Revenant

1 hour ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Turnaround times are better at PMG than NGC so...... mid July probably. 

FYI, no skunks yet but I haven't given up.

Well, all the NGC stuff mailed 1.5 months ago hit quality control a week ago or more. I think those would all be coming home if I hadn't said 2 weeks ago that they could try to remove the residue they see on that gold tobacco dove. So maybe early July? 

23 hours ago, Love Collection said:

Argentina was also another country that had a turbulent financial history! So I can see the attraction there and look forward to seeing what you put together 👍😊

I'm definitely not going to be in any rush on Argentina. I'm going to still be focused on Venezuela for a bit and maybe going for some low-hanging fruit upgrades for my 4th dollar set.

31 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

One day someone tried to enter a specimen in a set and the next day, POOF, I had three new specimen sets created for me with my notes already added. 

Wow. Can't complain about that!

5 hours ago, Love Collection said:

Great job with this set!

I just checked out your NGC coin sets and can see you have a very diverse range including some Aussie sets! 👏😊

If you mean the Venezuelan set, I feel like I'm much more torn on how to approach it than I ever was with the Zimbabwe set because I feel very torn on how to use the set description / note descriptions to balance two wants that are competing with each other.

On one hand I want to do deep dives into that was going on around the time the note(s) came out and putting the note releases is their context. On the other hand I really want to go into the historical figures on each note and the endangered animals on each note. The Zimbabwean notes never had people on them so there was no person to bio and my blurbs about what was on the back tended to be shorter - like some of my blurbs about the animals. But I don't feel like I can have historical information, biographical information and talk about the animals on each note and have it not be excessively overwhelming. So I'm trying to strike a balance.

I'm thinking:

- the Set Description will become something talking about collecting hyperinflation notes similar to what I have in the Zimbabwean set

- P-88 to P-93 will focus on the economic history and the backdrop of the notes being released

- P-94 to P-99 will be about what's on the notes, but each will note about what that note was worth in US dollars when released / announced (it tweren't much!)

- P-100 will go back to the historical context and the switch from Fuertes to Soberanos

- P-101 to P-108 will focus on the people animals and places again.

- P-109 to P-114 will place more emphasis on the economic history and the advance to the hyperinflation timeline.

If I can make that work in a way that feels good I think I'll finally be happy with it.

Australia has a lot of 1 oz NCLT with cool designs and when I was younger that silver NCLT was almost my sole focus. I've moved on to other things over the years in part because I just do not have the time or the budget to keep up with the many many many NCLT series out there and trying and failing was bumming me out. Lol

1 hour ago, Love Collection said:

I actually noticed your set when I was adding my own Zimbabwe notes and saw this attention to detail with your images and descriptions and decided that I had to up my game with my own Nicaragua set!

I had already spent a lot of time researching and felt that I had to share this info with others 

I also had some competition of my own with another collector that had won an award with a neighbouring country set that was expanding into Nicaragua, and was now aggressively adding more notes and this had briefly relegated me to second spot!

And yes I did get a featured article in the newsletter and also one of my notes was  shared on the Facebook page! 

Cool! I'll have to mentally add that to the legacy of that set, along with the fact that it's has been used to teach kids about Hyperinflation now.

The Nicaraguan Hyperinflation hasn't really at all been on my radar. I'm aware of there being various Latin American Hyperinflation events before Venezuela but the one that seems to get the most attention is Argentina, so I'd say that's more on my radar than Nicaragua, but maybe one day.

13 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

If I found one, in a series that I collect, for around $200 I would think about it and more likely than not would pick it up. That would be right around my limit for what I would consider a onetime novelty purchase, there are just to many cool notes out there that you can get for much less money in 68 and 69.

I've had similar problems in getting things like the P-1d for $100 when so many of the other notes in that set were had for $8-30. But it is a dang good feeling to have a full variety group of the P-1.

43 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Been thinking hard about a themed set, just haven't found the right thing yet.... A stench of skunks  nah.

is there a note with a skunk on it??? Consider yourself challenged to find one!

I really couldn't tell you what possessed me to go with "Bale of Turtles," and "Parade of Elephants." The idea for the sets came from my son's nursery themes and seeing those animals on my Zimbabwe and Venezuela notes and thinking, "hmmmm..." 🤔 I think it could be fun though if those sets become more than just extensions of my Zimbabwe and Venezuela sets.

2 minutes ago, Love Collection said:

And I know your struggles with those auctions, I seem to see the same *** out names bidding against me on a regular basis! Some of them I have actually come to know as we are in a Nicaraguan collecting group together! 😅😂 and in between typing this I just got sniped on a couple of extremely low serial # notes I had my eyes on for the past week 😢

Yeah. I think we all feel that pain sometimes. I just have to remind myself sometimes that they have the same right to bid and out-bid as I do.  

