your chances.
My wife and I popped a bottle of Champagne Friday night that was left over from New Year’s Eve. I’m not sure if this means we had a lame NYE party or if we bought too much booze. I guess it’s cool either way. She wanted a photo to go with this post and specifically dragged me back up to my desk to get the case from Father’s Day with the 5 gold coins in the background of the shot because she was feeling the need to be artsy I guess. Poor choice of subjects if you’re going to be artsy. Ick… 35… I’m getting older and these kids are sucking the life out of me and the hair off my head.  But the wife keeps insisting that I look Handsome... now where's that Meme of the Old Man saying he was lied too... 

The comments from the judges mention the set having 21 coins, and it does - 23 actually - but I only had 14 graded and in the set as of Dec 1. Which is the main reason I was convinced that set had not a chance - not a one - this year. But, the coins are ready, I've already started the online submission form, and I will be finishing it as soon as I can. Now that this has come through though I think I’m going to be tacking on some 500 Lire Italian coins at the end of the submission.
Shandy of course immediately joked, "so, you won, so now we're going to just drop that and move on to something else, right?" But, naturally she knows that isn't what we're doing and I think she'd kill me if I tried after all the shared effort looking at and picking coins.
This seems to be becoming a recurring theme for me - I win and then I spend the credits mostly on the set that won - which will not win again - rather than putting it (and the time and energy) towards something new that might win next year. I spent all of the PMG credits from the note set winning on that same collection. Fun collecting, but bad strategy I suppose. But, you can't just not finish something like that after putting so much into it.
My candidate for "Worst of the Best 2020" is now "Best Presented 2021" - just to continue to reference the past of this journal as we prepare to start a new cycle in earnest.
This is going to be one set where it’s going to be a lot of fun for me over time to see the progress of it in the archives over time - getting to see it as it was in 2020 with one coin and no banner, see it in 2021 with the banner, and, hopefully, maybe, see it as the #1 in 2022 with all the coins filled in / 100% complete, and then maybe see it again in 2023 with some coins upgraded. Snapshots in time as the set progressed - assuming it stays #1. I guess we’ll see if anyone wants to throw down in a crazy-off.


The 10G set is another one that I love being able to look back at how it has incrementally grown and improved over now 6 years of being #1, but I think I’ve said that before.
But this outcome has reinforced my decision to cull the submission down to 22 of the best coins from the original 33 and then move on to other things for now once the set is full in a graded state. And I do have at least two things I'm looking at that are in the pipeline, and which will probably now be 2022 projects instead of 2023 projects.
As far as the journal awards go, I'm not going to lie - I'm more than a little sad to see that go - and not just because this means I'll have to do more than just run at the mouth if I want to keep winning major awards and because this means I'll never catch up to Gary.
The Journal Awards had been given out every year since about 2004 or 2005 and, as such, they were one of the oldest and most consistent features in the awards. But participation has been dropping for years and I think it was down again this year vs last year. And I guess this year was the year NGC decided enough was enough and to pull the plug on them. I had thought we were at thus point 2 years ago when the journal awards weren't announced / listed for 2019 but instead they actually upped it by extending the $500 credit to the journal awards where it hadn't before. I guess the last two years were the last chance to see if it would rebound and it... didn't.
Now that they are officially axed, I don't expect the journal awards to ever return but I hope NGC will consider replacing them with something like the community awards that are given on the Comics side - something that can celebrate some of the people that make it worth it to keep visiting the chat boards and who come to share the joy of collecting and not to grind political axes and grumble.
But... while the journals awards are done, don't think you're rid of me yet. I posted in 2019 when I thought they were dead and in 2020. I expect to have more to say in 2022, though I expect inevitably, eventually, my time and efforts will likely go elsewhere for a while just like they did from 2010 to 2017 - because life is like that, and I can't always actively collect, and I don't post or have much to say when I don't actively collect.
But, right now, I'm collecting pretty darn actively. 😃

