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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.

Lol, So some context to this great feat of mine. I recently asked for the registry team to include a new Lincoln set that does not require the varieties to be included in it. Nothing against those who like collecting the varieties but its just not my thing. To my surprise today I noticed that NGC created the set that I had asked for! So I jumped in and created the very first set and am sitting in the number one spot; I have no doubt that as soon as the big guns spot the new set they will leapfrog over me and I'll end up in the 6 or 7 spot as I am in most of the Lincoln sets. But I can say that for once I have the top Lincoln set in one category no matter how short lived that claim ends up being. I think I should be drinking a brandy in a sniffer glass with a big stogie, tomorrow its back to beer.

It took me nearly six months to decide what to send, but I have finally convinced myself to submit a few of my better raw pieces for grading. This submission is a bit complex as it spans seven invoices and requires a few special requests. Luckily, my contact at NGC was more than willing to help. As many of you know, I have a fair number of Soho pieces that have retained their original shells. When possible, I have made an effort always to have the shells encapsulated alongside the coin in a multi-coin holder. Doing so allows me to ensure that the shells are less likely to be separated from the coin. After all, it would indeed be a shame to lose such a unique piece of Soho history that has been carefully curated over the last two centuries. In total I am only sending in 17 pieces for grading, but there are 43 items listed on the submission forms when including the shells. On any note, I wanted to share the pieces I am sending in (at least the ones I have pictures of). 1. 1799 Great Britain proof Farthing with shells 2. 1791 Jean Jacques Rousseau medal – proof with shells 3. 1800(11) Westminster Fire Office Medal – proof with shells 4. 1804 Bombay Presidency Pice – Multicoin Reholder - As can be seen in the picture - this slab looks like a game used NHL hockey puck 5. 1803 Madras Presidency 10 Cash - Multicoin Reholder - Another hockey puck holder 6. 1808 Madras Presidency 10 Cash - Multicoin Reholder - And yet another hockey puck holder 7. 1805 Ireland proof Penny with shells 8. 1793 Board of Agriculture Medal – proof with shells 9. 1800 George III Preserved from Assassination Medal –Proof with shells 10. 1803 Boydell's National Edition of Shakespeare's Works - with shells 11. 1802 Peace of Amiens Medal – with shells 12. 1793 Death of Gustavus III – proof with shells 13. 1793 Execution of Louis XVI of France – Final farewell – proof with shells 14. 1805 Bank of England $1 obverse die trial – proof 15. 1753 England ½ Penny 16. 1754 England Farthing 17. 1917 Costa Rica 10 Centavos Thank goodness for the $500 grading credit from the NGC registry awards last year. That combined with the account credit for my membership will help, but I will still have a relatively substantial bill coming my way once it is all done. I will be sure to post updates as they become available. Feel free to do a GTG if you feel so inclined.

While I don't have a must do or list of things that I feel are must do items for my numismatic journey, I have some goals for my collection. One such goal has been to include an uber high grade classic coin to the collection. This has never been a high priority or something that I felt I "had" to do just a want list item that I figured I would find someday that would not only fit this minor goal but be very nice upgrade to one set or the other. I think that I always expected that would be a new coin for my Lincoln set, given that it is a very large, long set I guess that it seemed the most likely set to find one that was within financial reach. There are tons of MS68 and MS69 graded modern Lincoln coins but the most available MS68 classic coins in that series are the steel cents and they still sell for right around 1K on average, doable but not really the coin that I was motivated to go after at those prices. However recently on GC I saw an auction for a 1940-D Mercury dime in MS68FB, not only is this a great classic design coin but it was also a numerical upgrade for several sets. So I did as usual and threw in a $20 bid to place the coin on my watchlist, I check recent auction results for this grade and figured that it would likely sell for more than I was prepared to go. A couple of days before the end of the auction I checked on the status and was surprised to see the price still rather low. Ok that does happen sometimes and then a flurry of action in the last hour pushes the prices up near or beyond average. So I decided what I was willing to go, which was below the recent averages; and place my final bid fully expecting to be out bid in those last hours. I checked my emails after the auction deadline and low and behold I had won for just under my high bid! I thought that is great, and then the doubts start to creep in. Why did I win for less that recent average sales; did I miss something that others saw? Did I just buy a dog coin, what did I just do! Well nothing to do but wait for the package to arrive and see the coin in hand. Fast forward to yesterday when the package came, I can now say that I very happy with my new coin, not a dog at least in my opinion. I suspect that because this coin is blast white played some part in the lower than average selling price, had it been toned I expect it would have been much more expensive. Also the lack of a CAC bean may have been a factor to some buyers at this grade level, not a deal breaker for me. So there it is, a minor bucket list item checked off with what I find to be a very beautiful coin with one of the most attractive classic designs. The only photos I have are the GC one's for now.

With my anniversary present now in hand I have reached a milestone that I’d thought about a number of times over the years. I bought my first gold coin in 2007 - an MS70 graded 1/4th oz gold eagle - as a way of celebrating my 21st birthday that didn’t involve getting drunk - which didn’t interest me much at the time (or now, really). The idea of “first gold” seems to be special for a lot of people - people will often post about their first gold purchase in the “SilverBugs” subreddit. It is definitely an interesting and cool experience to hold, see and own a gold coin - especially for the first time - especially if it’s old, classic gold and not NCLT (but we’ll leave that argument for other venues and times). For a long time that coin sat in an NGC 20-coin box with a bunch of other, mostly silver coins, and it was just joined by other gold coins as I gradually added a couple more. I always thought in those days that it would be a very long time before I could hope to fill a 20-coin NGC box with just gold coins. When I got up to about 10 coins, I broke them out into their own box - with a lot of empty room in it. I used the extra slots to separate out the NCLT from the 10G coins and other classic gold and had them in pods / groups in the box. And I that point I wondered if I would ever reach a point where the box was full and there were no more gaps or spacers in the box. Turns out the answer to “how long?” would be about 13 years - from Oct 2007 to Jan 2021. The box is now full of graded gold coins. (Yeah. It's 19 to one, which is probably roughly representative of my collection of graded coins as a whole - but... no bias here. ) Granted, most of them are small, with the smallest being about 9% of an ounce. It is not a box full of nothing but double eagles. It is not 20 oz of gold. But, still, it is 20 gold coins - many 100+ years old - which feels like no small accomplishment. Looking at them laid out like that also makes it strike home for me just how fortunate I am in some aspects of my life - in many aspects of my life, really. It will be an accomplishment of a different sort and on its own when and if I ever decide to (and convince my wife to agree to) buy a double eagle or similar, larger gold coin. The largest I have so far is about a quarter of an ounce. The progress towards this goal has definitely been loaded more towards the back end / the last few (~6) years. Even with the costs of raising children and a long stint of unemployment, the version of me that has a PhD and a full-time job has found it easier to afford such luxuries than the version of me that was a graduate student on a monthly stipend.

Today I received my proof type II silver eagle and it is gorgeous, encapsulated in it's OGP with certificate of authenticity, from the West Point mint. I now have proofs from both San Francisco and West Point mints. I am happy with my collection overalll and have just eight more dates/years before my collection is complete in terms of years of issue. After that will come variations thereof, but a lot more slowly! I spent a lot of time and cash to get started but I feel I will have something worth my while and maybe even more much later down the road.

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/

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. 😃

Lately, there has been much criticism and suspicion about the length of time it takes to get your coins graded. And my recent submission is no different. Like me, at the end of the day, when all your coins have been returned, you will probably ask yourself if it has been worth it? In the end, I weighed my worth against the grades I got, the price I paid, and the wait I had to endure. On April 22, 2021, I mailed a 13-coin submission to NGC. On August 10, I received the last of my coins back in the mail. In that one mailing, I had four separate submissions graded in the following order. The first two were Christa McAuliffe commemorative coins graded under the US-modern tier. The next was a silver 5-ounce Tuskegee Airmen Quarter in an oversize holder. The largest was an 8-coin submission under the world-economy tier. Finally, the last two coins I received back were two coins under the world-modern tier. In the end, the cost was never going to be an issue because of last year’s award as one of three awarded journalists. This only left me with two considerations which were in a manner of speaking linked together. The wait was worth it if I liked the grades, and if I didn’t like them, it wasn’t. Most of the coins were related to my 1868-70 Spanish Provisional Government set and my 1933-38 Second Spanish Republic set. The others were new purchases and a few that had been lying around in flips. Having all those grading credits tempted me to send in coins that I otherwise might not of. However, I had a duplicate raw coin that I considered sending in with the submission to sell. In the end, I determined not to send it because I thought it might get a details grade. Why waste the credit if I didn’t need to? Instead, I’ll save it for my 2021 Morgan and Peace Dollar. This turned out to be a good decision because, in 13 coins, I had no detailed grades and three top-pops, of which two were 70’s. Most of the other grades were reasonably expected, with only a few exceptions. The following is a chart detailing my hope, my expectation, and the final grade: Coin Hope Expected Final Grade 2021 UNC Christa McAuliffe 70 69 69 2021 PRF Christa McAuliffe 70 69 69 2021 SP Oversize Tuskegee Airmen 70 69 70 1947-S Philippine MacArthur Peso 65 64 63 1870(70) SNM Spanish Provisional 50C 20 15 12 1870(70) SNM Spanish Provisional Peseta VF VF 25 1870(73) DEM Spanish Provisional Peseta 58 AU 55 (Top-Pop) 1934 2nd Spanish Republic 25C 65 64 64 1937 2nd Spanish Republic 5c 65 64 63 1937 Menorca 25C (Spanish Civil War) 64 63 63 1938 2nd Spanish Republic 25C 67 66 63 2019PM B.V. Islands Silver $1 Una and the Lion 69 69 68 (rev proof) 2020 France 2E Proof Medical Research 70 69 70 Overall, my expectations were met with a minimum of disappointments and three top-pops! Was this worth the wait? Determine for yourselves, but as for me, I think this was worth the wait. Gary.

I have been collecting since I was 8 years old and turn 61 in 2 weeks. I had the usual starts and stops but for the most part my collecting was always there for me. I got more serious about a few series in 2013 when I got a new job and needed to escape to my coins. By way of back ground I am a Trauma Surgeon and have seen suffering, death and dying on a daily basis. Coins have ben my escape, my safe place, after God it is were I go for peace (this sounds weak and whiny but it is what it is.) My first passion is as a type collector of pre-1964 US coins. My set is not number 1 nor will it be but respectable at number 4 currently (https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/90973/). I got interested in putting together a set of nice Liberty Standing Quarters (SLQ) in an album, and did, but along the way picked up certified coins that I broke out for the album and the some that I just could not break out... Thus started my SLQ registry set (https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/138325/) at a less respectable #12. With this set I have sought eye appeal and full heads (holder designated or not) over grade numbers and points. i.e. my 1919-D is a 58 FH that I replaced a 64 flat head with. And I love the 20 Cent series, short and sweet. I spent 7 years chasing my 1877 with cameo appearance, now #3 (https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/185444/). My point is that the registry Mark Salzberg and the great staff of the NGC registry have reenabled my passion of albums, both the cardboard and the virtual (registry.) The NGC Registry is like a virtual Dansco or Whitman or Intercept Shield album. I find that for me the coin is only fully in the NGC Virtual album (registry) once I have photographed it and placed a cropped photo in the set on which I am working. The decision to again accept PCGS in addition to NGC makes NGC in general and Mark Salzberg in particular the bigger and better grading company, registry and man/collector. My main point is that with 53 years of collecting NGC has been instrumental in helping me to keep collecting and my wits about me. Thank you. Thank You Mark ,Thank You Registry staff and Thank You NGC for being inclusive (not PCG exclusive) and fostering our great hobby. How did I get to # 7, very slowly with no goal to get there. John

