Secret Saturnalia 2024

[Ursus]

I just received a heavy silver-ish letter that was sent from an American address unbeknownst to me. I’m very curious to see what’s inside but will wait until Saturnalia to open it!

[lordmarcovan]

Sorry I missed the cutoff date for assignment this year.  I shall sit on the sidelines and volunteer as “grinch insurance”.  In the unlikely event that anyone gets stiffed by their Secret Saturn, send ‘em my way, and they shall receive something of their choice from my giveaway stash.

Also, if y’all haven’t already seen it, do note that I have a separate giveaway posted here.

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

20 hours ago, Ryro said:

The eagle/Saturnalia gift from my Saturn has landed!... and it's a BIG package!

 

Sounds cool.  The postman just whizzed past my house.

I almost never look at tracking, but I should dig up the receipt and see if the one to my giftee was delivered.  This dealer has recently changed to sending coins in nifty boxes (which I save, just in case), so hopefully there was a nice gift box. 

The initial choice ended up for myself (there was a slight chance that it was tooled), but I picked out a nice one to send, one which I myself would have been proud to have.

It's strange how the search works; I tried looking for S.S. 2023, and it doggedly refusedt to cough anything up, even when changing the parameters to that date. I ended up having to trawl through the general postings.

Edited December 7, 2024 by Nerosmyfavorite68

[lordmarcovan]

48 minutes ago, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

Sounds cool.  The postman just whizzed past my house.

I almost never look at tracking, but I should dig up the receipt and see if the one to my giftee was delivered.  This dealer has recently changed to sending coins in nifty boxes (which I save, just in case), so hopefully there was a nice gift box. 

The initial choice ended up for myself (there was a slight chance that it was tooled), but I picked out a nice one to send, one which I myself would have been proud to have.

It's strange how the search works; I tried looking for S.S. 2023, and it doggedly refusedt to cough anything up, even when changing the parameters to that date. I ended up having to trawl through the general postings.

The one I just sent out to my Coin Talk Secret Santa recipient weighed 6 pounds, 9.7 ounces!  Hundreds of World coins.  Including some silver and somewhat older stuff, so not all modern junk.  And most of it unpicked by me.  I just never got around to researching that stuff.  When I saw she was a World coin person, I thought, “Ahh, perfect!  I’m gonna hook her up and keep her busy a while!” 🙂

And so she got 80% of my bulk World backlog that had piled up for nearly five years.  Can’t wait to see her reaction! 😛

[Furryfrog02]

I've been following this thread and am super excited to see that people are starting to get their gifts. Only 10 days until the official kick off for Saturnalia. 
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's posts!

[bcuda]

I know I really tried to get the right one for my giftee but am still worried they may not like it.

Looks like only 3 members have received their gifts so far. Hopefully most will arrive this week.

[Curtisimo]

2 hours ago, bcuda said:

I know I really tried to get the right one for my giftee but am still worried they may not like it.

Highly unlikely. I can attest from experience that your taste in coins and gifts is superb. 🙂 

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s posts when Saturnalia gets here.

[Sulla80]

Looks like my coin for giftee arrived - my first time participating and I am looking forward to the reveals. 

[lordmarcovan]

I’m kinda sorry I missed the signup this year.

[Furryfrog02]

18 minutes ago, lordmarcovan said:

I’m kinda sorry I missed the signup this year.

Whelp, You can enjoy watching the "unwrapping" with me 🙂

[Ryro]

33 minutes ago, lordmarcovan said:

I’m kinda sorry I missed the signup this year.

Aww, no coin buddy left behind. We could always do an exchange? Hit me up and send me a PM with your info Lord M, if that sounds fun. 

I bet a 6 pack your Saturn could still get your Saturnalia surprise to you before the magic date.

Edited December 9, 2024 by Ryro

[kirispupis]

Received my gift yesterday and I understand mine has received his. Everything's all set for Saturnalia!

[lordmarcovan]

11 hours ago, Ryro said:

Aww, no coin buddy left behind. We could always do an exchange? Hit me up and send me a PM with your info Lord M, if that sounds fun. 

I bet a 6 pack your Saturn could still get your Saturnalia surprise to you before the magic date.

Awww.  Nah.  S’all good, man.  But thanks a ton!

As it happens, I’ve got nine different giveaways running on three different coin forum sites this month- not to mention Secret Santa on CT and assorted coin gifts for literally 18-22 other people (mostly “civilians”- i.e., coworkers).  

So I worry I wouldn’t have the proper attention span to pick out a thoughtful and worthy gift for a Secret Saturnalia pardner.

Having plenty of fun, anyway!  🙂

And I still volunteer to be “grinch insurance” in the event anybody here gets left out.  

For me personally, it’s probably best to remain on the sidelines for this one.  But I’ll make sure to check in when the revelations start rolling in!