Mike has earned some kind of "I told you so," as he made references back in, I think, October, about the Zimbabwean coin set winning "Best Presented" this year and I was like, "Nope. Nah. Not gonna happen."
I am, once again, very honored by the award and the recognition. 😃
I'm thrilled for Coinbuf, Lem E, deposito, jgenn and coin928 for their wins, many on sets that have been long labored and personal projects. It's a humbling thing sometimes to be listed next to such endeavors. But some of you guys really need to stop counting yourselves out and selling short your chances.
My wife and I popped a bottle of Champagne Friday night that was left over from New Year’s Eve. I’m not sure if this means we had a lame NYE party or if we bought too much booze. I guess it’s cool either way. She wanted a photo to go with this post and specifically dragged me back up to my desk to get the case from Father’s Day with the 5 gold coins in the background of the shot because she was feeling the need to be artsy I guess. Poor choice of subjects if you’re going to be artsy. Ick… 35… I’m getting older and these kids are sucking the life out of me and the hair off my head.  But the wife keeps insisting that I look Handsome... now where's that Meme of the Old Man saying he was lied too... 

The comments from the judges mention the set having 21 coins, and it does - 23 actually - but I only had 14 graded and in the set as of Dec 1. Which is the main reason I was convinced that set had not a chance - not a one - this year. But, the coins are ready, I've already started the online submission form, and I will be finishing it as soon as I can. Now that this has come through though I think I’m going to be tacking on some 500 Lire Italian coins at the end of the submission.
Shandy of course immediately joked, "so, you won, so now we're going to just drop that and move on to something else, right?" But, naturally she knows that isn't what we're doing and I think she'd kill me if I tried after all the shared effort looking at and picking coins.
This seems to be becoming a recurring theme for me - I win and then I spend the credits mostly on the set that won - which will not win again - rather than putting it (and the time and energy) towards something new that might win next year. I spent all of the PMG credits from the note set winning on that same collection. Fun collecting, but bad strategy I suppose. But, you can't just not finish something like that after putting so much into it.
My candidate for "Worst of the Best 2020" is now "Best Presented 2021" - just to continue to reference the past of this journal as we prepare to start a new cycle in earnest.
This is going to be one set where it’s going to be a lot of fun for me over time to see the progress of it in the archives over time - getting to see it as it was in 2020 with one coin and no banner, see it in 2021 with the banner, and, hopefully, maybe, see it as the #1 in 2022 with all the coins filled in / 100% complete, and then maybe see it again in 2023 with some coins upgraded. Snapshots in time as the set progressed - assuming it stays #1. I guess we’ll see if anyone wants to throw down in a crazy-off.


The 10G set is another one that I love being able to look back at how it has incrementally grown and improved over now 6 years of being #1, but I think I’ve said that before.
But this outcome has reinforced my decision to cull the submission down to 22 of the best coins from the original 33 and then move on to other things for now once the set is full in a graded state. And I do have at least two things I'm looking at that are in the pipeline, and which will probably now be 2022 projects instead of 2023 projects.
As far as the journal awards go, I'm not going to lie - I'm more than a little sad to see that go - and not just because this means I'll have to do more than just run at the mouth if I want to keep winning major awards and because this means I'll never catch up to Gary.
The Journal Awards had been given out every year since about 2004 or 2005 and, as such, they were one of the oldest and most consistent features in the awards. But participation has been dropping for years and I think it was down again this year vs last year. And I guess this year was the year NGC decided enough was enough and to pull the plug on them. I had thought we were at thus point 2 years ago when the journal awards weren't announced / listed for 2019 but instead they actually upped it by extending the $500 credit to the journal awards where it hadn't before. I guess the last two years were the last chance to see if it would rebound and it... didn't.
Now that they are officially axed, I don't expect the journal awards to ever return but I hope NGC will consider replacing them with something like the community awards that are given on the Comics side - something that can celebrate some of the people that make it worth it to keep visiting the chat boards and who come to share the joy of collecting and not to grind political axes and grumble.
But... while the journals awards are done, don't think you're rid of me yet. I posted in 2019 when I thought they were dead and in 2020. I expect to have more to say in 2022, though I expect inevitably, eventually, my time and efforts will likely go elsewhere for a while just like they did from 2010 to 2017 - because life is like that, and I can't always actively collect, and I don't post or have much to say when I don't actively collect.
But, right now, I'm collecting pretty darn actively. 😃