So, unlike with the PMG plaque, which arrived on 2/27 - much to my shock – I can’t really call this one a surprise in the mail. I’d seen other’s posting about getting theirs on Monday and Tuesday, so I knew the arrival of this package was probably imminent. Still, it was great to get it. My home office and my windows sit almost directly above the front door to the house, so I heard the carrier scanning the barcodes and the beeping as it was dropped off and I wondered in that moment if that’s what it was because I wasn’t expecting anything else in the mail today. I didn’t open it right away. I took it upstairs and stuck it in the bedroom to wait until after the kids were asleep. I will likely repeat what I did last year and try to get a shot of the two boys together this year holding the two plaques for this year now that I have both, but I wanted to get a minute and just enjoy opening this and looking at it in peace myself. I opened the PMG plaque with Sam around and it took a while before he let me have it back. So, here’s the coin: A MS64 1881-S Morgan, which will be quite a partner / buddy for my MS64 1882-S Morgan. I'm now ranked in the top 1,700 for Morgan sets in the registry. It's straight to the top now! #1 set, 2021 awards! I had guessed that the coin would be a 1 or 2 ounce graded silver NCLT from 2020. I was wrong and very pleasantly surprised. Fenntucky Mike posted an image of his full slab and (unsurprisingly) looks like all these Award Winner coins have the same 7-digit invoice number and they’re numbered 001 through… 50? I think? He got number -008 and I have -022. Gary appears to have -034.I wonder who got -001? Who got the last / highest number. I'm sure it was all random but it is funny to think about. (Edited to add this bit, which I'd said as a comment elsewhere) Honestly, the sheer number of coins they had to give away - and the unstated expectation that everyone would be getting the same / mostly the same thing - is the main reason I was REALLY expecting the coin to be 2020 NCLT, just because those would fit because of the year and would be easy to get in an arbitrarily large number in the same basic grade / condition (69/70).They really surprised me with this one, managing to give 50+ people MS64 Morgans from San Francisco from just a couple of years, but, as Gary said, they are more common dates. Even then, I really wonder if it was at all "interesting" to round them up and how they went about it - Did they go into the market for RAW coins until they had enough MS64s? Did they buy some of their previously graded MS64's on the market? A little of both? When the PMG plaque arrived I posted a shot of the 5 together and Fenntucky Mike said something along the lines of I’d need another or a bigger shelf soon. I shifted some things around, cleaned up my desk, and popped over to Michael’s to buy another stand last month, so here is my proof. I made it work (for now). If NGC or PMG are nice enough to give me something next year I'll cross that bridge and deal with that “problem” when the time comes. I also got the new certificates in the mail over the weekend. So far, I’ve managed to keep track of all the certificates I’ve gotten since 2016 – including now 5 certificates for the 10G set for all the years since my marriage and Ben's birth.. Thanks again to NGC! Thanks again for those who read these and say they like it / what I write. The version of myself that Joined the registry in 2007, the version of myself that started this journal as a 20 year old, did not, and would not have imagined this. Not what’s sitting on my desk hutch now, not my life as it is now, not my wife or my sons, not this past year. I’m not done yet! More to come! Side note, but one of Shandy’s current obsessions is our next housing situation. With our current lease up on 3/31/2022 she’s looking to move us closer to her parents for more access to free baby-sitting and more date nights. So there’s a good chance that, if I win anything next year – be it plaques or certificates – they’ll be delivered to the new address / the new home or subject to mail forwarding. But we’re hoping that will be the last home – for the foreseeable future anyway. She was looking at this last night even! I think Ben’s Beyblade collection now numbers 19 – with three more seemingly lost forever in some magical void that only children can access in some 1-way capacity. I’m pretty committed to not buying more but he does get a weekly allowance now so what ne does with his allowance is his business!

Most veteran numismatists won’t hesitate to help new collectors learn about our hobby and I’m no exception. I frequent a lot of coin discussion boards on the Internet and have witnessed the struggles and frustrations of the so-called “newbies” as they begin their journeys into this complex and intimidating past time. From my observations, one of the biggest hurdles that a lot of new collectors face is that age old narcissistic dilemma of “How do I make myself look like an expert when I’m new to the hobby?” If social media has fostered anything, it is the extreme importance for many of having high self-esteem and receiving overwhelming approval (i.e., likes) from the folks they see as peers, even if they may be completely unworthy of such accolades. Well, I’m here to help, because I’ve witnessed some newbies rise to the occasion and prove their worth on the world stage just by mastering a few key phrases that make them look like wise rulers within this vast Hobby of Kings. If you’re a new collector and you are jealous or intimidated by the knowledge garnered from decades of study by seasoned numismatists, just keep the following list of observations handy and use them in your responses to questions and comments on any coin forum. If you see a thread where a forum member uses the word “penny” to describe a U.S. coin, ignore whatever the actual subject matter of the posting is and quickly correct the poster by pointing out that the proper term for such a coin is “cent.” You can even elaborate that the term “penny” should only be used to describe British coins, even though the U.S. Mint often uses the vernacular “penny” in its product descriptions. Similarly, if you see a posting about Buffalo Nickels or Mercury Dimes, do not hesitate to insist that the image on the nickel is a bison and that the subject on the dime is not a Roman God. Even though these particular coins have been referred to as Buffalo Nickels and Mercury Dimes ever since they’ve been in circulation, that doesn’t make it technically right and you need to steadfastly emphasize that conclusion. Moving onto quarters, when the United States entered World War I in 1917, the U.S. Mint covered the chest on the Standing Liberty Quarter with chain mail, indicating that this country was ready for battle. But don’t let this obvious politically motivated design change prohibit you from claiming that it was done solely out of moral outrage by the public over the bare breast seen on the 1916 version of the quarter. Even though nudity has been depicted on coins and medals for centuries, the debunked story of the bare breast controversy is much sexier than the boring WWI explanation. One of the first things a new collector will hear or see in print is “Do Not Clean Your Coins.” It is your solemn duty as an expert to expound this critical knowledge no matter what the circumstance or situation may be. If someone implies in a posting that they may run a coin under a water faucet because they dug it out of the ground, you need to reply immediately with a strongly worded chastisement reminding the person to NEVER EVER clean a coin. Even though some Third-Party Grading services will professionally “conserve” unsightly or dingy-looking coins for a price, you still need to stick to your proverbial guns and shoot down anyone else’s attempt to clean a coin. Speaking of Third-Party Grading (TPG) services, you no doubt have seen the sales premiums recorded for coins with certified grades encapsulated in plastic slabs. Although you very likely have never attempted to send one of your coins to a TPG, that should not stop you from recommending that others submit their coins to be professionally graded. If someone posts an image of a nice-looking modern coin online and requests comments on its condition or eye appeal, it behooves you to explain to the poster that it’s not possible to offer an informed opinion of the grade based on the photograph and you must advise that the coin be sent in for professional grading (even if the cost of the grading service far surpasses the value of the coin). Now let’s say you read a posting where a collector provides an image of a slabbed coin and excitedly explains that it was the final piece needed to complete his/her collection. Chances are the coin is very valuable and rare, since it had eluded the collector for so long. Consequently, you need to find fault with the coin, since it is likely not a high grade - or may even be damaged in some way. Although you may never be able to acquire such a coin, it is important for you to encourage your fellow collectors to strive for excellence in their collecting goals. Sometimes a collector will post an odd-looking or potentially rare coin and ask if other forum members believe it to be authentic. In this case, it is especially important for you to ignore the responses from other members and respond unequivocally that the coin is most definitely a fake. Also, memorize the letters “PMD” (it doesn’t matter what the acronym stands for) and use them to respond to any post inquiring about a potential error coin. Remember: Nothing expresses your expertise more in the collecting arena than telling another collector that their potentially valuable coin is actually worthless. There are many avenues for collectors to locate coins for their collections, including coin shows, coin clubs, coin shops and the Internet. Of course, no source is perfect in all circumstances, so it is important for you to point out any obvious faults and provide caution whenever possible. Remind your fellow collectors that most dealers will rip them off, that most collectors only have junk to trade, and that the Internet is full of scammers. Also, be sure to use derogatory terms like “feebay” and “regretsy” when referring to eBay or Etsy online marketplaces. Although you may have never read a coin book or periodical in your life, that shouldn’t stop you from frequently using the old adage, “Buy the book before you buy the coin,” especially when you want to mentor a young collector. If anyone responds by asking you to recommend a specific book, simply say the Red Book. And remind others that the hobby is intended to be fun and that there’s no need to get offended by satire.

So I'm probably going to come off like a bit of a "super judger" (as my wife puts it) while also preaching to the choir a bit, but I wanted to post about the work I've been doing on my Half Cent set recently. I said recently that my wife gave me a 1955 Rhodesian Half Cent, following up on the 1957 and 1958 she'd given me at Christmas, buying things I'd put on my watch list. Putting this coin in my set put it in the #1 spot in the category. And so, it was a #1 ranked set for me - with none of my own photos, just NGC photos, no set banner image, no set description and no coin descriptions. This happened in large part because I hadn't been focusing on this - I'd been focusing on buying and working on coins for another set that I'm also researching at the moment and I'm going to build it out as a phase 3 to what I've done with Zimbabwe and Venezuela. But then this new set snuck up on me, going from 20% complete and rank 5 to 80% complete and rank 1, driven completely by my wife, who knew I liked them and had heard me talking about them. But once it was #1, I really felt a need to table some of the other stuff for a while, get pictures of these, and build out a presentation for the set. Because - I really think, if you made a #1 ranked set, you should make it worth looking at and fun to look at if you're at all able too - no shade intended at those that can't get a good photo of a coin, perhaps just because they don't have the equipment. But it is just so much nicer to click on a #1 ranked, 100% complete set and see gorgeous, lustrous, detailed, close-up photos. And I love that NGC made it easy to pop-in their verification photos... but that's photos are just not as good as what many of us can produce and they often do not do a good job of showing off the coin. Those photos are produced in a quick, generic, assembly line kind of way and you're not going to get the best images of a particular coin unless you're taking your time with each coin - something NGC just can't afford to do unless you're paying them an extra fee for their high-end photos. And so, that's what I've done and built and at this point the set presentation is more or less finished and built. I have at least 1 more coin description to get to, as I'm about to get to. Getting the 1955 meant I only had one more coin - the 1956 - left to get to complete the set. So getting that coin moved up my priority list in a big way after the 14th of last month. As I started looking into building a presentation for the set, one of the things I like to look at and reference is the mintage for each year. And that brought something to my attention - the 1956, the only coin I hadn't acquired, the only coin I hadn't even really seen for sale, is also the lowest mintage year with only 480,000 made that year. The next lowest had 720,000 made - 50% more - and all the other years were in the 1-2.5 million range. And, coincidentally, as I was looking at all of this and figuring all this out, a seller I've bought several of these Rhodesian coins from listed a 1956 in MS65RB. For reference, there are no coins at MS66 or above presently, there's a single MS65RD graded by NGC and only about 3 MS65RBs. So, this was one of the better NGC-graded examples. So I immediately wanted that coin, and I have some hobby money saved up and I was ready to bid aggressively to get it, since it was an auction. Because, I'm not sure how long I might have to wait to see another one this good - maybe not long, maybe quite a while. Turns out I didn't need to worry - no one else bid and no one fought me for it. But the set is now complete. I won the coin last weekend, and it arrived on Wednesday. I took some time last night to get pictures taken and edited to go with the pictures I took of the others last week. And so, here it is. I just need to get that last description finished. And so the next post will probably focus on what I've been working on now that this is done.

Here is another coin that Mark recently shot photos of for me. This one I was able to get good photos of myself but not as sharp or with with the subtle color showing as well.

Well, NGC and PMG announced the awards today around lunch time. Let me first say Congrats to Mike. I was happy to see so many familiar names, but I was most happy to see his name pop up on both the NGC and PMG side. Also congrats to many of the others I've often seen on the forums: The Welsh Dragon, ChrisInJesup, Physics-fan3.14, libertad1998, lehigh96, Ray USMC,... Hopefully I'm not missing anyone there but, gosh, it is a long list these days. NGC is increasingly generous on that front. But, in saying that, please don't think I'm marginalizing the accomplishment - there's like 13,000 users and they give out about 45-50 plaques a year and I think only 1-2% of users have ever gotten a major award in the ~20 year history of the awards. So, Congrats! It's a cool thing. I am very happy to get a New Best Presented Award for my Venezuela set! I really was not thinking that would get a Best Presented this year. I thought If I got a Best Presented it might be for the 500 Lire set. I thought if that Venezuela set would get something it would be a Best New Set. - Don't ever think I have a crystal ball, I'm often wrong. However, the 500 Lire set did not win this year, so Mike's crystal ball also clearly is not perfect either, at least this year. And, now, instead of waiting until my membership renews in June, I need to get on getting the rest of the coins for that set ready to go in. Or... I might end up waiting until June anyway and spending the Reward Credit and the Membership Renewal Credit at the same time. Time to finish that set and have a set so nice and dominant it sits on the top spot for the next 10 years, right? The judges got me chuckling a bit this year with the comment about "Revenant documents the circuitous ways in which he built his collection." I mean, admittedly, I do drone on about how these sets were built in the coin descriptions. I do often wonder if I drone on and belabor this a bit too much and it might lead to audience tune-out . At the same time, the lengths that I have gone through to build these sets (Zimbabwe and Venezuela) are the main reason why I think they might not have a serious challenger for the top spot in the category for a long time - at least on the NGC side. On the PMG side, thanks to certain specific dealers, there's enough graded material to make those much more approachable. But, on the coins side, if you want to build these sets out, you can't just open your wallet. You have to do the work - at least for now. This may change in the future. You haven't heard from me much lately because December was full of, among other things, kids being home sick all day with colds and such. But, I'm also shifting to a lower gear for now on the coin and note collecting side. Part of this is just because I've mostly finished most of my main projects for now - I just need to send in some coins to fill some holes in the 500 Lire and Venezuela sets. But, I don't know that I'm going to have a lot to talk about until and unless I find some cool new thing to build out in some epic way and add written and photographic flourishes to. I do have a few ideas... Shandy did surprise me on the 25th however with 2 new Rhodesian Half Pennies. That's a nice little set to build but emphasis is on little - it's only 5 dates / 5 coins and I now have 3 of them. But I may be emphasizing trying to get the last 3 coins to finish a half penny and a penny set from that last period where Zimbabwe was still part of the Commonwealth of Nations. I'm also considering messing around with ~1970s era Rhodesian cents from the Civil War era - the civil war lasted like 15 years... which sounds... hideous. Another contender might be spinning off from those Dancing Elephants (Rhodesian Pennies) and building an Elephant themed set. I recently rain across a 1941 Liberian Cent design with an elephant on it. From what I was seeing (haven't confirmed) I think it might have been struck in the US, at the PA mint, which immediately made me think Coin928's set / collection.