3 minutes ago, Love Collection said:

I did dabble in Zimbabwe a few years back but I was generally just picking up some extra certified notes to take advantage of the higher costs in international postage! 😅 so you don’t have to worry about me 😁

Ha. Thanks. The Zimbabwe notes are very fun and interesting to me but I think you have to really be interested in them to go nuts with building that set like I have. It's good to know you're not more competition but I don't worry much anymore. My set is mostly built. I have examples in 65+ grades for almost everything, so if prices start getting bid up I just shrug and I won't do any upgrading.  

I really am just so proud of what I achieved with that set, and I'm very happy with it. I'd just love to fill in a last few holes that I'm working on. But I have no shame in that set not being full of "top pops" it's a dang solid collection that achieves everything I wanted for it and more.

Congrats to you on what you've done. I was happy to see your Nicaragua set win Best Presented in 2020. I feel like your sets are some of the best out there in terms of descriptions and overall presentation - to say nothing of the notes! I think you've gotten a couple of feature articles on your sets too, right?

I just recently got a NIcaraguan note for the first time to go with my turtle theme set.

12 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

LOL, ditto. That's what happened to me on Sunday evening, we were both way out of the realm of what that note should cost but I guess it will drive more submissions by sellers.  I've been gathering up raw notes for a submission, most of what I'm looking for I won't find graded anyway and It'll save money in the end. There are two other very active collectors in Ukrainian notes now and it's getting a little too competitive. Probably should have kept my big yap shut but I doubt there would be the number of notes available now if it was just me colleting, so....IDK

Well, I had bid $45.50 and they sniped me with 2 seconds left at $46. Which is why I'm salty over the loss. That check was stamped the day before my 18th birthday and I'd wanted it. But I couldn't see going higher on it when I knew I was getting ready to submit 2 others soon. I don't know that they'll come back as 65s but I think they'll grade. And I have a hard time continuing to bid higher at that point when we were the only ones bidding above about $27.

1 minute ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

How are the Travellers Cheque's going, sent them in yet, are they moving through PMG?

I was going to send them in last week but then I held them up so I could order a P-40, P-45 and P-46. Those just came today. I have the submission form half done. I'm going to pop in the serial numbers, print and send them all in in one box to save on shipping.

I had bid on an MS65 P-17 that I wanted and barely lost out on it to Bonezdog sniping me on it. I'm a bit salty about that. 

Interesting to see this slow build up in note count over time... If I had more energy and cared more I might try something similar with Zimbabwe.   But then, I'm mostly done with building that set and I'm not shopping anywhere nearly as actively as I once was.

Thanks for the link! Very helpful of you. That's added to my wishlist now. We'll see if the wife bites the next time she needs to give me something.  

17 minutes ago, IndoHound said:

WOW, interesting that there is a market still developing for these items.

I picked up ten of each of these denominations on a visit to the Reserve Bank, Harare in 2003. UNC condition was no problem except for the Z$1000 as only five examples were available a consecutive pair in UNC and the others were ranging from XF to aUNC. I sold every note as close by as South Africa where I was rushed by collectors and later elsewhere around the planet. 

For my own collection, I kept the consecutive pair and a single.

Was not planning to have these graded as no difference was made between stamped/marked ones and ones which did not go through the process. I remember that the counter staff at the Reserve Bank was not that keen that I did not sign the notes in front of them. I had to provide an acceptable explanation to be able to do so.

Please have a look at my examples below.

 

 

Wow. Those would be amazingly rare in that condition. I have no idea what you could get for them if you found the right person. I'm not sure which way my preferences lean on these honestly. The pristine ones like yours are interesting to look at and rarer but they lack some of the character and history of the stamped ones.

6 minutes ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Soon as I saw they were printing a 1,000,000 bill I thought about your set. Did you think or were you anticipating that higher denominations would be released when you started the Soberano set?

From what I've read the bills are printed but will they be released into general circulation or even be available now that Maduro is trying to go cashless. I haven't seen any available yet and I think Zimbabwe's crown as the inflation king is safe. For the moment.

Funny that you mention that because you see the stuff about them buying paper for a 100,000 bolivar note and then they didn't even print it / saved the paper because it wasn't worth it!  

I never know what to expect and I don't put a lot of expectations on these things because you never know what these crazy governments will do. I was shocked there were no new notes in 2020 really. I was expecting more sooner and here we are.

When the new Zimbabwe series started I was both excited and filled with dread at the possibility of another 27-32 note set.  

2 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Ok, this was tough! I had to use some deductive reasoning with these. Ok, so my thought process is that none of these will beat the current Top Pop notes. Reason being, I'm assuming all the top notes were not claimed (stamped/written on). With my ceiling established I down graded from there. I feel like I'm a little harsh with my guesses and hopefully the notes go up from there. I'm going to rest my eyes for a min and take a look again this week, might tweak a few numbers.

