Hello everyone, I have been an NGC member for a few years now, and a lurker on the chat boards.  I have never posted on there, or created a journal, but I wanted to create a journal to document my progress.  I recently realized that I had made a tremendous amount of progress this year on my collection of Mexican Libertads.  Like a lot of people, when I first stated collecting I didn't really have a focus.  I just bought a lot of random "junk", like silver bars and rounds, silver bullion coins from different mints around the world, and the occasional gold bullion bar or coin.  That all changed several years ago when I bought my first silver Libertad.  I was instantly hooked.  Over the last few years I stopped buying random stuff and when the budget allowed, made an effort to create a collection of Libertads.  Late last year I decided it was time to get serious about my collection (in a having some serious fun kind of way, lol).  My goals were to cycle through the junk from my early days of collecting and turn that into what I really wanted.  I also had to keep it "budget neutral", because when the wife sees too much money being spent on coins, its a bad day for me.  Now admittedly I have taken a loss on some of the random bullion, but I suppose that is the cost of education.  One highlight was getting a 1 oz gold American Eagle graded, which came back MS 69, and then selling it to raise money for a 2018 1 oz Gold Reverse Proof Libertad.  That was the best decision I've ever made when it comes to coins.  That was sent off and came back an RP 70, and it's the most beautiful coin!  I recently did an inventory check and realized I've added 30 coins to my collection this year so far.  By my standards that's a great year!  Also, my registry sets don't yet reflect my actual collection, because I have probably only 1/3 of my Libs that are graded.  That will be a goal for next year.  I hope to write often about my collection or Libertads in general.  So thanks to anybody who cares to read this, and if you want, leave a comment.  Until next time...