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stgecko

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Journal Entries posted by stgecko

  1. stgecko

    I got another one

    By stgecko,

    The price gods have smiled on me once again. I got another 70 for my modern half dollar commemorative collection. It's a 1995-S Basketball graded at MS70. It's a great strike and the detailing is very nice. I got it for a good price. You can now bye some of these half commem's for less that fifty bucks per coin.
    Displaying slabs is harder to do. Looking through a binder with great looking raw coins is nice and it's convenient. I don't think I'll sell my raw ones as they look so nice in the binders. I have seen some "slab notebooks" that look nice and each display page has pockets to display 9 on a page.
  2. stgecko

    Nearing the finish line

    By stgecko,

    I'm back at it and am excited to be focusing on my coin collection.
    I have been focusing on collecting a type set of early commemorative coins. I'm nearly there. I have 8 more coins to get and of course they are the most expensive ones. I'm thinking about the Antietam coin or the Battle of Gettysburg coin for when my tax return arrives. I also need the following: Isabella Quarter, Missouri, Hawaii, Hudson, Spanish Trail, Cincinnati. To maintain my collection at MS65 or better, I will need to pry open my wallet as the remainder may cost me above four grand.
    Being disabled I don't have a lot of spare cash laying around. I'll have to get creative when I'm ready.
    Thank goodness for tax returns! I now have the Isabella quarter in raw condition. It looks uncirculated to me. Picked up the Antietam coin too. Wow what a spectacular strike, well worth the money.
    I'm trying to find a decently priced Missouri coin. Tougher than you think. If I stick with MS65 or better I'll have to dole out some money. I'm content at the moment with my collection. So I can wait for some time before I buy another early commemorative.
    To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
  3. stgecko
    RAW
    I've always had a beef with "raw" coins and people think you have to get them graded. Well the mint is so good on what it does your new coins are 69 or 70 right out of the hole. Then you go to price it in your grading books and they don't even go past 65 on most occasions. Anyway I have a complete set or shall I say it's up to date since they don't know when it will end. A full set of modern commemorative halves. The majority being raw.
    I still have a full set of these modern halves including the just ordered Boys Town commemoratives. I use to go to school just a mile away or so from Boys Town.
  4. stgecko
    I've been collecting just early commemoratives now for quite some time.
    Now since I've been collecting early commemoratives have I done the right thing? Are there any lessons to be learned? Yes and yes!
    I'm enjoying the coins so much. They all seem so unique and have an interesting story behind them. I've been out to complete my BTW set and I'm four coins away from realizing that goal. That feels good! Almost as good as rock climbing and you just breezed through the crux of the climb. That always felt good especially with a thousand feet or so below you. Ah good times but I digress. My recent purchase of the York still has me wearing goose bumps. I could go on and on about that coin but I already did that in a previous post.
    Lessons learned, there have been a few. For one, buying raw coins off ebay is a risky bet. Buying raw coins from a few select dealers is a good thing including my local coin shop. From now on I'm going to my local shop first and the internet second. There really is something to be said about holding the coin in your hand.
    More good news today as I just got a new kitten and I've named her Little Girl. She's just so cute and she's already bundled up snug in my comforter. That didn't take long. She's got such an expressive face. She reminds me a little bit of my other cat Maggie.
    Sorry about that left turn there. Back to the commem's. My collection now includes 34 coins both raw and slabbed. The majority are slabbed but with a renewed sense of faith in the local guys raw coins who knows in the future.
    For those that are curious here is a list of what I have collected since last March.
    1905 Lewis and Clark
    1918 Illinois
    1920 Maine
    1920 Pilgrim
    1921 Pilgrim
    1923 Monroe
    1924 Huguenot-Walloon
    1925 Lexington/Concord
    1925 Stone Mountain
    1926 Sesquicentennial
    1934 Texas
    1935 Arkansas
    1936 Cleveland
    1936 Long Island
    1936 York County
    1936 Deleware
    1937 Roanoke
    1946 Iowa
    1946-1951 14 BTW's (need 4 to complete set)
    1951-1954 2 Wash. Carver
  5. stgecko
    Food for thought
    Now that I have over 25% or the early commemoratives. I'm sure that the ones I have are the ones that are more easily acquired. Now to make it more interesting for the remainder I'm going to try and obtain only those coins, in early commemoratives, that have mintages lower than 10,000. Since I came to that conclusion, last week, I've picked up one and it's a 1935 Texas with a mintage of 9,996 and a grade of MS65 but looks MS67. It truly is a remarkable looking coin.
    I have been buying from Teletrade and Heritage of late and I seem to like those two sites much better than eBay. I'm not sure if it's a trust thing or what. I know that I haven't been disappointed from either site so far.
    Good news from a family member. I have a nephew who has expressed interest in taking my coin collections when I no longer need them. He's a responsible young man who's going to college to become some type of a Doctor. I think if he did end up with my coins he'd keep them over selling them as our deal was to keep them in the family. If an all out emergency were to take place then he's allowed to do what he needs to do in order to deal with said emergency.
    That's enough journaling for now.
  6. stgecko

