ChrisInJesup

I agree as well. Their specifications are not the same and they are all being minted in Philadephie. The one thing that does attract me the most though is the pure (.999) silver versus the 90% of the original. That's what I'm going to do.... pick up a Morgan and Peace for a keep sake in my collection.

So I saw the US Mint is remaking the Morgan Dollar with all the mint marks (CC, O, D?!?, P, S) and the Peace Dollar for the Centennial celebration of said coins. The Morgan CC is "ugh! why cant they just use a CC rather than an inverse" (or better yet have them stamped in Carson City!!!) or the strange looking "O" that looks like an exaggerated O/S. Keep with the design people!! Then last week, NGC had included the new coins in the related categories, but now have removed them this week (at least from my dated Morgans). Hmmmmm...... Was that a mistake or something being considered?!? No matter what, I'll get a 2021 Morgan and Peace Dollar and make it my collection.

I had the same thing with my fiancé when she asked how much value in my collection when she saw how many slabbed and raw coins I had. I pulled my coin diary up on my computer and showed her. I never saw someone's jaw hit the floor before. LOL Then I told her that value was at 50% of book value and current going rate at auctions. Then I showed her the gold and silver melt down values.... was dumbfounded. I told her the coins (especially the rare ones) are worth more than the metal they are made from, but I'll never get book value.

John, I appreciate that you appreciate my service to the country. The best way to thank a Vet, is not allow funding cuts to the VA and robbing the DOD budget. LOTS of money was taken from the DOD to build "The Wall" that soldiers could have used for infrastructure work that is badly needed on military bases. VA funding hasn't kept up with its usage.... it actually was redirected to the private sector for "FOR PROFIT" clinics. I don't use the VA as I have medical insurance... and would let my Brother/Sister in Arms have the benefit of using those service without me taking space. That's how I'm thanking them in a small part. But again, thank you for recognizing our service! I hear you John. I haven't had a bad thing to say...... but I will mentioned that with ALL the coins I sent in (either through NCS or NGC), I had one coin that didn't improve in rating. Now saying that, I will say that the rest did move up one or 2 levels.... but the one that didn't... looks so much better than it went in! Conservation sometimes exposes a problem that was covered. Now I do plan to send some in to NCS here in the future and they will be challenges based on what they say they can do. I plan to document that group of coins since it has been requested.... some Schillings, "odds and ends" and a rare BVI coin. I will share when the results are completed. As a side note: I am so JEALOUS of your 1st Lady collection!! The only first lady I have is Jaqueline Kennedy's coin..... but that's because I'm hooked to the Chamelot story. I should have got the NON-1st-Lady coins from the bachelor Presidents LOL.

So I got my large submission of coins that included 3 that needed "Conservation". Overall I'm pleased at the results because most of these coins were purchased during the pandemic. It is truly hard to determine a coin based on pictures and description, fortunately many online dealers are willing to help by sending MANY pictures to you. But then you have one that slips through that makes you go......."Damn!! Why didn't I see that?!?" Case in point is my Mayflower Reverse Proof ( 2020PM BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS S$1 The Mayflower Voyage 400th Anniversary | NGC (ngccoin.com) that had a "Dent" in the coin's rim..... something I didn't see..... I would have NEVER thought it would get a rating of "DETAILS" because this coin came from the mint directly (Wouldn't that be considered an error?!?) But it did, so now I will have to send another in to be rated. Then I had 3 coins recommended for CONSERVATION..... with past experience I said "Go Ahead".... and those those 3 coins are done and one became "Top Pop".... and that one came from the mint directly!! WHAT DID POBJOY DO WRONG?!? May be we'll never know! Now that all my winnings have been burned up, now I have coins I have to decide to send in! I have some Solomon Islands non-silver or silver plated coins to send in for this category: Solomon Proof AND..... I have coins to finish and expand the Solomon Silver Proofs..... with coins still missing LOL Oh the headaches!

I'm a science fiction fan overall..... I even have 3 working remote droids from Star Wars (BB8, R2 & R5) as well as a Lightsaber w/ sound effects (not those cheap ones).

