Finally! My search is over!

I had been searching for the 1981 ANA Convention Set (New Orleans) for over 5 years, and thanks to one of the members alerting me to it, I finally won this one on eBay.

After the initial bidding took it to $21.99, it remained there several days until about an hour left in the auction when it rose to $32.99. I don't use Bidnapper any more, so I passed the remaining time playing FreeCell watching the seconds count down. I was determined that I would not lose this one and wait another 5+ years for one to surface. So, with 7 seconds left, I hit the "COMMIT" button to enter my bid of $250. I won it for $52.10, but none of the other bidders ever saw me coming.

Chris

 

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Congratulations. I gather you are after a complete set?

 

Just the 3-medal sets. They were only produced 1969-1982. Each set has a 38mm silver, 38mm bronze & 19mm bronze and are numbered on the edge. The lowest mintage of these sets was 350 and the highest was 790. I now have all of them, and the next order of business is to submit them to NGC.

Chris

 

very nice. i don't know much about these, but i will now have something to research and learn about tonight!

(probably not the typical Friday night for a 22 year old)

 

Congratulations Chris,
There is no better feeling than to look and look for a specific item and then finally get what you have been looking for. I am happy for ya

 

That $uck$!

Here is some of the info on the 3-medal sets, if it will help:
1969, Philadelphia, Mintage - 450 (estimate)
1970, St. Louis, Mintage - 450
1971, Washington DC, Mintage - 450
1972, New Orleans, Mintage - 400
1973, Boston, Mintage - 600
1974, Bal Harbor, FL, Mintage - 425
1975, Los Angeles, Mintage - 790
1976, New York, Mintage - 575
1977, Atlanta, Mintage - 710
1978, Houston, Mintage - 500
1979, St. Louis, Mintage - 500
1980, Cincinnati, Mintage - 350
1981, New Orleans, Mintage - 350
1982, Boston, Mintage - 350

This is the 1969 set, and it was the one that got me started because of the restrike of Augustin Dupre's 1783 Libertas Americana.

Chris

 

Chris - which one of the sets is your favorite? Would you post a pic and tell us why?

Congrats on completing the journey.

 

Great job...


and congrats.

 

Nice job, the only way to beat the snipers and bidnappers out there is to high ball the bid like you did. Doing so leaves you vunerable to shills, but if you want something bad enough, you're willing to pay the price. Well done.

 

Congrats dude. 5 years is a long time to wait, haha.

 

Congrats!! :thumb:

On a side note I would get them put into multi-holders....they would look great!!

 

The 1969 set is my favorite because the obverse is a restrike of Augustin Dupre's Libertas Americana. It's the one that got me interested in the short set in the first place.

To make a long story longer!
In 2005, when I was still a relative newcomer to the NGC forums, I spotted this set on eBay and posted it on NGC explaining how much I liked it and wanted to win the auction. I placed what I thought would be a pretty high bid of $150, but I lost to a sniper at $152.50. It turned out that the winning bidder was one of our esteemed members at NGC, and when the other members learned of this, they started blasting him for it. Despite my disappointment at losing, I came to his defense and stated that he obviously wanted it more than me. As a result, we became very good friends. As it happened, one of the other members alerted me to another set that surfaced on eBay the very next week. This time, I wasn't going to let it slip away, so I placed a bid of $250, and won it for a mere $48.

Anyway, I started researching the set and met a fellow who not only collected ANA medals, but he also had a fairly complete list of all of them along with the mintages for each year which he e-mailed to me. Looking it over, I noticed that the years 1969-1982 were the only years for which the 3-medal sets were issued. And, that is how I got started.

Now that I have put everyone to sleep, here is the 1969 set again. Which border, if any, do you prefer? Eventually, I will photograph all 14 sets in a similar fashion.

Chris

 

Jaime,

I'm contemplating one of NGC's new oversized holders which were introduced in 2008 rather than the multi-holder which I think is too large for each 3-medal set. Since the medals in each set are numbered on the edge, I would also like them to include the number on each insert.

Chris

 

Congrats chris!!!

 

nice

 

I don't really think it would be too large....just look at this multi-holder http://cgi.ebay.com/WISCONSIN-EXTRA...em&pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item23086eec01

 

I don't want the slab to be that wide. I'd rather have it taller and narrower with the medals set in triangular fashion similar to my photos, but with about 1/2"-3/4" spacing.

Chris

 

Chris,
Very nice issues. I have heard it said you have one of everything, I am beginning to see why. Thanks for posting your winnings.

Steve

 

Congratulations and very nice collection. With just 350 made some years, there can't be many complete sets out there. And thanks for the little lesson, I was unfamiliar with these.

 

Steve,

That is an utter falsehood! I have two ex-wives.

Chris