A week or so ago I thought a recently completed set would form the basis for a Journal entry given the interesting range of denominations, metals and mints. The basic set is made up of 12 coins and my set is currently comprised of ungraded coins and coins in both NGC and PCGS holders and as such is a long way from being suitable for the NGC Registry. It is a good start though as it does include some key dates in top grades.
However, whilst assembling the coins for a 'group photo' I found that
A couple of weeks ago now I received the award I'd referenced previously. In true 2020 fashion I got to receive a professional award in a Punisher tshirt and sweatpants.
Because the organization wanted good pictures with the newsletter we had to re-do this in a suit and I got the whole family in on it.
As the corresponding (and surviving) author, both plaques were sent to me and its my task to mail the other plaque(s) to the other author(s), or, in my case, to his family.
Well, we got the negative Covid test from my Nephew late Friday, but by then my wife and Sam were already at the ER because Sam gave us the scare of our lives when he stopped talking and we were worried he might be having seizures or some other issue and might have shunt failure. Two nights at the hospital later, short on a lot of sleep, we came back home on Sunday after a day of observation saying, "we'll watch for now, move up some of his other tests and appointments and see if we see any more
Yeah! The 1964-D FDI Kennedy half dollars graded by NGC has a population of 2000.
My lonely 1964-P FDI Kennedy half dollar deserves to be graded and attributed as a FDI as I have a President Johnson letter! I purchased this gift set from the Congressman's estate. I also have a provenance letter (not shown) showing the full-chain of legal ownership (Congressman (estate) to DrDarryl).
1. The date on the letter is the FDI.
2. The text of the letter states "...among the first...".
I don't intend this as a whine or a complaint - just want that out in front - but, having seen this, I wanted to comment on it here, this being a journal and a record of my thoughts and a chronicling of my activities here.
After 12 years of getting the "Best In Category" award in the 1932 mint set category, we've been bumped from the top spot in the rankings by a new set. For clarity - there has been a set that out scores us for years now (I think 5 or 6) but it has always been obscured / p
Presidential Numismatic Artifacts (aka PNAs) is a term that I coined that classifies a group of US Mint coins and medals gifted by or awarded by a sitting US President or through his direction. How does one prove the presidential connection of a US Mint coin or medal? The answer is with proper research and documentation. This journal entry presents PNAs from President Dwight D. Eisenhower (there are three other modern US Presidents).
The image below is of half dollar sized medal that was p
I finally found an acceptable 1860 P $5 half eagle to add to my 1860 mint set. Oddly the 1860 D (Georgia) issue if far more available. By mintage figures for the two issues, ~20k vs.~15k, are comparable. The Charlotte is in the 15K range and rarely seen while the San Francisco is at 21k specimens minted and a tough find. Here is my new addition...
John
another "setless" purchase
As I have posted and written about over the years, sometimes I make a purchase for the simple reason that I love beautiful coins. There is no "collecting" involved as there is no higher goal than ownership and enjoyment.
I got pretty lucky with this purchase also. The British Virgin Island bullion coin is an attractive design and I purchased the silver addition some months ago for a small case I have with ungraded, large silver coins. The gold gilt with rhodium fin
As I have mentioned my original goal in coin collecting was to assemble all the die numbers for the British sixpences from 1864 to 1879 which resulted in many other collectors questioning my sanity as there are about 600. So many years ago, having nearly acheived this goal which the acquisition of 100's of different die numbers my focus shifted to colonial coins and the Napoleonic period yet I have never quite shaken the die number challenge and always check auction listings although I have usua
When I first look at a coin, I often ask myself, "What's this coin trying to tell me about itself?" Sometimes that coin's story is in its date, mintage, mintmark, die variety, and metallic composition, to name a few. However, I almost always find my coins' design features far more interesting than its technical characteristics. If they say a picture is worth a thousand words, I want to know what my coins' allegorical images intend to communicate.
To help me research and understand the symbo
Yesterday was the Bday. I finally found out what Ben's present for me was and it was swords... a set of 6 foam swords. Which he has had great fun running around with and playing with, including with his mother while I'm working. I'm so glad that those are mine. Clearly. They don't hurt when you get hit with them though so I guess that is a form of gift. A form of one...
