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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lincolncent, post: 1307678, member: 22506&quot;]Dangit!</p><p>I missed the deadline. :/ </p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s my story I had typed up anyways:</p><p><br /></p><p>Good afternoon everyone. Nearly forgot about this contest between schoolwork and work and other things. Stay busy all the time. Anyways, here&#039;s my story:</p><p><br /></p><p>Up until the 6th grade I didn&#039;t give a hoot about coins/currency. Then one day when I got home from school that all changed. One day I was going through my dad&#039;s change and I found a 1956 wheat penny. I immediately stopped because I had never seen one before and ran and asked him why this penny looked different from the other ones. He told me that was how they used to make them and I was hooked. For the next couple years I was guided by the school librarian, whose husband was a war veteran and coin collector, and an old red book that he had donated to the school&#039;s library. Every coin I got during that time was from change. I had a blast finding wheat pennies and putting together a set of the state quarters. I didn&#039;t get much past that until I got a car and a job some 3 and a half years ago. At that point I had money, transportation, and I worked at a grocery store where we went through a ton of change. I spent the first few months just getting change from those who knew I collected and saved it for me, but soon a coin dealer opened up in the local flea market. He wasn&#039;t the most knowledgeable collector nor the most reasonably priced, but he was very kind to me and he was the only one in town. I bought coins from him for about a year mostly just spending my spare change and I was able to assemble my first complete set: a 20th century type set. He then helped me along with other older coins as well as foreign coins when I had a hankering to buy them. The only coin in my type set I did not purchase from him was my Morgan Silver Dollar (although I ended up purchasing 2 from him anyways). He was a dear friend of mine and I stopped by nearly every single weekend to talk to him and his wife. But alas, all good things must come to an end, and he moved up to West Virginia in August of 2010 to be with his daughter. </p><p>In January of 2010 I joined this forum and began learning a ton. I spent countless hours reading threads devouring every bit of information I could. Eventually I became a regular poster and began participating in contests and have even held a few. After a few months I even found myself being able to answer other&#039;s questions. Now, with over a thousand posts, I have learned much more from this community than I will probably ever be able to give back. My thanks go out to all of you who took (and still take ) the time to answer my noobish questions. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> </p><p>After Joe left (that&#039;s the coin dealer&#039;s name btw haha) I found myself once again without a dealer. I started buying some from Ebay and picking up odds and ends when local antique stores would get in one or two coins. To this day I still do not have a dealer within reach of me that is there every day although one does keep his cases stocked at a local shop.</p><p>Oddly enough, Joe left about the same time I started college, which is the same time I ran slap out of funds to buy much. Between driving 34 miles round trip (2 gallons of gas a day) 5 days a week plus driving to work and paying other expenses, my coin collecting budget went from spare change to spare spare change. Needless to say this has greatly limited my buying abilities and I seem to be buying fewer and fewer coins. I still pull a ton from circulation for face (mostly pennies with the occasional silver) but my buying is down to minimal. </p><p><br /></p><p>Over the years I have collected for many reasons. To begin with I was collecting because they were &quot;cool&quot; because they were &quot;worth more than face&quot;. Of course in later years I have realized that investment isn&#039;t a good reason for collecting and I now collect for the history. I absolutely love history and coins are one part of that I can carry around with me and physically hold in my hands. There&#039;s just something about holding a 200+ year old coin and thinking about where all it has been and who all may have carried it in their pocket. Just imagine, the coin up for this contest was minted in 1855, before the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was still alive at that time. So was Jefferson Davis, and Henry Clay, and so many more important figures. The chances are small, but how awesome would it be to have a coin that one of these great men held? The possibilities are endless! Which is why I would like this coin. History is an amazing thing we can learn from and its cool to own pieces of it. </p><p><br /></p><p>So that&#039;s my story. However boring lol. </p><p>Congrats to whoever gets the win. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p>I still have that &#039;56 penny btw. I&#039;ll take its pic and post it sometime soon.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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