    What a year its been

    By stgecko,

    To OCD or not to OCD.
    I was just thinking that I'm at or near the one year point of my collecting hobby and I thought it'd be a good time to reflect. I'll list my coins that I bought this past year. Well I won't list them all individually but I'll group some to keep the list shorter.
    My way of thinking when I started was to collect all coinage (regular) in Proof/Silver Proof and Mint State Sets. So I have silver proof sets from 1992-present, proof sets from 1956-present and Mint sets from 1957-present. That in itself is a bunch of coins and I was thinking they wouldn't be worth much investment wise but they'd make a nice item for my will for someone else to keep and maybe sell down the road.
    Then I discovered Prestige Sets and I now have a full set of those. When I bought them they sounded like a good investment as well as a very nice collector piece.
    I got into gold when I saw my first Buffalo gold piece and now I have the 2006/07 proofs. I also got into the first spouses and now have the first four in proof. The first 3 I bought as PF69UC's and I sent in the Dolly Madison for grading and it came back as a PF70UC! I was hooked with the grading bug!
    I decided to collect early commemoratives as the history is so cool for each coin. I decided I want the type set (55 coins)and the complete set of 144 coins all MS65 or better. I now have just over 50 early commemoratives! I'm very proud of these sets as they are shaping up to be very nice sets.
    I decided since I was getting commemorative halves I might as well get all the modern commemorative halves too. That modern set is completed in proof and mint state including some MS70's and PF70's.
    Since we're talking about comemmoratives I decided I like some of the 5$ gold pieces. So I got the Civil War gold in PF70 and MS70! I also got the George Washington Death Bicentennial in PF70. I also have a few of them raw still.
    Well I think I covered most if not all of my coins. It's been a great year and I'm thinking I went way overboard this year. I will try to tone it down this year witch should be easy to do. I hope.
    Have fun collecting everyone, I know I am.
  7. stgecko

    I Did It!

    By stgecko,

    Cracked the top 10
    Well it finally happened. I made the top ten with a competitive set. My Booker T. Washington set is currently #10 and when my other coin comes through the verification process I'll be in 9th and then I won't buy anymore BTW's for quite some time. My grades consist of MS65 & MS66. I wanted to stay Gem quality or better for longevity and investment potential. I suppose now I could sell my duplicates although they look really really nice so maybe I'll just hang onto them.
    Time to crack open a bottle of bubbly or a cup of coffee!

  8. stgecko

    Forgot about this set!

    By stgecko,

    Prestige Proof Sets
    I totally spaced that I have all of the Prestige Sets. None are graded but I own them all and they are all very clean and very nice. I doubt if they ever get graded. I should check to see if there is a set for this and if anyone has graded any of them. I'll let you all know what I find.
    Have a nice weekend.
  9. stgecko

    Unsung heroes

    By stgecko,

    My raw commem's
    Well since only graded coins get recognized here I thought I'd include the most recent list of raw early commemoratives that I have in my Dansco's. Here they are with the one's that will be graded down the road first followed by raw coins that will be raw coins their whole lives:
    1934 Boone
    1936 Columbia
    1935 Connecticut
    1936 Deleware
    1922 Grant
    1936 Robinson Arkansas
    1936 Sesquicentennial
    1934 Texas
    1927 Vermont
    1936 Wisconsin
    1936 York County
     
    1925 Lexington-Concord
    1918 Lincoln-Illinois
    1923S Monroe
    1921 Pilgrim
    1953S Wa/Carver
    1936 Cleveland
    Well those are them... The reason I'm sticking with raw on that 2nd list is because the coins graded at MS65 or higher are cost prohibitive. That's my reasoning thus far anyway.
    Peace all
  10. stgecko
    They're done
    Well I finally have all the half dollars of the modern commemoratives the only thing is only 3 are graded. The rest are in their original packaging including prestige sets. So I'm afraid the set will never look finished via the registry but I'll always know.
  11. stgecko

    Finished!

