Coin collecting, life and living it
ElmerFusterpuck
Posts: 4,758 ✭✭✭✭✭
Now that we are living in a title of the Clash song "Clampdown" thanks to the coronavirus (Covid-19), it got me to thinking how not that long ago we were free to take trips and go to coin shows. As some of you know, I've posted show reports based around a vacation that just happened to have a coin show involved. In quite a few cases, it was secondary to the actual trip. Another thing I like to do on my trips is pick up magnets that show the place I visited. Over a period of about 3 decades of trips, I've accumulated enough of them to fill up multiple magnetic wall panels. I realize now that it might be awhile before I add any more magnets to the wall. So when I look at the magnets now, I think of the good times associated from where they came from, along with many a coin I've picked up while I was there. It might have been graded coins, change found while metal detecting on a beach, mint sets from that country or just going to a local bank and picking up some currency.
I took for granted that I'd be able to add more magnets and coins from places this year - we had plans to attend the PCGS member show in New Orleans this May. As we know, that is not happening. This virus situation reminds me of someone who worked all their lives to save up for retirement, while never taking vacation or having fun along the way. Then retirement comes, and they are no longer physically capable of going anywhere or partaking in any fun activities. chasing coins included. In other words they are stuck. Same goes for people who always seem to prepare nonstop for the apocalypse - they might be sitting smugly on their pile of toilet paper, ammo and PM's now, but have they really lived? Methinks not.
Being stuck at home (and fortunately being able to work from home), I've had some time to work on my online registry and some photo techniques. While the days have all started to blur, I'm realizing it's not all bad to slow down just a bit. Binge watching is now guilt-free. Nailing a showcase price on "The Price is Right" makes you feel like a winner. Zoom get-togethers don't replace real contact, but they are far better than nothing. One day, this virus phase shall pass and we will be able to go places once again. We are already making plans for 2021 FUN and some future Vegas shows. Yes plans can change, but we can live with that. It's better than making no plans at all. I know I'm very fortunate to be in my situation (safe, employed and at home), many others out there are not as lucky. It will be interesting to see what kind of society emerges from this crisis.
The pictures below hopefully help explain the above rambling thoughts. The coin sets are just a sampling of what I've picked up, but they do tie back - to the magnets on the wall. Thanks for reading.
10-4,
Erik
My registry sets
Comments
An excellent post. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I'd like to say "somewhere the sun is shining". but given the current situation that you correctly described, that saying may NOT be true.
..................at least at the present.
Pete
I can imagine a prepper board- somewhere out there- with a post remarking on how they have truly enjoyed and lived their lives, feeling sorry for those looking smugly at a fridge full of magnets.
To each their own.
I must have listened to Sandinista 500 times this month ..also home. Painting the house.
One day we'll look back on this time and realize what great fools we were.
I enjoyed your thoughtful perspective.
The bulk of my retirement nest egg Is tied up in refrigerator magnets.
Great memories and something I hope I don't have to fall back on.
A favorite.....
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
Super post!
I still have scars on my legs from sand fleas in Belize.
m
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......
Nice!
Great post - true words
thanks for your thoughtful post. NIce magnet collage, some of them bring back memories for me, too. Although not sand flea bites, fortunately.
Very nice montage of magnets....and a repository of memories....I am also comfortably ensconced at home....still doing projects and with the occasional foray for sustenance...I have driven around a bit, just to check out the local conditions....All is quiet. Today, however, it is snowing.... started late last night and now about an inch on the ground. It will not last though...ground too warm. The robins are confused, they are thinking they came north too early
The dogs got to the back door this morning and looked at me as if to say ... well, you know what they were thinking... 
Will decide what interesting project or task I will address later....no rush you know... 
Cheers, RickO
Well said and thanks for the personal perspective.
In the last few years, I've learned to step back and appreciate what I'm doing or where I am.
I would always say no to any offers to go somewhere or do something out of my every day routine.
One of my best friends and I had drifted apart as life and raising families became priority 1.
We have since reconnected and he convinced me that now is the time to enjoy life.
Among several awesome trips, we went to FUN together this year.
I did not plan on going back to FUN but since all of this has been going on, I look back on they great time we had, the great weather and I would now like to go again next year too.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
Super post.
Spending more time playing GTAO and watching TV shows. Online doing well but retail weak as before covid.
In coin club meeting several months ago (before covid) we agreed most people would rather spend money on travel and entertainment (that money gone forever) than pay retail on coins. With increasing unemployment, increased bankruptcies, survival threatened, depression / anxiety a certainty coin collecting could return to a hobby mostly for the wealthy.
Most people would rather bleed from the eyes than pay retail for a coin.
They can be recognized easily as they lament the lack of B&M shops near them.
Have you hike Telescope Peak ??
I did. Lived in Death Valley for 4 years as a ranger with the National Park Service. One heck of a view from atop.
WS
Where is the Bora Bora coinage?
I like your survey monument, I only have one so far from Haleakala but plan to collect more if we travel. I’m a civil engineer and our company also does surveying so I was surprised to see that these replicas were a thing, I would never have thought that people would buy these.
On topic, was planning on going to the annual Hawaii coin show later this year but now we probably won’t. Maybe 2021. I missed it last year and was looking forward to this year since I’ve never been to a coin show.
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Not specifically made in Bora Bora, but here is some coinage from and for French Polynesia. The loose coins I picked up from there, and I was inspired to buy some graded coins later. I know they will never have great value, but they are nice souvenirs, just like the magnets.
I really like the designs on their larger coins and the currency before they changed it in 2014. We even picked up sugar packets that had old style postcard Tahiti pictures on them while there. One day, we (me and my wife) will make a shadow box with them, along with the coins and currency.
10-4,
My Instagram picturesErik
My registry sets
@WaterSport I did not do the hike.
I rode through Death Valley on my BMW R60 back in '68 on my way to the East Coast to propose to a girl.
I took her there 50 years later and bought that souvenir. We went during a new moon so we could do some astro photography but we chose to stay at Stovepipe Wells. The wind was blowing across the dunes and the dune sand got between my lens and the sky. Nuts😪
Going back to Furnace Creek to try again as soon as America opens for business.
@JTHawaii here's hoping you get to that show!
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso