President's Message

by Thad Streeter

I noticed in today's paper that an 1804 dollar just sold for $3,737,500. WOW! I remember when I was a kid back in the '60s all of my coin collecting friends (a lot of kids collected coins) knew about that coin and dreamed of owning one and having it in their collection or even better yet, of finding one and selling it and becoming rich.

I also remember the stamp collectors (the proper term is that funny word that starts with a "P" that nobody knows how to pronounce) would always say that no coin ever sold for a million dollars and that none probably ever would. Of course there were stamps that sold for that amount and us numismatists (they could never pronounce that one right either) would one day see the light and realize that stamps were for collecting and that coins were for spending, preferably to buy stamps.

Well, they were wrong about the million dollar mark for coins and have been for quite some time. I find it curious though what sparks someone to collect and be willing to pay huge dollar amounts to own the rarest coins. The experts talk of what creates a market, what maintains a market and what stimulates a market.

I'm no expert, I simply find joy in collecting what I find interesting and can afford. I think that all of us work that way, only on different levels. We start out from that early spark and follow the road that best suits our interest and pocket book. I'm sure that we all have our treasures that we would never part with and a number of items we'd be more than willing to sell even if we didn't get over $3,000,000 for them.

Enjoy your collecting for the sake of collecting and whatever reasons make you happy. Best of all, you make friends along the way. Those kids from back in the '60s aren't kids any more, but they are still some of my best friends and most are still collecting.

Until next time.... Happy collecting!