But in the process, I dropped like a rock... but that's ok.

To collectors of every stripe comes the time when you take stock of what you have. What you have accquired versus the direction you would like your collection to go. And not just your collection either. We all do this in every aspect of our life. Our job, relationships, social standing even our car..everything. So that is what I found myself doing this weekend.

I examined all my coins. I have a large safe to keep them in, so friday I dragged them all out and had them scattered across the floor. My 6 year old son thought I had hit a slot machine jackpot somewhere. His saucer wide eyes were scanning the coins and would pick one up and ask "Is this a WHOLE dollar?" It was just too funny... anyway.. I am sitting here on the floor going through this small ocean of coins and I think "What a jumbled mess!" I have coins from just about every area. Nothing makes really any "cents" at all. No direction. No focus.

In the meantime, my beautiful wife and I have been doing some remodeling on our house. We recently added a mid-size bay window off our kitchen. When we ripped out the wall to install the window, we found out, much to our surprise, the exterior walls have NO insulation. What a shock that was!! So we are taking care of that and we need to finish off the remaining wall around the new bay window. It is just astonishing how much all this stuff costs. So guess what??

I have decided to focus my coins in a certain direction...my world crowns will stay. Most everything else will help finance our remodeling projects.

Yesterday we had a coin show in northern Utah, which I attended. With a box full of coins ready and willing to make the sacrifice for our projects. Ok.. the coins weren't really willing... they were screaming..."I DONT WANNA GO!!!" But they did. I sold a couple of thousand dollars worth and it will go into our remodel, and I feel good about it. I love collecting, but I would collect everything and as I mentioned, the collection was a mess. So I have tidied up my collection and will now concentrate on my world crown collection. I have several hundred silver crowns spanning four centuries. They are beautiful. The only problem... they are not slabbed, yet. So for the time being my points and registry standing have dropped like a rock... but that is ok, I think. My collection has focus and soon my bay window will be finished. Call this a win-win.

This is one of my favorite coins. Having vacationed in Australia. The obverse of course features the Queen. I really like the reverse... the kangaroo and the emu while not socially "hip" are definately top tourist attractions. And since I was a tourist, this coin now resides in my collection. While only a 50c piece, it is technically not a crown, but it is close enough for me.

Respectfully,

Michael Cooper