This is why I collect coins and paper money.

My coin collecting days started when I was about ten years old while helping my grandfather rebuild a house during the summer. One day while doing a little demolition, I found a bag full of pennies someone had buried deep inside a wall. None of these pennies were in very good condition but, that one 1909 VDB penny stood out. I did not realize it then but I was now hooked.

Over the last thirty-five years I have collected off and on. It seems I spent more time not collecting than collecting but the passion from being hooked thirty-five years ago was still hidden inside. The last two years I have involved myself much deeper in this hobby we all love trying to complete some of the sets I had briefly started many years before.

At the present time I have been trying to get my wife and kids involved so they can share the same love that I have but with no luck. They put up with my hobby but really have no interest in it themselves. This has not detered me, just changed my view of the future of my coins.

So, over the past year or two I have gradually tried to have all my coins certified so that one day when I'm am gone my family can still reap the benifits of my love. I have a long ways to go still as I never realized just how many coins I have gathered up throughout the years and I have not even started the same process with the paper money I also love to collect.

What it all boils down to is I love this hobby, the thrill of looking at that (old, new, perfect, non-perfect, or error) coin. I do not collect for anyone else but myself (even though one day my family will get the rewards). I love watching how my coins rate compared to eveyone elses. Some people have much more money than I, much more time than I and a much better start than I but none of that matters. I do not worry if mine or theirs is better, my thrill is going to be seeing that 100% complete going up next to my set. I can disappear into to my little office into my own little world and be that ten year old boy again, and that is what this is all about.