Mike has earned some kind of "I told you so," as he made references back in, I think, October, about the Zimbabwean coin set winning "Best Presented" this year and I was like, "Nope. Nah. Not gonna happen."
I am, once again, very honored by the award and the recognition. 😃
I'm thrilled for Coinbuf, Lem E, deposito, jgenn and coin928 for their wins, many on sets that have been long labored and personal projects. It's a humbling thing sometimes to be listed next to such endeavors. But some of you guys really need to stop counting yourselves out and selling short your chances.
My wife and I popped a bottle of Champagne Friday night that was left over from New Year’s Eve. I’m not sure if this means we had a lame NYE party or if we bought too much booze. I guess it’s cool either way. She wanted a photo to go with this post and specifically dragged me back up to my desk to get the case from Father’s Day with the 5 gold coins in the background of the shot because she was feeling the need to be artsy I guess. Poor choice of subjects if you’re going to be artsy. Ick… 35… I’m getting older and these kids are sucking the life out of me and the hair off my head.  But the wife keeps insisting that I look Handsome... now where's that Meme of the Old Man saying he was lied too... 

The comments from the judges mention the set having 21 coins, and it does - 23 actually - but I only had 14 graded and in the set as of Dec 1. Which is the main reason I was convinced that set had not a chance - not a one - this year. But, the coins are ready, I've already started the online submission form, and I will be finishing it as soon as I can. Now that this has come through though I think I’m going to be tacking on some 500 Lire Italian coins at the end of the submission.
Shandy of course immediately joked, "so, you won, so now we're going to just drop that and move on to something else, right?" But, naturally she knows that isn't what we're doing and I think she'd kill me if I tried after all the shared effort looking at and picking coins.
This seems to be becoming a recurring theme for me - I win and then I spend the credits mostly on the set that won - which will not win again - rather than putting it (and the time and energy) towards something new that might win next year. I spent all of the PMG credits from the note set winning on that same collection. Fun collecting, but bad strategy I suppose. But, you can't just not finish something like that after putting so much into it.
My candidate for "Worst of the Best 2020" is now "Best Presented 2021" - just to continue to reference the past of this journal as we prepare to start a new cycle in earnest.
This is going to be one set where it’s going to be a lot of fun for me over time to see the progress of it in the archives over time - getting to see it as it was in 2020 with one coin and no banner, see it in 2021 with the banner, and, hopefully, maybe, see it as the #1 in 2022 with all the coins filled in / 100% complete, and then maybe see it again in 2023 with some coins upgraded. Snapshots in time as the set progressed - assuming it stays #1. I guess we’ll see if anyone wants to throw down in a crazy-off.


The 10G set is another one that I love being able to look back at how it has incrementally grown and improved over now 6 years of being #1, but I think I’ve said that before.
But this outcome has reinforced my decision to cull the submission down to 22 of the best coins from the original 33 and then move on to other things for now once the set is full in a graded state. And I do have at least two things I'm looking at that are in the pipeline, and which will probably now be 2022 projects instead of 2023 projects.
As far as the journal awards go, I'm not going to lie - I'm more than a little sad to see that go - and not just because this means I'll have to do more than just run at the mouth if I want to keep winning major awards and because this means I'll never catch up to Gary.
The Journal Awards had been given out every year since about 2004 or 2005 and, as such, they were one of the oldest and most consistent features in the awards. But participation has been dropping for years and I think it was down again this year vs last year. And I guess this year was the year NGC decided enough was enough and to pull the plug on them. I had thought we were at thus point 2 years ago when the journal awards weren't announced / listed for 2019 but instead they actually upped it by extending the $500 credit to the journal awards where it hadn't before. I guess the last two years were the last chance to see if it would rebound and it... didn't.
Now that they are officially axed, I don't expect the journal awards to ever return but I hope NGC will consider replacing them with something like the community awards that are given on the Comics side - something that can celebrate some of the people that make it worth it to keep visiting the chat boards and who come to share the joy of collecting and not to grind political axes and grumble.
But... while the journals awards are done, don't think you're rid of me yet. I posted in 2019 when I thought they were dead and in 2020. I expect to have more to say in 2022, though I expect inevitably, eventually, my time and efforts will likely go elsewhere for a while just like they did from 2010 to 2017 - because life is like that, and I can't always actively collect, and I don't post or have much to say when I don't actively collect.
But, right now, I'm collecting pretty darn actively. 😃

