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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dadams, post: 2864496, member: 82194&quot;]1971 baby -&gt; moved quite a bit as a kid and my dad traveled all the time. In &#039;79 we moved to Brazil and then back to the states in &#039;81 or so. Between my dad&#039;s travels and my own I amassed a small hoard of circulated foreign coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>I remember going through them trying to figure out where they all were from, what denominations they were, putting some in 2x2 flips others in plastic cases and arranging and sorting them out. It was fun. Gradually, my coins went into the closet, then the attic.</p><p><br /></p><p>Joined the Army out of high school in 1989 and went to Baumholder Germany for my first duty assignment as a cannon crew member on a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd0Rbe52Jbw" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd0Rbe52Jbw" rel="nofollow">m109 SP Howitzer</a>.&nbsp; Desert Storm erupted, but didn&#039;t go. Elected to go to Fort Sill, OK back in the states for my second duty assignment and was assigned special duty as a post Lifeguard which should have lasted 6 months, but turned into 2 years. Sure it was the most cush job anyone could have in the Army, but even so Ft. Sill ain&#039;t my favorite place and I should have stayed in Germany. Got off active duty and stayed in the Army Reserves until 2000 when I graduated college. My Army Reserve unit was deployed to Afghanistan soon after I got out.&nbsp; Now that I&#039;m older, I realize I was actually pretty lucky to have missed all live armed combat. I appreciate all those that had to suffer through such events.</p><p><br /></p><p>Found my coins at one point but gave them to my nephew, then he gave them back soon after - not interested. I neither was too interested in the old foreign coins and so there they went back into the closet.</p><p><br /></p><p>Got married - had a kid - moved a couple times - work, work.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve always been a voracious reader but sometime around 1994 or so I realized books - some books - had value.&nbsp; My hobby became book collecting with a focus on bibliomysteries and books about books and like coins this sometimes required a rather large outlay of capital so I started bookscouting.&nbsp; I scoured Goodwill, Salvaition Army stores, and hit all the estate sales looking for books to turn into cash.&nbsp; Rare bookstores were more plentiful back in the day and I could buy a book for a few dollars that had a <i>Retail</i> value of, say 100 bucks, and I&#039;d sell it to the bookstore for 30-40 cash or 50-60 in store credit. I&#039;d work like this over the course of a few months and soon I&#039;d have enough to buy a 2-3-4 hundred dollar book that in reality I had very little cash outlay for.&nbsp; Nowadays, I still collect the books but the core focus of the collection is on Literary Forgeries of which there are, at present, some 4-500 volumes and I&#039;m selling (bookscouting) books to buy coins! All my book buddies are aghast!</p><p><br /></p><p>I rediscovered my old coins back in 2012 and it seems and old interest was rekindled.&nbsp; Decided to collect my birth year set then that of my wife and daughter. Then US type. All entombed and high grade or exceedingly attractive and crazy expensive.</p><p><br /></p><p>On the PCGS forums back in 2016 [USER=81808]@Aethelred[/USER] <a href="https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/963161/numismatic-gladiator-i-aethelred-vs-lordmarcovan/p1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/963161/numismatic-gladiator-i-aethelred-vs-lordmarcovan/p1" rel="nofollow">challenged</a> [USER=10461]@lordmarcovan[/USER] to a coin duel which spawned the &quot;Numismatic Gladiator&quot; games.&nbsp; The games were meant to show how one could collect and enjoy numismatics even without a huge budget.</p><p><br /></p><p>I won <a href="https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/964635/numismatic-gladiator-iii-andres-vs-dadams/p1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/964635/numismatic-gladiator-iii-andres-vs-dadams/p1" rel="nofollow">NG III </a>with an 1851 US Large Cent and then was notified there was to be a Championship round with all of the previous winners facing off against each other.&nbsp; I thought for sure I&#039;d be crushed but to my surprise I won the whole shebang (<a href="https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/969031/numismatic-gladiator-x-the-championship-round-all-past-champions-from-ng1-ng9-face-off/p1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/969031/numismatic-gladiator-x-the-championship-round-all-past-champions-from-ng1-ng9-face-off/p1" rel="nofollow">NG X</a>) with an eight and a half dollar Constantine I silvered campgate.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>NG X took place just over a year ago and <u>I have not bought a single US coin since!</u></p><p><br /></p><p>46 Ancients !!&nbsp; I just counted.</p><p><br /></p><p>I suppose I have to show my 1st, the Constantine campgate, which started my ancient love:</p><p><img src="http://www.bibliopath.com/coins/CONSTANTINE-I-Silvered-Campgate.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Just want to say I&#039;m very grateful to [USER=81808]@Aethelred[/USER] and [USER=10461]@lordmarcovan[/USER] for turning me onto Ancients and bringing me over to CT.&nbsp; I also appreciate all of you for being so welcoming and allowing me to soak up all of your knowledge everyday. I don&#039;t post too much but read everything here.&nbsp; I&#039;ve tried to be more active as of late but suppose I&#039;m still a bit apprehensive in that the knowledge I might have pales in comparison to the wisdom evident here.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks!!</p><p><br /></p><p>-Doug[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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