Fenntucky Mike

6 minutes ago, Revenant said:

I ordered a 20-pack of the gold-foil $100 Trillion fakes on eBay for $7 and bought some rigid BCW top-loaders on Amazon. If they arrive in time I think I'll keep one and make the rest cheap, gag stocking stuffers. 

Nice, 

55 minutes ago, Revenant said:

BTW, I don't know if you noticed but our favorite watched pot is "on sale" for only $800. Maybe you should pop for it? 

LOL, still too much for me but I'll keep watching. 

On a separate note, I did pull the trigger on a P-86 for my billion set. One a year is a good pace for this set.

I laughed out loud when I saw that one.

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If I remember right I bought my P-91 about 5 years ago in 67 EPQ for $45 and I think that's one of the few notes in the series going for more now than it did 5 yeas ago.

I'd say you did pretty good, someone just placed a bid on a 68 EPQ P91 with the opening bid starting at $139.99. Still seems high to me for the # graded but people apparently keep sending them in (and buying) as quite a few of the P91's for sale on ebay have the latest generation PMG holders.

11 hours ago, Revenant said:

Interesting notes

Thanks,

11 hours ago, Revenant said:

I was disappointed a while back when I looked into the bio of a famous woman on the Venezuelan notes just because it seemed like the thing she was most famous for was marrying a general at 16 and being thrown in prison for it during the war for independence.

I read a little bit about her as well "wrong place wrong time" popped in my head. Josefa Camejo on the soberano's seems more interesting, she took charge.

Hang on, here is the P5.

That tweet is kinda neat, did he write a news article or air a story using that headline? Wouldn't mind reading it if he did.

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My 2019-2020 set may ultimately go through a complete / near complete upgrade cycle just for the joy of giving Mike a run for his money but for now I'm really happy to have a complete set.

I'm waiting . Looks like I'll need to go update the description for my $20 

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Although, having everything else in 67 now, I really regret snapping up that $5 bond note in 66 EPQ. It was / is a solid enough grade but now it just looks like the slouch / loser of the set.

Ditto, I regretted snapping up the $20 in 66 so I upgraded a few weeks ago. Might have been me who out bid you on that $20 a few weeks back, patience is something I need to deploy more in my collecting. Oh well, I now have a Zimbabwe $20, 66 EPQ stocking stuffer for someone on Christmas. Or, I also play numismatic trivia with family members via group text and will award a prize for the first person to XXX points, usually takes 3-4 weeks to get to the arbitrary point total, at the end of which I give out a prize. Maybe that will be the $20's fate.

Wow! That's disappointing. 

Was the estimated turnaround 62 days when you submitted, what has customer service said?

21 minutes ago, Revenant said:

I need to do research to see of this is actually the case but the P-100 feels and looks very much tacked-on as an afterthought. You have 2, distinct six-note sub-sets that repeat the same portraits and designs and then you get Simon Bolivar again with a "100" note that is almost a dead ringer for the old P-93 100 Bolivar note.

I suspect the P-100 was introduced as a throw-away, short-term stop-gap solution when they already knew the 2nd redenomination and the new Soberano series would be coming.

Makes sense, very strange to have three VERY similar designs of different denominations circulating. At least they changed up the portraits for the Soberano's, well except for the dude with the glasses.

7 minutes ago, Revenant said:

In terms of color and overall look the P-100 is much better than the P-99, but the decision to not put "100,000" and print all five zeros comes off as pure, grade-A, laziness in basically re-printing the P-93 while adding "Mil" in a couple places. They should have printed the zeros. They had to add "Mil," adding the zeros wouldn't have been much more. Not putting them on is just inconsistent and confusing. It drove me nuts when trying to shop for P-100s.

No argument there, printing the full numerical denomination would have been better and should have been done. I wonder how the locals felt about it or if there was much confusion on the ground, the color schemes are very different so it was probably not that bad. Probably stumped a few tourists/visitors though.

I don't know, I kinda like the reverse of the P100 better, to much red saturation for me on the 99, the obverse could do with out all that shadowing around the portrait. Regardless, very cool looking notes.

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Having won that, I say that there was a P-102a* (66 EPQ) and a P-106 (67 EPQ) up for bid ending within a few hours to a few days. They were from the same seller and the seller combines shipping, so I decided to wait and see what I could get. I snagged both for $19 each

I love it when things fall into place. Combining shipping really makes a good deal even better. There just seems to be an endless supply of graded foreign notes out there in mid-high grades, these are great for filling out sets and on the pocketbook. 

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The also gives me something to put into the Soberano set so now I can stop feeling guilty about bugging Ali and PMG to make a category so I could have an empty set.

It's hard to ask for a new set when you have nothing to put in it, I know. I've been thinking about the registry construction for some of my sets and for moderns, let's keep it similar to the coins and say 1955 to present, I feel that creating sets for each issue seems to be the most logical to me. Prior to that you almost have to categorize banknotes by government or historical event. I will give PMG credit in that for one of the categories I collect in (Ukraine) they took it upon themselves to create three new, what I would have considered custom, sets. PMG is pretty accommodating when it comes to suggestions on how to construct registry sets, at least for sets with few collectors in them or that are little known.

