Many years ago...my bike was stolen.
Weiss
Posts: 9,941 ✭✭✭✭✭
It was a bright red Ross 10-speed at the height of the 10-speed craze. Gorgeous bike. I was 13, maybe 14 years old--owning a car would be years in the future. A bike meant mobility and freedom. It was everything. It cost me about $250 back in the day. That was a lot of newspaper deliveries, believe me.
Someone stole it out of my backyard. It wasn't locked up; I'd just run inside to get something to eat. When I went back out: long gone.
But I knew something the thief didn't know.
Years before I'd read in a magazine (this was before the internet, kids) that a cautious bike owner could pop the handle-bar end caps off and insert a form of identification. Name, address, whatever. I liked that idea so much that it stuck with me. When I got my bike, the first thing I did was pop one of the caps off and slip my mom's business card just far enough inside the handlebar that it couldn't easily be seen or retrieved.
Fast forward to the afternoon my bike had been purloined. My dad called the cops though I knew it was probably hopeless. Gave a description, gave our phone number.
Two days later we got a call. A bike like mine had been picked up by the cops, would I care to come take a look?
No doubt it was mine. I was thrilled. Cops asked if I had any way to prove it was mine, and I proudly popped off the handle cap and retrieved my mom's business card. Even the cops thought that was cool.
Why tell you all this?
Because it's really, really easy to keep an excel file of your coins, PMs, valuables of any kind. Doesn't have to be complicated. For example, my silver file includes the date, a one-sentence description of the item (weight or face value, maker, style, SERIAL NUMBERS, and/or any other specific identifying marks), where I got it, how much I paid.
Takes maybe 5 minutes to set up the file, literally 10 seconds to record an entry with each purchase.
That's the business card part. Now the handle-bar part: attach that file to an email and send it to your Yahoo! or Gmail account. You don't have to include where you store your stuff, you don't have to include personal info. You can even be cryptic with your descriptions if you think there is any chance of someone getting into your files (which is pretty remote).
But if someone breaks into your house and steals your valuables and your paper/computer files, or if you have a fire, or tornado, whatever: all you have to do is log into your remote email account and you've got a full record to give the cops or your insurance company.
Remote email is your handlebar. Slip that excel business card in there and sleep just a little bit better tonight
Someone stole it out of my backyard. It wasn't locked up; I'd just run inside to get something to eat. When I went back out: long gone.
But I knew something the thief didn't know.
Years before I'd read in a magazine (this was before the internet, kids) that a cautious bike owner could pop the handle-bar end caps off and insert a form of identification. Name, address, whatever. I liked that idea so much that it stuck with me. When I got my bike, the first thing I did was pop one of the caps off and slip my mom's business card just far enough inside the handlebar that it couldn't easily be seen or retrieved.
Fast forward to the afternoon my bike had been purloined. My dad called the cops though I knew it was probably hopeless. Gave a description, gave our phone number.
Two days later we got a call. A bike like mine had been picked up by the cops, would I care to come take a look?
No doubt it was mine. I was thrilled. Cops asked if I had any way to prove it was mine, and I proudly popped off the handle cap and retrieved my mom's business card. Even the cops thought that was cool.
Why tell you all this?
Because it's really, really easy to keep an excel file of your coins, PMs, valuables of any kind. Doesn't have to be complicated. For example, my silver file includes the date, a one-sentence description of the item (weight or face value, maker, style, SERIAL NUMBERS, and/or any other specific identifying marks), where I got it, how much I paid.
Takes maybe 5 minutes to set up the file, literally 10 seconds to record an entry with each purchase.
That's the business card part. Now the handle-bar part: attach that file to an email and send it to your Yahoo! or Gmail account. You don't have to include where you store your stuff, you don't have to include personal info. You can even be cryptic with your descriptions if you think there is any chance of someone getting into your files (which is pretty remote).
But if someone breaks into your house and steals your valuables and your paper/computer files, or if you have a fire, or tornado, whatever: all you have to do is log into your remote email account and you've got a full record to give the cops or your insurance company.
Remote email is your handlebar. Slip that excel business card in there and sleep just a little bit better tonight
We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
--Severian the Lame
--Severian the Lame
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Ken
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ANA Life Member & Volunteer District Representative
2019 ANA Young Numismatist of the Year
Doing my best to introduce Young Numismatists and Young Adults into the hobby.
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
I wish/need to do this...I have gotten pretty slack in this area.
MJ
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......