Time-bounded Registry set idea

messydesk

In a Facebook group I belong to, someone asked what set you'd work on if you spent $300 a month on one coin each month for the next year. I gave it a little thought and said I'd work on a "Cool $300 Coin Set." Then I thought this would be a good premise for a competitive registry set with the following rules:

• You may include exactly one coin for each month of the year.
• Each coin must be accompanied by a receipt showing purchase date and amount showing your cost and that the coin was bought in that month.
• Any coin can qualify.
• At the end of the year, judges will nominate Cool $300 Coin Sets to be voted on for top honors.
• While judging will involve subjective criteria, it will also involve completeness (12 coins) and statistical adherence to the guidelines (mean cost $300, std deviation of $0 being ideal).

Sets could end up reflecting the collector's specialty or could be a spontaneously accumulated assortment with only the price tag in common.

The $300 price tag is arbitrary, of course. Heck, make several categories to include higher and lower budgets. Is this a concept that would intrigue you enough to participate?

lermish

I like the idea but the administration of it seems like an enormous roadblock. Who would run this thing?

coinbuf

As @lermish wrote this is too difficult and requires too much admin time for the current PCGS staff, you might pitch it to the guys at My Collect maybe they have the staffing to take this on. As to would I participate, no; at the end of the year you just end up with a random assortment of "stuff". At this point in my collecting cycle I am trying not to be an accumulator, only buying coins that fit an existing set that I have already in the works. I have so many of those that I'll never finish even half of even without adding a distraction like this. Plus the whole subjective judging is a no go for me.

messydesk

@coinbuf said:
As @lermish wrote this is too difficult and requires too much admin time for the current PCGS staff, you might pitch it to the guys at My Collect maybe they have the staffing to take this on. As to would I participate, no; at the end of the year you just end up with a random assortment of "stuff". At this point in my collecting cycle I am trying not to be an accumulator, only buying coins that fit an existing set that I have already in the works. I have so many of those that I'll never finish even half of even without adding a distraction like this. Plus the whole subjective judging is a no go for me.

I actually had MyCollect in mind with this. I think they're better situated for non-traditional registry competitions. It's definitely not going to appeal to people who are focused on completion of specific well-defined sets, but there are those looking to spice up their hobby and this might be a good fit for them.

ShaunBC5

I like it. Not sure I’d be a participant, but it’s a fun idea. For those in more metro areas, even lower amounts could be really cool, especially if raw coins could be allowed.
Lots of guys might play in a $25/mo game that didn’t distract too much financially from their main sets but also added some intrigue to finding “cool” coins at least once a month.

Desert Moon

@messydesk said:
In a Facebook group I belong to, someone asked what set you'd work on if you spent $300 a month on one coin each month for the next year. I gave it a little thought and said I'd work on a "Cool $300 Coin Set." Then I thought this would be a good premise for a competitive registry set with the following rules:

• You may include exactly one coin for each month of the year.
• Each coin must be accompanied by a receipt showing purchase date and amount showing your cost and that the coin was bought in that month.
• Any coin can qualify.
• At the end of the year, judges will nominate Cool $300 Coin Sets to be voted on for top honors.
• While judging will involve subjective criteria, it will also involve completeness (12 coins) and statistical adherence to the guidelines (mean cost $300, std deviation of $0 being ideal).

Sets could end up reflecting the collector's specialty or could be a spontaneously accumulated assortment with only the price tag in common.

The $300 price tag is arbitrary, of course. Heck, make several categories to include higher and lower budgets. Is this a concept that would intrigue you enough to participate?

Cool idea!

Mr_Spud

How about the top few sets get to auction off their sets with no fees at the endpoint, and whoever’s set brings in the most $ wins the grand prize 🏆🤔

messydesk

@ShaunBC5 said:
I like it. Not sure I’d be a participant, but it’s a fun idea. For those in more metro areas, even lower amounts could be really cool, especially if raw coins could be allowed.
Lots of guys might play in a $25/mo game that didn’t distract too much financially from their main sets but also added some intrigue to finding “cool” coins at least once a month.

As I said, the dollar amount is arbitrary and was taken from the Facebook post. What the monthly cool coin purchase does is keep the participant looking for something cool at a particular price point that is probably more restrictive than they're used to. That would be a slightly different mental exercise than the well-defined bounds of registry set building.