large for me at least

Life always seems to intrude on my coin collecting about this time every year. First are the additional budget constraints in sending a daughter back to college {I can hardly believe that a single book can cost $200 !!--must be First Day Issue bookcovers..} Secondly is that its getting cooler already and there are fewer days left before the boat goes to dry dock, so I have been spending a lot of time on the water. Add in time spent with my wife, a trip to St Louis to see my nephew before he left for Iraq, some overtime requirements, and this bio-chemistry class I have been required to take {don't ask} and my numismatic pursuits have mostly been reading journal entries and browsing the occasional catalog in the mail.

I do have 12 new ship coins that need slabbing though--and they really are a great mix. Three are actually tokens/medals..a bicentennial medal set in NY harbor with a ship sailing past the statue of Liberty on the obverse and a Liberty Bell on the reverse that is a dead ringer for the Franklin half.Another medal is a tribute coin to the Baltimore Clippers {ships not the minor league hockey team} and the third medal is a commem to the US Constellation--a large copper coin actually minted from the metal from her hull !!

The other coins are all foreign, silver dollar sized coins : a Portuguese tribute coin to the discovery of the canary Islands,a Liberian $20 silver coin in tribute to the Mayflower,the 2007 Canada "Tall Ships" series coin, a nice 1992 Bermuda commem to Olympic Sailing, a 1978 Maldives coin with a fishing schooner, a 1985 1 Shequel Israeli coin with an ancient ship, an over-sized 2 ounce Bahamian silver coin with the Nina {looks like another large multi holder for this one}, a fantasticly cool Korean silver Far East Dragon Ship coin, and a 1979 {hard to find in silver proof} Isle of Man "Day of Tynwald" fifty pence, seven sided coin.

I know many of you send in dozens at a time, maybe even hundreds if your looking to make a buck on early releases or 70's--but for me more than ten is rare. I make about 8 to 10 submissions a year of 5-15 coins and just hope that they all get slabbed. While I'm mentioning that---I have had only ONE bodybag all year and that one was slabbed on a re-submission, so I am either on a lucky streak or I really have started to recognize what to send in and what's not worth it.

Well, that's enough from me. I hadn't written in a while and just wanted to record this lull in my collecting--for what it's worth. I hope to keep reading the entries of your collecting experiences {not the ebay ads please}..sometimes that's the only numismatic fix I have time for...Jackson

A bad photo of the 12 before they leave.....