Trail and wavy step dies to be encapsulated by ICG

[trails]

Well ladies and gentlemen, it has happened. A TPG has taken on the task of encapsulating wavy step and trail dies. I have been talking to Randy Campbell (senior grader for that company) of ICG for the last few months and he has finally agreed to do the encapsulation. Not only that, ICG will also do the encapsulation of MAD clashes as well (using the information on MADdieclashes.com.) as the standard.

I do believe you all realize just how important this step is for both anomaly types (trails and clashes) and I do want to thank ICG and Randy for this great opportunity.

I will have follow up information on the "how to do it" later on in the week.

BJ Neff

[koinmon]

LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING HOW THIS AFFECTS THE COLLECTOR GROWTH OF THIS SECTOR OF THE HOBBY.
George

[jcuve]

Congrats BJ - that's awesome!

[OCD]

Great news BJ!!!

[dvn]

Congratulations BJ! That was a lot of hard work and effort and WELL DONE!

Billy (dvn)

[JeanK]

Fantastic news BJ. Fantastic! Congratulations!
Jean

[Roller]

Congrats BJ, you deserve it. George

[copperlover]

Let me add my sincere congratulations for not letting go of a good idea.

You just need to press on as we will be supporting you all the way.

Thanks for sharing BJ

Lucien.

[celartu]

I am aware, hope to hear more

[corroded]

You are good person, BJ. You have worked hard.

Bill

[mikediamond]

This is all very promising, BJ. Have you checked to see if they'll slab ALL 1000+ trail dies, or just the most dramatic ones? If they intend to slab every single one, then they'll be dealing with a tremendous number of coins, some of which are quite similar in appearance. Given the past performance of grading services in correctly attributing minor doubled dies and RPM's, I have little confidence that they'll do this correctly, unless they bring you in as a consultant (hopefully a paid consultant). After all, to maximize profit, they try to spend as little time as possible with each coin. The speed of processing inevitably leads to mistakes. I'm much more sanguine about the MAD clashes, since they'll initially be dealing with only a dozen dies.

[trails]

Mike - While encapsulating all trail dies would be wonderful, I encourage that only the top fifty dies (the red and blue numbered dies) be considered for this service at this point in time. It has taken a seemingly long time for this die anoamly to be recognized by any TPG and to throw the whole ball of wax at them would be counterproductive.

As with any die anomaly, the more pronounced dies (the bigger the better) are the ones that are most likely to be encapsulated and I am sure that this will be the case with trail dies.

As for being a consultant, I am and will willingly help ICG with any attributions in this field. However, I do it not for the money (which was not expected in the first place) but for the promotion of this die anomaly and for the hobbyist and hobby itself.

I have been working on trail dies for the last seven years and I have looked forward to the day that this die anomaly would be excepted by all, even some of the TPGs. That day is dawning; however, there is still work to be done. Not everyone agrees to exactly what trail dies are; John Wexler, Ken Potter, Billy Crawford and Coppercoins have files that do list trail dies, while CONECA and the CPG do not. While this may seem to be an insignificant point, to the everyday collector it may leave doubt to the worth of trail dies as a collectible variety die. Then there are still some unanswered questions concerning the trail die formation that may never be answered since there are no roads left open to the specific information needed.

If you do want to submit a coin or coins to ICG that do have trails, please contact me first and I will give you a helping hand in your submission.

Again, I want to thank you all for your support and especially to Mike Diamond and Bob Piazza for their excellent help.

BJ Neff

[kloccwork419]

I might send in the 94 I just sent to you a few weeks ago. The earliest stage 23 if im not mistaken.

Not being recognized by too many people I would have to say that this is one of my favorite coins I have. The trails are crazy!!

My avatar

[trails]

That would be a good one to start with. It is a great trail die.

BJ

[mikediamond]

Restricting encapsulation to the Top 50 is a great idea. Color-coding them on your website is an equally great idea. This should minimize the opportunity for error. I'm glad trails are getting the recognition they deserve.