Fenntucky Mike

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My P-110 arrived last week and today brought my new P-109 and a new, higher grade P-102 (that is not a star note like the last one).

With these, I have mostly rolled out / executed my plan for my Venezuela signature set. I still need to scan the two new notes. I still need P-104 and the new 2021 notes. I have a description written up for P-104 that will go up as soon as I have the notes. But that description focuses on the person and the animals / locals on the not and not on the historical narrative for the set / series so It doesn’t hurt my plan / narrative much to have that gap for now.

I’ll use the descriptions for the 2021 notes to extend the historical narrative for the series, as I can. I’m still working on those.

I really need to teach myself to pay more attention to watermarks with notes. I often overlook this aspect of note collecting because it has no analogue with coins.

The Bolivar Fuertes notes have a watermark of the person on the note. Interestingly, the Soberanos don’t do this and just have a watermark of the new Portrait of Simon Bolivar that was used on P-108 through (now) P-114.  I’m not sure what made them switch to using the same watermark on everything.

Maybe it was to save money. Maybe it was just to get the notes out faster. Maybe it was to give them more flexibility on what denominations they printed with any given paper delivery.

It’s interesting that there are three men that appear in / on both series. Two have different portraits used in the two different series, but the third uses the same portrait in both series in two very similarly colored notes. This makes the P-104 kind of obnoxious to shop for. You see that portrait as you scroll through, get excited and... it's a P-98! 

Ddr70’s comment that “Received” is the purgatory of grading is being proven out. I think the Traveler’s Cheque and Bearer Checks were received in the mail on 5/18 and opened and marked as received on 5/24 and they are still… “Received.” Turnaround time on world modern notes has been hanging 21-22 working days, and, if turnaround times really do start when the box hits the mailbox then I’m still hoping I can get the grades on those around 6/22…

These would look good in the "Post you latest addition!" thread. 

The more I think about this the more I wonder if I should just put the NOTES section in the description. 

+12 = 2,241

Ok, shame on me for not going through the Pop Report because the number graded didn't change. Because of that I'm missing some data that could have changed even though the number graded didn't such as equal amounts of subtractions and additions.

Here are the changes based on today's Pop Report and the Report from 5/18. It's kind of interesting.

2 Hryven + 1

10 Hryven + 1

100 Hryven +2

200 Hryven +1

500 Hryven +1

1000 Karbovantsiv +1

2 Karbowanez -1

10 Karbowanez +1

20 Karbowanez +3

50 Karbowanez +1

100 Karbowanez +1

30 Shahiv +1 (New Line)

As you see my totals don't match the PMG week over week, I have a + 13 and Pop Report shows a +12, so the only thing I can think of is something happened last week that I didn't track or a data entry error on my end.  I'll have to be more vigilant with this. The addition of a new denomination is not that surprising but the subtraction from the 2 Karbowanez note is very interesting to me, as that is the biggest $ Ukrainian note there is. I've changed my spreadsheet format a little bit and we'll see how it goes from here.

This is also the first time in the three weeks of more closely tracking that there was an increase of more than 1 in a denomination, the 20 Karbowanez notes saw a +3 this week and the Karbowanez denomination as a whole saw the most activity. The Karbowanez was the currency issued during Nazi Germany's occupation of Ukraine in WWII.

Yes, I also read somewhere that 2030 would be the expected release of the redesigned $20. A lot can happen in 9 years, including two elections, surprisingly it seems that the Tubman portrait is still very much a coin flip at too whether or not it will happen. 

10 hours ago, Revenant said:

Or both...  You could get both. I would get both.

Prognosis Negative, unless I need to hit the minimum for free shipping again. 

Scratch the 10 Dollar, I'm going to go with the 5 Billion note. It has the same depiction and I have an open slot in a set for it, two birds with one stone.

11 hours ago, Revenant said:

How random... Why?

My Signature/Themed Set is based on tractors/farming equipment and there just happens to be a tractor depicted on that note.

11 hours ago, Revenant said:

Not to advertise, just trying to help, but $60 feels super reasonable for a 69 and they (Banknoteworld) are running a 10% off sale for memorial day.