Mike has earned some kind of "I told you so," as he made references back in, I think, October, about the Zimbabwean coin set winning "Best Presented" this year and I was like, "Nope. Nah. Not gonna happen."
I am, once again, very honored by the award and the recognition. 😃
I'm thrilled for Coinbuf, Lem E, deposito, jgenn and coin928 for their wins, many on sets that have been long labored and personal projects. It's a humbling thing sometimes to be listed next to such endeavors. But some of you guys really need to stop counting yourselves out and selling short your chances.
My wife and I popped a bottle of Champagne Friday night that was left over from New Year’s Eve. I’m not sure if this means we had a lame NYE party or if we bought too much booze. I guess it’s cool either way. She wanted a photo to go with this post and specifically dragged me back up to my desk to get the case from Father’s Day with the 5 gold coins in the background of the shot because she was feeling the need to be artsy I guess. Poor choice of subjects if you’re going to be artsy. Ick… 35… I’m getting older and these kids are sucking the life out of me and the hair off my head.  But the wife keeps insisting that I look Handsome... now where's that Meme of the Old Man saying he was lied too... 

The comments from the judges mention the set having 21 coins, and it does - 23 actually - but I only had 14 graded and in the set as of Dec 1. Which is the main reason I was convinced that set had not a chance - not a one - this year. But, the coins are ready, I've already started the online submission form, and I will be finishing it as soon as I can. Now that this has come through though I think I’m going to be tacking on some 500 Lire Italian coins at the end of the submission.
Shandy of course immediately joked, "so, you won, so now we're going to just drop that and move on to something else, right?" But, naturally she knows that isn't what we're doing and I think she'd kill me if I tried after all the shared effort looking at and picking coins.
This seems to be becoming a recurring theme for me - I win and then I spend the credits mostly on the set that won - which will not win again - rather than putting it (and the time and energy) towards something new that might win next year. I spent all of the PMG credits from the note set winning on that same collection. Fun collecting, but bad strategy I suppose. But, you can't just not finish something like that after putting so much into it.
My candidate for "Worst of the Best 2020" is now "Best Presented 2021" - just to continue to reference the past of this journal as we prepare to start a new cycle in earnest.
This is going to be one set where it’s going to be a lot of fun for me over time to see the progress of it in the archives over time - getting to see it as it was in 2020 with one coin and no banner, see it in 2021 with the banner, and, hopefully, maybe, see it as the #1 in 2022 with all the coins filled in / 100% complete, and then maybe see it again in 2023 with some coins upgraded. Snapshots in time as the set progressed - assuming it stays #1. I guess we’ll see if anyone wants to throw down in a crazy-off.


The 10G set is another one that I love being able to look back at how it has incrementally grown and improved over now 6 years of being #1, but I think I’ve said that before.
But this outcome has reinforced my decision to cull the submission down to 22 of the best coins from the original 33 and then move on to other things for now once the set is full in a graded state. And I do have at least two things I'm looking at that are in the pipeline, and which will probably now be 2022 projects instead of 2023 projects.
As far as the journal awards go, I'm not going to lie - I'm more than a little sad to see that go - and not just because this means I'll have to do more than just run at the mouth if I want to keep winning major awards and because this means I'll never catch up to Gary.
The Journal Awards had been given out every year since about 2004 or 2005 and, as such, they were one of the oldest and most consistent features in the awards. But participation has been dropping for years and I think it was down again this year vs last year. And I guess this year was the year NGC decided enough was enough and to pull the plug on them. I had thought we were at thus point 2 years ago when the journal awards weren't announced / listed for 2019 but instead they actually upped it by extending the $500 credit to the journal awards where it hadn't before. I guess the last two years were the last chance to see if it would rebound and it... didn't.
Now that they are officially axed, I don't expect the journal awards to ever return but I hope NGC will consider replacing them with something like the community awards that are given on the Comics side - something that can celebrate some of the people that make it worth it to keep visiting the chat boards and who come to share the joy of collecting and not to grind political axes and grumble.
But... while the journals awards are done, don't think you're rid of me yet. I posted in 2019 when I thought they were dead and in 2020. I expect to have more to say in 2022, though I expect inevitably, eventually, my time and efforts will likely go elsewhere for a while just like they did from 2010 to 2017 - because life is like that, and I can't always actively collect, and I don't post or have much to say when I don't actively collect.
But, right now, I'm collecting pretty darn actively. 😃

NGC sent out an email yesterday afternoon announcing their annual Registry Awards. My set of Wildman Coins won "Most Creative Custom Set". I am absolutely shocked. This is a set that I built simply because I like them and the history around them. It never crossed my mind that I might win something. 

