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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Mr. Coin Lover, post: 692213, member: 16060&quot;]Over the last couple of months a couple of things have occurred that has really made me reflect on this hobby I would like to share.</p><p><br /></p><p>I record three shows on my DVR to watch at my leisure and conveinence.&nbsp; Antiques Roadshow, HSN Coin Collector, and SHOPNBC Coin Shoppe.&nbsp; It also affords me the capability fast forward when I want. No, I don&#039;t&nbsp; purchase from them, just enjoy watching at least portions. I work at night, so usually on my first night off I&#039;m up late, and sometimes all or a part of the family watch with me at least for a portion at a better time for them.</p><p><br /></p><p>I know absolutely nothing about antiques, but I find it interesting.&nbsp; I also guess at items worth before the expert places a value on it.&nbsp; If family members are watching with me, we all do it in a contest form.&nbsp; This has occurred several times, but recently there were two paintings someone had by an artist I had never heard of valued at $35,000 each. They were about 2&#039; x 3&#039; or so in size and they were quite beautiful, but $70,000.</p><p><br /></p><p>Around the time this occurred a couple of other things happened:</p><p><br /></p><p>#1 I purchased a Buffalo Nickel off a gentleman and when we were discussing the coin he told me it had a tiny scratch on the reverse, but you could only see it with 5X magnification.&nbsp; I&#039;ve looked for this scratch under the magnification, and I have yet to find it.</p><p><br /></p><p>#2&nbsp; A couple of friends of mine came over at totally different times.&nbsp; One came to see my coin collection because he was interested, but I think it was more to borrow my wood bores.&nbsp; Another when he arrived I was in the &quot;office&quot; looking at some of my coins. He came upstairs and was interested, and ended up looking at all of them.</p><p><br /></p><p>The facial expressions and comments these two made were actually very humbling. Many of the coins they had never heard of or never seen before.&nbsp; It was totally unimagineable to them that coins that old could still look that good even when I knew they were certainly not superior.&nbsp; They were amazed by many of the &quot;new&quot; coins they didn&#039;t know existed,&nbsp; such a thing as a proof coin, a grading system exists, and there are companys out there that grade coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>I certainly include myself in this, but in &quot;our world&quot; we think in terms of: -it&#039;s been cleaned,-it has a scratch next to the date,-it is a weak strike,-it&#039;s a VF possibly a XF,-it&#039;s beautifully toned,-it&#039;s overgraded.&nbsp; I could go on and on with this.</p><p><br /></p><p>So I have been thinking about if I was in a room in my house, and at seperate times people came&nbsp; here for whatever reason.&nbsp; I have those two paintings on the wall and I have some of my coins out looking at them.&nbsp; As these people arrive I have a facial expression and mental interest gauge installed in the room (fictional gauges of course). Which do you think if I showed them the coins would generate the highest on the gauges, the coins or the paintings?</p><p><br /></p><p>If I went to Target or a Buccaneers game and announced &quot;All people who know what a Peace Dollar is report to......&quot; or &quot;All people who know what a Mint Set is report to.....&quot;, how many people would be reporting?&nbsp; In this scenario all that do know do show up.</p><p><br /></p><p>Besides their beauty I always think people are amazed these coins were used in circulation everyday at some time in our nation and have never seen or heard of.&nbsp; People are also amazed the US Mint sells coins directly to people for collecting and some are not for general circulation.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>When I think about all this I think about how fortunate I am to be in this hobby, owning something real out of this nation&#039;s history, owning real genuine form of art, and having knowledge about a portion of our nation&#039;s history that so few know. I won&#039;t have to worry about any of my coins being in a registry set, but I truly do congradulate those that do.&nbsp; But, I am just as proud and happy with my coins as they are with theirs for many reasons. I think this hobby allows one to easily be happy with they have and not envious of someone elses. </p><p><br /></p><p>To all new collectors or people with limited budgets be happy with what you have (as we all should) and what you know about this hobby.&nbsp; Coins are like houses or cars someone always has a bigger house, faster car, and etc. Be happy you&#039;re in the hobby to include the gaining of knowledge that is never ending.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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