Thanks, I'll check it out but I'm most likely going to go with a lower grade. I saw a 68 for $33, I'll probably go that route, I can't really justify paying top dollar for high grade notes on a not so serious set. I'm not planning on going much over $30 for most of these notes and hopefully between $30 - $20 for 80% of them, there will be a few that will be more expensive and in those cases I might consider paying a little extra for a higher grade or specimen but probably not or I might just omit them completely.

In my searching I've come across a lot of turtles and elephants, A LOT!  But still no skunks.

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"

I spoke too soon on the Zimbabwe banknotes, it appears as though I will be getting at least one more for a signature set. The 2007 10 dollar note, what yah do. 

7 hours ago, Revenant said:

Me too. I haven't listed it anywhere and I haven't always been the best about remembering to save links but I have a now quite long list of links to articles and resources that I've referenced and used while researching these sets and notes for my descriptions.

I've been burned by just saving links, too many times I'll go back and the article will have been pulled. I now save everything I find in Word documents.

+0 = 2,229 The first time the number has been stagnant, uh oh.

I'll check those articles out in the next few days. God, I enjoy reading about this stuff WAY too much. I think I may have a problem.

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Interestingly, even these seem to have type A and type B issues:

That is interesting but I guess not unexpected when I think about it. Now the question is will PMG differentiate between the two?

 I'm with you on the size I had imagined them as being smaller as well. I'm not as shocked that they came in a book, that's pretty standard practice, I think. The perforations probably don't show very well in a scan.

2 minutes ago, Revenant said:

Ha! Well if you decide instead you'd rather get out of it just let me know. I think that $1 Billion - P-83, which is fairly crazy at 69 EPQ - would be about a 4 point upgrade for me. My P-83 is one of my earliest purchases and one of the relatively few 65 EPQs in my set. Add in the fact that it's in one of those old-gen holders and that's one I could see upgrading one day.

You'll be the first to know. 

5 minutes ago, Revenant said:

You're an odd one in my experience in that you show little interest in the 3rd dollar series and the P-88 to P-91 block in particular. P-65, P-90 and P-91 are usually among the ones that people go for first.

Meh, don't get me wrong big denominations are fun to collect and interesting to study but I'm more of a design guy, that's what usually brings me in at first, but the designs on those notes just didn't speak to me. As to the story behind them I can check our your sets anytime  so no real need for a deep dive there either. The only reason I have Third dollar Billions and 2008 Agro Check sets was pure frivolity and since I do have these sets I have a slight inclination to complete them but not in any serious manner.

25 minutes ago, Revenant said:

I got you into this.

LOL!!!  I'll remember you said that.

I'm really happy with the new dollars and don't regret for a minute getting them, I'm probably most proud that I've kept myself in check and kept my Zimbabwe sets to a minimum. One day I may go for a first dollar set but we'll see, that's a long way off if it even happens at all.

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Things seem to have turned back  up in late 2019 and 2020 with the new series seemingly bringing in new interest

I guess I would have to count myself among that group but I can guarantee that I would not have even sniffed the new series if you hadn't posted about it and the Bond notes. It's interesting that you are putting the upturn pre pandemic starting with the new series, I'm onboard with that, but would the current price levels be the same without it?

In Ukrainian notes, I'm seeing silly amounts going to Top Pops and SOME one-offs but if there are more than three the prices fall off a cliff and notes sit. Granted, there is a smaller base competing for these notes. I expect a precipitous fall for the, now, more common notes in grades below 69.

Looks like good news on the gas coupons front, good luck.

2 hours ago, Revenant said:

Well, in fairness I was talkin about your overall pop numbers, not doing it by pick number, that sounds like a lot of work.

Too late, I'm on a mission now.

I went through the entire SWC (Modern Issues) and I was skunked on the skunks. It wasn't a fruitless effort though, I found lots of notes for my themed signature set. I haven't given up on the skunks yet but it's looking grim.