If interested, the link to the article is below.

https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/9779/2021-ngc-registry-awards/

Here are two '22s from my collection.
 

So... continuing from the last journal posted about this…
When I opened the box from the seller, I had 3 of the 8-coin sets that included later-date steel coins from mostly 2002 and only 1 of the 7-coin sets that had 1997 dated coins, including that 1997 $2 coin.

To make things one step worse, the $2 coin in that set had a bad, deep scratch/ ding.

Reached out to the seller, who quickly said I could keep the extra 8-coin set and they'd look for and send me another 1997 dated set with the best $2 coin they had. 🙂 Yay! Happiness! Right?
Unfortunately... they couldn't find the other 7-coin sets. They'd been misplaced. So, they refunded the money and I got to keep the extra set. Not a bad outcome, but still disappointing given the heartbreaking scratch on that coin...
But then, Mike came to the rescue and made me an offer - He'd gotten another 7-coin set and was offering me the whole set if I wanted it - wasn't even asking / wanting anything in return for it. He'd gotten it to give to his niece and nephew, and he just wanted to help me out. But just taking that didn't sit right with me and I offered to send him the 7-coin set I had - complete with the coin we now jokingly call "scarface," for his niece and nephew to trash.
Mike had offered that set up very quickly when I told him privately in a chat about what had happened and the scratched $2 coin, but I had him hold off on mailing it until the search attempt fell through and the other 1997-dated sets the seller had listed were officially "lost."
I did mail the set to him, along with some other Z coins and bond coins in flips, because, why not? And... wouldn’t you know it? The post office seems to have eaten it. They say it was delivered... he can’t find it. So... So much for that. Now I guess all 3 of those coin sets are officially lost to the ether and the sands of time...
I find it very annoying that they were lost. But neither of us feels attached enough to them or mad enough on principle to aggressively pursue it – at some point I guess you just have to decide how aggressively you’re willing to try to recover a ~$30 loss in common coins. And, with as overwhelmed as USPS is and, given that tracking says it was delivered, I just have a hard time believing that rattling cages will turn much up. I had several incidents at my old house where a small package was put in the wrong box for the wrong house. Fortunately, in all of those instances I had honest neighbors that just turned the box over to me within 24-48 hrs. So… a moment of silence for “Scarface” and his humble fellowship – lost to the void.
I think "Scarface" would have gotten a 61/62. Mike had thought his might get a 65-67. With the benefit of seeing it out of that old plastic, I think it's a 64-66 (I’ll look again and make a final, official guess later). I don't think it'll snag a 67. But, so far, the finest example NGC has graded is an XF45. And most of these that I see are UGLY. So, I'll take a 64-65 if I can get it for now.
Interestingly, a while after I got the set from Mike and had already sacrificed it to the scissors, about a month after I'd received the box with the wrong mix of sets, the seller finally got another set with 1997-dated coins, and they offered me first refusal on it. I decided to pass though. I've already bought so many of these things and spent so much on buying these lots. I have a large lot of very solid coins - about 30 now - to send in to NGC in a new 2022 submission. But I will be culling the current group down at least a bit before it goes off.
As I’ve gone along, every time I opened up / cut-apart a new set Shandy has wanted to be present to watch me cut it up, put them in flips and then we look at them together – She doesn’t even want to miss being there when the sets meet the scissors. When we already had one of a certain coin in our group to submit, we’d have the “old” / “reigning” coin go head-to-head with the new one and we’d pick the one we’d like best – see if the new coin could beat the champ. So, this has been a process of continuous comparison, substitution, culling and iterative refinement of our group set aside to send in.
I feel like I've hit a point of diminishing returns on buying more lots sight-unseen and trying to dig through hoping for incrementally nicer coins. I have a ton of these raw now and I have some to give away if I want or if I find an interested young would-be collector. It would be different if I was continuing to get a mix of different and new dates but it's all 1980, 1997, 1999 and 2002/2003 for the most part.
I think I'm ready to go with what I have, send these in in January and move on to focus on something else for a while. I’m not going to completely close the door on the idea of continuing to look for new sources of raw coins or looking for high grade examples, especially for any type coin slots where I only have grades under 65/66 after this next submission... and I STILL need to find a way to upgrade and get a nicer $25 coin than that AU58 I have... but I’m just not feeling too in a rush to do that... Who knows? Maybe finding some new, nice $25 coins down the road will be my push to start another drive to find more coins to look through for possible upgrades? Maybe it’ll be stiff registry competition.
But, I guess I’m closing out this one and accepting that there will be a 3rd submission with Z coins down the line.
I am very happy with and grateful to the seller for their resolution and communication and they will probably get more business from me after this - I think I'm just done with Zimbabwean coins for now – for now.
The hero of the story is Mike though, who continues to show he's a great buddy to have on a collecting journey.
Mike has told me / showed me that he got his nieces and nephews some of those Franklin Mint cards for Zimbabwe. He seems to be trying to give me a hard time in about 10-20 years when those kids are old enough to collect more seriously on their own. It would be funny if one of those kids ended up taking shots at me in the Zimbabwe registry in 2040, even if it is unlikely, if the registry is even still a thing in 20 years. Who knows what the future holds, really?
Shandy and I are starting to enter our grade guesses for the Zimbabwe coins. I have a piece of paper and I'm noting the guesses. I'll look, give the coin to her, write my guess and cover it, and let her see my guess after she says hers. The grades are still coming out very similar as we go though. She's more pessimistic than I am though. The results of this effort are showing that we're far more optimistic about the prospects of some coins than others which are going to be eligible for the same slots in the type set. SO I'm thinking I might use the results of this to trim down the submissions and make this a bit more budget friendly. I had thought it would be fun to maybe include more dates and maybe work on date sets in some denominations, but, if the coins don't grade well they are just a waste of money that I'd want to improve on down the line with a better coin if I did build a date set. The other thing about this is that the case Shandy got me is nearly perfect for displaying this type set, but it can't display a bunch of extras, and I feel like that is going to hurt the desirability of "extras." Especially since i think cost recovery on this set will forever be impossible if I ever resell these, even if they grade really well...
We've been having the graded examples I already have out and using those to help inform our estimates on how these will do. We started with the smaller denomination coins so the MS65 1997 1C and the MS65 1980 10C were crucial points of reference for us on NGC's grading standards.

