For the good of the collecting world, I prevented a Numismatic International Incident™ yesterday...

Longacre

I am sitting in my hotel room in steamy Bangkok, after having just returned from breakfast. I am getting ready for a meeting that starts in about an hour, and decided to log in and recount the good that I did for the numismatic world yesterday.

Given the lack of range of the Gulfstream aircraft, I was forced yet again to fly commercial to Thailand. My flight from JFK to Beijing was uneventful, and I then connected to the flight to Bangkok. Being tired of reading "Benjamin Franklin" by Walter Isacson, I decided to peruse the latest issue of Coin World. Sitting next to me was a Chinese gentleman.

Things were going fine until I flipped to the Editorial page (with its typically useless and milquetoast editorial), and then looked at the Guest Editorial. In a blaring headline, it read, "Wake Up Americans! It's Time to Stop Chinese Counterfeits". Always being cognizant of not insulting other cultures, I tried to read the article as discreetly as possible.

To my horror, I noticed that the guy sitting next to me had glanced over, and was sort of looking at what I was reading. Not being used to sitting with the hoi polloi on a commercial flight, I was totally embarassed to be reading an article with a headline like that. Thinking quickly, I sort of bent the magazine so that he could not see, and then decided to flip the page out of respect. Keeping my wits about me, I prevented an Numismatic International Incident, which would not have been pretty at 35,000 feet.

I will be sure to keep my Coin World issues in a plain brown wrapper from now on, and avoid the leering eyes of others.

nankraut

Uh---Maybe you should upgrade aircraft. I think the G-5 Gulfstream Jet would have sufficient range, so you wouldn't have to sit with the peasants?

kaz

Perhaps the fellow sitting next to you was just returning from the delivery of massive quantities of 1804 dollars and 1878-CC (T1R) Trade Dollars?

MidLifeCrisis

I think you missed an opportunity to learn and possibly obtain valuable insight.

You could have asked the Chinese gentleman, in your best British accent, what he thought of those crazy, gullible Americans and their willingness to spend so much money on silly old coins.

He may have spoke english quite well.

ocon4008

<<You could have asked the Chinese gentleman, in your best British accent, what he thought of those crazy, gullible Americans and their willingness to spend so much money on silly old coins. >>

Of course you probably know, if you pretend to be an Englishman you must refer to Americans as misguided colonialists.

smokincoin

<< <i>I think you missed an opportunity to learn and possibly obtain valuable insight. >>


Perhaps you could have infiltrated the operation, maybe all the way to the top, & gotten some good intelligence for the good of the numismatic community!

Walmann

This appears to be confirmation that some airlines have been cutting back on O2 as a cost saving measure.

Coinosaurus

<< <i>This appears to be confirmation that some airlines have been cutting back on O2 as a cost saving measure. >>



ROTFL

oreville

<< <i> << This appears to be confirmation that some airlines have been cutting back on O2 as a cost saving measure. >> >>



I thought O2 was an extra charge these days?

itsnotjustme

Maybe Gulfstream, like the Air Force, needs a tanker (too).

cladking

The assumption that someone is Chinese just because they seem to have oriental
features is stereotyping and nearly racism. He might well have had African or Euro-
pean ancestors and merely fell outside the norms for facial characteristics. Even if
he really were oriental he might have been Japanese or third generation American.

Many Chinese lead productive lives that have nothing to do with making 1804 dol-
lars and old pieces of eight. Some of these people are not sensitive at all about those
things with which they aren't responsible.

It might have been better to alert him to the problem if he were actually Chinese
CXhinese so that everyone over there knows what's going on and why we aren't
chumming up to much with Red China. It may have been an international opportun-
ity and you blew it.

You can always play these things by ear unless he has a copy of Counterfeiters'
Monthly or is wearing a trench coat and sun glasses.

WTCG

It was just a Coin World so skip the brown book cover and save it for that Hustler you picked up at the JFK newsstand.

Justacommeman

<< <i>It was just a Coin World so skip the brown book cover and save it for that Hustler you picked up at the JFK newsstand. >>


There are coin articles in Hustler?

MJ

cladking

<< <i>

<< <i>It was just a Coin World so skip the brown book cover and save it for that Hustler you picked up at the JFK newsstand. >>


There are coin articles in Hustler?

>>




Only the Thailand edition.

TwoSides2aCoin

<< <i>

<< <i>It was just a Coin World so skip the brown book cover and save it for that Hustler you picked up at the JFK newsstand. >>


There are coin articles in Hustler?

MJ >>





No, but one will find a hustler at most coin shows.

JCoin

There are many Chinese who are equally as disgusted with the counterfeiting problems in China.

JCoin

rld14

You disappoint me, stop slumming in the Gulfstream and spring for a BBJ

sinin1

could you tell if they were reading


or just looking at the pictures?

RichieURich

Longacre, and here I thought you had a private plane!

littlebear

<< <i>

<< <i>It was just a Coin World so skip the brown book cover and save it for that Hustler you picked up at the JFK newsstand. >>


There are coin articles in Hustler?

MJ >>




I think this a sign that we are spending a bit too much time with our coin collections.



Larry L.

IGWT

So how is Bangcac?

coindeuce

Bourgeois imperialist! Suppose that he had been reading a magazine printed in Manchurian? Would you have even been able to interpret his reading material? Feel blessed that the man is educated enough to be able to read English as a second language...