    By stgecko,

    A Set is complete!
    I finally did it. I got the last BTW commemorative that I needed to complete the full set of BTW's which is 18 coins. They are all graded MS65 with some sprinklings of MS66's. With those coins I didn't even crack the top ten. I ended up at 12th. That's OK though as the scoring was never part of my priorities. The grading was important but not the scoring although breaking the top ten would've been nice. For now I think I'll keep them all in a nice NGC box in my safe. Once I collect enough paraphernalia about him and his life then I'll make a framed collage of sorts to display them all.
    I included a pic of the last one obtained.

  12. stgecko

    Inching closer

    By stgecko,

    One more!
    I got one of two remaining BTW's today. Well I paid for it anyway. hehe
    I picked up a MS66 1949 BTW and all I need now is a 1951D BTW and my BTW's are done with all graded MS65-66. Now it's getting exciting.
  13. stgecko
    The BTW's are almost done!
    Well I got 3 more BTW's in the mail yesterday and now I just need two more. I still need the 1949 and the 1951-D. If anyone reading this has either for sale in grade MS65 or better and want to part with them, well be sure to contact me. :-) Also I'm looking for some BTW related paraphenailla (sp?) like the documentation advertising it or the like.
    Thanks to anyone contacting me about this!

  14. stgecko
    Well for being a first timer it was a bit dissapointing.
    I didn't realize it was just going to be a traveling coin store. I thought when they said "show" that included coins to look at that aren't for sale but someone may be showing off a set of say early commemoratives or something. Know what I mean?
    I did manage to find some coins I liked and I bought two while I was there. I found the best looking Sesquicentennial of Independence2222222387w1p[7666666666666666666666666666666---------000 Sorry about that my kitten wanted to add her two cents.
    I also got a modern commemorative, George Washingtons silver half dollar. I'll include a pic of the Independence coin as it has a bunch of lustre and a fairly good strike for a coin being known as having a weak strike. It was advertised as a 63 and I'm hoping for a grade higher and of course I'd be ecstatic if a 65 was the verdict! That would be the find of the day!

  15. stgecko

    Faith Renewed

    By stgecko,

    Local coin shop, who would've thought?
    I was just at my local coin shop and wow I couldn't believe my eyes on the quality of early commemoratives they have. I saw several I wanted and they all were original, non-cleaned/dipped and they were all looking as if they just left the mint! I'm sure I exagerate for effect but I'm telling you they look great. I bought one today, 1936 York and the fort on the coin looks awesome when oscillating the coin it's as if the log fort wall is alive as the shine walks down each log over every rooftop and the ground even came through as undulating. Phew I was getting a little excited there...
    If this coin doesn't grade MS65+ I'll be stunned and so will my coin shop guy as he's been grading for 40+ years. Here's a pic of the York but it just doesn't do it justice.