This year I decided to put some Lighthouse cases on my Christmas list just to try. My interests and wants are pretty narrow these days. And, while I don’t really want a lot of stuff that is just going to collect dust and not mean much to me on a practical level, I don't like others buying me Coins for reasons we all know. I thought it was worth a shot to put some supplies on my list with easy links to what I want. I also put some things like miniature props - mini trees and grass mats for mini photography but it seems like the coin cases and coin supplies won out.
My wife got me the 24-coin, 3 panel case that I wanted for the Zimbabwe coin set. She seems to share my determination for elevating this economically-ill-advised set (that will never be worth what I'm about to spend on it) to something with a near mythic level of importance - so now the case for holding the set that we've mostly picked together and which will be almost all self-graded is a Christmas present 🎁.

Speaking of "almost all self graded," if I can get an MS64 or better at least 10C out of the coins I'm going to send in - and I think I have that easily - that first coin may get bumped just to have the main set be 100% coins we picked and graded. I DO have some real serious contenders that I think might score in the MS65-67 range from the pre-steel-clad era. So there is a real chance this could happen, including a nice 1980 that would be redundant in the set at first glance, but it would be self-submitted with the same invoice number as many other coins in the set.
When I opened the box, I was briefly afraid we might have to return or exchange it. The box showed an image with coins in capsules and capsule panels, not panels for graded coins. But when I opened it the box had the right inserts. I was worried I'd added the wrong thing to the wish list, and it was going to be my fault her surprise got... deflated. But - bullet dodged.
I’m thinking the top panel will have the oldest coins, the middle panel will have the Bond Coins, and the base will have most of the steel-clads, so when I pull the panels out and lay them next to each other I can deploy the panels in a pretty, chronological order. Initially I was going to just pop in the coins I have and fill in what I can, but then I stopped and thought it might be more fun to wait a few months, and let it sit empty until I get the 2nd submission back and can fill it all in - see it for the first time in all of its "glory."  I do think it will be impressive, if not valuable or a good investment, but, good gosh, I'm strange for building this one and doing this in such an over-the-top way, aren't I? 

