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Finished my all-circ. PCGS Walking Liberty 50c set (photos now posted)

DennisHDennisH Posts: 13,963 ✭✭✭✭✭
I know it sounds like an odd thing to do, but something I learned from putting together a high grade Mint State 1933-47 set was, I was clueless about how PCGS graded circulated Walkers. That's why I decided to do a complete 1916-47 with variety set in random circulated grades, figuring that along the way I'd hopefully learn a few things. I had two rules:

1. No coin could be higher than AU58.
2. Coins had to already be in PCGS holders.

After 4-1/2 surprisingly long years, I finally added the last four coins today, because I decided to cheat on rule #2. Once I reached 90% completion on all of my various Registry Sets, I began qualifying for free gradings... which I used to send in raw coins I still needed. Grades posted today on the last ones for the set: 1937-S, 1945-D, 1946-D, 1946-S. (Toward the end it got very hard to find super-common dates in circulated grades already in holders, which I suppose I knew would be a problem when I started.)

This was a fantastic learning experience that didn't cost a lot once I got past the 1921 trio, and I certainly learned an enormous amount about grading Walkers, although that's still very much a work in progress. I met some terrific, helpful, friendly Walker experts here on the boards. image I also learned that -- thanks to the benefit of having multiple examples of the same grade laid out in front of me that I could compare -- there are many coins I don't agree with the grade on. Enough, in fact, that I sent in about 15 for regrade along the way. (Ten have gone up, and I have about 15 others I'd like to send in just to see if I'm right.) The recent addition of the "For Everyman" Registry Sets was an added bonus that happened along the way, and I'm hoping PCGS will add a "Lowball" Walker set one of these days.

Bottom line: This was a fun and incredibly educational learning experience that was pretty inexpensive except for just a couple of dates. It's something I would heartily recommend to other collectors who want to learn about the series.
When in doubt, don't.

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