Keeping one's place in the registry...

Dear Journal,

I have noticed that it has become increasingly difficult to maintain a position within our registry. I currently have a little over 51,000 points. A couple of weeks ago I was placed at number 550 with 50,000 points then all of a sudden, within a couple of days, I was down to 560, a drop of ten spots, so I put in a few coins to reach my current 51k and back into spot 550. Today, I am even lower than I was last week... down to spot 561.

So... I am asking myself why I do this... that is, why am I concentrating on the number of points I have, and the position number I have achieved? Is it vanity? Perhaps my thinking is that place position represents my overall collection in terms of value or condition or completeness. Lots of thoughts. I know I am guilty of sending coins in for submission solely on the basis of thinking they will garner high point values, so I can watch my points go up.

All I know is this... the more coins I submit for grading, the more slabbed coins I buy, the farther "behind" I get in relation to where I was. I need to be happy with the coins I have for the right reasons. Those reasons being, coin collecting is FUN (not a race), coin collecting teaches history, geography, politics and a number of other subjects. Coin collecting has an intrinsic value, coin collecting is fun...wait... I said that already, alright, that one's worth repeating.

So, I will no longer be obsessing with my points, trying to get to another level (page), and I will no longer submit coins just to add points to my registry. I love to collect coins, my kids love the idea they get them when I am dead ( I haven't told them that I will sell them 3 days before I die and go to Vegas). I love the lessons they teach and the hope of a brighter future they represent.

Respectfully,

Michael Cooper

This coin, which has absoletly NO points assigned, as it has not been slabbed, is my 1927(p) strike doubled Mercury Dime. I have been having a blast going through all my coins looking for die varieties, errors and just plain goofs. This is a really cool new "micro" world in numismatics.