My wife also bought more cotton gloves and a bunch of flips as stocking staffers- but I got them in a wrapped box because the sticking was... too stuffed. More supplies and support for more coin searching!

My step-father got my name again (3rd year running) in the name draw and followed up with a 25-coin case that I think will now be the new home for the gold coins - giving me more room again and removing the need to split them into a 2nd box for now. I'd gotten a temporary reprieve on this earlier in the year by pulling 5 out to display at my desk.

All of this has given me an idea for a present for my step-father down the line. I think I want to give him one of these that shows/ holds 6 coins for displaying the 1932 set.
This year, I got my step-father two coins I found for the 1982 mint set we started years ago. They're not particularly nice grades by the standards for modern coins but they filled some old, stubborn gaps with gem uncirc coins. After sitting on these for weeks, I finally popped them into the 1982 registry set after I gave them to him at dinner last night.
In my searching I also found some 1958 coins that would have filled more holes at reasonable prices but I'd already spent my budget. So a few weeks back I quietly linked and referred these to him - just not bringing up the 1982 stuff - and he got them. Then, just a few days prior to Christmas he messaged me to say he'd found and bought a coin that filled the last hole in the 1965 SMS set. So, somewhat accidentally, because of some things I did and set in motion with my Christmas shopping, that's 5 more slots filled across 3 of those sets.
None of those sets is likely to ever be in the running for #1, but one of them is now complete and maybe one day the other 2 will be too. The 1958, the 1982 and 1983 remain the hold-outs there.
As a final item, my brother got me a copy of the book "When Money Destroys Nations," about the Zimbabwean Hyperinflation.

For a bit of relevant context, years ago when Ben was young, we used to watch some episodes of “Toddlers and Tiaras” on Hulu for stupid, white trash, entertainment while we were stuck at home being broke parents to a young kid. We used to make fun of the titles the girls would win like "Grand Supreme" and "Ultimate Grand Supreme," and "Mega Ultimate Grand Supreme."
Years later we still joke about those titles and joke about "Mega Ultimate Grand Supreme [whatever]."
In the course of looking at these coins with Shandy we got into a discussion of grades and the kinds of grades I'm hoping for with the graded set and that got me talking about how 60+ is "Uncirculated," and 63+ is "Choice Uncirculated," and 65+ is "Gem Uncirculated" and 67+ is "Superb Gem Uncirculated." I'm explaining this because I'm explaining that, ideally, I'd like this set to be 65+ or 67+, Gem or better. She hears that last one though and she cracks a joke about "Mega Ultimate Grand Supreme Uncirculated," and laughs. I just looked at her for a second like, "No. That's not cool.”

I keep getting wandering eyes with the Italian coins recently - old and pre-euro modern, raw and graded. In many cases they're not even things I especially want or like - not like that flying liberty coin - but I do like collecting coins (hoarding pretty disks of metal). One example being raw examples of the 1000 Lire coin issued from 1997-2001, before the adoption of the Lire. I've seen some and they look interesting but they're not super pretty or anything - they're solidly okay. They're bi-metallic like the 500 Lire and look closely related to the 500 Lire, but they don't have the connection to Shandy because they didn't start issuing these until she'd already been out of the country 3-4 years.

Shandy has been good at keeping me focused (in check). I show them to her and she's like, "It's nice, but I want to stay focused on our current set (the 500 L)," and so I let it go. It's almost like she has more discipline than I do or something... slightly annoying.
Speaking of Shandy though - She's mentioned a couple of times recently that she misses looking at the coins and picking the best one and discussing the flaws of each. I haven't been doing much of that recently because before we were doing that to pick coins to submit, and I still have to tackle that Zimbabwe submission, and I don't want to get too far... ahead of myself / dig a hole I'll never get out of... but I do like the idea of continuing to buy more lots of cheap raw coins and looking at them.
Who knows? At this rate this may be the new focus of my collecting efforts going forward. That could be fun. I may need to invest in more binders, pages, and flips, if it goes that way though. 🤔 Maybe a stronger book case too because those binders are heavy when they’re full.
With the idea of keeping the fun going though, she’s agree to take on a challenge with me: Before we send off the Z coin submission we’re going to look at each coin again and write down what we think each one will grade - I will probably also use this as a chance to pick the best of some coins and dates where we have 2 of the same and lean down the submission a little. With those grade estimates written down, we’ll see how close we came when the grades come back. She’ll have her guesses and I’ll have mine. We’ll have the already graded ones nearby to look at to help us make good SWAGs. I may never live it down if she does better than me though.  (Edited to add: She confirms. I will not.)
And, while I’ve been talking for months about that submission going out in January… it may not. I’m realizing we have something going on almost every weekend in January. One of my cousins is getting married on our Anniversary, so we’re going to share our anniversary with my cousin, and we’ll be at a wedding that evening. So I don’t see it happening that weekend. The weekend after that there’s a coin show in Conroe that I want to go to so I don’t see it happening then. The weekend after that we’re going to be busy again… So, unless I bust this out right after New Years or on the Weekend of the 7th, the odds of me getting the paperwork done and getting these boxed up to go out before February seems to be near zero.