  16. stgecko

    My first show

    By stgecko,

    Giddy, I'm just giddy... Can I say that without sounding gay? Not that there's anything wrong with that.
    My little local town is having a coin show. I've talked with the local coin collecting group and they tell me if I want to sell coins I need to buy a table for 75$ but if I just want to show my coins then that is free. The wierd thing is you can make deals on the side w/o buying a table. Seems awfully strange to me.
    I plan on showing off my early commemoratives both slabbed and raw in the Dansco's. I just bought some coin easels to help display the coins and I thought maybe I should have some documentaion on each coin that I can get from my Commemorative Coins of the United States, a complete encyclopedia. The book is awesome at 700+ pages!
    I'll be sure to take some photos of the event and my display and others. I don't know if I'll be buying anything at the event as my wallet has been fast and loose of late.
    The show is the last weekend of the month and the first day of June. If you are out and about in Richland, Washington be sure to drop by the New Hampton Inn. I'll see you there!
  17. stgecko
    Looks like I got alot to learn.
    My first batch consisted of 10 Morgans that were suppose to grade MS63 or higher. This was only an oral statement made by the emcee of the show. Of those ten only one fit the statement. I had one score at MS64. The others consist of 2 improperly cleaned, 3 AU58, 1 MS62 and 3 MS61's. I would have to say that that's not even close.
    I believe I learned a couple of lessons from this. My thoughts going in were that since 6 of the coins were of the same date and with a slabbed coin perhaps I could sell 5 of them at a decent little profit since they were going to grade so high. Now I plan on keeping them for prosperity or perhaps until a trade comes along for some commemoratives, early, that I want. Now I was also a neophyte when I sent those in and I'm much more seasoned now or at least a little bit more knowledgeable and philisophical. I'm certainly going to follow the adage "if the deal appears to good to be true it probably is" now. Oral contracts don't mean much when you don't know who you're dealing with.
    Now the other box of coins included 1 First Spouse and 4 early commemoratives. I guessed correctly on the spouse, my Dolly Madison recieved a PF70 Ultra Cameo! Three of the commem's were body bagged as they were improperly cleaned. The one that did make it was the 1920 Maine and it recieved a MS65. I was really glad about that one. I have learned that it's tough picking out a raw coin off the internet and expect it to recieve a MS65 or greater. I guess I'm 1 for 4 which isn't the greatest. So from now on it's only graded coins from the internet for my collection unless I'm buying with price as a consideration like the Lafeyette coin or other spendy ones.
    Of all the coins I sent in it was nice to have had a coupon for 5 free grades. That certainly makes it more bearable.

  18. stgecko
    My first!
    As the title says I have my first coin album in recent times. I decided I can't get the commemoratives all in grade MS65 or better due to cost on several of the more scarce varietys. So I've opted for a nice circulated version with a decent strike so you can still see what the coins have to offer. I put in several to start it off. I'm adding some recent coins that were "no grades" due to improper cleaning. The ones I put in are: 1918 Illinois/Lincoln, 1923-S Monroe, 1925 Lexington/Concord, 1925 Stone Mountain, 1921 Pilgrim, 1926 Sesqui., 1936 Cleveland, 1946-S BTW, 1952 Washington/Carver. The slabbed coins I can't put in the book are: 1920 Maine MS65, 1920 Pilgrim MS65, 1935-D Arkansas MS66, 1936 Long Island MS65, 1937 Roanoke MS66, 1946 Iowa MS67, 1948-S BTW MS66, 1951 BTW MS65, 1952 Washington/Carver MS65. Looking back at this list I'm feeling pretty good about it. :-)
  19. stgecko
    Why even bother??
    I've recently been at war, with words, with an individual on another forum. I try to be positive and upbeat and this person just continues to brow beat me on any opinion I give. I don't understand what makes some people so bitter that they need to lash out at others. Maybe he's just a bitter individual or maybe I'm letting it bother me way too much. My guess is it's both. I suppose this is my way of letting it go as I don't plan on commenting directly to him any more.
    My venting is done... I feel much better hehe.
    Thanks for reading.
  20. stgecko

