Set Description
I first learned of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands searching for coins to add to my “Inspirational Ladies” signature set. While examining different aspects of Queen Wilhelmina’s life, I read of her character and resolve in the face of human history’s greatest challenges during the early and middle 20th century. Often overshadowed by other world leaders of that era, I found Queen Wilhelmina equal to her contemporaries. This set is a tribute to Queen Wilhelmina’s life and her contributions in history.
Nine of eleven owner’s comments listed in “Gary’s Golden Wilhelmina Guldens” contain snippets of Queen Wilhelmina’s biography in chronological order. Where possible I have tried to line up the events of Queen Wilhelmina’s life with the coin’s date. However, Queen Wilhelmina’s reign goes further than the issuance of these coins and later coins in this set will tell of later events in her life. The other two owner’s comments (1912 and 1913) will contain information relative to all the coins in this set. Each of the coins in this series is 22.5 mm in diameter, weighs 6.7290 grams, and has a composition of .900 fine gold at .1947 Oz. AGW. The obverse designs in this series feature four separate busts of Queen Wilhelmina, they are 1897, 1898, 1911-17, and 1925-33. Additionally, there are three distinct reverses in this series, 1897, 1898, and 1911-1933.
Assembling this set has been both fun and interesting. Six of the eleven original coins I purchased for “Gary’s Golden Wilhelmina Guldens” were previously certified. However, due to a lack of certified coins for sale, I carefully selected and purchased raw coins I believed would grade well to complete my set. While I had hoped for better, I certainly could not complain when my submission returned three coins graded MS-63 and two MS-64. Now with my set complete, I eventually hope to upgrade each coin to MS-65 or higher.
UPDATE 2012: Since completing this set in 2009, I have steadily made upgrades towards my ultimate goal of every coin grading MS-65 and higher. Starting with four MS-63’s, two MS-64’s, three MS-65’s, one MS-66, and one MS-67, my set now consists of three MS-64’s, four MS-65’s, and four MS-66’s. In terms of total points, this set had 8,217 points in 2009 compared to 8,849 today. In 2009, I had no NGC graded top-pop’s (the MS-67 and one MS-65 were PCGS graded coins), and today I have four (1911, 1912, 1927, and 1932). All told, there were three upgrades to this set in 2009, one in 2010, three in 2011, and three in 2012. Two of the coins in this set I have crossed over from PCGS to NGC, the MS-65 1911 to NGC MS-65 and the MS-67 1917 to NGC MS-66. Furthermore, there are no coins in this set that grade any more than one grade lower than the top coin in NGC’s population report. In summary, I am very pleased with the progress I am making on this set and I look forward to upgrading the final three MS-64 coins to MS-65. Additionally, I am chronicling the evolution of the individual coins in each coin’s respective “Owner Comments."
UPDATE 2013: Every Year in the month of January my church observes a month of prayer and fasting and each year I participate in this at some level. This year however, I felt strongly led to fast from buying ANY coins during the month of January because over the previous year I had been overextending our family finances to buy coins. This also meant that I would have to pass on any coins from my want list that became available during the month of January. Not coincidently, on February 3, 2013, I purchased MS-65 upgrades of both the 1925 and 1926 coins on E-bay. The 1925 was an auction that closed February 3 and the 1926 was a “Buy it Now” that opened that same day. After waiting four years to upgrade these two coins, I added both in a single day. On December 12, 2013, I upgraded the 1913 coin from MS-65 to MS-66. Currently, my set has 7 of 11 coins that are NGC top-pop’s, including all three of this year's upgrades. Now only one coin of the 11 is below my target grade of MS-65, the scarce 1898 at MS-64. This year my set will close the year with 9,118 points.
UPDATE 2014: This is the first year of owning this set that I have not upgraded any coins. The upgrade opportunities for this set now are few and far in between. If I could only add a MS-65 1898, I would be at my goal of every coin grading MS-65 or higher. This then, would leave three other coins that are not the top graded coins in NGC's population report, they are the 1897, 1917, and 1933.
UPDATE 2015: For the second consecutive year, I have made no upgrades to this set. I have revised my goal to upgrade the 1898 coin to MS-65 and thus complete the set.
UPDATE 2016: I finally managed to upgrade the last MS-64 on March 30, 2016 to complete this set. Even though I was looking to upgrade the 1898 10 Gulden to MS-65, I managed to purchase the highest graded coin at MS-66 with a population of one. The completion of this set at MS-65 or higher has been seven years in the making and I'm delighted to end my quest with a bang!
