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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 653874, member: 57463&quot;]<b>&quot;Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort.&quot;</b></p><p><br /></p><p>No one coin brought me to the hobby, but rather the window displays of Federal Coin Company in the Old Arcade in Cleveland, Ohio.&nbsp; There were three arcades downtown and each had coin shops, but Federal&#039;s display was the best.&nbsp; I saw it often and never paid much attention to it until I read <i>Atlas Shrugged</i> by Ayn Rand.&nbsp; Then, I understood.&nbsp; I found all the forms of money compelling... and yet... somehow lacking in spiritual purity.&nbsp; I do not know what else to call it.&nbsp; All forms of money that I knew and saw had some hallmark of statism or collectivism or mysticism. </p><p><br /></p><p>As soon as silver coins were withdrawn from circulation, I began to hoard them, if only as a token of things to come.</p><p><br /></p><p>Finally, living in Lansing, in 1973, I had my first steady job and a new relationship with a new dealer.&nbsp; I did not care much for numismatics, but enjoyed silver art bars for their wide array of traditional and patriotic political themes.&nbsp; Even today, on my checks, I have the motto from one: <b>World Peace through World Trade.</b></p><p><br /></p><p>In 1992, working for a technology firm outside Detroit, knowing what I did abot money, I recommended that we create $1 tokens to distribute at an automation fair. &quot;Good for $1 toward an installation.&quot;&nbsp; Our installations ran about $100,000 so I proposed that we could afford to distribute 10,000 of these with little risk.&nbsp; But I also knew that unlike business cards, these would never be thrown out or lost, likely to sit in desks as constant reminders as no other advertising ever would be.&nbsp; The company declined my suggestion.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, to prepare and gather facts for my presentation, I joined the ANA, MSNS and MichTAMS.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Tokens are nice and all, but seriously lacking in artistry, of course, being purely utilitarian.&nbsp; I tried US classic Type coins, the Barbers, etc., but something was lacking, some sense of originality, the theme of Ayn Rand&#039;s <i>The Fountainhead</i>, as these US and other coins were all cribbed from ancient prototypes.&nbsp; Even the vaunted Saint Gaudens $20 is a knock-off of a Greek statue the <a href="http://www.sikyon.com/olympia/Art/olymp_eg08.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.sikyon.com/olympia/Art/olymp_eg08.html" rel="nofollow">Nike attributed to Paionios of Mende</a>.&nbsp; I started buying ancients.</p><p><br /></p><p>I crossed some sort of threshhold in my mind when I was at a convention and I was looking at the cases, and passed medievals expert Andy Singer.&nbsp; Dr. Singer asked me what I was looking for.&nbsp; I replied &quot;Ionian silver.&quot;&nbsp; He said, &quot;Gold can be as cheap as silver.&quot; and handed over a coin.&nbsp; I told him that the attribution was wrong.&nbsp; The coin was from Miletos, not Samos.&nbsp; He said that may be, but it was not his special area and he had no way to know.&nbsp; If I wanted the coin, he said, I was welcome to buy it at that price.&nbsp; I did.&nbsp; I still have it.&nbsp; Cheap as it was, it is one of the earliest coins known.</p><p><br /></p><p>In 2000, I lost heart for collecting material and focused on collecting knowledge.&nbsp; I dumped my coins except for about a dozen or so, keeping a representation of the broad range from ancient to modern, a Proof-70 Roosevelt Dime, for example, even though I hate both Roosevelt and clad issues.</p><p><br /></p><p>My Miletos hekte or sixth-stater.&nbsp; Electrum. 2.35 grams. c 550 BCE. Obverse: Recumbant Lion. Reverse: Punch marks.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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