As a first entry, it's only befitting that I explain how I got into the numismatic hobby and why I choose to augment it with NGC's grading services. I grew up with my grandfather, but never knew my great-grandfather as he passed long before I was born. My great-grandfather was the first of us 3 that got into the hobby of collecting coins and used cardboard albums to display his collection. I do not know if he shared his collection to those outside of family nor do I know any of the stories behin
Last month I received a notice that the bank I stored my coins at was closing and I had until February 4th to vacate my safe deposit boxes. Fortunately, I was able to rent another box close by and for cheaper than the boxes I had. Having secured a new and bigger box, the next step was to transport the coins to the new location.
I was very uncomfortable transporting my coins from one location to the other and in particular standing at the teller window with my coins in a shoebox waiting to c
Technically speaking, my grandfather and great-grandfather's collection doesn't end as it lives on through mine. But for clarity, I'd like to include an entry on which chunk of the overall collection comes from whom. Dates are estimated off of when they passed, overlap occurs as I have multiples of coins graded, yet some multiples are hard to attribute to a specific relative because I was not able to retrieve such information.
Pre 1955 coinage to 1980: Great Grandfather.
1980 to 2015-
My wife was having a hard time deciding what to get me for our anniversary (1/15) so I suggested we could go back to that coin shop she was in about a month ago, look around together and see if we saw anything.
As I told her when we were driving there, I wasn’t necessarily committed to getting anything. It would just depend on if anything stuck out at me that was reasonably close to the appropriate price range we set for the occasion but I was going to be looking for something different tha
This is the second in a series of posts which highlight various standout pieces from my personal collection.
Today we're taking a look at my 1795 Middlesex-Forster's token, one of the first pieces purchased for my Symphony Set. You can view hi-res pictures here (or just enjoy them in the video!).
Obverse: Crown and date surrounded by musical notation for "God Save The King", which is also the melody used for "America (My Country, Tis of Thee)".
Reverse: "WM Forster. Violin, Tenor
Hi everyone. It's been a while but I have been very sick. Starting in May with surgery to six hours in September to six in December. I figure you have a right to know. First get P.C.G.S. out of here. There very liberal with there grading. Check the records. It's a disgrace. What I think is this is the first move in a take over by N.G.C. of P.C.G.S. They have had so many problems even giving our rewards to those who supposedly found The first W quarters. A cry of please send us your submissions
So, first off, thank you to NGC for the journal award!
When the announcement of what would be given out this year made no mention of the journal awards, I was thinking that meant there would be no journal awards this year - and I don't think I was alone in that assumption. Participation in the journals has dropped aggressively since 2017 and, given that, it certainly could have been an understandable move. I suppose it’s possible that it was their intent to do away with it, but then we pu
I was able to go to the FUN show this past Friday (the 10th), and it was probably the best time I’ve had at the show since I’ve been going. Living in Orlando has many advantages...and this is one of them! This was the biggest show that I can remember, with over 1000 booths. It was tough, but I saw it all in just over 3 hours. I was able to pick up a 2019 Libertad 5 piece silver proof set for a great price, along with 3 other coins that I needed for my collection. The gold panning people wer
The latest update on my Roman Empire NGC Ancients Custom Set is that I finished and posted my Owner's Comments for my ancient bronze follis featuring Roman Empress Galeria Valeria.
For this essay, I spent some time researching what appears to be the most widely cited primary source of information on Valeria, a book called De Mortibus Persecutorum written in 4th century AD by the imperial advisor Lactantius. Lactiantius' account is necessarily biased, yet even so provides some very i
First off, congratulations to all the registry participants and the winners of the 2019 registry awards. As for me, I won a Classic Set award for my Mexico City 8 reales Pillar Dollars of Charles III (1760-1771). This is my third major award and I had never posted about them in the past, but for this one I will make an exception. I want to highlight the wonderfully broad approach that the NGC judges have chosen in selecting sets for their awards. I haven't yet browsed through all of the othe
I considered buying 100 of these from the Mint and sending in a bulk submission to NGC so I could then sell them on eBay. With pre-sales for PF 70s at $97.95 from all the major bullion dealers, should be some decent profit, right? Then I ran the numbers... Ouch!
A couple of months ago I took a buffalo silver round out just to play around with. It goes missing in the living room shortly thereafter, never to be seen again, months later.
The other day Ben wants to have "big big monies," so I get out a fake "copy" silver eagle and give him that to play with. I figure, "Whatever, it's not even silver." Shortly thereafter he looses it in / around the couch and I can't find it. He's all bummed about it so, whatever, I give him another one. He looses it ag
I have made some offers to owners through Heritage to try to sneak out with a coin or two I want. I did get one that way, and I have sold one that way too. It's a nice feature. Usually my offers are ignored or rejected, and I have admittedly rejected most of the offers made to me. I am more of a collector than a dealer, and the coins I would sell usually were purchased pretty long ago when I wasn't as focused.
Anyways, I was browsing the recent offers because it is a good picture of the
So one of my stocking stuffers on Christmas morning was a small pocket magnifier that has a light built-in. I saw this and asked my wife, jokingly, “So is this because I’m slowly going blind?” She said, “No! It’s for your coins!” “… and the fact that I’m slowly going blind?”
In early 2016, right around the time Ben was born, I got a 5 mm corneal abrasion right in the middle of my right cornea – it almost split the cornea in half. I was lucky enough that it didn’t cost me use of the eye, but
I was fortunate enough to have purchased the 2019 enhanced SAE on opening day. I sent it in sealed mint packaging for the FDOI label and the COA number.
I am now told I cannot get a FDOI label. Why? If there was a 1 per household limit, did dealers send these in bulk to obtain one?
Here is just one listing from a familiar place:
“2019 S SILVER EAGLE REVERSE ENHANCED NGC PF 70 FIRST DAY OF ISSUE 5826281-003 OGP AND COA INCLUDED”
More than 10 available? I rest my case.
After the wonderful response to my previous Journal entry, the first in my Collection Highlights series, I decided to turn the idea into a video series as well. So from here on out, each Collection Highlight post will be presented as both a text Journal entry, and a short video like the one featured here.
This being the first video in the series, I hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think. Any feedback on information or features that should be added to future videos in this s
Made a quick unboxing video of my latest US Mint order. I sent most of it off to NGC yesterday for grading. I'll post a follow up video once I get the order back from NGC so everyone can see the grades I get.
I have communicated with another classic Thai coin collector on this board about the perils of buying raw Thai coins, if you hope for problem-free grades.
I have never sent them any raw Thai coins before, but took a shot on some Ebay auctions over the last few months. If the Rama 7 (smaller one bottom right) or one of the Rama 5
coins comes back MS anything (besides the MS61 PCGS breakout you see in there), this will have all been worth it.
Among the Rama V bahts (the one
This is the first in a new Journal series I'll be working on called "Collection Highlights". I also have a custom registry set where all of these highlights will be included for easy viewing in the future.
This series features standout coins from my collection as I work to rebuild my registry sets after selling the majority of my collection to fund a move across the country and the purchase of a new home (this particular piece was one of the few that I just couldn't let go).
I have pho
This writing is not intended to anger anyone but rather to spark conversation regarding NGCs decision to allow PCGS graded coins to be added to NGC Registry competitive sets. In my opinion sometimes corporate decisions are made by bowing to the demands made by the loudest voices and not by what is right. I believe that it is far more difficult to obtain a higher grade in any coin with NGC than PCGS. This being said PCGS graded coins will be allowed to compete in NGC registry sets and given the s
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01/18/2020