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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 1018, member: 57463&quot;]<b>It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand</b></p><p><br /></p><p>I learned as a teenager to value gold (and silver) as the store of wealth and to understand wealth as the product of human intelligence.&nbsp; I saw Morgan Dollars and such but they did not grip me the way California Gold did.&nbsp; I stared for long minutes time and time again at a dealer&#039;s display in a downtown arcade.&nbsp; I hoarded silver coins from circulation when clads came in.&nbsp; Then, in 1972, I bought my first sovereigns.</p><p><br /></p><p>I did not care who was on the coins -- and I was usually disappointed when I found out.&nbsp; I prefered bars, Engelhards usually, in gold and silver.&nbsp; Coins were only bullion to me and tainted products of evil governments, at that.&nbsp; Gold bars and silver rounds were honest money.&nbsp; (I regarded paper money as the work of the devil.&nbsp;&nbsp; :evil: )</p><p><br /></p><p>About 1992, I put together a propossal to my employer to issue their own sales tokens, good for $1 on their $100,000 industrial robots.&nbsp; They did not take it up, but the work got me interested in tokens and I collected some examples from Major Corporations.</p><p><br /></p><p>What really knocked my socks off was later in 1992, my daughter was about 12 or 13 and the Michigan State Numismatic Society convention needed pages to work as runners for the show.&nbsp; She went with the coin dealer I had worked with, through, and for over the years.&nbsp; Dropping her off and picking her up, I saw that I could afford ancient Greek coins.&nbsp; I was amazed!&nbsp;&nbsp; 8O&nbsp; I knew about Romans, but like US and German and so on, they did not impress me.&nbsp; But ancient Greek coins were a cultural context I could relate to.</p><p><br /></p><p>I did nothing for about six months.&nbsp; Then, I saw a rerun of Carl Sagan&#039;s COSMOS lecture, &quot;Backbpne of the Night.&quot;&nbsp; It blew me away and I began collecting ancient Greek coins by the times and places of famous philosophers.</p><p><br /></p><p>I branched out.&nbsp; I collected US Type (all the Mercs from bags of Circs except the 1916-D and a couple of the semi-keys I wanted in better grade), World, paper, etc., etc., etc.&nbsp; I wrote about 50 articles, won some awards, and went to work for Coin World.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>And then, something snapped, or went out, or something.&nbsp; I stopped caring about owning coins.&nbsp; I had the knowledge.&nbsp; That was more important, just as the scabbard was more powerful than Excalibur.&nbsp; I sold off my collecting in two large lots to the dealer I had worked with, through, and for.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I kept a few, about 10, not the most expensive by any measure, but the most interesting.&nbsp; For instance, I have a Deep Cameo Proof 70 Roosevelt Dime. The coin is not worth what it cost to slab it.&nbsp; And I hate FDR as a fascist dictator.&nbsp; But it is a perfect coin and you gotta like that! <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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