1K 0017747 = 62

1K 0017726 = 60

5K 0289816 = 60

5K 0100726 = 61

10K 0089344 = 62

10K 0089586 = 62

20K 0103850 = 62

20K 0103852 = 62

50K 0108813 = 60

50K 0097162 = 62

100K 0081419 = 60

100K 0071977 = 62

I will be THRILLED if they come back with 60+ grades. We'll see. I mostly just want something reasonably nice for closing this gap in my set and the story I want to tell with it.

1 hour ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Uh oh! Things took a turn for the worse on this, the note I had been watching is no longer available.

 

Ah well. Give it time.

I got one of the BNW lights as a freebie over the holidays but haven't messed with it yet. I need to try to look at the uv features of my Zdollars! Lol 

Cool stuff as always, Mike.

It'll come in its time. My 2nd and 3rd dollars are increasingly in the same state.

6 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

I'm in! Only thing I'm not sure of is how much the cancelation stamps and signatures detract from the note, guess it doesn't matter since they are all signed and stamped. Studying now. 

I've seen canceled examples get grades in the 63-67 range so I don't think PMG dings them too bad and looks at the condition of the document while almost ignoring the writing from a "damage" perspective. 

3 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

That's awesome, congratulations again on the award!

Thanks, again.  

3 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Pssst, you're gonna need a bigger shelf.

Yeah, but not the worst problem to have. I don't know exactly what's gonna happen when the NGC one gets here though. I'm also out of the little plastic stands that I use for them. I guess I need to hit up Michael's and see if they still have those. I had a spare one sitting around that I bought a year ago for... reasons (possibly linked to eternal optimism)... and I was able to just pop the PMG one on that stand. Maybe the solution is just going to be hanging them on the wall in a big (and possibly growing over time) display.

The stand the PMG one is on was supposed to be for my AIChE "Best In-Practice Paper" award but I realized that keeping that plaque (made of soft wood) would leave indents and grooves in that plaque over time so I took that award off the plastic stand and put it on the wall and that stand has been sitting empty. Now it has something to do.

3 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Glad Sam liked the plaque so much, that pic of him holding/staring at it cracked me up.  Reminds me of one of my nieces, she's in a similar situation/condition, biggest smile I've seen out of her was when I told her all my junk mail was for her and she opened a Luxury Accessories pamphlet I had gotten from HA. It had all kinds of purses and stuff in it, well, she had pretty much the same expression as Sam. Long story short she wouldn't put it down, took it home and her parents were pissed at me because that's all she would talk about/wanted (stuff in the pamphlet). Ooops. 

I think the single most hateful thing Amazon has done to me in recent years is starting to mail out those holiday toy catalogs...  

Ben has not yet figured out the difference between business cards, gift cards, membership cards (like my Top Golf card) and Credit Cards. So he has a wallet full of "credit cards." Uh huh...

3 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

So what are the inside dimension of those boxes, how tall of a graded note could I fit in one and how sturdy are they? I've been watching those a long time and they look good.

The below gives you outside, but I'd put INSIDE at about 212 mm wide and about 125 tall at the edges (the "spine" / lid is curved). It's big enough to hold my world notes in the wider, taller holders.

I would say they're reasonably sturdy for what they seem designed for. They seem like they're meant to sit on a bookshelf and look like a book, not to be stacked really high on top of each other. They're pretty sturdy if gripped at the bottom or the sides but I'd say that trying to hold them at the top / by the lid in the middle is a bad idea. They are just a little "squishy" at this point and I can feel them start to give some if I try to hold them hard enough at that point to hold them when they're full / have the weight of a bunch of notes in them. No complains. I like them. I just would be aware of that one apparent weak point and that they don't seem designed to be held by the "spine" like you would a real book.

5 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Feeling jealous of those storage books and pretty inadequate due to my junk draw method of storage right now. 

It's basically the same as the junk desk hutch compartment I'd been going with. 😆 

9 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

That note with the mechanical error just got reposted on ebay, I'd say they have it described fairly now. $30 it could be yours.

Meh. Maybe... Not really something I feel a burning need for.

Interesting. So I guess the PMG holder doesn't block UV and you can still see the UV features in graded notes. I have a UV light I might actually use now...

3 hours ago, Fenntucky Mike said:

Dang it, can't stop looking at fuel coupons now.

 

Ha! Suffer!!!!

On 1/13/2021 at 4:43 PM, Fenntucky Mike said:

Read a little blurb about Zim last week in Coin World, speaking to the state of things there.

https://www.coinworld.com/news/paper-money/zimbabwe-embraces-u-s-dollar-as-currency-shortage-continues 

Side note, I'm really loving that Coin World now has a Paper Money section. I think they added it at the start of 2020 and it seems to be expanding. 

Thanks for that. That and a bit more research my form the basis for starting a comment on my P-104. If that's happening they'll abandon the new dollars officially soon enough.