Summer 2022 has ended with a couple of numismatic events that I thoroughly enjoyed. The first was the ANA summer show in Chicago. The other, just this week, was my coin club’s annual picnic. Both were significant and, for that matter, the year’s numismatic highlights. First, there is nothing like a major coin show for buying new coins, viewing educational displays, making new friends, and catching up with old friends. The annual ANA Worlds Fair of Money is one of the year’s best shows, and whenever it is in Chicago, I try to attend. This year instead of driving to Chicago, I took the bus my coin club chartered. There is nothing like riding 2-plus hours with your club friends talking coins. Furthermore, riding to Chicago on the bus was much cheaper than driving. Once there, I took care of business first. I went to the US Mint area to buy the just-released Liberty silver medal. Desiring the ANA provenance, I took the medal to NGC with several other submissions for grading. Because the medal went on sale Thursday and I went to the show on Friday, I didn’t know if one would be available when I got to the show, so I ordered one online Thursday. As an aside, I found the online ordering process with the US Mint much better than in the past. No hang-ups with the website and shipping that same day. It doesn’t get much better than that. Now, if I’m going to whine about how messed up the US Mint is for placing orders, I ought to let them know when things are working as they ought. Later that afternoon, I told the new US Mint director in person how pleased I was with the latest ordering experience. The smile on her face beamed from ear to ear. After window shopping dealer tables and viewing displays, I was tired and had to sit down. I eventually stopped by the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists table. Having introduced myself as a fellow PAN member, I had a pleasant conversation with W. Thomas Corey. We mainly talked about other PAN members and persons I thought he should know. I also attempted to visit ANA member World_Coin_Nut’s table, but he was away at the time. However, I had a brief but pleasant conversation with his wife. Overall, I had a nice afternoon and enjoyed chilling on the bus ride home. Currently, member dues for my coin club are $5 per year. Attending the club’s picnic means I get more from my annual dues than I paid. The club paid for subs, chips, and a cookie for my wife and me. Oh, and I paid for my drinks which amounted to two bottles of bottled water. I often wonder where my club gets the money for all the club activities I take advantage of. Then I remember that my club hosts two regional coin shows a year. One of the highlights of the annual picnic is the BINGO games we play for coin-related prizes donated by a generous local coin dealer. There were 8 games to be played by 30 people in attendance, with one grand prize. The grand prize this year and in past years has been a small gold coin, usually a 1/10 ounce gold eagle. As was pointed out by the member calling the game, there would be only 8 winners and 22 losers. My wife and I always brace for the worst. Last year we won NOTHING ☹. Still, we left with a smile on our faces having had a good time. Each game increases the odds for the losers since the winners are ineligible to play after they win. However, everyone plays the last game for the grand prize. As fate would have it, my wife finally won something this year. She won a 50 State Quarters Coin & Die Set. The set included a Kentucky State Quarter with the die that struck it and a COA with all the pertinent information about the die. The quarter has a considerable amount of residue on the coin’s surface. This all begs to question of how it got there. One clue is found in the COA, which states that the accompanying quarter is “one of the first acceptable production coins struck with this die.” I am guessing that the planchet wasn’t washed or something of that sort. That brings me to the final BINGO game for a 1996, 1/10-ounce, $5 gold coin. The game started very slowly for me. However, since it was a full card game, I had plenty of time to catch up. After about ¾ of the way through, I started hitting all the numbers on the card. Finally, I was down to one number, hoping nobody else would call BINGO. The following number was called, and I yelled BINGO! I had just won the gold coin! My wife and I beat the odds this year and brought two of eight prizes home. It seems as if it’s feast or famine for us! And that’s OK. It’s all about fun and fellowship anyway! Ultimately, I realized that it’s more fun to yell BINGO than to take home a prize. To have to fill a full card was very satisfying. It made winning that much sweeter! Finally, if anyone wants to know the name of the generous dealer who donated the prizes, please send me a personal message. Otherwise, the $5 gold coin should cover next year’s dues! Gary

Borrowing the title from that line in "Starship Troopers." Anyone else remember that movie? I hear it's 25 years old now? Anyway... I feel like I teased this concept months and months ago - probably close to a year ago now - but I never really delivered on it: I feel like I very much survive on a kind of "one step at a time" incrementalism some days. I got the coins back, I got them in the set. I uploaded new descriptions a while after that. Got new pictures posted a couple months after that. put these in the case a month or so after that, and now I finally drag out all the notes and the plaques during nap time today and took this picture. So there it is - my latest attempt at giving a "Best Presented" Registry set a physical presentation that lives up to the digital one. And I do look at it in person and in the picture with a lot of pride after about 3 years and a lot of effort to make it a reality. Some of the coins have "company" and some have "corporation' on the labels for NGC's name I think but I very much view the visual match of the slabs as part of the physical presentation for the sets. I just think it makes the set look better in person - going back to my justification for my "sin" of killing those 25 year old fatty slabs that some of my 10G set was in before 2020. The title of the post comes from the fact that, as I was setting this up, I couldn't help but think, if this was set-up at a table at a coin show, with or without the awards, would seeing the coins and notes like this make you want to come up, check it out, and learn more about them? The case has an extra (24th) slot in it that I'm currently using to let the case store both of the $2 bond coins that came back as MS69s from that submission. I posted on the PMG side about the fact that Zimbabwe has announced they're coming out with new 1 ounce bullion coins to sell as inflation hedges. It breaks my heart that they're 1 ounce because I can't just casually throw down $1750-1900 for a coin, but I would have loved to have gotten one of those and used it to fill that 24th slot with something unique. Though alternatively I could buy and include one of these old 1989 silver rounds like the one Mike has recently posted an image of - assuming NGC would grade it. I don't know if they have ever graded one or if the "gradability" of those has been tested or confirmed. And it would need to be graded to work in this display. About 3 weeks ago I said on the PMG side that I was drawing up the forms to (finally) make a submission of Venezuelan coins and Italian coins to further my 500L set and to get that Venezuelan hyperinflation coin set off the ground. About 2 weeks after that I finally get the coins in flips with the right labels and bound them up and I'm working this weekend on finally boxing them up and printing a mailing label Like I said, progress one very small step at a time! The new submission is going to actually be very similar to the last one. The last one was 22 Zimbabwe coins with 7 Italian coins. This one is going to be 22 Venezuelan coins paired with 6 Italian coins - 3 500L hole-fillers and 3 1986 coins to help me build out that year set. I think for now I'm going to hold off on grading another 2003 $10 Zimbabwe coin. The one I had looks better than the AU58 I have graded but I still think it would do MS62-63 at best and I think for now I just need to hold off and see if I can find better options for the $10 and $25 coins, letting those AU58s hold down the fort for now. Edited to add: I am aware that turn-around times on submissions have come down quite a bit in the last few months. But part of my concerns about getting this submission out and back stems from the desire to have time to get descriptions posted and pictures taken and uploaded. And that process sometimes takes a while or takes a while for me to find time to do it. So ideally I'd like to get the coins back well before December's deadline to have time to get the presentation on the registry sets up to snuff.

On April 19, 2022, the Madison County Coin Club held its regular monthly meeting in Huntsville, Alabama. The MCCC is a smaller club than I am used to in Pennsylvania. I am used to meetings with 75-100 present at Red Rose of Lancaster, PA. Harrisburg and the Daniel Boone CC of Reading are closer in size to the Madison County Club. The club returned to live meetings a little under a year ago, but getting back to pre-COVID attendance has been a struggle (or so I am told - I wasn’t there pre-COVID). But tonight was a pleasant surprise. There were over two dozen members in attendance, plus five new guests. Our Treasurer was not able to attend, so taking membership dues was not going to happen. We are doing well with new members. I need to make a batch of new name badges. Our program consisted of announcements, show and tell, and a Power Point presentation from one of our youngest YN members on the U.S. Mint’s new issues for 2022. The renewed strength of attendance will make the return of auctions a possibility.

I have stated to fellow coin collectors and on the forums that I never want to buy a "bad" coin. I have even gone so far as to say I try my best to buy "great" coins. But, I failed to define "bad" or "great". This has lead to some collecting friends being a little hurt (my word not theirs), as I assume that they look upon the "bad" coin that I am considering buying to be a nicer example than the one held in their collection. My true feelings about coins: There are no bad coins, only bad holders. Example: A chocolate brown half cent in MS65BN is a trophy for nearly any collector. However, the same coin becomes a "bad coin" if it is in a 67+RD holder. At this grade, the coin becomes a bad deal. The premium is significant for the holder, and the grade will come under serious scrutiny when it comes time to sell. An MS63 that looks-to-grade MS65 is a "MUCH better" coin from an economic perspective. It's a better coin at a better price, simple. In the end... I will either look at my coin a say "Wow" or I will say "Darn". Had I bought that 67+RD coin, I would feel a mild tinge of regret every time I looked at it. I would know I was holding a misrepresented coin, and paid-up to do it. That would be a mistake in my collecting strategy, and that makes the 67+RD a "bad" coin for me. Here is what I do NOT mean when I say great or bad: I do not mean that the over-graded coin that I am considering makes one's circulated example worse. A bad MS64 will have zero impact on a "great" VF35. I am not trying to compare MS and Circulated examples of a coin as bad/good. They are completely different animals in my mind I do not mean that coins have to be in "Top Registry Sets" to be great coins. A type set in P01 would be very interesting, challenging and affordable. To sum it all up... to me a great coin is the "right" coin that fits into the theme/grade/aesthetic/budget of my collection. Everyone is entitled to their own definition of greatness based on his/her own criteria for their collection. In the end... we look at our collections and say "wow" or "darn" based on that definition. I apologize to anyone I have offended in my opinions regarding "great" vs "bad" coins.

One hundred years ago in 1922 Iceland issued there first ever partial set of legal tender coins the 10 and 25 Aurar's. With a growing nation that was in desperate need for coinage because all the coins used up to that time was from other nation's like Denmark, Norway or they would use tokens that was issued by large merchants companies that was either based in Iceland or Denmark and even the Faroe Islands. Iceland banned the use of tokens prior to 1922 because merchants can manipulate the cost of such things as bread For instead when the consumer tried to pay for a loaf bread using a token they were given in change for one free rye bread the merchant would tell the person at a later date that the cost of the bread as risen and the token was no longer acquit for the promise of one free loaf of bread causing the consumer to fork over more funds for something they should have been given for free from the get-go. The first and only coins for this year was the 10 and 25 Aurar minted in Copenhagen Denmark and in 1925 was when the next denominations was produced the 1 Krona (singular) and 2 Kronur (plural). It took 100 Aurar's to make a single 1 Krona and in 1926 was when the final three denominations was produced the 1 Eyrir (singular) and the 2 and 5 Aurar's (plural). It took four years to produce the seven coins needed to complete a set of coins comprising of all denominations. The 1 Eyrir and the 2 and 5 Aurar's minted by the Copenhagen mint was made of a 95% copper 4% Tin 1% Zink from 1926 to 1939 but they did mint a few 2 Aurar's dated 1940 before the London's Royal Mint in England Took over the mintage of all the coins dated from 1940 -1942 after Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany. They changed the composition of all the copper coins dated 1940 to 95.5% Cu 3% Sn 1% Zn but they made one final change for the dated 1942 Copper coins to 97% Cu 0.5% Tn 2.5% Sn . From my understanding according to the records of the Royal Mint the new updated second metal change accrue part way into the production of the 1940 dated 5 Aurar so there are two different metal composition varieties for the 1940 5 Aurar coin but none for the dated 1940 1 Eyrir and 2 Aurar since they were all ready minted. The royal mint did not always produce the individual coin denomination the year that was indicated on the coin and it is believed that some coins was minted as far as two years after the date like some of the coins dated 1942. and the 1940 1 Krona and 2 Kronur was produced as far as into 1944. On a interesting note Staffen Bjorkman noted in his 15 page summary on Icelandic coins 1918 to1959 he made mention of a 1925 1 Eyrir with a mintage of 4000 pieces which the Icelandic national museum collection never made any mention of one ever having existed but this may only be nothing more then the first batch of 1926 Eyrir's ( 4000 coins ) was just the number of coins that was minted in 1925 for the 1926 Eyrir just like the U.S. mint does by Producing the following year's coins. Record keeping can be a problem if its not written down correctly. There are some interesting varieties for the 1 Eyrir from this time period some known and some not, But that's for another journal. I have tried to research the Copenhagen mint records online and to no avail I couldn't find any records having to do with the minting of Icelandic coins. Maybe I need to hop on a plane to Denmark. Thank you for reading my journal entry and I'm going to write more about the mintage of Iceland Kingdom Era coinage in my near upcoming journals

Ok instalment 3 of 12, I have already posted this coin once or twice but just for the sake of completeness I'll add a journal entry for this one too. I am a long time dedicated Lincoln collector and love the coin/series partly as I like the original wheatie design, but mostly for the historical significance of President Lincoln. I own many books written about him and enjoy learning about him, visiting the Ford theater the first time I went to DC was a real thrill for me. While most of my collection is focused on high grade registry quality red and red/brown coins I do enjoy rich lustrous brown coins like this. In some ways the details of the design are almost even more highlighted on coins like this vs full red examples. As many of you may know there has been much discussion in the collecting world dedicated to the blue toned Lincolns and IHC's, much of that discussion about the origins and originality of the blue color. While I know that blue on copper coins can be created it is my belief that it can happen naturally also, and in my opinion this is one of those original coins.

