Everything up and running again. Doing some updates and playing catch-up.

We’re back up and running now, so things should return to normal as we work through a backlog. A couple of great new releases yesterday, and there’s more today, including a second round-up of new popular-culture releases which you can actually see in progress above with Minion Kevin… The Mint of Poland 2oz mythology coin guide has seen a load of updates with new coins and series, the Chibi guide is similarly brought up to date. There’s also a  new ‘Planets & Gods’ profile of Mint XXI’s super silver coin series, and more are planned.

Over the next week we’ll try to clear some of that backlog, especially of the smaller releases and next week I’m finally going to take a break. My last one lasted six hours before new coins came in, but burn-out is real and it’s time to recharge. After that, we’ll have a fuller look at Mint XXI, CIT and MDM’s new issues, and whatever else drops through the email box in the meantime. Thank you all for reading and try to enjoy what remains of the summer.

I’ve been asked what I use to write AgAUNEWS, hence the photos. Have been tinkering with computers for 40 years, going back to the Commodore PET, and built countless PC’s, so I wasn’t worried when the new one went pop. Sadly, the worldwide shortage of graphics cards put a major spanner in the works. Sorted now, but got royally scalped on the price, so I’m keeping an eye out for alternatives still and if something better comes up, this can go back to Amazon.

PC is a Ryzen 12-core (3900) on an MSI Tomahawk B450 motherboard. There’s 32GB of 3200mhz RAM, all in a NZXT 510 case. New GPU is an RTX3060 12GB. The monitor on the right is an AOC 34″ ultrawide (3440 x 1440 pixels), but it’s quite restrictive for site work as it lacks height. Fantastic for everything else, however. As a result, last month I added a 27″ 4K LG (3840 x 2160 pixels) which I orientate in portrait mode. It all works superbly, quiet and cool, so working on site is much more efficient.

The little black slab next to the white printer is a Huion graphics tablet, which is cheap and very useful for the artwork. The last image is of a Creality CR6-SE 3D FDM printer. I’ve been experimenting with props for coin photoshoots with some success, but the printer is more suitable for larger items with less very fine detail. As a result, I have a resin printer, an Elegoo Mars 3, coming in about 4-6 weeks which should handle that with ease. It’s amazing how cheaply quality equpment like this can be bought for these days. Interesting times indeed.