Today I found out my major coin submission is coming back (30 coins) and some ratings were surprising and some were what I expected. Many of the coins were minted at the old Franklin Mint, along with some Perth Mint, Royal Mint and some dealers claiming to be a mint. But the Franklin Mint (FM) made me think of what others were thinking in the 80's.. There not worth the metal they are minted on! For some reason, I should have ignored those comments (In some cases I did). I have a few FM coin sets and I'm actually happy I still have them, but in the worse packaging. Many I removed from the original packaging so they won't get damaged. As I'm finding out, I'm glad to remove some coins from packaging that has PVC from other mints. I have coins that have PVC related issues that it is hard NOT to drop them into acetone to remove and stop the destruction. But then would that be "cleaning"?!? But what is funny is that I have FM stuff that is not coin related. It is Star Trek (ST) related stuff I have in the basement.... a 3D Chess Set..... An Insignia Board (missing one insignia)..... A Pewter NCC-1701D Enterprise.... and many others....all as gifts. Then there are those PLAYMATE items from ST that were also gifts..... actions figures and the like. All this was GIVEN to me because I was a Star Trek Fan!! What's funny.... I'm not that much of a "Hard Core" fan as I'm currently watching Deep Space 9 as I write this. Voyager is next on my list since I didn't watch half-end of the series. So what am I getting at? Well.... my coin collection is based on what I experienced and enjoyed in my life. The way all collections should be! I have BVI coins, coins with Kennedy on them, Silver dollar coins and American coins of past because they excite and intrigue me to collect them, especially in good quality. My ST collection is the same way, but only a 1/3 of what I was given or purchased. That's because being a ST fan didn't measure up to be a coin fan! Coins to me are ART!! Collecting is what you should enjoy, not what you need to beat someone or make a profit. It is enjoying the overall item for what it is worth TO YOU!!

1881 S Morgan MS64

Just got my Plaque and coin. Thanks NGC!!

The part that irks me is the dealer hiring people to scarf up the low mintage coins at the mint. I don't know how many times I tried to get a low mintage coin and was booted out because of the overload at the website. Then find someone that has 6,8 or 10 of these coins when the mint site said something like "2 per household". "Fair Market Value" is subjective to the individual. However like I said, if it is a rare coin I want, I'll pay a premium.

Having a few US coins and Proof sets when I was a child has made me want to collect more US coins. I have a nice collection of US coins that I feel proud to share with my friends that collect as well. Over the years I have Silver Proof sets from the 1992 till 2019, Silver Eagles from 1986 till 2020, odds and ends of proof sets to the point of "someday I will send these in to get rated". BUT..... there are some missing pieces.... especially with my Silver Eagles.... because certain people hire people to buy the Mint's product so they can make a dollar. Nothing wrong with that, just realize I won't buy your inflated outrageous prices after. You all know who I'm talking about.... the dealers making a profit off low mintage coins. My silver eagles are a prime example, limited mintage coins scarfed up by dealers. Then turned around and asking 50% to 200% what they bought them for. What ever happen to that basic coin shop, where the owner was a coin collector him/her self....... who upgraded his/her collection when someone was on his/her down or wanted to trade for something better..... or needed some money..... when true negotiation was done for that purchase..... and owner would put his/her lesser coin for sale on the counter. That doesn't happen too much here in the US anymore. Too many fly-by-night dealers looking for the fast buck. I've even notice they are slowly moving into the World market. I just got done talking to someone that bought a rare Proof Set, but is breaking it down to sell all the coins separate, because they worth more that way. He will get the price.... but not from me (I wanted that whole set) because I like coins and the art involved. It saddens me to see the US Mint.... seeing they have an opportunity to improve their bottom line.... increase prices considerably. Because of this, I stopped buying from them! I've even will sell some of what I have. If I'm going to pay some premium price for a coin, it's going to be rare or unique. That's why I'm on the world side.... buying what I can! I've seen some better designs on the cheap! I'm trying to beat the dealers!!

When I do that, there's going to be some that are really needing some "conservation". I do plan to get a picture of "before" as these coins (and medal) will truly test NCS.

I'll have to take a look! Thanks.

I've had a couple of submissions like that and I even sent some directly to NCS for conservation. I am very pleased of the results.

My set of coins sent to NCS first came back. I'm very pleased with the results. All the silver coins had haze, one silver showed signs of PVC damage starting and the gold coin had a rubbery substance I couldn't get off. I could see that the contaminate was in some of the devices, so I decided to let an expert do it. These coins were bought online last year at prices that would make some people jealous. Instead of me posting pics, I'll post a link since they are part of my personal collection. 1977 BVI Silver Jubilee dollar: https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/coins/1989248/ 1977 BVI Silver dollar: https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/coins/1989254/ 1978 BVI Coronation Jubilee dollar: https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/coins/1989253/ 1978 BVI Silver dollar: https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/coins/1989255/ NGC had to fix their database as the 1978 BVI Coronation coin wasn't recognized in the BVI dollar category, but would be happy to put the regular 1978 dollar into it even though it was labeled for the coronation coin. 1977 BVI Silver dollar is a PF70UC (Woo Hoo!!) and the rest were PF69UC, so I'm pleased overall of the results. 1969 Guinea JFK & RFK 200 francs: https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/coins/1989260/ 1994 Niue JFK $25 Gold (1.2g): https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/coins/1989262/ Guinea coin looks better as both sides were PVC damage. Looks like it was light enough that it still gave me a PF68UC. Still see some dark spots on the faces, but much better as they were dark. I have the 1970 sister coin at NGC being rated and that coin looked so much better. Niue coin I'm very happy with. I would like NGC to open a separate $25 gold for the smaller ones (1.2g) as their current one is 1/4oz, which is much bigger than a 1.2g coin. I may have to get a few of the 1.2g coins to show a need for a separate category. I also got an email today that 3 of the coins I sent to NGC in the other batch needed some NCS TLC work. Of course I said go ahead, just hope it won't take a month longer. 2 of the 3 happen to be BVI cent coins that go along with the 1977 Silver Jubilee dollar coin as it was part of a proof set. Same with the Coronation proof set went in on that batch. I didn't think those coins look looked bad, I guess I'll see. I think when I send the next batch to NCS, I'll take before pictures because the difference is great.