Looking over the NGC registry awards this year, I realized that I had overlooked a valuable platform to share my numismatic journey, the journals. This year I intend to change that by sharing my collecting journey throughout the year. Each month I will do my best to share either a new addition to the collection, grading results from NGC, or any tidbits of numismatic knowledge I acquire. With that said, this is my first journal entry since 2013! In this installment, I would like to share the newest addition to my collection. An 1806 Irish Farthing graded MS-66 BN by NGC. This is the highest graded example at NGC (tied with two others) or PCGS (2 in this grade). I have a soft spot for Irish copper coinage, but it can be challenging to track down nicely preserved specimens. Well circulated examples are abundant, and at times you can find uncirculated pieces for sale, but they are often marred by environmental damage. The holder is pretty scuffed, so I will need to send it in for a reholder. In part, this is what I plan to spend the $500 grading credit that accompanied the registry award I won this year. I am still in awe of NGC's generosity. This particular example is a marked upgrade to my PCGS MS-64 example. My newest addition is nothing short of stunning. If the dripping luster is not enough to entice your fancy, perhaps the wholly original neon blue toning will do the trick. I have an affinity for naturally blue-toned copper coinage. Of course, one must avoid chemically altered coins (e.g., MS-70) while on the hunt. Like most numismatic skills, this takes some time and a lot of practice. Luckily this example shows a natural toning progression one would expect to see on an original piece. The fact that this example is nicely toned, Irish, struck at the Soho Mint, and nearly pristine makes it a grand slam for me. It has earned a coveted spot in my “top shelf” box alongside other nicely blue-hued copper pieces such as the coin pictured below. Out of curiosity, are there any other Irish coin collectors lurking on these boards? Or perhaps a fellow Soho Mint enthusiast? If you are neither, please consider sharing some of your numismatic “weaknesses”. What makes your wallet suddenly become a little thinner?

The last few weeks have been very busy. Perhaps this is why I was so surprised to find a package from NGC in my mailbox today. I was so excited that I did not make it to the front door before I had the package ripped open and the coin in hand. Usually, I make an effort not to open coin-related mail outside, but my excitement got the best of me. On any note, I received an 1881 S Morgan Dollar graded MS-64 with the notation of “2020 NGC Registry Award Winner” on the label. This is the only silver dollar I have in my collection, but I plan to display it along with the plaque. The cert verification images do this coin no justice, so I took a few very quick pictures. Photographing silver dollars is entirely new to me, so this proved an interesting experience. As I noted in one of my previous journal entries, I have been slowly gathering lower-value coins to hone my photography skills, so photographing this coin was a real treat for me. I am not entirely happy with how the pictures turned out, so I plan to retry once I have more time. In 2019 I won the most creative custom set award, and that plaque has been proudly displayed on top of the bookcase behind my desk since it arrived. I plan to take a trip to Walmart tonight to find a stand for the 2020 award so that they can be displayed together. I can’t help but wonder how my wife will react when I add it alongside the other. She is very supportive, but she still likes to tease me about my “mega nerd” hobby now and again. I had the pleasure of speaking with one of the higher-ups at NGC the other day to request a special favor, and it reconfirmed everything I knew about NGC. I am a small-time collector, yet this gentleman took the time to discuss my request and encouraged me to send my items his way. It never ceases to amaze me how dedicated NGC is to the hobby and how willing they are to go the extra mile to help collectors. I have already figured out how to spend the $500 grading credit generously provided by our hosts to further my collecting goals, which I hope to detail in a future journal. I want to thank NGC and the staff for their consideration, and I look forward to competing again this year! Once again, congratulations to all of the winners!

So, this will be long and perhaps rambling, but I have several things to touch on and I don't like making multiple posts too close together, so I just refuse to break this up. At a different time in my life this probably would have been posted yesterday but you don't always get time to sit down and write with 2 kids under 5 around in the time of CoVID, and I had cube organizers to build. I snuck in some posting on the boards mostly on my phone, but I wanted to take my time with this more. First and foremost, I need to thank NGC for the 3-peat on the Journal award and PMG for the “Best Presented Set” for my Zimbabwe signature set, “Gradually, then Suddenly.” The journal award continues to be a great, and appreciated, compliment to these writings. I’m glad NGC likes them. I’m always glad to hear others say they enjoy what I write. That note set has been a labor of love for 2 years now. I’m super-excited to, next month, when I have a bit more spending money again, buy some raw examples of some notes I need to fill some final gaps and send those in for grading. I may also buy some old fuel coupons, branch into that and add that to the set / display / story of that set. I will probably go into more details on this later in a journal entry on the PMG side. I think that’s also going to mostly close the book on that note set for a while. I’m not going to be in any hurry to start any major upgrades on that set for now. I’ve been building it like a man possessed for 2 years now and I’m starting to just feel a little tired and ready to move on to some other project, and I have some other projects / initiatives coming up in my life that are going to demand more of my time for a while. And, given that credit, I want to fill those holes and leave that set feeling more or less “finished” and it a good place, and that credit will let me do that. But, Again, “Thank you” to PMG, both for this award and also the article highlighting my Venezuelan Bolivares Fuertes Set in December. The greatest praise that that set has received however are the other collectors here that have called it out, said it inspired them to start collecting that series / those series (depending on how you look at it) or who say they’ve used to teach their kids something. There have been a lot of kind words sent my way from members and PMG lately, both for my family and about my writing, and it is really appreciated. I was also touched to see the call out to / for Samuel in the awards announcement. Sam is going to be posing with another plaque this year. Speaking of Sam… It has become apparent that his shunt was mostly blocked and he was experiencing some ill effects of elevated intracranial pressure for a while – probably 6 months to a year. We had no way of knowing this before the surgery and you make the best decisions you can with what you know then. But, now that the pressure is gone his eyes are crossing less, he’s speaking more, he’s picking up new words faster, he’s getting better at walking faster. He was a Rockstar according to his physical therapists before but he’s accelerating. He’s showing signs of headaches still but those can apparently continue for 2+ weeks after the surgery. The cut meanwhile is healing well and we’re almost done with the period of daily baths that it required to keep him clean. I still haven’t mailed those coins in, though I admit that at this point I’m also being given pause by the long back-log of packages they seem to be dealing with and the crush of new 2021 coins they’re getting in bulk submissions now. I’ve been stressing about having the grading credit from 2019 expire, but, now, I may just let it expire and use the 2020 credit again – since my brief reading of the front matter suggests that they’re giving the Journal authors the $500 credit again this year. I really do want to get those 10G coins re-holdered so they’ll all match and be super pretty and I want to get a few other things graded but this winter (year!) has been rough and crazy. My wife and I had a little wine together after the kids were in bed. In part because of this, in part because the cube organizer was finally done, and in part because wine is just good. The anniversary is coming up and I have part of her present. We'll see if I get the other part before Friday. One of her students yesterday morning told her that her Boyfriend was a lucky guy. 😆 When she showed him the ring, he said that He had an awesome wife. I'll agree with both statements. 😆

I have not been active in this society for a few years. I have been slowly selling off my collection. I have been battling a rare blood cancer. I may only have only a couple more chemo treatments left, fingers crossed. Prays are welcome! I have lots of time on my hands and been forced to retire middle of last year. I decided that once I am indeed in remission, full time retirement is not really for me. I have recently started to submit coins to NGC once again. I got my results back for the 400th Anniversary Silver Medal. 2020 Silver Medal Mayflower Voyage 400th Anniversary RP 70 2020 Silver Medal Mayflower Voyage 400th Anniversary RP 70 2020 Silver Medal Mayflower Voyage 400th Anniversary RP 70 2020 Silver Medal Mayflower Voyage 400th Anniversary RP 70 2020 Silver Medal Mayflower Voyage 400th Anniversary RP 70 2020 Silver Medal Mayflower Voyage 400th Anniversary RP 70 A perfect submission!! Now waiting on my 2020 US Mint annual set. Keith Stevens