+9 = 2,229

OK, here you go @Revenant 

Increases were observed in the following categories

10 Hryven +1

20 Hryven +1

500 Hryven +1

100 Karbovantsiv +1

2,000 Karbovantsiv +1

5,000 Karbvantsiv +1

5 Karbowanez +1

10 Karbowanez +1

100 Karbowanez +1

Still not sure I can glean much from this, so we'll see if I have time before next week to expand the spreadsheet by Pick #.

13 hours ago, Revenant said:

A comment I've made to myself that I'll repeat: "Sometimes the perfect is the enemy of the good."

I went through a while where I couldn't make myself happy with my Venezuela set and I had nothing up and eventually I just posted what I had while I gave myself time to think - and PMG gave me a feature.

Sometimes you just have to work on it until you figure it out. I'm finally closing in on an overall plan and presentation for the Venezuelan signature set. But I'm only getting there because I've kept playing and tweaking.

My 4th dollar and New dollar descriptions went through MANY adjustments as the timeline advanced. 

That's what I'll end up doing, just post what I have, I tend to treat my descriptions like a living document anyway "constantly tweaking".

I've been picking up a few notes here and there, notes I find attractive, and I have chosen a theme for a new signature set. I think the themed set will provide a nice distraction from my Ukrainian sets and in the end get the juices flowing for the descriptions.

1 hour ago, Revenant said:

For your Zimbabwe set or your Ukrainian set?

Mainly my Ukrainian sets, I'm wondering how much of the human aspect I want to put in the descriptions. The balance of factoids about the note and how/why it came into existence and why it stopped circulating, I find it really tough to do both and not end up writing a book about it. Probably one of the reasons I'm dragging my feet on these. I think I need a word limit/goal.

Just now, Revenant said:

I think they give you a few for free every month and I make do. I just found that by googling.

Probably, I'm sure I'm over the limit of free articles for the month at any rate.  They have a lot of good articles on world finances and shenanigans, every time I search something in those categories for banknote research at least one article from them pops up. Sigh, well the month is half over, I guess I can wait but they do have a three month special that is calling to me. I used to juggle the free 30 day trials from Amazon, sign up, cancel, sign up, cancel....... but they wore me down in the end. I may just go back to that and give Bloomberg and UNIAN (Ukrainian Independent Information News Agency) my $13 a month.

I really despise having so many different accounts and passwords but I guess it's all a means to an end. At least 75% of my accounts were started because of coins and/or banknotes. 

Good stuff, I think you're spot on with all of this. 

I like the description of the Z$20, and it has me thinking of what I want my descriptions to be.

Is there a place to see old Bloomberg articles for free? I almost got a subscription the other day and now the Zimbabwe article.  Guess I'll just have to bite the bullet. 

I have to imagine that the country is running on USDs right now anyway.

Hmm, I did a little more reading and it seems the RBZ is running a bureaux de change scheme? If I understand this correctly the RBZ has been holding auctions in which they are selling foreign currency to private businesses and individuals. So they flushed their monetary system down the toilet, again, and are selling foreign currencies ($80 million USD worth) to the highest bidder above spot? I might be interpreting this wrong but that's what it seems to be.

Yeah, they aren't issuing another bill. 

30 minutes ago, Revenant said:

I mean, I know you are joking but they are kinda due. We got 2 in 2019 and 2 in 2020. So they are due to issue new collectables. But I have not heard anything official saying they're wasting more paper to print $50 and $100 notes.  I honestly wouldn't mind. 2 notes a year is manageable. 30 in 2 years hurts.

It's been a few months now but the RBZ did issue a press release in mid January declaring their intent to release a $50 note and denying plans to print $100 & $200 banknotes. Who knows, all that may have changed ten times since then. I did read inflation was down to 194% in April, it seems that they are being a little more systematic this time around. 

Press Release (rbz.co.zw)

10 hours ago, Revenant said:

So... Please tell me you've gone full nerd and there's a spreadsheet and a chart / graph?

HA! Not yet, I've been to busy looking for the elusive skunk banknote.

In all seriousness, I'm working on it right now. I might have something cobbled together by Tuesday when they update the Pop Reports.