coinsbygary

There's not much more I love to do in numismatics than spending time imaging my coins. I like your setup. Seeing your setup and pictures shows all the work you put into this. I get a lot of satisfaction from looking at pictures that pop and knowing that they are mine! Good luck with the annual registry awards!

Your pictures are looking good to match your set!

On 1/14/2023 at 1:24 PM, Just Bob said:

Very nice medal, and a great reason to buy it. It was very fortunate that you were able to find one in such good condition.

Interesting fact: Although the Pacific Ocean lies to the west of the Atlantic, the eastern end of the canal ends in the Pacific Ocean. 

The captain of our cruise ship announced the interesting fact you mention in your response to my journal as we sailed NW through the canal from the Pacific side to the Atlantic side. Our entire voyage in the Pacific was SE along the coast from Los Angeles in the Pacific time zone, to the Mountain time zone, to the Central time zone, and finally to the Eastern time zone in Panama. Our last port of call before Miami was east and north to Cartagena, Columbia on the continent of South America!

On 1/8/2023 at 5:20 PM, Revenant said:

The fact that it would be a signature set and that I'd have to build it in that archaic system is probably the main reason I'd have for not wanting to do it. 🤣😭🤣

I would love to fully build out my "Golden Nickel" world gold coin set but I just hate that system so much... 😖

Anyway... if I did the turtle set I think I'd want to focus on coins struck for circulation. I wouldn't want it to be just modern NCLT. And modern NCLT is most of what I see. Feel free to let me know anything you come across. I can start taking notes regardless. 

Signature sets have been my mainstay for many years. Because of my eclectic collecting interests they are the main outlet for me to display my sets. That said, you are correct, the signature set is an archaic and cumbersome format. Years ago, NGC promised to udate the signature set website after completing the last major upgrade to the competative registry. I'm still waiting. I also noticed that the PMG website is still waithing for the same upgrade when I entered the first note I submitted for grading in August. My "Beginning, History, and End of the Spanish Peseta" signature set is scattered over several competative sets that probably won't be considered for awards because most of them are less than 50% complete. This leaves me with archaic or nothing and still waiting for NGC to upgrade the signature side of the website. Except for my type sets, I wish I was more interested in collecting series like Lincoln cents or Mercury dimes or even an interesting foreign series like my Wilhelmina 10G gold set. Oh BTW, the following is a link to my first PMG note, a legal-tender star note 1953C $2 bill that I bought as a young teen at a camara shop!

https://notes.www.collectors-society.com/registry/notes/NoteDetail.aspx?PeopleNoteID=135936&PeopleSetID=34770

My congratulations to you on your awards and the others you named, especially Mike. I've seen his name on a number of my journal post replies! BTW, I hope your kids are are doing better now. Gary.

Several months ago I changed internet providers. Before I was allowed to settle my account with the old provider I was referred to their customer retention department. Talk about pushy, you havn't seen pushy until you've talked to someone who is employed and paid by the number of people they retain. This person used every trick in the book to keep me. First, the associate asked me who I was switching to and how much I was paying. I told her it was none of her buisiness. I also asked her why this provider spends so much to get new customers but doesn't seem to care about their current customers until they threaten to leave. Next they started to offer me new customer deals that were about half I was already paying. Instead of feeling grateful, I was angered by the fact that they were perfectly willing to take double the money as long as I wasn't complaining. Finally they gave up on me and my account was settled. As I hung up the phone, I felt like David going up against the giant Goliath! 

In the end, I was never going back because last winter another provider was burying fiber in my backyard. The thought of having a direct fiber connection with the possibility of almost unlimited speed to my house interested me. I always thought the prospect of having a fiber connection to my house would cost me an arm and a leg. But the provider's basic service gave me faster speed than I had before at about half the cost I was paying to the old provider!

On another occassion I got a call from a bullion company trying to sell me a high relief silver Australian coin. I told the person I was retired, and on a fixed income with a very limited coin purchasing budget. (No lying here, all true). This coin, while stunning, did not fit into any of my current theme based collections. From there, I went on to have a very pleasant 15-minute conversation with the sales rep about collecting in general! It was refreshing to see that there are still a few friendly sales reps out there!

On 10/12/2022 at 10:09 AM, zadok said:

...my most sincere empathy for u n ur wife n ur son...i will keep u all in my prayers n wish for a quick recovery....

Ditto, there are no words I can add to zadok's to comfort you concerning the seriousness of Sam's condition. I just want to add my prayers to zadok's. 

I here you on this. I've had USPS leave a slip in my mailbox without ringing my doorbell before. Just last week, I've had all my ANA submissions return. NGC used both UPS and FedEx. Unfortunately, everything was due to arrive when we were out of town for our son's wedding. The UPS left a post-it on my door and when I read it, I noticed a second delivery date for a single box. When that date arrived I made sure I was home for the entire window. However, the delivery was more than an hour late into the early evening. With FedEx I started gettting notices from our hotel. I quickly set up a hold-mail request account with FedEx and got another notice for delivery for a date that we'd be home. They showed up in the delivery window with three boxes and without incident. Too much drama for me with these submissions. I will say this for both UPS & FedEx. From shipping to in my hands was at best two business days. I was very surprised and never thought my items could be delivered while I was out of town. USPS could take over a week to deliver registered mail. Gary

Hmm, you may be on to something with the big coin, little coin theory. It makes a lot of sense considering big coins are bagged together at the point of minting. They are heavier and have a larger surfaces to bang together. Without knowing a thing about Venezuelian coins on my part, you managed two 66, and two 67, 50C coins. At the end of the day this is an exceptional submission by any strech of the imagination. Congratulations on the submission. You also have a good eye. Gary 

On 9/17/2022 at 11:19 AM, jgenn said:

Your gold coin prize was wonderful but your wife's prize was way more interesting, in my opinion.  Congrats to you both!