Many of the things I discuss in this post are “no brainers”, but I’m hoping that some people may find this information to be useful. I discuss some of the mistakes I made and hope that it may keep other people from doing the same things. I also briefly discuss some resources that I found useful. My Early Collecting Years When I started collecting coins in the 1970’s as a teenager, I really didn’t have many coin collecting resources available to me. Since I was only collecting US coins at the time, of course I had the standard Red Book. I also used to visit the library occasionally and read coin magazines. I purchased a few coins from the ads in these magazines, but I mainly collected coins from loose change. Finally, my parents used to take me to a local coin shop after I had saved up my allowance so I could purchase some inexpensive coins. My Coin Collecting Reawakening As I mentioned in my previous journal post on Collecting US Coins, I stopped collecting coins once I entered college because of a lack of time and money. However, my previous passion for coin collecting re-emerged and led me to focus on collecting gold coins from the United States of America in 2008. When I started collecting again, I went back to a resource that I was already familiar with. The first thing I did was purchase the latest copy of “The Official Red Book, A Guide Book of United States Coins, 2008 (61st) Edition. Since I wanted to focus on gold coins and had never bought one before, I studied the Red Book and decided to collect $3 gold pieces since they typically had low mintages and the series wasn’t too long. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had some money to reallocate and was anxious to buy something. The first thing that I found were hundreds of coins on Ebay. With all the coins available on eBay I thought that it was going to be really easy to form a set of $3 gold pieces. At the time I didn’t know anything about coin holders or third-party grading services. In short order I proceeded to buy three $3 gold pieces within a week that were in NNC holders: an 1882-P in AU55, 1878-P in MS64, and an 1854-O in AU55. It seemed like I got a great price on these coins when I compared the prices in the Red Book with what I paid for these coins. Luckily, shortly after buying the first three coins from eBay I came across a Stacks auction on the internet. While looking at their coins I noticed that they were all in either NGC or PCGS slabs. This led me to the NGC website. Here I found the chat boards and started learning more about coins. I searched for NNC and found a thread that was like the one in the link below: It was at this point that I realized that I had probably made a mistake with my first three purchases. I also learned that NGC is a valuable resource. A couple of years after I purchased the coins in the NNC slabs I had a coin dealer send them into PCGS to be graded and they all came back as genuine. No wonder I got such “great deals” on these coins. I now look at the cost of these three coins as being “tuition” that I spent on learning about this hobby. The key to collecting is trying to spend your money on great coins instead of “tuition.” When I look back on the situation things could have been a lot worse (more money wasted) had I not found the NGC website. I now know that the reputable third-party grading services include NGC, PCGS, ANACS, and GENI. So, for many years after my first mistakes, I only purchased coins that were in one of these reputable holders. Here are some morals to this story so far: • Don’t rush into things. • Take your time when you are building your collection. • They used to say, “Buy the book before the coin.” • Today it’s more accurate to say, “Do the research before you buy the coin” since there are so many excellent, free resources online today. • If a coin isn’t in one of the previously listed reputable slabs then treat the coin as being un-slabbed when making your purchase decision. Of course, after seeing all of the wonderful coins in the previously mentioned Stacks auction, I purchased a 1870 $3 gold piece in a PCGS MS-62 holder (see the middle coin in the above header). After making this purchase, I spent some more time on the NGC website and found the NGC population reports. This resource led me to change my collecting goals from $3 gold pieces to scare or rare US gold coins that had NGC populations of less than 150 coins. It turned out that the 1870 was the last $3 gold piece that I ever purchased. Although I started my collecting journey with a known destination, the course and destination has changed many times during my journey. Once I decided to collect scarce or rare US gold coins then I tried to find resources to help me in this endeavor. In a local library I had the good fortune to find a six-volume set of books that were published by David W. Akers starting in 1982 titled “United States Gold Coins; An Analysis of Auctions Records.” I checked out these wonderful books and photocopied the pages for the coins that I was interested in. In these books, Akers used previous auction records to comment on the rarity of every US gold coin. I used his valuable comments for the basis of my US coin collection. Fortunately, if you are a collector of US gold coins today you don’t need to find David Akers’ books because all his comments are included as part of PCGS Coinfacts. PCGS Coinfacts contains a tremendous amount of very valuable information for collectors of US coins. For example, it provides auction records, rarity and survival estimates, a condition census, and a list coin varieties. For US gold coins, PCGS Coinfacts also includes comments by Doug Winter, in addition to those that by David Akers. It turns out that I also used Doug Winter’s website extensively when I was collection US gold coins, i.e., https://raregoldcoins.com . On his website he has a link to a market blog and another link to coin articles that he writes. I found his articles to be very interesting and learned a great deal by reading them. He also sells very nice gold coins. I purchased a number of his coins. In fact, the second coin from the left in the above header is a coin that I purchased from Doug. There is also a lot of great information about US coins available in the NGC Coin Explorer. They have a price guide, a nice graphical plot of the grade summary, auction records, and a brief Description and Analysis of each coin, courtesy of Heritage Auctions. One of the best resources out there are the auction records with pictures, which are available at auction houses like Heritage Auctions and Stacks Bowers. I always use this this historical auction information together with NGC’s population records to decide how much I want to bid on a coin. As I have discussed, there is a tremendous amount of valuable information available to collectors of US coins. Unfortunately, there isn’t nearly as much information available to collectors of world coins. Fortunately, there are still auction records and population reports available for world coins, just like for US coins. Right after I decided to start collecting coins from Brazil I ordered bound copies of the first three time periods of the “Standard Catalog of World Coins”, which was published by Krause. They published five different volumes of this catalog for different time periods, i.e., 1601-1700, 1701-1800, 1801-1900, 1901-2000, and 2000-Date. These books are an excellent way to get started collecting world coins. It’s nice to be able to look through coins from most of the countries in the world when you are trying to decide what to collect. Many auction houses use the Krause numbering system for their coins in their auction descriptions and I believe that NGC also based their coin numbering on the information in Krause. After using these reference books for a while I figured out that it would be better to use the digital form (pdf) of these books instead of using three thick books. The pdf versions really worked well because I could just edited the pdf when I purchased a coin and insert the grade of my coin. This was a great way to keep track of which coins I had. However, these books have some shortcomings. The biggest shortcoming involves the fact that they are no longer in print (hard copy or digital) since Krause went out of business a few years ago. But it looks like some people are still selling the pdf versions of these books on Ebay. This is probably the main reason why Krause went out of business. Once someone purchased a pdf they could also send a copy of the pdf to all their friends. Other problems with these books include the inaccurate prices and the books don’t list all the different coin varieties. However, I’m sorry to see Krause disappear. It’s a loss to the coin collecting community. Once I became more familiar with the coins from Brazil and Portugal, I decided to purchase more in-depth reference books for these two countries. The key reference book for Portugal is “Moedas Portuguesas,” by Alberto Gomes. This is a truly incredible book. It shows all the varieties of coins from Portugal that were used from Roman times until the present. It also includes the coins from all of Portugal’s colonies, including Brazil. Even though Alberto Gomes passed away in 1999, a group of Portuguese Numismatists continue to update the book and release new editions every few years. The 7th edition of this book was published in 2021. While Gomes’ book has information on coins from Brazil, I also use the following books: • “Moedas Brasileiras – Livro Oficial,” Rodrigo Maldonado, 8th edition, 2022. • “Livro das Moedas do Brasil,” Claudio Patrick Amato and Irlei Soares das Neves, 15th edition, 2018. I use the Microsoft suite of applications to keep track of my collection. I use Excel to record all the key facts about the coins, e.g., country, date, denomination, grading service, grade, rarity, purchase place, price, date of purchase, pedigree, etc. I have all this information in a sortable table so that I can filter out desired information and list the coins sequentially according to the metric in one of the columns. I have found Excel tables to be very useful for storing the data for my coins. As an example, I could filter the country column to only display coins from Portugal. Then I could filter the denomination column to only display 400 Reis coins (Pintos). Next, I could sort the date column from the earliest to latest date. This would be an easy way to quickly find all the information that I have entered about the Pinto type set that I discussed in my last post. I use PowerPoint to organize all the pictures of the coins I’ve purchased along with screenshots of the coin listings from the auctions. I have also found that the NGC registry is an excellent way to organize and display my coins. I hope that some of this information has been interesting and helpful.

When I was growing up my mother started (but failed to finish) a 2nd Master's degree. She would often make the joke that she "could have been a professional student" - meaning she loved being in classes and learning things like that - mostly about history. Having reached my mid-30s, having earned my PhD, my 3rd and terminal degree, and gone on to hobbies that involve a lot of reading and writing, I can honestly say that I like learning - but I do not like homework, and so I don't like being a student. I'll be just fine if I never have to take another written test in my life. I'm just fine googling things and learning for free and not paying tuition. The older I get, the stranger I find my mother's statement. Anyway... My membership renewed about 2 weeks ago and I have my ~35 coin submission ready to go. I just need to seal it up and put it in the mail. I'm debating on if I really want to go through the effort to take it to the PO and send it registered or if I want to just take the risk and mail it Priority Express. This submission is going to be quite a mix as it tries to 1) Finish the 500L set, 2) Finish the Venezuela set, 3) Build / start 2 Argentine sets, and 4) submit a bunch of turtle coins I found that are going to start what may or may not be formalized as a turtle themed custom set for Ben. I may have some pictures to post of the turtle coins I've been picking up down the line. I just haven't found a convenient time to try to snap shots of them and what time I have had as been acquiring and selecting the last few coins and getting the submission ready to go.

Okay, so, after several rounds of going back and forth between “Grading/Quality Control,” “Grading/Encapsulation/Imaging,” and “Quality Control/Finalized,” the submission is finally finalized and shipped, and I have grades. On a few of them, all I can say is… Woof… For Italy… While these mostly are not great I can’t call most of these disappointments. Yeah… the 1995 is lower than I’d hoped for, but the 2000 and 2001 are better than I’d worried they might be. At the end of the day those were a play to at least get the set finished. All three coins are having to go through NGCs review process to add to the registry because none of those three have ever been added to the set before. The 5L was a disappointment – I thought that would do better. But I’m happy with the 10L. Most importantly - I have made the 500L set I built for my wife 100% complete, including coins her family brought back with them from Italy 30 years ago. I like it. The Venezuelan coins are where this hurts – Pretty much all MS66s, and so these fall short of what I needed to take back the #1 set with that Best Presented Set… So… maybe next year we’ll try to reclaim the title: The Argentinian Coins… Again… Overall not what I’d hoped for… but… They’re still going to let me fill out a set with a fun narrative. For the Austral Anyway… I’m taking another look at the Peso Convertible and realizing how many slots that set has for circulating commemoratives I have zero interest in hunting down. Lol The 63s and the 64s hurt… but the Zimbabwe set also started with some less than stellar and humble grades and such… and I’ve improved from there where I could. Once again... we'll call this a foundation to grow from... maybe... We'll see how much I feel like torturing myself and my wallet. Speaking of the Zimbabwe set, the $10 coin scored! Kind of! – It got an MS62. Which beats the AU58 that I had before and it is now the TOP POP, highest graded example graded by NGC. I had been hoping this would grade MS and not AU like the last one, and it did. So, this is kind of a win… but I had hoped it might MS63. Seriously though, finding examples.of these that do not look rough has been hard. I've been trying... for a few years now. And finally, we have the turtle coins… Mostly 66s. I can’t really complain too much here. I didn’t really expect too many super high grades here and I mostly just wanted these to maybe form the basis for a future signature set. Yes, high grades are nice, but they’re not essential for a non-competitive set…. that I’m not even officially building yet… and they’re still Gem Uncirc grades. But... Hey! That Tokelau Cent! MS67RD! Next goals will be.. 1) getting the coins programmed in and in the slots, 2) getting my pre-written descriptions posted on the coins, 3) getting pictures taken of the 500 Lire coins to polish the presentation on that set, 4) pictures on the new Venezuelan coins to maintain the quality of the presentation on that set, 5) getting the Austral coins (and maybe the Pesos) imaged and 6) getting my historical write-ups for the Austral Set ready. These may not all happen in this order.

Be honest – how many of you remember that line from the start of Star Wars: Episode 3? I have bemoaned several times over the last few months that it is hard to get excited or get motivated about building a registry set when you… don’t… have coins… But! I find that it is much easier to get excited about researching and writing about coins for a registry set when you… have coins… and have pictures to go with "da wordy bits." I also gotta say - even feeling slightly disappointed at some of the grades - there’s a special joy and magic to an unboxing and it’s fun to have coins come home. In spite of that initial disappointment, I was very happy and noticed myself smiling when I opened that box Monday night. My wife also snuck this gem while I was in bed Tuesday night, working on getting the first images edited and posted to sets. I decided to start with the low-hanging fruit, hitting the 500L coins and the other coins where I just needed to do images for 1-6 coins to “complete” existing sets, before launching into the Argentinian coins and turtle coins, which are 7-8 coin groups for completely new sets. The part that does make these slightly more complicated though is trying to make sure that the images for the new coins match reasonably well with the old images of the coins that have been in the set a year or two, because I want consistency, but I don’t want to rei-image the entire Zimbabwe set (23 coins) because I’m replacing 1 coin. I don’t want to re-image the 11 older coins in the 500L set, just because I’m filling the last 3 holes. I will also admit to just wanting to be able to show off a completed 500L set to my wife. The images are up now. I’d encourage anyone that follows these sets to look at the Zimbabwe type set, the Venezuelan type set, and the Italian 500L set. The new descriptions are up to, and all three sets are now 100% complete (not that that’s new for Zimbabwe anyway). A fun image I’ll call out is the Reverse shot for the 50 Bolivars, which shows a reverse struck with a die with a shocking degree of wear that I’m just not used to seeing in modern US coins. Yeah – the coin graded MS66, and it has some scratches, clearly, but look at all those signs of die deterioration around the 5 and 0 in 50, around the outer rim of the legend and around the inner ring around the core design. Personally, I just find that very interesting and cool to look at. Side note: But the image she snuck of me on the computer is what it looks like when I’m just working on the laptop in bed at night. When I’m up in my office and taking the coins, the set-up is a little nicer. When I replaced my old laptop about a year ago I got a new one that is the same brand as my work laptop, so it can dock into the same docking cube as my work laptop and I can use the same monitor and speaker set-up without multiple docking stations or monitor switching. It makes the home office situation more enjoyable and fun. The images aren’t ready to go yet but I’ve taken images of the Argentinian coins today, again, finding myself just very excited and happy to get to snap those shots. I’ve gone ahead and gotten the images shot for Austral coins and Peso Convertible coins in 1 go. I’ll just be starting the editing with the Austral coins. There will probably be another one of these posts soon as the Austral and then Peso Convertible images go up. I do have a feeling that the Peso Convertible images will be edited before I hit the historical write-ups for the Austral set, just because 1) it's easier to cross that one off and 2) Again... pictures are fun. It's shocking - You would never expect a photographer to hold this opinion. I know. So, where does this leave me? … Since I also keep finding new things that need to be done or that I want to get done before November 1st, and some of these are smaller (images on 1-2 coins) than others (making new banner images for sets that I’ve apparently been neglecting). 1) Getting the coins programmed in and in the slots, (Except for the Austral coins) 2) Getting my pre-written descriptions posted on the coins (for the new $10 Zimbabwe coin, 500L set, Argentinian Set, and Venezuelan coins) 3) Getting pictures taken of the 500 Lire coins and getting those posted 3b) Getting pictures of the new 2003 $10 coin for the Zimbabwe set. 3c) Getting pictures of the new 1983 5L and 1984 10L coins for those Italian sets.. 3d) Getting pictures of our 1977 5L and 1984 5L coins for the 5L set since I apparently never did that… 4) Getting pictures on the new Venezuelan coins to maintain the quality of the presentation on that set, 5) Getting the Austral coins imaged and 6) Getting my historical write-ups for the Austral Set ready. 7) Making a banner / set image for the Austral set – which I haven’t made a banner image for this one yet as I usually use images of the graded coins, which 8) Making a banner / set image for the Italian 10L set since I apparently never did that… 9) Getting the Peso Convertible Coins imaged and posted 10 Getting the turtle coins imaged and.. 11) Starting to build some kind of signature set around that???? – More on this later but this is going to be mostly a pure signature set play... but I'm also finding some glimmers of where there might be potential for competitive set off-shoots.

