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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dak, post: 228244, member: 8504&quot;]Ok, Mike, time for my real story and the rantings of an old man.... Feel free to push the fast forward button I know its probaly too long!</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>There are only a couple things that really get me excited in life, and most of them revolve around coins. It really does excite me to see young folks take an interest in coins and the history they hold and the memories that they can bring back. I find it sad when kids spend all day watching tv and playing video games just letting the media fill their heads to a point, where,&nbsp; I think they lose their individualism (not to mention relationships with parents and mentors are not encouraged.) When individualism is the vary thing media claims to give them. When I see a young person branch off that idealism and make a descision for themselves to collect something like coins, that may not be seen as cool by their peers, to me that says indivualism more than what they could ever hope to obtain through the mimic of the media and cable tv.</p><p><br /></p><p>In our everyday life history is rarely studied and seldom thought about. Through collecting coins it opens doors to teach of the accomplishments of years gone by and of the failures and follies of past generations as well as the joys and accomplishments! To many people today think collecting coins is considered a bland and boring hobby, similar to vanilla ice cream, it&#039;s nice, but its routine, its simple, its... Boring... </p><p><br /></p><p>In my days I have managed a bank, eventually opened up a small gunsmith shop. I retired a while back and now work part time at a local hardware store in a town of 500 people, very much like the town Mayberry from The Andy Griffith show. The owner of the store has a small for his age 12 year old boy who seeks a lot of attention because wasn&#039;t getting much if any at home. After school gets out he just wanders the store, bored looking for something to do, and usually caused some sort of ruckus. Usually he has a portable DVD player, or other handheld game that he will play around with to kill time and keep himself occupied. </p><p><br /></p><p>Last year I mentioned coin collecting to him, he quickly reacted as he crinkled up his nose and said &quot;No, thanks, I prefer to spend money, not save it&quot;&nbsp; I reached into my pocket and tossed him a buffalo nickel, I said&nbsp; &quot; Would you really want to spend that?&quot;&nbsp; His eyes got really wide and a smile broke his face, &quot;No sir, I wouldn&#039;t spend that!&quot; I let him keep it and it was his prize of the day he studied it until he could tell me every little detail of that old nickel... And I was able to tell him some of the history behind that nickel, including the great depression and world war 1 ... I went home with a smile on my face and was happy to share that nickel with him.</p><p><br /></p><p>The next afternoon when he arrived after school, he promptly said, &quot; What coin did you bring for me??&quot;&nbsp; I said &quot;so ya like that huh?&quot;&nbsp; so every day from then on I brought him a new coin to add to his collection, and taught him a little bit about the history of the time period the coin represented, usually old buffalo nickels and wheat pennies, (((and of course, I had to get him a Whitman Jefferson nickel folder, (which he just plugged in the last coin in last week), he found his 1951S and I then rewarded him with a BU 1950D which he never did find in circulation. . This is how and why I went through so many nickels this last year, together we searched $100 a week looking to fill the holes in his collection, I always had 10 rolls with me that we would secretly search together when the boss (his father) was out doing chores! (lol ...don&#039;t tell on me). Slowly but surely we filled every hole in the Jefferson Nickel series with a little help on the 1950D <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> ! ))</p><p><br /></p><p>Now the great thing is his father who used to collect coins is now re- interested in coins as well now,&nbsp; while I still see myself as a mentor for this boy, I am overjoyed to see the relationship between a father and son growing with a newfound common ground.&nbsp; He still greets me with &quot;what coins did ya bring for me today?&quot;&nbsp; and occasionally I find something new to toss to him. </p><p><br /></p><p>As far as the comparison of Vanilla Ice cream to coin collecting, coin collecting is like vanilla ice cream and that is a good thing! Vanilla is simple, it is known, and it is pure. Too many people confuse the real vanilla with artificial vanilla... Real Vanilla is anything but tasteless, it is distict, noble, and pure and sweet as is coin collecting. To put artificial vanilla in the same class as real vanilla is the same as viewing coin collecting as old and staunchy when in fact it is new, and has much to give to folks who take the time to take a look, it is the tales of history, the lost fortunes of the past, and the hope of the future. Collecting coins can be a plain old artifical vanilla if approached from the perspective of MTV style media, but if you take a second look, maybe just a taste, you will find the joy real vanilla ice cream and the indivualism and relationships&nbsp; coin collecting can inspire... </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks for this contest Mike, it would give me a opportunity to possbly take&nbsp; a coin he has not yet seen! <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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