Edited December 9, 2024 by lordmarcovan

[lordmarcovan]

11 hours ago, Furryfrog02 said:

Whelp, You can enjoy watching the "unwrapping" with me 🙂

Will do!  We can get one of those tinfoil popcorn popper thingamadoojies for the fireplace!

🔥🍿

[Ryro]

Just 1 more week to go!

 

[robinjojo]

Shipment to my giftee is on its way by way of Priority Mail.

[expat]

My Saturnalia gift has arrived and with a seal on the package. Only 5 days to wait now.

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

I happened to be off today, and my S.S. package came!  It wasn't in the stiff priority mailer, and was the only Priority package within the past two years not to be mauled, or folded in half and stuffed in the mailbox.  There's no damage, whatsoever.  I must have a lousy sorting center.  For whatever reason, 90% of the stiff cardboard mailers just get absolutely chewed up.

I look forward to revealing it on the 17th, but I havent opened it, yet.  It's VERY heavy, and with some clues, I pretty much figured out who my Saturn is.  The weight kind of tips off what it might be, and if that is the case, then WOW!  Whatever it might be, I'm grateful and I'm very fortunate to have a Saturn who is most generous with his gifts.

Half the fun will be guessing what it is. I'm guessing early modern, and I enjoy pre-milled early moderns.  I love Thalers, cobs, etc, but I never really collected them because they're expensive.  It's heavy even for that,though, and an AE rude, or whatever those pre-coin early Roman ones are called, is another possibility. I don't have any of those.  It has the heft of two or three Morgan dollars.  I've never handled a big cob, but it seems even heavier than that.  It's also really thick, either two coins tightly bundled or an AE rude, or the sort.

What I'm trying to say is, thank you!

Edit; I was wrong about my guess, but the package is most generous and wow, I love everything!  It will be an absolute pleasure to reveal these very generous gifts.  The large coin alone would have been generous, but there's three.  I'm also kind of glad that he disregarded my Byzantine request.  It's exactly the type of coin I would have chosen.

I'm hoping that he might have taken images, or else everyone will have to rely upon my less-than-stellar pictures.

Thank you!  I'm hoping that my giftee will like his coin.  Mine isn't as spectacular as the bundle my Saturn gifted, but it's a very respectable coin, and was quite a good buy, actually. 

Edited December 12, 2024 by Nerosmyfavorite68

[JAZ Numismatics]

My gift also arrived today. Waiting till the 17th to open!

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Here's hoping yours are also nice!

I'm more of the open gifts ASAP, type, but I'll wait til the 17th to closely examine mine.  I only gave them a quick look-see.

[Sulla80]

My Saturnalia gift arrived!  **Image modified to remove personally identifiable information (PII).

 

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Very cool!  May your coins be good ones!

 

 

[TIF]

LIfe got in the way and I haven't sent my gift yet, but will work on it tonight and get it out by Priority Mail tomorrow.  I'm sure it will arrive in plenty of time. 

 

[Furryfrog02]

I just wanted to let whoever my Secret Saturnalia is, that we received a package the other day. I greatly appreciate the generosity and hopefully will be able to pay it forward next year.

I've said it a million times but it bears repeating: This forum, this community, these people are amazing. 

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

I might, If they were here in the house 🫠.

To be honest, I mentioned the opening mainly to reassure my generous benefactor that I wasn't disappointed with the coins. I had publicly incorrectly guessed what was inside.  Even if I hadn't previously guessed who my benefactor was, the return addy kind of telegraphed it.  There seemed to a little doubt that I might not like the contents, and I wanted to do the right thing and put any lingering doubts to rest.  I kind of panicked after being wrong with my guess, that he'd really think I didn't like it.

I would have otherwise kept the opening to myself, although opening early does have advantages.  It's about the only way that I can hope to reveal on time, at least a reveal with pictures.  I get home late in the evening from work, so it isn't very much fun not to be able to reveal on time when the 17th comes.  Sunday is the latest practical day where I can safely handle the coins and make a pitiful attempt at photography, while also still having ambient light from outside.  It's going to be raining cats and dogs both Monday and Tuesday, so it's doubtful that my hands will even be dry enough to safely touch AE's, even with gloves.  Even if I overcame that roadblock, it takes me forever per coin to (badly) photograph them and stitch together the images.  It probably wouldn't be til 1 or 2 AM that night that I could reveal.

After 30 years of collecting, one can tell what the general types are by a glance of a few seconds.  I haven't closely examined the coins, but like with last year's coins, no hype is necessary to state my gratitude.   I gave a very respectable coin, but my very kind S.S. went way above and beyond what I did.

It will be of the greatest pleasure, at the appropriate time, to reveal the coins (even I don't know what exact types/rulers they are), and express my heartfelt thanks and appreciation.