I didn't see it coming. I was just being a good daughter, helping Mom make a sensible disposition of her father's hoard of old US coins. "Sure, I'll come home and we can load them up and take them to the local coin shop or maybe drive them up to Heritage." "Maybe I should sort them first, get a book, and make sure you're not being taken advantage of." "Hang on, Mom. I think I should spend more time with these. Maybe there's a 3-legger hidden in the 31 pounds of buffalo nickels. Or a 1916-D Mercury dime. Or some random coin with a microscopically evident desirable feature. Apparently such things are very desirable to some nut cases." "Sorry I didn't finish up on this trip. Perhaps I'd better ship them all to my house where I can more diligently study them" (all 200 lbs) "I'd better buy more books. And an USB microscope. Yeah." "Maybe I should join PCGS and NGC to gain access to all of their resources. And coupons for slabbing. Yeah." "Maybe there are some coin forums where I can learn more about them. Wouldn't want to accidentally let go of a rarity." (six months later) "Mom, I feel bad that I didn't sell your coins when you wanted to. Why don't I just buy them from you? (please please please)" (six months later; I'm a coin forum addict and have sold off only 1/100th of the hoard) "Whoa, what's that? You can find or buy coins that are thousands of years old? No way! They must cost a fortune! It must take forever to learn about them! No thank you. Not interested." "I can buy uncleaned ancient coins for a few bucks a piece? Get. Out!" "These uncleaned coins are not good enough. I want one with pretty features. Maybe a nice Greek coin. Just one. Everyone should have a nice ancient coin, right?" "Oh my God, I can't believe I spent hundreds of dollars on a coin! Coins are something you get in change! What was I thinking?!" "Hey everyone, check out my Corinth stater! Isn't it beautiful? (ten months and hundreds of coins later) Dear God. I've become a… a collector. I didn't mean to. I swear. Collectors are weirdos, people who have no life and compensate by becoming totally absorbed in something inconsequential, elevating the most minute details to grandiose proportions. People to be ridiculed. And now I'm one. This leads to a very important question. Does this mean I have to stop making fun of people who collect Hummel figurines?
You have to be very "hummel" and politely listen to everyone who thinks your coin collection is a waste of good, spendable money, but if you want to keep it intact, don't tell your kids where you hide it. By the way, I have about 1,000 shot glasses in my collection. Would you like to come over and try them out? Chris
LOL!!! That's funny. But, no you don't have to quit making fun, we all have weird habit's and I think that's for people to poke fun at or else they wouldn't be "weird". I'm 25 years young and the few buddies I hang out with know I collect coins, when I explained and told them, YES I GOT LAUGHED AT!!! But, what is even funnier than that, hand someone a Coins or Coin World magazine (or whatever coin mag. you read) and turn them to the Lincoln penny section, let them go through the values. I get phone call's everyday from them now with this exact saying. "man I found a **** what do you think it's worth?" You'll laugh the whole way there going to see exactly what it is.
What we really need is good rumble with them and those prima donna stamp collectors-especially the stamp collectors. Yeah! "Hinge" that in our album pal.