Agreed!

I'm glad to see you back and I am sorry for your loss. As for your grades, they are awesome. Even more awesome is the eye appeal of all your medals. They are all in excellent condition, and yours maybe the only collection of its kind. Congratulations on the little one on the way. My first grandson was born a year ago on July 4 and it's been a pure joy to see him grow in his first year. I just can't express how much I love that little guy! BTW excellent photographs! Gary

Now if only the AU 53 dime was a PF 53 dime, you might have something. What a sham or wishful thinking? I'll go with wall of shame sham for a coin worth 10 cents.

On 3/14/2022 at 7:54 AM, JoeF said:

I'm only an amateur but it couldn't hurt. Are you using flash?

No, I'm using a camera stand and a variety of lighting including Axial lighting, LED lamps, or led lighting attached to my lens. Please read one of my old journal posts on the subject.  

Very nice! I currently use a third party Laowa F2.8 2:1 Macro lens using the FTZ adapter on my Nikon Z5. Do you think I will significantly improve the quality of my pictures by upgrading to the Z Mount 105MM lens for my mirrorless full frame Z5? Thanks.

On 3/13/2022 at 1:27 PM, JoeF said:

replaced original photos with larger photos

Nice, how do you like the lens? I was thinking of buying the Z-mount lens for my Nikon Z5.

Nice luster! I can't tell the bell lines though to see if you get the Full Bell Lines designation.

I own one Ukrainian coin. It's a 2009 5-hryvnia International year of astronomy commemorative that I bought from a Ukrainian e-bay seller in 2012. I bought it raw and it is the highest graded foreign uncirculated coin I submitted to NGC, grading MS-69. It appears that today he has some of his items located in the United States. It probably makes for easier shipping to US addresses. Another possibility is that he pulled his listings of Russian origin. Perusing his current listings, he is making an impassioned plea to not buy from Russian sellers. I am listing his e-bay store below and posting a photograph of the coin I purchased in solidarity to the Ukrainian people. 

https://www.ebay.com/usr/novinka62

That is a pretty cool set! The more I think about it, the more I like to keep the set in its original mint packaging. You can always ask NGC to add the proof sets you want to the current Zimbabwean registry set. For instance, I asked NGC to add a registry set for 1869-1870 Spanish provisional government coins. They approved my request but the initial set was very limited. Then I noticed someone add a coin to a slot that wasn't previously in the set. I have also added coins that didn't quite fit into the slot but put them in anyway for review. More often than not NGC added my coin to the registry.

I hate to get political here, but this whole mess has me so peeved that I am beside myself. It's not so much an economic tragedy as it is a human tragedy of extreme proportions. I can't imagine the suffering that the Ukrainians are living under now. We are sitting on the precipice of a global catastrophe. I hope your dealer is doing as good as can be expected and that you will soon be doing business with him again. My daughter and son-in-law both have friends who have relatives in Ukraine. I also pray that they are safe and find refuge in another country. Gary 

On 3/9/2022 at 5:09 PM, The Neophyte Numismatist said:

@coinsbygary In your opinion, what is the downside to the red on the reverse of the coin?  The coin has a BN designation, so presumably you get the remnants of original red without the premium.  I fully understand not wanting to buy RD (or even RB) examples due to the premium and risk associated with browning. Likewise some of those early copper coins with RD designations have been brightened or recolored.  

But, when it's already BN... what's the harm in a little natural red peeking through?  When it fades - it grades!  Or, are you simply stating that a brown coin is completely stable, and should have few visual surprises... whereas a red coin can fade/tone in a non-uniform or otherwise unattractive way?

Numismatically speaking there is no downside. There is no harm in a little red peeking through. It's only my personal taste in eye-appeal that at the time of purchase, I didn't fully consider to fill a hole in my type set. I can't count the times I made a rash purchase only to spy out a nicer looking coin a few days later. When I bought the 1835 half-cent, my search was over. I've never looked back. I chose the right coin the first time. Over time, I've learned my lesson and now I'm more likely to get the good coin the first time. Now I more fully understand your good coin, bad coin argument. A brown coin in a holder will always be brown and maybe grade higher. A red coin in a holder is not guaranteed and will over time tone inside the holder costing the purchaser a good resale price. You're also correct about the brown coin being more stable, what you see is what you get. There's something to be said for that.

Then there are the coins I originally regretted buying but over time began to grow on me like this olive toned Large-Cent. I no longer consider this 1851 MS-63 brown large cent an upgrade candidate. Incidentally, my friend who doesn't like ANY red showing through the toning on large cents does not like the reverse of this coin. Neither do I, I find the reverse of this coin has a rather dull look. That said, I am keeping this coin for the olive toning on the obverse. I also think the struck through grease on Liberty's truncated neck is interesting. As to bad or good, I only criticize my own coins and let others make their own determinations.

The last time I sent multiple submissions, NGC sent the coins back to me as they graded them. Interestingly, my world modern submission was the last submission to make it back to me.