For a bit of relevant context, years ago when Ben was young, we used to watch some episodes of “Toddlers and Tiaras” on Hulu for stupid, white trash, entertainment while we were stuck at home being broke parents to a young kid. We used to make fun of the titles the girls would win like "Grand Supreme" and "Ultimate Grand Supreme," and "Mega Ultimate Grand Supreme."
Years later we still joke about those titles and joke about "Mega Ultimate Grand Supreme [whatever]."
In the course of looking at these coins with Shandy we got into a discussion of grades and the kinds of grades I'm hoping for with the graded set and that got me talking about how 60+ is "Uncirculated," and 63+ is "Choice Uncirculated," and 65+ is "Gem Uncirculated" and 67+ is "Superb Gem Uncirculated." I'm explaining this because I'm explaining that, ideally, I'd like this set to be 65+ or 67+, Gem or better. She hears that last one though and she cracks a joke about "Mega Ultimate Grand Supreme Uncirculated," and laughs. I just looked at her for a second like, "No. That's not cool.”

I keep getting wandering eyes with the Italian coins recently - old and pre-euro modern, raw and graded. In many cases they're not even things I especially want or like - not like that flying liberty coin - but I do like collecting coins (hoarding pretty disks of metal). One example being raw examples of the 1000 Lire coin issued from 1997-2001, before the adoption of the Lire. I've seen some and they look interesting but they're not super pretty or anything - they're solidly okay. They're bi-metallic like the 500 Lire and look closely related to the 500 Lire, but they don't have the connection to Shandy because they didn't start issuing these until she'd already been out of the country 3-4 years.

Shandy has been good at keeping me focused (in check). I show them to her and she's like, "It's nice, but I want to stay focused on our current set (the 500 L)," and so I let it go. It's almost like she has more discipline than I do or something... slightly annoying.
Speaking of Shandy though - She's mentioned a couple of times recently that she misses looking at the coins and picking the best one and discussing the flaws of each. I haven't been doing much of that recently because before we were doing that to pick coins to submit, and I still have to tackle that Zimbabwe submission, and I don't want to get too far... ahead of myself / dig a hole I'll never get out of... but I do like the idea of continuing to buy more lots of cheap raw coins and looking at them.
Who knows? At this rate this may be the new focus of my collecting efforts going forward. That could be fun. I may need to invest in more binders, pages, and flips, if it goes that way though. 🤔 Maybe a stronger book case too because those binders are heavy when they’re full.
With the idea of keeping the fun going though, she’s agree to take on a challenge with me: Before we send off the Z coin submission we’re going to look at each coin again and write down what we think each one will grade - I will probably also use this as a chance to pick the best of some coins and dates where we have 2 of the same and lean down the submission a little. With those grade estimates written down, we’ll see how close we came when the grades come back. She’ll have her guesses and I’ll have mine. We’ll have the already graded ones nearby to look at to help us make good SWAGs. I may never live it down if she does better than me though.  (Edited to add: She confirms. I will not.)
And, while I’ve been talking for months about that submission going out in January… it may not. I’m realizing we have something going on almost every weekend in January. One of my cousins is getting married on our Anniversary, so we’re going to share our anniversary with my cousin, and we’ll be at a wedding that evening. So I don’t see it happening that weekend. The weekend after that there’s a coin show in Conroe that I want to go to so I don’t see it happening then. The weekend after that we’re going to be busy again… So, unless I bust this out right after New Years or on the Weekend of the 7th, the odds of me getting the paperwork done and getting these boxed up to go out before February seems to be near zero.