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A homage to the Coin Collector

braddickbraddick Posts: 22,993 ✭✭✭✭✭

Being a Coin Collector for long enough, and you'll find yourself in a fight outside a bourse with a stamp collector enthusiast. But you'll win every time because you have the righteousness of choice on your side. Maybe your left hook isn't as strong, and your haymaker isn't as wild, but dammit, you have a taste. And that counts for something. An ass-kicking something. You punch like a champ because you don't know when the next time will be. And that kind of dedication means you'll never be un-bung again.

Your Summit Girl Coin Groupie will hate that she let you go because she'll see you at a large coin show, and she'll say, “You know what? He's stacking silver and buying up gem Morgans. That's a Real Man for All Seasons right there.” And she'll know because she's dating a Lion In Winter: A feckless, don't know "penny" from "cent" dude. He is a do-nothing shell of a man who doesn't know what to do with his free time in the NFL off-season other than guzzling warm beer and only wishes he knew within his full brain capacity what you already know in your pinkie finger about coins.

Ahhh... The Hobby of Kings -It's everything right and good, and a little bit off, with the world. It's the bitter taste of a smoker's nicotine kiss and the welcoming, cushiony sweetness of her first kiss. You're home now. You're slopping around in the primordial ooze. Collecting silver and gold and copper round pieces of metal loosens the pickle jar of human goodness. It takes you back to a past that's irretrievably but eternally present, just on the edges of your consciousness, like all good things. Capable of being called upon a drunken night. Because sometimes, you get drunk, and sometimes you start thinking about where you come from, and sometimes you call your mom to hear her voice. And when she asks why you called, you say, “I have a missed call from you. But maybe it's old. My phone doesn't say.” You both know it's bull, but you both let it go because you're a grown man, and you can't just say, “I needed to hear you, mom.

I was in an unfamiliar coin shop today, and I can see it all. Stretched out in front of me like it happened yesterday. The immeasurable joy of plugging wheatbacks into an old Whitman album. Like playing Turtles In Time and drinking Juicy Juice out of a triangle-shaped hole you made with a can-opener handle. So you bite your lower lip and put on a brave face.

Collecting coins is pure goodness, yet no one's emotions are that simple.

peacockcoins

Comments

  • pursuitoflibertypursuitofliberty Posts: 6,558 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I cant believe I ate the whole thing ...

    :D:D:D

    Thanks for the chuckle @braddick


    “We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”

    Todd - BHNC #242
  • astroratastrorat Posts: 9,221 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Something that long really needs to at least have something to do with CAC to make it worthwhile to read! ;)

    Nice post.

    Numismatist Ordinaire
    See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It is too early for my breakfast wine, so I had to read the OP without sipping a quality libation. :D I did chuckle a bit and I believe @braddick's happy hour dissertation deserves applause. Cheers, RickO

  • nwcoastnwcoast Posts: 2,826 ✭✭✭✭✭

    A good read!
    It’s some relief to know that there are some out there that still have imagination, appreciate the craft in writing, and are able to utilize it very well.
    Thank you for sharing.

    Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014

  • johnny9434johnny9434 Posts: 27,411 ✭✭✭✭✭

    God bless America 🙂

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