Thanks for all the nice comments. I caught Jeff's on the road and replied, but now that I'm back home I wanted to respond to a few other comments:
Fuzzy317, lucifer, and matchbox- thanks!
GR58 - It was really strange. I knew I was close to each and it started to become a mystery as to which would reach completion first, but all three in one work week? Very strange!
dave700x - hat trick?!? I LOVE it! What a great analogy. (Hope you don't mind that I'm a Red Wings fan).
commems - WOW! What a question! That's really hard to answer. I've been a stamp collector almost all my life. The only coins I collected were wheat pennies and early memorials. They were housed in Whitman folders and stuck in a box in the back of a closet for many years. In 1999, I saw the
Statehood Quarters being issued and decided to buy the mint and proof sets from the U.S. Mint. I did that every year without much thought about what to do with them . In 2005, my father passed away. He had an old Whitman folder with nickels through 1962 or thereabouts.
About two years ago I got my hands on a used 2011
Red Book and decided to go after Mint Sets back to 1959 (when Memorial pennies started) and Proof Sets back to 1968 (when Proofs done in San Francisco). I looked back at my old receipts and it was May 2012 that I bought the Mint Set run from 1968 to 1998, including the '82 and '83 Souvenir sets. July 2012 is when I got the Proof Set run from 1968-1998. I bought Eagle albums to hold them and started looking for what I was missing. The 1959 to 1964 Mint Sets were obvious but pricey with silver over $30 at the time. 1965 to 1967 Special Mints sets were easy. Then it was a matter of identifying what else I was missing (like the 3 different types of 1972P Ikes or the 1979 Type II (clear S) Proof Set.
With silver prices still up, my attention turned to the nickel collection my father left. I transferred it to a Dansco album and started noodling everything I needed from circulation. He had it almost 100% complete to 1962, so it wasn't hard to get it just about complete from circulation. I even found a circulating proof coin in the process! I enjoyed searching rolls and coin drawers for a while, but decided to buy the rest and focus elsewhere. But where?
I though maybe pushing pennies back to Indians would be a good idea when someone on CC forum mentioned a Type Set album. I was intrigued and then I was hooked! I can't find the receipt when I bought the used 7070, but I have receipts from May 2012 where I bought some of the coins. I'm guessing I started my 7070 15 months ago.
So 7070 15 months ago (but no Gold - the clock gets reset if I decide to go that route)
Mint Sets and Proof Sets - either 1999 or 15-18 months ago, depending on how you look at it.
I hope that makes sense!
Lars
Posted 08/24/2013 12:12 am
