I have it!

Last week VUMC409 noticed that I was going to try and build a set of Australian Lunar dollars in MS69. Since he wanted to sell several 69s that he had after upgrading to 70s he offered the coins to me. Being the great guy that he is, he gave me a really great offer for buying all 6 of the coins that he had.

What he didn't know was just how good the timing of this was for me. I had actually been thinking about buying 2 coins for that set (1 of which was among what he was offering) and I probably would have acted on it in the next few days to a week. Then he came along with a much better deal on a per coin basis than I've found anywhere else.

Well, I mailed off payment which he received and sent out the coins on Monday. Wednesday I saw that the coins had been processed out of North Houston (the regional hub for the Postal Service) at around 5:30 AM. North Houston is maybe an hour to 90 minutes away from here and I thought surely the package would arrive at my P.O. box that day. My dorm (and most of my classes) is less than 5 minutes away (walking) from the town's main post office where my P.O. box is.

So I went at lunch, no box. Fine. I went back at about 3 PM after classes, no box. FINE! I went back at 5 PM, no box. DANG IT! In case you hadn't guessed by now I really wanted that box Wednesday and I couldn't figure out why the Post Office couldn't get it to me. Wednesday is the best day in my schedule to get to there because I have nice breaks in my schedule at the right times of day. Well, today, still determined to get that box ASAP, I ran back by the Post Office and the box had come! I got it!... And then, box in hand, I ran my off to catch the bus so I wouldn't be late to work (and I wasn't).

At work I showed them to my supervisor (She wanted to know what was with the box). She doesn't understand why I collect coins but after seeing these babies she's so jealous I think she could fall over dead. Normal people seem to have a very hard time understanding these coins. Are they really Australian? (No! They just say that to confuse you.) Why didn't you buy American coins? (If the US Mint could make these and have them not look like then I probably would) Are they just a dollar? *incredulously* (HELL NO!!! They're bullion.) How much they really cost invariably comes up and then people who will agree with you that they're beautiful can't understand why they're worth that much money, and they probably never will.

I have to say that these are absolutely stunning coins and I'm hoping to finish the set before too long. Thanks a lot, VUMC409! It would have taken me much longer to try and pull this together without you.