Owner Comments:
Here’s a few other things that happened in 1986…
The experimental aircraft, the Rutan Voyager, made the first continuous non-stop flight around the world without refueling.
The Virgin Challenger II - a 72 ft power boat piloted by Richard Branson - broke the world record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic by boat. Because, when you’re a billionaire, that’s how you spend your time, before moving on to starting your own space tourism business… I guess.
The London “Big Bang” happened in late October 1986, with the London Stock Exchange (LSE) deregulating and becoming a private limited company.
Mike Tyson became the youngest Heavyweight Champion in history.
There was a breakthrough in US-USSR talks between Reagan and Gorbachev, leading to disarmament commitments and paved the way towards ending the cold war (the Berlin Wall didn’t come down until 1989).
Gorbachev stepped up reform programs and introduced Perestroika (Restructuring) and Glasnost (Openness).
Spain and Portugal joined the European Economic Community (EEC).
Micronesia gained independence from the United States.
Argentina won the World Cup in Mexico.
75% Copper, 25% Nickel (Cupronickel) over a pure copper center / core
Mintage: 15,336,145
11.30 grams
30.61 mm diameter
Designer: Gilroy Roberts / Frank Gasparro
Modified Presidential Seal (1964-1974, 1977-Date)
I no longer have access to information on exactly when this coin was purchased or how. But it wasn’t one of the coins we sent in to get graded ourselves. Choya might have the information - he has long kept the records of such things in spreadsheets on his computer that may or may not have been destroyed or lost through the years. It was probably bought through eBay though and it was added before the set won the Best in Category award in 2008 - so we replaced the coin we had graded with a better one pretty much immediately.
We actually upgraded / replaced 5 of the 9 coins submitted to NGC in that submission with better coins before we won the Best in Category in 2008, within months of sending them in, because the coins we sent in just graded out so poorly and we were able to go get better grades for cheap so easily. And then we didn’t upgrade or change the set again for 10 years, when we bought 2 upgrades for the set in November 2018.
That submission of those coins for these mint sets was all the proof I needed at the time that I didn’t need to be submitting coins myself until I learned more. and I didn’t submit coins to NGC again for about 10 or 12 years after that disaster.