So.... This is long delayed, but I've been far busier at work than usual and we're having a lot of difficulties with Sam's health the last couple of weeks and months and so the journaling and the coin research is suffering. Sam has been in decline since June. We think he has Slit Ventricle System (SVS) and he's dealing with almost daily debilitating headaches that are making him cranky and, in some cases, frankly, violent. Which just makes things hard. We're probably going to have to cancel a family vacation in October to have him hospitalized for weeks and in the meantime, we're stuck with pain management strategies that don't seem to be doing much good. That too, may tank any plans of actually making some of this work for this year, but, if it does, it does. I also have a bad habit of making the perfect the enemy of the good enough and I've been letting that get in the way of just getting some pictures of these turtle coins I'm starting to work on imaged. But yesterday I just decided to make something happen and say, "good enough." So, a quick update on the submission with about 35 coins I sent in: 7/5 - Shipped 7/10 - Delivered 7/27 - Showed as Received 8/3 - Payment Acknowledged 8/7 - Scheduled for Grading The estimated times on this when I sent it in and when they acknowledged it suggest the submission will be finished around Mid-September to Early October. I'm mostly hoping that they just get home before November 1st so I can rush out some photos for the Argentine sets I'm planning, and the Venezuelan Set and the 500 Lire set I want to have more or less "finished." The submission includes examples of the coins in the pictures that follow. These coins are ones that lost out to the ones I submitted so these are still home in flips while the ones we thought were the best are hopefully going to come back with some nice grades: Colombia - 1000 Pesos Cabo Verde - 1 Escudo. Sorry! These didn't come out good. Tokelau - 1 Cent - check out those die cracks on Queen Elizabeth's face! That die was tired! Cayman Islands - Congo - 1 Franc 1 Seniti I'm working on buying some more raw coins with stylized turtles on them. You'll almost never see me admit to shopping for something here until I've already bought it so I'm not talking yet. I tried showing these to Ben and he acted kind of interested and said they were cool but he was over it pretty fast. I don't think this moves the needle for him much. Maybe one day he'll think they're cool. Maybe they'll be show and tell ammo down the line.

Okay... So I was working during naptime and in the evenings over the weekend, and work has been slow the first half of this week - both because the client on my main project isn't answering my questions and I think because they're not putting much on me right now having just gotten back from being at the hospital for two weeks, so I've taken pictures, and edited them and done some writing... but I just really want to show off these Rhodesian Penny photos and these banner images because I'm really proud of how these came out: Having gotten those made, I took the images for the 1962 - an MS67RD, the highest grade and nicest looking coin in the set - and made this banner image. I also made the following for a Venezuelan Bolivar Set. Banner images for sets like this are a little more "interesting" to me because there's more than one design and so there's more that I want to show and highlight. With this one, the things I really wanted to show and pull out are 1) The two (old and new-2021) portraits for Bolivar on the obverse, and 2) the Bimetallic bolivar and 3) the coat of arms, which, other than Bolivar, is the most commonly featured device on the coins. Also at this point, all 12 coins in the Venezuelan set have a comment on them. I had to laugh a little bit because, when I opened my old Word file for saving work on this, most of my work had been done on 1) the 1989 coins that are not in this set and 2) the 2016 coins that I ... forgot to submit. So that pretty much had me starting from scratch except I'd pulled some vital stats on all the coins previously including weight, size, composition, etc. This is still going to be a work in progress as I still want to put in more design commentary and maybe layer in some more context. However, I went really hard on the history and the timeline for this period in my notes set, so I may not do that again for this coin set. So... Yeah. I took advantage of some slow time to get this done, I'm very happy with what I got, and I wanted to share. I took this recently and sent it to my wife saying, "can you tell how I like to relax?"

We all set goals in our collecting pursuits, and when we successfully reach a goal there is a sense of overall achievement. The NGC Registry sometimes recognizes these accomplishments by awarding a user’s set with the designation of “Overall Achievement.” But usually, a collector’s sense of achievement is solely personal, since his/her set is sometimes lost within the rankings of hundreds of other sets - or the complexities of the set is lost on everyone but the person who built it. For instance, I thought a complete set of twelve U.S. silver war nickels (i.e., “Jefferson Wartime Nickels 1942-1945, Circulation Issue”) was not very challenging, which is demonstrated by the existence of over 400 sets in the registry. Since I already had a few wartime nickels designated as being part of the “Omaha Bank Hoard,” I decided to challenge myself to try and complete a set of just Omaha Bank Hoard pedigree nickels. It took me almost 15 years to complete the set, finally having to settle for a PCGS coin for the 1944-P. The grades on all the dates and mint marks are MS-65 and MS-66 (except for the over-date error), but my complete set currently only ranks as the 161st best set. In this case, my “overall achievement” is strictly personal, because what NGC admin is going to dive into the intricate details of over 400 sets of war nickels? If you're curious about the Omaha Bank Hoard, Mark Borckardt of Heritage Auction Galleries said: "Heritage purchased the Omaha Bank Hoard in its entirety in 2004. The man who owned the coins is very private and doesn't want a lot of details disclosed. I can tell you that the hoard consisted of over 320,000 coins, all in rolls, that were saved by one man starting in the late 1930s and continuing until the early 1970s.” Another registry set, called "21st Century Type Set, Mint State Only," also did not appear to be very challenging. When I first noticed this new collecting category, I didn’t have many current coins from the twenty-first century, at least not in slabs, but I did have a presidential dollar that had a generic grade of “Brilliant Uncirculated,” so I tried to add it to this registry. Boy was I surprised when the coin garnered exactly zero registry points. I thought to myself, “If only this uncirculated coin was graded MS-60, instead of Brilliant Uncirculated, then I’d earn some registry points!” Anyway, my thoughts quickly changed back to “How can I make this set challenging, like I did with the War Nickels?” Then it occurred to me that it might be possible to complete this registry set with all so-called “Brilliant Uncirculated” coins, thus creating the only complete registry set with “zero points!” But this idea has proved a lot more challenging than I originally thought, especially since some of the coin types appear to be unavailable from NGC with the generic “Brilliant Uncirculated” grade. I then tried adding a coin in an NGC “Sample” slab, but it added points to the registry, so I had to delete it. Then I tried adding a coin with the generic grade “Gem Uncirculated,” but it also added points to the registry, so I had to delete it too. These incidents were indeed “Lessons Learned” for me, but I remain determined to find all 17 coins for the 21st Century set and not earn a single registry point in the process! Of course, I named my special set “Zero Points.” At the end of February 2023, I have found 11 of the coin types needed for the “21st Century Type Set, Mint State Only,” which means the set is 64% complete. My ranking against other sets? Funny you should ask… My “Zero Points” registry set currently ranks as the 105th best set. Of course, every time a new user starts a set in this category, even with one straight-graded coin, that person’s set shoots above my set in the rankings. Furthermore, the sets that are ranked just below mine all contain just one coin, graded Brilliant Uncirculated, of course. I still need to locate six type coins, specifically graded “Brilliant Uncirculated,” to complete my special set - and I am finding the hunt to be quite formidable. The coins I currently need are: 1¢ LINCOLN MEMORIAL (2000-2008); 5¢ JEFFERSON, MONTICELLO (2000-2003); 5¢ JEFFERSON, WESTWARD JOURNEY (2004-2005); 10¢ ROOSEVELT, CLAD (2000-DATE); 25¢ D.C. AND U.S. TERRITORIES, CLAD (2009); and 25¢ CROSSING THE DELAWARE, CLAD (2021). My goal is to find as many of these last six coins as possible by the end of the year, and perhaps grab the attention of the NGC staff responsible for granting the “Overall Achievement” designation. Of course, the worse case scenario would be if my set attracts the wrong kind of attention and NGC suddenly begins awarding registry points for the generic grade of “Brilliant Uncirculated.” If you’re curious about my “Zero Points” set, please check it out at: https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/378118/

It has been a while but my graded Napoleon typeset is now complete Congratulations must go to @Mac5 who reached 100% first. Next challenge will be a Custom Set and will be one coin per mint, only about a third of the way there so that may take some time as most of my Typeset are from Paris - mintmark A. A project for the next few generations will be the Sets for Italy, Spain, Westphalia, Holland and all the tokens and medals before even attempting date runs. As we don't have any grand children yet I need to have a word with the kids!

Before sharing the results of my NGC submission, I want to thank those who reached out to me during my hiatus. It meant a lot to me that so many not only noticed that I was absent but took the time to check in on me. As some of you know, our lives were temporarily derailed due to a sudden passing of a beloved family member. From there, life got super busy, and with everything going on, coins were the last thing on my mind. A few big things have happened since my journal entry in December: I finished my Ph.D., accepted a full-time faculty position at an R1 University, we inherited a house allowing us to move closer to family, and my wife landed a new job (with a five-figure pay raise!). Despite all of that, the best news is that our family will grow by one in December!!! Although it is perhaps a bit early, I have already started brainstorming ideas to get the kiddo involved in numismatics down the road. Please let me know if you have any suggestions. I hope to be more active here now that life is slowly returning to normal. On any note, I have a major NGC submission update to share. The last of the submissions shipped out last week, meaning I finally got to see how they graded. I have already shared a few of these, but to keep things simple, I included them here to compliment the original journal entry (link to original thread). 1799 Great Britain proof Farthing with shells – Ex. Matthew Boulton NGC grade: PF-63 BN “1791” France Jean Jacques Rousseau Medal – Ex. Matthew Boulton NGC grade: MS-64 BN 1800(11) Westminster Fire Office Medal with shells and wrapper – Ex. James Watt Jr. Collection NGC grade: MS-66 BN 1805 Ireland proof Penny with shells NGC grade: PF-64 RB 1793 Board of Agriculture Medal with shells and wrapper – Ex. James Watt Jr. Collection NGC grade: MS-67 BN 1800 George III Preserved from Assassination Medal with shells NGC grade: MS-66 BN 1803 Boydell's National Edition of Shakespeare's Works with shells NGC grade: MS-62 1793 Death of Gustavus III medal with shells NGC grade: MS-66 BN 1793 Execution of Louis XVI of France – Final farewell medal with shells NGC grade: MS-66 BN This submission included several other items, but I either do not have an image of them, or it was just a reholder. Overall, I am pleased with the grades. Most of these are top pops, many three or more grade points higher than their counterparts. The only thing left to do now is patiently wait for USPS to deliver them!