The problem is the site wants you to modify your search engine.... unless you know where to find the download without this change.... I can't use it.

Funny you should say that.... I was going to make a search portal as a "1 stop search" spot for anything and everything on the web. Just trying to make it work for me alone has been the biggest challenge. But I got the basics, but still learning the nuances. Retirement will give me more time to spend on refining this process to make it work. Not my first rodeo with web interfacing.... but so much has changed when I used Java -script or PERL in the early days.

It's bash file I found online.... It's a heavily modified now since then as things have changed on search engines over the past 10 years. It's a learning curb for me and it uses Lynx. I'm an old DOS guy (TSRs were my thing in the '90s) and C++ programmer (Win95 Beta Tester... sorry for the crappy software)..... scripts, bash, batch.... all tomatoes TomAHtoes. Retirement is around the corner and look forward to spending quality time with my LINUX box.

Need a REPUBLIC of GUINEA (different country, not Guinea-Bissau) with a category of silver 200 Francs proof. I have a 1969 John Robert Kennedy (2855917-006) and your office currently evaluating another coin from 1970 that is also Kennedy. Plus there is a 1969 & 1970 Almamy Samory Toure 200 Francs coins as well. Niue needs a $25 Gold 1.2gram category. I currently have one coin rated by you (2855917-007) and have a couple raw coins as well in the same category. Thanks!

So I had an email asking me HOW to program a search engine to find a coin, even a rare one. Let me start by saying... you can search for a coin with current search engines. My programming uses these current search engines to find what I want. HOWEVER..... because I'm lazy.... I use a Linux Server to do the job.... and it's a small system on my wireless network that does the searching for me. Without getting into details..... my little server uses a --script to inject what I want and the results are emailed to me what it finds. I go to the server and redefine what I want to reduce the number of emails. It looks every hour on many sites, compares the search to a checklist from previous searches, sends an email of what it found new in the search, then adds the new item(s) to the checklist. Been doing this since 1990s (coins came later) and it works well. My -script has changed over the years as many of the search engines have "come and gone" or changed in the process. The current system has worked well, especially as I learn more and found coins that are hidden in web crevices. Internet search engines are great tools.... if you know how to "abuse" them for a purpose

Thanks Ali. I was just worried that they were sent out and someone swiped mine.

So my coin purchases overseas are slowly trickling in. COVID has really slowed things down. One coin I purchased was back in November and just got here. Carrier pigeon must have gotten lost LOL! Makes me appreciate the Postal Service even more. Carriers running in bad weather, bringing me gifts from other places so I can admire my prize. But even as all those coins trickle in.... I broke my New Year's resolution.... no coin purchases. I have a few search engines programmed to let me know if something comes up I'm looking for that's rare to find. And it did.... ugh! So resolution broken.... BUT.... I will only buy when rare. On a positive note, my first set of coins sent to NCS/NGC will hopefully be in before the end of the month. Hoping for some good results.... or at least PF65 or higher... higher would be better. Working on the next set to be conserved and another set that just needs to be rated. Ever since I had to decide what coins to send in to NGC from the contest winnings, I had to take a real big look at my collection. Lots of world coins, good old USMINT coins and quite a few Kennedy token/medals. Picked up a new book to help me identify these Kennedy items. I also found a couple coins I missed that I need to send in to finish the Solomon coin set I'm working on. And then I'm rescuing some world proof sets from the old wrapping so they don't get damaged more. Overall, it has been keeping me busy!!

Thanks Rick, I'll give it a try!!

Ali, When are the plaques for the winners being sent out? I sent my mailing address to the email I received and haven't heard back since. I believe that was back in January.

So HERE is my position for a Rwanda set...... remove the 5000F set. I know that knocks off a set I control..... but there's already a "Type Set" for Rwanda Gold. A 5000 Francs set is asinine. That's just my opinion!!