My in-laws gifted me an Uncirc 2020 SAE, which is nice - after some recent discussions here though and current silver pri
I posted on 1/12/2019 about winning the 2018 Journal award and mentioned that, pretty much at the same time as I found out about that, that I'd gotten a paper accepted for publication. I didn't really go into this at the time but it was a paper co-authored with my graduate advisor - who passed away on September 11, 2018. He's the person I decided to name Sam after. I didn't know it at the time but I posted that entry exactly 1 month before Sam's surprise early birth - the "first published" date
Over the last few weeks, I haven’t had much time to write blogs. This is because I’ve been working on my photography skills and, in particular, axial photography. I have learned a lot, and now I have several excellent examples of coins photographed using axial photography.
The first thing I did was to craft a holder for my glass reflector. Then I reinforced the edges of the glass with electrical tape to prevent the glass from accidentally shattering. For the holder, I used a cardboard box t
Greetings Collectors,
Sitting here at the desk looking at a couple new arrivals. However three of the four won’t be included in my set here because they’re in PCGS slabs. Still having trouble adjusting to the rule only NGC holders allowed. Only because one would like to be able to share ones entire graded collection. That’s only fair though. PCGS never allowed NGC coins at any time. Enough on that.
I will say for the record, imo, both NGC and PCGS are great accurate graders. In
A while back there was something going around that eBay, after this year I think, wouldn't allow coins, currency and bullion to be sold on the site.
I remember saying or thinking at the time that, if they made that rule change, I'd probably be done with eBay just because that's literally all I shop for there and I just wouldn't see a point in looking or shopping there most of the time if that happened.
Well, this week, as part of their 25th anniversary celebration, eBay sent me an emai
My wife ordered my birthday present about a week ago. She was trying to keep it quiet but then Ben saw her and wanted to "help" and gave it away in a big way. I think she ordered something for my Zimbabwe note set but I don't know for sure so this has me trying to limit / hold off on major purchases for the next couple of weeks until she gives it to me.
Ben has been very funny throughout this. First he insisted that he needed to get me a small present too that he had to pick out and then he
I've pretty much made up my mind that, before the year is out, I want to get my 10G set reholdered in scratch-resistant holders to harmonize the look of the set. I'm considering having them review the ones in old fatty holders to see if they might be able to pick up a point - this would be especially nice with the MS64 1887. I'm not sure how the best way to do this would be because, even if the grade doesn't change, I'd still want it cracked out and reholdered - There's just little point to me i
It’s been a while since I posted about a submission I dreaded to send but finally mailed to NGC in June. As of August, NGC posted the grades of the last two coins of a nine-coin submission.
This submission may have been the best I have ever sent. I divided the submission into four parts. The first is the WORLD-MODERN tier with three coins, followed by the WORLD-ECONOMY tier with two coins. Next is a single medal under the TOKEN-WORLD-VALUE tier, and finally, a three medal TOKEN-EARLY-BIRD t
Back on June 2nd I submitted 21 Icelandic Coin for grading that I have collected for a number of years and finally decided to have them graded and did very well with them. I also mentioned that I had around 30 more to send in as well . Its been nearly 3 months now and I sent in a total of 22 more coins.... Most of these coins are from the Republic era that span from 1946 to 1980. What I sent in was a bunch of 10 Aurar from 65 to 73 a few 1 Krona 61 70, 71, both 73's and to my delight a newly a
For about the last week or so Ben keeps saying that he needs things for his “collection.” He has a robot “collection.” His Legos are a “collection” now. His toys are a “collection.” He needs all my old dice for his “collection.”
I’m not sure where this came from, but I really don’t think it was from me. I don’t think I use the word “collection” around him very often.
I’m thinking he must have gotten this from one of his little shows he watches on Netflix – maybe even power rangers sinc
I would like to hear all opinions on how this could have been caused. There are no vise marks, no press marks and there are no other points from the reverse showing. I have heard all sorts of theories and would love to hear any and all.
Thank you for helping with this request.
My birthday is coming up. I never would have thought we'd still be isolating and limiting our contact with people for 6 months and I'd be looking forward to a birthday in isolation but... here we are.
This also means it's another one of those moments where my wife starts trying to figure out how she can give me a nice surprise without me knowing what it is or outright picking it myself. So I've been updating my Amazon wishlist for her and others in my family because I know they check it.
It is good practice that auction houses cite references for the lots they are selling however, and it may just be me, but this can sometimes make research difficult for a number of reasons.
1) What is the actual reference? Fortunately, some, but not all, auction houses list the references used but do not always state which one the abbreviation used in the lot description corresponds to. For example, using ‘P’ and then citing several books with titles/authors/publishers that could all be th
Last Reply:
11/24/2020