    Easy big fella

    By stgecko,

    Best watch your step
    Well I recently paid off all my debt but the house. That was a huge achievement for me and now I need to cherish it so I don't go flying by it. I've recently added some better early commemoratives and by better I mean both by grade and by strike quality. It's unfortunate that I have to scrutinize pictures on the internet to do this but you have to do what you have to do. I just got a 1946 IOWA coin graded MS67 by PCGS! It is very nice and it'll be the pride of the commem's at least for a little while. This brings me back to the title... I'm getting that excited about coins feeling again and that usually means shopping. I've got to learn some restraint so I don't go back to the credit cards. I think I'll cancel all but two of them tomorrow. I think that that's the smart play. I then need to set up a savings plan and with any luck I'll have an IRA that involves my gold coins.
    I also need to pick up some insurance from the ANA because my insurance only covers 200$ for all of my coins if they're stolen. 200$, man I was pissed when they told me that. I demanded a rider(sp?) policy and I still haven't heard back from them. You'd think someone as nationally known as State Farm would have this already figured out and my agent wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel.
    Anyway wish me luck on maintaining some restraint when it comes to buying coins.
    Peace
    B
  21. stgecko
    Spendy vs. Reality
    Well I've been of the mind set that I want a complete set of early commemoratives at grade MS-65 or better. This has been going well for me as I've been busy buying the cheaper ones while looking for high quality strikes for the grade/price. I recently scouted a couple of the more costly coins and decided those would have to be a once a year purchase. Some of the coins run into the thousands of dollars at this high of grade therefore I've decided to buy those spendy ones in raw state w/ no grading in mind. Then I'll put them in a Dansco album. This way I can get the coins ungraded and still looking good and cheap or cheaper anyway. I'll let you know what happens when and if I ever get to the Hawaiian coin! I recently got the Monroe and Sesqui Half dollars, both raw and good strikes especially for less than 90$ for the pair. I also have some raw ones residing in the safe waiting to enter a book. I don't plan on grading those either.
    I did pick up some nice buys on some graded coins, this week.
    They are: 1935-D Arkansas MS-66
    1937 Roanoke Island MS-66
    1948-S BTW MS-66
    1951 BTW MS-65
    They will make nice additions to my collection.
    BTW Now I need to plans for my commems. I need to decide which ones will be book only versions ie raw and cheap. I also need to decide which ones will be graded when bought. It's this kind of stuff that keeps me getting up in the morning.
  22. stgecko

    The waiting

    By stgecko,

    12 days???
    Well I've been waiting for a month now for my grade submissions. I called yesterday and I still got 3 weeks to go. That's okay but it's just a tad off the estimate. hehe
    I just put together another 5 coin package for them to grade. I'm getting my Dolly Madison gold coin graded and just by comparison of the others that are PF69UC this one has more "pop" so I'm hoping for one grade better, since that's all that's left after 69. My others are just these early commemoratives: 1920 Maine, 1921 Pilgrim, 1925 Stone Mountain and a 1936 Cleveland. These will be my free submissions. Well free is a relative term.
  23. stgecko
    Well what happens when the well runs dry?
    I've recently come to grips with reality, at least somewhat. I've decided I'm spending too much on this coin collection of mine. I won't even get into details but suffice it to say it's been a great 4 months!
    I guess for now I'll get some commem's graded. Photograph the rest of my coins and add them to my data base. This is very time consuming as I have all coins from all three mints from 1956 in proof and from 1959 in mint sets. I don't open them to take the pics, I thought that would be bad. Anyway you take the shot, transfer it to your computer where you edit it. For me that means making the image smaller and more web friendly. Then I have to save the file with an appropriate name and then update my database. Phew! Oh btw these don't include all the AE's so that saved me a few minutes. hehe
    Perhaps with all this mondane work I'll be able to survive without buying anything for a while.
    Wish me luck.
  24. stgecko
    Can you add raw coins to the inventory?
    After reading I don't think I can add my pregraded coins (raw) to the inventory. I wish I could because I'd like to show them but can't until they're graded which may be some time. I'm trying to get all commemoratives (early) with a grade of MS65 or greater. When I buy raw ones I do my best to grade them from the pictures which is tough and very unreliable. Wish me luck in the future with grading these commemoratives. BTW here's a Maine that I'm looking forward to getting graded.
    I thought I'd include a list of recently acquired early commem's. They include the following:
    1918 Illinois/Lincoln
    1920 Maine
    1925 Lexington
    1952 CWBTW
    1953S CWBTW
    1946S BTW
    1921 Pilgrim
    1936 Cleveland
    1925 Stone Mountain
    1905 Lewis and Clark (regrade/crossover)
    Just thought I'd include them.

  25. stgecko
    I'm a neophyte looking for a place to call home or a set or sets to call home.
    I thought I would throw down some notes on what I hope to accomplish. Keep my current subscriptions with the US Mint. These include: Gold Buffalo's, Yearly Silver Proof Set, Yearly clad proof set, Yearly Mint set, AE unc's, AE Proofs. The yearly proof/mint sets include the presidents, Kennedy half, GW qtr, Roos dime, Jeff nickel, Lincoln penny oh and the 5 state quarters. I'm currently increasing my gold inventory with the bald eagle commemorative and the monroe first spouse at the end of the month. I'm also finishing up my prestige set collection as well as getting all proof sets >1953 and mint sets to around 1958. Much earlier than those dates and the prices start shooting up pretty quickly.
    Well that's all for now.
    B