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

TL:DR – The coins did great and I’m thrilled and freaking out a bit about some of these! XD So “Thank you, NGC” on the hard work and the much faster than expected turnaround. I need to give major props to NGC, who have pulled off a major turnaround, brought turnaround times down and delivered me grades on these months sooner than I was thinking. It was only about 5-6 weeks ago that I was saying I might not have grades for another 4 months from now. I’m hoping this also means that they’ve succeeded in expanding capacity and their 60-hour weeks are also a thing of the past. Since there are 29 coins in this submission, and 22 from Zimbabwe, I’m just going to talk about the Zimbabwe coins here and talk about the results on the 500L in a separate post. Even then, I’m not going to go into has much detail and discussion on each of these things as I might with a 5-coin submission. I’m just going to hit on some of the high notes (if I can stop myself). Here are the results, with my guesses and Shandy’s so you can see how we did. We both like to be deliberately conservative in our guesses to try to not get our hopes too high. So, we tended to be low when we missed, but it also makes the ones where we got lower than we guessed just a touch more disappointing. Shandy had made it clear that she’d never let me hear the end of it if she beat me, so I’ll gladly take a narrow win that still leaves both of us with our dignity. I think she’s learned a lot, and quickly, and she’s quickly gotten very picky about which ones she thinks are good enough. I’m really thrilled with these results. Only 3 coins are in the “disappointing” column – there were 4 MS64s but I don’t consider the 1997 $2 a disappointment because that grade was in-line with expectations. The same could be argued of the 2002 dime for that matter, which, if anything, beat expectations / did better than we’d guessed and hoped. The 2002 $1 also came back with the grade I guessed – just below the guess Shandy made. So maybe only 1 of 22 can fairly be called a disappointment – that 1988 cent I’d had such high hopes for. The 1997 $2 is worth calling out. At MS64 it easily beats the XF45 that is the only other NGC graded example eligible for that slot. It also beat Mike’s guess that it would get at least an MS63. I’d initially hoped it might do better but… It is still by far the best I’ve seen. Most of the 1997 dated $2 I’ve been able to find are just… so… ugly. I’m very grateful to Mike for this coin. I’m not going to be in a rush to try to upgrade this one and I doubt it would be all that easy. I don’t know if it’s better or worse that 3 out of 4 of these MS64s are still better than anything else I have for the slot. Meaning 3 of these 4 still earn a spot in the top set. Meaning 3 of 4 clearly weren’t a “waste” / complete misfire – they still improve the top line set and in so doing achieve what I’d hoped for in sending them in. We got several MS66 and MS67 grades, including some on some key coins, but those weren’t on coins that could fully paper over these sub-Gem coins. Having said all that though, I had really hoped for an MS68 on that 1997 5C, and, while I got an MS67 on the 1980, that MS65 on the 5C is not what I’d been hoping for there. So maybe that’s disappointing too, even though the 1980 makes up for it. The 1980 10C getting an MS66 feels like a big win and vindication on sending it in. It did, in fact, beat the MS65 I already have. This can be bitter-sweet as it knocks out the first coin bought for the set, but it also means the top type set will be 100% self-submitted – no bought-pre-graded coins. The thing that makes this even better is the fact that the 1980 5C got an MS67 – a staggering, fantastic victory in its own rights to me - and the 1980 50C and $1 got MS66, meaning that I have 2/3rd of a 1980 year set in MS66 or better now – but that just means I’m now having dreams in my head of adding an MS66 1980 cent and 20C. The MS67 on the 2002 $5 coin just feels so great and cleansing after the disappointment of those nasty examples from the now long-ago first purchase of 10-coin sets. The same is true, albeit to an obvious lesser extent, with the MS66 on the 2002 $2. It might seem strange to some that I just feel so happy about MS65, MS66, and MS67 grades on modern coins when the prevailing wisdom with moderns tends to be that you need MS68s for it to be worth it/ to be competitive, but I’ve long felt like I would be thrilled / happy to have the set mostly comprised of MS65 (Gem) coins or better and to be complete. It is now complete, with mostly MS65 or better coins. I’m happy. And these results are 1) consistent roughly with my guesses, and 2) far better than what I got when I tried self-submitting with my stepfather the first time 14 years ago. Suggesting that I might have actually learned a LITTLE in that time, in addition to taking damage to my corneas. Lol I’m blown away by the results on the Bond coins. I can’t believe how well the $2 coins bond coins did – coins I got from that seller in the Ukraine, small aside. I am suddenly extremely happy that I went ahead and sent in both of those. EXTREMELY happy. I don’t know what I’ll do with the 2nd MS69. When I was looking at the pop reports / census for clues and saw 2 MS69s I had to pick my jaw up off the floor realizing those might be mine and I might have scored a HUGE win. I was thinking I’d be happy if I got MS67s that matched most of the rest of the Bond Coin sets. I just could not get myself to hope for MS68s or MS69s even though they looked darn near perfect because I’ve never gotten grades that high on circulation strike coins. To get those 69s on both $2 BCs and a 68 on the $1… Mind Blown. So happy on these. My first self-made circulation strike MS68s and MS69s. Overall, this is going to leave me with a very solid type set that I think will be well positioned to defend its title for a while, though it will certainly be possible for anyone with the funds, the time and the determination to overtake this set. The overall strength this gives to the set and to the bond coins, however, does re-emphasize the fact that at some point I will need to address the weakness of the $10 and $25 coins to bring them more in line with the rest of the set. The overall strength of the Bond Coins is also going to make me feel more pressure to one day get the 50C bond coin up to a MS67+ to match the standard set by the others in that group / sub-set. With 7 bond coins I do think that sub-set could make for a nice set / category on its own and there are plenty of categories out there with only 6-8 slots – just look at some of the mint sets. But I think there will have to be more collector interest in those before NGC agrees to that. I feel lucky enough to have the type set category to put these in, given how thinly they’re collected in graded form (Mostly just me and my crazy). I’m very excited to get to upload some descriptions I’ve already been working on for these. As with the last set, each coin will have some general information on the design / landmark it depicts followed by a narrative on how that coin came to be in the set. These descriptions will heavily copy each other and borrow some of the narrative from my journals about all of these. I’ve worked carefully to keep track of what group of coins / sets / dealers each coin came from so I could build that into the narrative for each coin and have these descriptions emphasize the journey and the hunt of a 100% self-submitted set that I’ve made by looking at the coins with my wife. I think that’s part of what won this set an award from NGC and I think it’s very core to the charm and the appeal of the set as I’ve made it. I’m also really excited about taking good photos of all of these in the holders when they come in. The case Shandy got me for these has been sitting in the closet in the packaging, waiting for me to be able to properly fill it. I’m very excited by the prospect of being able to pull that out, put all the coins in, and lay it out. I think I’ll need to put up pictures of that in future entry – Maybe include the plaque for the set in the image. Can you tell that I’m excited about this? XD So, in summation - I’m thrilled. I consider this a big win. But it also leaves a few things unresolved and opens a few more thoughts / dreams. I think I’ll be on pause with this for a while, but I’ll likely have to circle back later to tie up some of those loose ends – the 2003 $10, the 2003 $25, the 1980 1C.

So here is the 2nd post about 1 submission, splitting off the 500L coins to give them their due, befitting a group of 7 coins (decent sized group in their own right by my submission standards) and a group of coins that represent their own, very important project. And here are the results - Shandy and I picked the ones to send together when we had more than one of a certain date, but we didn't play “guess the grade” on these because we didn't have a big selection of graded coins in different grades to look at with Zimbabwe. We just had 2 coins - a MS67 and a MS68. Hands down the big win here is the grade on the 1990 - the highest grade in the submission going to one of those two super important coins that they brought back from Italy nearly 30 years ago. And it is a legitimately good grade - not just the highest grade in a low scoring submission. 😅 An MS67 is dang good for something that spent 28 years in a bag. That 67, combined with the 1992 in MS67 and the ’82 and ’85 in MS68, gives the set a strong core. The 1991, also crucial for the same reason, didn't do as well but it did good enough. An MS64 is high enough for it to not be too much of a liability to the set point / score-wise. With both of those I thought they would grade well but you never know when a grader is going to feel there's a bit of wear that you didn't see and then you get an AU55/58 - like that 1875 10G I posted about seeing on eBay some time ago. These grades are going to help these coins stay in the set as the sentimental core of it while still keeping the set strong. I had hoped the 1992 would match the MS67 I bought last year but it just missed at a MS66. However... I still feel like this coin is more attractive than the MS67. So, I think this is actually the coin I'll keep in the set for now unless I need points and adding back the MS67 could make a difference. 😅 But, the MS67 does look mighty fine in the images I got of it. We’ll see. The result on the 1985, while not a bad grade IMO - I would have been pretty happy with straight 65s to fill out the set - basically confirms I made the right choice snapping up that MS68 from the same year. As to the other 3 - two MS66s and a MS64. Again - solidly "good enough." Two of three hit the MS65 threshold I wanted for filling the set with gem uncirculated coins or better and two of them did 1 point better. The one that missed only missed by a little. Now I just need to cut up those Franklin Mint sets and send in that '1983 and '1987... and find an '86, '95, 2000 and 2001... Some other fun updates that are somewhat related: The certificates arrived from NGC - I pulled them out of the mailbox the same day I posted about the Zimbabwe grades. It's possible they were sitting there for a while. Life was a bit crazy, and I wasn't checking the mail - almost late paying the water bill! I told Shandy that, since I took a picture with the plaques, she needs to hold these. For those that thought it would have been great if the Zimbabwe coin award had still had my little typo on it, you may be happy to know the distinction of immortalizing that goes to the "Best in Category" certificate, which are generated and printed automatically. I've been working as hard as I can to get the descriptions for all 29 of these coins fleshed out and finished and uploaded into my registry, but not adding them to the sets that they're for. Once they arrive I'll pulse out full group of coins (the ones that made the cut anyway) into the main sets and then I just have to get good pictures of everything! 😅

Some clicks of my raw Franklins...shot with a Nikon 750 and 105mm Macro

There may not be a true silver crown of an independent Ireland. The closest that I have uncovered would be the silver crown, presumably issued by the Catholic Confederacy of Kilkenny, in 1642-43, although the few examples that appear in auction sales appear to be less than 25g in weight. These coins are also quite rare. The next closest example of an Irish silver crown, which I was able to acquire, might just be the "Ormond" crown of the same time (1643-1644), issued by the Earl of Ormond, James Butler, commander of the royalist army in Ireland. At least it is a silver crown sized coin (my example is 29.71g), most likely minted in Dublin, and during the time when there was an independent government that controlled two-thirds of the island. This brief period of independence would end in 1653 with the occupation and annexation of Ireland by the Commonwealth of England. Obverse design, crowned CR for King Charles I. Reverse V with a small S above for denomination of 5 shillings.

I continue to work and getting better at taking my own coin photos and slowly am getting better. But when I want some really good photos, like the kind I want for the coins in my three first place registry sets; I go to the professional Mark Goodman. I have used three or four pro photographers in the past and a couple others were very good, but I have always felt that Mark was the very best of all those I have tried. Anyway here are a couple of compilation photos of some of my registry coins that I wanted to have better photos of than I was able to produce. All together I sent Mark 12 coins to image and as usual could not be happier with the results. I'll add new entries to show each coin from this group and I plan to keep this going as I have plans to send Mark more coins in the first part of 2022. Ok enough with the hype lets get to the coins. First is a new addition this year to my 1st place 1940 year set, this is one beautiful walker if I say so myself. Mark was able to bring out the subtle color and showcase the luster perfectly. This MS67+ CAC green bean coin is really stunning and a great addition to my set.

When I first started collecting coins, I purchased whatever caught my attention with little to no discipline. As I matured, I found myself focused on EAC and early U.S. type coins. Eventually, I abandoned those areas of focus and shifted my attention to world coins. More specifically, almost all of my collecting efforts are focused on English and Irish copper, emphasizing the Soho coinage. Perhaps it is this intense focus that makes my newest purchase so odd. It is not copper, it not English or Irish, and it predates the bulk of my collection by multiple centuries. Given that this coin is so far removed from my ordinary pursuits, I would have been lost without the detailed description inscribed on the envelope by the previous owner, Eric Newman. The envelope is marked Arab Sasasnian Abbasid Silver ½ Dirham. The description continues identifying the piece as struck at Tabaristan Mint (Muqatil). Newman graded this piece as XF, and he noted that it was acquired from the Morris Collection. I find this coin interesting, and I look forward to doing a little more research as time permits, but this is not the only reason I purchased it. As it relates to my area of focus, the world coin market is very hot right now. The higher prices have made it difficult for me to add new examples to my collection while maintaining the general quality I have come to expect. As an alternative, I have been purchasing relatively inexpensive eye appealing coins to hone my photography skills. I have a fair amount of experience with copper, but silver is a metal that I rarely work with when photographing coins. The fact that this coin was silver, toned, and not perfectly round made it an ideal candidate to test my skills. Overall, I think the images do a decent job capturing the color and character of the coin, but I found the editing portion to be cumbersome as I had to test out entirely new techniques to account for the jagged edges and irregular shape. I am happy with how the images turned out, and I look forward to applying the lessons learned from this experience to a much more complicated project already in the queue. Arab Sasasnian Abbasid, AR ½ Dirham, AH 174 (AD 790-791) Issue: Muqatil – Governor of Tabaristan Mint: Tabaristan Size/Weight: 23.20mm, 1.80g Provenance: Eric Newman Collection, Morris Collection

I think I have officially hit the point where I can no longer justify the expense of new additions. There have been some stellar coins offered for sale already this year, but more often than not, these pieces realize prices that are just a bit out of my comfort zone. Consequently, I have only added four new noteworthy pieces to my collection, which pales compared to last year. On any note, I am delighted with my latest purchase which brings back memories of a much simpler time. A time before COVID, before insane auctions prices, and before I was thoroughly infected with the bug of collecting Soho pieces. We can probably all think back to the first piece that eventually became the foundation of a new collecting pursuit. For me, this took the form of a 1788 Great Britain pattern Halfpenny (P-945) struck at the Soho Mint (pictured above). I remember being sucked into the history and immense conflict between Jean Pierre Droz (the engraver of this coin) and the founder of the Soho Mint, Matthew Boulton. Fast forward several years and that research has dramatically expanded and now represents almost all of my numismatic pursuits. There is just so much fascinating history left to be discovered! The original piece holds a special place in my collection, and I am ecstatic to add a second similar example alongside it. My newest purchase is the “1788” Great Britain pattern Halfpenny (P-1003) pictured below. Although this piece is dated 1788, it was likely struck nearly a century later. Peck classifies this variety as a restrike, meaning that it was struck using Soho dies sometime after the demise of the Soho Mint. I provide more detail about restrikes in the introduction of my registry set, so if you are looking for more information about restrikes, it can be found there. On any note, this piece was likely struck in the 1880s by Taylor after he acquired the dies from Matthew Pier Watt Boulton, the grandson of Matthew Boulton. Often dubbed “Taylor restrikes”, these pieces make the proper attribution of English coinage struck at the Soho Mint far more complicated, as he often intentionally created new varieties to sell to unsuspecting collectors. When considering the sheer number of restrike varieties paired with the frequency with which some of these come up for sale, it appears that this was a relatively successful operation. For instance, we know that 10 of these pieces, along with 794 other restrikes of different varieties and types, were part of a consignment from W. J. Taylor’s workshop on June 29th, 1880 (Peck, 1964). This was a single consignment, and it stands to reason that multiple of this caliber were likely placed over the careers of Taylor and his two sons. As such, it would be nearly impossible to ascertain how many of each variety were produced. Peck (1964) specifically notes that this variety (i.e., P-1003) was created with the sole intent of creating something new to trick unsuspecting collectors. Although Peck (1964) notes this coin as rare, it appears to be much more common than other similarly rated varieties, with nearly 60 examples coming up for sale over the last five decades. This estimate only includes the examples attributed by TPGs and numerous auction houses. It makes no effort to include those not directly attributed, so the actual number of market appearances is likely higher. However, this example is somewhat more unique because both the obverse and reverse are double struck, the reverse being far more dramatic than the obverse. From my estimates, it appears the obverse is double struck with about a 3-degree rotation between strikes. The reverse, however, is double struck with about 21 degrees of rotation between strikes. The result is a coin that looks as though it has been circulated, but the flat areas are where the strikes overlapped. This is abundantly apparent when examining the bust of King George III and the outer portion of Britannia’s shield. In contrast, examining the inner portion of the shield demonstrates the conflicting design details. It will be interesting to see how NGC grades this piece, given its odd nature. So what got you started in your current collecting pursuits? Has it come full circle as it has for me?