Update:

Sold for 1,700 pounds, plus 20% juice, plus 5% tax. 500 pounds above high estimate. 

6 minutes ago, Revenant said:

but buyers' remorse only gets worse over time. ALWAYS.

LOL, no doubt.

I figure I'll have several more opportunities in the future to try again on this note. Hard to justify dumping that amount of cash on a collectable right now, although I do still have my stimulus check laying around somewhere. hmmm

26 minutes ago, ddr70 said:

One concept borrowed from NGC is the lowball set.  Why don't we have these over here on PMG?

Yes, lowball!  

That should be an easy one to add and not disrupt the current registry structure.

Fr# is another good one.

11 hours ago, ddr70 said:

My complaint is about lack of sets--build a better place to compete Nationals and we ought to get more users and hopefully more sets with pictures to admire. 

So if it was up to you, what sets would you add? I read mention of denomination sets, I think that would be a good start. Any others? Would you want it to go as far as State sets, counties, individual banks? 

In general I agree, the more sets the better, and the better for me to look at them. I feel that more sets helps to keep the registry more organized and easier to view, enjoy and interpret. 

How do you get caught in a country as corrupt as Zimbabwe when your a relative of the man in charge. Did she walk through the one terminal/scanner that wasn't on Mnangagwa's payroll?

In my mind I'm imagining the gold bars bursting from the bottom of the handbag and falling to the floor for all the airport to see and hear. Then, sheepishly, she tires to calmly pick them up and place them back in the handbag, by that time everyone is gathered around cell phones out video taping the whole thing. Finally, the guard is like "Ok, that's enough. Let's go.".

28 minutes ago, Revenant said:

Side note but I think there's a 65EPQ P-1D going for $40 on eBay. It's *only* a Gem Uncirc note but it's a P-1D - still one of the highest point getting 1st dollar notes - for $40 if you want to start down that road to a 1st series set.

Maybe, if it is still there in a few weeks. I went a little crazy with my mad money this last week, need to build it back up.

So using the seal to fourth digit identifier would not be accurate 100% of the time, you would also need to take into account the font, spacing, tilt, "rubber stamped" look etc.? Are there some instances were there are no discernible differences between a normal production note and a replacement? 

That's neat, having all the varieties. That was a hell of a get, I think.

I was paying attention to that note, same thing, I couldn't justify it to myself at $190 (not even close). I did not see it get relisted for an auction starting at $100, I might have thought about it a little more if I did see it, I don't think I would have bid on it. Guess we'll never know.

How far do you think you'll take your collection, specifically, will you or do you look for replacements and/or specimens? I haven't looked around but how readily available are Zimbabwe specimens?

11 hours ago, Revenant said:

Did you see that the $5 70 EPQ is on sale as a BIN for $1000, but on sale this last week for just $950????

I did.

It looks like it was a short sale, it's back at $1,000. I'm guessing it'll follow the same sequence as your P-1d until someone is willing to pony up. 

The only question now is how low will it go.

4 hours ago, Revenant said:

Forgot to say this earlier but, while I don't have it yet, I think the new $20 falls short of the P-4 design its copying, particularly with how the elephant on the back is done.

I'm looking at the new $20 now and since you mentioned it, yeah, the elephant is not depicted well. The legs seem to long, the body is baggy, ill defined and to offset to much to one side and the head looks to small. 

That being said, Hmmmm, I think I like the new $20 reverse better than the P-4. I like the perspective better on the new $20.

That is too funny!

Sounds like you had/are having a good day, being around family and everyone's  happy and well, that's the best. Getting a funny story out of it, well that's the icing on the cake.

The note is pretty cool and a really good gift to boot.

Congrats.

Thanks,

Pictures with instructions always help me.

Is using the Seal the most reliable diagnostic because it is overprinted with the serial #? Is the "tilt" of the serial # an indicator?

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Let me know if you want the details on replacements.

Sure, I always like learning new things. I have some NBN's but have spent almost zero time learning about them, hope to start getting serious about them next year sometime.

When I do get that 50 it's going to be great! Even better if the price goes down instead of up. I'll probably hang it on a wall, or put it in a picture frame on my desk so I can bask in it. 

It's not entirely self restraint and common sense that has me pushing this note back again. One of the big selling points to myself is, "Well. Do you want just one note for $X or do you want several really good notes for $X? Hmmmm... ". I can usually sell myself on more is better.

2 hours ago, Revenant said:

Mkay... I'll make plans to bust your chops about this later. Lol

Lol, all in good fun my friend. I'll be waiting...

2 hours ago, Revenant said:

I very very seriously thought about a 2019 $2 in 68 EPQ when I bought my P-1d but I'm still holding until I find out what I get from the wife on Monday.

It would be hilarious if you did get a "nothing box" as a gag. Have fun.

11 hours ago, Revenant said:

I'll talk on this more later but I "won" the 1994 $2 P-1d in 68 EPQ Star - the highest grade example so far of the rarest P-1 type. It set me back $115 all told. I'm much happier with that than a 69 EPQ of the new $5 note or a 70 EPQ of the new $2 for 4 times as much.

Awesome!

Can't wait to read about it.