No, I'm not talking about this year which I can only call another strange year, but rather, the year 1860. In trying to broaden my Silver Dollars of '60 custom set, I researched the silver dollar-like coins issued from European nations in 1860 and I believe there are only two. By this time, thalers had shrunk to 33mm and 18.52g so they no longer fit my definition of silver dollar size! Having already acquired a nice 20 reales of Spain (38mm, 26.291g), I was stuck with finding the 5 lire of the Kingdom of Sardinia (37mm, 25g), a coin with a mintage of only 5,044. That is one hard year! But, why such a small mintage? In 1859 the Kingdom of Sardinia, also known as Piedmont-Sardinia had launched an effort to reunify the Italian states and successfully concluded several military campaigns with their French ally against Austria. In 1860 the Kingdom proceeded to gain support from other Northern Italian States through plebiscite and achieved decisive military victories against the papal army and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Warfare is expensive so my guess is that silver stocks were depleted leading to the low mintage of coins for general circulation. The political and military successes of 1860 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy with the King of Sardinia, Vittorio Emanuele II, it's first ruler of a united Italy since the 6th century. Clearly, for those that benefited from a unified Italy, 1860 was a great year. I finally tracked down an example of the silver dollar-like coin from the Kingdom of Sardinia, dated 1860. This coin was minted in the principle city of Piedmont, Turin, as denoted by the eagle head mintmark. Turin was the capital of the Kingdom of Italy until 1865. ~jack

Wow hard to believe that the registry cutoff is just a week away, this year has certainly gone by quickly. As I look back I had no specific goals other than to try and add or upgrade to my existing sets in order to hold onto as many of my first place awards as possible. Looking at my sets now it seems like I have actually lost some ground in that regard and will have fewer awards for 2021 than I did in 2020. Partly because I spent some time and money adding some memorial and shield Lincoln coins which was (and is) not a major focus, yet still my OCD gets the better of me at times as I would really like to finish the full date/mm run from 1909 to current. An insane number of coins that is currently at 293 coins and counting, absolute insanity to complete the entire run and a goal that I would abandon if I had any smarts. I also spent more and upgraded more coins in my 1940 date set than I had planned to do, but the friendly competition from the former 1st place set; who wants to be back in 1st place; had me doing more to defend the set. That is a good thing as I added some amazing coins to the set, but it also diverted some funds that I would have used to improve other sets. I did lose ground on a few sets as it seems that a few gold bugs put together some sets in the early 20's year sets, well not really sets as most of those sets only have one two or three coins in them. But those high grade $50K gold coins really rack up the points and it makes competing with them next to impossible as I do not have an unlimited budget. That is unfortunate in a way as I now have to decide what to do with those coins, I could keep them and just leave the sets as they are. Or should I sell those coins and move on to something else, tough call and I'm just not sure how I'll proceed just yet. All in all it was another nice year and I am blessed to care and provide the stewardship of the coins I have in my collection. Like many I am grateful that I have my health, too many have been lost to Covid and other diseases over the past year. And whatever the next year brings I will continue to enjoy the friendships that I have made within the hobby and the coins in my collection. For sure there is still much to be done in the way of better photos and descriptions for many of the coins in my collection and that will be a continuing focus each and every year. Happy Thanksgiving and a joyous Christmas season to everyone here.

On Tuesday evening, June 22, 2021, the Madison County Coin Club of Huntsville, Alabama rose Phoenix-like from the ashes of COVID shutdowns. For now, it has a new home, and for the retro-members, a “newish” meeting night. “Funny, you don’t LOOK newish.” The meeting place had been firmly established only 7 days prior. The club now meets in the same building as the Huntsville Gem & Mineral Society, on the site of the former Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom Middle School at 7901 Bailey Cove Road SE in Huntsville. Fear not, Grissom fans; he has a new school named for him. Huntsville is the fastest growing town in the Gulf south, and will soon surpass both Mobile and Montgomery in population. Even Birmingham’s #1 in Alabama position is not safe. Any time a club resumes operation, there is trepidation. Did folks get the email? Was the website updated correctly? Have people lost interest? The answers are a resounding yes, yes, and no. The room was full. I grabbed a chair along a wall. It was my first meeting. I only moved to northern Alabama this past December. The club graciously accepted my application. The club’s meeting pattern is a) business meeting, b) show and tell, c) informational program, and d) member auction. Only the last segment was missing for this initial meeting. It may take a little longer to get auction material in the pipeline. Next month, the club will hear a presentation from its founder, who has since moved to Georgia.

2020 what a ride, some ups and lots of downs. The year started off promising enough and then covid covered the world with a wet blanket like we have not seen before. A rough year of many especially those who lost loved ones to the pandemic, but a boon to some that were able to continue and even profit due to it. As I look back my life was not terribly affected by it overall from either a personal or numismatic perspective. As I do every December I looked back as what I did, what I bought, and what I sold and reflected on how I feel I did with my numismatic journey throughout the entire year. As I resorted my spreadsheet by date I realized that I had spent more than I had thought; don't tell the wife ; maybe a few too many impulse buys. But as I looked back I don't have any regrets for any of the purchases, some were to further a few registry sets, some like the $3 gold coin were to satisfy an itch for a type, but all were good coins and I can enjoy looking at each one. As I look forward to the new year I am wondering what direction will next year take me, should I scale back after buying more than expected in 2020, are there any sets or projects that I should focus on or just do what I usually do and move on a purchase when the time and mood strikes me. Ever since I finished my Lincoln 09-58 date/mm set in 2017 I have not felt the same sense of purpose or direction with my collecting. I've bounced the idea of selling some sets like the Morgans or Mercs, but have not been really motivated to do so yet. Part of me says that would be a good way to kick start a new collecting direction or set, and part of me isn't ready to let go of those. I am also having trouble getting excited about the new year knowing that at least the first half of 2021 will be much like 2020, the vaccine rollout is taking much longer than many had hoped and I really do not see an end to the silly mask restrictions and other big brother oversights for several months at best, sigh. Well enough of that I'm going to pull up my boot straps and find a way to enjoy myself this next year, and I feel confident that I will find a few special coins to purchase and enjoy in the new year. To all my collecting friends have a safe new years and I hope everyone enjoys 2021 first from a family perspective but also from a hobby/numismatic perspective. As a sendoff to 2020 here are my two favorite purchases made during 2020. Get it two purchases from a year with two twos in it,I crack myself up.! Both are type coins, first is this beautiful 1876 seated dime purchased from Gerry Fortin. This is a great looking coin and filled a hole in my type set, but it also fits into my holder generations custom set theme, this holder is the first one used after the last old soap style and was a transitional one that was only used a very short time. And the second coin is the only gold coin I bought in 2020, I was not looking to buy any gold in 2020 due to the high price of gold but a longtime collector on the PCGS forum was selling his collection of $3 gold coins and it is a type that I've wanted for a very long time. Apologies for the different photo styles, I have not gotten around to taking photos of the gold coin yet.

And I'm tired of writing, phew. Now I do not consider myself a natural when it comes to writing, I don't live on facebook or any other social media platform nor do I do much writing for my job so it just is not easy or natural for me the way it is for some. But I spent a great amount of time over the last month updating descriptions, writing new ones for both individual coins and for the sets themselves. I am quite sure that none of that will go down as great works of writing art but I'm very pleased with the results overall. Time to take a break from all that and enjoy, soon it will be time to go back and refine what I have done and work on better photos. Good thing I enjoy this hobby.

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 part of a 1959 presentation set (medal, card and envelope). My research indicates that only 91 presentation sets were awarded. President Eisenhower's 1960 Summer White House medal (Newport, RI) is the size of a US Morgan dollar. My research indicates that only 800 Newport, RI medals were manufactured. In all, President Eisenhower gifted/awarded a total of 20 different medal types that were manufactured by the US Mint. My research is published in two books. My last book : https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n31a06.html A copy of this book permanently rides in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. A updated version of this book is being written. My next journal entry will be on a PNA awarded by President John F. Kennedy.

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

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 tier to round out the submission. There was a twist in the WORLD-ECONOMY tier that I had not anticipated. The coin in question is a 1937 Spanish Second Republic peseta that I hoped would grade MS-63. Before NGC finalized the grade, they recommended that NCS should conserve the coin. The invoice they sent me was puzzling because they listed the grade of the coin at MS-64. However, because of my grading credits, I agreed to have this coin conserved that I originally purchased for only $8.00. Now, I would not have usually sent such an inexpensive coin in for grading, let alone conservation. However, this coin fits nicely into my Spanish peseta custom set. After conservation, the 1937 peseta received a final grade of MS-64+. The top-pop coin in the NGC census is MS-65. Considering the before and after pictures, I’m glad I gave my approval for NGC to conserve it. Now, an otherwise dull coin has come back to me, revealing spectacular luster. The other coin in my two-coin WORLD-ECONOMY tier is an 1869 Spanish 50-centime coin for my Spanish Provisional Government registry set. This coin is next to impossible to acquire in mint state condition. Good examples of raw circulated coins are also hard to come by on E-Bay. My hope for this coin was to have it graded VF-20. However, I knew this coin could go either way between F-15 and VF-20. I was thrilled when NGC graded the coin VF-20. I had been eyeing an MS-64 German medal for my seated imagery custom set on E-Bay for several years. However, in all those years, the seller never came down on his high asking price. Later, I bought a raw medal for approximately 40% less than the E-Bay medal in my watch list. After holding this piece for a couple of years, I finally sent it in to have it graded under the TOKEN-WORLD-VALUE tier. This medal came back to me graded at MS-65. My WORLD-MODERN submission features two coins for my Inspirational Ladies custom set and one for my Spanish peseta custom set. I had hoped for the 2001 Spanish 2000 peseta coin that I purchased to grade MS-65. Instead, I was delighted to get a top-pop grade of MS-68 for this beautifully toned coin. Late last year, I purchased a 2019 Great Britain “Una and the Lion” silver five-pound coin. Since I purchased this coin, the value of the coin has skyrocketed. Naturally, I had hoped for a PF-70 grade but realistically expected a PF-69. Unfortunately, I ended up with the expected PF-69 grade. Notwithstanding, this coin today is worth at least twice as much as what I paid for it. The last coin in this tier is a 1998 German 10-mark coin that received an expected grade of MS-64. Both these coins are currently residing in my Inspirational Ladies custom set. Rounding out my total submission is a three medal TOKEN-EARLY-BIRD tier. A while back, I lost an E-Bay auction for an “American Bar Association” medal for my Laura Gardin Fraser custom set. The biding had gone over $500 when I gave up. Shortly after that, I found another medal listed on E-Bay for a Buy-It-Now price of less than $100. The only caveat was that the seller thought the medal was a fake. I thought otherwise and quickly snapped it up. I was hoping for an MS-62 grade but figuratively did cartwheels when I got a fully authentic MS-64 grade. The other two medals are the silver “Society of Medalists #1” medal by Laura Gardin Fraser and the “Edmond H. Harriman Memorial Medal” by James Earle Fraser. Both of these medals I would have liked graded MS-67, but the “Society of Medalists” medal returned with a grade of MS-66. Incidentally, the “Society of Medalists” medal is a silver restrike of the bronze medal using the original dies, and it has a reported mintage of 125. Both these medals are now part of my Laura Gardin Fraser custom set. Overall, I couldn’t be happier, especially since there are no “details graded” coins and medals in the entire submission. Gary